CH 105

“Did anything happen in the village?”

Aria and Kili chatted while making the food for the party.

Despite Aria’s return being celebrated, was she going to be making the food – was what I thought.

However, making food together itself is like our everyday, so this should be fine.

I couldn’t help with the cooking so I was helping setting up the plates.

This sad state was also just like everyday.

Looking at it like this, Aria was also acting like usual.

She tried acting normal in places where she was alone this past half month, but it somehow looked strained.

But once she came back to the village, she was already better than yesterday.

As expected, being back home gave helped her relax.

Even I felt like being at the village was like being ‘back home’.

For me, this village is already my hometown.

“Ah, for now I’ve started working on the field. I’d started about 2 weeks before the snow fully melt, but about half of the schedule has been finished.”

“That’s fast.”

Like Aria said, this was well in advance according to our schedule.

Even with everyone, it was expected to take roughly a month to finish it.

“The wooden hoe was quite the effacious product. Even the soldiers were surprised. I was working at three-times the speed from last year. As expected, a magic tool made from a smelting pot is different. It’s only just become spring, but we’re just about done with cultivating the land.”

In this country, when the spring socializing begins, in other words, when the tournament starts off, is when Spring is said to begin.

It had just begun, which is why there was no need to rush.

But there’s nothing wrong with finishing early either.

Weather-wise there was still snow when we left, but now the snow has completely melted, giving way to spring.

The reason it got done so fast had to be the wooden hoe made through alchemy.

A normal hoe is made by a blacksmith.

Even those are enough to till the land, but as expected, hoes made through alchemy are much more efficient.

The materials are wood from the demon forest, after all.

“How many hoes do we have left?”

“Umm, less than half I’d say. We would run out if we used them to plow the rest of the land.”

“I see.”

Kili answered without stopping her hands.

We had made a hundred wooden hoes.

Considering the area to be harvested, the number was set to hundred.

I thought we had some leeway with that number, but it was just barely enough.

“Should we make some more, just in case?”

“Hmm, Aria what do you think?”

“Eh? Me?”

Being passed the baton to by me, Aria stood there in surprise.

“Well, Aria’s the representative of this village after all. We have to keep your opinion as the final decision.”

“Hmm, if we did that, then our exploration would get delayed by quite a bit. But if we didn’t, we might not be able to cultivate the planned area.”

Aria says as if to confirm.

Wood hoes are made of wood from the demon forest, so it’s difficult to get the materials.

The last time we made them, there wasn’t much progress in our exploration.

“We kept Reno from exploring for quite long, so shouldn’t it be fine to prioritize that? There’s still some time till we have to report our farm area to Margravine-sama, so I don’t think we need to add more. We might even have enough already.”

“…Yes. We should make it at the current pace.”

Kili looked at Aria with an astonished look.

Even her hands had stopped cooking.

“In that case, let’s cultivate as much land as we can, before resuming our exploration. If it seems that the area is not enough, we can make more from there… What?”

Noticing that Kili’s hands had stopped, Aria stopped her own.

“Nothing, Aria. Have you, changed somehow?”

“Eh?”

“Like, before you were… how do I say, did what you felt? But now you seem to think of a lot of things before taking a decision.”

“…Well, I experienced a lot at the royal capital.”

Aria looked a bit down.

She did experience many things at the capital.

There must have been a lot that she thought about.

It was significant enough that it left her scared to even meet other people.

“Still, I’m not good at all, but I’m trying to take action thinking what would Lain do in my place.”

“Eh? Me?”

Suddenly hearing my name from Aria’s lips, I shudder.

I never though I had such an impression on Aria.

Leaving my magic aside, there were plenty of times when my decisions failed.

I haven’t done anything to earn her recognition, is what I think.

“Hmm, isn’t that fine?”

Even Kili says that.

“Aren’t there better role models out there you could mimic? Like Margravine-sama.”

“Stepmother isn’t always near me. The person closest to me who’s also the most exemplary is Lain.”

Well, it’s true, even though she became the adopted daughter of the Margrave, she probably won’t spend that much time on it.

The president of a big company wouldn’t care about his niece who joined the company through connections.

That wouldn’t change even if it was through adoption.

That said, me huh?

…I’m trusted more than I thought I was.

“Hah. Keep it to a limit okay? I won’t lend a hand even if you fail, yeah?”

“It’s fine. I trust you.”

Aria laughed with a decent smile just now.

Well, I can work a little hard to protect that smile.

That’s what I thought as I pulled myself together.

“Then, after confirming with Milia and the others, and if there aren’t any objections, let’s clear the land till we run out of hoes or clear the targeted area!”

“Yeah, let’s do that.”

Saying that, Aria and Kili once again return to their cooking.