CH 99

A few days later in the evening.

Kazura was in the mountainous region northwest of Isteria with Liese and Zirconia.

The place where they were now was a riverbank near the mountainside.

There was an abandoned farm a short walk away from here.

The sky was already turning sunset, and soldiers and their followers were preparing for the encampment around it.

Bonfires were being built here and there throughout the encampment, and one after another, tents were beginning to be pitched.

Including the guards and craftsmen, there must be well over 100 people in the camp.

It was a large group camp.

“My back hurts. That carriage is rocking too much no matter how much it takes…”

Kazura put his hands on his hips and stretched out to warp his body.

The three of them had traveled by carriage up to this point, but the mountain roads were bumpy and the shaking inside the carriage was terrible.

There was no shock absorber or similar mechanism, so the vibrations were transmitted directly to the entire carriage.

Unaccustomed to moving in a carriage, Kazura and Liese was unable to rest slowly and kept clutching a handkerchief soaked in essential oil to prevent sickness.

The next time he returned to Japan, he could look into the history of carriages and bring their vibration mitigation techniques to this world.

I can buy the shock absorber parts for the carriage itself and bring it here, but if you have some other method, I can try using them.

“Liese-sama, are you alright?　Please sit here.”

“Yeah, okay. Thank you.”

Sitting down in the round chair that Eira had pulled from the wagon, Liese gave a small sigh.

She looks quite tired and limp as if she’s tired of being much more tired.

Near Kazura and the others, the squires were beginning to prepare dinner.

With their attendants, Marie is also moving about in a hurry.

Both Eira and Marie are not dressed in their usual maid uniforms but are dressed lightly so that they can easily move around outdoors.

The footwear is also wearing leather boots instead of the usual shoes.

”Kazura-san, are you okay?”

As Kazura held his waist and groaned, Zirconia called out to him with concern.

”Somehow I’m fine. But it’s painful as expected after four days of carriage travel…….”

It was quite bumpy on the road. Eira, after dinner, you can rub Mr. Kazura’s waist.

“Understood”

“Oh, no, it’s all right up there. You just need to rest a bit and you’ll be fine/”

When Zirconia gives Eira instructions, Kazura hurriedly refuses them.

It’s a good idea to be able to have a good idea of what you’re looking for.

I’m sure it’s a good idea to have them serve you, but I don’t feel comfortable asking them to do that much.

Incidentally, the squires and craftsmen like Eira and the others who take care of Kazura and the others are also moved by carriage.

Moving on foot are the soldiers and other servants of the escort, as well as the civilian workers who have gathered to recruit the workforce.

“I understand. But please don’t take it too hard. If Kazura-san collapses on you now, I will die of overwork.”

Zirconia says jokingly to a hesitant Kazura.

Perhaps it’s because we’ve been seeing each other from morning to night for so long now, but Zirconia has taken away some of the stiffness she had before, and they’ve begun to joke around more and more recently.

”At that time, I will give you lots of rejuvenating drugs, so please gulp them and do your best. I support from the shade of the leaves.”

“I absolutely hate it… I mean, Kazura-san should take the medicine, not me. We can postpone it.”

”Uh … that medicine is specific to the people over here, so it doesn’t work very well for me.  It’s not that it doesn’t work at all.

When he said that, Zirconia looked a little surprised.

But immediately, she nodded, “Is that so?” and returned her gaze to her followers who were continuing their work.

They didn’t intend to ask in-depth questions about these things, as they always did already.

”Even so, it took you a long time to get here, didn’t it? I didn’t expect you to spend four days just to travel…”

The trail was unexpectedly steep and we spent two days getting here from the base of the mountain.

It also took us two days to reach the base of the mountain from Isteria, so today was our fourth day of camping.

“We have a lot of people with us, and we’ve brought a lot of mortar material and camping gear with us. I think it’s rather good that we got there in four days.”

Wagons loaded with lime, sand and other supplies brought from Isteria are parked around the encampment.

There is still not enough material to make the mortar for the ice pond hike, so it will have to be transported several times in the future.

There are dozens of craftsmen and laborers stationed at this site to work on the mortar, so food needs to be brought in regularly.

An ice pond is a reservoir where water is stored to make ice.

“We’ve decided on the location for the water wheel, so tomorrow we’ll get up early and go to work on something else right away. Let’s get to work. We should have all the work orders out to the workers by nightfall. If it’s possible, I’d like to leave early in the morning after tomorrow.”

Zirconia’s expression as she said this did not show the slightest hint of fatigue.

Zirconia didn’t seem to move in the swaying car, leaning against the wall and taking a quick nap.

Kazura and Liese were stunned at how she could sleep with all that shaking.

”That’s right. If we leave early in the morning of the day after tomorrow, it will be seven days later at the earliest to go to Grisea village… well, I suppose it’s about time for me to pick up the construction plans

The first delivery date of the flood control plan will be soon, and I hope to be back in Japan by then.

A few days’ delays in receiving the documents will not be a problem, but the director of the construction company that is designing the project has not been able to contact Kazura.

If they didn’t hear from him for any length of time, they would be worried, no matter how much money they had paid in advance.

Incidentally, I’ve talked to Zirconia and the others about the river construction plan.

I’ve already explained that the reason I’ll be returning to Grisea Village next is to collect the plans.

”While Kazura-san is at Grisea Village, I’ll recruit the workforce. How many people do you need?”

“Well I don’t know the details of what’s in the plan, either, so I don’t know how many people we’re going to need. We don’t know yet if we’re going to mobilize. I think we should keep some carpenters and plasterers on hand.”

“Carpenters and plasterers… I hope we don’t need too many carpenters since we’re already pulling them from many places…”

”Zirconia looked anxious when she heard that they were going to pull out more craftsmen.”

“I hope we can finish the partial renovation before next year’s rainy season, so there’s still plenty of time to get the job done… If you can’t get a craftsman, then set the whole plan back a little bit. This is the only way to go about it.”

“Well it depends on the nature of the work, but most of us who were in the military were in camps and fortresses. I have experience in construction. If it’s simple carpentry work, you’ll be used to it, so let’s give priority to those with military experience to mobilize.”

“I see, Okay, that’s a good idea.”

The river improvement work being done is partial, so it won’t require such a large number of people.

But there is an overwhelming shortage of craftsmen due to the fact that we are pulling out from many places.

We can’t afford to delay the development of machine tools, so the river work will have to be delayed.

“Also, the citizens who will be assigned to work on this project will be asked to work on the main renovation and street maintenance after the partial renovation. We want to get it. So please don’t dissolve the contract after this work is done, but keep the contract going. We can have them put the work on to other jobs during the rainy season.”

“I understand. We’ll have some breathing room, and we’ll keep the contract with you to take care of the unemployed. I’ll have them work on the city’s barriers during the rainy season.”

“Hey, Kazura.”

“Hmm?”

As Kazura and Zirconia were talking to each other, Liese, who had been listening quietly until then, approached them.

‘Are there any other people like Kazura in the land of Kazura?　Ormasior-sama or Greysior-sama.

Liese speaks in a whisper as if she is concerned that the soldiers around her will not hear her.

”Ormasior is the god of battle, and Greysior is the god of commerce.”

“Speaking of which, they are there. All sorts of things like that.”

“Yeah, right. …Then why don’t you bring someone in that field directly to help you?　Kazura, mercy … uh, salvation and fertility are your jurisdictions, right?　I don’t feel like Kazura has to do anything all by himself.”

Liese says with a smoldering expression, and Kazura chokes on his words, wondering what he should say.

It’s quite a touchy subject, but when I think about it, I find it strange that this kind of story didn’t come up until now.

The idea of abandoning the God setting and just getting it all out in the open came to mind.

It was clear to everyone that Kazura’s actions to date were far more than Greysoir’s lore.

If Kazura fessed up and said, “Actually, I’m not a god, I’m just an ordinary person from another world” Even if it was, “Oh, I didn’t know that!　You’re a liar!　I’m going to beat you to death! I don’t think they would do that.”

However, to be frank, the only merits are that there will be no need to explain the troublesome lies, and there will be no guilt for lying.

On the other hand, when I thought about what the disadvantages would be, a number of unpleasant thoughts came to mind, such as the possibility that Kazura himself might be imprisoned or tortured for siphoning off knowledge, or that the villagers in Grisea Village might be taken, hostage.

I don’t think Nelson and the others are the kinds of people who would do such a thing, but I can’t be sure about all this.

But I am sure that Nelson and the others won’t probe anything and won’t put any restrictions on Kazura’s actions because they believe that he is a god named Greysior.

Thinking about it this way, he felt that there was little merit in daring to reveal his identity.

If things are going well for him, it would be better to just let him go through with it, even if he set up as a lazy god as it is.

Since there are no guidelines for what God is like, Nelson and the others would have to wonder if this is how it is.

(“I wonder what exactly ‘God’ is…”)

“There are a lot of things going on with you, Kazura-san. We’re forcing her to help us, so we shouldn’t give her too much trouble, okay?”

When Kazura was shushing her with such thoughts, Zirconia interrupted her to admonish Liese.

“Eh, I didn’t mean to…”

“Well, I’ll go check the road to the field while I’m at it. Have your dinner first.”

Zirconia said that and walked off into the dim forest alone.

Liese stared at Zirconia’s back as she left, with an unrepentant expression on her face.

About an hour later.

Kazura was sitting on a rock alongside Liese, looking out at the river and having dinner.

The two of them were sitting on a large flat rock that sat on the river bank.

Next to each of them was a padded cloth, a wooden bowl with a stew, bread, and fruit wine.

Normally they would have eaten inside the tent, but at Kazura’s suggestion, they had decided to eat on the riverbank.

The flames of a nearby campfire softly illuminated the surroundings, and the sound of water flowing in the river reverberated through the air.

I don’t know if it’s the transference effect, but this was the best meal I’ve had in a few days in this beautiful natural setting.

“I see, if you did that, I would certainly say ‘I wish you were dead’,”

Right?　There were a couple of times he had touched me before, and I was already really uncomfortable.

Liese is pouting and angry as she shreds the bread and throws it into her mouth.

What the two of them are talking about now is about Liese’s visitors.

Seeing Liese, who is exhausted from dealing with her frequent visitors, Kazura has been wondering for some time what kind of people would come to visit her.

So, I casually mentioned the incident at the store the other day, but the result is that complaints spill out of Liese’s mouth, which was filled with exasperation, like a dam.

But if you don’t like it that much, why don’t you just say no?　If you’re not going to marry this guy, there’s no reason to keep visiting him.

“Hmmm, it doesn’t work that way. I don’t want to be able to say no so easily and spread a bad reputation, Most of them support the Isteria in commercial deals and business overtures and the like… Many of them have become more flexible in a lot of ways since I started visiting them, so I’m not going to say no to them without resistance. It would be a problem for your father and mother if I did.”

As Liese speaks that way, there is not a trace of the reserve and stiffness that was felt a few days ago.

Liese was trying to be completely honest with him, just as Kazura had suggested, to stop using honorific language and go out with him in her honest state.

But to be honest, she still isn’t completely used to it, and she does feel that it’s hard to do.

“Eh, does that mean that everyone is looking out for Liese and paying attention to the Isteria family in many ways?”

“There are a lot of people who are courting me for my position as a lord, so not all of them are in it for me. I don’t think so. It’s been like this for years now, I guess.”

Lise speaks matter-of-factly, without any emotion.

”So I’m not going to marry anyone unless it’s someone with some power and riches. That said, he’s a creepy guy like Nibel, or he’s going to be a lord and do whatever he wants. I definitely don’t like people who seem to be thinking about it. And on the other hand, I don’t like people who are too stingy, either.”

Seriously. Liese must be having a hard time too because everyone’s been courting her to get married from the start.

It seems to be an awkward position to be in, and Kazura says as if he feels sorry for her.

The status of being the daughter of a lord is too great, and even if there were many people who wooed her, there’s no way she could casually fall in love with them.

Moreover, among those who come to visit, there seem to be several men like Nibel who are out of line with the norm.

The stress of having to deal with such people must be quite a burden on the young Liese.

”This is what being a lord’s daughter is all about. There’s no way you can fall in love and get married in a proper way.”

As Liese said this, she turned her attention to the river and brought the food to her mouth with a crunch.

It was a lonely feeling for Liese who seemed to be contemplating.

“You can get a lot of things from the people who woo you for that, so you can sell them and eat good food and be beautiful. I’m buying clothes and stuff. Even if I do that much, no one would complain.”

“Oh, I see, you’re playing around with the money from the sale of the gifts as a way to relieve the stress of visitation.”

Yes.

But if you’ve got so many visitors, you couldn’t find one or two that caught your interest?

“If there was, I’d be married by now.”

“…and that too.”

Liese stopped eating and looked at Kazura with her eyes.

Then she placed the bread she was holding on the cloth and turned her gaze back to the river, saying, “Oh no.”

“I thought I’d finally found someone nice. But that person is going to hate me with all their might, and I don’t know what I’m going to do now”

“No, I don’t hate you.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, that’s true.”

“Will you marry me?”

“That’s a different story.”

“Boo.”

Kazura laughed a little at Liese, who was puffing out her cheeks.

Liese must have joked around a bit, taking care of the testy atmosphere.

“By the way, Zirconia, aren’t you slowing down a lot?　Is the field that far from here?”

“I looked at the map before we left Isteria, and I don’t think it was that far. …Sure, it’s a bit late for that.”

Liese had looked at the map beforehand and had drummed the topography of the surrounding area into her head.

The field must have been a ten-minute walk from the river, so it certainly seemed too late to return.

“I wonder if there’s something wrong over there. Shouldn’t we go check on them?”

“But with an escort”

As she was about to say that much, Liese remembered how Zirconia had looked when she left.

Zirconia had gone into the forest alone, without anyone with her.

That meant that now Zirconia was alone in this dark forest.

Wandering around the mountains at night alone, where wild beasts might appear, is an extremely dangerous act.

‘(Why would you do such a dangerous thing…)

Your escort, you didn’t follow me. Let’s get you out of here as soon as possible. Something may have happened.

Wait.

Liese grabbed Kazura’s arm as she stood up hurriedly and held her back.

“Let’s just wait a little longer, shall we?”

“No, you should go get her right away. We can’t undo it if something happens.”

“I think this is my mother’s hometown, you know.”

“…Home?”

“Yes.”

Lise nodded to Kazura, who gave her a snorting look.

“Because no one’s lived here for a long time now, right?　I heard that the village down the road is also abandoned…”

“About ten years ago, there was an incident in which several villages around here were attacked by wild thieves and all the residents were killed.”

A surprised expression appeared on Kazura’s face at the story he hadn’t expected.

”Killing everyone…….then, Zirconia-san…….”

“Yeah. She’s a survivor of that village.”

Liese said, her eyes narrowing as she stared at the dark forest beast path Zirconia had walked down.

“So let’s just wait a little longer, shall we?”

“Okay.”

The two persons remained silent and stared into the dark forest.

At the same time, Zirconia was sitting in front of three graves piled high with dirt and piled high with stones, looking at the moon.

One small grave sat between two tombs, the light of the pale moon illuminating the area.

In front of each grave was a number of wildflowers that Zirconia had picked along the way.

In front of each of the smaller tombs was a small doll dressed as a girl, made of woolen yarn.

Zirconia continued to look at the moon for a while, but with a small breath, she stood up and walked back to the encampment with her back to the grave.