Fun Territory Defense of the Easy-Going Lord – Chapter 54

8-11 minutes

 

Neighboring Village Residents and Adventurers

In front of the accommodation that we prepared for Panamera and her group a while ago, a group of people in tattered clothes lined up in front of the building.

They were of varying ages, an elderly couple.
Three middle-aged men and women.
Three young women.
There were five children.

There were thirteen people in total.
They had fled for their lives, thinking they could no longer live in the village.

“Wow…to be able to stay in such a magnificent house…”

“It looks bigger than the lord’s mansion…”

“Don’t say that, idiot.
Who knows if the lord would trade houses with us?”

The child said rudely at the end.

Kukuku, child, It’s not just about what’s on the outside.
It’s what’s inside that counts.
The furniture inside the lord’s house was much better than the furniture outside.

With that in mind, I called out to everyone.

“Well then, we’re going to have a welcome party.
Meet me in front of the lord’s mansion in 30 minutes.

“A welcome party?

The old man was puzzled, but I explained that I had some preparations to do and left the place.

“Till, Camsin, go talk to the people in the village, and tell them we’re going to set up a barbecue party.”

“Yes!”

As they ran, Arte, who had been watching them, walked over to us.

“Oh, um, what are they going to do?”

Arte was concerned about the residents of the neighboring village.

Ah, Arte was the daughter of the Count Ferdinand, wasn’t she? It was not a hostile action, but it was not a good behavior.

But, no matter what, everything would be fine in the end.

“Yeah.
Those people are from a neighboring village, but it seems that their village is in a crisis of survival.
They fled to this village.
So, I thought I would give them food and a place to live.”

“Oh, I see.
That’s a good thing.
I’m sure they will have a good life in this village.”

Perhaps it was because I conveyed the message in a simple manner, Arte was honestly pleased.
No, a ten-year-old would not wonder where they came from when told that it was a neighboring village.

“Do you want to live in this village too, Arte?”

Arte turned a little red and nodded a little.

“Yes, well…I think I would be happier that way, too.”

Arte mumbled a few words, in a way that she didn’t answer carelessly.

“Don’t worry.
I’m not thinking about marriage.
We’re still kids.
That’s still a long way off.”

When I replied, Arte shook her head from side to side with a tearful look on her face.

“I want to get married, but I… well…”

“What? You would like to get married?”

When I asked her back, Arte stopped moving abruptly.
Then she gradually turned red and ended up looking like an apple.

“Should I pretend that I didn’t hear that?”

When I asked this, Arte turned over answered.

“…Yes.”

Van, the gentleman that he was, would not let the lady be embarrassed.
He walked silently with a composed expression on his face.

The gentleman was having a guts pose in his heart.

“Oh, um, Van-sama… you are walking in a strange way…”

“It’s just my imagination.”

When I answered Arte’s question with extreme seriousness, Arte nodded with a difficult look on her face.
At least allow me a skip.
Men tend to be elated when they felt popular.

Thirty minutes later, the party-people, who were completely accustomed to barbecuing, had finished their preparations and were grilling the meat in a familiar manner.

“Today we’ll eat it with salt and lemon.”

“It’s refreshing, isn’t it?”

“I prefer it fried.”

These days I could even hear them talking like aristocrats, a world that would be unbelievable to the residents of a neighboring village.

Their eyes darted around to watch the spectacle of the big barbecue party.

“Can I eat?”

A child patiently comes up to me.
I asked Till for some grilled meat.

“Till, can you cook the meat with a little salt and a little fat?”

“Leave it to me! Come here, come here!”

Till called out to the children, and they cheered.
Till smiled at the children as they rushed past, and then at the adults, who were puzzled about what to do.

“Here you go.
Grill and eat as you like.
Choose the meat on the plate next to you.
Season with salt or lemon.
There is also pepper and ginger, but not much, so only a pinch at a time, okay?”

With that, she showed them the meat on the grill, and the adults jumped at the meat.

Each person grilled out their own meat and seasoned it.
Almost all of them couldn’t wait for the meat to be fully cooked and put the uncooked meat in their mouths.

Even so, the residents of this village were smiling happily as they shed tears and smiled at each other, saying, “It’s delicious, it’s delicious!”.

Of course, we were happy, too.

After an hour of enjoying the meat, Ortho and the others returned.

“Whoa! A barbecue party!”

“I didn’t know there was a barbecue party today.”

“That’s why I told you to go home early, Leader.”

They widened their eyes when they saw Ortho and the others appeared covered in blood.

“Oh, are you okay?”

“What’s with all the blood?”

Till and I asked at the same time.

Ortho looked at the blood on his armor, laughed, and answered.

“I’m, I’m sorry.”

“Sorry for what?”

I tilted my head, not understanding what he meant.

Then, Ortho reported with a dry laugh.

“Ha-ha-ha…I found the entrance to a dungeon.”

“Heh, a dungeon.”

A dungeon? Dungeon?

At Ortho’s report, many people, including me, stopped and looked at each other at the same time.

A Dungeons.
Yellow birds(TL: Chocobo), fat merchants, small monsters, and other things that adventurers want to challenge.
There were usually great treasures in them.

As we were escaping from reality, Espada appeared without a sound.

“Van-sama, if we have discovered a dungeon, we must report it immediately.
We must send an envoy to the royal capital.”

“…If we don’t hurry, Daddy will definitely take it all, right?”

“No doubt.
It would be best to report this to His Majesty first in the capital without anyone knowing.”

I replied to Espada with a nod.

Ideally, I would have liked to report the discovery of the dungeon after becoming a baron and having my current village made a fiefdom as a reward, but now that I found it, I had no choice.

I knew only from stories, but profits from dungeons were tremendous.

There would be treasures, materials, ores, etc.
that could only be obtained in the dungeons.

No doubt, a branches of the Adventurers’ Guild would be established, along with weapon and armor stores and inns.
And since the guild would be full of guys, there would also be brothels and gambling halls.

I think it would be better to separate the gambling halls and brothels from the residences, like the lake area where the Apkallu people live.
It might be easier to build a second city between the dungeon and the city.

Various ideas were considered, but we still lack the manpower.

“…I’m sorry.”

Ortho and the others bowed their heads apologetically, although they would normally be happy to hear this.

“Well, if you’ve discovered it, I don’t blame you.
I’ll lend you a horse, and I’d like you to report back to Royal Capital… to Xsara.”

“By myself?”

Xsara jumped up in surprise.

“I’m sure Xsara will be fine on his own.
It was Xsara, the scout, who found the dungeon, wasn’t it?”

“What? Why are you saying that?

Ortho answered Xsara’s groan with a puzzled look on his face.

“It’s true that Xsara is the right person for this kind of thing, but I thought we should go with him…”

“I wanted to ask Ortho-san and the others to escort the residents to the next village, though.
The compensation would be one large gold coins, which would take two weeks of work?”

The moment I said this, Ortho, Pluriel and the others turned to Xsara and bowed their heads.

“You’re on your own to Royal Capital, be careful!”

“What a bunch of jerks!”

Xsara yelled at Ortho and the others for betraying him so easily.

I felt sorry for him, so I decided to reward him with some valuable equipment.

“No choice.
I made a precious mithril dagger and I thought of giving it to you.
Would you like this as a reward?”

I asked Xsara, and his face hardened into a smile.

“Wait, wait! Xsara, take my place! I’m going to Royal Capital by myself!”

“Shrewd! I volunteer to go!”

Ortho and Pluriel turned and pressed Xsara, but Xsara put his hand on their shoulder and smiled.

“I was the one who was asked to do it.
I’m sorry to hear that, Leader?”

Saying this, Xsara smiled broadly.