Chapter 8 – Village of the Demons
Fortunately, we were able to reach the village safely before sunset.
If I had been walking, it would have taken me an hour to come down to the village, but since I rode a horse from the beginning, I was able to finish it in about 20 minutes.
After all, horses are the best when traveling long distances.
“Whoa whoa whoa!”
As we approached the entrance to the village, we slowly stopped our horses.
It was said that all the young people in the village were enlisted in the army of the demon king, and in front of the stone bridge at the entrance of the village, the beast tribe children who had not yet lost their flesh were standing with long spears.
Is it some kind of vigilante?
The kids bowed their heads when they recognized Vanessa’s face as she jumped off the bicorn.
“Hello! Captain of the Guard!”
“Yes. It’s been a while since I’ve seen you both.”
Vanessa said that in a solemn voice, unlike the slightly sloppy look she showed when we were alone, asked while holding candy from her pocket to her children.
“I came to see the village chief today, do you know where he is?”
Then, the red-haired kid suddenly raised his hand.
“Ah! If you’re the chief, you’ll be at home! You’ve been busy walking around the village since morning because an important guest is coming today!”
“Thanks for letting me know, Lotto.”
At that time, another kid tilted his head as if he had spotted us standing behind Vanessa.
“Captain of the Guard, but who are these people?”
Then Vanessa put her hand on his waist and said in a proud tone.
“He’s a very important guest I’ve brought. He’s a black magician sent directly by the Demon King to help with the village’s work.”
“Wow! Warlock!”
When the kids heard that, they looked up at me as if they were seeing something very strange.
“Then is it possible to fly through the sky like a bird?”
“Of course.”
Normal wizards can’t do it, but it wasn’t particularly difficult for me.
As I manipulated the flow of air with the shadow spear to keep the moderately powerful wind blowing under the soles of my feet, I lifted my body low off the ground.
“Wow!”
Seeing the children’s eyes shining in admiration, I immediately cut off the supply of magical energy directed to the soles of their feet.
Widely!
“The demonstration ends here.”
Then, the kids clapped seals and begged to see something else, but fortunately, Vanessa, who was next to her, intervened at the right time.
“Guys. I’m sorry, but we’re a bit busy. The wizard is planning to stay in the village for a few days, so can you watch over us today?”
“Yes!”
“I know!”
As if she had done it once or twice, Vanessa, who skillfully soothed the children, winked at me standing behind to start again.
I followed him back up the bicorn and slowly drove the bicorn into the village.
***
The village chief’s house was right in the center of the village.
A beautiful brick house with a blue wooden roof.
Compared to other houses, the degree of completion is exceptionally high.
Since there was no stable, two bicorns and a warhorse were tied to a tree in front of the house, and Vanessa, representing the group, knocked on the door of the brick house, and soon someone came out from inside.
“Yeah~ Who are you… Oh my! Miss Vanessa!”
“It’s been a while. Violet. Is the village chief at home?”
“Oh, yes. Father is in the room. Come inside.”
The person named Violet was a beastman who seemed to be half a fox and half a human.
It’s not just a human figure with ears and a tail, which is commonly thought of, but a figure that’s really closer to a beast.
It is a town that seems to be liked by the little beastmen I met at the entrance earlier, as well as people with a lot of suspicious money.
Well, if you want to change into what I said, you can change as much as you like, but in a place where only people who are similar to you live, you wouldn’t have to endure that kind of discomfort.
As we follow her into her house, we are greeted by the quiet atmosphere unique to her country house.
It felt like a normal family home everywhere.
It seems that demons do not have a unique residential environment.
The village chief, whom Vanessa had been talking about, was sitting on the sofa in the living room, reading an old book with stains on his hands.
“Father! A guest has arrived!”
Then, as if he had heard Violet’s words, a fox beast with long eyebrows and beard like a guru closed the book and got up from the sofa.
“You’re finally here, Miss Vanessa.”
“It’s been a while. Grandpa.”
Saying that, Vanessa approached, and she exchanged greetings with the village chief.
The village chief, who was very short, looked at me with the vertigo characteristic of a long-lived person.
“Is this the wizard that the Demon King sent you?”
Then Vanessa patted herself on the chest with a hint of her pride.
“He’s a wizard who volunteered for our military a few days ago saying he fell in love with the demon king’s charisma. He has excellent magic skills, so the demon king plans to use it moderately.”
“It seems that you are a really great person to be praised by the Demon King. Nice to meet you, Wizard. I am Popo, the chief of this village.”
I looked down at him, and he said an alias he had thought of before coming to town.
“It’s called Patlash, the demon king’s hunting dog.”
Then the village chief made a slightly surprised expression.
“So the dog mask…”
It seemed like I misunderstood something, but I didn’t bother to correct it.
It didn’t seem like it was taken in a bad way anyway.
After such a simple conversation with the village head, we sat down in the living room and started talking about work.
“As you know, Vanessa-sama, all the young people in the village were conscripted as soldiers half a year ago, so the number of people who can harvest the grain is too small.
I asked after hearing the circumstances of such a village.
“So how much land is left to harvest now?”
“I tried to harvest as much as possible by joining forces with the elderly and women who remained in the village, but there is still about 30,000 pyeong of land left unharvested. .”
“30000 pyeong!”
Vanessa gave a startled voice.
It was the same for me too.
In my previous life, I couldn’t imagine the size of 30,000 pyeong, but in the current world, I was born as a son of a farmer, so I knew that it was an incredibly large piece of land.
Harvesting a plot of land of that size by pure manpower, without any tractors or the like, would certainly require the villagers to work hard for several days.
From the point of view of the headman in charge of the village, he must be worried.
“Then the question is how to harvest this…”
As the village chief muttered, he glanced at me.
I roughly knew what he wanted, so I nodded moderately and told the village chief what he wanted.
“Fortunately, in that case, I think I can help.”
Then the village chief opened his eyes wide and lowered his head.
“Thank you! Wizard! Thanks to you, I’m alive!”
While I was embarrassed by his fuss, I confirmed one fact.
“Instead, can you arrange for someone else to pick up the grain that has fallen on the floor?”
“The wizard says he will help you, but of course you have to prepare for that!”
I nodded and told the happy village chief.
“Then I will gladly lend you my strength.”
***
After the conversation with the village chief, we were treated to a prize.
It seems that the village women gathered from the morning to prepare food for us to eat in advance, saying that guests were coming from the castle.
All sorts of meat dishes, salads mixed with vegetables, and white soft bread made from wheat.
I was in a state of hunger, so I took off the mask I had been wearing and enjoyed my meal.
There was no way the demons living in this village would recognize my face anyway, so I just had to be careful with my name.
“There’s a lot, so eat slowly.”
As if that appearance was good, she smiled as Violet, the daughter-in-law of the village headman who served meals, poured water directly into her cup.
While I thanked her for the cup she handed me, I spoke to Vanessa, who was slicing meat just as hard as me from the front.
“I had no idea you were a woman.”
Then, Vanessa, who had taken off her tin-shaped helmet for a while to eat, replied with an unfair expression, waving her brown ponytail.
“Unlike the princess, I’ve never hidden my gender. And you can tell right away that I’m a woman from my voice or body type, right?”
Hearing that, I pointed with a fork and pointed out her logical weakness.
“But the armor you’re wearing doesn’t reveal your body shape, and when you wear that tin helmet, your voice resonates, so it’s hard to tell if it’s a man or a woman.”
“Quit!”
As if I couldn’t come up with anything to refute from my well-thought-out explanation, Vanessa chewed the large cut steak with a look of injustice.
Meanwhile, Camilla, who had been eating with her while sitting next to her, had already finished eating, so she wiped her mouth with a napkin and got up first.
“I will wake up first. Mr. Patrasche, if you have something else to do in the middle of the night, please call me anytime.”
Saying that, Camilla bowed modestly and greeted the village chief and Violet before entering her guest room.
I glanced at her back as she entered her room, then asked Vanessa, who was sitting across from her.
“Does Camilla see the original news?”
Then Vanessa nodded her head and whispered that she had known her since childhood.
“That guy is sensitive to body shape management. He tends to eat less even when he’s in his original castle.”
“Hmm.”
When I looked at it, it just looked like it wasn’t hungry.
Maybe because he’s a succubus, he can absorb nutrients in a different way, so he doesn’t really need a regular meal?
I don’t know much about the physical characteristics of succubus, but it was a pretty plausible reasoning.
‘I’m curious, so I’ll have to ask indirectly later when we’re alone.’
Thinking so, I tossed the bread soaked in soup into my mouth.
