The Seven-Year-Old Village Chief in Exile - Chapter 73

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

Chapter 73
* * *
Frelia’s Bandit Group Settlement numbered fourteen in total, including her.
Of these, four were children, and one was an elderly man with dementia.
“She is Aig’s mother. Her name is Gloria.”
“A pleasure to meet you, ma’am.”
I exchanged greetings with Gloria, Aig’s mother.
The silver-haired elder, her mind clouded by age, glanced at me before looking away.
Her eyes held the hollow gaze of someone who had lost something precious, and it tugged at the heart of anyone who saw her.
“I apologize. These days, her moments of clarity are few and far between.”
“Not at all. Still, caring for her alone must have been difficult.”
“I won’t deny that.”
Redem smiled awkwardly.
“It would have been hard if I were alone, but since joining the bandit group, everyone has helped, so it hasn’t been as difficult as one might think.”
And he’d formed a bond with a good person besides.
Redem had married Tafe and built a home with her.
Two of the children who had been playing in the garden when we first arrived at the villa were said to be their own.
“Gloria is our spiritual pillar,” Frelia said.
She pressed a kiss to Gloria’s forehead.
“When her mind does return, she cares for us as if we were her own children.”
“I see.”
I nodded slowly.
On the surface I remained composed, but beneath it all, my thoughts were chaos.
‘This is driving me mad.’
It was no coincidence that the bandit group was composed of the village’s families and relations.
‘My father orchestrated all of this.’
Erevel Clavis.
The head of the Clavis Clan.
I didn’t know whether to feel relieved or guilty—perhaps both.
Because it meant Clavis had foreseen this entire catastrophe yet let it unfold.
‘But to say he simply stood by and did nothing…’
In the end, the Clavis Clan head had ensured that through Frelia, the abandoned could gather and find their way.
‘Ugh, it’s not my fault, of course…’
After meeting Mother in that dream, I had finally come to feel a true sense of belonging to the Clavis family.
So even if I myself had come to exile because of Clavis’s sins, as someone of the same blood, I thought I should bear some portion of that guilt as well.
‘Tch, if that were the only problem, I could consider myself fortunate…’
My gaze naturally drifted beyond the doorway.
The villa’s entrance stood wide open.
Ian was playing with the children in the garden, crafting flower crowns from summer wildflowers and placing them upon their small heads.
“…….”
I found my eyes drawn to Ian’s back, slightly bent as he knelt to play with them, and I could not look away.
The bandit group was composed of the families and relations of Exilium Village residents.
All except two.
‘Ian and Dalis.’
Though Dalis had received her exile sentence most recently, and her only remaining family was a single daughter, who currently lived with her in Exilium Village anyway.
In other words.
‘The Clavis Clan head never sought to save Ian’s family.’
And I already knew why.
‘Ian often spoke of his younger siblings…’
But not once.
Had he ever mentioned his parents.
Even during home visits when we were gathering information about residents’ families and relations, Ian had refused to speak of his parents.
“Miss Clavis.”
A stubborn voice yanked me back to reality at that moment.
Pulled free from the painful spiral of my thoughts, I turned toward the voice.
“Sir Olive.”
With a face that looked to be in his mid-twenties, Olive delivered his warning to me with stern formality.
“I will escort you to the Central Temple.”
In his hand was the Large Axe that the bandit group had taken from him. He stood ready to swing it at once should I refuse.
But I was not one to be frightened by such things, so I repeated my same answer for the sixteenth time.
“I don’t want to. I’m not going.”
“This is not a decision for you to make unilaterally, young lady. You have been designated as a Saint, and henceforth the Central Temple Order shall——”
“Well, well. Look at all that stubbornness bundled up tight.”
I told Olive everything.
I told him I was Clavis’s daughter, that everyone in our exiled family—including Rivi—had survived, and that we were building a village together in a secret place.
I said I wasn’t a Saint, nearly thirty times over.
But this stubborn mule insisted he had to come with me, even if it meant dropping dead on the way.
There was, admittedly, a plausible reason for his stubbornness.
“How could you possibly lead so many people without drawing suspicion?”
“That’s a trade secret.”
“Don’t be difficult. At the very least, I can protect all of you under the name of the Central Temple Order.”
Olive’s argument was that if we disguised ourselves as clergy participating in a pilgrimage procession, no one would think anything amiss.
Even the new settlers seemed to waver at the suggestion.
“Hmm.”
I nodded slowly, as if conceding the point.
“It’s not a bad idea, actually.”
Olive’s rigid expression softened considerably.
“Then would you mind going to fetch Verity for me?”
“Of course.”
Olive rose promptly and opened the door to the room where Verity was staying.
Click.
“…Interrogator Olive?”
The green-haired Holy Knight, whom we’d parted ways with at Antema Train Station at dawn, stared at Olive with startled eyes.
“What are you doing here?”
“……”
“You were supposed to be escorting the Saint to Deste Estate!”
“Damn it.”
Olive’s lips pressed into a tight line as he spun around to look back at the door he’d just come through.
But instead of the mountain villa where he’d been staying moments before, there was only an empty research chamber on the third basement level of Antema Research Institute, standing bare and silent.
“……”
The Large Axe in Olive’s grip creaked softly.
* * *
“Ta-da.”
I spread both arms wide with a mischievous bow, like a magician who’d just pulled off a flawless trick.
“Ooh!”
“T-tremendous!”
The new settlers, witnessing my ability for the first time, spared no admiration or applause.
‘Heh, just a little dizzy.’
My body still wasn’t fully recovered—a faint vertigo brushed against my senses—but I found even that satisfying now.
‘I really have grown stronger.’
Having survived that accursed ordeal, my ability, Opening and Closing, had become considerably more powerful.
Now I could connect spaces without needing to grip a doorknob or physically turn it.
And even distant destinations came through cleanly.
‘It feels strange, thinking back. When I first connected the Primordial Forest to Deste Estate, I bled from my nose every single time.’
Even in this weakened state, I wasn’t bleeding or feeling particularly fatigued.
‘Once I get back to the village, I’ll have to experiment with what else this can do.’
With my current condition, I could apply this ability far more creatively than before.
“Well, now that the intruder’s gone, let’s move everyone quickly!”
At my word, the new settlers began hurrying about.
* * *
[Hebenia’s brought back new family members!]
After Modi and his wife’s dramatic phone reunion.
Rivi used the authority of being the headman’s cohabitant to broadcast the news through the sound system.
[Your families, your friends, your loved ones—we found them! Hebenia’s going to bring them here soon! Hebenia, the headman kept his promise and found them for you!]
The voice trembling with joy spread far and wide through the speakers stationed throughout the village.
The residents froze mid-task, then hurried chaotically toward the Village Hall.
“W-what did they just say? Found them?”
They fired questions at Rivi about the details of the announcement, and she explained, practically vibrating with excitement.
“Modi just got off the phone with his wife!”
“His wife? But wasn’t she… fictional?”
“They were real people! Your families and acquaintances are real too!”
A summer day when sunlight burned thin as needles.
“Hevenia brought everyone with her!”
In Exilium Village, where no creature save humans could survive, the cicada songs that symbolized summer would never be heard.
“……Ah, oh!”
“Can it be? Really?”
“Oh my, oh my!”
From people who had lived underground for seven years, suddenly granted only a week of life above—a weeping more sorrowful than any cicada’s poured forth.
“Chirp.”
“Squeak, chirp.”
Even Poppi and Chuchu, who had always treated the villagers with contempt, showed sympathy for their plaintive cry.
They approached and rubbed their heads against the weeping residents.
“We, we can’t afford this now!”
Modi was the first to collect himself.
“Hurry and tidy up! I can’t meet Frelia looking like this mess!”
“Y-yes, that’s right!”
“Ugh, I haven’t bathed in two days.”
“Ah, that’s a bit much…….”
The residents rushed back to their homes.
They washed themselves thoroughly in warm water, groomed themselves before mirrors, and changed into the finest clothes they possessed.
“…….”
The children, understanding nothing of what was happening, asked the adults beside them.
“Grandfather, why are they all like that?”
“Because they’re about to see family and friends they’ve been separated from for a long time. So everyone’s a bit nervous.”
The Herb Merchant Elder gently tapped Pania on the head.
“It’s a good thing.”
The old man chuckled warmly.
“Still, it seems the people here haven’t wasted their lives.”
“They’re all good people.”
Dalis glanced back and forth between Flora and Nula, who sat on either side of her. When the children’s eyes met, they grinned, and Dalis smiled with genuine joy.
“Since Hevenia said she’d bring them, it means everyone here believed in their innocence.”
“That’s the eternal truth—a person must live righteously. It never changes.”
And a moment later.
“Hevenia’s coming soon!”
With Rivi’s cry as the call ended.
Click.
Creak.
The front doors of the empty Village Hall swung open on their own.
Modi, who had been waiting at the front, recognized the first person to emerge at a glance.
“Frelia…….”
Hair pale as a mimosa blossom.
A small frame and a lovely face.
Yet his wife had aged slightly more than when he last remembered her.
“Frelia! Frelia!”
The husband who had never forgotten his wife for even a moment recognized her at once.
“Modi, Modi!”
“My love! Frelia!”
“Waaaaah! Wah!”
“Let me see your face! Let me see it!”
Beginning with the couple meeting again after eight long years, Exilium Village was swept into its second ocean of tears.

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