kscans

Chapter 179 - The Daily Lives of the Mononoke

《…Not again.》

Merda looked up at the sky with a dubious expression and flew off somewhere. At her destination lay collapsed figures. A couple, it seemed, lay face down in the wilderness, holding a child. The forest had lost its golden magic and its vibrant green, but its range was still vast. Thanks to human efforts, reforestation was progressing, and its area was actually becoming more extensive than before. As a result, Merda’s forest had swallowed not only the royal capital but also the lands of Kilfan and the surrounding wasteland.

And so, Merda-sama was now able to sense refugees coming from somewhere. With a grunt, she lifted all three of them and carried them to Kilfan. This was becoming her daily routine.

The young honeybees could sense magic, but they could not detect humans without it. So, Merda had no choice but to find and carry them herself. It was only once every few days, but there was no end to the refugees coming from the so-called central region. They were lucky to have entered Merda’s detection range while they were still breathing. There were probably many who had perished before they could reach it.

《Chihiro-sama did ask this of us, after all.》

After handing the people she picked up to the people of Kilfan, Merda returned to the forest of the royal capital.

《Again…》

Meanwhile, elsewhere, this was Moruto.

Just like Merda, he had come to meet those who had stepped into his detection range. A group, tattered and emaciated. Three adults and two children stared at the giant frog with frozen expressions.

"H-help… us!"

The refugees trembled, clutching their children. Moruto glanced at them, cleaned the group with water magic, and had his children carry them. As the humans screamed for help, they were lifted like juggling balls and carried to a nearby farming village, after which Moruto and his kin returned to the forest.

The stunned refugees heard the details in the farming village that took them in.

"The Lords of the Forest are kind mononoke. They are good friends with the Little One, and they are friendly with humans, too."

Monsters are friendly?

The villagers smiled at the dumbfounded group and welcomed the new members of their community.

And so, in these times, the poor from the central region were fleeing to the borderlands.

The deserts and wastelands were becoming filled with collapsed people, and the mononoke were troubled.

《There’s no end to it.》

《It’s the same here. Donautil is seriously patrolling the desert, but there’s quite a number of them.》

《Same with my place. It feels like they’re aiming for the nearby border countries, maybe?》

Their telepathic conversation, made possible by the connected ring, showed a certain weariness.

Five years had passed since the final battle.

In Arcadia, which had changed in various ways, the border countries had become prosperous under the Little One’s command. Perhaps holding some dream for these lands, or perhaps as a painful decision, the poor were coming from the countries of the central region. The Little One had asked the Lords to rescue them as much as possible, and so they were rushing about.

《Soleil. How are things in the central forest?》

Ragon sighed as he found another group of refugees while plodding around the desert vicinity.

《The central forest is at a high altitude. Though it is filled with golden magic, its blessings are limited to the forest’s surroundings. …It does not reach the countries of the central region, which are in a state of isolation.》

The world of Arcadia was one where countries were dotted here and there on a ridiculously huge continent. The distance to the border of each country was a three-week to a one-month carriage ride. The location of Frontier and Castrato, clustered in the south with Flowers a short distance away, was considered close in Arcadia. It was only because they could pass through Flowers that Frontier could reach Donautil, which was near the northernmost point, in about a month and a half. Normally, it was a journey that would take over two months. And yet, refugees were trying to cross even that distance. Something might be happening in the central region.

《My children can only live near water. It is tiring to patrol the land.》

Soleil had also increased his offspring, but he could only have them live in the central forest and the surrounding lake. He was a sea turtle. It was difficult for him to get around on land with his flipper-like limbs.

《But only the Lord’s forest has its golden magic revived, the forest is healthy with the king’s help, and the monsters have increased, right? For humans, isn't it a jackpot with the increase in prey?》

The central forest was on the summit of a giant mountain.

It was connected to the spirit village of another dimension and received the blessings of many spirits. Furthermore, the water circulated by Soleil had formed a huge lake around the mountain, and the area around that lake was also surrounded by a deep forest. Since the size of the mountain was the range to which magic could travel, the vast land including the lake was within the central forest’s range, and the surrounding forests that were originally there had also grown larger and greener. The countries of the central region existed in a place separated from that forest by a small wasteland or desert. The border of each country was visible in the distance from the edge of the forest around the lake. Well, it was over the horizon, though.

Olga chimed in at Soleil’s explanation.

《Hmm. So basically, the forest’s blessing doesn’t quite reach the central region?》

《That’s right. But they are within the golden ring. It should be better than before.》

With the completion of the golden ring in the borderlands, most of the continent of Arcadia was filled with magic. The magic generated by the synergistic effect of the forests resonating with each other had bestowed its blessings upon humans as well. It also revitalized the land, and the world should have been heading in a better direction.

What could it be? It's strange, isn't it? The Little One, far away in Claudia, would obtain the answer to the Lords’ complicated telepathic questions.

"Huh? Damage from monsters?"

This was the Claudia royal palace.

Chihiro, who had come to help Pascal, the new king who had defeated his father, heard the details of the refugees’ story from him.

"So it seems. Apparently, the forest near the ‘Table of the Gods’ has expanded, monsters have increased, and the countries of the central region are terrified of their attacks."

Monsters were creatures that would attack humans on sight, but they basically didn't leave the forest. This was because the magic-rich forest was a comfortable place for them to live. Monsters die when they run out of magic. So, they attack humans to easily obtain magic, which is just a snack for them. Something like a treat. If monsters were to go out of their way to attack human settlements, there must be some reason. Like the former Flowers border, where there was a magical beast graveyard near the settlement, or like Castrato, where the humans did something to incur the monsters’ wrath.

"That’s strange. I wonder what it is. I’d like to hear the details."

She had been receiving reports of frequent refugee arrivals lately. She had also asked the Lords to protect those refugees.

But for it to continue like this was abnormal.

The Little One decided to meet with the representative of the refugees who had come to the Claudia Kingdom.

"I am Mikaelo, the person in charge here."

The Claudia Kingdom was in the process of rebuilding. In a corner of it, there was a village for refugees. Fortunately, the continent of Arcadia had land to spare. They were given land in the northern border territory and were diligently cultivating it. With Frontier’s cooperation, Claudia, which had many craftsmen, was making steady progress in urban development and construction, and as a byproduct, decent buildings were also being constructed in the refugee village.

Most of the refugees the Little One had seen so far had been poor, and they had only expressed a vague sense of tragedy, saying that life was so harsh they couldn't survive and had sought a new land. She hadn't been able to find out the detailed reasons. But this man named Mikaelo did not seem to be poor. He prepared tea on a shabby table set and spoke of the situation in the central region with a heavy atmosphere.

"...The truth is, in the current central region, monsters are being overhunted."

The Little One could not hide her astonishment at Mikaelo’s calmly spoken words.

The central forest had become rich. Naturally, the monsters also increased, the forest grew deeper and greener, and it became a treasure trove of materials and food. The central countries, pleased with this, sent adventurers and soldiers and began to overhunt. It seemed to have gone well at first. They obtained abundant prey, and the countries were suddenly enriched. The economic situation of the central region, which had no sea and no forest like the borderlands, was always difficult. Although there was a great blessing nearby called the "Table of the Gods," to reach it, one had to fight ferocious monsters, traverse a deep forest, and cross a vast lake, so it was not a situation where they could obtain resources. It would be easy for a Japanese person to imagine it as the Aokigahara forest at the base of Mt. Fuji. A mountain and forest a hundred times larger than that. And in the middle, a lake larger than Lake Biwa encircled it.

The countries of the central region gritted their teeth at the abundant resources before them.

But then, magic was revived.

It was a power that had been lost for nearly a thousand years. The people who regained it were ecstatic. The countries of the central region, under the illusion that they had obtained firepower comparable to Frontier, began their invasion of the forest.

As a result, they incurred the monsters’ wrath.

It was not like adventurers hunting a moderate amount of prey on request, but the barbaric acts of various countries using their armies to indiscriminately burn the forest and trample the monsters. It only seemed to be going well at first, and the situation was quickly reversed by the cunning monsters. The first to be affected were the borderlands near the forest. Despite fleeing for their lives from the monster attacks, the royal capital did not accept them. On the contrary, they were charged with the crime of abandoning their land and forced into slavery.

No matter the reason, the crime of not defending the land that should have been defended as subjects with their lord was grave. This was despite the fact that the lord had known about the monster attack and had fled to the royal capital at the first opportunity. The barrier of social status made the lord innocent and the subjects guilty. The upper class could get away with anything, but the lower class could not. In fact, they were cast aside as a nuisance. To the royalty and nobility, commoners were the same as livestock. If they couldn't pay taxes, they were just trash.

Having abandoned their land and fallen into miserable poverty, the lord was free to do with them as he pleased.

As a result, the poor, with nowhere to go, attempted to flee the country.

The subjects probably didn't even know what had happened. They were suddenly attacked by monsters, charged with crimes and forced into slavery, and must have desperately fled before being caught. Unlike Frontier, for the commoners of the central region who lacked knowledge, the orders of their superiors were absolute.

Defying someone of status equaled a death sentence.

They had no choice but to flee for their lives.

What a mess…

The Little One was speechless and looked up at the sky.

"I am a former knight. I was heading to the royal capital while protecting the subjects, but I received such an order from my lord… With no other choice, I escaped the country with the subjects who came with me."

A knight is one who makes a vow to the gods. To protect the people with their sword. That pride seemed to have driven Mikaelo. It was also fortunate that although he was a nobleman, he was all alone in the world. The knights who had come to the royal capital with Mikaelo protecting the subjects had families, so they were reluctant to flee with the subjects.

They could not go against their lord.

But they too were knights. They could not defy him, but they could turn a blind eye.

And so, with the help of his fellow knights, Mikaelo obtained some supplies and fled his homeland. Without those supplies, he would never have been able to lead so many people to Claudia, he said with a faint smile.

"I am grateful for the kindness of my comrades."

Well, it's another country's affairs. No need to interfere. Yep.

But the Little One felt awkward just standing by and watching people die on the roadside. She didn't care what happened to the countries of the central region, but it would be fine to help the people who were struggling to live, she thought, and began to move in earnest.

"...So, I'm counting on you!"

She sent a notice to all the border countries and had them prepare new lands for cultivation within each country. Then, the Little One dispatched the Honeybee Carriage to the Lords' forests. This was to retrieve the unfortunate refugees who had not been able to enter the Lords' detection range. She had the Lords' children search a wide area, retrieve as many people as possible, and transport them to the prepared cultivation lands. There, they would recuperate and work as new citizens of each country.

She didn't know what would happen to the countries of the central region in the future, but those who wanted to escape would escape, and the choice of one's own life was one's own responsibility.

Thus began a new life's work, and the mononoke carriages soared through the sky with high spirits. In some cases, swallows replaced the honeybees and pulled the carriages. This was because among the refugees, there were some with serious injuries who needed immediate attention. The refugees, who had been exposed to monster attacks, were very afraid of the mononoke and trembled, but they gradually came to understand that monsters and mononoke were different and became friendly with them.

The famous mononoke corps of the border countries.

Starting with this incident, the Lords' kin came to be called mononoke and were loved by the people for a long time.

Just the Little One being herself.

It was already a given that her ideas would give birth to many fantastical things.

No one knows now that a long future where humans and mononoke live happily together will come.

A toast to the bright future of the happy mononoke.