"Because we're family
A loving, caring family"
After chopping down trees for several days, Hozzenplozz and the others rode away from the camp near Lohr Town in a wagon, singing as they headed for Wessen Territory.
At first, he'd been a little worried that if the people from Red Mud Village recognized him again, it might cause more trouble.
But now there was no need to worry. Everyone around him came from somewhere else and didn't know him. Nobody recognized him. They were all brothers and sisters of Wessen Territory now.
Hozzenplozz had made up his mind: he'd spend the rest of his life farming.
He still didn't know that Frederick had ordered the newcomers from all over to be dispersed and settled in different places. He thought Baron Weissen was looking after him.
It took them four days to reach the camp outside Hausen Town in Wessen Territory. The next day, someone came to ask what skills they had.
"I'm a farmer." ×2
Hozzenplozz noticed that the woman beside him had given the same answer.
Curious, he turned to look at her and saw that she was looking at him too. She was a little younger than him, sturdy, and rather pretty.
"Hello, I'm Lihel."
"Ah, hello. My name's Hozzenplozz."
That was how the two of them met.
Red Hat looked them over. They were both sturdy, so he asked, "There's a village to the south, by the mountains. Someone else's territory is nearby, and wild animals often wander over. Would you two be willing to go there?"
They both agreed at once.
Two days later, Hozzenplozz and Lihel rode in a donkey cart with the others, singing as they headed for the place where their new lives would begin.
Lihel asked the driver of the donkey cart, "Do you know how to raise donkeys?"
Hozzenplozz replied, "A little. Didn't Red Hat say someone would teach us? We'll learn as we go."
A village couldn't get by without livestock. They needed animals to pull carts, turn millstones, and carry loads.
But Wessen Territory needed so many animals that there weren't enough packhorses on the market, so they'd bought a great many Ami Donkeys, a breed found only on Rhodes in the Aegean Sea.
Ami Donkeys had incredible stamina. The story went that on Rhodes, two men and two women from out of town had worked with a single Ami Donkey for two years without taking a single day off.
Hozzenplozz said cheerfully, "Raising donkeys for the village will earn us extra wages, too. Once I've saved enough, I want to buy an Am Mule."
"That sounds nice," Lihel said. "Am Mules are easy to raise. If one doesn't behave, give it a couple of slaps and it'll settle down."
"When we have some free time, we can hitch one to a cart, buy goods in town, and sell them in the village."
"I heard they have something called a Black Crystal Egg here. It's made with chicken eggs. I want to collect eggs from the nearby villages and make them myself, then sell them in the city."
As they talked, they passed a camp surrounded by a simple wooden wall, with tents inside. Many people were chopping trees nearby.
Several animal-powered sawmills stood at the edge of the woods. Once the lumber was processed, it was hauled to the camp to build wooden houses.
Hozzenplozz said anxiously, "I wonder if I'll draw an early spot in the lottery. I'm afraid winter will come before it's my turn."
Lihel was just as worried. "Yes. Baron Weissen said they'd build houses for families with elderly people and children first. Those of us who are on our own will have to wait."
A young man sitting behind them had been chatting with the people beside him. When he heard them, he said in surprise, "You don't know? Only families get their own houses. Single men like us live in communal housing."
Lihel was taken aback. She hadn't expected there to be a rule like that.
"There are plenty of rules here," the young man said. "I heard that if you do well, the young people in your family can even go to the city to learn a trade."
"Really?" Hozzenplozz was astonished. "That must cost a lot, right?"
The young man shook his head. "I heard it's very cheap. If someone vouches for you, you can even borrow money from the baron to study. No interest."
Hozzenplozz shook his head. "I don't believe it. Wouldn't that put the craftsmen out of business?"
The young man glanced contemptuously at Hozzenplozz's bald head and sneered, "That's why you have to save up bit by bit just to buy an Am Mule."
"I heard that Bryant, the best blacksmith in the territory, is planning to build a Lakeside Blacksmith Workshop by Brombach Lake. He's working with the scholar Aumert, too. In the future, apprentices who've trained there for two and a half years will be able to work at the workshop. The wages will be much higher than at an ordinary smithy. Even a lot of blacksmiths want to go there."
"And the baron's Iron Smelting Plant is about to be built, too. They can't exactly hire a bunch of idiots to work there. No matter how many people they hire, there won't be enough if they don't learn first and keep falling into the molten iron."
"Besides syrup and Steam Bread, Wessen Territory is best known for its bearings and steel. I heard that in the future, anything made of iron will be better and cheaper here than anywhere else. Everyone will come here to buy it. Young men who get jobs at the smithies won't have any trouble finding wives."
"That's not all. Master Benz from the carriage workshop is going to hire people and start making carriages on his own. I heard he's working with Master Bryant, Scholar Aumert, and Scholar Basf. Their freight wagons will carry more cargo, and their passenger carriages won't bounce around at all."
"Let me tell you one more thing. Weissenburg University is working on a machine that can plow fields without horses. They say it'll plow quickly and well, and it can grind flour, too. And unlike a horse, you won't have to look after it every day. In the future, every village will be able to buy a few."
"And Weissenburg University will send scholars to teach us how to farm and raise livestock, too. We'll be able to grow a lot more grain in our fields."
Hozzenplozz, Lihel, and the others listened as the young man chattered all the way there.
Farmers didn't know much about the world in those days. Even Hozzenplozz, who considered himself well-traveled, was no different from the rest. The things the young man talked about were completely new to them, and everyone listened wide-eyed.
After the young man finished, Lihel asked doubtfully, "How do you know so much?"
The others came to their senses, too. They'd all fled here from other places, and had spent about the same amount of time in the same places. How come only this man knew all these things, while they didn't?
The young man answered as if it were obvious, "My name's Thomas. I used to be a student at Weissenburg University. I ran out of money and came out to find work. Now I'm your village head."
The most important official the farmers had ever met was the village head. They all shrank back, too frightened to speak. Hozzenplozz gave a start, and the donkey nearly pulled the cart into a ditch.
Lihel was a little braver. She asked Thomas about something she really wanted to know. "Village head, what's our village called?"
Thomas said, "So many new villages have sprung up in Wessen Territory all at once that coming up with names has been giving everyone a headache."
"Our village was easy enough to name. It has a distinctive feature: the hills there have red clay soil, and there are lots of pine trees on them. So it's called Red Mud Pine Village."
Hozzenplozz and Lihel both shuddered in unison.
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