Amazing Village Building

Having lived for a long time and also having traveled far and wide back in the day, it was no surprise that Philia-san was a veritable fountain of knowledge.

“This distinctive armor and helmet. Can she be a samurai from the east?”

“Samurai?”

“Mm. Beyond the monster-infested mountains, there is a nation whose warriors are called Samurais.”

“Ehh.”

According to Philia-san, the separation brought by the mountain range and the vast desert had made it develop a different culture from ours. Apparently, this odd-looking armor design was one of those.

“The single-edged swords they wield are called ‘katana’. They have many excellent blacksmiths, so it’s more likely than not that their blades are awfully sharp.”

“Single-edged swords are so rare! I wanna see one!”

Selen said so, her eyes sparkling with great interest.

“Now that I think about it, it does feel like something is missing from her.”

The woman’s katana seemed to have been left somewhere.

Around that time…

“M…mh…”

Groaning came from the unknown woman. It seemed like she had awakened.

“W-where…? …!?”

Upon noticing us, she quickly put herself on guard. To that end, she placed her hand somewhere on her waist, likely to draw her weapon. But there was unfortunately nothing there.

She gasped when she realized how defenseless she was. I quickly uttered some words to calm her down.

“There is no need to worry. This is the girl who saved you when you collapsed.”

“Collapsed…? I do remember undertaking the challenge of traveling through the mountain range…and then…”

Her memory seemingly returning to her albeit bit by bit, she took a deep breath.

“I see…I…I failed…moreover, despite taking on the challenge fully prepared to die, I survived in such a way…what a disgrace I am…”

Grimacing in frustration, her lips trembled with each word.

And then, as though she had decided something, she took out a dagger from her breast pocket.

“Rather than suffer a life with such a dishonor, I would much rather take my own life! Witness me as I commit seppuku!”

“Woaaaaaaahhhhhhhh!? Hey!! Don’t just go and kill yourself all of sudden!!”

The woman tried to tried to stab her belly with the dagger, but we quickly stopped her.

“I beseech you, don’t stop me…! ‘Tis a good thing that a failure such as I shall end their life as soon as is possible!”

“You’re not making sense!”

What a thoroughly disturbed person!

“Haa!”

Selen swung her sword and knocked off the dagger. Like that, her attempts to commit seppuku—to disembowel herself—should come to an end.

“Wha…are you stating you would rather have me go through this hell on earth?”

“What are you even saying? Look, I don’t really get it, but you just failed to cross the mountain range by yourself, right? I don’t see the need to take your own life for something like that.”

Selen irritably admonished the astounded Samurai girl.

Upon hearing so, the grim expression on the girl’s face vanished and she spoke hesitantly.

“Uggh…but what face can I show to everyone who tried to stop me back then? Especially after I boasted ‘worry not for I will surely succeed. And in the event I fail and die, that only proves the extent of what I can do’.”

It ended up being a more trivial reason than I expected.

“Ahm, Philia-san, are all the samurais of the east like her?”

“Hmm. Their culture do resent ‘dishonor’…even then though, I don’t think most of them resent it to this degree.”

Apparently, this samurai girl was an extreme case.

“At any rate, we’ve gone to the trouble of saving you, so don’t let it go to waste by taking your life as you please, alright? Ah, I still haven’t introduced myself. I’m Luke, this village’s chief.”

“Oh!? Despite you saving me, I still haven’t uttered a word of gratitude! What’s more, I didn’t even introduce myself…! What a colossal blunder! I’ve brought great dishonor to all samurais! This is undoubtedly the worst mistake of my life! Now that it has come to this, I can only hope to apologize by committing seppuku…!”

The samurai girl took out a new dagger from her breast pocket.

“Don’t cut yourself! Rather, how many knives are you hiding!?”

TL note: She’s a samurai, so as perhaps to be expected, she speaks with “degozaru”. Think of it like “’ye olde english”. I’ll refrain from making her talk all weird like ending her sentences with “that I am” or something. I’ll make her choice of words quite formal, but that’s it.

Also, it might be better to leave certain words, like katana and seppuku, untranslated. I think these are popular enough words that most of the general public might already know. Katana is a no-brainer since it’s part of the narrative that it’s just their version of “sword”. For seppuku though, I just thought the phrase “disemboweling oneself” sounds as foreign as the word.

Please consider supporting me. You can do this either by turning off adblock for this blog or via my Patreon page (link here). Thank you.