Chapter 23 – Extra Story — The Knight Who Pledged The Oath, Part Two  

My morning comes early as a servant of Remilia-sama. But Remilia-sama herself is away…

Before the winter, she wanted to have enough winter clothes and shoes for the number of people in her village, and she is working as an adventurer to fund the purchase. Why does she devote herself so much to this? It’s as if Remilia-sama is feeding them. I once asked her that, but she wouldn’t budge, saying,「This is an investment, you know?」 And today, she will continue to fulfill even life-threatening requests for the good of her territory.

Even though it’s a small village, the lord, Remilia-sama herself… Can you believe that? Haah… I really bow down to Remilia-sama.

Several times,「I’ll go with you!」But each time she insist,「Even though there are walls and a moat, there are many children in this village, so I want someone who can fight like Sphere to stay behind,」and「I want you to take care of this place while I’m away,」and I can’t bite back if she says that with worry in her voice. More settlers, and some of them can do some fighting in their own right! Okay, even if she’s out, this is still the same defense as before! And every time I suggest it with enthusiasm, it’s the same response. Ugh…! Remilia-sama, please take better care of yourself too…! How many times have I wondered.

It’s hard because our Lord is such a good person…!

This is the consensus of the village residents. Well, what do I do when I wake up early… After a light breakfast, the first thing I do is clean the mansion. The villagers call it the Lord’s mansion… but it’s a very ordinary two-story house. Moreover, they have recently built several new houses for the settlers, which makes this place seem「shabby」after seeing it.

Since I’ve been living with her, she’s finally even re-covered the rotten floors… she’s really too nice…! It’s the least she can do for her own personal needs, and the public good of the village comes first… No matter how much I tell her, she doesn’t want to buy a proper desk or bed, so I was planning to give her a present with a little bit of money from all the villagers next time. The initiator is Thorn, the acting village head.

It is difficult to find the right balance between the items that suit Remilia-sama, and the noble items that are appropriate for Remilia-sama, because she would probably hesitate to buy them because they do not fit in with this lifestyle…

I finished cleaning the whole house while thinking. Although the house is larger than other houses, it is much smaller than the original nobleman’s mansion, so I can finish it by myself without any difficulty.

The time until lunch is spent going around the village. We greet the villagers and ask them if there is anything they are having trouble with or if there is anything they want.

「What do you want…? I don’t have anything, but I would love to meet Remilia-sama… uhh, you know, Sofia-san, I can write letters now. I wrote a letter.」

「Is that so, that’s really great!」

This girl is a former orphan who has been in the village since its early days. She has been extremely attached to Remilia-sama since she was taken ill soon after arriving in the village and nursed all night long.

Unbeknownst to me at first, most of the settlers in this village were made up of a mixture of demon blood. I had only heard of the demon tribe through oral stories, but I had no idea that they lived among people at a level where I didn’t recognize them as such. I was also told that in some stories they are written as similar to demons, but that they are completely different entities. It is said that because of the evil demon’s notoriety, demon people are forced to hide their race and live in poverty in many places. It is a difficult thing.

I heard that the child who was nursed by Remilia-sama also had a physical condition unique to the demon tribe, and that Remilia-sama, who could use healing magic but was not familiar with the demon tribe’s body, could not heal her well, so she spent the night with her, holding her hand and sleeping with her. Kuh, I’m so jeal–… Ahem. How kind you are, Remilia-sama…!

With sparkling eyes, I know how this girl looks forward to「when will see you next?」I understand that Remilia, being a great lord, is often away…

There is no industry in this village yet, and the fields are small. Thorn, who was the owner of a grimoire store in Royal Capital, can make weak potions and occasionally buys grimoires from somewhere and goes to the next town or larger town beyond to sell them, but the taxes generated by that are tiny. Incidentally, since they are reluctant to give their profits directly to Remilia-sama, they order children in the village to help out and frequently serve food as a reward for their help. That’s a good mindset.

However, the village’s operating expenses are completely and almost entirely dependent on Remilia-sama’s earnings as an adventurer. This situation is not good.

However, the demons are skilled in the manipulation of magic and have the potential to do agriculture and manufacturing with a production capacity that is unmatched by humans. This includes the children of the demon tribe, so as long as we can get on track… and right now we are trying every day. Right now I am busy just making food to eat in the village, so I want to help Remilia-sama reduce her burden as much as possible as soon as possible. It would be profitable if we could make the various useful tools invented by the former Remilia-sama here as well, but unfortunately, the patents for them have been taken away by the Graupner family and they hold on to them tightly, so there is nothing we can do even though we have the inventors here.

And so, after hearing from everyone in the small village,「Remilia-sama, please get more rest,」was the most common request today, I summarized in my ledger and put on my gear to head out on the hunt.

On my way to the stables to borrow a village farm horse to ride my prey, I passed a man dressed like a traveler. Of course, they are not residents of the village, although we know they were sent by the royal family to watch over Remilia-sama.

At first, there was a knight in the crowd who had been knocked out by that Pina woman, and he was very conspicuous as he came around the deserted village saying,「I must keep a close watch on her lest she come to harm the Stat Maiden again!」For a while, he says, he followed Remilia-sama around to the neighboring village to buy food and to dive into dungeons as an adventurer to earn money for the village’s operation. How annoying.

By the time I moved to this village, the full-scale surveillance had completely disappeared, although he set up an inn in a neighboring town and came to the village regularly, only to ask the villagers briefly what Remilia-sama had done. It could be said that they were no longer able to keep up with the dungeons that Remilia-sama dives into, in terms of their abilities.

…I feel that I will not be able to keep up with them if I don’t improve my defense enough to entrust Remilia-sama without worrying at an early stage. This is not good.

Before, there were those who used to say,「What are you doing in the dungeon where we can’t see you!」Some people used to make a fuss about it but, the other watchers, who had seen the benevolent Remilia-sama, who every time without looking out for herself and sometimes even getting injured, would smile with a big smile and say,「Now she can build a house for the new settlers to live in」turned a white eye. Come to think of it, I haven’t seen that fussy guy lately. I thought it was because of his shift, but to no avail.

Recently, they had been visiting the village frequently as watchdogs, and it seems that he now know which is the truth, the Remilia they actually saw or the「evil woman Remilia」they were told by the Royal Family during their missions, I once heard them blurting out,「None of us believe that story now, but we can’t even argue loudly against the country.」

I understand that frustration… I know exactly what you mean…!

But I’m also not just a brainiac who runs straight for the jugular. I know that if I raise my voice now, she will be crushed by the Royal Family and will only be watched closely again.

Now is the time to lay low. We need to increase our population, develop our industries, raise our tax revenues, and build up our strength as a territory!

「The problem at hand is getting it through the winter this year…」

I was told that Remilia-sama provides the residents with warm clothes and shoes, and Thorn teaches each family how to make a fireplace that also serves as a fire pit, and each family works on their own fireplace.

.

I would also like to provide thick bedding for a house where only children live. After that… we also need to prepare firewood for the time it takes to dry. Although there was plenty to do, every day was exhausting, and life was not affluent, there was no sense of doom and gloom among the residents, including myself.