A New Job – Part 03
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Translator: Kell
About a hundred villagers who were healthy, motivated, willing to migrate, and who were not afraid to live with a witch and a Beastfallen, were selected. Most of them were refugees from neighboring countries, but some were from Wenias.
The majority of them were former Beastfallen, who after being turned into humans, lived in the kingdom with discontent. Upon learning that a witch and a Beastfallen were building a village, they immediately came forward as residents.
When I spotted the former bear Beastfallen whom we met some time ago in the tunnels of Wenias and his wife among the candidates, I understood why Albus had asked me and Zero to do this job.
After a short journey by sea and land, I, Zero, and the hundred-or-so people arrived at our destination—my old hometown.
I went around the village with Zero, remembering one by one the memories of the past that were more faded than I had thought. Whenever I saw a collapsed house, a well full of garbage, or a storehouse ransacked by animals, my heart ached.
But the villagers’ reaction was the opposite of mine.
“It’s not as bad as I thought it would be.”
“The houses are still usable. They should be able to protect us from the elements until we build new ones.”
“Wow, that’s some good soil! We could make a farm here.”
To me, it was an abandoned village, but to those who came here for the first time, it was a new land. I only looked for the bad parts, while they got excited whenever they found something great. It made me feel… weird. Not in a bad way. But I wasn’t genuinely happy, either. It was a much better place than this. If I didn’t run away, it would have still been a nice village.
“So we will set an example,” Zero said, watching the villagers. “This place is right in the middle of the southern and central regions. What kind of food will this mystery hot pot, with a witch, a Beastfallen, and the Church as its ingredients, produce? We will draw plenty of attention from both the north and the south, not knowing that we are the nameless heroes.”
“I don’t think it’s that big of a deal.” I shrugged, realizing that I had been feeling uncharacteristically sentimental. “For a village to function, all you need are jobs, a tavern, and a bakery.”
“And a shady fortune teller.” Zero grinned as she pointed to a small path covered by thick grass. “Where does that path lead to?”
“Uh, a lake. Water peddlers used to live there, but they went out of business when the village built a well. No one has lived there since. There are fish there, so we sometimes went fishing, but it’s pretty deep. Grownups would warn us to stay away.”
“Hmm… An uninhabited lake a little away from the village. I like it. I will open a shop there.”
“You sure don’t waste any time.”
“Strike while the iron is hot, is what they say. So where is your establishment?” Zero pushed me from behind.
“H-Hey.”
“There is no time to dwell on the past, Mercenary. You will lead a hundred villagers in building a home here. You know this land better than anyone. You know where the water sources are, where the food is, and which roads lead to the neighboring villages and towns. You are the reason we can live here.”
“I’m not really the village chief type.”
“Then give the post to someone else. You are only the owner of the tavern. You can consult with the chief only when they are in trouble.”
I headed for the house I grew up in. I wanted to check it first, but I just couldn’t bring myself to go. Zero practically dragged me into the place.
I didn’t think much of it in the past, but now that I was older, it looked like a pretty nice tavern. Carefully opening the rattly front door, I found two footprints in the dusty interior.
“Must be the priest’s and the squirt’s.”
The priest and Lily came here at my request. He said he buried my dead parents in the backyard.
After entering the shop, my feet moved toward the backyard. Zero, looking around with great interest, followed silently behind me.
As I walked through the kitchen and out into the backyard, I saw two grave markers side by side. Wreaths sat on the gravestones, probably woven by the priest and Lily. It was only when I saw the faded flowers that I realized I was empty-handed.
“Hey, Witch.”
“Yes?”
“Uh… You can hear the voices of the dead, right?”
“Oh, that. If you have something to tell them, you can sometimes hear it. But…” Zero closed her eyes and listened carefully. “I hear nothing. By nature, the consciousness of the departed does not linger that long. Unless they bear strong hatred or regret.”
“I see…” I wasn’t sure if I was disappointed or relieved. “I just wished I could say I’m home, you know.”
Zero stood beside me. “You have returned. You will probably die here, so you can tell them then. There is no need to hurry.”
“You’re right,” I said absently. The realization that they were really dead made me feel emotional.
“Mercenary.”
“Yeah?
“Welcome home.” Zero tapped me on the shoulder and turned around.
As I watched her go, a smile bloomed on my face. “I’m home.”
I’m home, mom, dad. I’m back, the village that was once my home. And will be my home.
I took off all my gear, shoved them into storage, and immediately set about repairing the tavern.
True to her word, Zero opened a small fortune-telling shop on the outskirts of the village.
She called herself a fortune teller, but she was more like a handyman. She said she wanted to research what ordinary people found inconvenient so she could create new Magic spells.
“I came up with a few ideas,” Zero said, resting her cheek in her hand atop the old wooden counter, her legs dangling over the round chair. “How about a Chapter of Cooking? For peeling vegetables easily, or keeping just the right amount of heat so the pot does not spill over. I think you could use them.”
“Sounds like it’ll be a big hit with cooks all over the world,” I replied, stirring a large pot.
“A Chapter of Games would be great too. Magic for kids to play with. Magic that creates some fluffy thing, for example. I think kids would enjoy that.”
As I watched Zero furiously running her pen on a parchment, I realized that this must have been how she wrote the Grimoire of Zero. A book written with good intentions. A book that changed the world.
On a side note, I opened the tavern of my dreams. After repairing the rundown tavern, gathering new tablewares and pots, and buying ingredients, it was finally ready for business.
I had a decent amount of customers. Well, having only a single tavern in a small village of about a hundred people meant the villagers had no other choice. Fortunately, I knew how to cook.
The villagers congratulated us on the opening of the tavern, and said, “Now we can have a hot meal whenever we want.”
Things went much more smoothly than I had imagined. Even though it was a village of witches and Beastfallen, they went on as if they were just a group of normal people.
Many travelers passed by our village. There were also attacks from those who hated witches and Beastfallen, but they ended up regretting their actions. I was more gentle, but Zero was ruthless. She instantly turned attackers—both men and women—bald. If they still charged at us, she burned their clothes and took their weapons. Literally stripped naked, they had no choice but to flee with nary a shred of dignity left while the villagers saw them off laughing.
The frequency of the attacks decreased with each passing day. Nowadays there was no one stupid enough to attack the village.
All the peace, noise, boredom, and busyness that I had long desired, I found in this village. Every night after Zero closed shop, she was the first one to arrive at my tavern with spring in her steps. She would come before I opened, take a seat at the old counter, produce a pen, spread out some paper, and engage in idle conversation. When she got hungry, she would put her pen down and say, “I will have the usual”, acting like some regular.
Then I would cook whatever I felt like cooking that day. The customers that came afterwards would order the same food that she was eating.
“Oh, today’s recommendation is stew, huh?” they would say. “It’s getting cold, so I’ll have that too.” All others would follow suit.
I loved those repeating days the most. Sometimes, though, incidents happened.
“That reminds me,” Zero said. “You know that church in the square that was completed recently?”
“Ah, yes. The Church requested it to be remade because it was too ugly to send a priest to.”
“Yes, that one. Apparently they are finally sending over a priest.” Zero flashed the Witch Letter.
“Is that a notice from Wenias?”
“Yes. They are sending a blind priest.”
“What?! When?!”
“Now.” The door banged open, and an eerie black-clad man stepped into the tavern, bringing the cold air with him.
A familiar voice, familiar green hair, and the little rat Beastfallen clinging to his leg.
“Big brother!” Lily exclaimed as she leapt onto me.
“Squirt?! What are you doing here?!”
“I don’t know, but Father said I could come!”
The clueless villagers were abuzz, and I almost wanted to join them. What the hell’s going on? How did this happen?
“I apologize for the disturbance, everyone,” the priest said. “I am the new priest in charge of the church in this village. You must have led a morally anxious life without a priest until now. From now on, however, I will take responsibility as a spiritual leader, so please be at ease.” He flashed a bright smile that masked his inner darkness. As someone who knew his true nature, I couldn’t stop my hair from standing on end.
“What’s going on here, Witch?!”
“Why are you asking me? I am just as surprised as you are. Oh, look at this.” She waved the letter in the air. “It is dated ten days ago. My fault.”
She clearly didn’t tell me on purpose.
“What’s with the attitude?” the priest said. “Your old friend is here. Shouldn’t you be a little happier?”
“You can’t even see my face!”
“I may not be able to see with my eyes, but my mind’s eye can tell what kind of expression someone is making. Oh, that reminds me. I brought souvenirs from our friends back in Wenias.”
The priest snapped his fingers, and the package came pouring in from the carriage parked outside. There were all sorts of items—a brand-new pot, a painting whose price was difficult to guess, a luxurious candlestand unfitting for a tavern in the middle of nowhere.
“You’re clearly misappropriating national funds!”
“Did you really think I would let such a fraudulent act slide? Most of these items were sent by her employer.” He jerked his chin towards Lily.
Her employer? Ah, the governor of Ideaverna. He was now a wealthy head of state. He didn’t care about sending items that would turn a small tavern into a high-end pub. He was an extraordinary geezer in terms of financial power and common sense.
“We have fun days ahead of us, Mercenary.”
“For you, that is, Witch.”
As always, I called Zero Witch, and she called me Mercenary. Strangely enough, we were no longer interested in each other’s names.
For me, Witch meant Zero, and for Zero, Mercenary meant me. Even if we told our real names now, we would probably not change the way we called each other.
I didn’t try becoming human again, so I had no idea if I could still become one or not.
For now, though, I had no desire to become human, so I stayed the way I was. I didn’t care about names or appearances.
Zero was a witch, and I was a Beastfallen. That was all that mattered.
If this relationship were to last for eternity, perhaps this was just the right distance.
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