The Seven-Year-Old Village Chief in Exile - Chapter 21

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 21
Since the Village was full of abandoned houses, I selected the largest and best-situated building to serve as the Village Hall.
And I set up my private office on the first floor where the sunlight streamed in nicely.
Beriti, dressed in athletic wear, was pulling items one by one from the list I’d written out. I’d naturally used my own Wish to cover the expenses.
“You certainly do love assembling everything in proper form, miss.”
“People gain motivation once they establish even the minimum structure. It’s the same principle as buying a new planner every year.”
“Seems different to me. But miss—”
Beriti asked.
“Why are you installing a karaoke machine?”
“It’s not a karaoke machine. It’s Audio Equipment.”
“Isn’t that the same thing?”
“They’re decidedly different.”
After all, any proper village chief must relay to the villagers such tidings as: “Ah yes, I hear the youngest grandchild of Mrs. Kim Hyun-sook from the persimmon tree house has been accepted to a prestigious university—we shall distribute celebration rice cakes.”
So the Audio Equipment was essential.
“Ah, I see—a show of administrative procedure!”
Beriti nodded as if understanding perfectly.
While we were alone, I decided to ask what I’d been wanting to know all along.
“What could the Emperor’s true intention be?”
“Well, hmm….”
Just as Beriti finished installing the Audio Equipment, he tilted his head side to side pensively.
“A Wish? Or just a question?”
“A Wish!”
“Then I shall answer you with utmost sincerity.”
The demon butler bowed deeply, his manner most respectful.
I began with my first question.
“What exactly is that ore we mined through labor?”
“It’s called Void Stone.”
“Void Stone?”
“Literally, a stone that contains nothing at all.”
Beriti withdrew a dark stone from his pocket.
I recognized it immediately. It was exactly the stone that my fellow Exiles and I had sweated to mine not long ago.
“On the surface it looks like any common rock, but inside it’s transparent like an empty cavity. Look, see?”
Beriti sliced the stone as easily as one might cut a banana, revealing the interior.
The stone’s interior was indeed completely hollow.
Yet upon closer inspection, the inside was densely filled with a transparent substance.
As Beriti held the Void Stone and gently shook it, the transparent interior rippled like the surface of a disturbed pond.
Watching this with fascination, I asked.
“What can be done with this?”
“It absorbs.”
“Absorbs?”
“It absorbs power—magical force, divine force, and the like. If this Void Stone is exposed to nature for a very long time, it becomes a precious mineral like Mana Ore or Holy Stone.”
“I see.”
Then perhaps my hypothesis wasn’t far from the mark?
Seizing the moment, I shared my suspicion with Beriti.
“I think the Emperor may be attempting some sort of forbidden experiment.”
“Really?”
“He’s having innocent people blamed while mining ore, buying medicinal herbs under the pretense of harvesting them. And demons besides….”
“Ah, that scoundrel’s brought shame upon our entire kind.”
Beriti slapped his own forehead with a sorrowful expression.
I nodded in agreement.
“But even this isn’t enough to say I’m certain of the Emperor’s true intentions.”
“That’s right. Nothing’s been definitively established yet.”
“The Emperor clearly harbors significant inferiority toward House of Clavis. Could this be connected to that? For instance, might he covet the power I possess…?”
“It’s quite possible.”
……
“Hmm? Miss, what’s the matter?”
Beriti held out his palm as if to say I should continue. He was signaling that he was listening intently.
But I’d already seen through Beriti’s game.
“Stop just listening and give me an answer! What’s the point if you keep just going along with everything I say?”
“Miss, life has no predetermined answers.”
“Don’t spout philosophy at me in that wistful tone!”
“I’m answering you with complete sincerity.”
“Ugh…….”
The absurdity of it drew nothing but a hollow laugh from me.
That cunning little devil in a schoolgirl’s uniform was interpreting my wish as she pleased, answering me with nothing but genuine sincerity.
‘Right.’
Wishes had to be stated as concretely and specifically as possible.
So that the demon’s subjectivity couldn’t slip in.
‘I made a mistake.’
But from what I’d observed so far, Beriti wasn’t the sort of demon to exploit such loopholes.
‘Is there information I’m not supposed to know directly? If so, then my suspicion that the Emperor has some scheme in mind is almost certainly right.’
She may have just told me indirectly.
I asked Beriti more carefully this time.
“Is there perhaps something I’m not supposed to be told about?”
“Argh! Don’t grab my pants like that with that innocent look on your face!”
My earnestness seemed to work—Beriti hastily hitched up her trousers and explained.
“Unfortunately, there is a Prior Wish.”
“A Prior Wish?”
“It’s a wish stipulating that if you ever ask about such information—that is, if you wish to know the Emperor’s true intentions—I shouldn’t grant it. Rather petty and ill-mannered, isn’t it?”
“Surely not…….”
In that instant, a face flashed through my mind.
I didn’t know what he looked like, but I knew what he was to me.
“Clavis……?”
“Precisely.”
Beriti readily disclosed who had made the Prior Wish.
“It was a request from Clavis, the head of House of Clavis and your grandfather.”
Beriti shrugged, as if to say: This is exactly why I told you those people are so utterly insufferable.
* * *
A few days later.
Dalis moved into the house next door with Flora.
While not wanting to be a burden any longer was the primary reason, Flora had been deeply anxious, and the two of them needed time alone together. Hebeniah, Libi, and Ian respected her decision.
The move happened the very next day.
Hebeniah and Beriti procured furniture and household goods, while Libi, Ian, and the other members of the Exile household helped gather what was needed.
Thanks to their efforts, the front yard of Dalis and Flora’s new home soon had a neat vegetable garden, a flower bed, and an elegant outdoor table with four chairs.
That night.
Dalis spoke to Flora, who lay nestled against her.
“From now on, we’ll live here together, just you and me.”
“Father……?”
Flora’s voice trembled with fear as she asked.
“Does Father…… still exist?”
Holding Flora’s trembling hand tightly, Dalis spoke.
“There is no father anymore. There are no more wicked adults to hurt us. It’s just you and me, living here in this house together.”
Only then, reassured, did Flora drift into a peaceful sleep for the first time in a long while.
The next morning.
“Good morning.”
Ian arrived just as breakfast was ending.
“I thought we might show Flora around the village today. Hebeniah is apparently preparing the Village Hall right now. I thought it would be nice for Flora to see it.”
“My, what a splendid village chief.”
“Flora, would you like to go see Sister Hebeniah?”
“Um…….”
The three of them set out on a walk that doubled as a tour of the village.
Adults in the middle of their morning farming work recognized the three and straightened their bent backs.
“Well, where are the three of you off to?”
Flora shied away from their gazes and quickly hid behind Dalis.
While Dalis soothed Flora, Ian fielded the greeting instead.
“Hello. We’re heading to the Village Hall.”
“Just installed that earlier.”
Modi adjusted his straw hat and pointed upward.
Hanging from each streetlamp was a small rectangular box with tiny holes dotting its surface.

The boxes were all connected by black lines, and they led to the Village Hall, which was in the midst of decoration.
“According to Beriti, it’s something like a magical device that announces the village’s major and minor affairs, and Hebeniah wants to do this kind of demonstrative administration.”
“Thanks to you, Village Chief, our village is becoming state-of-the-art.”
As they turned to leave after exchanging greetings.
“Oh, hello…….”
Flora gave a hesitant wave. Embarrassment kept her from finishing her words properly, yet it was a greeting born from every drop of courage she could muster.
“Ha ha! Yes, let’s see each other again later.”
“Be careful on your way.”
The adults waved back at Flora.
“I, I did it……!”
Flora’s face flushed with pride at her own success.
Ian complimented the child, telling her she’d done wonderfully. Dalis tenderly stroked the crown of her daughter’s head.
The Village Hall they arrived at had its doors wide open.
The three who entered were left speechless.
Greeting them immediately upon entry were an expensive carpet, a marble table placed in the center, and crystal vases holding radiant roses.
A chandelier hanging from the ceiling that stretched the full height of the hall sparkled brilliantly.
During his days as an Imperial Knight, Ian had visited several aristocratic residences.
‘This is far more luxurious than anywhere I’ve seen before.’
Though the scale was modest, it was offset by an overwhelming air of refinement.
“Huh? Ian, you came?”
Hebeniah emerged from a closed room. A ornate plaque reading “Chief’s Office” hung before the door.
“Dalis, you came too, welcome! Flora, hello? Did you sleep well? Have you eaten breakfast?”
“Good morning, Hebeniah.”
“Hello…….”
Hebeniah let out a sharp laugh at the greeting.
“What do you think of the Village Hall? I decorated it well, didn’t I?”
“You did decorate it well, but it looks too much like an aristocratic mansion.”
“Ian, you say the strangest things.”
Hebeniah snorted forcefully.
“The Village Hall is the very identity of our village.”
Though we wear false accusations and live in exile, we must constantly prove that we are more noble and precious than anyone else.
“Even if we don’t stage a revolution, someday we’ll go out into the world and expose this injustice. And when we do, how can we turn the Emperor’s stomach?”
“By living well, I suppose……?”
“Exactly!”
Though the nation betrayed us.
We had to prove that we live more joyfully and pleasantly than anyone, maintaining that lofty dignity of ours that the likes of them cannot break.
“To make the Emperor’s insides churn with envy, we must live more splendidly and gracefully than the nobility themselves, don’t you think?”
Since the subject had come up.
Hebeniah told them about the development plans she was pursuing.
“I’m going to create a village where people can enjoy cultural life to their heart’s content! First, I’ll build a library, and then I plan to construct a theater for film screenings. After that, there will be facilities for exercise like swimming pools and gyms, a multipurpose room available for rent anytime, a meditation room, a table tennis hall…….”
Ian couldn’t understand half of what Hebeniah was saying.
Yet it was clear to him that she had given considerable thought to the village’s future.
‘Well, she’s certainly remarkable.’
Ian understood.
That in the end, all of this was a miracle born from Hebeniah’s generosity.
Hebeniah possessed the power to summon demons and command them, and strength enough to slay monsters.
If she so wished, she could flee this dreadful place of exile at any moment.
And yet she remained.
So that she might help those who would be left behind in this exile.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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