SIAW Vol. 1 Chapter 19 Part 1
Chapter 19 – Goodbye, Pioneers’ Village
That night, Misha and I had dinner together with Caron’s group, in the elder’s house.
Ranga’s group managed to catch more than ten Horn Rabbits in about two hours, so there was plenty of meat on the table.
Jeet and Zlatan were going to eat together with Gust’s party, apparently. Ranga, as soon as he came back from the hunt, was taken away by Sasha. Mei was entrusted to us, so she was at the elder’s dinner too.
Was Ranga going to live to see another day…?
The elder, on the other hand, was in high spirits throughout the evening.
Soran was presumed dead, but his older brother, Caron, was going to take over his merchant duties, and the following day the staff was going to hold a special bargain sale in the village.
Actually, when I told the elder about the contract, his greed showed and he started complaining about it.
I thus mumbled “Ow, shucks…if the contract was okay, I wanted to gift you and Caron’s group some guinea fowls tomorrow, but now…” and the elder suddenly became all smiles, swearing up and down that it was all a joke.
As always, guinea fowls were the ultimate trump card.
During dinner, I enjoyed my precious last moments playing with Mei.
After the meal, we quickly left the elder’s house.
Misha went back to her home, while Mei and I went to Sasha’s.
～
We knocked on the door, and Sasha came out. Ranga had probably been buried somewhere already…
Not actually, of course. The Map skill showed that he was in the room in the back.
I handed Mei back to Sasha, and the latter apologized to me about Ranga’s actions. I told her I didn’t mind, and went to the barn.
Inside the barn, I entered Dimension Area and gave the butchered Horn Rabbits to Sil. He came rubbing against my legs, all happy. The Horn Rabbits inside had decreased by exactly three units: I felt reassured.
After enjoying his fluffiness for a while, I exited Dimension Area and slept in the barn.
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When I woke up, I headed to the well, as usual. Jeet and Zlatan were drawing water, so I joined them, chatting with the villagers from time to time.
After a while, I returned to the house and Sasha called me to have breakfast. Inside, a silhouette vaguely resembling Ranga was sitting at the table.
The silhouette’s swollen face and claw marks intimidated poor little Mei.
“Tenma, I’m really sorry for what happened in town. This man didn’t mean any harm, but when he gets too excited he ends up forgetting even important things. I’m going to make him understand well, so please forgive him.”
“Yes, of course I do.”
I already knew what kind of personality Ranga had, so it wasn’t a problem. I only decided to give him the silent treatment until I could report to Sasha, so that he could reflect on his actions.
Ranga seemed surprised to see me forgive him so easily, but because of the swelling it was hard to tell what kind of expression he had on his face.
“Thank you, dear.”
Sasha seemed to understand that I wasn’t seriously angry.
“So Tenma, what are your plans for today?”
“First, I’m going to try catching as many guinea fowls as possible. I have to bring two to the elder, and since I’m going to have dinner at Misha’s house tonight, I want to bring two there too. Misha and I are going to talk with her family about going adventuring together.”
“I’m glad to hear it. Please take care of Misha, okay? I suppose we won’t have the chance to eat guinea fowl for a while, though…”
The tone in Sasha’s voice was a bit sad, and Mei pouted too.
“My goal today is to catch at least six fowls. I thought of gifting two to Gust’s party, so why don’t you join them for dinner?”
“I suppose we should! Though you’ll really have to work hard today, Tenma.”
“If it’s for Mei’s sake, it’s no problem!”
Mei beamed, overjoyed.
It shouldn’t be too hard to catch that many, and I have a 3-digit stock of them anyway, so it was an easy promise to make.
～
After breakfast, I went to the village gate, accompanied by Sasha’s whole family. The people we crossed on the way looked at Ranga’s face with shock, but we pretended nothing happened.
At the gate, Caron had opened a makeshift shop in the spot where the villagers usually gathered, in front of the oven built for the skewers. Two tents had also been set up in the Throwing training grounds.
Gust’s party approached us. He too was bewildered by Ranga’s appearance: he scurried off towards Sasha and profusely apologized to her.
“It’s my fault that Ranga drank so much. I am really sorry for the trouble!”
“Mr. Gust, we have met many times before, and you have come to eat at our home too, didn’t you? The responsibility for what happened this time is my husband’s, so please do not worry. I would ask you, however, to exercise more caution next time you two drink together.”
“Y-Yes, of course!!”
Sasha said that Gust had no blame, but gave him a warning at the same time. Her polite, yet cold tone made everyone present get chills down their spine.
After that, Jeet and Zlatan joined us too: naturally, seeing Ranga left them surprised as well.
Sasha apologized to them too, but they were listening to her so prim and proper that it was hard to tell who was apologizing to who.
The last one to arrive was Misha, who chatted excitedly with Sasha.
The hunting party was now complete, so we went out of the gate.
～
Misha and I split from the rest of the party: once the village was out of sight, I opened Dimension Area, took out Sil and we started running together.
We went close to the grassland and started hunting in the forest nearby, but we managed to catch eight guinea fowls in just two hours, so we went inside my Room with Sil.
“Misha, I’d like to talk about our plans for the near future.”
“Okay.”
“Tomorrow, at about noon, we’ll leave the village and head to Ronda. I want to spend about two days camping in the forest, though. I say camping, but we’ll spend the night in this Room, so there won’t be danger. The reason for camping is for preparing for the adventurer work we’ll do in the future, and for checking our base of operations.”
“Okay, got it.”
Eh? Are you really sure you got it all…?
“…I’ll talk in more detail after we leave the village.”
“No problem.”
Er…I do think it’s a problem to just trust a man so easily…
～
We returned to the village at about noon: Ranga and the rest were already back, enjoying the first meat feast in a while. Gust’s group was having a good time too, with some of its members even saying they wanted to come live in the village.
I gave two guinea fowls to the elder, and everyone’s eyes focused on us. The elder loudly proclaimed that he was going to use them to entertain the merchants’ group, and rushed back home.
I told Misha that I would go to her house with two fowls and eat dinner there, so she quickly went to tell her mom. The two then hurried home together.
I wanted to give at least three fowls to Sasha, so I asked her if I could leave them in their house. In response, she grabbed my and Mei’s hands and led us home, where she enthusiastically agreed.
“Okay then, I’ll give you three fowls, so could you please cook them? If you make them in skewers, I think that Ranga and the others will have an easy time eating them together. What do you think?”
“Leave it all to me! Do you think you can catch more?”
“This is all for today. I’ll bring two to Misha’s house, then train with her in the afternoon.”
“Alright then. Thanks for everything!”
I then went to Misha’s house, where her mother was eagerly waiting for the fowls.
“I’ll come again tonight.”
Misha’s mother took the fowls and went back inside. Honestly, the people in this village just stop listening when you show them a guinea fowl!
After that, I went with Misha outside the village, immediately opened the Dimension Area and had her practice Throwing inside. In the late afternoon, we went back to the village and headed to her home.
～
The preparations for dinner were already complete; the grilled guinea fowl was served right away.
I wanted to talk about the adventurer work we were going to start, but it was clear that they weren’t going to listen to a word I said as long as the fowl was on the table, so I waited.
Luckily, the two fowls disappeared in the blink of an eye.
“As Misha probably already told you, we’re going to start doing adventuring work together. We will leave the village tomorrow at noon, and use Ronda as base for a while. I hope that’s all right.”
“Yes. Our daughter is in your hands, please take good care of her.”
Misha’s mother replied with a polite request, but her father added an ominous air to the conversation.
“When our grandchildren are born, I hope you’ll come back to the village to show them to us!”
We’re partners in adventuring, not for life, though…?
“I can’t wait to see my nephew or niece too!”
Misha’s brother started spouting nonsense too…
If I clearly denied there was anything between us, it might stir up trouble…I guess I’ll smile and change the topic!
“Yes, I’ll bring the children here when they’re born.”
Misha…? Do you even know what you’re saying…?
The soul-crushing emotional damage I received that day definitely brought my heart’s HP almost to zero.
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