VII The Village's Problems - 2

Hierd shook his hand, after; he put his right hand on his coat.

"Give me a pencil and paper."

[REQUEST GRANTED: PENCIL AND PAPER]

He pulled out the two items from the shadows of his coat and wrote; 

"Hello, Mr. Hadi, are you unable to hear properly?"

"Yes, yes, but pay no mind to it. My assistant," He pointed to the man who Hierd followed. "He will translate it into the language of signs."

"Sign language exists in this world? Well of course it would, what am I? Stupid?"

"I see." Hierd nodded. "I am here to see and hopefully... Resolve, the situation."

Awkwardly did he wait as the man signed.

"Resolve!? O-o, lord!" He dropped down. "Please, please, help our village!"

"I will, Sir. Hadi. But first I need to understand the problem."

"Over here, O' lord." Hadi said after the man finished signing.

The men who were on the floor were busy looking at documents and so-what (most of said document were written on wood with black paint, whilst there were some others written in paper, albeit, the quality lacked). 

One man in the party of men started the conversation. "Here, O' lord is our budget." 

"Three thousand silver coins? That's sound good to me, right? What's the conversion rate of silver to dollar?" 

"Excuse my mind forgetting, but how much is silver makes one gold coin?" Hierd questioned at the man. 

"It is I believe fifty silver a golden coin."

"Meaning we have sixty golden coins as our budget. I don't have the best of grasps on my economy, but I think that this village is quite poor." Hierd sighed.

"How did Ridge Village make money before the monsters came?"

"Let me answer that question... Lord" A man beside him interjected, meanwhile the chief rested. "Before, it was two-hundred silver, and in a good day, maybe three-hundred or so for one week." He passed a wooden tablet over to Hierd.

"It contains our main sources of money; crops, meat, and the occasional swords." His face grimaced. "But, last year, when we had to flee. An obvious decrease in crops led to a rather unfavourable pay."

"Is it happening in this village too? I should look at their village first if I ever wanted to venture." 

Hierd rubbed his chin, and after some seconds, said; "Can you answer a question of mine, sir?" 

"Oh, please--O' lord, call me by my name, Friedrick. But, yes, I think I can, O' lord."

"Have you applied Ennomite in your farming in the recent years?" 

"Yes, we of course have, as every city and village have used in their farming."

"It had maybe led to the downfall of your crop's yields."

"How so!?" Friedrick was concerned. 

"Doesn't this Ennomite fasten the growth of plants? And makes the crops more appealing, both in taste and looks?"

He nodded.

"Ennomite's forced growing of the crops lead to the nutrients of he ground to be... 'Sucked' up too much in too fast a period of time. Ultimately such things need time to replenish, which Ennomite disturbs."

"What unforeseen knowledge!" He faced the other men around him, Friedrick initatied the conversation, of which they all gathered and whispered to each other. Hierd hadn't heard anything and because of that, he became intrigued. 

"O' Lord!!!" Friedrick bellowed, the men bowed and put their heads all the way to the ground. "Please save our village!" 

The chief didn't look to 'understand' the situation, but grasped from the men's gestures what it might be about and too bowed. 

A few minutes have passed since that conversation, and since then; Hierd, Hadi, and the rest of the men went inside a more comfortable place to talk (the chief's home's dining table). "I want to talk about the current situation." Hierd started.

"The current situation, O' Lord?" Friedrick said, sipping the tea given to him. "We had fled our town, Ridge town, which lies further north from here. Because of Auferstehen, the month of resurrection. We were forced to flee." His face was unhappy. "Wolves had trampled any wheat and crop we had. The other beasts had too broken the wooden-made homes, and had unfortunately, taken alot of my people. We regret not having acted better, but... There's nothing to be done."

"Don't be hard on yourself, Sir. Friedrick, surely that was the best choice, to flee. But I have a question."

"What may it be, sir?" 

"Why not have the knights of the closest city help?"

The whole room seemed to dim, Friedrick and the rest of the men seemed absent in thought, but as Hierd looked at their eyes, those were eyes--eyes filled with anger.

"The kingdom, Krimvald, doesn't care about it's villages." A man started. 

Hierd felt like he shouldn't talk, but he needed to. "Then let's ignore that kingdom."

"What?" A murmur of questions rang about the table.

"What my country can bring to the table is even more better than whatever this one can bring for it's people! If it wants to ignore, turn a blind eye to its men, that you should all too!" Hierd stated, loud enough that even Hadi had heard.

"O--O'lord, surely you... You aren't thinking of... Rebelion?" Hadi felt terrified. 

"More of an invasion." He stated with a grin. "I need only an army of a hundred to defeat an army of five thousand!" 

The room had a silent gasp. Naturvege (watching from afar), was intrigued, and smiled.

"But how?" Friedrick questioned. "I do not doubt the power of your country's Kar98k, but I think that even that can be overpowered by the many arrows and swords of the kingdom." 

"Germany, my country, hasn't only the Kar98k. We have moving Iron strongholds, capable of cracking a mountain with the thunder it cracks." The men got excited, Friedrick had grown a grin whilst too finishing his tea. "We have birds of Iron that can fly faster than that of the Kar98k! And all I ask, is for an army. And surely your Ridge village supports an army more than thirty?" 

They were stunned to speak, 'Iron strongholds that can destroy mountains?' And, 'Iron birds that fly faster than Hierd's weapon!?' But ultimately, the idea of rebeling looked to be more brighter.

"If you need our footmen, take all fourty of them. If you need more, then we shall bring to you ones that shall serve your army." Friedrick stated. "And if you can uphold that this kingdom be damned, I shall, no, we shall serve you, Sir. Hierd die Grace!" 

"I've just put 'Jesus' in their minds with the knowledge I've said. But even I don't know where this will go towards to, but hell! With Ridge Village's dedication to serve me, and also Venit Ille's. I can stop a whole army from approaching... 'our' lands."

They got out of their seats and once again bowed to Hierd. He didn't know what to do, but just nodded instead. "Please, sit down." Hierd said. "We will talk buisness."

"Yes, sir." 

About an hour later; Hierd's meeting with Ridge village ended. They talked more of Venit Ille and Ridge village's cooperation with each other as Naturvege had then stepped up and joined the meeting (Hierd was very confused why Naturvege was resting in his house and not on the field, but he said; 'Alrife's training them all with the bayonet').

Hierd was resting outside on the chief's house's bench. Breathing in the natural and fresh air of the afternoon, which was uncomparably more fresh in comparison to his life in the modern world.

There was still an hour left until Hierd was designated to bring the footmen their needed food. But he had basically completed everything for the day. 

"Might as well visit early..." Hierd hid from public view, and once he was in a decently hidden spot, he said to the voice; "Give me a big wooden wagon with... fifty... Egg omolettes with... Hotdogs... That are inside medium-sized wooden boxes with... A removable top." 

A blink, and there it was. The wagon was filled to the brim with the fifty boxed egg omolettes. "I guess I'll just bring the food early."

"Wah!"

"W-what!? A voice? Where? Who?"

"Who's there!" Hierd shouted into the oblivion of the forest.

*Ah, he spotted me!

"Come out!" Hierd shouted at the tree where voice seemed to emit from.

A small child. 

"God! what the am I gonna do if this guy exposes my secret!"

"O... O' lard? How didja do that!?"

Hierd bent down and sat to meet the child's level. "What do you mean? It was just hidden by the tree's vines and I just shook over to reveal it."

*Oooo

"I chee, O.. Lord." 

Hierd saw the child pout a bit. "Does he want an omelette? Eh... Fine, I mean I just gas lighted him into thinking that the wagon didn't just transmogo-whatever out of nowhere."

"Here, want some?" Hierd questioned whilst he held a wooden box. 

"Yesh!" He took the box, and scurried off. 

"..."

Hierd went behind the wheel and pulled the cart forward where the field was. 

He treaded forward with his wagon, slowly so, until he could see just about the silhouetes of men and women training in the distance. He could've just stopped and stood to watch, it was in a way mesmorizing? Hierd was twisted in the head.

He heard the distants cries of men, the grunts of the men, and the faint puf of the women. "Thats bayonet training alright." 

Alrife, who stood looking at them train was able to spot him trekking, nearing the platoon of men. "At ease everyone!" Alrife shouted. "The captain is here!" 

"Ohh, look at the captain! He's bringing us food!"

"It smells delicious too!"

The men were wholly fixated on the wooden wagon with the beautiful aroma and hadn't cared if their posture was straight nigh if their tongue stuck out. But seeing this, Alrife freaked. "Everyone! Position yourselves neatly! Neatly! I tell again, Neatly! Or I'll be shoving food in your gullets with my bayonet!"

The crowd went silent. 

Alrife went towards Hierd, to help him with carrying the heavy wooden wagon up a slight hill towards where they trained. And before long, the wagon was stationed infront of the whole platoon. 

"Men! It seems you are all hungry! So I came a little bit more earlier than I should have had! So please, line yourselves in accordance to your column and your leader and come to recieve the food!"

Following the aroma more than his words, they stationed each other's columns accordingly. Alrife had immidiately took the role of giving out the food as he had fancied it and had already done it the day before. "As these are boxes, there will not be refills!" Alrife shouted. 

They pouted, but didn't argue.

"What in the-" The first footmen had gotten and opened their wooden box. "A... A holy yellow light... A holy aroma... What is this amazingness!?" 

Hearing that, the rest of the footmen had gotten excited. 

'I wanna try that! Faster, faster dammit!'

'He said it was... Holy... I wanna eat it!'

The men were wholly satisfied with the food, now replenished; it was back to business, they leapt to the water containers to fill their canteens, drinking mouthfuls before they went back. 

Alrife had instructed the squad leaders to assemble their members in the columns of five as before (Hierd instructed the fifth to do so too). He made his way to the front, and announched; "All of the squad leaders are to come to the chief's house by sun set!" He continued, "The rest of the men, the footmen, are allowed to dismiss!" 

A sigh of Woohoo! Made it's way like a tidal wave across the crowd of soldiers.

They were at ease and conversed with their comrade, footmen. But after some while, they all walked down from the hill the field was on and towards the village. Alrife, the squad leaders, and of course, Hierd, stayed. Heduc first interjected the silent mood; " Captain, what is the purpose of the... Meeting...?"

Hierd looked at him, and by relation, to all the leaders. "As Auferstehen gets closer, I want to show, and to explain to you all as you will explain to me how Auferstehen will be beaten." 

He nodded in approval. 

"The air is getting colder... If Auferstehen is... December... Then I think I should give them all uniforms, and better guns. I hope this Auferstehen, this thing. No overpowered anything please?"