Ch.287Aftermath (3)

The winter of this year brought a more biting cold than the first year’s winter.

The world, dyed pure white, froze over coldly, spreading the aura of death with full force. Even the otherworld, which typically received less impact due to the strong influence of mysteries, had completely frozen over.

It was so severe that ordinary undead didn’t appear at all—only “frozen corpse” type undead emerged. Not only that, but mid-level elemental spirits, vastly stronger than those that usually appeared, showed up in large numbers.

Yet paradoxically, despite being at least dozens of times colder and harsher than last year, the village itself was not just surviving but actually becoming more vibrant….

The main reason was that the village had experienced a bountiful harvest this year, making the entire community quite prosperous.

Not only had they harvested enough wheat to provide white bread for every villager at every meal with plenty to spare, but all sorts of resources that had come in as bribes naturally trickled down to those below.

There were plenty of people who wanted to curry favor with me, now confirmed to be the future lord of the principality to be established between the two nations, and these people naturally investigated me before sending various gifts.

And specifically, things that I would particularly like.

My publicly known image was that despite my authority and power, I was quite polite and humble, while also having a frugal and practical mindset.

Perhaps because I had lived a life completely disconnected from social culture and luxury, these details had become quite specifically known, which was soon proven by the arrival of “practical” goods at the village.

Quality cotton cloth, sacks of flour, cost-effective fine wines from renowned wineries, and metal farming tools were the most representative gifts.

Especially these relatively “inexpensive” gifts, perhaps due to the minimum price they needed to maintain as gifts, arrived in such enormous quantities that after distributing one sack of flour to each villager, there was still enough left over to pass on to the adventurers in the village.

But the gifts didn’t stop there.

Another notable category was various high-quality livestock: chickens, rabbits, sheep, goats, pigs, cows, donkeys, and even pack horses, all delivered in significant numbers of each type.

They brought so many that they exceeded the village’s feed storage and capacity limits, so some were sent to nearby pioneer villages, while working animals like cows, horses, and donkeys were sent to Neo Colland City, which was under construction….

Even after all this, there were so many pigs left over that they had to be slaughtered and the meat distributed in all directions. It would be more surprising if the village hadn’t become prosperous under these circumstances.

The excess meat had to be urgently used to make Buurst (Holy Empire-style sausages), and even after that, the remaining meat had to be quickly distributed to each household in the village.

Of course, I couldn’t just accept these gifts without reciprocating.

In Western Continent culture, “gifts” are fundamentally premised on giving and receiving, and if you receive a gift, it is “proper etiquette” to give an appropriate return gift.

If the value of the return gift is excessively high, you’re treated as someone lacking tact and your reputation suffers; conversely, if it’s too low, you’re considered shameless and your reputation also declines.

There are certainly those who don’t even bother with return gifts and just pretend not to know, but most of them end up being ostracized in noble society or international circles as a result.

Fortunately for me, I happen to have a return gift that I can produce cheaply while still maintaining high class.

….The holy aura emitted from the holy sword Zweihänder has the effect of turning water it touches into holy water, so I use this to make special Zweihänder holy water by placing Zweihänder in a pot full of water and boiling it.

Though it sounds like I’m making some kind of broth, this holy water is quite prestigious and valuable in its own right, making it truly an ideal return gift.

However, this isn’t the only reason for the village’s prosperity this year.

In fact, the biggest reason is…. that a very large number of adventurers have begun spending money in the village.

※ ※ ※

The complete destruction of the city of Colland, which had served as the de facto capital of the Colland Barony, was nothing short of a bolt from the blue for Colland’s adventurers.

Regardless of the dark intentions of the Adventurers’ Guild leadership, these adventurers were ultimately just small-town citizens with some ambition and roughness. Most adventurers, except for a few exceptions and newcomers, eventually adopt a stability-oriented stance.

In other words, the reason they stayed in the city of Colland was simply because there were many jobs and benefits targeting adventurers, as well as related businesses.

….However, Colland, which had been like rain in a drought for these adventurers, ultimately collapsed entirely in the face of a powerful enemy.

Before its destruction, Colland’s population was about 20,000, and of those, roughly 10,000 returned alive.

Furthermore, adventurers did not make up the majority of this population.

But in reality, this figure of 10,000 coexists with various factors that cannot be fully considered.

First, most adventurers aren’t counted in the official population figures since they aren’t true residents.

Second, the mobility of adventurers far exceeds what ordinary people might imagine.

While the old Colland had many requests due to its large size, there weren’t nearly enough jobs for all adventurers to make a living.

Therefore, most adventurers traveled between various cities and villages to take on requests and conduct business, but many still used Colland as their main base because of its size and well-established infrastructure.

It was a good place to craft equipment because most resources gathered there, many artisans were assembled in one place, and there were markets for used equipment and all kinds of amenities.

There were also vault keepers (primarily usurers) who served as medieval banks, but when such a place met with catastrophe overnight, adventurers who had based themselves in Colland faced a serious problem.

Although they could still accept requests thanks to the hastily established temporary branch of the Adventurers’ Guild, the collapse of the city that provided a foundation for them to stay through winter was a significant issue.

Inns that offered long-term lodging, which only existed in places with high adventurer populations, vanished in an instant, as did various entertainment facilities where they could spend what they had earned during summer.

In particular, Colland had the only brothel in the entire Alzar Barony that didn’t need euphemisms to describe it, and its complete disappearance meant… a deficiency for adventurers.

To put it bluntly, even without this issue, the loss of a place to spend the dangerous winter meant that surviving as an adventurer became even more difficult in this situation.

In this context, our village expanded the scale of long-term accommodation facilities to attract numerous potential customers.

From the village’s perspective, adventurers with substantial savings for winter are not only excellent customers but also labor suppliers who can be hired for money in various fields when needed.

Normally, few people would risk their lives adventuring during the dangerous winter; in reality, most spend the winter living off money saved during summer, and when that runs out, they urgently take up simple labor jobs.

Therefore, we were working to create an increasingly wealthy and abundant village by accepting many excellent subcontractors while also making money in the harsh winter environment.

Of course, there was also the purpose of subcontracting adventurers to eliminate various monsters (hostile entities) such as undead that appear in the increasingly dangerous natural environment, as well as other sources of instability.

Strictly speaking, adventurers are a subcontracted profession deployed because the rigidity of armies makes flexible responses difficult. Even if there have been exceptions in every era, their fundamental nature largely stems from government subcontracting.

Therefore, when human settlements grow to a certain size, subcontract-oriented armed groups called adventurers emerge, and they tend to be faithful to their original role if properly controlled.

And amid this atmosphere of daily development in the village, the good news wasn’t just limited to this….

Another piece of good news was that Pierre, who had been faithfully serving me as my seed, had finally reached the intermediate level.