The Village Chief

The old man was sitting comfortably in a chair with his shoulders hunched.

Lutz is the village chief of Enker Village, who will turn 68 this year. In his late teens, he joined a pioneer group and was one of the last of the original members to clear the land around the village.

It was a few days ago that I heard a new master was coming to the long-neglected manor.

In most cases, noblemen visit their territories at the end of spring, when the rainy season has passed and the weather continues to be sunny. It is now the beginning of spring, and the signs of winter are finally disappearing. It was not unnatural for me to take this as meaning that the mansion should be in order by then.

Although it is called a feudal lord's residence, Enkar Village is a relatively large village in this region, but it is an ordinary village with no notable specialties, and it was rare for the magistrate who was in charge of the neighborhood to come to inspect it, let alone the feudal lord.

At most, tax collectors come to the village in spring and fall to check the books and fields, and even then, they rarely stay in the village. Although the lord's mansion, built only for appearance, is the largest building in the village, it was kept to the bare minimum and hardly ever used, usually a closed building.

It would be a good idea to ask the women of the village to clean the area around the time the seed potatoes are planted in spring. The sun was about to set yesterday when I heard that a new owner had arrived at the lord's mansion.

It is said that when they arrived in the morning, the servants finished cleaning, and the new lord stayed in the mansion. The news made my blood boil, but visiting the feudal lord's mansion without warning after dark was the kind of behavior I wouldn't complain about even if I was rudely attacked. Lutz, who has been involved in the development for a long time, was well aware of the fear and unreasonableness of the nobility.

It is common for aristocrats to finish their work in the morning and relax in the afternoon. It's scary to visit before the sun gets high and interrupt your work. It would be a good idea to visit the young people first in the afternoon and ask for an audience.

Regarding the fact that the mansion was not in good condition, he resolved that it would be a blessing to be able to offer his wrinkled neck as the village chief to the other residents to be exonerated, and he has already reached the stage of his prime, serving as the face of the village. That evening, he told his eldest son that he would be in charge of the village from now on and hugged his wife, who had been with him for many years, in tears as they said goodbye.

And now, the new lord is sitting across from Lutz's dining table, who has made up his mind.

"I'm sorry for visiting so suddenly. There aren't enough people here anyway, so I apologize for the inconvenience."

"Y-no, that's outrageous."

She is wearing a simple dress, but you can tell at a glance that the shiny fabric is silk. Her fingertips had no blemishes, pure white skin that hadn't been tanned, shiny golden hair, and clear green eyes.

In a village full of people working and covered in mud, the unrealistically beautiful woman looks like an aristocratic princess who was raised with care.

"Um, young lady..."

"Ma'am."

Lutz trembled as the tall man in a knight's uniform who was standing behind him spoke in a low voice. When Lutz was in his prime and his back was still straight, several of his friends were fired for disrespecting a man from a baron family who was in charge of monitoring the pioneer group in the area. there were.

The reasons include that the land cultivation is not progressing as expected, or that the wheat harvest has not yet been completed yet, and that they have complained about imposing taxes.

This is a way to survive with Lutz and his friends. It was none other than the members of the pioneering group who went hungry because they had no other place to live and the crops didn't grow as expected. A fat young man wearing silk clothes who knows nothing about labor is told that the fields he has worked so hard to till are not enough, and the villagers, who are emaciated and unable to produce the crops they want, are told to give 40% of it as tax. There was no way I could nod my head in silence.

That was already forty years ago. There are only a few people left, including Lutz, who know directly about that day. However, because of this, he has repeatedly conveyed to the villagers the horrors of the nobility.

Never go against it. Just wait for the storm to pass, bow your head and endure whatever is said to you.

"So, the land to the west hasn't been cultivated yet, right? I'd like to use the entire nearby serf village to turn it into a field, but the serfs are also the property of the village. So, I thought I'd give you some advice so you don't have any trouble.''

"Yes, no, if you do as you wish, madam."

"I heard that they sometimes call serfs to help in the fields, but is that okay?"

"The fields around the village can only be taken care of by villagers, and there are also tenant farmers."

Serfs are used not only to cultivate new land but also to maintain the village's fields, so it would certainly be a problem if they were used up by a noble princess. However, as long as the villagers work together to take care of the fields that are now producing abundant wheat, it doesn't matter, and as long as they don't add new fields, they won't have to pay taxes for it.

From the beginning, it never occurred to Lutz to go against the nobleman who had a sword-wielding knight standing behind him.

"Then I'll borrow a serf from the pioneer village. Also, what are you doing with the wheat straw you harvested last year?"

"Straw, huh?"

"Yes, it's what's left after harvesting the ears of wheat."

"Then, the soft parts are fed to livestock, harvested and used as bedding for livestock barns, used for house repairs, and some of the soft parts are used by women to weave baskets."

"You have to replace the bedding, right? How do you do that?"

"Sometimes I plow into the fields, but when I can't do anything, I throw it away along with the leftover straw on the mountainside."

"Do you mind if I take it? Does it belong to someone else?"

"No, it was disposed of as garbage..."

Old bedding smells of livestock manure and urine. When it rains continuously, it rots and gives off a terrible odor. It's not unusual for people to throw them outside the village because they don't like the smell.

"Then I'll collect it, so please tell me where it is later. Also, what do you do with the garbage produced in this village...bones, food scraps, etc."

"There is very little food waste because it is fed to livestock. There is a dumping ground for animal bones next to the place where straw is thrown away."

"Do you mind if I take that too?"

"Of course. Everything in this village belongs to your wife..."

Lutz doesn't think it's pathetic to use flattery on a daughter who is as old as her grandson. As long as the people in the village can live peacefully, that's fine.

"Thank you. If you need anything else, please let me know."

Apparently, the business was done, and the girl quickly stood up. Her maid places a wide-brimmed hat on her head, quickly adjusting its shape and angle. She was not blamed for not cleaning the manor properly, and even more so, she was not even talked about.

"Yes, Mr. Village Chief, what is your name?"

"My name is Lutz."

"Then Mr. Lutz, please call me Melfina. I don't really like being called ma'am."

After saying that, the new lord left through the door opened by the escort knight with a bitter expression.

Along with the fatigue, a sticky sweat begins to form. After the sound of the carriage driving away, the door burst open again.

"father!"

"You! Oh, thank goodness. You're alive!"

My son and my wife of many years approached me, both looking like they were about to burst into tears. No, her wife was crying a little.

With faces like this, these two really look alike.

"What? I thought I was finally going to become the village chief, but it doesn't seem like my father is going to retire yet."

There was something shining in the eyes of my son, who was making fun of me.

It seems that the storm left without taking anything away, but he definitely said "again." I asked her to call me by her first name, not just madam or lord.

"...There's no way I can call you."

Dealing with aristocrats at this age is no joke and will shorten your lifespan. As long as he was in the position of village chief, there was no way he could refuse to meet him if requested.

Thinking about this, Lutz felt that it might not be a bad choice to leave the job to his son and retire at this point in time.

Before leaving the duke's house, I had requested a message on horseback as a warning, but I was in such a hurry that the messenger who came to inform me did not expect to arrive in just a few days, which caused a problem.

Thank you for reading.

I am very happy.

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