Extra Story: Thereafter of the Foolish Youths

This chapter is about the youngsters than ran from the village, right before Lain arrived.

==========

“Bosa-nii, I’m too tired.”
“You still keeping that up? Casso. We’ll reach the pioneering village by today so hang in there a little longer.”

We were trying to return to the pioneering village we once ran from.

The five of us used to live in the same ordinary village.
Last year, we were kicked out from there for no reason.
I guess working while slacking off must’ve ticked them off, even though they won’t give us any land since we weren’t the eldest son or something.
Seriously, it wouldn’t have raised their burden, so telling us to “be off and do well” is messed up.

Those of us who were kicked out had two choices.
Fight in the war, or live in an undeveloped village.
Apparently, if you go to war and make a mark, you can get ahead in life, but only a handful of people are able to do that.
So of course, we picked the safe option which was the pioneering village.

But that village was anything but safe.
Monsters from the Demon Forest frequently attacked it.
Just this year alone, half of the men in it had died.

We’d never heard about that!

On top of it, that village chief called Aria had the guts to say it was our responsibility.
I admit, it was us who broke the rules of the village and entered the forest.
But still, it’s wrong to ask us not to, when herbs that would sell for high prices are right in front of us.

We left the village together with the surviving men.
At that time, I took the money we got from selling the crops and other expensive looking stuff, but it was a fair reward for a year’s worth of hard work.
We worked hard in the fields for a year, after all.

“Man, who would’ve thought people in the city would be that cold?”
“Yeah. I didn’t think it would be that inhuman either.”

After leaving the village, we moved to several different towns, but they were all terrible.

The farm tools and expensive stuff we painstakingly took didn’t even earn us much.
None of the merchants wanted to buy them.
Not being able buy things they didn’t know the origins of was definitely some sort of lie.
In the end, we had to sell them to a black-market dealer for dirt-cheap prices.
Thinking about it now, that merchant must have been a scammer for sure.

Also, none of us were able to get a job.
By escaping from the pioneering village, we lost our family register.
As a result, no shop was willing to hire us.
Both restaurants and blacksmiths said they couldn’t hire someone whose identity was unknown.
The only option left was to become adventurers.
They must be crazy to reject me, a man, who’s willing to work.
Apparently they’re lacking manpower everywhere, but I’m starting to doubt even that.

“To think we would end up returning to that village.”
“B, but, is that fine? Would Aria-san and the rest take us back in?”
“Of course they would. That’s because we’re men. There’s no way another man would want to go near that place, and without a man they can’t even maintain the place.”

With us leaving, there were no longer any men in the village.
Only men are capable of owning land, so that village must be in need of males.

They seemed to be recruiting for extra positions, but they had no luck from the looks of it.
Well, not surprising though.
No one would want to go near such a dangerous village.

Besides, based on what I heard at a town I was staying in during winter, that village is in an even worse state than expected.

Like how a dozen greywolves attack it every day.
Or how the village chief, who can’t defend it, sacrifices a villager each time.
Or how no one who entered that village ever left alive.

Some of those may have been rumors we spread after we left the village.
But really, it’s the chief’s fault for not being able to improve the state of the village, so she should just accept its bad reputation.

Still, to think I’ll have to work on the farm again.
There are no elderly men to take the lead this year either.
I should find a way somehow to push all the work on the women and relax.

Yeah, that’s right.
It’s because of us that the village can survive.
They have to be grateful for that.

“Hey! Bosa-nii! Look!”
“Huh? What.”
“The village looks weird!”

As I was thinking about how I would put Aria and the rest to work, Casso pulled my clothes.
The village looked weird?
Oi oi, if our village disappeared it would be a huge problem!
Shit, can’t Aria and the rest even act as caretakers?

The direction Casso pointed to.
Looking in that direction, there stood a village surrounded by sturdy walls.

“Wha!? What the hell is that?”
“Don’t know. It wasn’t like that when we were there, right?”
“Yeah.”

We were only away for a single winter.
Did they actually build that wall during that time?
What sort of magic did they use to do that?

***

“The entire village is fortified.”
“…”

We went around the village while keeping our distance so that Aria and the others wouldn’t notice us.
An uninterrupted wall covered the entire village with two drawbridges. One on the village side and the other on the Demon Forest side.

Shit.
If you could make something like this then do it when we’re here!
Then we wouldn’t have left in the first place!

“Well, it’s good that our village became more powerful. I’m tired, so let’s head inside now.”
“WAOOO!”

At that moment, we heard the howl of a greywolf.
Oh no!
This is their signal to attack!

“Greywolves! Get down!”
“G-got it.”

We lie down on the spot.

I had bought white cloaks for times like these.
Since I bought them for all of us, it even went out of stock.

If you lied on the ground after putting on these cloaks, you could camouflage with the snow and deceive the eyes of monsters.
I was right in preparing these.

While we were lying down, five greywolves ran out of the forest.
A large group today.

The greywolves ignore us and ran in a straight line towards the village.
I patted my chest in relief.

The village should be fine with strong walls like these.
As I glanced at the village, the drawbridge that was up earlier was now down.

(What are you doing! There’s no point in making these walls if you lower the bridge!)

If the greywolves entered the village through the bridge, the walls would be meaningless.
I knew the women of that village were idiots, but I didn’t know it was this bad.

A single man walks across the drawbridge.
The greywolves all charge at him in a straight line.

(Wha! That’s dangerous!)

I warn him without raising my voice.

“[Wind Blade].”

But my warning was meaningless.
The man easily defeated those greywolves using magic.

He gathered all five magic stones fallen on the ground, then went back inside and raised the drawbridge again.

“Bosa-nii!”

As I looked at the situation with a blank expression, my body was shaken by Casso who was lying next to me.

“What is it, Casso.”
“A magician. A male magician has moved into the village!”

It seems that Casso also saw the battle.

“Yeah, it seems like a magician has settled here. With this our safety-“
“No! Bosa-nii! A man! There a man already in that village!”
“!”

That’s right.
We thought we could move back because there were no men.
But now there was one.
A magician, no less.
Magicians are desperately needed in any country.
A registry could be made at any time, and the ownership of land for a few people can be easily recognized.

That means we’re not needed here.
In fact, we’re probably a nuisance to the villagers whom we stole from.

“What should we do, Bosa-nii! Won’t we become criminals if we don’t ask Aria-sama for forgiveness!?”
“…Shit!”

We had become criminals the moment we stole those farm tools.
Apparently, the people from our village cooperated, so some pretty accurate portraits were making rounds.
From about a month ago, we couldn’t stay in big towns anymore, and had to move around between small towns and villages.

Instead of running away, I was thinking of making it sound like we had no choice but to run from the monsters.
The village was lacking men anyways, so I thought the odds were easily in our favor.

Why did a magician move here of all places!

“W-what do we do? Bosa-nii, we’re almost out of money too.”

Should we start fresh somewhere?
No.
If we get caught we’ll be sent to the front lines to serve as meat-walls.

Go to a pioneering village where they don’t ask for identities?
Impossible, there are no other villages like that in this country.
We lack the funds to move to our neighboring country.

“Shiiit! Why is this happening!”

My scream echoed in the meadow where spring had yet come.
What should we do now?
We have lost our only place to go.

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