The Seven-Year-Old Village Chief in Exile - Chapter 49

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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 49
“Ah, this…….”
Aidellos shifted awkwardly as he noticed the gaze, offering an explanation.
“I bought it for Minitia, but in the end, I couldn’t give it to her and kept it for myself. Over time, it’s grown worn and tattered—the ornaments have even come loose.”
“Hmm.”
Only then did Pereus turn from his desk to look out the window that Aidellos had been watching.
Beyond the glass lay the Separate Palace, where their younger sister, Princess Minitia, resided.
‘……Why concern himself with someone who’s beyond help, already dying away?’
Pereus found the whole thing distasteful.
The young crown prince disliked his siblings.
He held firm in his conviction that the vulgar bloodline of the empress flowing through their veins would obstruct his path forward.
The celebrated scholars who instructed him and the high nobles who supported him all spoke in unanimous agreement. Their logic was sound enough that Pereus found himself in accord.
In fact, Pereus had never once met Princess Minitia.
Illness and confinement were the reason, though truth be told, he’d never thought to seek her out anyway.
‘What if her sickness spreads to me?’
Perhaps it would be better if Minitia died like Clavis.
“Now that I think of it…….”
Pereus’s voice, which had carried an almost affable warmth, suddenly darkened.
“There was a miracle at the Deste Sacred Shrine, wasn’t there?”
“It was thanks to the priests’ sincerity bearing fruit, Your Highness.”
“Yet the people say it was your devotion that moved the heavens?”
“The priests are simply kind in their words.”
Aidellos looked flustered, as though accused of a crime he didn’t commit. His sincerity shone through in the wideness of his eyes and the slight parting of his lips in genuine surprise.
“Besides, the Angel’s feather chose the High Priest, not me. That alone proves the Angel’s descent has nothing to do with me.”
“That’s true enough.”
Though Pereus disliked his siblings, this half-brother of the same age at least understood his station well enough to merit some consideration.
Especially pleasing was the way he never dared to meet Pereus’s gaze directly, maintaining such a deferential posture.
“But what are you doing out here? Worrying over your sister?”
“I’m waiting for my attendant.”
“Where did your attendant go?”
“His Majesty the Emperor took a favorable view of what occurred in the Deste Territory and has commanded a pilgrimage tour. I’m waiting for my attendant to collect the itinerary.”
Pereus smiled thinly.
If the fellow remained as well-mannered as he was now, understanding his place so readily and more obsequious than those eager young nobles vying for his favor—
“That’ll be taxing.”
He could afford to toss out such a remark without hesitation.
“It is nothing compared to the trials Your Highness the Crown Prince endures.”
Pereus departed, silently mocking Aidellos, who remained bowed in deference until he vanished from sight.
* * *
Until the crown prince disappeared, Aidellos kept his full concentration focused on his ears.
‘Footsteps carry much information.’
Servants muted their steps to avoid drawing attention.
Attendants, by contrast, often walked with considerable weight, their pride in serving the future emperor evident in every stride.
And the crown prince’s footfalls conveyed that distinctive cunning and selfish nature of his.
The friction of marble beneath his feet consumed everything.
“…….”
Aidellos raised his head, and for a long while, he breathed as though expelling some foul stench he’d been holding back.
‘Your Highness the Crown Prince.’
A quiet darkness descended over his round, beautiful golden eyes.
‘You should have been concerned first with the suffering of common folk afflicted by abnormal herb trafficking, and with your sister, reduced to a tool of politics.’
Not with checking me—a man whose greatest ambition is to be a pillar of support, nowhere near power.
Aidellos clutched the worn Hair Ribbon in his hand tightly, determined not to let it slip away.
* * *
The second village assembly convened.
Unlike the previous meeting, children were not permitted to participate this time.
They waited for the adults in a playroom set up in the Village Meeting Hall, amusing themselves as they passed the time.
Beside them was Elba, a pharmacist whose nature whispered of death.
“……Then, regarding the first item on the agenda, we shall exclude rock-genre accompaniment for morning calisthenics, as well as songs centered on tragic love.”
Bang!
Hebenia swung the small Gavel, carved from wood.
Given the small population, the number of items on the agenda was sparse despite the time allotted for collecting proposals.
Yet compared to the first gathering, the number of proposals had grown slightly, and their range had diversified considerably.
It was a sign that the residents’ appetite for improving their lives was strengthening.
From voluntary morning exercise schedules to requests for library acquisitions, coordination of hobby classes run by residents, even applications for business venture support.
‘Remarkable progress.’
Verity showed particular interest in the venture support requests.
Currently, Exilium Village was operated entirely by Hebenia alone.
From provisions to all manner of supplies—safety, welfare, everything was provided by Hebenia without cost.
Fortunately, the village residents did not take this generosity for granted.
‘They’ve recorded everything the young lady provided in the ledgers, haven’t they?’
Their attitude of repaying every debt someday was a rare sense of responsibility in a world like this.
‘And now the hobby classes she initiated are bearing fruit.’
As residents taught their own skills and aptitudes to others, they recovered the confidence they had lost.
And now they were ready to begin genuine economic activity.
‘If the venture support initiative succeeds…….’
Once they had economic power, a certain tax could be levied from them.
In other words, the village’s revenue problem—something Hebenia had been wrestling with—would be solved.
‘The young lady’s studies in Korea weren’t entirely wasted, after all.’
Exilium Village’s young village chief was earnestly developing the venture support framework in consultation with the adults. She was the very picture of a trustworthy leader.
The village residents, far from dismissing Hebenia for her youth, held her in genuine respect and did not forget to exercise their own sense of responsibility as adults.
Verity’s eyes, watching them, brimmed with quiet pride.
“Hmm, in the end we’ll need someone to manage finances professionally…….”
After hearing their input, Hebenia scratched her chin with her Gavel and spoke.
“Should we kidnap a banker or professional economist?”
“I’ve told you thirty times not to think like a criminal.”
“Then should we politely invite them to come to exile? It’s faster and more practical to bring them here first and talk them around. We just need to make sure they can’t escape—maybe adjust their ankles a little…….”
“Don’t even think of such methods!”
Save for Ian breaking into a cold sweat yet again preventing Hebenia from acting on criminal impulses, the village gathering proceeded quite peacefully.
“Oh, Verity.”
Hebenia spoke.
“You said you had something to propose at the gathering, didn’t you?”
“Ah, yes. I’m sorry, but would it be all right to save that for the next gathering?”
“Understood.”
And as the meeting drew toward its close.
“This isn’t a proposal—it’s an announcement.”
Hebenia set down the Gavel she had been holding throughout.
“We’ve found the location of the research facility.”
The residents’ eyes widened in rapt attention. Several stiffened their expressions as though they had anticipated this.
Pex, the former magical artifact developer.
And Dalis.
“Pex and Dalis deduced the location, and Verity confirmed it conclusively last evening.”
“Dalis did?”
All eyes naturally turned toward Dalis.
Dalis maintained her stern expression and nodded slowly.
“There was a visitor who came to my ex-husband—the former Count Deste—who struck me as particularly peculiar.”
Thick spectacles, mousy orange hair matted as if gnawed by rats, gold-capped teeth visible between slightly parted lips.
Burn scars covering half his face.
A sharp medicinal smell that made one’s eyes water.
A strange, leering gaze visible through the thick lenses.
He had been the last visitor Dalis received before undergoing the Summoning Succession Ritual.
“I remember our conversation that day.”
When the former Count Deste made the customary gesture of bidding him to stay, the man left these words with an unpleasant laugh.
“The Deste Territory is rather inconvenient, I must say.”
“The transfer only runs at this hour…….”
Transfer.
The Deste Territory, renowned for its Magical Engineering, was equipped with numerous train routes.
On the day Dalis remembered.
The time the man departed.
There was only one transfer available.
“That man came from the Antem Research Facility.”
“His name was Expel Antia.”
Dalis and Pex spoke in turn.
“Expel Antia was wanted for unethical research involving corpses, but he’s believed to have died in the research facility fire.”
At Pex’s final words, everyone in the room could barely breathe.
Hebenia slowly broke the silence that followed.
“……Our next destination will be the Antem Territory.”
And unlike the previous excursion, she conveyed gravely the danger that physical conflict would inevitably occur.
“In the worst case, you may not return. That’s right—you could die.”
Hebenia deliberately spoke this cruel possibility aloud.
“Therefore, you have the right to refuse.”
The villagers stared at Hebenia in shock.
Yet the youngest person in this place, Hebenia herself, remained calmer and more composed than anyone else. She even wore a slight smile with an ease that belied her years.
But the village chief’s tone at the end was harsher than any she had used before.
“This time, we will not be taking volunteers. Verity and I will carefully deliberate, select the necessary personnel, and ask them to accompany us.”
“You have no combat experience yet. Therefore, it is only natural that you feel fear, that some of you wish not to go.”
Verity continued speaking.
The Demon, who had always offered bright, cheerful laughter befitting his fifteen-year-old appearance, now stood grave as a general before an assault.
“Do not accept hastily, swayed by sentiment.”
You have only one life.
With those words, the second village assembly ended.
* * *
After the assembly concluded.
I rushed to the well, pretending not to notice the flood of stares upon me.
‘The meeting ran long—it’s already past noon.’
Beneath the scorching midday sun, I connected the well to the Deste Sacred Shrine. Then I dropped the letter I had written the day before into a bucket.
In the letter, I had written the location of the research facility I’d discovered and asked for train tickets to be procured.
A moment later, the rope pulled taut.
Carefully turning the pulley to raise the bucket, I found not my letter but a strange note and today’s newspaper inside.
I checked the note first.
It held a brief reply written by Cherdo, the shrine priest.
[There are many visitors, so obtaining the tickets will take some time. I will procure them as quickly as possible.]
And numbers scrawled in haste.
‘Page fifteen……’
I quickly unfolded the newspaper.
Page fifteen was the “Regional News” section, which briefly reported stories from various areas.
Regional news typically appeared in small columns. I scanned through them one by one, eyes narrowed.
[Southern Region: Crepe Myrtle Illness Cases Surge]
“……Damn it.”
The calamity that should never have come to pass had finally occurred.

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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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