The Frontier Village Part-2

I went to the well and saw a mug lying on the floor and a bucket attached to a trolley system to draw water from the well. I threw the bucket in the well and when I felt it had sunken, I started pulling on the rope. It was pretty light. I didn't have to apply much force. Perhaps it was because of high STR status.

Hmph, it's my first time using an actual well to draw water.

Even my parents' villages had hand pumps installed in almost all houses.

After storing all my clothes except for underwear in Inventory, I started pouring water on my body. It was cold and refreshing.

I washed my head to wash off any dirt or blood that might have gotten into it.

After I was cleaned, I dried my body with a towel and took out my dirty clothes to wash them.

At that time, I heard footsteps from behind and turned around to find the shy young girl looking at me while fidgeting.

My first response was to cover my naked body like a girl in her puberty when someone walks in on her accidentally.

"I-Is there something you want?"

I asked while making sure my important body parts were covered.

"Ye-yes. Clothes… Ma said to ask for your dirty clothes… She'll wash it."

"Oh no, she doesn't have to do that much. I will wash them myself. I am a guest here after all. I couldn't impose on you guys so much."

"No... she said she'll wash. Give... the clothes."

She was starting to break down and found it hard to speak but I was a bit concerned myself. Was it okay to let them treat me so well? But when she was insisting and not giving up, I had to instead hand them over. I wasn't confident in removing those bloodstains anyway.

I wore the clothes given to me and came out of the bathing area towards the front where the old chief was sitting on a charpai, smoking something.

The sun had started to set and I decided to sit on the charpai in front and ask about the wolf meat. He asked me how much I had and I told him, I had about 10 whole bodies. He had seen me take the Katana in and out of Inventory and had quickly gotten used to it.

Guess as time passes, you also start to lose curiosity.

Or perhaps the old chief had seen similar magic before. Well, I was fine as long as he didn't question me too much.

"I heard from Mr. Jack that this village is called Balha Village. But can you tell me just where exactly is it located?"

"Hmm, it's a little hard to pinpoint but this village and 5 others are under the rule of Count, lord Randalf who is affiliated with Vestia Kingdom's royal family. As for the location, this village is southwest of the royal capital and is near the forest of demise which covers the entire eastern border of the kingdom. The forest is uncharted territory and acts as a barrier to keep away the neighboring countries. Not that we are in hostile conditions with any as far as I am aware. The Kingdom's been at peace for over 60 years now. I still remember the last war ending when I was very young. My father was a foot soldier for the lord."

"I see."

Not that it made sense to me who still hadn't any idea of the shape of the world map, but listening to the terms like 'Vestia' seemed to have updated my map a bit. The overall region in the enlarged map was grown to a vague region labeled as "Vestia Kingdom" under which lay the County of lord Randalf.

My current location was in the Balha village which was located near the southeast of the county's capital which I assumed was near the center or close to it. It was the standard template for the middle ages. Important places like the royal capital lay at the center with royal families residing in it. Of course, there were exceptions but let's not dive too deep into the middle ages.

It wasn't wrong to say this village was a frontier village.

Looking at the grey area made me feel like I could unlock the proper image once I looked at the map or got more information on it. The wider picture was still unavailable though.

Just how far does this map extend though? Could it be that I can unlock the whole world map if I tried? That would be crazy. Not that I need it other than maybe getting a general grasp of the shape of this world's continents and such. It's not like I am going to do a world tour here.

The ability to mark out and fill a virtual map was phenomenal. It would help me a lot in the future at various points in time but that's a story for later.

Other than that, I realized that this region is a monarchy with a king and other royals and a range of upper and lower nobility. The village chief's knowledge about that was quite lackluster so that was something I had formulated on my own based on the information and hints. It was quite obvious that a "Kingdom" had a "King" or someone similar most of the time.

"Is there a city or town nearby?"

If I needed to find out more, I needed to visit a proper city rather than a frontier village with no resources.

"Ah, the nearest town from this place is to the northwest with a carriage ride taking 2.5 days. We sometimes take our products to sell in the town, so you can go with one of them, or wait for merchants to come to sell their products and ask for a ride. But the merchants won't be here for at least a fortnight…"

Fortnight? How long was a fortnight again? 14 days if I'm not mistaken right?

It was probably my first time hearing someone use fortnight in an everyday conversation. While I knew they weren't from Earth, the difference in culture and language seemed to be present still.

"… So yer best bet will be to join in with one of the villager carriages who will leave the morning after tomorrow. It's always better to have more people when ye'r traveling. I'm sure they wouldn't mind. You don't look like a bad guy."

"I see. Thanks a lot for telling me all this information. It was really helpful."

"Bah, don't be so stiff. It was only natural to help someone in need. Plus, because of ye I'll get to have a meat fest after a long time. So, I see it as a win-win. Hoho!"

I smiled at the old chief's kind words and looked at the setting sun. I was lucky to find a nice village with kind people.

***

After a while, a few men came in front of the chief's house and greeted him.

"Hey old man, is it true that we're having a meat party?"

One of the men asked the village chief. His eyes were shining and full of hope.

"How long has it been since we last ate meat? I was even planning to kill one of my goats to taste some but my wifey wouldn't let me. Says it's for sale, not my glutton stomach."

Another one, who was comparatively fat in the bunch said so while laughing but I could almost hear him slurping his saliva. He was probably dreaming of the food.

Just how hungry are you pal?

"Bahaha. You're always hungry Geffory. I pity your wife."

"Oi, my wife loves me, okay!? What will you know? You haven't even been touched by a woman in your entire life. Hehehe."

"Bastard, don't speak like you're superior to me. If I wish-"

"Zip it, brats!"

The chief scolded the two who were having a verbal battle.

"How did you arrange meat for everyone?"

Yet another guy, Al who was a tad younger as compared to others in his late 20s, by the information provided by the Appraisal I used on him, asked.

"You lot. The moment you hear meat you lose your mind. This young lad here brought us meat. About 10 whole wolves. You can feed the entire village with that amount."

The village chief announced so proudly. He even patted my back.

"Amazing! Heya lad did you hunt all those wolves? 10 is about a wolf pack, right? There must be a leader as well then. You don't look so strong though. I heard you can use magic. Show me!"

The last person in the bunch was right in front of my face begging me to show magic.

I'm not some circus magician, you know. And sorry but I lied about being able to use magic.

"Bah! Killing 10 wolves on your own speaks of your talent. You might become a good adventurer."

The guy fighting with the glutton Geffory seemed convinced as he told me that.

"Oi, Brandon. Don't go around giving the kid dangerous ideas."

The other guy rebuked the first guy, Brandon, speaking to me.

"Right, right. My bad. Don't listen to my nonsense."

"Anyway, so where have you kept the meat? Is it in the backyard?"

Al asked.

"Ah, no. I have it stored using magic. If you show me the place, I can take it out there. They are all unprocessed bodies so there might be blood and fur spreading so please keep that in mind."

"By magic, huh? Amazing. Magicians must make good money."

They do? I'll keep that in mind. Thank you.

Magicians seemed to be important and popular in this world. I could understand why.

In a world that had monsters and magic, magic must play an important role in various things. Fighting big and ferocious monsters must be easier if one used magic from a long distance. Other than that, there were magic tools and such. But I was yet to know if such things existed here. They probably did.

I had yet to start exploring my magic but I had a feeling I could do it. It did have a bunch of them listen on my Ability section and assuming magic took mana or MP like in games, I had that too.

I went with the men to a place around the side of the central space of the village and retrieved all 10 wolves from my inventory.

The shocked cheers and claps of the villagers gathered around were a bit embarrassing though.

Ugh. Seriously guys, stop making me feel like a magician from a circus.

Soon they brought the knives and tools and started to remove the skin. They did it quite skillfully in the lamplight since it had gone dark after the sunset, but since they were all excited they probably didn't mind the work.

As they cut the first wolf whose fur was removed from his body, I saw a shiny red jewel inside the wolf's body. It looked like a ruby and was the size of a medium-sized pebble.

"Oh, it's a magic stone. You didn't remove it?"

Brandon who was one of the dismantlers asked.

"Ah, no..."

What are magic stones anyway? It's my first time seeing one. Was I supposed to remove them?

"Don't worry. I'll remove them for ya. They can be sold along with the fur for a fair price in the Adventurer's guild."

"I see, thanks a lot."

Apparently, they could be sold for money. I now had a source of money.

"No need boy. You're letting the whole village eat this meat. That's the least we could do."

He said with a smile.

What a nice village it was. I was honestly impressed by their kindness and was glad I could offer them something in return.

"But still, these seem like fresh corpses. Even the blood hasn't dried yet."

"Ah, yes. I can keep them fresh with magic."

I made up something on the spot to explain and they accepted it without any problem. I felt like I could explain any oddity with just one word here: Magic.

It took them about 1.5 hours to turn all the wolves into meat chunks of edible size. By the end, there was a huge pile of it. I wondered if we could finish it all even with the whole village.

"Whew. That was quite a number. I can't wait for it to get cooked. Oi! Bring out the big ones for the cooking. There's lotta meat for tonight. Also, tell every house that we'll have a feast here in the center of the village so they should bring their plates."

"Got it!"

On the command of one of the chefs, a young and energetic man ran away to inform the other houses which hadn't yet heard of the news. It was a festive mood. The kids had gathered around, taking hungry glances at the pile of freshly cut meat. The ladies and girls were preparing what seemed like seasoning and vegetables along with other things to go with the roasted meat. Everyone had joyful expressions on their faces so it made me happy as well.

I was sitting on the charpai which had been brought from the chief's house to the center space, watching the villagers cook and chit-chat.

I took a deep breath and looked up at the sky. The night had come early. My watch showed it was barely past 7 but one could mistake the night sky for around midnight. The stars filling the entire sky were tinkling almost in a strange rhythm as if someone was controlling them. I could see the moon in one part of the sky. But this moon was a bit different than the one I was used to seeing. It shone more bluish-white than the cheesy yellowish-white color that the moon on earth shone. And it looked bigger as well. About 1.5 times bigger if I wasn't wrong.

I also couldn't find any constellations that I knew from Earth. No, even though there was a clear sky with countless twinkling sky, there was no cloud line signifying the presence of the Milky Way galaxy which one could have seen clearly in this sky. There were various nebulae and other cosmic formations that made the sky look strangely more colorful than normal. I was so used to seeing the greyish-black sky of the metropolitan that I was taken aback by the beauty of it. I felt like I could get lost in that vast space. It aroused my sense of wonder and discovery.

What was out there? Aliens? God?

Hold on, aren't I already on an alien planet? Huh. I forgot that due to meeting humans but this is an alien world, an otherworld…

This once again confirmed my guess that this wasn't Earth.

Haa. What a strange day man. Who thought I'll be in another world after waking up? Damn…

The cause of my coming to this world was still a mystery and my goal wasn't solid yet. But I was currently living along with fellow humans in a safe place away from the monsters and such, so it wasn't the worst-case scenario.

Just what is happening to me? What is my purpose in this world, if any? And how can I go back home...?

The feast that night was quite delicious, although there wasn't enough seasoning used in it. It seemed that pepper and other spices were precious commodities and the villagers didn't have much. But the meat was still savory and everyone heartily ate.

The ladies and girls ate separately from us men who ate in the center. The first meal was given to the old chief and then me who was sitting beside him. I guess that was their way of thanking me since I had provided them with the delicious meat.

I received a lot of good pieces and even though it looked like it might be a bit too much. But I ended up eating it all anyway since I was surprisingly hungry from all the running around I did today.

After the feast, the men sat and talked about today's events in the village while the women took the dirty utensils used to wash them. Needless to say, I was among the major topics in many a conversation that I overheard.

I asked if any leftover meat and was told about 3 KGs were remaining.

They were planning to store some for the village guards who couldn't eat with us due to guard duty but were concerned about the remaining. They could reheat it and eat it the next morning but everyone seemed to have eaten a stomachful and not that many families asked to take the remaining at home.

I asked them to pack me some of the remaining meat. I could store it and eat it later when needed. So, they carefully packed it for me in a disposal utensil made up of big dried fiber leaves. I kept it in my inventory and was happy that I would have some cooked meat for when I'm journeying out of this village.

After the clock hit 8 PM, everyone started to leave for their houses. The old chief also took his charpai and beckoned me to follow. I picked the other one that I was using and followed him to his house.

He showed me my room which had a bed set folded down. I placed the charpai there and the old lady came and helped me place the set on it. I even had a pillow made out of something like hay and a blanket to prevent me from cold. There was a stool kept beside me that had a unique-looking lantern, a jug full of water, and a glass to drink it with.

I thanked the old lady.

"No need, boy. I had quite a feast tonight thanks to your generosity."

She said she was glad to do this much for me and went and came back with a pot filled with something.

A pot? What's that for? She isn't bringing me something like a midnight snack right? No…

Maybe this is a pee pot? No way, it's too small. What the hell is it?

She then proceeded to burn it and mild smoke came off it. After I inquired about it, she said this place has a lot of insects. This would keep them off.

Ahhh, it's a fricking incent. Lol, and here I was making random stuff up.

She then asked me to dim the lantern once I felt like sleeping and left the room after finally checking everything once more.

I took off my shoes and lay on the charpai. It wasn't like my comfortable bed at home but it was still a bed and I was tired.

That night, I fell asleep without myself knowing.

***