Volume 12 - CH ss - 2

Quiet story 12-13 Two adventurers work hard to build a road from the settlement side

“Hello!”

“Hi!”

A loud greeting can be heard from the entrance of the settlement.

Eugene was absent from the Houjou Village settlement.

The one who went to deal with it was Blaise, who had been assigned as deputy village chief.

“I’m not sure what to say. What’s up?”

“We were ahead of you to decide where to build the road. We’ve just arrived at the settlement and wanted to say hello.”

The men bowed to Blaise, who came out to greet them.

There was a large man with a two-handed axe who had once tangled with Eugene at the Adventurer’s Guild and been easily defeated, and an ape-man who had been working with him.

And then there were the five criminal slaves who were sent to take down the goblin and orc settlements for community service and have since been engaged in road building.

In total, there were seven men.

“Oh, we’ve come this far already? How is the main force doing?”

“We were ahead of them, so I don’t know right now, but… at the pace we’re going, I think we’d be about halfway there.”

A large man with a two-handed axe answered as if he were representing the men. He is a lumberjack. Somehow, his image can be quite intimidating. 

“Oh, things are going well, aren’t they? So what are you guys going to do? Will you head back soon?”

“If you don’t mind, we’re thinking of spending the night near here before returning…”

The woodcutter seems to have become much more polite.

As punishment for his involvement with Eugene, he was offered services until the road was completed. The lumberjack’s work suited him better than he thought. And the recognition of the results of his work must have changed the man from being a thug adventurer.

The lumberjack and the monkey had become much more human.

“But there are women and children, can we go outside the village?”

“Yes, that’s enough! Thank you very much!”

“Thank you!”

Following the woodcutter’s thanks, the other men bowed their heads. The crime slaves seem to be well educated. It’s a mystery to me.

Meanwhile, Blaise was the one in charge of all of them.

As a former third level adventurer, Blaise could easily win even if all seven of these men attacked him at once. 

□ □ □ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ □ □ □

“Good work, guys. Here’s some food for you.”

“Thank you, Mr. Blaise!”

“Thank you very much, Sir!”

The evening of the day the seven men arrived at the settlement.

On the evening of the day the seven men arrived at the settlement, the men were sitting around a bonfire outside the fence, devouring a meager dinner when Blaise, the deputy village chief, arrived with a gift. It seems to be dried meat. It seems that the gift is dried meat, and not alcohol, which is the standard for such occasions, considering their origins.

“Well, you guys arrived before us, and we’re halfway down the road. It won’t take long for more people to arrive. You two will be free when the road is finished, right? What are you going to do then?”

“Actually, I was thinking about…”

“Hmm?

“After spending one winter together, I’ve started to get real close to these guys. But they are criminal slaves, right? When this service is over, they’ll just be relocated…”

“You’re a good leader. How to work in the same place, huh? You want to be a criminal, too?”

“Hey, Mr. Blaise, I hope you’re joking! We’re not into that kinda stuff anymore!”

“We’re not going to do that anymore!” 

The woodcutter and the monkey shake their heads in denial.

“A rest stop at…?”

“Oh. It takes three days to walk through the forest from here to the town of Premiere. Even if the road is completed, it will still take a little over a day. If you use a horse, you might be able to get there in a day, but… Even if we don’t call it an inn, just having a resting place should make things much easier. And if we say we’re going to turn it into a pioneer village, we’ll be able to devote ourselves to it for a while.”

“I see!”

The seven people’s eyes lit up when they heard Blaise’s proposal.

Overcoming the harsh winters in the snowy forest, protecting themselves from the wyverns, and working together, they sweat and toil. The unity of the seven seems to have hardened completely.

“‘But do you think they’ll approve our proposal?”

“Hmmm… Anyway, I’ll let Eugene and the others know when they get back. I think we can make it work if Eugene, Kevin, and Gilmas’ father approve.”

“Oh! Thank you very much!”

“We’re in your debt!”

The seven of them are still showing a mysterious glee. 

“Hey, wait a minute!”

“Oh, thank God, we made it!”

The next morning,

The seven men were about to depart from the perimeter of the settlement to join the main road-building party when Blaise, the deputy village chief, Thomas, a woodworker, and Dominic, a former third-level adventurer, appeared in front of them.

“What’s wrong?”

“‘Yeah, you’re going back to the main unit, right? I wanted to give a letter to the guild officials. Take this guy with you.”

“What? Yeah, that’s fine…”

Blaise patted Dominic on the shoulder.

The literacy rate in the settlements had risen after Eugene had provided the local language instruction book that Kevin had given him. As the former leader of the third level adventuring party “Dark Green Wind”, Blaise had always been able to read and write easily.

“If the road is halfway there, Tomas said, it would be faster to clear the way from here and have the wood brought to the settlement. I’d like to talk to him about it, so I’d like you to go get the guild officials. Dominic will be the escort.”

Dominic nodded in affirmation to Blaise’s words. He’s still a quiet man. It’s a mystery how he seduced his wife.

“Yes, I did! We also have a cart that uses the tires provided by Eugene…”

Thomas pointed to two carts in the clearing, visible through a gap in the fence. There are two wheels on each cart.

The wheels on each cart were tires that had been removed from Yuji’s mini-car that had stopped working.

“Is that the tire?”

“I’ve seen something similar in the capital, on an expensive carriage, right? It’s made from monster leather and flesh and is said to reduce the transmission of shock.”

The woodcutter tilted his head. The monkey beside him seemed to have seen something similar to a tire. The monkey was probably referring to the same ones on the carriage that Kevin had arranged. Come to think of it, this man from the ape tribe was originally a city boy from the royal capital.

“Probably. I’m not sure about Eugene, so I can’t say for sure, but… There are only two wagons, so we only need a couple of people. Even so, the shorter the distance back and forth, the faster it will go.”

“And there’s never enough wood! Don’t forget that Dominic!”

After saying that, Blaise and Tomas send off Dominic and the seven men.

With this, the construction of the road from the town of Premiere to the settlement was further accelerated, and the wood in the settlement was duly replenished. But the wood needs to be dried, so it can’t be used right away.

□ □ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ □ □

In the village of Houjou, the sound of crowing echoed.

Since the farming work is over, Blaise, Dominic, three of the former 5th level adventurers, and Marc were participating in the logging to build a road.

As a result of discussions between Deputy Chief Blaise, Tomas, and the guild staff, the seven men who had been assigned to the road-building service were sent to the village side.

Unlike the adventurers who were being hired, their labor was punishment. It was easier to decide what to do with the money, so only the seven of them were sent to do the logging from the settlement side. Another reason was that there were only two wagons and it would take a long time to transport them even with more people.

“Yes! It’s amazing, I can get deeper hits now!”

Marc’s voice was full of joy at his own growth.

It’s not an undertone.

His rank had been raised by fighting off the goblins that had attacked the settlement, his body had grown in the past year, and he had been trained rigorously.

“Marc’s axe was biting deeper into the trees than it had in the early days when he was helping to cut them down. But you’ve still got a long way to go before even coming near me! Hmph!”

The woodcutter who came near Marc swung his axe as if to show off.

As he said, the axe had bitten halfway into a thick tree.

It was the result of his daily training, or rather his lumberjack work.

“Oh, you’re good. But you’re not just there yet. Watch this…!”

Blaise wielded a two-handed sword, perhaps to rival the lumberjack.

It’s not even an axe, but a two-handed sword.

“Wow, that’s amazing! It was so thick, and yet all at once…”

Marc stares at Blaise with sparkling eyes.

I’m not talking down.

Marc has no such intentions.

The search for teaming up was cancelled because seven people, including the criminal slaves, were logging along the animal trail near the settlement.

There are also women in the settlement, although they have already been rehabilitated. No matter how skilled many of us are, there are still things we can’t see.

When the distance to be carried by cart becomes long, we plan to leave the logging and transportation to the seven men. At that time, we planned to resume our search.

Because of this, the eyes of the former 5th level adventurers who had been assigned the logging role had changed.

They were interrupting a fun group date.

We have to finish the logging as soon as possible.

With the prayers of their fellow builders at their backs, they continued their work with single-minded devotion. These were single men with a positive attitude.

They started in the morning, took a lunch break, and finished when the sun began to set.

It is hard work, but this is the norm for workers in this world. Criminal slaves often live in even harsher conditions.

On this day too, Blaise’s voice finally announced the end of the work.

“Oops! Let’s call it a day!”

“Yes, sir. Thanks for your hard work!”

“Good work!”

The woodcutter answers Blaise’s voice. The five crime slaves, led by his partner Monkey, followed. It’s a mysterious groove.

“Hey, hey, I was wondering for a while now, what’s that over there?”

“Huh?”

Blaise, perhaps curious about the men chanting greetings, called out to the monkey who was leading them.

“What’s that, like a greeting where they all say the same thing?”

“Oh, you mean this? This is something I learned when I was at the adventurer’s guild school in King’s Landing. I learned it when I was at the adventurer’s guild school in King’s Landing. They say it’s necessary for group activities.”

“Oh, so you’re from the capital, huh? You’re one of the… elites of the adventurer’s guild school!”

“No, no, no! In King’s Landing, all children go to a common school, and then either go to an academy or train at a school run by each guild. The adventurer’s guild school, you see, doesn’t even require a brain… I was a failure…”

“I was a failure. Hmm? So you can read and write?”

“Yes, I can read, write and calculate, though I don’t get to use it much.”

“But the school…”

The monkey man smiles bitterly.

On the other hand, Marc, the dog man, had a twinkle in his eye.

“I’m not sure if I’ll ever use it again! Now that we’re done cleaning up, let’s go home! Let’s go home for the day!”

Blaise, who had learned to read and write with great difficulty, was probably surprised that the ape man could read, write and calculate. After all, he looked like an ape. No, the apes of this world may be able to do that.

Blaise gave a command to cover it up. He ignored Marc, whose curiosity had been piqued.

The settlement without Eugene.

A lumberjack, a monkey beast man, and five criminal slaves. A detachment of seven men, and the main group of adventurers.

The construction of a “cart-accessible road” between the settlement and the town of Premiere was going smoothly.