Chapter 21 (1/2)

Chapter 21

h.e.l.lo (￣▽￣)ノ

I’m early today~

Disclaimer: I don't guarantee that this is 100% accurate . Please let me know if there are any mistakes in my translations .

Chapter 21: That time when I didn’t know why it was bustling with activity inside the village

Since the last time, I have already received the rewards for plowing ten fields . I also began teaching the image used for field development to the villagers who can use earth magic .

「For now, let’s improve on the points that needs to be improved」

We started by setting that as our objective . After school, I met up with the adults and tilled the fields together . The ones who could not use magic just made fences that will be used to encircle the fields . This is just a story that I heard but it seems like there were talks about renting out two buildings constructed on certain fields but they weren’t sure where and how they’ll do it . It seems like the plans are not yet fixed…… Regarding the compensation for teaching everyone the magic, I received ten more gold coins .

『I wonder how they deal with compensating people who are teaching magic in this world . 』

I was thinking about that but stopped since I remembered that I don’t know market price and value of magic so there’s nothing I can do about it .

Along the highway towards the town, the number of simple houses increased . The reason for that was the ad that the village chief posted at the guild when he went to town .

『Accepting villagers! A simple house and field would be rented out . Price is negotiable . Those with no money will be loaned meals aside from the house and field! Work hard to be able to obtain money!』

Or so it said on the paper .

Well, it’s in this world so they could probably easily understand the contents of that poster . If it was just pasted on something like a utility pole, it would seem like some sort of shady moneylending scheme .

This goes without saying but a few days later, the number of people in the village increased . There are a lot of people seeking safety . Towns would have employment fitting for a town but when it comes to this village, the demand is on dairy and agricultural jobs .

Even though it was a fairly large town, why did the slums still exist? What’s the town’s landlord even doing? Most of people who came to the village were from the lower cla.s.s districts and the slums . I’m not sure if there’s a concept of ‘When in Rome,” here but the quarrelsome people and those with minor offenses were saying,

「This village doesn’t have any money so is it even true that they’re lending out fields and homes?」 「I’ve already been caught stealing so they do have some stuff here」

When he heard that, the village chief said,

「It would be good if you can pay back what you owe by using the money you get from selling the field’s yield next year . 」 「This is still only a small village so you won’t have anything to steal here」 「For meals, we have wheat and dried meat stock up so we’re pretty much still okay with that part」 「If you don’t like it then you’re free to leave, you know?」1

However, those kinds of comments continued to gradually increase .

There were also some who have no experience with farming so the villagers came together to teach them . Our population increased and since the harvest was already over, a slight problem with food supple came out . And for some reason, I was also asked to attend that meeting .

「Well then, let us start the meeting . Until now, the people living in the village had no food problems . However, because of the people who recently came to the village, I’m starting to get worried about our food supply . The cause of this was me being hasty in recruiting villagers but, since winter is fast approaching, does anyone have any good ideas?」 「Thinking about what we’ll lose and gain, if every house contributes a bit of the food they saved up, then all we have to do is wait for winter to pa.s.s, right?」 「You should at least tell us how much food and up to what extend would we need to take out so that it can be put into writing」

This isn’t really a meeting, is it? They just keep on contradicting each other and doing whatever they want . I was taking notes while listening in to their nonsensical conversation .

「Caam, feel free to say it if you have any opinions」 「Eh? Ah, yes . I’ve been writing down all of your opinions up until now」

I’ll be looking over my memo to outline the main points while trying to add my own opinions into it .

「Erー, I consolidated everything as well as the common points and my own opinions . The first thing will be taking some from every household’s food cache to ‘loan’ to the new villagers and them paying it back with the wheat harvested next year .

The food that was originally supposed to be sold in town would be ‘loaned out’ as well . Because of the new immigrants, we have to sacrifice the income for one year in order to reap the benefits from the second year onwards . We don’t reall have a choic but to do that, do we? I think it would also be fine to lend some money for tools and amus.e.m.e.nt .

I don’t think it was the right time to be recruiting immigrants but since they’re already here, there’s nothing we can really do about it now . And with the increase in population, our productivity will also increase .

Because of that, we should consider increasing our livestock and fencing out a plain with a lot of gra.s.s and let the cattle graze there . Let’s also cultivate a field with plants that can be used to feed the animals during winter .

Next would be the formation of the vigilante corps . We need to prevent crime after all . Even if they say that the’re already reflecting on their actions, there are still people with minor offenses around so people going on patrols and making rounds are still necessary .

Since the number of our fields have increased, we should make a watchtower so that we can easily see spot monsters from above and it would be really convenient if we had a place with an extensive view .

With the increase in our population, we should also add new water wells . We could create ca.n.a.ls from the river nearby to draw water in . The water that we would draw in could also be used as a countermeasure during dry seasons .

If we realize that we still have some other necessary things that we forgot to add, it’ll be fine to just deal with those when that time comes . Are there any questions?」

With that, I can just give additional details for the parts that they didn’t understand . How was it? Do I have their consent?