The Seven-Year-Old Village Chief in Exile - Chapter 37

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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 37
‘Wait, that means my training’s going to get harder too.’
I’d fallen into the same expression as the adults without realizing it.
“Verity has always protected us in every situation, and she’s reassured us in dangerous moments. She’s a wonderful teacher.”
……
Verity’s eyes widened, then curved into a pretty smile.
“You’re quite generous with your praise.”
“I mean it.”
Please don’t raise the training intensity too much……
But there were surely blind spots and areas for improvement that an expert like Verity could see, even if my untrained eye couldn’t.
‘This isn’t a time to be lazy.’
In truth, our training had one major flaw.
‘The location, that’s what.’
To enter the Primordial Forest, the Barrier had to be opened, and then closed immediately to keep the monsters from escaping.
But I was the only one who could do it.
Verity seemed concerned about this too. On the way home after we parted from the villagers, she said as much.
“I’m sorry to keep taking you along every time we train.”
“I don’t mind, but I’m worried about causing problems if I get sick or something comes up.”
“You’re kind.”
“Can’t Verity handle the Barrier——”
“I can’t touch it.”
Verity answered immediately.
“That Barrier was designed and installed directly by the Grand Lord—the Long-Haired Lord, I mean. Even other lords can’t open it.”
……
“So you see how remarkable it is that you can handle the Barrier?”
“Um, a little?”
I replied brusquely, pretending not to know.
Verity’s laughter that followed was unusually loud.
“Still, I should look into a way to enter and exit the Barrier without you. I’ll have to contact the Long-Haired Lord.”
“But you said his wife is on maternity leave right now.”
“He’ll get the message.”
Verity pulled out a phone from her pocket as she spoke.
‘……Wait, a Samsung?’
I was left speechless at the familiar phone design.
Noticing my gaze, Verity gave an embarrassed laugh and operated the phone. From the way her thumb moved quickly, it seemed she was sending a message.
“The products here are good. They’re durable and don’t break easily.”
“Can I have one too?”
“As I’ve said before, you’ll have to pay a higher price for that.”
“Damn old codger!”
“That’s cursing your grandfather, not me, right? Phew, I was startled—I’m old enough to be your ancestor too……”
Verity put the phone away and continued.
“And it would be nice to have a training ground in the village too.”
“Like a gym?”
A gym was included in the village development project.
Verity shook her head.
“Separate from that. I mean a training ground with an arena.”
“An arena? A training ground?”
“Would it be easier to understand if I called it a sports venue? A place where competitors test their skills against each other.”
……This is troublesome.
I’d been planning to work the villagers hard myself.
‘But this one’s even worse.’
I couldn’t even guess how much she intended to drive them.
“There’s no better teacher than real combat, that’s my principle.”
“You’re a demon……”
* * *
Right after lunch, I headed to the Communal Well installed in the village. Ian came along with me, as did Aunt Elba and Verity.
In truth, the well here was more of a decoration. Every house had running water installed.
But the village elders sometimes came by and carried water in buckets back to their homes.
‘It has something of the feel of a natural spring.’
Click—
I’ve connected that well to the one beneath the Deste Temple.
The sensation of strength draining had become familiar by now. I wiped under my nose with the back of my hand out of habit, but this time nothing came away.
‘My power’s really grown!’
Ian, who’d come with me, placed a pouch of dried Dulcebvia in a wooden bucket and lowered it down the well.
After a moment, the rope stretched taut below us.
Ian worked the pulley again, drawing the bucket back up.
“There’s a bottle inside. And a note with it.”
Ian fished it out and handed it to me. As I read the contents, a smile spread across my face unbidden.
“They say they’ve been able to treat patients thanks to the medicinal herbs made from Dulcebvia.”
“Thank goodness……!”
Elba, who stood with us, gripped the well’s edge and sank down where she stood.
“And that, um, the High Priest…….”
“Saikpu?”
Ian looked at me as though I’d said something absurd.
“You went to the prison this morning and played around with him plenty, and now you’ve forgotten his name?”
“Anyway, none of the other priests are questioning what happened to Saikpu. Actually, no one’s even looking for him.”
“That priest must have had little loyalty indeed,” Verity remarked, clicking her tongue.
She posed the next question: “You promised those priests that you’d turn the temple’s well into Holy Water, didn’t you?”
“Yes.”
“How are you planning to do it? Surely you’re not going to give them my Holy Water?”
“That wouldn’t be economical,” I said, shaking my head.

“And this is a different matter, but I’d thought all water from the temple was Holy Water.”
According to Cherdo, however, Holy Water refers to a precious medicinal substance that only a tremendously powerful priest could produce after a thousand years of effort.
‘That precious, valuable thing…….’
Verity had given it freely to me and the villagers during every training session.
‘It’s truly something to be grateful for, but that doesn’t mean I can use Verity’s possessions carelessly.’
Besides, I didn’t need Verity’s Holy Water for my plan anyway.
I wasn’t trying to create Holy Water to heal people.
“I’m going to give it to the priests,” I said.
“Ah, I see.”
Verity, understanding her cue, withdrew two large, heavy sacks from her subspace pouch.
“So that’s why you were digging alone during training earlier.”
“Yes. I’m going to have them mix this soil into the temple’s fields. After that, I’ll have them plant the Dulcebvia that’s been uprooted.”
A well from which Holy Water springs.
It sounds magnificent just hearing about it, but the Holy Water I wanted had to possess the power to make a specific crop grow abundantly instead of healing people.
And that specific crop had to be Dulcebvia—the plant thought to be extinct.
“I’ve wondered about this all along—if Dulcebvia was supposed to be extinct, why does it grow like weeds all over our village?”
What was the difference between outside and inside?
“I believe the answer lies in the Primordial Forest. Our village was part of it not long ago, after all.”
So if we used soil from this place, the transplanted Dulcebvia should adapt quickly and thrive.
“We’ll claim that Dulcebvia grew after watering it with water from the well.”
“Do you think the other priests will believe it?”
“They won’t have any choice but to believe it.”
Right now, the Deste Temple had become the last hope for people suffering from the lack of medicinal herbs.
And from the perspective of the priests who desperately wanted to help them, Dulcebvia—called the Panacea—would become a precious gift from the divine that absolutely had to be protected.
“With the Angel’s Descent as precedent, we have plausible grounds for a miracle…….”
Verity nodded in agreement.
“For now, that method is our best option.”
“But…….”
Ian hesitated before finally speaking.
“Do you really think the Emperor will just let this go?”
Elba’s expression darkened at those words.
I couldn’t deny it either.
“He won’t.”
“That’s exactly what I’m worried about. The moment he hears the rumors, he’ll send people to investigate, and then they’ll discover Libi or Saikpu secretly…….”
“Which is why the temple will hide the existence of the herbs.”
“……What?”
“I’ve already given them those instructions.”

Ian looked at me with an expression of disbelief.
He didn’t trust my prediction.
‘Or perhaps he thought it odd that I would speak such things without hesitation.’
The latter would have been somewhat painful, but still, I had to persuade Ian here.
Otherwise, there was a significant chance he would oppose the plan I was preparing.
Pretending to be seven years old was sufficient only when I whined for one more strip of bacon.
“The Temple caused serious injury to someone through internal betrayal.”
“You mean the herbalist, sir?”
I nodded at Ian’s words.
“That incident is a stain on the Temple. That’s why the priests are so desperate to save people.”
“……But that would only make them more determined to cover it up.”
“That’s not all. The real problem is…….”
My mouth hesitated as I was about to continue speaking.
Even thinking of it made me furrow my brow with concern.
“The High Priest’s condition is apparently not good at all.”
“What’s wrong with the High Priest?”
“After the Angel’s Descent…….”
As I fumbled for words, Verity, as if waiting for an opening, told us the High Priest’s current state.
“They say he walks around with his trousers half-lowered and a short dagger or something stuck in the waistband of his belly. He’s apparently also obsessed with piercings.”
“Ah…….”
Oh my.
Ian couldn’t help but feel sympathy.
“Yes, well. If that’s the case, then he’d certainly try to avoid the eyes of any emperor or Holy King.”
Compassion bloomed across Ian’s stumbling face. I understood his feelings completely.
“Good heavens, what kind of terrible curse is that!”
Meanwhile, Elba, unaware of the details, worried whether the Temple could even be trusted.
“The High Priest must be so wicked to be afflicted with such a terrible curse!”
“Pfft!”
Verity quickly turned away. I caught the Demon biting her lip as she turned.
Looking to the side, Ian had buried his face in both hands.
“……It’s not actually a curse, ma’am.”
I decided to protect the honor of the angel who had helped me anyway.
“It’s, well, something that happens when you get old…….”
“You mean senility?”
“……Yes.”
Pfahahaha!
At the word senility, Verity finally couldn’t hold back and dissolved into laughter.
* * *
“……Wow.”
Libi, who had just finished washing the dishes, dried her wet hands on her apron.
“Hebeniah is really quite clever. At that rate, wouldn’t she be a genius? She might actually be twenty-five just like she said.”
“…….”
“But why does your expression look so displeased, like you’re chewing on something?”
Ian, who had been sitting at the table peeling boiled shrimp in advance for tomorrow morning’s meal, stopped what he was doing.
“Do you believe that?”
“That she’s twenty-five?”
Libi, having removed her apron, sat across from Ian.
“At first I thought it was a joke, but now I’m not sure either way.”
“…….”
“But it doesn’t really matter anyway. I’m worried about something else, actually.”
“What is it?”
“Hebeniah is making too many sacrifices for our sake…….”
Libi’s heart lurched every time she saw Hebeniah bleeding.
Especially after the last outing, she had grown afraid that if things continued like this, Hebeniah might die because of them.
“She seems to accept self-sacrifice as something natural.”
“I know what you mean.”
“Usually she’s so cheerful and bright that you don’t notice, but sometimes it seems too dangerous. She never says a word about being struggling.”
Because the adults were helpless, the burden a single child had to bear was simply too great.
Every time Libi saw Hebeniah’s back as she stepped forward for their sake, she felt ashamed and embarrassed of herself.

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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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