Several days had passed since that night. The morning is mercilessly early, as always. It is still dim outside, and the straw bed is cold to the marrow of my bones. I raised my body while groaning. My eyelids are as heavy as lead. My numb fingers are far from feeling. … I want to sleep just a little longer. Even if I think that, the village morning will not wait. When I wash my face at the frozen well, the water is as cold as a blade, and a choked “Ugh” escapes me. Only the sleepiness is blown away all at once.
Meanwhile, take Maro in my jacket. It does not care at all about the morning cold. It is completely curled up into a ball in the warmest spot of my clothes. As if remembering to do so from time to time, it stretches out its limbs with a “funi” and then lets out a small breath with a “hou” before curling back up. Its belly, buried in fur, slowly swells and deflates in time with its breathing. With a face that does not bear even a single worry of this world.
“…You have it nice.”
“Kyui,” came a sleepy-sounding reply. Or rather, that is close to talking in its sleep.
In the village, talk about that night was still continuing here and there. When they spot me heading toward the fields, an old man taps me on the shoulder in an admiring way as we pass each other.
“Hey. … That was something, huh.”
An outsider who took down that shadow hound bare-handed. Lately, I am greeted with eyes like that. By those people who were just sizing me up from a distance until last night, no less. … Though, every time that happens, I just bow vaguely without knowing how to reply. The fact that the one who actually stopped it is this fluff ball in my jacket—who in the world would believe that if I told them? Especially since I myself still do not fully believe it. All I could do was swing down the hoe with trembling hands.
When I stepped out onto the path to the fields, a few small shadows came running from the other side. Leading the way is Theo. Following behind him are a girl and a boy, one of each. The girl is the granddaughter of the village chief Old, and her name is Mila. She is around the same age as Theo. As for the boy, he is his playmate Coru. Today, the three of them seem to have come along together.
… When my hem was first pulled in the fields, it was just Theo alone. Lately, they come along in twos and threes like this. The number of little ones who neither run away nor brace themselves when they see me is increasing little by little. … It is not a bad feeling.
“Yuu! Is Maro there?”
Instead of looking at my face, Theo immediately peeks into my jacket. … Well, that is how it is. When Maro pops its head out from my sleeve cuff, the three of them light up their eyes with a sparkle all at once.
“Fluffy today, too!”
“Gently, okay.”
The moment I squat down, my sleeve cuff comes into view. No matter how many times I wash it at the stream, the black stain from that night remains faintly on the sleeve. A school uniform that I have kept wearing ever since I was summoned. Not a single person in this world wears clothes like this. Completely soiled by travel dust, yet it lets anyone know at a glance that I am an outsider. … I need to think properly about clothes someday, too. Thinking that, I had always put it off.
The sharp, blade-like quality of the morning well water has begun to fade away little by little. The long winter seems to have passed its peak soon.
One day in the afternoon, village chief Old strolled out to the fields. When I stopped pulling weeds and bowed my head, Old gave a snort and watched my hands in silence for a while. His deeply sunken eyes on a sun-tanned face narrow searchingly. … That shrewd village chief is making the effort to come all the way to my spot. It is a rare thing. … Somehow, I had a bad feeling and instinctively braced myself.
“…You. Soon, it is ditch clearing. … You join in, too.”
I almost dropped my hoe. Ditch clearing—before channeling river water into the fields in the spring, they clear out all the ditches throughout the village. It is a once-a-year major job involving the whole village. The irrigation canal that channels that water to the fields is also the lifeline of the village. If one thing goes wrong, a year’s harvest comes to nothing.
The jobs I had been entrusted with up until now were only odd jobs that anyone could do, like carrying stones and pulling weeds. If I pulled any strange tricks, I would be kicked out that very day. No edged tools are lent. No entering inside houses. —An outsider accompanied by such watchfulness. That was me. And that village is going to put me in the line for their most important job.
“…Is it okay? For someone like me.”
“Doesn’t matter. If you are useless, we will just cut you.”
As ungracious as ever. Even so, he did not say, “We will kick you out that day,” anymore. … I think this is probably the answer. There are not any exaggerated words of welcome. Just, this village entrusted me with one job. That is all. Just that much made me feel warmly glowing deep in the belly.
Lately, the villagers who pass me by on the path at least tuck their chins in a little bit. “Yo,” or “Go carry that basket over there,” and things like that. It is not as if they are openly friendly. They just unblushingly assign tasks to me. … But that is probably because I am starting to look like I belong in this village.
On the day of the ditch clearing, the entire village went out to the river course. The ditches that are usually cleared by each person during their free time are dug out all the way to the very bottom by everyone with free hands, men and women alike, on this day alone. I am mixed in at the edge of that line. The mud in the irrigation canal was heavy. Immersed in cold water up to my waist, I scooped up the mud from the bottom and threw it away. By midday, my arms were shaking with exhaustion. Even so, when an old person next to me muttered, “… Your form is not bad,” it felt somehow ticklish and made me happy.
Dusk. I returned to the village along the field path, covered in mud. The smoke of dinner was rising straight up from houses here and there. Maro on my shoulder twitches its nose at that smell. … We have come quite a long way. Ever since that day I was driven out of the castle. That night, too, I curled up with Maro in the straw bed. The usual window floated up behind my eyelids.
‘Daily Reward — Experience +1’
…Today, it is 1. Yesterday it was 2, and the day before that was 1 again. As always, it differs capriciously from day to day. Sometimes, a withered tree nut comes along as a bonus. As for the level, it does not budge at all. The numbers piling up in the corner of the window will probably add up to about a month’s worth soon, I wonder. Even so, it is still quite far to the next level. Whether I work or sleep, only this number grows faithfully one by one. … It is tiny. For the current me, who is floating on air just because I was entrusted with clearing mud from the irrigation canal, this turtle-like pace was also somehow amusing.
Today, a job entrusted to me increased by one. For me, that is enough.