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Vol 9 Idle talk 4
[9-15] Certain two adventurers, obtaining help
“Heey, the two of you there!”
The animal trails from the pioneer land Houjou village to the city of Premie.
Two adventurers who were walking on it called out.
The season was early summer.
They did not know, but it was the beginning of the fourth summer since Yuuji came to the other world.
What appeared rustling from the side of the trails were two men.
One was a giant man with an axe in hand.
The other was a half naked male apekin.
They were the two men who once picked a fight with Yuuji at the adventurers guild and now had been given the duty to clear the road.
The two adventurers were the ‘Dusk wind’ who had undertaken the goblin and orc investigation commission. The two were third rank adventurers with a party composed of a scout and a fencer. Incidentally, they had noticed the existence of the giant man and the apekin. If it would seem like they would continue to hide, then they would have gone into their battle stance.
“Aah. Come to think of it, you two are opening a path, aren’t you? …That’s right, did you happen to encounter goblins and orcs? If you did, please let me know the place”
“Sure, that’s fine with me, but… did something happen?”
“A settlement investigation commission came in from the pioneer land and the city because goblins and orcs may have increased, you see. We, the ‘Dusk wind’ has taken on the commission”
Perhaps grasping the words of the adventurers as they conveyed it, the woodcutter and monkey gleefully told them the locations where they encountered them as well as suspicious locations. All the while saying “I won’t allow them to lay waste to this forest, let us know if there’s anything we can do.” Humans, they are beings who can completely change.
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“Oh, woodcutter”
“What’s up, monkey?”
The forest which has gone past the peak of the heat and had become comfortable.
While experiencing signs of autumn, the axe carrying giant man and male apekin were opening up the trails as usual, making sure carriages could pass.
Nevertheless.
Finally they seem to have mutually recognized that they were a woodcutter and monkey.
There were no such thing as city boys.
“I have a bad feeling about this. Shall we move near the city or the pioneer land, whichever is closest to us?”
“Is that a foreboding kind of thing? You’ve gotten surprisingly used to the forest haven’t you? From here… the city would be closer I guess. Moving would be fine and all, but it would be nice if nothing happens though”
The woodcutter said and went with his partner’s proposal, and then the two began to move in the direction of the city. They had few hand luggage.
They were basically nothing but preserved food, a water sac and a thick mantle that was a substitute for a blanket. In order to leave behind other luggage, the two, who had been living long in the forest, had created various places to sleep in.
Incidentally, due to the male apekin’s firm insistence, their places to sleep were treehouses. They were on trees.
But them again, it was something simple where timber was laid across branches and branches with leaves were placed in place for a roof.
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Autumn when the leaves of each tree has fallen.
The woodcutter and monkey who had moved near the city had been clearing a path just like usual.
Currently, the animal trails around half a day from the city had gone to a scale where it is not sure whether or not carriages could barely pass through.
The two increased in motivation from the fact that their efforts had become visible.
They looked back at their own work, searched for passages that could solve things ingeniously and boosted their efficiency. They had become people who were overly conscious about appearing interesting. They were a woodcutter and a monkey though.
Such two people caught sight of a group of adventurers.
The two did not always meet the people who traveled along this path as they often sway from the animal trails; sometimes in order to gather food, securing water and searching for places with little difference in elevation.
Perhaps they had begun to be trusted; reason being that Kevin’s group would put preserved food in the tree house in the case where they could not meet them.
However, a large group exceeding twenty men traveling along the path should not have gone unnoticed by such two.
“Heeey! What’s wrong, going in a crowd? Immigrating to the pioneer land?”
The male apekin called out to the group from up a tree.
Going down from pu the tree with rustling sounds, the monkey and woodcutter began to talk to the group of adventurers.
Who answered him was the fencer from ‘Dusk wind’. He was the man who had listened to the woodcutter and monkey when they headed for the monster village investigation.
“So there is one, a monster village! Damn it, is the pioneer land alright!?”
“Please don’t panic. The pioneer land has the full ‘Dark Green Wind,’ you know. There were goblins and orcs in the village, so it should be easy for them even if they were attacked. If you’re worried about it, then won’t you wait together with us at our meeting place? Right now, the guildmaster is going to invite the pioneer leader Mr Yuuji.”
The woodcutter and monkey consented to the adventurer’s words, who showed a look of composure, and decided to wait.
What was that about them being eager to injure Yuuji at the adventurers’ guild once? They were already an ordinary virtuous woodcutter and harmless monkey.
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“I wonder if he’s alright, Mr Yuuji that is”
“He should be fine with that fighting power. Let’s believe in him and wait”
After the pioneer group and the adventurers linked up and headed to the subjugation of the monster village.
The woodcutter and monkey exchanged such words on the animal trail.
They also had combat abilities, but they were currently in the middle of their punishment.
Nothing is allowed except for labor to create a path where a given carriage could pass, combat for the purpose of defense and security of food and water for living.
The two had now gone from adventurers, who could only live or die, to virtuous laborers.
Despite such concerns of the two, Yuuji and co had easily returned.
Safely, without missing anybody.
No, far from losing one, they increased by one, a young elven girl.
On a side note, supposing the woodcutter and the monkey did not just wait for the subjugation and proactively watched over them.
The ones who would have saved the elven girl Riese would have been these two.
The group of goblins and orcs who carried off Riese passed through the place not too far away from them as they returned to the village.
The men who were ruffians earned the opportunity to turn over a new leaf and correct themselves.
And then they would rescue the beautiful elven girl they had come across by chance from the monsters.
A heart-warming interaction that they would start with the saved beautiful elven girl, although they could not understand each other’s languages.
The girl would one day discover her village and the two would see her off with smiling faces. Enduring their tears.
Unknowingly, the two had lost the opportunity to become the leading role of such tale.
“This is your tale!” is what they were seemingly not told by anybody.
There were no spectacled old men.
In any case.
The woodcutter and monkey felt relieved hearing the report that nothing serious happened at the village subjugation and to the participants.
“With this we can freely be zealous in road construction!” and such they said with great joy.
And while they were at it, the two, having heard about the shape of the small bag of the young elven girl, promised to search for it in a scope they could manage.
The two did not even try to harm the elven girl even when they saw her by thinking that she may be lucrative and such.
Even Kotarou could do nothing but howl in satisfaction towards the monkey and woodcutter who had completely become owners of a pure heart.
If it was now then he may obtain both a golden axe and silver axe. There are no such springs however.
But.
It has been decided that such woodcutter and monkey would have a new problem in a short time.
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“Eh…? They’re criminal slaves…?”
“Yes. The new pioneer land is well regarded by the feudal lord’s wife and the magistrate, it seems. In order to spread a path ahead of time, I have been told to send the criminal slaves this way once the monster village subjugation is over”
“Even if you tell me that… We’ve never had a situation where we made use of people you know?”
“There is no problem with that, you see. The forest will become harsh just from turning winter after this, so rather there is no problem environmentally. They would take advantage of our kindness if the environment were te be excessively good after all. Aah, there will be no problems even if they die. Just, don’t set them free please. Granted that they were set free or escaped, in that case it will become your crime. Each of their period of labor differ, but I will get in contact with you when it is near. Aah, we have arranged for the bare minimum food by Kevin company, so please be relieved”
“By the way, if we refuse this…?”
“You will not. Normally you would be able to refuse, but this is sponsorship of the feudal lord’s wife. Until you have connected a carriage-passable road to the pioneer land, they will not be freed, don’t you agree? Manpower that you can use until the end. Is that not a good thing?”
The Premie city government official appeared just when they were being delighted after hearing about the completion of the extermination from Yuuji.
What the axe holding giant man and the male apekin was told was about putting the criminal slaves that the government official had brought to road construction.
Moreover, they had no rights to veto.
The eyes of the five criminal slaves brought by the government official with shackles on looked dead.
They were brought here as a literal flesh wall, and will be constructing a road in the forest this winter next.
Different from common slaves, criminal slaves were treated cruelly.
“Understood then, or rather, got no choice but to, right?” While grumbling, the woodcutter and monkey took charge of the five criminal slaves.
And thus, the road connecting premie city to the pioneer land had temporarily gone from two people to seven.
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“Each and every one of them, looking all depressed. Hey, you all. Sit down and put out your feet”
After the government official left, the giant man turned towards the five criminal slaves. With his axe on his shoulders and ill-humored expression, he issued the criminal slaves their first instructions.
The criminal slaves moved sluggishly.
The five men who sat down, threw out their thinned legs on the ground.
“Tch, damn, doing as told, huh? Whatever”
The giant man filled his eyes with a dangerous gleam.
He spoke with a tone as if he had returned to the man at the time he picked a fight with Yuuji before.
But the male apekin who was beside him did not say anything.
The giant man holding the axe, held aloft the axe overhead.
And yet, the criminal slaves did not respond.
*whomp*, a loud sound resounded in the forest.
Five times in total.
The criminal slaves opened their eyes wide and looked at their feet.
The axe had cut apart their shackles.
“Because you have things like these on that your eyes are like that. But, listen well, you guys. Don’t think about running away from me and this guy near this road. If there is even one such guy, everyone will get punished. Us too you know”
The five criminal slaves showed slight response of surprise.
They did not just remove their shackles.
If the criminal slaves tried to run away, the two supervisors would receive punishment too, they said. Moreover on a voluntary basis.
“After this it’ll be winter. It’s a long, cold and harsh winter. If one of us makes trouble, then there’s a chance we’ll get wiped out. Even us two have no choice but to stay until we die if the road isn’t made. Listen alright? We are a team. We don’t know about our future. But you know, first we’re going to survive this winter with all of us”
The woodcutter man spoke, eyes filled with determination. Beside him, the monkey nodded with a know-it-all airs.
We, who are ruffians, and the captured criminal slaves.
There is little difference between us.
The five criminal slaves who sat down feebly, with the light lost from their eyes.
Us, who picked a fight with a newcomer who might have been a client at the adventurers guild, would very likely have commited a crime someday if not for this punishment.
The five criminal slaves is our possible future.
We discovered our calling and was saved.
If that were the case, they will.
The giant man and male apekin who had witnessed the criminal slaves, made a certain decision.
That they would create the road with the seven of them, without losing any of them.
A former ruffian and criminal slaves accomplishing a great achievement, would that not interesting? They thought.
In the future, they went down in history in frontier city – Premie as an expert team opening up roads in backwater regions. Probably.
Incidentally, they had not encountered a princess it seems. The beautiful young elven girl was close, but no cigar.
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