CH 144

I saw Retze off, then went to Nalluahdid. The others were probably waiting for their swords, so Butler should’ve handed them out during the night while giving them precautions about them.

Once in Nalluahdid, I went to the market and bought some veggies and wheat before heading towards the boathouse. The owner of the island is on good terms with this boathouse. Moreover, the boathouse owner’s predecessor came from the island and married into his bride’s family, apparently. Only a handful of boatmen are willing to go through the troublesome waters of this reef-ridden sea, so I requested the retired predecessor to help me out.

I could see people near the wharf, watching the boat I’m in as it approached. Not sure if they called the others; by the time we arrived, there were around 15 people — wait, isn’t that the entire village? — were there waiting for me.

The fishermen who were in the prime of their lives didn’t go out to sea, so they’re also here. The vegetables and wheat I bought earlier serves as their allowance for today.

「Thank you very much for gathering us all today. I am Soleil. 」

I wanted to say some kind of witty remark like ‘may you be the Soleil (Sun) of everyone’, but I don’t think it’s gonna work since this isn’t some agricultural society that could get that pun. They’re fishermen, after all.

Anyway, I roughly explained my plans to them, then promptly told them the benefits they’ll gain, and that there will be two people coming and staying here as my representatives.

People are steadily leaving the island, so life here was anything but easy. Frankly speaking, it’s not just about living from hand to mouth, but having enough to eat in the first place. Fish is abundant, so as long as the storms didn’t continue for long, they won’t starve, but selling fish isn’t enough as a source of income.

Well, the fish they can get here are also in Nalluahdid; plus, they can only use small boats, so it’s understandable.

When the topic of income was brought up, everyone, even the children, listened earnestly. They have been bribed pretty well with the candy I brought last time, and the food I also brought for the adults today seems to be working, too.

The first task I request the islanders to do is dig up wells. To be precise, they’re going to dig the unused and broken down wells in the fortress.

They have to dig deeper or else the water will be too salty, so it’s a relief that we have empty wells, even if it’s filled with sand. It’s easier to scrape the sand out rather than dig from scratch.

There’s only one working well for the entire village, so we need to secure water that we can use freely. There’s two more we can work out — one in the fortress’ public square, and one under the building.

There’s a bank in Kochi, Japan called ’Ryoma Inemuri no Tsutsumi’ (lit. Ryouma’s Sleeping Dike), where a man called Ryoma took a nap under the pine trees while his workers worked diligently on making the dike. Apparently, the work didn’t progress well because the folks kept on fighting and being idle, so he divided the work among them, and made them compete with each other and he also gave incentives, too. He then spent the rest of his time as a relaxed sleeping boss, just inspecting their work every now and then. I took a leaf out of his book; I’ll be checking their work every 2nd and 4th day. Those who did the fastest work while doing a great job will be given a bonus. Injuries will result in deduction.

I also repaired Gold and Silver’s temporary residence. Since they only have wells on the island, even if I were to make a drainage system, there won’t be any running water. And so, it’ll have to be the old-fashioned manual manure pits for their toilet.

***

The wells are completed 7 days later. By the way, Gold and Silver also arrived at the island.

「Aren’t you guys too early? 」

「Please speak for yourself. 」

「I don’t get it. 」

They looked like they wanted to say something but they can’t — they seem excited for some reason? They’re trembling all over. Must be the oath’s effect, huh.

「Anyway, I prepared a temporary house for you, so you can use it until the house is built, or you can stay in Nalluahdid, your choice, do whatever you want. 」

The one I repaired was a spacious, vacant house at the outskirts of the village, and it’s closest to the fortress. Maybe in the past, the nearer the house’s location was to the fortress, the better choice they would seem, but since the sea side has easier access for the fisherman, the islanders prefer to live by the shore nowadays.

「How did this happen? It’s unimaginable that you are here earlier than us. 」

「Honestly, it’s sus. 」

「Same goes for you guys! 」

They’ve been quiet the entire time, but both of them fired questions right away the moment I closed the door. I opened the slatted window to let in some light. How on earth did they manage to get here with less than half of the scheduled travel time?

Gold shut the windows right after I opened it.

「We went through the Path of the Faeries. We are Changelings. 」

「Hey, is it really okay? 」

Silver asked, obviously taken aback when Gold suddenly confessed.

This place was deserted, but he probably shut the windows so that our voices wouldn’t leak out.

「We’re mutually bound by the contract, right? 」

Both parties are bound so that they won’t be able to reveal the secrets of each other. However, if the person revealed his own secret in front of another person, that secret will be ‘shared’ with the person he revealed it to.Well, it’s no longer a secret if you reveal it, right.

「Changeling. 」

Dinosso told me that these changelings are spirits that have a body of flesh, and are considered to be partial divine beasts. He also said that they have been swapped with human children. Partial divine beasts, particularly those with human forms, are frequently called faeries.

Partial divine beasts are different from spirits in a sense that ordinary folks can see and touch them. However, because their vessels are unstable, partial divine beasts will let themselves be taken care of by human parents. They would learn how to mimic the human form until their own forms become fixed.

The Path of Faeries is a road where the Realm of the Spirits and this world intersect. It’s said that if you go too far on the other side, you won’t be able to return. Even the skilled magicians find it difficult to use despite spending a lot of time preparing. Oh, and you get nauseous when you go in there, apparently.

「Yes. We’ll leave it to you to guess which one of us is the faery. 」

「Nah, I’m positive it’s you. 」

「…I’m surprised that you know right away. 」

Well, faeries are a talkative bunch, after all. Ah, but spirits are reticent, not because they’re quiet beings, but probably because we can’t hear them. The topic of changelings has been brought up before when we were talking about the heroes, so I looked into that, but I never imagined that info would be useful here of all places.

「Heh, so you’re not twins, but one faery mirroring the other. — I’m surprised that you survived. 」

I stared at Silver while saying that latter part.

Ack, I need to remember their names for goodness sake. I saw them when they signed the oath, and already heard what they are for sure… Oh, I didn’t write my full name. Good job getting past that oath, me.

「My parents noticed before I got taken away. It’s just that they didn’t know which one was their child. 」

「I do believe I did a great job mimicrying, don’t you think? 」

Gold put a finger on his lips and chuckled.

Oh dear, I hired a bunch of strange guys, didn’t I?

T/N: Ryoma Sakamoto is a famous person in Japan, the last samurai, and with his ability to connect with other people and superb negotiation skills, he helped usher a new era to Japan. The story [龍馬居眠り堤] Ryoma Inemuri no Tsutsumi, was usually used as an example of how a great leader knows how to handle the people below him. To learn more about him, here are helpful links 

By the way, the part explaining Ryoma’s story in the main text isn’t in the raws, but I thought you’d get a better idea of what Jean is talking about if I added the background story directly instead of a footnote 

And also, inemuri refers to sleeping on the job, or ‘being present while sleeping’ which Japanese find admirable, because for them, it’s proof that the person worked so diligently that he fell asleep while working  Alright, time for me to sleep while doing this translation