Published: September 10, 2025
※2016/5/13 Typo corrections made.
※This time, it’s not from Satou’s perspective.
◇Royal Capital - Downtown◇
“Good work. Want to grab a drink after this?”
“Sorry, my family’s waiting.”
“You’re no fun, old man.”
I gave a light wave to my laborer comrades grumbling around me and left the construction site.
Today’s construction work was tough, but the pay was good. Still, from tomorrow, I have to visit the broker a bit earlier.
Even though I barely escaped alive from Lesseu Count’s Domain to reach this Royal Capital, it's no paradise.
Working from morning till night, I still can’t casually afford even a single ale.
“Bolt, long time no see.”
“Merchant! It’s been a while!”
Before me, trudging along with heavy steps, appeared the traveling merchant who saved me from a monster attack in Lesseu Count’s Domain.
“Aren’t your kids, the dogperson and catperson, with you today?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
Though he’s said to be a merchant exclusively for the noble lords, this man is surprisingly humble.
Even to a mere villager like me, he always speaks politely.
“How’s life in the Royal Capital?”
“Thanks to the merchant helping us find a place to live, we’re barely making ends meet, but managing.”
Really, I can’t thank this man enough.
“I see—if life is tough, Viscount Pendragon of Count Muno’s Domain is recruiting immigrants. Maybe you should apply?”
“Immigrants? You mean a pioneer village?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
The merchant doesn’t seem to understand how hard pioneer villages really are.
There, people stave off hunger with weeds and tree bark, and a good portion of settlers die from overwork and starvation within three years.
Even when crops are finally harvested, the officials take everything.
I can’t subject my kids and wife to such a fate.
“This is confidential, but about that settlement—”
“Really?”
“Yes, really.”
Unbelievably, the village offers houses fully furnished with the minimum necessary furniture, fields ready for planting, and even wells for the village’s use.
Even taking half of it as rumor, it’s too good to be true. Normally you'd suspect a scam.
But the merchant who lent me a few gold coins without pressing for payment when I arrived at the Royal Capital— I can’t imagine he’d deceive me.
If he wanted to enslave me, he could have simply charged exorbitant interest from the start.
In fact, tax officials and village heads who fled earlier from Lesseu Count’s Domain were enslaved like that.
“Do I contact you about this?”
“The Echigoya Trading Company will handle it. I’m rarely in the Royal Capital.”
Echigoya Trading Company... I think it’s the one run by Hero Nameless’s attendant.
My wife also temporarily worked at Echigoya’s factory, saying the work was tough but the pay was good.
She was amazed it actually paid the agreed amount at first—quite rare for a trading company.
“Thanks, merchant. I’ll talk it over with my family and apply.”
“Yes, that’s best.”
The merchant smiled kindly and left.
◇
“Ugh, a pioneer village? No way!”
“Have you forgotten the stories of your great-grandparents’ pioneering days?”
Once home, I told my wife and daughter about applying to the pioneer village, but their rejection was stronger than I expected.
Our village only became livable about 20 years ago; when we were children, we feared starvation daily, so their reaction was understandable.
I hurriedly explained the merchant’s story again.
“Dad, you’re being tricked.”
“Yeah, there’s no such thing as a house fully furnished with fields ready to plant.”
“But, the merchant said—”
“Maybe even he’s been fooled?”
“He was so kind he worried us.”
I kept arguing, but I stood no chance against my wife and daughter.
Still, clinging to the Royal Capital forever—
“We’re slowly sinking. Food prices are stable, so we avoid starvation, but the construction jobs that increased after the monster trouble will soon disappear. When daily jobs shrink and wages drop, rent here will become unaffordable.”