Maid Arc ⑧ -To the town’s market: part 1-Translated by: yAmi
It was decided that the s.h.i.tty brat Alan, Cain-bouchama and I would visit the town.
It’s a journey on the coach. It wasn’t a wagon-like carriage like the one I was on with Claude-san; this one had proper seats for humans. 2 people who had the appearance of knights accompanied us as bodyguards.
I peeped outside the coach to have a look at the scenery, and amidst the tranquil rural landscape, I caught sight of a bunch of people lazing near the bushes. I had asked the knight that was sitting next to me what was it about and he told me that those people were farmers. The thousand-teeth thresher had been popularised in this area and the threshing process has been made remarkably easier so more peasants have nothing on their hands to do.
They had finished their field work, and their next step would be to wait for the mages to force the crops to grow. However, due to the shortage of mages, the problem of waiting time was created.
Staring at their blank unthinking faces, somehow, I remembered that they can raise livestock in their farms too.
｢Speaking of which, all the crops in the farmland here, requires mages to grow them?｣
｢Yes it appears. Because this village is under the jurisdiction of the aristocrat.｣
This is a village controlled by the aristocrats! Oh, what a culture shock! Which reminds me, if I had been a mage, the Garigari village would become under direct control over the aristocrat. So this is why the villagers at Garigari were so excited. I see, so this is it.
If the mages help grow the crops all the time, the villagers wouldn’t have to fret about crop failures and don’t have to care about the weather too.
Won’t it make their jobs too simple? For the people of the village, it would surely be an utopia.
｢Oh yeah, Ryou-dono originated from one of the new rural settlements.｣
｢Rural settlements? Is that for real, Ryou. You came from such a primitive place?｣
On hearing our conversation, Alan triumphantly joined in the discussion. It is likely he noticed that it was a perfect topic for dissing me and thus, attempted to join in the discussion. This repulsive little brat!
｢When I had first seen magic accelerating the growth of crops, it came as a shocker to me. I’m so envious that it’s so common in this village area.｣
I had ignored Alan and continued my conversation with the escort knight.
This infuriated Alan and he stood up from his seat to confront me but was sharply told off by Cain-bouchama.
｢Decades ago, these rural settlements didn’t exist though. The problem of lack of mages became more acute and it became increasingly difficult to appoint mages to all the rural lands, resulting in an extreme dip in crop production rates. Thus, we had to explore new options that could be sustained without mages; this is where the new rural settlements came in useful.｣
So… all this boils down to the lack of agricultural development. When I had saw the prowess of magic, I had already considered this was why agricultural was so laid-back here.
After giving a cold glance to the Alan that was flaring up, I took another look outside and noticed the town. Earlier, all I saw was the quiet rural landscape but as we approach the town, I could now hear the bustling noises of the town. Looks like a lively town.
｢Where did you want to go, Ryou?｣
｢I wanted to see the market.｣
As I came down from the coach, Cain-bouchama received my hand to escort me down. No way, such a kind ikemen. A pity he’s only a child. If he was any bigger, I might have fallen head over heels for him.
Nevertheless, no matter how much of an ikemen he is, there is no way that I, with the memories of my past life preserved, would find him my cup of tea.
｢Is there anything you need from the market?｣
｢For now, I don’t really need anything specific…… all I want is to check out what is sold in the market.｣
I see if it’s the market we will be there soon, replied Cain-bouchama as he pointed in direction we should be going to the escort knight.
It really didn’t take long before we reached the entrance for the market. The place was cramped with stalls, and they sold things like vegetables, meat, accessories and many others that caught my eye. It was as boisterous as a Matsuri.
Basically, it gave off the feel of a regular market from my previous life. Everything ranging from fruits and vegetables to meat and fish was sold here. One difference though, typical of a fantasy world, armour and sword combat equipments were sold as well.
Particularly startling was that there were many pharmacies here too. Medicine like dried medical herbs and cream-like medical cream were sold in the pharmacies. I hardly had any image of medicine being sold in this market. Furthermore, there was an abundance of the variety of medicine types too. Rummaging through the a.s.sortment, I came across dried Yomogi.
No way, how nostalgic! I had frequently used it back at Garigari village!
Yomogi smells good and has the smell of j.a.pan. I want to make some herb mochi. As I was thinking about that, Cain-bouchama went on ahead to buy me a bag of it.
This is a secret, he said, as he made brought his index finger to his mouth. (TN: shhh!!) This 8-year-old ikemen is truly amazing. And his perfectness is likely to get worse from now on too.
Just so you know, I’m a servant. If you actually treated other servants like that, they wouldn’t have the heart of a servant. In a way, the future batches of servants would have a harder time with his ikemen style compared to Alan’s s.h.i.tty brat style, Mm. Everybody would be despairing that they cannot be of any use to him.
I continued window shopping until it became somewhat dark and we decided to go back.
Together with the darkening skies, the people in the market began carrying lanterns to illuminate their surroundings. *Klick Klick* I heard the sounds of striking flint so that’s probably how they start the fires in their lanterns.
The vanguard escort knights similarly illuminated our paths we walked on.
The soft flickering glow of orange created a dream-like atmosphere in the market.
Shortly after, we reached the entrance of the town, yet the coach that we rode on was nowhere to be seen. One of the escort knight said he would bring along the coach and left in an composed manner, so the coach was probably parked somewhere else.
We obediently waited. We walked quite a fair bit so my legs started to hurt. I’m exhausted.
However, a child near where we were, was pacing himself back and forth before a huge tree. Picking up ears to listen, I heard something about a copper coin, medicine, and about snakes mixed with his weeping cries.
This smells of nuisance. Honestly, I’m quite tired but if I were to leave while ignoring this child, I would be bothered by it later. Just when I decided to approach the kid, Alan called out to him.
｢Hey you, whatcha’ doin?｣
The self-important Alan makes his grand entrance. Even though we might be calling the kid a kid, he looks older than Alan; despite so, from the atmosphere, it didn’t feel that way. That is the s.h.i.tty brat Alan for you.
｢I came to buy Okaa-san’s medicine and my copper coin has fallen inside the cavity near the tree……｣
｢Can’t you just put your hand in and search for the coin?｣
｢But, there seem to be snakes inhabiting this hole judging from the hissing sound, and I’m afraid…… I tried poking inside with twigs, however, the inside of the hole is surprisingly complex and I couldn’t dig out the coin nor could I chase the snakes away. At this rate, I won’t be able to buy Okaa-san’s medicine.｣
Alan was conversing with the kid so we stood behind behind him. Abruptly, the escort knight that was behind me started wailing in a frenzy.
｢Sn-nakee! Where! Where is the snake! Alan-sama, Cain-sama, get back! Snake! Snake! It’s here!｣
Next, the hysterical knight grabbed them (who were complaining and lamenting) forcefully to a nearby, or more like, as far away as possible from the tree.
｢O-oi! What is it, ouch! ……you hate snakes?｣
The knight made no response to Alan’s question but you could see the fear in his eyes, eyes that clearly showed that he was scared of the snake-infested hole. Thus, there was no doubt he hated snakes.
I borrowed the lantern from the chicken knight, and twigs from the child and then tried poking the hole with the twigs. Exactly as the child had mentioned, the hole was a complicated one. Using an upright stick, I still couldn’t reach the end of the hole nor could I turn over the copper coin and bring it out.
Placing the lantern near the hole, I took a peep inside the hole while moving the twig about the hole. Upon doing so, sounds of hissing can be heard and next, I could see something glaring at me.
Make no mistake, there are snakes inside.