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Frontier Lord Chapter 018: The village, its name and a feast

Chapter 018: The village, its name and a feast

Three days had passed since we took the old ladies under our wing.

I looked across all that I owned, noting that it had become considerably livelier. There was my yurt, Klaus’s, a storage yurt, a stable, an outhouse, a well and three yurts in which the old ladies lived. There was also a large yurt for them to meet that I had erected at old lady Maya’s request.

I found the array of yurts and other structures quite a sight to behold, and it made me wonder whether I could refer to this place as a village of my own even if it wasn’t of similar scale to that of the monsterfolk. If I want to call this a village, I thought, then it must have a suitable name. The name has to be both memorable and easily understandable…

Grassland village…? Yurt village…?

No, too basic.

I thought for a while, but was unable to come up with so much as a single good idea. It would probably be faster to consult somebody. I called out to the Meias at my feet, and we began to walk towards the meeting place where I knew Aruna and the old ladies would be.

And what exactly are they doing there, you might ask?

The answer is that they’re doing something with the Meias’ wool.

Freshly sheared Meia wool had to undergo processing before becoming a usable product. These processes included washing, untangling and spinning, among others, which were altogether rather time-consuming. Not to mention that we lacked the manpower to carry them out — as such, most of our harvested wool was traded for supplies at the village.

When the old ladies had learnt about this, however, they found it a terrible shame that wool of such high quality was simply being traded away. They had asserted that they could not only process it and increase its value, but also use the threads they spun to make something.

Their profession back in their hometown had been of a similar nature, too, and there were many things that the old ladies wanted to make. They were willing to work to support the fiefdom as they found it to be better than doing nothing while living off our goodwill. Aruna had also mentioned that people of their age who had nothing to do tended to grow ill or senile.

We thus entrusted old lady Maya and her troupe of seamstresses with finding a use for the Meia wool. They were free to do what they pleased with it, be it processing it into yarn or making something of their own. As I gave them the go-ahead, I told them that we would set aside a fixed portion of Meia wool so that we could continue trading with the monsterfolk. Upon hearing that, they were all smiles, and told me to wait and see what they had in store.

From then on, the old ladies rose at dawn everyday, had their breakfast and assembled at their meeting place. They processed the Meia wool and, using wheels graciously provided by the monsterfolk, spun the threads. Though they were always hard at work, they did so joyously.

I heard them singing as I approached the workshop. There was a certain je ne sais quoi to their song, which rang throughout the yurt — all I knew was that it warmed my heart.

O thread, o thread, become thin and fine,

Bless them with a pretty child, in the pink of health!

I… had my reservations about a few lines of the song.

Not wanting to be a wet blanket, though, I chose to hold my tongue as I lifted the flap of the yurt to see all the wheels spinning away. Aruna and the old ladies were spinning the thread while chanting their shanty. All of them were smiling.

How peaceful, I thought.

Noticing that I had arrived, they worked till their shanty reached a suitable stopping point before turning towards me.

「Dias, my child」, said old lady Maya as her hooked nose moved up and down. 「What’s wrong? It’s rare to see you looking troubled.」

Her face was nothing but wrinkles.

「Since both the number of people and the number of yurts have increased, I was thinking of making this place a village proper. I was also thinking of a name for the village, but couldn’t come up with a good one… does anyone have any ideas?」

The old ladies looked at each other and began offering suggestions.

Dias village? No. Vetoed.

Hm, what’s that, Aruna? Do you have an idea?

「How about Iruk village? It’s an ancient word meaning ‘the very first’. ‘The very first village’ is both easy to understand and pleasant to the ears, isn’t it?」

Iruk village… Iruk village? Iruk village.

It wasn’t a bad suggestion. I looked at the others. Though Klaus looked a little disgruntled, nobody in particular seemed objectionable to the idea.

Now it’s decided — the first village of my fiefdom will be called Iruk village.

The population had increased. Something befitting of being called a village had sprung out of his expanse of nothing, and we had even begun manufacturing goods…

Isn’t this what one calls smooth sailing?

I wanted to increase the population even further, build more villages on this grassland and replicate the peaceful, yet lively, scene that I had observed earlier all over my fiefdom.

Hm? Why is everyone getting up? Have you finished your work for today?

No, no, I’m not saying no! Of course we can! We’ll have a good one!

—

The feast we had that night was, I daresay, quite simple.

「Let’s dance and sing till the wee hours of the morning!」

Despite having worked long hours that day, the old ladies didn’t seem tired at all. They burst into song, clapping with their hands as accompaniment.

「Me, dance? With Francis and Francois too?!」

With a groan, Klaus buckled under the old ladies’ pressure and, along with the Meias, danced around the bonfire.

「We have to get alcohol one way or another! I can whip up some dishes, no problem. But it’ll be a shame for a feast to be without alcohol! What about me? Oh, I’ll drink too! I can down a large bottle’s worth!」

I was surprised that Aruna was such a heavy drinker at her age. We nevertheless feasted upon the herb-and-meat dishes she had put together, then partied late into the night. In fact, we were already partying when the sun began to set, and we only stopped just before dawn.

It may have been quieter and more simple than the average feast, but it was still extremely enjoyable — the kind that made you wish it would never end. Everyone had thoroughly enjoyed it, and when we awoke at noon, rubbing our eyes from lack of sleep, there was already talk of when the next feast would be held.

The next feast…

Ah, okay, I get it, I get it. In that case, let’s start brainstorming for ideas on how to develop Iruk village and together with it the fiefdom, shall we?