CH 54

Chapter 54 : Secard Village Tour

First of all, we have to get to know each other.

Nicola and I introduced ourselves while we were walking in the village square.

「I’m Mark, 8 years old, and this is my twin little sisterー」

「ーI’m Nicola! Nice to meet you, onee-chan!」

「Un! Nice to meet you! I’m Sanmina, 16 years old. I’m a fisherwoman in this village. But… you guys are twins, huh? You two don’t look alike to each other, though?」

「Haha… well, that’s what people say. By the way, if you’re a fisherwoman, do you work on that lake?」

「Yup. I can’t go too far from the shore because there are monsters, but even so, I can catch enough prey for the villagers to eat.」

「I see. But why don’t you work today?」

「I heard that the people from the town are coming today, so I skipー take a day off!」

So she skipped work today, huh…?

I looked at her suspiciously.

She looked away and saidー

「Well, then! I’ll show you guys around the village! First, this place! This is the village square. We usually use this place to hold village meetings and festivals!」

「Heeー What kind of festival?」

I know she’s trying to distract the subject, but well, let’s just go with the flow.

「Autumn harvest festival. We offer our corps to God as gratitude for this year’s harvest, and wish for a good harvest next year. After that, everyone will eat and dance together. Other than festivals, things like weddings are also held here.」

In Fatia, there were various seasonal events, but there were none to celebrate the harvest.

Perhaps the degree of gratitude for the harvest in villages is different from that in towns.

The life of the people in the villages depends on the harvest after all.

The town of Fatia is prospering because it’s a transit point to the capital.

Therefore, it was thanks to the capital that the people in Fatia could live comfortably.

So if they want to hold a festival to show their gratitude, it will be… Umm… ‘Capital Festival’?

Nah, it won’t happen.

After walking for a moment, Sanmina stopped in front of a building with a wide entrance.

「This is the only inn in this village! Exhausted travelers and adventurers who are heading for Fatia, will ‘have no choice but to stay here’!」

「Have no choice…?」

「Among the travelers and adventurers, this inn is famous for its gross monster meat cuisine. That’s why it’s not very prosperous.」

「But, why don’t they just stop serving monster meat?」

「This inn’s landlady has an unshakable motto:『Those who don’t understand the wonderful taste of my monster meat dishes are not my guests!』. By the way, I totally agree with her!」

I don’t know what it tastes like, but somehow I know that the villagers here really love monster meat.

「But, one in ten customers will become addicted to it and they often come to stay again, so this inn won’t go bankrupt so soon!」

Uhh… after hearing what she said, I’m getting scared to try it…

「I heard that monster meat looks weird. Is that true?」

「Well, many people said that, but for me, they look cute! Well then, let’s go to the lake where those lovely monsters live!」

After following Sanmina for a while, I saw a forest in front of me, and a lake beyond it.

There was a path in the forest, and the trees around it seemed to have been cut so it wasn’t as dense as the forest near my town.

Also, the air in this forest was cool.

As we walked toward the lake, Sanmina asked me about magic.

What kind of magic can I use, what do I do with magic, what magic do I want to learn next, ect.

Apparently, there’s no one in this village who can use magic.

Well, there was one, but they left the village before Sanmina was born.

It seems that someone who can use magic will leave the village to look for a job in the city.

「Ahh~ I wish I could use magic.」

「Do you want to leave this village?」

「No, I don’t want to leave because I love this village! I just thought my life would be easier if I could use magic!」

Surely magic is convenient.

I can’t even think living without magic.

Even if you can’t use magic, you can just use magic tools.

However, they are very expensive and the functions are limited.

「That’s why I’m happy to be able to watch someone using magic today! I’ve never seen such great earth magic! Mark, you’re awesome! Ahh~ I’m glad that I skipped work today.」

She finally admitted that she skipped work, huh.

But I’m kind of happy that she praised my magic.

As a service, maybe I’ll show her something more amazing later.

While I was thinking like that, we arrived at the lake.

It was so much bigger than I expected that I couldn’t even see the opposite bank from where I was standing.

There were several boats floating near the coast, and on top of them, several tanned men were throwing and pulling nets.

However, there were no boats that went too far from the shore.

「If you go too far from the shore, you can’t escape when monsters attack you.」

「I see.」

「But those people are catching normal fish right now, not monsters. We usually hunt monsters at night.」

「At night? Wouldn’t it be dangerous?」

「Fufu~ We have prepared ‘something’ to catch the monsters, you know?」

「Heeー I kinda want to see what the monsters in this lake look like.」

「Ah, actually, we stored some over there. They are very small, but do you wanna see them?」

「Yes!」

I’m curious, but it seems to be grotesque.

I tapped my chest to brave myself and followed Sanmina to a hut near the pier.

「Look, there’s a big jar near the hut, right? We stored them in that jar. It’s okay if you wanna see them, but they seem to be too gross for outsiders to see, so be careful.」

As we approached the jar, I looked at Nicola, and we nodded at each other.

It was shorter than me and Nicola, so we should be able to see what’s in it.

We nervously looked into it and found monsters inside.

Sanmina said they were very small but they were at least 20 – 30 centimeter in size.

No, the size doesn’t matter, the moment I saw them, the first thing I thought wasー

「Onii-chan… They are…」

「Yeah…」

ーThey are….. squids?