Chapter 96 - The Beginning of a Dream
One week after returning, we held a commemorative party at the Ghost Mansion for all members of the Class of 175 reaching adulthood.
"I'm Matilda the blacksmith. Nice to meet ya."
The last person introduced herself to the guests.
The eighth companion, Matilda.
She was exceptionally sensitive to heat and wore only tops with the shoulders cut off all year round.
Moreover, only in red.
Having spent her days swinging a hammer at the blacksmith shop where she apprenticed, her shoulders and arms were bulging with muscle. Because sparks would fly, she kept her hair cut short, so from behind, she didn't look like a woman at all. Of course, that was only from behind.
Mary had a soft kind of sex appeal, but Matilda was, how should I put it, 'boing-boing,' and that in itself was a topic of conversation among the men.
When the guests, including the members of the Marcelo Company gathered at the Ghost Mansion, Dune, and Mayor Adolf, clapped, she turned away with a red face.
"She's the rumored Mad Dog. Don't make eye contact with her."
"What are ya sayin'!"
She immediately snapped at Beatrix's introduction, who was grinning.
Anyway, she was quick to pick a fight. If the boys at the orphanage said something she didn't like, she'd be punching them before she even spoke a word of complaint. However, she had never once hit a girl.
Along with Beowulf and Will, she was one of the martial faction of the Class of 175. However, fighting seemed to be a hobby. She didn't join the guard unit but became a blacksmith. She apparently loved simply striking iron.
"How's the match with Bridget-san going since then?"
"So far, eighteen losses in eighteen matches. But I'm gradually becoming able to dodge the Big Sis's fists."
That Bridget-san had rushed over to celebrate her beloved disciple.
Previously, led by Beowulf, she had taken the beginner's unarmed combat training in the guard unit's experience course. She challenged Bridget-san to a match and was soundly defeated.
Since that day, she had called Bridget-san 'Big Sis' and challenged her to a match once a month under the guise of taking the experience course. Through that connection, she had secured a job at the guard unit's workshop.
However, wanting to fulfill her obligation to the old man at the blacksmith shop where she had been apprenticed until now, she showed her face at the blacksmith shop once a week.
She was also surprisingly good at making detailed craftwork, which the two people at the guard unit's workshop praised.
By the way, her Black-Purple embroidery was red, the same as Beatrix's.
Matilda, through the arrangement of the old man at the workshop, was allowed to participate in monster extermination. Workshop personnel are only contracted with the guard unit and are not members. They are also allowed to hold other jobs.
However, she flatly refused rat extermination.
The fearless Mad Dog hated rats. Before coming to the orphanage, when her village was burned in the war and she was taking refuge in an underground warehouse, she was apparently bitten by rats all over.
"It can't be helped. I hear bears and wolves come near the town in winter, so you'll have to help then."
"I know. Leave anything other than rats to me."
She made a fist and showed it to Beatrix. I wonder if she couldn't just punch a rat to death.
"But how are you going to fight monsters?"
Surely she didn't intend to have a fistfight.
"I'll use a hammer. There's something called a war hammer for combat, and they say it can bludgeon even a boar to death."
"You can bludgeon a boar to death, but rats are no good?"
"Rats are no good. They are the strongest and worst monsters."
"Don't say that, or the Demon Lord might curse you."
Beatrix also let out a sigh, but it couldn't be helped. We'd have to have her do her best with things other than rats. Even just having her carry heavy things when Will or Beowulf weren't around would be a help to us.
"Well, in any case. Now everyone is together. Let's keep doing our best from here on."
Will wrapped things up, and Beatrix led what must have been her several-th toast.
Before I knew it, even Owen-san, who was on the side of serving refills of alcohol, was participating in the toast, but there was no need to worry about the small details.
It had finally begun.
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That night at the orphanage, Jennifer was visiting Catherine's room.
"Headmistress. The documents for Matilda's departure have been completed."
"Thank you. Just leave them on the desk. I'll look at them later."
Catherine's room was kept surprisingly neat, with nothing but the essentials. A desk, a chair, a bed, and a storage chest—that was all. There was only a statue of the goddess hanging on the wall; she didn't even have a portrait of someone like the other priests had in their rooms.
"With this, all the planned departures for this year have been completed safely."
"Was it eight people this year?"
"Yes. The eight from the Class of 175."
"It seems Jeanne is managing to make a living."
"She seems fine for now. It appears she hasn't even touched the money we gave her when she left."
She seemed to be thinking about something, tilting her head slightly.
"How are they? Those children. Do you think they'll make it?"
"They all seem to be doing their jobs properly, so they should be fine."
"I don't mean that, I mean after that."
"After that?"
The way Jennifer tilted her head seemed intentional to Catherine.
"You don't have to play dumb. Their dream, their dream. They're going to be the founders of a new town, right? Do you think it's achievable?"
"Oh, you knew about that?"
"I happened to eavesdrop."
She stuck out her tongue like a child.
"Really, now. That's bad manners."
Lies didn't work on Catherine, who was a high-level mage.
That said, she didn't force the information out. It was likely the kindness of broadly accepting everything.
"So, how does it look from your perspective, Jennifer?"
"I think it will be quite difficult."
Even if one calls it a town, it cannot be maintained unless people and goods gather. In the first place, such locations have already had people gathering to form settlements, villages, and towns since ancient times. To newly develop a forest, one must exterminate the numerous powerful monsters living in the surrounding area.
"Even if they call it a town, it might just be that Jeanne and Beatrix are faithfully keeping the promise they made when they were five to live together forever."
"Oh, have you been eavesdropping since then?"
"It wasn't like that! I was worried back then!"
So you were eavesdropping after all. Jennifer didn't say it out loud but gave a light shrug.
"It was shortly after Beatrix came to the orphanage."
"The time she had a huge scuffle with Jeanne, and you gave them quite a scolding, Headmistress?"
"Well, yes. Beatrix... you see, it seems a lot happened before she came here."
Catherine looked away from Jennifer and let out a sigh.
"Was she abandoned in the forest?"
Jennifer also looked down, remembering those days.
Especially during the war, in other countries, there were endless examples of small children, especially girls, being abandoned to reduce the number of mouths to feed for the winter.
"When she came here, she had almost lost all emotion."
"I heard that when she was found, she was skin and bones, and even though it was winter, she had collapsed wearing only a single undergarment. It's thanks to Adolf staying by her side and taking care of her at the frontline garrison until she got better that she was saved. If she had been sent back normally, she probably would have died."
The two of them had researched as much as possible the events that led to the children coming to the orphanage and kept them as records. It was to remove even a little of the loneliness and fear the children held. At times, they were filled with righteous indignation or pulled into a gloomy mood.
"Beatrix was convinced that she was an unwanted child to her parents. That's why she seemed to think that the people she met here would eventually abandon her too."
"And so, Jeanne promised that they would live together forever."
"Yes. Saying 'I won't abandon you'."
"But what those children are aiming for is an independent town that doesn't wage war. For a promise made at age five, hasn't the story become quite large?"
"Surely as their companions increased, the number of houses to live in together also increased. That's why it turned into a story about building a town. And since there are war orphans, they won't wage war. But I wonder what they intend to do if it becomes a war involving all of Sertoria?"
Catherine furrowed her brow. She had seen plenty of war. Even if Sertoria didn't want it, bellicose neighboring countries like Engrio would find excuses to attack.
"Headmistress. Do you remember when we first started running the orphanage in Nakanohara?"
Jennifer changed the subject with a calm tone, as if smoothing out the wrinkles in Catherine's brow.
"I remember. It's been twenty years already. You said it would be good if there were an orphanage that raised children without families so they could find work and become independent."
"And you said, 'Then let's do it together'."
Catherine stared at the ceiling while lying on the bed.
"How nostalgic. The two of us persuaded your father and left the Royal Capital, didn't we?"
She glanced at Jennifer.
"At that time, if you... no, if Hero Catherine hadn't said 'let's do it together,' none of what we've done so far would have been possible."
Jennifer bowed her head toward Catherine.
It was likely a thank you for guiding her when she knew nothing.
"No need for thanks. So, what does that have to do with those children?"
"It's the continuation of our dream."
"Continuation?"
"Yes. Surely Jeanne and the others are trying to create a town that is economically independent and has acquired autonomy, creating a region without war."
Catherine sat up from the bed and crossed her arms.
"The first thing we thought about when starting the orphanage was to be economically independent. For that, each individual must be strong in various ways. To protect the weak by being strong. The developed form of that is to never participate in unreasonable battles and to always protect the victims of unreasonable battles. A strong, righteous, independent town."
"I hear there are such towns on the continent. Though their way of thinking might be biased."
"At worst, it's high treason."
Depending on the country, the orphanage itself would be closed down.
"Even so, you're going to support them, Jennifer?"
"It's similar to the thinking of the first king. You know, don't you? The first king of Sertoria didn't want to be a king. He would have been fine being the leader of the hunters in a slightly large town."
Jennifer remembered the old portrait hanging in her room. The first king in the portrait was dressed as a hunter, not in formal attire.
"The royalty of this country are just too eccentric. I mean, is there any other king who lives in town pretending to be a low-level official and commutes to the royal palace every day? When he's at the palace, he even wears a fake beard, dyes his hair, and uses disguises."
"It is the ancestral precept of the first king, after all."
Of course, it was a top-secret matter known only to a very few.
Catherine, who had been a companion of the previous king and queen, had also been one of the educators for their children, and she used to meet the royal family of five at the palace once a week as they all came together.
"I'm not saying the current system of this country is bad. I think it's a good country compared to others. That's why, all the more, I think a new attempt for the future is necessary."
"I wonder if those children are thinking that far?"
"I don't think they are."
She had asked seriously, but she was easily parried by the smiling Jennifer.
"In other words, what you just said is the thinking of the former first-in-line to the throne, Princess Anne."
When Catherine glared, Jennifer laughed, saying it was just one possibility.
"What do you think, Headmistress?"
"About those children?"
"Yes."
"I don't know. However, Jeanne is a child who is chosen."
"A child who is chosen? Not a child who was chosen?"
"A child who is chosen is one who is chosen by everyone, and people gather around her. For example, like how Beatrix regained the emotions she had lost and made a lifelong promise. And, for example, like your... great-grandfather, was it? The first king of Sertoria."
Catherine was sitting on the bed, swinging her legs. Her gaze was directed at the night sky outside the window.
"There might be a possibility."
Catherine muttered as if talking to herself.
Protagonist's earned extermination reward: 15 gold coins, 14 silver coins. 6 months.
End of Volume 4
(This afterword is from the time of posting)
Volume 4 has ended.
Finally, all eight members have appeared.
With this, the first part is complete. (I will add the words 'Part 1' in a chapter edit later)
Thank you very much for reading this far.
During the posting of Volume 4, I received bookmarks and ratings. I am honestly happy. Please continue to do so.
From now on, Part 2 will begin from Volume 5.
I never expected that Part 1, which serves as the introduction, would exceed 500,000 characters, and I am full of reflection.
On the other hand, I also intend to proceed with this story as leisurely as possible.
I feel a bit terrified thinking about how many characters it will take to reach the conclusion without becoming too dense, but as far as I can see from the PV and unique users, there are people reading the latest chapters, so I will do my best to continue.
Now, regarding the future posting schedule, I intend to maintain the pace of three times a week—Monday, Wednesday, Friday—between 7:00 and 8:00.
So, the next post will be a short interlude between volumes next Monday. I plan to post the first chapter of Volume 5 on Wednesday.
Until the first chapter is posted, I might make small corrections or add the words 'Part 1,' but there will be no changes to the story development, settings, or characters. There shouldn't be. If there are, please point them out.
I am also waiting for your impressions and typo reports.
Well then, I look forward to your continued support.