Having experienced a miraculous resurrection, I, once again, carried on with the preparations for the autonomous feudal lord inauguration ceremony.
Currently the days are lively in the mansion with Rahsa, Iris, Rail and the others staying here, but the awkward situation with Eliza remains unchanged and I am still unable to face her.
After having an intense argument, it is just too awkward to have the memories come back afterwards. It is really awkward. It seems like it is also awkward on her side, and there is an unnatural distance placed between the both of us.
This morning too, both Eliza and I hurriedly tottered away upon coming across each other. As we headed towards the same direction, we were both trying to walk quickly clumsily away from each other.
Iris tried to patch things up between us by becoming a mediator, but umm, words just cannot come out of our mouths when we face each other.
While the situation is currently like that, Eliza and Poobe have already seemed to patch things up, seeing how Eliza is making and delivering Poobeās meals like before. Poobe has also returned to being a spoiled child, rubbing his cheeks up against her as a form of affection. I wished I was also honest with my feelings like that but it is proving to be quite difficult. A slap is probably waiting for me if I were to rub my cheeks against her like how I always wanted to.
However, as there are some optimistic feelings within me that we will eventually patch up with each other, I decided to leave this matter aside and get started on the things that I ought to do first.
And that important matter at hand is to deliver judgment towards the criminal group that carried out the magic train raid and kidnapping.
While it may be all right to leave the judgment to the capital, the fact that the raid happened in the magic train, and that most of the victims were Helan civilians, carried out right at the timing for the autonomous feudal lord establishment, the sins committed by the criminal group were deemed to be way too heavy, and we were specially granted the rights to hold a trial in the Helan territory.
While the post of the presiding judge has not been filled yet, the trial ought to be held in the Helan territory, as a way to ease the civiliansā uneasiness too.
It has been decided that I will be appointed as the chief of execution and carry out the judgment.
Before the day of trial, I secretly went out to the lawn in the mansion and called āitā out. I called out the magical radish creature, just one of them.
They look gross when gathered in clusters but it does not feel as uncomfortable when only one of them is called out. As usual, a green stalk stretched out on top of the white radish head, and there is a face of an old man with defined features on one side of the radish.
āUiā
āAh, hello. Thereās something I would like to ask.ā
It seems like I summoned a radish that is capable of making proper greetings. Feels like we can communicate with each other well, and thatās great.
āUiUiUiUiUiUiā
Since it seems to know its own position, it is willing to answer the important questions. What!? To think that there exists such a well-mannered radish, it seems like there is a profound side to those radishes.
It seems like there is still a far way to go in truly understanding them. However, I donāt have plans to understand their feelings even if it doesnāt take much to understand them.
āThe other time, big tree radish took one human being to your world, right? What happened to that person?ā
āUi-. UiiUiUiUiUiUiiUiā
I see. Such a terrible situation happened, huh?
Apparently there are not many resources in the homeland of the radishes, and they are constantly lacking in manpower due to the wars with other magical creatures. That was why they used the human they took with them for hard labor.
āHow was it? Is that person working well?ā
āUiuiui uiuiā
It seems like that person has been working well. It is as though they were praising humans on the whole and that kinds of makes me happy. Apparently that led to radishes conferences being held, where they decided to bring in more humans.
āHo- thatās good for me too.ā
āUiUiUiiUiUiUiUiUiUiUiUiUiUiiUiUiUiUiUiā
Whoa, it started to speak a lot suddenly. Scary!
What is it, what is it? āUp till now, we radish creatures have been providing our services for free. It is soon time for us to claim our reparations. We will make an official claim in time to come so Iāll just say this much for now. From now on, we will like humans as reparations.ā
The radish was polite and delivered their demands with great detail. While it may be polite, it is rather troublesome. I started to feel like kicking it.
āAlright. Thatās also what I wanted. Now that we are autonomous, we are able to handle the criminals ourselves so we will send the criminals to you guys. Return them back after their sentence, we will send new criminals, if any, over.ā
āUiUiiUiUiUiUiUiUiiUiUiUiUiā
āWhile I am unable to make an official reply alone, I think we will accept that condition. We will work for 10 years if you hand over 1000 people.ā
It is making a brazen negotiation. Should I try to summon a representative radish once? And if it made a brazen remark, I will squeeze it. And then hang it up to dry. Iāll hang it under the sun, and make sure to squeeze it dry with menial work.
ā1000 people are too much. However, Iām sure there will be people that have to be sent over. I cannot make a promise on the numbers, but I will be able to supply people to you regularly. Go and tell that to the representative radish. Also, work for 30 years in return.ā
āI know that you have become an autonomous feudal lord. And that was all because we worked for you a lot. It was all thanks to that. You are in charge of the land above. We dominate the underground. Donāt forget that we are one in body and mind! We are supposed to be equals!ā
Shuush- I kicked him and forced the polite radish back to the underground. I would prefer a crude one the next time please. The earlier radish was probably elite of the radish world. It seems to be carrying some weird thoughts. Ew. Even so, āYou are in charge of the land above. We dominate the underground.ā That radish sure has some unexpected grandiose ambition. I was rather impressed by that.
Well then, now that the future of the criminals has been decided, shall I execute the sentence?
The following day, many civilians have come to gather at the front of the Helan territory landlord mansion, which has temporarily become the place of the trial. There are various people who came for various reasons like having an interest in the trial or just joining the crowd for the sake of it.
I sat at the very back, and Rahsa was sitting at the side as a royal representative observer.