Because herbalists and hunters are extremely valuable personnel who venture outside the village, even the smallest village is certain to have one or two of them.
The villages scattered throughout the territory—not the castle town where the lord resides at the center of the demesne—are visited only by itinerant teachers like Medipl, vendors like Rimas’s father, tax collectors sent by the lord to collect taxes, or if there is a noble with rights to the village, that noble or their representative.
When something happens, it takes a long time for news to reach the outside world, so people capable of leaving the village when necessary are absolutely essential.
If bandits attack—since bandits are human and can use roads—it becomes difficult to reach the outside world via roads, unlike with monster attacks.
The village has plenty of miners and farmers, but hunters and herbalists cannot be replaced.
Just as Rimgaile was boasting about all these things, her father finally appeared, and without a word to Rimas, she ran to her father.
Rimgaile’s father hugged her once and lifted her up, then, learning that a traveling merchant had come to the village, headed straight for Skelvis while telling Rimgaile to bring the dried herbs and hides from home.
Even hunters don’t pass by noticeable herbs without collecting them, so hunter households aren’t without gathered herbs.
Once Rimgaile’s father arrived, people began to gather in earnest.
As the herbalist bargained over her herbs and the hunter over his hides, others started to drift in as well.
Even those who had come to the village earlier had been busy eating dinner or washing up.
Soon, more villagers arrived: some carrying the village’s specialty minerals, others bringing wool from their sheep, and still others coming to sell meat that had become surplus due to excessive smoking or salting.
Wool is usually sheared all at once on a set day, so sometimes the supply becomes excessively concentrated, but some people also shear whenever they have time.
Wool can be sold for money, but for merchants like Skelvis who carry fragile goods, it’s also useful for transporting things safely.
Whether they carry cotton or wool or any such material, without something like that, items like pottery are easily damaged in a swaying wagon.
Porcelain is expensive and may not sell in such rural villages, but earthenware sells reasonably well.
Wooden bowls carved at home cost no money and won’t break, but they’re inevitably inferior to earthenware, so there’s a gradual trend of replacing wooden bowls.
According to Medipl, this too is evidence that the Empire’s standard of living is steadily improving.
More than anything else, what sells best when the men arrive is strong drink.
It is brought in by the barrel, and the men of the village buy as much as they can afford.
Drink is both a comfort in their harsh daily lives and, in a place where the water is thick with lime, a necessity for survival.
According to Medipl, with the Imperial Bounty causing all living things to flourish, microorganisms also flourished, making it difficult to make fermented foods like alcohol and vinegar at home, unlike before the Empire.
Alcohol taxes have been a major source of income for lords since thousands of years before the Empire, but now it’s based on a per-barrel rate—though Rimas didn’t fully understand that explanation and just filed it away in his memory.
However, he clearly remembered thinking it was fortunate that at least cheese could be made easily.
As trading proceeded, the day turned completely dark.
Since Rimas had to be in the temporary classroom during lessons, he left the business entirely to his father and returned to the temporary classroom to listen to Medipl’s stories.
Teacher Medipl was busy teaching the younger children and couldn’t really pay attention to Rimas.
At ten years old, Rimas was in his graduating year, fourth grade, and studied diligently, so except for exceptions like Rimgaile, she had already learned far more than the other children and didn’t need to study further.
Students could, if they wished, pursue deeper learning for four years, and there were teachers to guide them, but in reality most stopped at reading and basic arithmetic.
When Medipl noticed Rimas idling, he glanced over and told Rimgaile to teach him.
Rimas was taken aback; he had never imagined that Rimgaile, a year younger than himself, could be his teacher.
Considering that Medipl even lent her those expensive books for free, it was clear he took a special interest in Rimgaile.
And since this was something said by the teacher who understood the children’s learning levels well, it meant that Rimgaile’s learning level was higher than Rimas’s, who received high praise from the teacher, and high enough to instruct him despite being younger.
Rimgaile, who had been reading just one of the books borrowed from the teacher, heard this and moved toward Rimas.
Then she asked bluntly:
“What do you want to study?”
Rimas was thinking that with only one eye, shouldn’t she avoid reading books in such dim lighting, when he unconsciously said:
“What can you teach?”
Rimgaile thought he was being a bit cheeky and said in a slightly sarcastic tone:
“Language, history, geography, culture, sociology, music, art, mathematics.”
What Rimgaile listed was every subject taught in primary education.
But in reality, these are also subjects that children can’t master unless they actively learn them.
Rimas felt somewhat absurd and said:
“Do the subject you’re most confident in.
I know them to some degree too.
It’ll have to be like that.”
“Then let’s do history.
First, to gauge what level you’re at, I’ll ask a question.
Rimas was speechless.
It was knowledge he didn’t have.
Rimgaile continued:
“You at least know that we live in the Chewater Kingdom, right?”
“Of course I know that.
What do you take me for?”
“Then do you also know which fief ours belongs to?”
“Of course.
Our Shadowfoot minor fief belongs to the Etherox .
And Etherox is part of the Atal Grand Fief.
And my father is a merchant with a license to trade all the way to the entire territory of Etherox median fief.
He’s not just a peddler-level merchant who can only trade within a minor fief.”
Why he added that last part, he didn’t know, but Rimas wanted to add it.
Rimgaile ignored that and began talking about the history of the Chewater kingdom.
Rimas, his pride somewhat hurt, half-listened, and Rimgaile chattered on regardless.
After a while, the village chief entered the building and said:
“Teacher Medipl.
It’s nine o’clock.
It’s time to send the children home.”
“Oh my, has it gotten that late already?
I apologize.
I should have noticed first…”
As the elderly village chief and teacher exchanged such words, the quick-witted children realized class had ended and began rushing outside.
The first child to try to leave felt a hot gaze on the back of their head and turned around to find Rimgaile glaring, remembering a certain precaution they’d been told.
So the children immediately thanked the teacher and bid him goodnight before going outside, and whether Rimgaile had educated them in advance or not, all the children hurried out while at least formally saying such things.
Rimgaile put the books in a safe place and began tidying up the interior that had been messed up by the children.
Teacher Medipl, having finished talking with the village chief, did the same, and seeing this, Rimas couldn’t just stand there and helped them.
When they came outside, the one-hour hourglass in front of the building had flowed down by half.
When the village chief announced it was nine o’clock, he must have flipped it, so the cleanup took about thirty minutes.
Every village has such clocks, but in villages short on water, they use hourglasses rather than water clocks, and sundials during the day.
Usually someone watches and starts setting the hourglass that takes an hour for sand to fall from around five o’clock, assigning shifts to repeat this until sunrise the next day.
This is typically work done by people keeping watch in the guard tower as they come and go.
Meanwhile, Rimgaile gathered her books, greeted Medipl, and was about to head home, while Rimas just looked at Rimgaile once more and was about to return home.
Just then, the village became noisy.
The adults who had come to pick up the children began making strange expressions, some groaning—reactions people make when something unexpected happens.
Following the gaze of the village chief who was still nearby, they could see a village man in the guard tower sending some kind of signal.
It was already 9:30, when the sun had completely set, so even being up in the guard tower, there shouldn’t be anything visible.
Yet he had discovered something, and it seemed to be something serious.
The village chief urged the villagers to hurry and take the children home.
Rimas looked for his father, who was coming this way, having finished his business, but he too sensed something strange and quickly approached Rimas.
The village chief approached Medipl and said:
“I suppose the teacher knows more than this old man.
Being an elf, your night vision should be better than humans’ too.
Something strange seems to be approaching, so please take a look.”
Medipl nodded and quickly approached the guard tower and began climbing up.
With the characteristic agility of elves, Medipl quickly climbed up and took a position to look into the distance.
“It doesn’t seem to be anything dangerous.
Rather, you should prepare to receive a guest.
And probably you should call all the children back too.”
Calling the children back—it didn’t seem to be anything dangerous.
Rimgaile, who had been heading home, stopped in place at the sudden event, and when Medipl said it wasn’t dangerous, she rather walked toward the village entrance to see what was approaching.
Rimas followed behind her, telling himself he was just following out of curiosity too.
The village chief moved to the village entrance with several village elders and Medipl.
Rimgaile and Rimas also followed them a step behind.
When they reached the village entrance, they could see a single light approaching along the road in the distance.
When it came close enough for humans to confirm its shape even without elf vision, the villagers realized that someone was riding a horse toward them.
They also realized that a bright lantern was attached to the front of the horse, making it visible from far away.
The watchman in the guard tower had seen that light and, whatever it was, not knowing what it was, sent an urgent signal below.
Someone traveling at night on horseback carrying a lantern—this was something that, by the common sense of these villagers, was difficult even to imagine, let alone believe while seeing it with their own eyes.
Though the roads are connected in sections protected by milestones so monsters don’t intrude, dangerous things at night aren’t just monsters.
Even if just one wolf appears, it’s difficult for ordinary people to handle it.
And while monsters don’t come close to roads, there are types that attack from a distance.
During the day, on roads where trees are supposed to be cut back on the principle, people can see first and avoid or prepare weapons like crossbows, but at night this is difficult, so for safety, travelers only move while the sun is up.
Yet the person now approaching was boldly riding a horse on the road alone at night.
And at a leisurely pace too.
As it got closer, a stranger detail became visible.
The lantern wasn’t right in front of the horse, but quite far ahead of it.
However, this strange detail was soon resolved.
When closer, they realized that a metal branch extending from the saddle protruded far forward, with the lantern attached there, making the lantern positioned absurdly far ahead of where the horse’s head was.
So one strange question was solved, but as the person approached, other questions arose.
First, the lantern attached to the branch that extended long forward from the saddle was too bright.
Now it was bright enough to make viewers’ eyes sting.
They could understand how the watchman had spotted the light from so far away.
The person riding the horse seemed to realize that people were gathered at the village entrance and that their eyes were dazzled.
Suddenly the lantern’s brightness decreased.
It was a change that made it clear it had been intentionally adjusted.
And because of that change, another strange detail was discovered.
The saddle the person was sitting on didn’t just have the protruding branch with the lantern, but had such a thing extending backward too.
It was something they learned as the brightness decreased, reducing the glare, and the distance got closer.
And on that backward-extending branch was a square platform, and atop it sat a harpy
Seeing this, people began to panic, when Medipl said to the village chief:
“Tell the watchman in the guard tower not to attack.
Whether night or day, monsters cannot come up onto roads.
So that harpy is not a monster.”
The village chief was as dumbfounded as if he’d been told rain wasn’t water, and though his expression showed he couldn’t understand at all, seeing teacher Medipl’s firm attitude, he hastily shouted to the watchman not to attack.
When the person came close enough, Rimas thought the horse rider was a woman, appearing to be in her early twenties.
Her face was round in shape, and she was a woman who, while not quite obese, had a bit of flesh on her face and body.
She wasn’t a slender build, but not completely obese—more of a somewhat plump feeling.
Overall, she looked like a young lady who seemed kind-hearted and good-natured, as people with a bit of flesh tend to appear.
Overall not a beauty, but if she lost some weight, being still in her twenties, she could be evaluated as quite pretty.
On her head she wore a cloche-shaped hat with several stars drawn on it, but it was much larger than a typical cloche, making it seem like a rather strange hat.
The staff strapped to her back had cobalt-colored light shimmering at the upper part protruding above her shoulders.