Interlude – Lumberjack
Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!
The satisfying sound of an axe striking a thick tree echoed.
However, the sound was only coming from one spot. A lumberjack must be felling a tree all by himself.
Zasha, the leader of the adventurer party ‘Crimson Vow,’ decided to at least check it out and led her party members towards the source of the sound.
Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!
At the source of the sound was a man in his prime. The man was swinging his axe with single-minded focus. His form was so earnest that Zasha hesitated for a moment before calling out to him.
“Excuse me, do you have a moment?” Zasha asked. “It’ll be dark soon. The adventurers are about to head back, so perhaps you should call it a day too?”
Indeed, all the lumberjacks except for this man had already finished their work for the day and returned home.
For some reason, only this man remained, working alone.
“Ah, is it that time already…? Hmm… I’ll just work a little longer,” the man replied.
Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!
The man said so without pausing his work.
Zasha found it surprising that a day laborer would work with such enthusiasm.
“Why are you working so hard? It’s not like your wages will increase just because you put in extra effort, right?”
“I was born here in Baumgarten,” he said.
Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!
Again, the man answered without stopping his work.
The lumberjack’s face, which had looked proud as he said that, twisted as if he were about to cry the next moment.
“We folks, y’see… we’re useless peasants… Far from payin’ taxes to our lord, we couldn’t even grow enough grub for ourselves… The soil was as barren as we were. That’s why we couldn’t grow much wheat…”
Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!
“To us good-for-nothin’ folks, the Lord-sama said he’d bring us food… We can’t even pay our taxes, y’know? It’s not like the Lord-sama is rollin’ in money either. And yet, the Lord-sama went into debt to provide us with food… I’m ashamed of myself.”
Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!
“I know ’cause I used to work away from home a long time ago. Never heard of no other noble-sama goin’ into debt just to feed their people. We’re alive thanks to generations of our Lord-samas. That’s why I wanna be useful, even a little, and repay their kindness!”
Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!
As he spoke, the lumberjack was crying. But he didn’t wipe his tears, continuing to swing his axe.
The lumberjack’s expression changed from one of anguish to a cheerful one, as if he were speaking of something he was proud of.
“And so, y’see, this time, that chance has finally come around! That little Master Dee—no, our Lord-sama—he made a big name for himself in the Royal Capital, and now he’s a Count-sama! He brought back a lot of money too! Maybe the Goddess-sama saw the devotion of our Lord-samas through the generations. It’s like, ‘Glory to Baumgarten!’ I gotta work hard too, so I don’t lose to everyone else!”
With the sound of fibers tearing and snapping, the large tree finally fell. The man let out a satisfied breath, shouldered his axe, and turned towards Zasha and her companions.
“Well now, ain’t you all a bunch of pretty lasses. Sorry for makin’ ya listen to my borin’ talk. I’ll be headin’ off now too.”
“No, not at all…”
The lumberjack trudged towards the village. Watching his retreating figure, Zasha and the others recalled their past.
Though Zasha and her party were now counted among the successful adventurers in the Royal Capital, they hadn’t been successful from the very beginning.
Zasha, Susane, Zuzana, Sofie, and Thea of the adventurer party ‘Crimson Vow’—they had all once been ordinary village girls.
They had left their villages for various reasons to become adventurers, but there was something they couldn’t forget: the arrogant attitude of the officials who came to collect taxes, and the feeling of powerlessness as large amounts of the wheat they had painstakingly grown were taken away.
‘Taxes should be abolished, and nobles should just suffer. Nobles don’t care about commoners at all.’
Because they had thought that way, the story the lumberjack told was a shock to them.
To think there was a noble who would go into debt to help commoners…!
It wasn’t a story they could easily believe. However, they couldn’t think the lumberjack was lying.
There were no lies in those tears.
“This territory is more interesting than I imagined,” Zasha remarked.
“Indeed,” one of them agreed.
For Zasha and her party, the Baumgarten Territory had merely been a place they stopped by to defeat a Hydra. Now, it was beginning to take on a different meaning.
“Count Baumgarten… I wonder what kind of noble he is?”
The hero who evolved his Gift and defeated a dragon. Dietfried, who had achieved such brilliant success. This young hero, a true symbol of a successful noble, was now trying to defeat the great enemy of his homeland’s poverty.
And then there were the people of Baumgarten, who adored him to an extent that was normally unthinkable.
“Interesting, isn’t it?” Zasha said.
“Yeah!” the others chorused.
“It is,” Sofie mused. “Though I still find it hard to believe such a noble exists.”
“It seems the Baumgarten-samas have been a line of compassionate lords,” Thea added.
Zasha, Zuzana and Susane, Sofie, and Thea. They began to take an interest in Dietfried, the lord of the Baumgarten Territory.