It Was Noisy Outside

1 The spring the wyvern attacked

Before I knew it, spring had arrived.

It felt as though I had spent the whole winter cooking. In fact, I probably had. I thought my cooking skills had improved considerably. They should have, anyway. Since Lu and the others reacted as though everything they ate was delicious, I had no way of knowing how good it actually was... I wished they would honestly tell me when something tasted bad.

"We say it's delicious because it is. Is there something you're unhappy with?"

"Lu, do you think it's possible to make all sorts of dishes and have every single one taste good? That's why I worry you're just being considerate."

"Have a little faith in yourself. It really is delicious. We'll tell you properly if something tastes bad."

"Thank you, Tia."

"Wait. Why do you believe Tia but not me?"

"Because Tia asks for seconds."

"Then I'll have another bowl too!"

The emergency came without warning.

The wooden alarm sounded from Zabuton's direction. The intensity of the knocking told me this was serious.

I was about to run in the direction Zabuton indicated when Lu stopped me.

"Up there."

An enormous creature was flying through the sky where Lu pointed. It looked like a fat lizard with bat wings. It was too far away to judge its exact size, but it had to be about twenty meters long.

"A dragon?"

"No, a wyvern! Lu, we need to defend!"

As Tia corrected me, she cast some sort of magic.

Lu did too.

Then the wyvern rapidly approached us. Just when I thought it had stopped, it spat an enormous fireball at us.

That enormous fireball really was huge. It looked about ten meters across. The moment it emerged, the temperature shot up, and the heat distorted everything around it. Its target was the great tree where Zabuton lived.

After I realized this and shouted to Zabuton, the enormous fireball struck something and scattered.

The scattered flames fell onto the house and fields.

"Put out the fires!"

Ria and the others frantically ran around with water. Lu and Tia looked anxiously at the wyvern. Their expressions said it would be difficult to get through this without damage.

I was glad they valued this place. At the same time, a quiet anger flared inside me. Why? Why on earth was it attacking us? On a whim? Or on someone's orders?

The Almighty Farming Tool in my hand turned into a spear.

I hurled it at the wyvern with all my strength. Normally, it was far beyond the distance my arms could throw anything. But the Almighty Farming Tool spear I threw flew straight ahead and tore through one of the wyvern's wings.

Bewildered by my attack, the wyvern began to fall. I hadn't finished it off.

I called the thrown Almighty Farming Tool spear back to my hand. Before the wyvern hit the ground, I hurled the Almighty Farming Tool spear again.

Once more, it flew in a straight line, this time hitting its body. An enormous shriek rang out. It was tough.

But it was over now. I gave orders to Kuro and the others, who had gathered behind me at some point.

"Finish it off."

At my command, Kuro and the others dashed off together. Their destination was where the wyvern had fallen.

After watching Kuro and the others run off, I calmed myself down.

Time to assess the situation...

"How are the fires?"

"It's all right. They're all out."

"What about the damage?"

"The house is fine. But some of the tomato field is ruined. Also, Zabuton and the others' threads..."

The threads strung over the fields for patrols had probably burned away.

"I see... Lu, Tia. Thank you for blocking that first attack."

"Y-yes."

"We did work hard."

...There was a strangely distant atmosphere. Did I have a frightening expression on my face right now?

This wasn't good. Remembering that unreasonable attack made my anger well up again.

"Was that... the Demon King's doing?"

"Huh? The Demon King? I don't think he had anything to do with it."

"Really?"

"Yes, I think it was a wild wyvern. After all, if someone controlled it, deploying it alone would be far too wasteful."

"I see. A wild one... Are creatures like that... Are there a lot of wyverns?"

"There are a few in certain places. But overall, they're fairly rare."

"Yes. And if it's a wyvern capable of spitting a fireball that size, you should consider it on the same level as encountering a dragon."

"So this is something that rarely happens?"

"Yes, that should be the case."

Had we simply been unlucky?

...Calm down. I would treat it as a natural disaster and let it go.

"Oh, Kuro and the others are back. They're calling us."

We went to where the wyvern had fallen and were astonished all over again by its enormous body.

Was it bigger than the sperm whales I'd seen on television? From the look of it, it had already been near death when it landed, so Kuro and the others hadn't needed to finish it off. In that case, why were they standing on its corpse looking so proud?

Oh, they were guarding the body. Keeping other Magic Creatures away. Good boys and girls.

Still, it was huge. Could we eat it?

"Wyvern meat is supposed to be delicious."

I see.

We enjoyed a delicious meal. Butchering it and bringing it back had been hard work, but it certainly tasted wonderful.

Even more so with the seasonings I had researched over winter. It turned into a feast.

Without my knowing, shooting down the wyvern sent ripples through various places.

Close to home, there were Lu and Tia.

"Tia. Do you think the attack our husband launched at the wyvern... could be blocked?"

"Impossible. What about you, Tia?"

"Of course it's impossible."

"Yes. After all, it penetrated the wyvern's triple barrier, and rather than merely piercing it, it tore straight through and gouged part of it away."

"...I suppose we were lucky that Kuro and the others attacked us first."

"Indeed. If we'd made an enemy of our husband at the start..."

"Just thinking about it is frightening."

"We should be grateful for our fateful meeting."

"And to Kuro and the others, while we're at it."

"Though it's a little frustrating."

At the Demon King's castle.

"The wyvern in the Forest of Iron was shot down? Don't joke around."

"It's true. I saw it while I was out scouting. Just after I saw the Forest of Iron's wyvern spit a fireball, an unknown attack shot it down."

"Really?"

"Yes. Reporting it to the higher-ups caused a huge uproar."

"I can imagine. After all, if that thing approached, the forces needed to deal with it would cause an uproar on the scale of a general mobilization. If something capable of shooting it down is there, that means..."

"This is bad. If we're going to resign, is now our only chance?"

"Don't worry. It isn't necessarily an enemy."

"R-right."

"Besides, one of the Four Heavenly Kings might have done it. Let's wait and see."

"Y-yeah."

The dragon living in the southern mountains.

"...Perhaps there's something wrong with my eyes."

"Don't worry. They're normal."

"Really?"

"Yes. I saw it too, after all."

"I see."

"Yes."

"What do you think would happen if that came flying at me?"

"It would probably pierce clean through you."

"Right... What should I do?"

"That is for you to decide, Master."

"Don't say that. Give me a suggestion. Please."

"In that case, personally... I think it would be best to establish friendly relations before that attack comes flying this way. Hostility would be foolish."

"Hmm... mm."

It would be a little while before those various ripples affected me.

2 I wanted alcohol

I thought of it at the wyvern meat feast. I wanted alcohol. Alcohol... What was it made from? Rice made sake, and grapes made red wine. I had the ingredients. No problem.

As for making sake... I already knew how from television and manga. But koji mold was a problem. Could the Almighty Farming Tool solve the koji mold problem? That needed some research.

So I settled on the simpler idea of making red wine.

Red wine was easy. All I had to do was crush grapes and let them ferment.

But didn't red wine require suitable grapes? The grapes I could harvest now were sweet ones like those sold in supermarkets. Those might work too, but...

There should be varieties for red wine. If I just thought of wine grapes and then

cultivated the land, that should work.

At any rate, I understood that I couldn't get alcohol immediately. I gave up. Then I went ahead and made a vineyard for wine grapes.

Hahaha.

Momentum mattered. I expanded the New Field Area eastward, simply doubling the area of the fields.

Eight by eight plots made sixty-four plots. I devoted thirty-two of them to wine grapes.

I thought I had calmed down completely. But perhaps the wyvern attack had still left me somewhat upset. Time for reflection.

Come to think of it, grapes belonged in the orchard. Why had I planted them in the New Field Area? Oh well.

Back to my usual work.

First, I planted the additional seasoning crops I had been considering in the empty portions of the original fields near the house.

Since I didn't think I needed large quantities, I planted a little of each. Only olives went in the orchard, since I needed plenty of those.

The orchard was running out of room too, so I expanded it northward. It became four by eight field plots in size.

Speaking of the orchard, the bees Zabuton's children had been tending... were being raised successfully and had begun forming new colonies. I made four new hives and, at Zabuton's children's request, built shelters for them against the wind and rain.

Then I obtained honey from the original hive. There was only enough to fill one 350-milliliter jar.

I used a stone jar carved from rock, but for appearance's sake, I wanted a glass jar.

Could I get one...? I couldn't be too greedy. I had to start with what I could do. After I let everyone taste the honey, less than half remained in no time.

It was very well received. But using it in cooking would have to wait.

The High Elf Rasuti had an excellent skill.

To my surprise, she could make barrels that held water.

Following her instructions, I made the barrel components. This mainly involved felling and processing timber. Rasuti adjusted the components I made and assembled them into a barrel. Apparently, it had been two hundred years since she last made one, but her very first barrel succeeded without leaking.

Barrels that held water. Thinking of their many possible uses, we made them in large quantities. Alcohol took top priority. I needed fermentation barrels for the wine grapes I had gotten carried away and planted. Time to work hard.

During this time, after I cooked the dishes she requested, the others joined in too. They couldn't succeed right away, but after several failures, they became good at making them. Better than me. Although nobody could match Rasuti's speed, we still achieved considerable results in barrel making. Having extras wouldn't hurt, so we made as many as we could while we had the chance.

Incidentally, many of the requested dishes were hot pots.

Without kombu or dried bonito, I couldn't make dashi, so I could only make hot pot by putting plenty of vegetables and a little meat into meat broth. Although I found these hot pots lacking in various ways, they were popular. Even without kombu or dried bonito, I still wanted to add more seasonings and make them tastier. Ah, I needed to plant some yuzu too... I owed a great deal to my previous world.

For now, I was researching how to make something like dashi using shiitake mushrooms.

3 Improving the reservoir and thanking the gods

After I watched Zabuton's children depart, something I had arbitrarily decided was a sign of spring, Kuro and the others began shedding their horns.

After that, would they go looking for mates?

Hmm.

Things are going to get pretty intense-I'm not going to face reality.

I tried improving the reservoir.

At present, the water ran in a straight line along a channel from the waterfall that served as our water source to the reservoir. That meant debris flowed down the channel into the reservoir too. Debris could simply be picked out, but living creatures getting in would be troublesome.

To prevent that, I made a holding pool before the reservoir and installed a buffer.

The reservoir was shaped like an inverted pyramid, about five meters deep at its center, but the holding pool had an even depth of about fifty centimeters. This made it quite likely that any debris or creatures carried downstream would be stopped in the holding pool. Of course, a barrier was needed between the holding pool and the reservoir. Metal mesh would have been ideal, but since I had none, I made a barrier from bamboo lined up side by side. It should do a good job of stopping debris.

I made similar improvements to the drainage channels.

I made a drainage pool along the channel carrying wastewater and overflow from the bath, and put slimes there to purify the water. I installed the same setup along the reservoir's drainage channel. This was a measure to purify the water and prevent anything that fell into the reservoir from flowing into the river.

I installed a bamboo barrier between the reservoir and the newly built drainage pool. This wasn't to prevent debris from coming back in, but to keep the slimes in the drainage pool.

Come to think of it, by the time I noticed, there were quite a lot of slimes. Now I often saw them moving around on their own.

At first, seeing slimes wandering around on their own made me a little anxious, but once I learned that they moved independently to places where they were needed and were harmless, I left them alone.

Occasionally, I saw different-colored ones mixed in. That was probably fine.

After all sorts of things had happened, the season came for Kuro and the others to look for mates.

But hardly any of them went traveling this year. Apparently, those already here were enough to pair up. That was a good thing, right? Well, I would count it as one.

It might be a little odd to call this a substitute, but we sent out a recruitment party to the High Elves wandering the forest just as Ria and the others had.

Rifu and Rasa were the two who went, escorted by ten of Kuro's group. They planned to return before winter at the latest. At the same time, we started building log houses for the newcomers. Things were getting busy again.

The wine grapes soon reached harvest time.

After harvesting them, we tried making red wine.

Apparently, the traditional method involved stomping them with your feet, but personally, I thought stepping on food was wrong. So I simply carved a mortar out of stone and crushed them in it. Once crushed, they went into barrels for storage. That was all there was to it.

I felt a little uneasy about whether making red wine could really be this simple. Although it was simple, the sheer quantity made it a lot of work. We made enough to fill sixteen large barrels, each big enough to hold a person.

Since it would be tragic if we made everything the same way and it failed, we used a slightly different method for each barrel. I hoped it would work out. (Translator: To explain, with wine grapes, you really can make good red wine simply by crushing and fermenting them. Wineries do it this way too. But if you make wine with grapes bought from a supermarket, you have to add sugar. The usual weight ratio is five to one.)

A problem.

I did not know what to do with the wine-grape field. Normally, I would keep planting the same crop...

But since we still did not know whether the wine would turn out, I was unsure whether to keep growing wine grapes. Considering food storage, it might be better to grow wheat, soybeans, rice, and corn.

Since I did not know what to do, I discussed it with everyone.

"I'm looking forward to the red wine."

From what Ria and the others said, this world apparently had red wine too. It was made from a fruit called Gleb that closely resembled grapes.

"Wine made in our village. I want to try it soon."

"I'm looking forward to the tasting."

"With that much, we'll have plenty to drink."

"Leave making the barrels to me."

The High Elves unanimously favored continuing to grow wine grapes.

"I'm very particular about my alcohol, you know."

"Hehehe, alcohol is a wonderful thing."

Lu and Tia felt the same. Apparently, everyone wanted alcohol. Well, I wanted some too.

Although we still did not know whether it would work, I kept growing wine grapes.

The fields were not just grape fields. After harvesting grains such as wheat, soybeans, rice, and corn, we also harvested root vegetables such as carrots, potatoes, radishes, garlic, and onions.

The distinction here was whether Zabuton's children could harvest them.

Zabuton's children could harvest anything that only required scissors, but harvesting that required a sickle or physical strength was difficult for them.

So Zabuton's children mainly harvested tomatoes, cabbages, pumpkins, cucumbers, eggplants, and crops in the fruit area.

After harvesting spinach, sugarcane, and tea leaves, which needed more hands, I also harvested rapeseed to secure a supply of oil.

It was wonderful to have more hands available.

Consumption had increased too, though. But thanks to the Almighty Farming Tool, the crops grew quickly, so we had not faced hunger yet. I was truly grateful.

Come to think of it, I conducted various experiments with the crops. They concerned whether the crops I grew could be cultivated elsewhere.

I experimented with onions.

The result was that they grew in places I had tilled, but rotted anywhere else. I also tried growing onions in water alone, but that did not work well. They rotted immediately after sprouting.

Was my method wrong, or was the water bad...? In any case, it was important to learn that even without the Almighty Farming Tool, crops could be grown on land I had tilled.

Their growth was just slow. Though I called it slow, this was the rate of plant

growth that I knew.

In other words... the crops grew quickly thanks to the Almighty Farming Tool.

Once again, I thanked the god.

Incidentally, fruit-bearing plants cultivated with the Almighty Farming Tool grew quickly until they bore fruit. But after bearing fruit, they grew at a normal rate.

4 More elves

Only about half of Kuro's group gave birth this year. In other words, some individuals had not become pregnant. Since it had been one hundred percent before, that came as a slight shock.

Had they voluntarily adjusted their birth rate? Yuki did not give birth this year either. Even so, their numbers increased considerably, so we expanded the Dog Area and built more longhouses.

The Dog Area lay east of the residential area and measured four fields by four fields, a square two hundred meters on each side. Since Kuro and the others were large, it had already felt rather cramped. Still, since the Dog Area was only where they lived, there was no need to rush.

We expanded the Dog Area eastward by the same amount. That made the whole area four fields by eight fields. That should be fine for a while.

After Kuro's group had finished giving birth, when the puppies' horns were starting to show.

Rifu and Rasa returned from recruiting the High Elves wandering the forest to come here, along with the children of Kuro's group who had escorted them.

They brought more people than expected.

Eight groups, totaling forty-two High Elves. All of them were women, apparently around the same age as Ria and the others. Were High Elves a race consisting only of women?

"When our settlements were attacked, the men fought while the women evacuated."

I see. Even so, I thought there should have been boys...

"Among those who evacuated, the elderly and the children moved to other tribes."

"Hmm? If there were other places you could go, why didn't you go there?"

"Going to another tribe means joining its lower ranks. In that case, um... women wouldn't be treated very well."

Ah... So that was why only the young women among them continued wandering.

Compared with wandering the forest, living in the lower ranks of another tribe would be harder.

"Thank you so much for allowing us to settle here."

"No, no, I only did what I should. Don't worry about it. More importantly, we prepared houses... but there aren't enough. Come help."

I had expected around ten people, fifteen at most, so we were completely short on places to live.

House construction began urgently.

Once they settled in, would those forty-two come to my bedroom too?

"Ria. If there are any male High Elves, consider bringing them here too."

"Ah... Village Chief. If by male High Elves you mean the children who moved under other tribes, I think that would be difficult..."

"Why?"

"Because the settlements of the tribes they moved to were also destroyed by humans."

"I see... Sorry. I asked about something painful."

"No. Some members of those tribes evacuated just as we did, and I heard that the males of our tribe were being protected there too. Males must be precious to them as well. So asking for their return would cause a dispute."

"..."

Since the mood had soured, I changed the subject.

"Let's choose a representative for the High Elves. There are more of you now, after all."

"Regarding that, it has already been decided that I will serve."

"Ria would certainly be a good choice... but will the newcomers agree?"

"It's fine. Our hierarchy has already been settled."

Hierarchy? Better not ask for details.

"I-is that so? Anyway, make preparations to help the newcomers settle in."

"Understood."

5 Flora, the Oni Race maids, and the cows

Just when the new residents had made things livelier and I was beginning to feel that matters might get complicated, our population grew again.

It began when a woman arrived as spring ended and the pregnant children of Kuro's group were starting to show.

"Hehehe. What an interesting place."

At night, a woman accompanied by bats was there, moving through the air about a meter above the ground.

Did she look to be in her mid-twenties? She was quite beautiful. Her dress clung closely to her body, clearly revealing its curves.

Her chest and bottom seemed rather small. Her silver hair was cut straight across around neck length.

From the impression she gave, she looked connected to Lu no matter how I looked at her. Was she Lu's older sister? Or her mother? Anyway, just as I was thinking of calling Lu over to meet her... Kuro and the others had already begun beating her up as a pack. It reminded me of when I first met Lu.

Were they more aggressive because some of them were pregnant? The woman went from her mid-twenties to early elementary-school age in an instant. Unable to maintain her clothes with her magic power, she lost those too and ended up completely naked. Then she started bawling.

It reminded me of when I met Tia.

For now, I stepped between Kuro and her and kept things under control until Lu arrived. The way she refused to take her eyes off my neck even while crying was a little frightening. No, she probably wanted to recover... but I would not give her blood. It would be troublesome if she was Lu's enemy, after all.

Once Lu arrived, everything became clear at once.

"Flora?"

"Dear sister!"

She was Lu's younger sister. After asking for details, I learned they were cousins. (Translator: Japanese does not distinguish between paternal and maternal cousins, so I translated it this way. Those who know English should understand too.)

Her name was Flora Sakuto, and she had apparently come looking for Lu.

"You never came back, so I thought that scheming Angel had finished you off and came to collect you. I never expected something like that to happen..."

"Now, now."

Incidentally, when Lu introduced me.

"This is my dear husband."

"This human? He doesn't look like much."

"He's the master of those Infernal Wolves from earlier, and the head of this place."

"I was terribly rude. Please forgive me."

That was a truly splendid change in attitude. But something concerned me more than that... a certain term I could not possibly ignore.

"Infernal Wolves... You mean Kuro and the others?"

"Yes."

Infernal Wolves. What a serious name... More importantly, wolves. Wolves? Wolves? Huh? They were not dogs? No, they did have horns...

Huh... Well, even if they were wolves, that was fine. Yes.

Incidentally, the all-white Fubuki was apparently a variant of the Infernal Wolf called a Cocytus Wolf.

Since she was Lu's cousin, I gave Flora blood. No matter how many times I saw it, a girl growing bigger in stages was a mysterious sight. Partway through, Lu covered my eyes. She did not mind with Tia, Ria, and the others, but she did when it was her cousin. I see.

After I brought Flora home, she ran into Tia and they had a quarrel. Like everyone else, she fainted upon seeing Zabuton and her children. She was bewildered to see Lu harvesting in the fields. She was moved after eating dishes made with those crops. Things were lively.

After that, Flora stayed in an empty room in my house for about ten days, then went back.

It was not that she had grown tired of this place. Apparently, she intended to settle here properly. But she had left various things where she had lived before, so she went back to sort them out.

Since she was so reluctant to leave, I thought she might return quickly, but she took unexpectedly long and came back just before winter. And she was not alone. She brought quite a few people.

Flora brought twenty maids. Apparently, they had worked at her previous house.

They were of the Oni Race, and a closer look revealed little horns on the maids' heads.

Most had one or two on their foreheads... around their bangs. They were about the size of a thumb.

The head maid's name was Ann.

"Master. Please look after us forever from now on."

She recognized me as her master the moment we met. Had Flora told her to say that? No.

It was because Flora and the maids would be living in my house. That was why I was recognized as their master. Chains of command were troublesome.

With that in mind, I sorted through what Lu, Flora, Ann, and the others had said.

Since Lu and Flora were the only vampires here, Lu would apparently serve as the vampires' representative for the time being.

Ann was the representative of the Oni Race.

Then, as maids, Ann and the other members of the Oni Race apparently made attending to my personal needs their first priority, and looking after Lu and Flora their second. I questioned making my care their first priority, but they told me that the order was important. Well, fine.

I would talk about Ann and the others' work as maids later. There was something more important.

The cattle.

Ann and the others had brought four head of cattle. Perhaps Flora had remembered what I said we lacked while she was staying here.

Moreover, three of the four were pregnant females. She had even considered milk. Oh!

North of the Dog Area and east of the fruit area, I made a large cattle area measuring eight fields by eight fields.

I tilled it all in one go. I worked hard so pasture grass could grow.

Although winter was approaching, I had already asked Ria and the others to build a cowshed. Since there was not enough living space, Ann and the other Oni Race maids would have to use the storehouse as temporary quarters. The cowshed took priority, after all. We had to consider that the cattle were less capable of coping with winter than Ann and the others.

Since Ann and the others already knew how to care for cattle, I felt fairly reassured. Apparently, Flora had been late returning because she had been obtaining the cattle and learning how to care for them. I was truly grateful.

And the most important thing was to make absolutely sure Kuro's group and Zabuton and her children did not attack the cattle.

Although the cattle were initially rather frightened of Kuro's group and Zabuton and her children, they gradually stopped minding them. Good, now we could secure a milk supply. I heard that cows could not be milked at just any time, only for a certain period after giving birth.

Well, that made sense. Cows did not produce milk for us to drink, after all. It was for their calves. We were merely getting a share. I had to be careful not to become too arrogant. Anyway, our population had increased all at once.

6 Tia's departure and return in winter

With forty-two more High Elves, there were now fifty-four.

Two vampires.

Twenty members of the Oni Race.

Kuro's group... a lot.

Zabuton and her children too... a lot.

Bees... four hives.

Slimes... they had multiplied beyond counting.

Four head of cattle.

And one Angel, who must not be forgotten.

Tia had a thought. With the addition of the vampire Flora and her Oni Race maids, she was now in a weaker position in terms of influence. She should call her own companions here too. And the cattle the maids brought had made me very happy. So.

"I'll bring my attendants here too. I'll also obtain the chickens my dear husband wants, so please look forward to it."

After saying that, Tia left on a journey. Since it was just before winter, she tentatively planned to return in spring.

Winter arrived.

I paid particular attention to the new residents. With Ria and the others around, I felt somewhat reassured about the new High Elves.

The problem was Ann and the others. If they were building houses in the southwestern area and living there, I would not have minded, but since they would live in my house, I did feel somewhat conscious of them.

Although I thought I had improved considerably since coming to this world, my social skills were still poor. I thought I had to work hard, but there was no need to try quite so hard.

Ann and the others managed their distance from me extremely well. Beyond the bare minimum of practical conversation, there was only a certain amount of small talk. On top of that, they did not forget to give me due prominence.

They all gave the impression of accomplished receptionists at a large company. From our conversations, I learned that they had served as maids employed by Lu and Flora's clan for several hundred years, and had the experience to match.

Perhaps how they kept their distance from me was no issue at all. Their cleaning and laundry were flawless, truly excellent. Cooking was the only household task they were not particularly good at. They simply lacked the knowledge.

The only cooking method they knew was putting ingredients into a pot and boiling them. So, over the winter, I taught them every cooking method I knew. By spring, they would probably be better at it than I was.

With Ann and the others joining us, life in the house suddenly became lively. Until then, Lu and Tia had lit or extinguished the lights at night whenever they noticed, but Ann and the others managed them properly.

Cleaning and laundry also went from things I did when they occurred to me to daily tasks. Thanks to that, the mattress was clean every day. Right, about the grass stuffed into the beds: until now, I had used whatever grass seemed suitable, but Ria and the others knew which grasses suited that purpose, so they replaced all of it.

As a result, the grass inside the beds only needed replacing once every six months. Putting another mattress over the grass-filled bed kept it from getting dirty and made sleeping more comfortable. Things felt more civilized.

The fires were carefully tended, too. So, even in winter, we stayed quite warm.

Yes, this was nice. It really brought home just how haphazard things had been until now... not that it bothered me.

More importantly, with Lu, Tia, and me leaving the household matters to Ann and the others, we had more time for other things. I focused on making small items, while Lu and Flora buried themselves in researching medicines. I felt a little lonely with Tia away.

Come to think of it, although Ann and the others were somewhat surprised by Zabuton and Kuro, they did not faint. Was that because they had heard about them beforehand? They seemed a little shaken by the bees in the fruit-growing area. Was that because no one had mentioned them?

Incidentally, the newly arrived High Elves duly fainted when they saw Zabuton. She was not that frightening, though.

Three more Angels, and Lizardmen who brought chickens

Tia returned with the arrival of spring.

She brought three Angels and fifteen people with reptilian faces and hard scales covering most of their bodies.

Their upper bodies were bare, and they wore cloth wraps around their waists. Almost all of them carried backpacks larger than their bodies.

According to Tia's introduction, they belonged to a race called Lizardmen. Apparently, she had brought them along because they served the Angels.

"I'm Gran Maria."

"I'm Kuudel."

"I'm Corone. I look forward to getting along with you."

The three Angels wore armor and carried large spears resembling lances. For an instant, the word "Valkyrie" came to mind. In terms of rank, they seemed to be Tia's subordinates.

I said "seemed" because, in appearance, they looked like a group of four high school girls, Tia included.

All of them had blond hair and wings on their backs.

I had thought they would live in my house along with Tia, but they wanted a separate house.

The Lizardmen they brought also seemed to want to live over there. So construction of new homes began southwest of Ria and the others' house.

With all the High Elves pitching in, they finished in five days, having grown accustomed to the work. It was inevitable that the houses built later would be better, but perhaps we should rebuild Ria and the others' house, which had been the first?

Their toilet was outside, too, which must have been inconvenient in various ways. Out of consideration on Ria and the others' part, we only remodeled it a little.

"My name is Daga. I look forward to getting along with you."

That was Daga, the Lizardmen's representative.

I felt a little bad about it, but I really could not tell the Lizardmen apart. They all looked much the same to me.

I heard that five of the fifteen were female, but I could not tell which ones. Tia and the others apparently could not tell either, but it did not seem to cause any problems. Still, I wanted to at least be able to identify Daga, their representative.

I considered distinguishing them by their clothes, but apparently the Lizardmen found it troublesome to be anything other than naked.

So we tied a cloth around Daga's right wrist.

Along with a large quantity of goods, Daga and the others brought the chickens Tia had mentioned.

They were mostly females so we could get eggs.

Since they had laid some eggs on their way here, they should be able to start supplying us with eggs here right away.

However, there would not be many.

There were forty chickens in total. Five roosters and thirty-five hens. I had thought chickens laid eggs every day, but according to Daga, that was not the case. I did not know whether my knowledge was wrong or whether it was because these were chickens from this world, but even a healthy chicken only laid one egg every two days. So we could expect about ten a day. Whether that was a lot or a little, I thought it was a little. After all, more than ten people lived here.

For now, we would focus on increasing their numbers. I did not know how to distinguish fertilized eggs from unfertilized ones... but with roosters around, it should be all right. I considered making a chicken area, but taking future egg collection into account, too much space would be troublesome.

So we kept them near the original house.

The spot was east of the big tree. I built a chicken coop for their home, then tilled the ground to plant chicken feed...

Chicken feed would be grain crops, right? Mainly corn and wheat, I thought. In that case, I would also have to consider how much extra farmland we needed.

For the time being, I tilled the soil while thinking about grasses that could serve as chicken feed.

After that, I let Zabuton, Kuro, and the others know not to attack them.

As another new building, we built a house-or rather, a dormitory-for Ann and the other maids beside my house.

After all, with twenty maids joining Lu, Tia, Flora, and me, there were not enough rooms for everyone.

Until now, we had converted storage rooms into bedrooms, but we could not keep doing that forever.

So Lu, Tia, Flora, and Ann would live in my house, and we built another house to secure lodgings for the maids.

I had thought the same thing when we built the High Elves' house, but they were fast. It was finished in three days.

There was not enough time to finish the interior, so we only completed an empty house with individual rooms for nineteen people.

The house's shared facilities were a toi-

let and a simple kitchen, with a stove in the living room. Each private room had a bed and a set of shelves. Beyond that, curtains and chairs were up to individual taste.

Since the rooms were basically only places to sleep, they had nothing but beds and shelves unless a maid had particular preferences. However, even the maids were particular about curtains and mattresses, so I had them negotiate with Zabuton to have their own made.

Once the three newly arrived Angels seemed settled into their new home, they came to see me.

"Please give us your orders."

"Leave the vanguard to me."

"I'll do my best to gather intelligence."

...No. This atmosphere was wrong. My atmosphere was that of a hardworking farmer... no, a village chief.

The atmosphere surrounding them was that of warriors. No, perhaps that was only because they wore armor and carried weapons...

I checked with Tia about why she had brought them here.

"I'd like them to patrol the forest as a mobile unit."

"A mobile unit?"

"Yes. When the wyvern came before, we were attacked because we were slow to act beforehand. That's why I called these three here."

"...I see."

"Even if they couldn't have defeated that wyvern, they could have drawn its attention and prevented damage here."

All three nodded confidently at Tia's words.

"So, something like guards."

I see.

Until now, we had dealt with problems through Zabuton's warnings and Kuro and the others attacking on their own initiative, but against something like a wyvern, perhaps we needed more proactive security.

This place had grown quite large, after all.

"Understood. I'm counting on you."

The three nodded firmly at my words.

"There's something I want to discuss."

Kuro, Zabuton, Lu, Tia, Ria, Ann, and Daga. The slimes, bees, cows, and chickens would not participate, but that could not be helped. I gathered the representatives of each race in the main room and spoke.

"Let's decide on a name for this place."

"This place...?"

"Yes. At first, it was only my house, but all sorts of things happened, and now it's become something like a village, hasn't it?"

In fact, Ria and the others already called me village chief, and it was beginning to feel that way.

"So, shouldn't we think about what to name it as a village?"

Since I did not know the proper way to name a village, we could only discuss it.

"Why not use your name, Chief?"

I considered Ria's suggestion.

My name was Hiraku Machio. So, Machio Village, Hiraku Village... neither felt quite right.

"How about naming it after this forest?"

Ann offered that suggestion.

The forest's name? Come to think of it, did this place and the forest have names? I had never paid attention, but normally, they would.

"What's this forest called?"

"The Forest of Death."

That was a more horrifying name than I had imagined.

"Then... the name of this area is...?"

"The Land of Death."

So I live in a place like that?

Still, for somewhere called the Land of Death and the Forest of Death, it felt quite abundant...

At any rate, following that pattern would make it the "Village of Death." Surely that would not do. Using my name would be better than that.

Afterward, all kinds of opinions emerged, and the debate grew heated. But no good names came up.

If we could not come up with a good idea, we would just have to give up. Just then, Zabuton called to me and pointed at the big tree outside the window.

"Big Tree Village."

It felt right. Then it was decided. This place was now "Big Tree Village."

The wine was ready, and a visitor arrived (the Demon King's envoy)

The wine was ready.

Lu and Tia suggested trying the first red wine we had made, and the tasting turned into an unveiling of the wine, then into a banquet.

I thought we had made quite a lot of wine, but with the increase in people, consumption had increased considerably as well.

We emptied four barrels in a single banquet. Well, as long as I kept growing wine grapes, we could make more after harvesting them... but the reception was almost too good.

"I've never had wine this delicious before."

Ria's voice was full of emotion.

"Ah, this is good."

"So red wine can be this delicious."

"Another glass."

Beside the hard-drinking High Elves, the Oni Race maids drank quietly.

"You're drinking too much. Show a little restraint... no, I'll certainly take my own share."

It certainly did not taste bad, and it was definitely red wine... but I did not think it deserved quite so much praise. It did not feel sufficiently matured, either...

"Darling. Let's expand the grape fields."

Tia seemed extremely pleased with it.

"Master. Although I'm not skilled at it, I'll help as much as I can."

Ann also puffed out her chest and expressed her enthusiasm.

...Huh? Where was Lu? Ah, she had already gotten drunk and gone to sleep.

We decided to expand the fields for wine grapes.

Incidentally, the red wine was well received by Kuro and the others, too. It would be no exaggeration to say they drank one of the four barrels we emptied.

I even witnessed the rare sight of dogs... no, wolves staggering around drunk.

After that, Kuro and the others became especially diligent about guarding the wine grape fields for some reason... I really hoped I was imagining it.

Rather than an everyday drink, red wine became something we only brought out for banquets and events. There were complaints, but everyone understood. After all, everyone knew that if we drank it regularly, it would be gone in no time.

Although I did not dislike red wine, I did not crave it, either. In my mind, red wine was mainly a luxury. In the Middle Ages of my previous world, people drank wine regularly because drinkable water was more precious, but here, we could get water from the well, so there was no need to insist on wine.

Well, that also meant more people started finding all sorts of reasons to bring out the red wine, but that was another matter.

With cows and chickens to raise, we now had a steady source of milk and eggs. More importantly, my range of cooking expanded along with it. We could not take too many eggs, since increasing the chickens' numbers took priority.

For the time being, we used eggs laid outside the coop for food, which gave us a few every day.

I tried making some simple dishes with them. First was plain omurice, seasoned with only salt and pepper... but it was still delicious. A nostalgic taste.

I glanced beside me and found Kuro there, his chin resting on the dining table.

I gave him a little. Kuro ate it with a satisfied look.

Next was... pudding.

I could make it with eggs, milk, and sugar. Since we could get sugar from sugarcane, we already had plenty. Once I had made the mixture, I poured it into wooden cups. It looked good.

It needed chilling at the end... putting it in the cellar should work, right?

In the meantime, I experimented with making caramel.

All I needed to do for caramel was add water to sugar and heat it. But actually making it was rather difficult. After burning it several times, I finally managed it. This probably still was not up to standard.

The caramel gave off a sweet fragrance amid its burnt smell. Before I knew it, Lu, Tia, Flora, and then Ann and the others, who should have been working on other things, had all been drawn to the doorway.

Since I had only made five puddings, an argument broke out. Even Ann and the others would not back down against Lu and Flora when they did not want to. As I thought about that, I relinquished my claim to a pudding.

Afterward, Ria, Gran Maria, and the others heard rumors of the pudding and made requests of their own, so for a while, all the eggs went into pudding. I really hoped the chickens would multiply soon.

A visitor came to the village. This was our first. He wore fine clothes and looked like a noble. However, judging by the relatively few decorations, he might have been a government official. He arrived alone, under the watch of Gran Maria and the others.

Although the visitor looked human, he was not.

Apparently, he was of the Demon Race.

Perhaps because of that, quite a few people gathered to greet him, ready for battle.

Lu, Tia, Flora, Kuro, and the others were relaxed, while Ria and the other High Elves, as well as Daga and the other Lizardmen, were all armed.

Ann and the others were also present, but they waited behind me for my orders.

Although Gran Maria, who had brought him here, was present, Kuudel and Corone were not.

Having everyone gathered in one place was dangerous, after all.

That was why Zabuton was absent, too.

"I am an envoy of the Demon King. I wish to meet the

representative of this place."

The Demon King's envoy.

He looked like an ordinary human, but was he actually a demon or a member of the Demon Race? In any case, I stepped forward when called.

"That's me."

"You, sir?" (Translator's note: the original uses a respectful form of address. The translation is fine; I just wanted everyone to understand the difference in address.)

For a moment, the other man looked stunned, but he immediately regained his serious expression. Did I look that unlike a village chief?

"My apologies. My name is Beelzebub. I am the Demon King's envoy."

"I'm Hiraku."

I wasn't sure whether to give my surname first, so I simply left it out. He had only given his own name, so it should have been fine.

After confirming my name, the man calling himself Beelzebub presented various objects and documents proving that he served the Demon King, and gave us gifts as well.

"Please accept these as a token of friendship."

"That's very kind of you."

I didn't really understand what we had received, but judging by Lu's slightly pleased expression, they must have been good things.

Normally, I probably should have gauged the situation and exchanged pleasantries, but I wanted to get straight to the point.

"What does His Majesty the Demon King want?"

For now, I gave the Demon King an honorific. It wouldn't do to get into an argument over something strange.

"We would like to discuss our relationship with this place."

"Are you only here to deliver that message?"

"No, I have been granted a certain degree of authority. I can also make decisions here."

"Ah... I see."

He wanted to discuss their relationship with this place.

I remembered being told that this place was within the Demon King's sphere of influence. In other words, did he want us to pay taxes? Or did he want to drive us out? I'd heard that we didn't need to concern ourselves with a Demon King who had never helped us, but perhaps I should discuss this with Lu and Tia first?

I sent the others a corresponding look, and every one of them looked back as if to leave everything to me.

I see. It's up to me.

Negotiation... The foundation of negotiation is to make a strong opening proposal.

"If you recognize our right to live here, we will pay ten percent of our harvest as tax."

Ten percent.

You could call it an exorbitantly profitable tax rate.

Rather than have all sorts of heavy taxes imposed on us later, it would be better to establish a light tax ourselves first.

If that came across as somewhat independent, there was nothing to be done about it.

Paying taxes could at least serve as a sign that we weren't defying His Majesty the Demon King.

Still, this was an assertive opening made without understanding the circumstances.

So I settled on ten percent of the harvest.

"Huh? A-are you sure?"

Huh? He's startled. Or could he be surprised that the tax rate I proposed is too low? Surely not...

If he was startled, I would press the advantage.

"Come collect it every year before winter."

I tried telling him that if he wanted taxes, he would have to come get them.

"U-understood. We will proceed on those terms."

Huh? Apparently that settled it.

The tax would be ten percent of the harvest. However, it would apply only to crops harvested from the fields. Milk, eggs, and honey would not be handed over.

We also wouldn't hand anything over if the harvest was small. Strictly speaking, we would only set aside the portion of the harvest that didn't seem enough to fill a large barrel.

If the Demon King's side wanted anything, they could purchase it by paying with goods of equivalent value.

After confirming these matters in writing, Beelzebub went home.

Feeling that I might have been a little too forceful, I reflected on it a little while we confirmed the written agreement and gave him a return gift.

We had received gifts ourselves, after all.

"...Was that all right?"

Everyone considered my question briefly. Then Lu spoke.

"I don't think it was a bad move. By paying taxes, we can make them obligated to protect this place."

"Indeed. And... hehe, ten percent?"

Tia laughed happily.

Apparently, when paying taxes in crops, handing over fifty or sixty percent was normal, and in some cases, they would take ninety percent.

"Having them come collect it is good too. It amounts to implicitly refusing to let them station anyone here."

Ann nodded.

Huh? I didn't mean anything like that...

"We can harvest several times a year here. If they only come once before winter, they won't be able to calculate the actual harvest. In practice, you've secured the Demon King's Army's protection for less than ten percent in taxes... Impressive."

Ria summed it up.

I hadn't been thinking anything like that. I'd intended to calculate everything properly before paying our taxes...

Was this how people thought in this world? In any case, we dispersed. Everyone returned to their own work.

Incidentally, the gifts Beelzebub brought were precious medicinal herbs, a cure-all that could be either swallowed or applied externally.

The Demon King's Castle.

"Beelzebub. How did it go? What did they demand?"

"They said they would pay taxes."

"What? They want to place themselves under us?"

"Yes."

"Despite having enough military strength to shoot down a wyvern?"

"That's right. And they were the ones who proposed it."

"Are they plotting something behind the scenes?"

"I considered that too... but I could only accept."

"Why?"

"The Vampire Princess and the Annihilation Angel are there. And that's not all. There are countless Infernal Wolves and High Elves. There are also lizardmen and oni..."

"How could that be? Unbelievable."

"One of the Angels of Slaughter showed me the way there, you know. I thought I was going to die..."

"It's hard to believe... but with that kind of strength, shooting down a wyvern would be possible."

"Yes. After displaying that much military strength, they proposed placing themselves under us. I couldn't refuse. The moment I did, we would have been confirmed as enemies."

"Hmm, hmm... Who knows what they'll ask of us after this..."

"Indeed. But it should be all right. Fortunately, I had a friendly conversation with their representative."

"Did you?"

"Yes, he even gave me a gift."

"I see. What did you get?"

"I haven't looked yet."

"Then have a look."

"I was going to show it to His Majesty the Demon King. Otherwise, it might be treated as a bribe."

"It would be trouble if it were something dangerous. Let's inspect it."

"Hmm... true. Then let's take a quick look."

"Oh. Let me see... This bundle wrapped in cloth? Inside are... fruits? They look like appos, and their color and shape are lovely."

"Indeed. Ah, don't just eat one!"

"I'm testing for poison. Hmm, quite delicious. No, extremely delicious. Amazing!"

"Is that so? Honestly... Huh?"

"What's wrong?"

"The cloth wrapped around the fruit..."

"Ah... It certainly is beautiful cloth. What about it?"

"Th-this... is cloth made from Demon Spider silk. And given the size of this cloth, it might even have been made by a Great Demon Spider."

"By Demon Spider, do you mean that disciple of death?"

"Yes."

"And a Great one would be the creature that fought the Demon King from two reigns ago to a standstill a hundred years ago..."

"Considering the size of this cloth... I think that must be right."

"Was it carefully preserved and then solemnly entrusted to you?"

"I would like to think so... but would they hand it over as wrapping for fruit in that case?"

"No, they wouldn't. Then that means there might be a Great Demon Spider there... I'm resigning today."

"Wait. You're the leader of the Four Heavenly Kings. You're the one in charge here. Are you planning to run away? Ah, you're serious. Wait! Please. Take me with you."

Chapter 9: The visitor is a dragon

Just when I thought the village would return to its usual life after our visitor left, another guest arrived.

As before, everyone who was free gathered at the village gate.

"My name is Doraim. I am a true dragon."

Our guest was a dragon.

What appeared was the sort of Western dragon found in fantasy manga and anime. He was far larger than the wyvern we'd encountered before, measuring thirty meters in total length.

He would have been quite imposing. If he had been standing up.

The dragon named Doraim had his head lowered toward us.

"This is a gift to mark our first meeting. Please accept it."

A man in a butler's uniform, perhaps Doraim's attendant, respectfully held out a large box to us.

"That's very kind of you."

For the time being, we accepted it... Daga accepted it on my behalf and took it to Ann.

After checking the contents, Ann set the box in front of me.

Inside was something with what looked like very expensive ornamentation-

a sword, stored together with its scabbard.

"W-we've received something quite splendid."

"Not at all."

Weren't first-meeting gifts supposed to be something more peaceful? Food, for example.

"By the way, what brings you here today?"

"Yes. My master, Lord Doraim, has his nest on the mountain to the south that you can see from here."

"I see."

"Although it may be a little distant... we are still neighbors, in a sense. Though somewhat belatedly, we have come to introduce ourselves as your neighbors."

"That's very considerate... Um, why does your master still have his head lowered?"

"Ah, my apologies. Master, please raise your head."

Just listening to the conversation, one might have thought the butler was the master.

"My master is not good at speaking with those he meets for the first time, so I speak on his behalf to prevent any verbal missteps. If that has caused any offense, we apologize."

"No, don't worry about it. Ah... Since we've already received your gift, I'd like to welcome you... but that size presents a bit of a problem."

"Indeed. Master, please make yourself smaller."

"Hmm."

After the dragon answered, smoke suddenly rose from his enormous body before our eyes, and he began shrinking. What remained was a tall, timid-looking middle-aged man.

He was dressed like a nobleman.

"My apologies. Master, please introduce yourself again."

"My name is Doraim. I am a true dragon."

...Could he have decided on his lines before coming here so he wouldn't make a mistake?

In any case, although he was rather tall, he was human-sized, so there should have been no problem. We invited him into the house and held a feast.

"The alcohol is good, and the food is delicious. I'm not going back. I'm going to live here."

"You cannot. You must properly guard your nest, or you will anger people on all sides."

"It will be all right here. We can fight them off."

"That should be possible, but you mustn't trouble everyone here."

"Hmm, hmm... Trouble them?"

"You would be troubling them, wouldn't you? Given the fighting strength here, naturally, there would be nothing for you to do, Master."

"How rude. I am a true dragon."

"My apologies. Allow me to rephrase that. There would be no productive activity you could perform."

"Hmm."

"Let us return while they still treat us as guests. I've already packed various local specialties."

"You included those things like appos, didn't you?"

"The apples, yes? Rest assured. I have received plenty."

"Good, understood. Let's go home."

"Yes. Ah, you mustn't return to your original size in here."

And so the dragon went home.

He took a considerable amount of crops with him, but it still felt like somewhat too little in exchange for the sword.

In any case, I reflected on various things.

This village wasn't ready to receive visitors. I hadn't planned for any in the first place, so that couldn't be helped. Had we been too closed off? I thought it couldn't be helped, but perhaps there was something we could do.

First, we needed to buy time by having visitors wait somewhere. We couldn't just leave them standing outside.

That said, if we invited them into my house, they would see everything we were doing.

We didn't have anything as fancy as a guest room, after all.

So I decided to build a house for visitors.

Next came our reception arrangements.

Having nearly everyone turn out whenever a visitor arrived wasn't good. Receiving guests was important, but everyone had their own work. At present, we had Gran Maria, Kuudel, and Corone find visitors and guide them in...

But if they simply brought them in, we wouldn't receive any advance notice.

As things stood, we only knew someone was approaching when Zabuton sounded the alarm.

But when Zabuton sounded the alarm, everyone gathered. So we decided to have her give a new signal.

The danger alarm would stay the same as before. The new signal announcing visitors would be a ringing bell. Ria and the others made a bell by hand. I'd thought striking a piece of iron would produce a nice sound, but that wasn't the case.

We couldn't get a good sound out of it, and we'd received a nice bell earlier, so we used that.

Then, basically, Lu, Tia, and I would handle receiving guests.

When I proposed that, Ann, Ria, and Daga objected. So those three, along with several more High Elves, members of the Oni Race, and lizardmen, joined the reception group.

Flora wasn't included, but if visitors stayed into the night, we'd ask her to take over.

Apparently, not only Lu and Tia but Ria, Ann, and the others could stay up for several nights straight without any trouble. Still, I wanted them to sleep properly at night.

So we secured Flora for night patrol. That should do it, right?

Well, we could only keep learning from our mistakes. Not that I expected that many visitors.

Apparently, that raised a flag. Visitors arrived.

10 Beastmen visitors

Following the Demon King's messenger and the dragon, our next visitors were a group of armored Beastmen. Since there was no road, they couldn't use a wagon. Their packs weren't quite as large as the ones Daga and the others had carried when they arrived, but they were still considerable.

There were ten of them in total. All of them looked comfortable with their equipment, giving the impression of battle-hardened warriors.

Their faces looked human, but the animal ears on their heads and tails at their backs asserted their presence.

The density of the hair on their elbows... varied. Some had elbows much like beasts', while others were no different from humans'.

"I'm Guraru. We come from Howlin Village, in the mountains east of here. We've come to establish friendly relations with this village."

The representative of the group Kuudel had brought stepped forward and greeted us. I intended to step forward too, but Lu, in her adult form, moved first.

"Welcome. Big Tree Village welcomes you."

Unlike her usual self, Lu spoke in a very formal manner.

"You have our thanks."

"I'd like to show you somewhere to rest... but is this everyone in your party?"

"Yes?"

"Then anyone else will be treated as an enemy."

Lu spoke with a little force behind her words.

What was going on? Just as I was about to ask, two Beastmen emerged from the forest.

They wore light equipment in colors that made them hard to spot. Had they been hiding? As I wondered why they had come out, Kuro and the others appeared behind them.

"...My apologies. It seems some of our people fell behind."

"That was a close call, then. You should check before entering the village. Also, please be careful how you behave here. There are some here even I have to be cautious around."

"...Understood. We won't act without permission. You have our word."

Lu led the Beastmen into the newly completed house for visitors. I'd imagined a guest house where four people could live in comfort. But everyone else rejected that as too small. We had to consider that reaching this village involved crossing mountains.

We'd had a succession of unusual visitors, like the Demon King's messenger and the dragon, but ordinarily, people would probably need to come in a large group of around ten.

Depending on the circumstances, we might even need room for thirty. I agreed that made sense, and we built it larger.

This time, there were twelve guests. It was more than enough.

We built the guest house by expanding south from the southwestern area where Ria's and Flora's houses stood.

It was a single-story building without a second floor or basement, but it was the same size as my house.

As expected, houses built later had better features. Since it was for visitors, we also made it as impressive as we could. In fact, we put more effort into the interior decorations than we had at my house.

That said, it was only what our village could manage, so visitors might see it as nothing more than a slightly nicer inn. We therefore called it the "inn," rather than the guesthouse.

Matching its appearance was what mattered most.

A fence enclosed the inn and a certain amount of surrounding space, clearly marking its boundaries.

"Please feel free to move around within this fence."

That was what it was meant to guarantee. So we absolutely couldn't get it wrong and...

"Without permission, I can't say what might happen if you cross this fence."

That wasn't its purpose. But in practice, we used the latter explanation...

The fence wasn't a simple log fence, but an upscale garden fence with a proper design.

Since we had no paint, we had to leave it the natural color of the wood, but I wanted to paint it white if we got some.

After building the inn, I looked around and noticed something.

The surroundings were too bare.

Ria's house and the others were visible a short distance away. Since I'd tilled this whole area,

there weren't any substantial obstructions. We didn't actually need obstacles, but I wanted something to block the view. Trees were the obvious choice. So I grew fruit trees near Ria's house and the others. We chose fruit trees because people asked me to give a little more consideration to practical uses.

I thought it might look rather lonely in winter, but I saw no particular reason to object, so I accepted the suggestion. They were mainly apples, pears, and persimmons.

Personally, I wanted to plant a few cherry trees that would produce edible cherries. Well, they were still little saplings for now, so they couldn't block the view...

After that, I made something like a kitchen garden, with strawberries and watermelons.

I did the same for the other houses. Around the inn, I prioritized appearances and planted ornamental cherry trees that wouldn't produce edible cherries.

Then I planted a little grove inside the inn's fenced grounds. I didn't know the names of the small trees, but I tilled the soil while picturing the ones I'd seen in my previous world. Would they grow into a grove like that?

...Would I have to prune them? I'd think about that once they grew.

After that, I got carried away and planted trees in every area. I told everyone they could choose whatever fruit trees they wanted planted outside the fields, and that I'd plant more if they wanted. That went over well.

On another note, when we expanded the southwestern area while building the inn, we renamed it the residential area. Originally, that distinction had only existed in my head, so I hadn't cared much, but since the residents had come to think of it that way too, we changed it to match.

Incidentally, the area containing my house and the big tree came to be called the Big Tree Area.

"This feels less like welcoming guests and more like locking them up..."

I questioned Lu's handling of things. She answered my question.

"Dear husband. Normally, envoys seeking friendship bring a gift. Even that dragon brought one."

"So they aren't here for friendship?"

"That's a possibility. If they don't approach us in the normal manner, we won't respond in the normal manner."

"I see. That's true."

"Besides, whatever their intentions, they hid two soldiers. That lowered Lu's treatment of them another level."

"I see... Didn't Kuudel notice those two hiding while she was guiding them?"

"She noticed, but didn't consider them a threat and left them alone. I'll give her a talking-to later."

"Please go easy on her. Well, they certainly weren't a threat."

"...True. But please be careful."

On the evening the Beastmen arrived, we held a banquet, at least. The venue was the inn.

Lu, Tia, and I attended. Ria, Ann, and the others came too, but they planned to work entirely behind the scenes.

The food was a little more lavish than what I usually ate. The fruit was set out unpeeled. When we'd welcomed Doraim, we'd held a grand banquet, with the fruit beautifully peeled and arranged. But treating everyone the same way wasn't realistic. Naturally, we would respond differently to a king, a noble, a merchant, a friend, or an unfamiliar visitor.

Knowing that, we'd argued during the advance discussion over whether to serve wine at the banquet.

Everyone except me was against serving it, but I insisted. We still didn't know their purpose, but they had come all this way. Until they were clearly our enemies, we ought to show them as much courtesy as possible.

"I'm sorry we can only offer food like this."

Although I'd insisted on serving wine, we limited the amount. Each person got only two glasses. Once the wine ran out, there would only be water.

From my perspective, I felt bad that it was only a little better than an ordinary meal. But Lu had told me beforehand to put those feelings aside. We intended to find out their purpose during the banquet, and they probably had some important purpose too.

At a time like that, it wouldn't be good to let them sense any inferiority on our part. That made sense, but once we began eating, I changed my attitude and switched to ordinary hospitality. Though that only amounted to bringing up topics of conversation.

"Forgive my ignorance, but what sort of place is Howlin Village?"

I'd asked the villagers already, but none of them knew.

"Howlin Village is in the mountains east of here. They say it was founded a thousand years ago. Well, it's probably only half that, five hundred years. The old folks like showing off about strange things."

Perhaps the wine had relaxed him, because Guraru began speaking freely. Howlin Village had a population of around five hundred. It consisted of five settlements of about a hundred people each, unified as one. So rather than a village, it was more accurately a federation of mountain settlements.

Almost everyone was a Beastman, and most were dog types. They lived mainly by hunting and mining, and until now, they'd gotten by through trading with a human village on the other side of the mountains. Recently, however, trouble with the human village had halted trade and caused various difficulties, so they'd set their sights on this village as a new trading partner.

They'd only recently learned of this village's existence. Apparently, one of the Demon King's subordinates had informed them. Both Howlin Village and the human village beyond it paid taxes to the Demon King's subordinates, so both apparently lay within his territory.

I see. I understood their general purpose now.

After that, Guraru began talking about how difficult the journey here had been. I continued eating while making encouraging responses. Glancing around, I saw that the other Beastmen seemed to like the food too. That was a relief, at least.

"If you'd stayed hidden, you might not have gotten to eat any of this. It's good you came out."

"Come to think of it, why were you hiding?"

"Well, of course. It was our first time visiting this village. We had to be cautious, and if anything happened, someone needed to return to the village and report it."

Lu and Tia seemed to be doing a good job gathering information. They were reliable.

11 Howlin Village

Guraru and the others went home.

In the end, Guraru and the others really had come with friendly intentions. They hadn't brought gifts simply because Howlin Village had no such custom. Was that because they were poor?

After hearing about that, I checked again with Lu and Tia. They murmured that perhaps the people who brought gifts when seeking friendship really were all nobles or people living in wealthy neighborhoods.

Even ordinary situations came in all sorts of varieties. Preconceptions weren't good.

Now then, since we knew their intentions were friendly, we needed to discuss trade. According to Guraru, their trade took the form of something like a barter market. Like our village, Howlin Village had almost no currency in circulation. Also, although the two villages would normally take turns hosting the market, they wanted to hold it only in Howlin Village.

They weren't being domineering. Transporting goods to this village was extremely difficult, and factoring that in might raise their value so much that exchanges became impossible. Even if they did make exchanges, carrying the goods back would apparently be difficult too.

I thought we'd have the same trouble, but they said that since we lived here, coming over ought to be no problem for us.

True, Lu and Tia had each come here alone, and if we asked Kuro and the others, perhaps they could carry things. Besides, if we were only participating, we could simply decline any exchanges we didn't like.

Not bad.

In that case, the next question was what to exchange. Howlin Village apparently had various products made from different ores. What caught my attention in Guraru's account was paint. By crushing colored rocks, they could produce various colors. We could paint the inn's fence with it too.

Then there was silverware. Apparently, it was mainly used as tableware. Since our village mostly used wooden tableware I'd made, I rather admired it.

Glassware. Apparently, it wasn't as clear as what I remembered, but they could make bottles of various sizes and shapes. Lu and Flora were very interested too. Glass bottles were apparently better for storing medicine. They would probably suit honey as well.

Ironware. They apparently had iron pots and frying pans. Ann and Daga had brought some iron cooking utensils to the village when they arrived, so we'd tried them... They were overwhelmingly easier to cook with than stone ones. I wanted some.

What Howlin Village wanted was food. Crops. Being in the mountains, they faced various difficulties securing food. The fruit served at the banquet had been particularly well received, and they'd bowed their heads and asked us to bring some. Wine too. Bringing crops wouldn't be much trouble.

No, our increased population did present some difficulty in storing food, but I felt we should greatly expand the New Field Area as the population grew.

In any case, several groups besides Howlin Village would participate in the barter market, so it apparently wouldn't be held until autumn. There was still plenty of time. Until then, I'd discuss it with everyone and think it over.

After discussing it, we decided to greatly expand the fields.

We quadrupled the current sixty-four plots, arranged eight by eight, to two hundred and fifty-six plots, sixteen by sixteen, all at once. Doing it alone really pushed me to my limit. But even with that limit, I was the only one who could use the Almighty Farming Tool.

I worked hard. I

felt that limits could be broken. In fact, I thought my tilling speed had probably increased. I'd gotten used to it, after all. Although I did all the tilling, I needed everyone's help tending and harvesting the crops. Ria, Daga, the others, and Zabuton's children all worked hard.

Incidentally, sixty-four of the two hundred and fifty-six plots were vineyards for wine. Was it really all right to devote a quarter of them to alcohol? Probably. Almost everyone except me had agreed, after all.

After that, we planted while discussing what to grow.

We focused on grains and similar crops, such as wheat, barley, soybeans, rice, and corn. Carrots, potatoes, cabbages, tomatoes, pumpkins, cucumbers, eggplants, radishes, spinach, beans, and garlic stayed at their usual quantities.

The unexpected recommendations were rapeseed and sugarcane: rapeseed for oil, and sugarcane for sugar. Then there were seasonings. Some suggested mass-producing pepper, sesame, and chili peppers, since they would probably sell well.

Come to think of it, I tried growing wasabi too.

Since it was cultivated in flooded beds, I tilled near the reservoir with the Almighty Farming Tool, made an earthen border, and let water flow in. I made something along those lines. And it worked. I successfully obtained wasabi. Though we had no dishes to use it in.

Making miso and soy sauce shifted from me to Flora. She seemed better at it than I was, after all. I taught her the principles, and after that, it was trial and error with proportions and quantities.

Oh, right, about discovering koji mold. If I turned the Almighty Farming Tool into a ladle and wished for the mold I needed while stirring the crops, they fermented successfully. Generally, I could obtain the koji mold I wanted.

We built a dedicated fermentation hut, and experiments were now underway.

Mainly to fulfill the wishes of me, the one who knew what they tasted like.

12 Reconfirming duties

Since the population had increased, we reviewed everyone's duties.

Ria and the other High Elves mainly focused on construction, harvesting the fields, and hunting in the forest.

When they had spare time, they did some excavation, and in winter, they worked on obtaining iron.

They kept building whatever structures they considered necessary, and before I knew it, there were even buildings I knew nothing about.

My fixed image of elves had been completely shattered. They were reliable.

Ann and the other Oni Race maids worked to improve living standards not only in my house, but in everyone's homes.

Their main duties were teaching cooking methods and supervising housecleaning.

They managed the inn when there were no visitors.

They were currently using our harvests to research new dishes and processed foods. Their efforts were gradually bearing fruit and receiving favorable reviews. They were a tremendous help.

Daga and the other lizardmen mainly performed physical labor. Although the High Elves and the Oni Race were strong too, they couldn't match the lizardmen. So they worked alongside Ria and the others throughout the village.

They also volunteered to care for the chickens and cows, so I left that to them. I was truly grateful.

As a race, they mainly spent their time around the river and reservoir, but they still slept properly in beds.

Hmm.

Kuro and the others patrolled inside and outside the village, and secured meat as hunters.

As the village's earliest residents, even though we couldn't talk, we could understand one another to some extent, so the other residents relied on them. I was a little surprised that one of the High Elves could even tell Kuro and the others apart faster than I could.

Zabuton and the others were the village's tailors. No, should I call them tailor spiders? Nobody had any complaints about the cloth and clothes they made. Also, since they lived in relatively high places within the village, they watched the surroundings and sounded alarms.

Gran Maria, Kuudel, and Corone were Angels.

They flew above the forest, keeping watch over the surrounding area. Judging by how they had guided every visitor here so far, they were probably very good at it. Initially, they had a system where one of them was always airborne on watch, but at my request, they added proper breaks. After all, I felt it was not a system that just three people should have to maintain.

Lu, Tia, and Flora.

They held positions similar to secretaries to me, serving as people I could consult.

They generally pursued their own research, but they also frequently led the High Elves, Oni Race, and lizardmen in various tasks.

As for their personal research, Lu and Flora studied medicines. Tia studied magic. In addition, I had personally asked Flora to research how to make miso and soy sauce. Setting aside the miso and soy sauce, their research had produced considerable results, and they served as the village's doctors.

There were also slimes, bees, chickens, and cows living here...

But all of them were probably working hard at their production activities. The bees gave us honey again this year. Having more than last year was a big help.

Hmm, compared to when I was alone, there were more things to deal with.

As for my nightlife.

At first, there had only been Lu, but Tia joined in too. After that came seven High Elves, then another five. I had all sorts of things I wanted to say, but, well, I would let that slide. I could let that slide.

After that, the number of High Elves increased by forty-two all at once, and Flora and twenty Oni Race maids joined us too. All of them were women. That was simply too many, so I refused. After all, even my mental capacity had its limits.

So it came down to only those who were particularly insistent. Ann was probably the most unexpected. You could say she made good use of the initiative afforded by keeping an appropriate distance.

When spring came and Gran Maria, Kuudel, and Corone arrived, I was also delighted by the arrival of Daga and the others.

Men! Possessiveness? I had some of that, but the weight of responsibility was more frightening. At present, I was being targeted by an entire school year's worth of girls, and I had already laid hands on several of them.

Thanks to the "Healthy Body" I had received from the god, I had not run dry early on, but mentally, I could not take it anymore.

Just then, hope arrived! Daga! But he was not my hope.

"We lay eggs..."

Apparently, at certain times, the males handed sperm packets to the females, who then laid eggs. It seemed I still would not be able to take it easy.

Incidentally, although Kuro's grandson Masayuki had gained more mates, he apparently still could not match me. In short, my nights were not my own.

Then a piece of news reached me.

Lu was pregnant.

Whose child? Hahahahaha... My child! Ohhh! I was so excited.

I wanted to calm down, but I could not. Well, considering we had done what was needed, getting a result was only natural, but I still became a little flustered.

Of course, it was something to celebrate, so I was delighted. We even began celebrating wildly in the village. Starting that night, there were more volunteers. Yes, I understood how they felt... But if the number of pregnant women increased all at once, it would cause problems in all sorts of ways... I would do my best.

At the same time.

An application came in for permission to lay eggs in the reservoir. Apparently, there were going to be more lizardman eggs. Laying eggs was fine, but doing it directly in the reservoir would cause various problems.

So we set up an egg-laying area beside the reservoir.

It was not just one egg; all five female lizardmen laid one, so five eggs were placed together in the center. Basically, they only needed to be left in the water, but apparently, the lizardmen would take turns guarding them until they hatched to protect them from outside enemies. Daga and the others were very pleased that, thanks to Kuro, Zabuton, and the others, this place was much safer than elsewhere.

I hoped they would give birth to healthy children... Had they already given birth? Then I would pray that healthy children hatched.

"Congratulations on your pregnancy, Sister."

"Hehe, thank you."

"And... may I ask you something?"

"What is it?"

"Don't we vampires... reproduce through blood contracts?"

"I thought so too, but there's nothing to be done about something that's already happened."

A barter market called trading

Visitors had been coming nonstop since spring this year, and Zabuton's children set off on their journeys as usual. Kuro's children did not go out looking for mates this year either. I wondered whether they had enough within the group, or whether the pack had reached its population limit...

I had thought they would keep breeding like that, but some did not become pregnant this year either. Being able to regulate how often they gave birth themselves was impressive. Just as I was thinking that, some of Kuro's children went out together.

There seemed to be about thirty of them.

I did not know what they were going out to do, but from the atmosphere, they would not be back for a while. I hoped they would not get hurt...

Summer passed like that and autumn arrived, and before I knew it, it was time to attend Howlin Village's barter market, which they called trading.

Naturally, I wanted to go, but everyone around me stopped me. Their reasoning was that sending the leader right away would give others an opening to exploit. Was that so? In any case, they persuaded me that a leader could not move around lightly.

After that, following a fierce rock-paper-scissors tournament, Tia was chosen to go in my place. (I had not introduced rock-paper-scissors; it already existed here. However, different races had different hand shapes and ways of playing, which easily led to disputes, so we standardized it to the rock-paper-scissors I

knew.)

The other members included five lizardmen, Daga among them. Initially, all the lizardmen had planned to attend, but they had to guard their eggs, so they could only send fewer members. Apparently, the eggs were close to hatching.

Ten High Elves joined in place of the lizardmen who could no longer go. They were chosen by drawing lots.

That made a total of sixteen people traveling with the goods.

The plan was to travel for ten days, arrive the day before the market opened, spend two days there, and take another ten days coming home. However, the plan changed at short notice.

Doraim, a dragon, happened to come to visit just then, so we had him help transport them in exchange for a barrel of wine.

Ever since his first visit, Doraim had frequently come here to eat, drink, and complain.

Having his butler come to collect him the following day had become routine. Perhaps he had mistaken this village for a tavern or something. He certainly was a nuisance, but he always brought a proper gift when he visited, so it was hard to turn him away. No, in terms of profit, we seemed to be doing quite well.

I did not know much about jewels or weapons, but the fact that Lu and Tia never complained was probably the best proof.

Well, perhaps it was only because Doraim's visits turned into banquets, giving them an excuse to drink...

Since it was Doraim's suggestion, we gladly accepted. Apparently, he would not only take them there and bring them back, but also stay there with them. When I asked whether he wanted the wine that badly, he explained that after he had shown off our wine to other dragons, they had threatened him with things from his past. Apparently, dragons had their own troubles too.

In any case, with Doraim doing the transporting, we could practically disregard the journey itself.

If Doraim was to be believed, even taking care with the cargo, he could reach the destination in only an hour's flight.

Conversely, loading and unloading would take more time. I see. In any case, the supplies prepared for ten days of travel were now unnecessary. We simply prepared wooden crates of as uniform a size as possible and packed them with goods to trade.

I was pleased that having Doraim transport them meant we could send more goods.

The planned members remained unchanged. We held several discussions beforehand, considering the value of our crops and the things the village needed. I had no objection to trading itself, but it would not be good if it made people look down on us.

Well, there were plenty of things we would not understand until we actually went once, so I left the final on-site decisions to Tia. It would be fine. I just hoped they could avoid any sudden disputes. I made sure to tell her what I wanted.

The goods we sent to trade included fruit such as apples, pears, persimmons, and mandarins. Grains and beans such as wheat, barley, soybeans, rice, and corn. Then there were sturdy crops like carrots and radishes that could withstand being jostled during transport. I felt tomatoes and strawberries would be a little troublesome.

Since this was our first time attending, we sent as many goods as possible. Besides the crops, there were ten barrels of wine and a few seasonings. Ten barrels of wine might have been too much to take, but I had said they could drink whatever remained, so I felt Doraim would do his best to drink it. I hoped he would not overdo it and cause an accident on the way home.

Howlin Village.

"...Is Big Tree Village really coming?"

"It should be fine. We made sure to tell them the date of the market."

"Even so, they haven't entered the mountains yet... Hmm?"

"What is it?"

"What's that?"

"That?"

"Look, right over there."

"Where?"

"That thing flying in the sky."

"...A dragon? Huh? It's coming this way..."

After seeing Tia off, my life returned to normal.

I tended the fields and played with Kuro and the others.

Then there were the villagers' consultations.

Though I called them consultations, they were just requests and wishes concerning village facilities.

They wanted this sort of facility. They wanted a waterway here. We should grow more of this crop next time. Could we bring out some wine to drink?

I mainly went about my life listening to wishes like those. Of course, I did not forget to care for Lu as her belly grew.

Ah, I was not all that worried about the birth. After all, several of the High Elves and Oni Race had been present at other people's births and had the relevant knowledge. Everyone told me not to worry unnecessarily.

I ignored the accompanying remarks about working harder instead of worrying.

Tia and the others returned as planned.

Doraim came back carrying about as much cargo on his back as when he had left, so I thought they had failed to trade it, but that was not the case.

"We traded everything."

Leaving Daga to unload the cargo from Doraim's back, Tia gave her report.

"All our village's crops were very well received. At first, people were wary of me, the High Elves, and the lizardmen, and hardly anyone approached, but once we offered the samples you suggested, dear husband, people gathered around, and we finished trading halfway through the market."

I had proposed offering samples before Tia left.

Since I did not want to deceive anyone, I intended to trade only after letting them taste our crops. Well, only the fruit could be sampled. Still, I was glad it was well received.

"There was no wine left."

It had been very popular, and each time some wine was traded away, Doraim's face had grown darker.

He was sulking a little now.

"Tia. Let's have tonight's report over dinner. Doraim, we'll bring out wine then too."

"As expected of the village chief, you know how to reward hard work."

I had gotten his hopes up, after all. Still, all ten barrels of wine I had thought might be too much had been traded away...

A report over drinks and new residents

A banquet called a report meeting.

Since Doraim was there, we held it at the inn. The maids were apparently compiling what Tia and Daga said.

First, Tia and the others' activities.

Apparently, Doraim's arrival at the village in dragon form caused a commotion. Once they had settled it, they unloaded the cargo at their lodgings that day.

The other village's food was meager and came in small portions, so the emergency provisions Tia and Doraim had requested were quickly consumed.

The next day, the trading market began after sunrise, but for a while, no one approached because they were wary.

So they began offering samples and calling out to customers. Before they knew it, all the goods had been traded away.

The most popular items were the fruit and wine. All the grains and beans were traded too, but that was because Howlin Village's village chief, local head, and others bought them in large quantities, so at this stage, they did not know whether those were popular.

What we received in exchange, as planned, were paints, ironware, silverware, and glassware.

The trading market continued until sunset, but since they had finished trading halfway through, they considered coming home early. However, Howlin Village's village chief and local head asked them to stay, so they remained until the following day.

The reasons they were asked to stay were a request to attend future trading markets and discussions about trading grains and beans outside the market.

Since dinner consisted of dishes made with crops traded from us, and wine was served too, there was little dissatisfaction.

Then, the following morning, they reconfirmed the results of the evening's discussions, loaded all the cargo, and Doraim transported them home.

I see.

I would hear the results of the discussions later.

Next came the state of the other village.

The other village was not quite impoverished, but it did not seem wealthy either. Since the village itself relocated whenever the excavation site changed, it was fairly clean. The division of labor seemed to have the children mainly hunting and gathering, while the adults excavated.

However, because they had previously obtained food by trading items made from the ore they excavated with a human village, they were now in a rather precarious state.

According to Guraru, they still had some food reserves, and other villages farther away came to trade, so they could get by for a while.

Trading with Big Tree Village would save them, but getting here was so difficult that they could neither make frequent trips nor carry much.

So it would save them if we could continue visiting as we had this time. They would also appreciate trading outside the market.

If there was anything we wanted, we should say so, and they would prepare it as best they could.

That seemed to be the other village's stance. Apparently, it had ended with our group listening to their pleas.

Once Doraim fell asleep from drinking, we began the report meeting.

After thanking everyone who had gone to Howlin Village for their efforts, I dismissed the meeting.

"Dear husband. Could you spare a moment?"

"Tia? What is it? Was there something you didn't mention at the report meeting?"

"No, I simply forgot to report it."

"Hmm?"

"Their village chief sounded me out about whether some people could move to our village. I didn't give an immediate answer, only said we would consider it."

"Move here?"

"Yes, Howlin

Village wants to reduce its food consumption."

"Ah, right. I see."

A village had two possible measures against food shortages: increase its food or reduce the number of people consuming it.

"I don't think having more residents here would be a problem... Was there some issue that kept you from answering right away, Tia?"

"All the people hoping to move here are young women."

"...Huh?"

"They can't give up the men, who provide labor and fighting strength. If their surroundings change, the elderly won't be able to put their knowledge and experience to use, and pushing the elderly onto another settlement would also worsen its impression of them."

That left the young women. Not answering immediately had been a nice call... At this rate, we would be accepting them.

Fortunately, Big Tree Village still had room to spare. We could use as many hands as we could get.

People should help each other in times of trouble. If we had the capacity to help, we should. But still.

"How many people want to move?"

"Twenty-two at most. But even one or two would be fine, as long as we could accept them."

"...Let's accept them all, with a condition."

"A condition?"

"Yes. Tell them we want several young men."

Simply helping them did not make for a good relationship. I also wanted them to help with something we were having trouble with.

A shortage of men.

"Is that the condition?"

"That's right. At least two young men. The more, the better."

"Understood."

"And... tell them we'll also accept entire families if they want to move here."

"An entire family moving here?"

"If their daughter is going somewhere they know nothing about, it's not strange for a family to want to move there together, is it?"

"I don't think people would normally think that way... but I understand."

People wouldn't normally think that way? It seemed I was being influenced by the common sense of my previous world.

The next day, Tia went to Howlin Village alone to discuss the move.

Ten days later, we asked Doraim to transport them again.

I wasn't sure whether a barrel of wine was expensive or cheap for hiring a dragon.

New residents had arrived in the village.

Twenty-five Beastmen. Twenty-two females and three males.

The males I'd been waiting for. Men! Hahahahaha!

The three males who came were all only toddlers.

"These are the young males."

"Was that deliberate?"

"No, it wasn't."

Well, I'd only said it to see whether it might work...

No, I can't give up. Even if they can't do it now, they should be able to serve as a breakwater in a few years! Besides, even if they're too young, they still count as men, so I can use them to avoid the demands for seed! Good. This is good! All that's left is to train them properly. Do your best and become men who can support multiple women!

"My name is Sena. Thank you very much for accepting us as immigrants."

Sena was the immigrants' representative. She seemed to be the oldest of those who had come, and her distinguishing feature was her drooping dog ears. Apparently, she was the daughter of Howlin Village's chief.

"We will accept any treatment, so please don't abandon us."

"Ah... you don't have to be so formal. You're immigrants, right? From now on, you're residents of 'Big Tree Village.' You're one of us."

"For you to treat us that way... thank you so much. To be honest, we came prepared to be treated as less than slaves."

"Sorry to have made that grim resolve go to waste. Anyway, we've prepared housing for you. All of you can live there for the time being."

"For the time being?"

"Yes. Once you've settled into life here, we'll listen to your requests. Things like a few of you wanting to live around here, or wanting a house of a particular sort."

"U-understood."

I called over one of the Oni Race maids.

"My name is Lime Rias. I've been appointed your supervisor and caretaker. I look forward to working with you."

"If there's anything you don't understand, please ask her or me."

"Yes. We look forward to your guidance."

The results of trading with the Beastmen

As soon as I heard about the move from Tia, I had the High Elves start working together on building a house in the residential area.

It was a large house that could accommodate around thirty people.

We made some single rooms too, but most were large rooms shared by two to four people.

My main concern was that they might feel lonely if they were suddenly put in single rooms. They could live here for now and get used to the village.

Twenty-five people had moved here. Three of them were boys of kindergarten age. Of the remaining girls, the oldest was Sena, their representative, and no matter how I looked at her, she seemed no older than a high school student. The others were middle school age at most, with most seeming to be elementary school age. I was a little worried about whether they could manage on their own, but they'd been helping with housework up until now, so there hadn't been any problems.

Still, I'd heard Howlin Village only had a population of around five hundred. Was it all right to lose twenty-five people at once? Surely things hadn't gotten so bad that they couldn't afford to think about the next generation?

Sena's answer to that was that this group consisted mainly of second daughters from large families, and there were still women left in the village, so it was all right.

However, because the members were so young, it seemed they had needed to include Sena, the village chief's daughter, among the immigrants for both internal and external reasons.

Internally, it was to show that this wasn't such a bad proposal, since even the village chief's daughter was moving. Externally, it served as justification that they weren't simply foisting people who were useless to their village onto us.

There was also the hidden intention of saying that I could do whatever I wanted to Sena, so long as I took care of the others. Now I understood the grim resolve Sena had shown when she first arrived.

But I had no such intentions whatsoever. It wasn't that being a Beastman ruled her out, nor was it that I had no sexual interest in Sena. It was just for my own peace of mind! So, Sena-san. There's no need to come to my bedroom. I'm not just saying that. You absolutely mustn't come. Why are you coming to my bedroom when I told you so firmly? Huh? The door closed on its own? It won't open? I don't remember putting a lock on the outside!

"She came prepared for it. Not making a move would be ruder."

"You need to make a move for the sake of our relationship with Howlin Village, too."

Those were the incomprehensible explanations I was given afterward. I didn't know whether this was a difference from my previous world, or merely a difference from Japan.

"There are no obvious problems with the immigrants from Howlin Village. On the contrary, they're full of enthusiasm for work and keep asking whether there's anything they can do."

I received a report from Lime Rias, their supervisor, and checked how the immigrants were settling in.

"What do you mean by problems that aren't obvious?"

"A few of them... the younger children cried in fright when they saw Zabuton-san's children."

"Ah..."

"When they saw Kuro-san and the others, they wet themselves in fright."

"..."

Didn't that count as an obvious problem? But sorry, as far as I was concerned, Zabuton's children and Kuro and the others took priority. They would just have to do their best to get used to them.

Incidentally, the Beastman girls took care of the little Beastman boys.

That decision was made with the future in mind. Please, by all means, grow to like the older girls taking care of you.

As for the goods we obtained through trading with Howlin.

Iron cooking utensils. We got several kitchen knives, frying pans, round deep pots, round medium-depth pots, large pots, medium pots, small pots, and so on. This would make cooking easier. Ann, the others, and I were particularly pleased.

As for the silver tableware, we got several knives, forks, spoons, flat plates, deep plates, cups, wineglasses, and so on. Since they lent things an air of luxury, I set some aside at my house and the inn for guests. Some had already become exclusively for Doraim's use.

Glass bottles. They proved useful as containers for storing seasonings and medicines. Though we obtained quite a few, the people who wanted them took them all in one go. I secured five for storing seasonings.

There were other things too. Machetes, axes, candles, needles, yarn, leather, and small articles.

The machetes and axes were very important, since aside from the few Ria's group and Ann's group had brought when they came, all we had were the stone ones I'd made.

Candles. Although we could use magic for lighting... candles were still important. Especially for me, since I couldn't use magic.

Also, candles... I'd thought they were petroleum products, but candles had certainly existed before the age of petroleum. And there were actual candles right in front of me. Apparently, the material came from trees. We could grow them.

Zabuton took the needles, yarn, leather, and the like.

It was as though she was declaring that all the sewing here was her job. I was so grateful.

The small articles were things like little boxes, small bags, and leather belts. The individuals who wanted them took them.

At present, the village had no currency. We basically bartered, but when things that only particular individuals needed arrived here, those individuals simply took them. All the crops and goods produced here were shared property.

With more people, we would probably need to reconsider that arrangement. I discussed it with the others, but this was their answer.

"""Everything belongs to the village chief, so please don't worry about it."""

Was that the usual way of thinking here?