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Vol 01 Chapter 16: Honey

Three years have passed since then. Now, I am fifteen years old. After the wheat harvest, the village’s population increased to seventy people.

That’s an increase of forty people. Not just young children, but also reasonably older ones… most around ten years old. This indicated that their food situation was quite dire.

Over the last three years, there were no famines, but the number of parents giving up their children due to heavy taxes increased, bringing our current population to a hundred. It’s no laughing matter.

From my perspective, none of the countries seem to have a very large population. I don’t think the number of children born each year is that high either… The situation of the countries around here must be really bad. I only know the ones that were abandoned in this forest, but there must be children abandoned in places other than this forest too, or sold into slavery.

By the way, the breakdown of the inhabitants of our village is as follows: thirty are between fifteen and twelve years old, forty are between eleven and eight years old, and thirty are under eight.

We’ve started to cut down trees and expand the fields as the old fields in the village are no longer sufficient.

As for livestock, we have four cows, ten goats, and ten chickens. I’d like to introduce pigs once we have more room… But the surrounding villages refuse to sell more livestock to us. We only got this much because we used aggressive negotiation to buy the first individuals and later used them to breed.

Oh, and there’s something I mustn’t forget about animals. Recently, Soyon brought home three young hawks.

Apparently, she couldn’t bear to leave them in the nest when it became clear that the parent birds were not returning. They seem to be a larger species of hawk, but in this world, there are terrifyingly large birds of prey dominating the skies, so they were probably eaten.

I doubted whether we could raise them and told her to abandon them since they would eat a lot of meat, but she said,

「Their situation is a bit different from ours, but I can’t abandon children without parents.」

In the end, the other children also asked me to help, so I reluctantly agreed.

Abandoning them would be bad for their education, after all. Besides, Soyon, Tetra, and another girl named Lulu were beginning to show talent in magic. So, I thought that maybe these hawks could be used later when they learn how to possess animals.

In the end, my plan bore fruit, and the three hawks became vessels for the three girls’ possession. All’s well that ends well.

In the last three years, we’ve completed surveying the entire forest and found several abandoned villages. They are from an era before our village and are in ruins, but it’s better than starting from scratch.

If the population continues to grow, we have plans to relocate people to these areas.

By the way, our relationship with Griffon still continues. I regularly bring him alcohol and talk with him. I want him on our side in case of an emergency.

And now, I’m heading alone to meet Julia.

We’ve been visiting Julia as a group so she could train the children in magic. But recently she started saying she wanted me to come alone every third visit.

I didn’t understand her reasoning. And when I asked, she replied I shouldn’t ask a maiden those things.

I more or less understand the reason, but I’m not really sure…

「Heey, Julia. I just got here…」

As I parted the grass, I caught sight of Julia.

Stark-naked

「Wha-, Almus!?」

In a panic, Julia quickly submerged herself in the lake. Unfortunately, all I saw was her back. A pure, beautifully white back. But there was one thing that caught my attention.

「Hey, what’s that small text-like thing on your shoulder?」

「Oh! That? These are Sacred Words.」

The Sacred Words are like characters or symbols used in rituals. It’s more like a drawing than words, about thirty percent is letters and seventy percent illustration. It has a very complicated form and is practically useless in practical terms.

「Is it related to magic?」

「Yes. Everyone gets it inscribed around the age of five. But it doesn’t really have much effect. It’s more like a charm. By the way, it’s different from a tattoo because it lights up when touched by the person who inscribed it.」

「But the children don’t have anything like that.」

「Well, only a decently skilled magician can inscribe it. Only a fairly influential family would have the resources to inscribe it on their children.」

I see. So those who have it inscribed are from high-status families.

「I want one too.」

「Ahahaha. If you come to my country, I’ll engrave it for you.」

「That’s a difficult request.」

For now, at least.

If the village keeps growing, we’ll eventually attract unwanted attention. We might have to align with a larger country then, but I’ll keep playing both sides for a while.

Although I don’t plan to align myself with Julia’s country yet, my relationship with her is important, and I want to cherish it.

「…By the way, how long are you going to keep looking at me?」

「Ah, sorry.」

I turned around. I heard the sound of water and then the rustling of cloth.

Julia has become quite womanly since turning fifteen. Specifically, her chest. Lately, my mini-me has started to react a bit to her.

By the way, Tetra has beautiful breasts. Hers are beautiful, not flat. I have to be careful with that distinction if I don’t want to get killed.

「Almus. I’ve changed. You can turn back now.」

Finally, I got permission to turn back.

「Hey, why were you bathing in the water?」

「Well, today I goofed up and got spotted by a lookout. It turned into a chase. I managed to shake them off, but I was all sweaty. I didn’t want to meet you like that.」

That must have been tough. Actually, it’s more surprising that she hasn’t been found in the last three years. The lookouts must be really incompetent.

「I might not be able to come here sometimes in the future, sorry.」

「It’s okay. Just be careful.」

As I responded, Julia showed a slightly sad expression.

Was I too curt?

「Here, some bread.」

「Yay! This is delicious.」

Julia joyfully accepted the bread I offered.

Though Julia seems to come from a good family, she doesn’t seem to eat delicious food that often. It can’t be helped if the technology isn’t there.

My bread has eggs, goat milk, and yeast in it. It must be the best bread in this world.

「And this too.」

I handed Julia a small jar.

「What? What is this!!!」

「Honey.」

Julia’s eyes widened.

In this world – it’s too soon to generalize, but at least in this area – honey is a rare commodity. It seems they collect honey by bringing beehives from the forest and then harvesting the honey.

That process is incredibly cumbersome. So, I decided to make bee hives. Bees have a habit of preferring to build nests in confined spaces. If I make bee hives, there’s no need to go out and search for bees.

There is a danger of being stung by the bees, but the head of the orphanage I was in was a tough person who would exterminate giant hornets without protective gear and serve them fried for dinner. I watched him do that a lot of times, so I got the gist of how to deal with bees now.

There is also the danger of suffering an anaphylactic shock when stung, but I was stung twice before even thinking of making bee hives and didn’t develop any complications, so it seems this body isn’t allergic to honeybees.

Of course, I don’t let the children do this. I don’t know if they’re resistant or not.

「It’s delicious!! Amazing. Do you have a lot of it?」

「Not a lot. There’s a fair amount, though.」

To collect honey, you inevitably have to destroy the bees’ nest. This means I have to gather bees again every time I want to collect the honey.

In modern beekeeping, there are methods to harvest honey without destroying the hive, but… I don’t know those. The modern methods use complex machinery, so either way, I wouldn’t be able to make use of them.

I should have watched more variety shows about honey when I had the chance. I never thought I’d be transported to another world… If I had known, I would have researched it online…

No use thinking about such foolish things now.

Anyway, this honey can be a weapon. It can be used to curry favor with powerful people.

It might even save our lives if I use this knowledge as a bargaining chip.

「Hey, hey, teach me your secret!」

「No. We don’t have many people, so we need to use this knowledge as a weapon to survive.」

I really can’t teach important things to potential enemies. Well, I’ve already told Julia quite a bit, though.

「Then what shall we talk about today?」

「About the political system of King Rosais’ Country… your country. I think it’s about time I learned more about it.」

Well, I can imagine some of it.

「Okay. King Rosais’ Country is basically an alliance of powerful Families subordinated to King Rosais. It’s the same in every country around here. But in our country, the Families are powerful, so King Rosais’ power over the bigger Families is very small. Due to that, the conflict with King Ferme hasn’t been resolved at all.」

「King Ferme? He’s the one who recently established his own country, right?」

「That’s right. About four years ago, around the time you and I met. There was a famine, and the people, dissatisfied with the ruling Family– the Aris Family – sided with him, later he took control of the territory. That’s how he became independent of King Rosais. He pays tribute to both King Rosais and King Domorgal, so we can’t do anything against him. If we clashed with King Domorgal’s country, we’d be destroyed.」

Julia shrugged. Apparently, there’s a threefold difference in national power between King Rosais’ and King Domorgal’s countries. It’s evident when one has the technology to process iron and the other doesn’t.

「King Rosais is sick right now, so we wouldn’t be able to wage war even if we wanted. Sigh…」

Julia sighed sadly.

Even magicians have their troubles.

「But King Ferme seems to be in trouble recently too. The king did change, but the agricultural yield didn’t, so he’s just suppressing discontent with violence. If something happens… you’ll help us, right?」

「No way. I’d rather not get involved in any killings.」

I’ve already killed five people in the last three years. If I let them go, more would have come. I had to kill them as a warning. I’ve taken many lives, but… I don’t want the children to do the same. I don’t know if that wish will be fulfilled, though.

「By the way, Almus. Would you be willing to meet my father?」

「I don’t want to pay taxes. You understand, right?」

If we come under someone’s rule, we’d have to pay taxes. I don’t want that. Even if it’s inevitable, I want to delay it as long as possible.

「Huh? Did I tell you who my father was?」

「You didn’t. But your father is an important person, right? So there’s a high possibility of him imposing taxes on us.」

「Ah, right. Ahaha. Don’t worry. About the taxes, I mean. Even if you have to pay, I think he’d be satisfied with this amount of honey every month. Besides, don’t you think it’s better to have some connections just in case?」

「Hmm, that’s true.」

Not interacting with anyone is also tough. Now that our numbers have increased, so have our needs. For example, livestock. I want to increase it, but that requires a major trading partner. And other things like clothes, salt, medicine.

「Then I’ll meet him once.」

「Yay! Tomorrow, at this lake. I’ll bring some clothes for you, so don’t worry.」

This is how I ended up agreeing to meet Julia’s father.