“That takes care of this place.” “Thanks, miss. …It’s complicated having my house torn down, but since it’s uninhabitable anyway… I guess I should be grateful we could at least salvage some materials.” “Lill thinks so too. If something’s broken, it can be rebuilt. Memories… we can’t do anything about those… but physical things…” “Haha! Miss, you’re not very good at comforting people!”
Another day of house demolition. Since all the people trapped in houses rendered uninhabitable by the landslide have apparently been found, Lill is now focused on demolition work. The most she can do is separate usable materials from unusable ones to help reduce the burden when people rebuild their houses later. Still, it seems to help some people, so she considers it worthwhile.
Lill is still working in Uumira Village. It’s been a week since the initial operations began. Uumira Village was hit by a landslide. She’s helping with the cleanup of mud and debris and demolishing collapsed buildings. At first, they had to reinforce houses with magic engineering… hardening them with magical processing in case anyone was still buried alive, but that’s no longer necessary today. This morning, they found the last residents. It seems they found Abigo’s daughter and wife. The daughter was found barely alive. The wife had given all the food and water she found under the collapsed building to her daughter. Even so, there wasn’t much. The daughter was severely weakened. It appears the wife had shielded her daughter from the collapsing building with her own body, and then went without food or water… until she passed away. The daughter managed to explain what happened. It’s heartbreaking. Even Lill feels that much.
“…There’s no point dwelling on it.”
Lill stops thinking about it and focuses on demolishing the building in front of her. Building demolition using magic engineering is really easy. Normally, you’d need to use large hammers and saws to cut and break things down, but with magic engineering, you just need to channel a bit of magical power to collapse the building’s foundation. After that, you just channel magic power into the mixed debris and use magic engineering to make everything gather in one place – the floating wood chips and mud automatically sort themselves and gather together. This is a type of object manipulation using magic engineering. She never thought she’d be using it for something like this.
“Thanks, miss! …Magic engineering sure is handy.”
The men working with her nod in admiration. Hmph hmph, keep the praise coming.
“That takes care of this building. Let’s move on to the next one.” “Right. We’ll handle moving these sorted materials. But… what’s that over there?”
One of the men points toward the village entrance. When Lill looks that way… she sees a group of about a dozen people heading this way. It’s a mixed group of men and women, carrying hoes. What could this be?
“That’s… looks like folks from Garakia Village. The one in front is Panara, the village chief’s son, if I remember right.”
Garakia Village?
“Is that… a large village?” “Yeah. Like Eere Village and Shukaha Village, it’s one of the big villages that helps coordinate things in the surrounding area. If I recall correctly, they’ve got a lot of folks skilled in earthworks there.”
Earthworks.
“Like road construction?” “Not just that. They can build waterways and levees too. They’ve got good technical skills, and while they usually do farming, they pay their taxes by responding to requests from the lord. Basically, they specialize in physical labor.” “Hmm.”
That’s interesting. Since Lill did engineering work for fortifications back in her mercenary days, she’d love to hear more about their techniques. Could be enlightening. As the Garakia Village people approach, they address the men here.
“I’m Panara, leading the relief team from Garakia Village. As you probably know, I’ve joined the advance party as the chief’s son. We received your request for aid.” “We’re most grateful. We’re from Uumira Village.” “…It’s in terrible shape. The survivors?” “They’re in the evacuation shelter over there. The village chief is with them too.” “I see. I’d like to get started on work right away, but first I need to speak with the village chief. I want to confirm how far the work has progressed and what the plans are going forward.” “Understood. The Garakia Village folks will be worth a hundred men!” “Leave it to us. We specialize in this kind of earthwork. We’ll make ourselves useful.”
This seems pretty reliable, doesn’t it? From Lill’s perspective, this Panara guy looks quite sturdy for his age. He’s about the same height as Shuri, but his arms and legs visible through his clothes are well-trained and muscular. His responses are clear and confident too. His blonde hair is cut short for easy work, and he has good features. Hmm, not Lill’s type though.
“And… who’s this young lady? Looks like she’s using magic engineering… I didn’t know there was anyone around here who could use that?”
Panara looks at Lill with a suspicious expression. Well, that makes sense, since Lill isn’t from this village. The man explains proudly.
“This is Miss Lill, one of Gungrave’s subordinates. She’s an excellent magic engineer, helping us with house demolition and debris removal.”
So embarrassing! Keep going though. However, Panara’s face quickly turns to anger. This isn’t good. Panara looks Lill up and down.
“This is one of that Gungrave’s people? Ha!! If this is their best magic engineer, they can’t be worth much!”
…
“Hey now, Panara. We’ve actually been helped a lot by Miss Lill’s magic engineering, you know? Look at how the house was demolished. The materials are properly sorted, and lots can be reused. Isn’t that quite impressive?”
That’s right! Tell him more! Lill’s expression has gone blank with anger, but she can get things done! However, Panara spits in disgust. Stop that, it’s gross.
“Ha! We’ll see about that. Sure, she can use magic engineering, but isn’t she using it for more than just rescue?” “…?” “Like causing landslides to gain support, then showing up to play hero.” “I can’t let that accusation stand!”
She heard something that can’t be ignored! It’s like he’s suggesting Lill caused this disaster! Lill steps forward to confront Panara. He’s taller than her, but she won’t back down!
“We came after hearing about this village’s situation in Shukaha Village! You can verify that with the people who came seeking help! Stop making accusations that make it sound like this is our fault!” “How do we know? Maybe you were off doing something else at some point?” “Show me proof of that!” “It’s a fact! This disaster happened after you lot took over this domain! That’s proof enough!” “That’s not proof! It doesn’t prove anything! This is outrageous slander!” “Then how did you hear about this in Shukaha Village?! Why were you away from the castle?!” “We were going around to villages to talk with people!” “Talk about what?! Who knows what you were really doing!” “Lill’s telling you!! We haven’t done anything related to this incident except rescue operations! There’s a limit to baseless accusations!” “Baseless? You came to this territory and used your magic engineering to set up the landslide, didn’t you?! You did it to gain support through a self-made disaster!!” “What benefit would we get from doing that!? No one’s stupid enough to destroy land they’re about to govern!” “Shut up! The fact is there was a landslide with no clear cause, right?! That’s all the proof we need!” “You show us proof that we were involved in the landslide! Don’t make ridiculous arguments based just on the landslide!”
The endless argument is wearing Lill down. Why does she have to endure such abuse when they came to help? Her chest feels ready to burst with anger, sadness, and frustration, almost to the point of tears. That’s when it happens.
“Excuse me for a moment.”
Help arrives.
In the end, Shuri’s words send them off to the evacuation shelter. It’s so frustrating. She feels like crying. If Shuri hadn’t shown up, she might have lost it and beaten them down with magic engineering. But she can’t do that. It would only make Gungrave’s position worse. Knowing that makes her inability to do anything even more frustrating. If only she were as good with words as Shuri. But Lill’s not good at that sort of thing.
“They came making false accusations that we caused the landslide. Even though many people thanked us for saving them, they just came and one-sidedly accused us. Said it was our fault.” “Yes.” “It’s not true. We didn’t do it.” “I know.”
Lill pours out all these complaints to Shuri, rubbing her eyes. Her sleeve gets wet with tears.
“I know how hard you’re working, Lill. So please don’t cry.” “Yeah…”
Lill wipes her eyes again, clearing away the tears. If he doesn’t want her to cry, she won’t cry anymore. She doesn’t want to trouble Shuri any further with her complaints.
“You must be hungry after all that arguing. I’ll make something.” “Yes.” “Now then, what should I make…”
Saying this, Shuri quickly gathers the necessary ingredients from their supplies and starts cooking. As always, his movements are efficient. He understands exactly what needs to be done and moves in an efficient, orderly manner without any wasted motion. Will Lill ever be able to do something like that with magic engineering? That’s what she wonders, watching such an expert at work. While she’s thinking about this, Shuri quickly serves up a plate of food. What he serves is a nostalgic dish – cream stew. It brings back memories – when they first met, Shuri made cream stew for her too. Since then, it’s become a standard menu item for the mercenary group. Lill smiles as she accepts it, but… wait, something’s different.
“What’s this?”
It’s definitely cream stew, but something’s different. What’s different is the ingredients. This one has clams in it. The previous one didn’t. The color is different too. It’s like a different kind of deliciousness has melted in, giving it a different shade than cream stew. Shuri explains with a troubled expression.
“This is called clam chowder… well, I’ll tell you about it another time. First, please eat.” “Yes.”
“…It’s delicious.”
Lill’s face unconsciously relaxes with relief. It’s warm. The warm soup settles in her stomach, making her feel very at ease.
“The flavor is gentle. I can taste all the different ingredients, but ‘gentle’ is the word that fits best. It brings a comforting warmth to my stomach, and puts my mind at ease.”
Whether it’s the different ingredients used, or a different cooking process. She’s not sure which it is, but this clam chowder thing tastes somehow different from cream stew. Though Lill’s tongue can’t tell exactly what the difference is.
“The vegetables are delicious too. It’s carefully made, cut into easy-to-eat pieces, and they break down softly in my mouth. The soup has milk in it, right? That’s the taste.”
Even though she notices a different seasoning, it’s still delicious. Just like with the cream stew, all the ingredients are cooked until tender and cut to a size that considers the eater, making it very easy to eat. The ingredients break down in her mouth, mixing the umami of both soup and ingredients, spreading flavor with each chew.
“Thank you for the meal. …I feel a bit calmer now.” “Thank you very much.”
Looking at the empty plate, Lill thinks a bit about their words. Of course, they were just making unfair accusations, but she reconsiders what led them to say such things. There are overwhelmingly more people opposed to Gungrave becoming lord. At least, that’s the impression Lill has gotten from seeing various people’s reactions while going around the villages. She thinks this means Aeclys and Gyngus were that beloved by their people. While Gyngus is one thing, Aeclys is definitely loved. When people learned she was alive and doing well, all their reactions were positive. So, is Gungrave not good enough? Obviously, though she doesn’t want to say it, she thinks he isn’t. He’s not from the lord’s family, and he was originally a mercenary group commander. There’s no way people would easily accept him just because he’s capable. Aeclys has far more accomplishments in governing for the people’s benefit. It’s difficult when someone you don’t know becomes your lord. Lill thinks about what they should do, after being with everyone this long. First, she thinks they should publicly demonstrate the reconciliation between Gungrave and Aeclys to everyone. Looking around the villages, she sees everyone has misunderstandings. Well, she understands things are complicated since Gungrave is still acting as lord. They shouldn’t just show this in the castle town. They should visit every place they can explain to while going around the villages. If they make inaugural greetings and visit various places to express condolences for disasters… maybe things will work out.
While Lill is thinking about such things, she’s suddenly pulled from her sea of thoughts when Shuri picks up the pot and starts to leave.
“Wait. Where are you going?” “I’m going to serve it to those people too.” “Eh?!”
Lill is shocked. What is Shuri saying?!
“But they…” “I know. But you see…”
Shuri gives a wry smile.
“If they go hungry, it’ll be trouble for tomorrow, right?”
Hearing this, Lill falls silent. Unable to follow Shuri’s thinking… and then remembering, she can’t help but laugh. That’s right, that’s who Shuri is.
“That’s right. This is the kind of person Shuri is.”
Someone who serves food to anyone who’s hungry. An incredible softie. And someone who moves people’s hearts through cooking. It’s silly that she was surprised.
“I don’t know what you mean by that, but I haven’t forgiven them for making you cry. So tomorrow, they’ll have to work hard to make up for it.” “That’s reassuring.”
Lill stands beside Shuri as they head to the evacuation shelter together. Now, what will Shuri do?
Entering the shelter, they find Panara kneeling formally before Aeclys. While others watch from a distance… they’re actually just trying to avoid getting caught up in Aeclys’s anger. Yes, Aeclys is quite angry. It’s obvious even from the side.
“Do you understand? Neither Shuri nor Lill had anything to do with this disaster. What’s more, Kuuga has been running around the mountains all day driving away beasts and bandits who might try to take advantage of the village’s situation. They deserve thanks, not the kind of anger you directed at them!” “Yes…” “You’ve seen that I’m safe, right? And you understand that I hold no anger towards Gungrave? Then go apologize to Lill!” “B-but…” “No buts! Currently, we need their power for this village’s reconstruction! Lill’s skills and magic engineering to coordinate with the central authorities for supplies and personnel! Kuuga’s combat power for protection! Shuri’s cooking for food distribution! We can’t do without any of it! At least until help arrives from the central government!” “I-I understand…”
With shoulders slumped as if deflated by Aeclys’s intensity, Panara stands up and looks this way. Panara’s face shows surprise, then frustration, then finally what appears to be remorse. An interesting series of expressions. Panara stands before Lill and bows his head.
“I’m sorry… I made up excuses and said terrible things.” “You certainly did!” “Miss Lill, please don’t say anything more!”
Lill tries to continue her complaints, but Shuri covers her mouth with his hand, preventing her from saying more. What are you doing! There’s so much more she wants to say!
“What Lill meant to say was ‘Indeed, but Lill doesn’t mind anymore so let’s end it here.’“ “Huh? Then why did you cover her mouth-” “That’s what she was going to say. Right?” “Uh, yeah…” “And Lill agrees too, right?” “Mmph…”
In the end, overwhelmed by Shuri’s momentum, Lill has no choice but to forgive Panara. Damn, she wanted to continue her grudge a bit longer!
“Well then, um, Panara?” “W-what is it?” “You must be hungry after coming all this way? Since you’ll be working from tomorrow, please have some of this.”
Though Panara’s face shows fear at first, his expression softens at the sight and smell of what’s in the pot. Aha, so he was hungry after all?
“This is… for us?” “Yes.” “But I…” “If you’re truly sorry, eat more than anyone else and work harder than anyone else tomorrow. That’s what Lill wants too.”
She does not want that. She wants to punch Panara in the face. But she can’t say that in this atmosphere, so Lill stays quiet. Even she can read the room sometimes. Then Panara, seemingly overcome with emotion, starts crying. Why?
“I’m sorry… looks like I misunderstood you.” “So then…” “Yeah, I’ll repay this debt with hard work tomorrow!” “Then please, everyone else too, help yourselves if you’d like.”
Saying this, Shuri begins serving the food to everyone. Watching this, Lill can’t help but smile.
With Shuri around, maybe various things will work out somehow. That’s what Lill was thinking.
She wants to punch that naive thinking right in the face.
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Chapter 67
“That takes care of this place.”
“Thanks, miss. …It’s complicated having my house torn down, but since it’s uninhabitable anyway… I guess I should be grateful we could at least salvage some materials.”
“Lill thinks so too. If something’s broken, it can be rebuilt. Memories… we can’t do anything about those… but physical things…”
“Haha! Miss, you’re not very good at comforting people!”
Another day of house demolition.
Since all the people trapped in houses rendered uninhabitable by the landslide have apparently been found, Lill is now focused on demolition work.
The most she can do is separate usable materials from unusable ones to help reduce the burden when people rebuild their houses later.
Still, it seems to help some people, so she considers it worthwhile.
Lill is still working in Uumira Village. It’s been a week since the initial operations began.
Uumira Village was hit by a landslide. She’s helping with the cleanup of mud and debris and demolishing collapsed buildings.
At first, they had to reinforce houses with magic engineering… hardening them with magical processing in case anyone was still buried alive, but that’s no longer necessary today.
This morning, they found the last residents.
It seems they found Abigo’s daughter and wife. The daughter was found barely alive. The wife had given all the food and water she found under the collapsed building to her daughter.
Even so, there wasn’t much. The daughter was severely weakened.
It appears the wife had shielded her daughter from the collapsing building with her own body, and then went without food or water… until she passed away. The daughter managed to explain what happened.
It’s heartbreaking. Even Lill feels that much.
“…There’s no point dwelling on it.”
Lill stops thinking about it and focuses on demolishing the building in front of her.
Building demolition using magic engineering is really easy. Normally, you’d need to use large hammers and saws to cut and break things down, but with magic engineering, you just need to channel a bit of magical power to collapse the building’s foundation.
After that, you just channel magic power into the mixed debris and use magic engineering to make everything gather in one place – the floating wood chips and mud automatically sort themselves and gather together.
This is a type of object manipulation using magic engineering. She never thought she’d be using it for something like this.
“Thanks, miss! …Magic engineering sure is handy.”
The men working with her nod in admiration. Hmph hmph, keep the praise coming.
“That takes care of this building. Let’s move on to the next one.”
“Right. We’ll handle moving these sorted materials. But… what’s that over there?”
One of the men points toward the village entrance.
When Lill looks that way… she sees a group of about a dozen people heading this way.
It’s a mixed group of men and women, carrying hoes. What could this be?
“That’s… looks like folks from Garakia Village. The one in front is Panara, the village chief’s son, if I remember right.”
Garakia Village?
“Is that… a large village?”
“Yeah. Like Eere Village and Shukaha Village, it’s one of the big villages that helps coordinate things in the surrounding area. If I recall correctly, they’ve got a lot of folks skilled in earthworks there.”
Earthworks.
“Like road construction?”
“Not just that. They can build waterways and levees too. They’ve got good technical skills, and while they usually do farming, they pay their taxes by responding to requests from the lord. Basically, they specialize in physical labor.”
“Hmm.”
That’s interesting. Since Lill did engineering work for fortifications back in her mercenary days, she’d love to hear more about their techniques. Could be enlightening.
As the Garakia Village people approach, they address the men here.
“I’m Panara, leading the relief team from Garakia Village. As you probably know, I’ve joined the advance party as the chief’s son. We received your request for aid.”
“We’re most grateful. We’re from Uumira Village.”
“…It’s in terrible shape. The survivors?”
“They’re in the evacuation shelter over there. The village chief is with them too.”
“I see. I’d like to get started on work right away, but first I need to speak with the village chief. I want to confirm how far the work has progressed and what the plans are going forward.”
“Understood. The Garakia Village folks will be worth a hundred men!”
“Leave it to us. We specialize in this kind of earthwork. We’ll make ourselves useful.”
This seems pretty reliable, doesn’t it?
From Lill’s perspective, this Panara guy looks quite sturdy for his age. He’s about the same height as Shuri, but his arms and legs visible through his clothes are well-trained and muscular.
His responses are clear and confident too. His blonde hair is cut short for easy work, and he has good features.
Hmm, not Lill’s type though.
“And… who’s this young lady? Looks like she’s using magic engineering… I didn’t know there was anyone around here who could use that?”
Panara looks at Lill with a suspicious expression. Well, that makes sense, since Lill isn’t from this village.
The man explains proudly.
“This is Miss Lill, one of Gungrave’s subordinates. She’s an excellent magic engineer, helping us with house demolition and debris removal.”
So embarrassing! Keep going though.
However, Panara’s face quickly turns to anger. This isn’t good.
Panara looks Lill up and down.
“This is one of that Gungrave’s people? Ha!! If this is their best magic engineer, they can’t be worth much!”
…
“Hey now, Panara. We’ve actually been helped a lot by Miss Lill’s magic engineering, you know? Look at how the house was demolished. The materials are properly sorted, and lots can be reused. Isn’t that quite impressive?”
That’s right! Tell him more! Lill’s expression has gone blank with anger, but she can get things done!
However, Panara spits in disgust. Stop that, it’s gross.
“Ha! We’ll see about that. Sure, she can use magic engineering, but isn’t she using it for more than just rescue?”
“…?”
“Like causing landslides to gain support, then showing up to play hero.”
“I can’t let that accusation stand!”
She heard something that can’t be ignored! It’s like he’s suggesting Lill caused this disaster!
Lill steps forward to confront Panara. He’s taller than her, but she won’t back down!
“We came after hearing about this village’s situation in Shukaha Village! You can verify that with the people who came seeking help! Stop making accusations that make it sound like this is our fault!”
“How do we know? Maybe you were off doing something else at some point?”
“Show me proof of that!”
“It’s a fact! This disaster happened after you lot took over this domain! That’s proof enough!”
“That’s not proof! It doesn’t prove anything! This is outrageous slander!”
“Then how did you hear about this in Shukaha Village?! Why were you away from the castle?!”
“We were going around to villages to talk with people!”
“Talk about what?! Who knows what you were really doing!”
“Lill’s telling you!! We haven’t done anything related to this incident except rescue operations! There’s a limit to baseless accusations!”
“Baseless? You came to this territory and used your magic engineering to set up the landslide, didn’t you?! You did it to gain support through a self-made disaster!!”
“What benefit would we get from doing that!? No one’s stupid enough to destroy land they’re about to govern!”
“Shut up! The fact is there was a landslide with no clear cause, right?! That’s all the proof we need!”
“You show us proof that we were involved in the landslide! Don’t make ridiculous arguments based just on the landslide!”
The endless argument is wearing Lill down. Why does she have to endure such abuse when they came to help? Her chest feels ready to burst with anger, sadness, and frustration, almost to the point of tears.
That’s when it happens.
“Excuse me for a moment.”
Help arrives.
In the end, Shuri’s words send them off to the evacuation shelter.
It’s so frustrating. She feels like crying. If Shuri hadn’t shown up, she might have lost it and beaten them down with magic engineering.
But she can’t do that. It would only make Gungrave’s position worse.
Knowing that makes her inability to do anything even more frustrating. If only she were as good with words as Shuri. But Lill’s not good at that sort of thing.
“They came making false accusations that we caused the landslide. Even though many people thanked us for saving them, they just came and one-sidedly accused us. Said it was our fault.”
“Yes.”
“It’s not true. We didn’t do it.”
“I know.”
Lill pours out all these complaints to Shuri, rubbing her eyes. Her sleeve gets wet with tears.
“I know how hard you’re working, Lill. So please don’t cry.”
“Yeah…”
Lill wipes her eyes again, clearing away the tears.
If he doesn’t want her to cry, she won’t cry anymore. She doesn’t want to trouble Shuri any further with her complaints.
“You must be hungry after all that arguing. I’ll make something.”
“Yes.”
“Now then, what should I make…”
Saying this, Shuri quickly gathers the necessary ingredients from their supplies and starts cooking.
As always, his movements are efficient. He understands exactly what needs to be done and moves in an efficient, orderly manner without any wasted motion.
Will Lill ever be able to do something like that with magic engineering? That’s what she wonders, watching such an expert at work.
While she’s thinking about this, Shuri quickly serves up a plate of food.
What he serves is a nostalgic dish – cream stew.
It brings back memories – when they first met, Shuri made cream stew for her too. Since then, it’s become a standard menu item for the mercenary group.
Lill smiles as she accepts it, but… wait, something’s different.
“What’s this?”
It’s definitely cream stew, but something’s different. What’s different is the ingredients.
This one has clams in it. The previous one didn’t.
The color is different too. It’s like a different kind of deliciousness has melted in, giving it a different shade than cream stew.
Shuri explains with a troubled expression.
“This is called clam chowder… well, I’ll tell you about it another time. First, please eat.”
“Yes.”
“…It’s delicious.”
Lill’s face unconsciously relaxes with relief.
It’s warm. The warm soup settles in her stomach, making her feel very at ease.
“The flavor is gentle. I can taste all the different ingredients, but ‘gentle’ is the word that fits best.
It brings a comforting warmth to my stomach, and puts my mind at ease.”
Whether it’s the different ingredients used, or a different cooking process.
She’s not sure which it is, but this clam chowder thing tastes somehow different from cream stew.
Though Lill’s tongue can’t tell exactly what the difference is.
“The vegetables are delicious too. It’s carefully made, cut into easy-to-eat pieces, and they break down softly in my mouth. The soup has milk in it, right? That’s the taste.”
Even though she notices a different seasoning, it’s still delicious.
Just like with the cream stew, all the ingredients are cooked until tender and cut to a size that considers the eater, making it very easy to eat.
The ingredients break down in her mouth, mixing the umami of both soup and ingredients, spreading flavor with each chew.
“Thank you for the meal. …I feel a bit calmer now.”
“Thank you very much.”
Looking at the empty plate, Lill thinks a bit about their words.
Of course, they were just making unfair accusations, but she reconsiders what led them to say such things.
There are overwhelmingly more people opposed to Gungrave becoming lord. At least, that’s the impression Lill has gotten from seeing various people’s reactions while going around the villages.
She thinks this means Aeclys and Gyngus were that beloved by their people. While Gyngus is one thing, Aeclys is definitely loved. When people learned she was alive and doing well, all their reactions were positive.
So, is Gungrave not good enough? Obviously, though she doesn’t want to say it, she thinks he isn’t. He’s not from the lord’s family, and he was originally a mercenary group commander. There’s no way people would easily accept him just because he’s capable.
Aeclys has far more accomplishments in governing for the people’s benefit.
It’s difficult when someone you don’t know becomes your lord.
Lill thinks about what they should do, after being with everyone this long.
First, she thinks they should publicly demonstrate the reconciliation between Gungrave and Aeclys to everyone. Looking around the villages, she sees everyone has misunderstandings. Well, she understands things are complicated since Gungrave is still acting as lord.
They shouldn’t just show this in the castle town. They should visit every place they can explain to while going around the villages.
If they make inaugural greetings and visit various places to express condolences for disasters… maybe things will work out.
While Lill is thinking about such things, she’s suddenly pulled from her sea of thoughts when Shuri picks up the pot and starts to leave.
“Wait. Where are you going?”
“I’m going to serve it to those people too.”
“Eh?!”
Lill is shocked. What is Shuri saying?!
“But they…”
“I know. But you see…”
Shuri gives a wry smile.
“If they go hungry, it’ll be trouble for tomorrow, right?”
Hearing this, Lill falls silent.
Unable to follow Shuri’s thinking… and then remembering, she can’t help but laugh.
That’s right, that’s who Shuri is.
“That’s right. This is the kind of person Shuri is.”
Someone who serves food to anyone who’s hungry.
An incredible softie.
And someone who moves people’s hearts through cooking.
It’s silly that she was surprised.
“I don’t know what you mean by that, but I haven’t forgiven them for making you cry.
So tomorrow, they’ll have to work hard to make up for it.”
“That’s reassuring.”
Lill stands beside Shuri as they head to the evacuation shelter together.
Now, what will Shuri do?
Entering the shelter, they find Panara kneeling formally before Aeclys. While others watch from a distance… they’re actually just trying to avoid getting caught up in Aeclys’s anger.
Yes, Aeclys is quite angry. It’s obvious even from the side.
“Do you understand? Neither Shuri nor Lill had anything to do with this disaster. What’s more, Kuuga has been running around the mountains all day driving away beasts and bandits who might try to take advantage of the village’s situation. They deserve thanks, not the kind of anger you directed at them!”
“Yes…”
“You’ve seen that I’m safe, right? And you understand that I hold no anger towards Gungrave? Then go apologize to Lill!”
“B-but…”
“No buts! Currently, we need their power for this village’s reconstruction! Lill’s skills and magic engineering to coordinate with the central authorities for supplies and personnel! Kuuga’s combat power for protection! Shuri’s cooking for food distribution! We can’t do without any of it! At least until help arrives from the central government!”
“I-I understand…”
With shoulders slumped as if deflated by Aeclys’s intensity, Panara stands up and looks this way.
Panara’s face shows surprise, then frustration, then finally what appears to be remorse. An interesting series of expressions.
Panara stands before Lill and bows his head.
“I’m sorry… I made up excuses and said terrible things.”
“You certainly did!”
“Miss Lill, please don’t say anything more!”
Lill tries to continue her complaints, but Shuri covers her mouth with his hand, preventing her from saying more. What are you doing! There’s so much more she wants to say!
“What Lill meant to say was ‘Indeed, but Lill doesn’t mind anymore so let’s end it here.’“
“Huh? Then why did you cover her mouth-”
“That’s what she was going to say. Right?”
“Uh, yeah…”
“And Lill agrees too, right?”
“Mmph…”
In the end, overwhelmed by Shuri’s momentum, Lill has no choice but to forgive Panara.
Damn, she wanted to continue her grudge a bit longer!
“Well then, um, Panara?”
“W-what is it?”
“You must be hungry after coming all this way? Since you’ll be working from tomorrow, please have some of this.”
Though Panara’s face shows fear at first, his expression softens at the sight and smell of what’s in the pot.
Aha, so he was hungry after all?
“This is… for us?”
“Yes.”
“But I…”
“If you’re truly sorry, eat more than anyone else and work harder than anyone else tomorrow. That’s what Lill wants too.”
She does not want that. She wants to punch Panara in the face.
But she can’t say that in this atmosphere, so Lill stays quiet. Even she can read the room sometimes.
Then Panara, seemingly overcome with emotion, starts crying. Why?
“I’m sorry… looks like I misunderstood you.”
“So then…”
“Yeah, I’ll repay this debt with hard work tomorrow!”
“Then please, everyone else too, help yourselves if you’d like.”
Saying this, Shuri begins serving the food to everyone.
Watching this, Lill can’t help but smile.
With Shuri around, maybe various things will work out somehow.
That’s what Lill was thinking.
She wants to punch that naive thinking right in the face.
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