Chapter 13 – Battle on the Empire border Part 3 (2/2)
“Masaru, they say that this village is famous for its alcohol!”
While we were enjoying our bath, the others already started on dinner in the inn’s dining room.
I wonder if the alcohol in the porcelain cup Ellie handed to me is some type of whiskey that’s common in this world.
“That’s quite good.”
Its alcohol content was a bit too high for me, but otherwise it was quite mellow and easy to drink. I felt it permeate my tired body.
“Right, right? They said we could take as much as we could carry with us, so let’s grab all of it!”
“Taking all of it would be a bit of a mean thing to do…..”
“Eeh, why? We did so much for them, we should get as much out of it as we can.”
“Hahhahhah. It seems you’ve taken a liking to it. Our village had excellent spring water for a long time. Making alcohol was always a popular business here.”
The villager that was working as a waiter must’ve thought that it was just a joke, but if we don’t stop it, she might really empty them out at this rate.
But, water, huh. We also have good water that the spirits give us. Shouldn’t we be able to use it to make alcohol as well?
“Lilia, do elves make alcohol?”
“We make some liqueur from the fruits we get from the forest and that’s about it. Since the fruits we can harvest aren’t too many, we mainly import our alcohol. Also, we don’t have any surplus crops anyway.”
The elven farms are located within their walls, so they aren’t that large. They can barely support themselves with it, so diverting some to making alcohol is just not feasible.
“Then, how about we try to make alcohol at home?”
The number of people that want to immigrate are constantly increasing and we can extend the fields as much as we want as well.
“That’s a good idea! Orland! Come here for a second please.”
Ellie called to the man that was serving as our waiter just now. Looking closer, he was one of the people I consulted when I was making the wall.
“Orland is the son of the lord of this village,” Ellie informed us.
He was giving orders to the other villagers, so I thought he was the leader of the militia here or something.
“If his father is the lord, then doesn’t that make him a noble? Should you be addressing him so casually?”
“Being the lord of a small village is not that different from being an average village chief.”
Is that how it is? I still don’t really know the particulars of the class system of this world.
By the way, the greeting of the lord was done by the others while I was enjoying myself in the bath.
“What can I help you with, Elizabeth-san?”
“Give us some people that can teach our village how to make alcohol like this.”
“We can do that much, but…..where exactly is your village?”
“Near the Elf Village.”
“Whaat? Isn’t that too far?”
“We will pay you for it, of course. How about this much?”
“So much!?”
“In exchange, give us people who are properly skilled at it.”
“Very well, I will ask for volunteers. You will need the equipment for it as well. They are quite large but they should be able to bring it with them. Though you will need a skilled smith to make all that as well….”
“If there are any used ones then we will buy them for a good price. We will handle the transportation on our end.”
“In that case, I will make the arrangements.”
The deal was made in the blink of an eye.
“This will get our village a nice specialty good.”
I think Ellie only cares about securing her own share.
“Indeed. We should have them teach it to the elves as well. Alcohol made from Spirit Water may become well regarded in the future.”
It might sell solely based on the fact that it was made by elves.
“I thought we would end up not getting anything for what we did, but it turns out we made a great profit here.”
“Helping people really pays off in the end.”
“Just so. Apparently, this alcohol is thirty years old. It would be nice if we could make something like this as well.”
Thirty years, huh. Will I really be the one that has to do something about that?
If I did nothing, then the village we saved today, our village in my territory we did our best to create during the winter, will everything be washed away like so much foam?
Will having saved this village bring any positive change? Or if we manage to save the kingdom of Hiragis?
However, I only came here just a year ago. There is still a lot of time left.
I can only listen to the Oracle and act in accordance with it. If I overthink it, then the alcohol will start to taste bad and my stomach might start to hurt as well.
“I guess so. It would be nice if we could reach a point where we could drink alcohol like this at any time.”
If possible, even twenty or thirty years later.
■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■
During our trip, I was wondering if it would be better if we focused a bit more on hunting down monsters, but the territory of the empire is truly huge. I have no doubt we could decrease the number of monsters if we did our best, but in half a day of travel, we only encountered monsters only once.
Even when I tried exterminating all monsters only near my village, I spent my entire winter on it and did not succeed. I couldn’t prevent them from sneaking in from somewhere. Taking care of the monsters on the border of the empire just by ourselves is simply not realistic.
So we just decided to keep it the same as before and only take down those we come across, otherwise prioritize going straight for the fortress.
We were able to hear some news from adventurers we met on the way in the forest.
The Guild did in fact dispatch a large number of adventurers to this territory, contributing greatly to the war efforts.
It’s clear from the fact that the afterwaves of the destruction of an entire kingdom only lead to the ruin of two villages so far. Decidedly minor casualties overall.
I was forced to accompany Francesca to practice some times, but since they weren’t serious matches, I did not have too much problem with it.
Will’s and Syrah-chan’s training went well as well; they even got to hunt a few monsters, netting them some good amount of xp.
Francesca also did her best to train Will, just as she promised, but the daily spars between Will and Syrah-chan started to lean towards Syrah-chan’s win more and more.
Because of that, Francesca got even more into training Will. She did not like the fact that, despite Will mostly winning their fights just after we started our journey, Syrah-chan, who was being taught by Sati, started to win more recently.
‘It’s as if it’s my instructions that are lacking!’ She raged.
It seems fighting with a shield fit Syrah-chan perfectly, but the main reason for that difference is probably the fact that the experience Will got on the way was used up for getting magic Skills, so he fell behind in terms of Skills that fit the vanguard type fighters.
However, there was no way for Francesca to know that.
“….I guess I will increase your training even more.”
“Eeeh!?”
“Good for you, Will. Though, there is still your training with me, so don’t overdo it.”
The actual traveling was always done before noon, so we had plenty of time for training in the afternoon.
Then, a week after we left on our journey from the kingdom, we reached our first destination, the Brumdahl Fortress.
Thanks for the treat.