Chapter 6: Village Cultivation
Rodan returned.
“Oii, Theresia, I’m back~.”
“Ara, you are early–eh, are you alright?!”
Theresia headed towards the dirt floor entrance and was astonished seeing her husband, Rodan’s appearance. Maybe he fell over somewhere, he had dirt all over his body.
“Ahh, I am not hurt. The great boar struggled a bit, you see, so I fell down a little. Is Allen awake?”
It was in the middle of October, when autumn was in full bloom. Around the time period when the harvest was over. All that’s left are the potatoes but it seems the harvest will be a bit late. It seems Rodan had gone hunting with the men of the village yet again today. Of course, all of them are serfs as well.
They are serfs so they should normally be working on the fields but for some reason, they go out hunting from autumn to winter. Allen didn’t know the reason behind this yet.
“Well, I guess it’s alright if you’re fine. Are you really going to take Allen along?”
“Yeah, I promised I would show him the dissection, after all. It has already started so I need to hurry.”
Rodan made his way into the child’s room.
“Allen, wake up~ We caught a great boar~ It’s really big, ya know~?”
“Re, really, papa, I wanna see great boar!!”
The one year old baby who did his best to act like he had just woke up, but inside he’s a 35 year old man.
“I will take you there now! I promised you I would if you were a good kid, didn’t I?”
“Yayy~ yayyy!”
When he had caught a great boar the last time, Allen pestered him about showing it to him. And so, Rodan promised that he would do so if Allen were to be a good kid. Allen didn’t really cry or pester much so he’s generally a good kid.
It seems Rodan also wanted to say “if you be a good kid” to his child once he is a father.
They went outside, Rodan carrying Allen with his arms. Seems like Theresia won’t be going.
She doesn’t want to see it being dissected.
Heading out early in the morning and running around all day long in the forest, Rodan’s clothes were dirty with sweat and who knows what else, however, weirdly enough, Allen didn’t find this unpleasant at all.
He knew how much Rodan had been working for his family.
This is in fact the first time Allen would see the village cultivation. Before, he would just look at it from afar, on Theresia’s arms at their garden or from the wooden window.
(It seems to be a normal rural scenario with fields everywhere, huh? There seems to be a residential area on the other side, though.)
It was a village with numerous fields lined up. The reason why different fields have different colors is probably because they are growing different crops. It’s already October and so most of the crops were already harvested but there were still some still left like the potatoes. There were isolated houses in between these fields.
Rodan called out to Allen as he was looking around the village, full of curiosity.
“Look, Allen! It’s the Albahelon!”
Far up into the sky, in the direction Rodan pointed, a bird was flying. It seemed quite big. It’s far and not clearly visible but it seems to be a huge bird flying high in the sky. “How big is it? There probably isn’t any bird that big even in the real world” Allen thought to himself.
“Albahelon?”
“Yup, it goes over to the north during this period. This one’s a solo but they also fly in a flock so you should remember it. It is said autumn starts when they start flying.
“Magic beast?”
“Yup, magical beasts. Well, they are magical beasts who don’t really come down to the surface. Papa had eaten it once and it’s really delicious.”
“Ohh~”
“If you see any magical beasts bigger than that flying in the sky you must hide inside the house, alright?!”
“Got it, if not I’ll be eaten by a dragon after all.”
“……”
“Papa, what happened?”
Rodan just gazed at the Albahelon. Finding it strange, Allen called out to him.
“Mm? Ah, nothing. We’ll be at the dissection scene soon. It’s reaaally big.”
“Yeess!!”
He hadn’t known at that moment but in a few months time, Allen will come to know that his name was derived from the Albahelon. His father named him so, so that his son can go anywhere freely as he wants, just like the Albahelons.
And of course, Allen had no way of knowing such feelings at the moment, so he kept looking around the village.
(This area looks like the residential area. So our house is on the outskirts of the village, huh? Ah, it’s the boar! A great boar! The first magical beast I can see up close!!)
After walking for about an hour from their house, the fields started to disappear and there were buildings lined up in a row. And ahead of that seems to be the entrance to the village. He could see the gate in front of a big object.
And just before that was the great boar, which had been dissected quite a lot already. Although the dissection had started, it had still retained its original form and one could clearly tell that it was a wild boar.
There were about 50 people surrounding the boar. Several of them were split up into groups, diving the meat.
(Huge. It’s easily more than 3 meters. That’s not the size of a regular wild boar.)
He was overwhelmed by the intense presence of the great boar. It’s about the size of a hippopotamus in the real world. He looked at that face with intense concentration.
He had heard from Rodan that there were magical beasts in this world but it was his first time seeing one so close.
Rodan kept getting closer with Allen in his arms. He felt everyone’s gazes.
(I see, as I thought, I do stand out.)
It seems Allen has a clue as to why everyone was looking at him.
“Oh! Here comes Rodan. Oiii, everyone, the man of merit has arrived!!”
A person in the dissection group announced Rodan’s arrival.
“Oi oi, don’t go shouting that, it’s embarrassing.”
“You’re late. The meat will be all gone, ya know, man of merit?!”
A few muscular men came approaching Rodan.
The man had beard and chest hair and also looked like gorillas.
He was carrying a girl in his arms. She looked about the same age as Allen.
“Come on, stop it. I just coincidentally stabbed it in the throat, alright?”
It seems like Rodan was the one who dealt the final blow. He looked really embarrassed, as the people surrounding them were praising him.
“Oh?! You brought Allen today? It has been quite a while since I saw him but he really has black eyes and hair, huh?”
Theresia and Rodan both had light-brown hair. However, Allen’s eyes and hair were black, just as they were before his reincarnation. It seems to be quite rare as people gazed even now.
Moreover, Allen’s face resembled his mother more than the wild-faced Rodan.
“That’s right, Gelda, he’s a good kid. Allen, say hello. He’s our neighbor, Gelda.”
“Nice to meet you, my name is Allen.”
(uh, I ended up greeting him very normally… How do one year olds greet people again? What’s the right answer?)
“Oi, oi, is he really just one year old? Mine’s one year old as well but there’s a huge difference, I want her to learn from him.”
“Yeah. Unlike me, he’s smart.”
Rodan and Gelda both didn’t feel too out of place seeing the one year old Allen speak properly.
They were serfs who were dealing with kids for the first time. Moreover, they didn’t have the elementary education parents receive in the real world.
It’s only obvious.
“You’re really a doting parent, aren’t ya? Hey, Kurena, you should greet them too.”
“Kurena….”
(I see, so that’s the right answer.)
Blue eyed, pink haired Kurena.
Probably embarrassed of everyone’s gazes, Kurena hid her face in her father’s chest.
This was the first time Allen met Kurena.
“Oi oi, what happened to the usual tomboy-ish Kurena?”
Gelda roared with laughter but Kurena continued to hide her face and occasionally stole some glances of Allen. And each time, their eyes met.
After conversing a bit with the neighbor, Rodan got closer to the dissection area. It seems he’ll let Allen look at the great boar up close.
(Ohh, magical beast, eh? My level would probably increase if I beat one, huh? I would like to be able to beat one soon.)
“How strong is this magical beast?”
“Ah, right, this is a C rank beast. We would’ve had to make a run for it if we encountered a beast stronger than this.”
(Hmm, hmm, if I recall right, they subjugated it with 20 people, huh? So a C rank monster needs 20 people to beat, eh?)
As Allen kept looking at the dissection closely from Rodan’s arms, a person came calling out to Rodan. It seems the preparations are complete. And so they transferred to the dissected meat area. They were passed pieces of meat tied together with a string.
(That’s a big piece of meat. It should be around 10 kgs. So the reward for subjugating a great boar is meat, eh? So we have been eating the drained version of this sometimes, eh?)
Rodan confirmed his piece and took it. Some other people were also there, taking meat, probably others from the subjugation party.
“You’ve had your fill, right? Theresia is waiting for us so let’s return with the meat, alright?”
“Yup.”
And like that, with the meat as a souvenir, Rodan and Allen returned by the road they came.
Potential heroine appearance?