The Seven-Year-Old Village Chief in Exile - Chapter 77

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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 77
Popina, once my heavyset comrade but now sporting a sleek waistline that had left all our acquaintances reeling with shock and betrayal, had become the object of considerable scandal.
“Ugh, he’s gotten so alluring lately. It’s infuriating.”
Libi, too, seemed to have plenty to say about Popina’s transformation.
“Once, when he was reaching for something, his shirt rode up a bit, and—God—his abdomen was scandalously toned.”
“I find it far more unsettling that you’re the one dwelling on such observations.”
“No, I’m serious! Popina’s become really seductive lately!”
“So he really is going through with the divorce?”
Verity paid no attention to Libi’s outburst.
I quickly straightened up when I caught myself trying to pilfer some of Ian’s bacon.
I felt the chill of Verity’s gaze, but I kept my expression neutral and continued speaking.
“He did come to me for counsel, though.”
Popina’s wife’s name was Sesol.
A former chef by trade, they’d been colleagues at their workplace.
I relayed to the others what I’d learned from the couple.
“Popina comes from a fairly wealthy merchant family.”
His self-made father was quite conservative, and had repeatedly pressured his children to marry.
Tired of it, Popina came to know Sesol, a colleague facing much the same predicament, and they’d found kinship in their mutual burden.
And so the two married, bound by that shared understanding.
“But didn’t Popina get falsely accused and exiled?”
That’s where the trouble began.
“Sesol lost her job for being the wife of the perpetrator, and since he disappeared, the divorce couldn’t be processed either—she suffered greatly in many ways.”
That’s why she joined the Robbery Gang to get her revenge.
“So even though it was a marriage of convenience, they’d developed real affection living together.”
“Sometimes friendship runs deeper than love, you know.”
Ian and Libi nodded in understanding.
“Wait, they’re divorcing?”
I explained again to the confused pair.
“I just said it—Sesol joined the Robbery Gang to get a divorce.”
To get revenge on the husband who vanished without ever signing the divorce papers.
She joined the gang solely to settle her accounts with that wretch who’d disappeared without properly ending their marriage.
Since it was a loveless marriage from the start, Sesol had never cared whether her husband’s crimes were false accusations or anything else.
……
……
Ian and Libi fell silent.
I understood their reaction completely.
I’d done the same myself upon hearing the circumstances—given up trying to make sense of their lives with a resigned “Well, couples like this exist too.”
“But they might not actually divorce.”
I’d found a complication during our counsel.
All the prisoners in the exile settlement were currently listed as dead from a Demon rampage.
Even if we managed to get signatures from the deceased, it was uncertain whether the authorities would even accept the divorce agreement.
In other words, divorce was impossible for now.
And there was one more thing.
“During the counseling session, Sesol got conflicted.”
“Where did all that determination go?”
Ian asked carefully, already worn out.
Libi had already taken her empty plate to the kitchen and was clearing it away.
“Because Popina’s become attractive.”
“Good grief…….”
Now Ian rose from his seat too, offering to do the dishes himself.
Soon I could hear the voices of the two of them bickering in the kitchen about who would wash up.
“Though I must say, Popina has become quite handsome.”
Verity, the only one still sitting at the table, spoke up.
“It seems he’s beginning to grasp his true aptitude.”
The Star Fate Shaker Dancer.
Popina, the owner of that aptitude which had shocked everyone, had changed dramatically.
The belly fat that had once matched my own had vanished entirely, and his face had slimmed down just enough that his sharp cheekbones had become strikingly attractive.
His waist, in particular, had become noticeably slender.
And his taste in clothing had changed as well.
Where he’d once worn ordinary, everyday combinations like other middle-aged men, he’d recently taken to clothes that clung to him in oddly alluring ways.
Even her top had become sleeveless, and the hem had grown shorter.
There had been a time when Elba had raged at herself, calling it shameful that her heart quickened at the sight of that man.
“That day you drank deeply, didn’t you? I brought the bottle because you were looking for it.”
“Ah—so that was the day Ian was searching the kitchen for cooking wine.”
The village is truly peaceful.
Verity had summed it all up in that single observation.
* * *
The next day.
“Divorce isn’t something we need to rush into.”
After much deliberation, Sesol had decided to postpone her divorce from Popina indefinitely.
I asked her plainly.
“Have you fallen for him?”
“Oh, that’s not it at all.”
Sesol denied it immediately.
“But he’s easy on the eyes, you know.”
One woman had drained a bottle in anger at her own quickening heart, while for another, Popina’s beauty served as a welcome sight for sore eyes.
Thus he had become a man burdened with sin either way.
“Love between adults is complicated.”
“We don’t love each other.”
“Understood. I’ll support your both’s dry and barren married life.”
After that, I kept to my busy schedule.
First, I prepared to establish a trading company with Modi and Verity.
“We need to decide on the main product for the company.”
“What about the medical kits you mentioned before? We could get approval from the Sacred Shrine to boost credibility.”
“That sounds reasonable. Given the recent shortage issues with medicinal herbs, I think demand would be quite strong.”
“Then we’d need to establish the types and efficacy of the pharmaceuticals—”
“What about selling monsters as well? For that, we could work directly with the Magical Engineering Academy in Deste Territory.”
I conceived of a business that would become the village’s main source of income and drew up concrete plans. Nothing about it was easy, but it was deeply satisfying.
‘The village is moving forward.’
Now we no longer had to hide.
Every time the village took another step outward, hope bloomed openly on the faces of its people.
I desperately wanted to realize that hope for them.
So a packed schedule was nothing to me.
Of course, as the village head, I never forgot to communicate with the residents.
“Wow, look at her!”
“She’s riding the Shing-Shing Car with her hands free!”
“Sister, you’re so cool!”
“Me too! I want to try too!”
“Teach me! Teach me!”
In particular, it fell to me to play with the children on behalf of the busy adults.
Though my body was young, my mind was that of a composed twenty-five-year-old, and I took good care of the children.
“My, look how excited Hebenia is.”
“Usually she seems so mature, but seeing her like that, you remember she’s still just a child.”
“But what’s with that outfit anyway?”
“She says it’s a magical girl battle outfit.”
“What’s that on her back? A wooden rod? Pink?”
“She says it’s a magic wand.”
Playing with the children always left me drained.
I’d take a brief nap then, and after waking, enjoy my snack.
Snack time was one of my most anticipated parts of the day, but recently Verity had taken to watching me eat snacks that I secretly obtained from Popina, which had dampened that pleasure somewhat.
“Even a mother-in-law wouldn’t scrutinize a daughter-in-law that closely.”
“Please understand the butler’s profound concern for the young lady’s health.”
“Her heart’s so profound I’m drowning in goodwill.”
Still, since the portions had grown slightly larger than before, I let it slide.
Today’s snack was a slice of pound cake laden with dried fruit, nuts, and sugar.
“Please listen while you eat.”
For me, snack time was more than mere rest.
It was itself part of my duties.
“A message came from the office this morning. The first interrogation of the Demon and Angel captured in Antema Territory has just concluded.”
I listened carefully while carefully cutting the pound cake—smaller than the palm of my hand—into bite-sized pieces.
“To get straight to the point, we didn’t find anything.”
“Why not?”
“Apparently there’s a Gag Order in place.”
“That cursed Gag Order.”
“The good news is, this Gag Order magic can definitely be broken, even if it takes time.”
“Well, that’s a relief.”
I suddenly recalled something unfortunate Verity had mentioned before—that Deste’s father had been on the verge of a promotion.
I asked about his current situation too.
And wouldn’t you know it.
“It was naturally cancelled.”
“My goodness, the sins of the son fall upon the father.”
“Turns out the father had passed down both Gag Order magic and Undead Magic to his son.”
“Seriously?”
I dropped my fork in shock, and it clattered loudly against the plate.
‘This is actually way too juicy and fascinating, but—!’
I quickly caught myself and rearranged my expression.
This incident had created many victims. I couldn’t treat the demon father and son’s circumstances as mere gossip.
According to Verity, it was Deste’s father who had planted the ideology of Demon Supremacism in his son’s mind.
“Everything blew up in his face. If the Multidimensional Alliance hadn’t caught him before word got out, who knows how much heat he’d have taken.”
Verity muttered that the demon had aged a thousand years.
The cool, refreshing beauty that had been the first love of countless female students was now visibly spoiled, like expired juice.
‘The Multidimensional Alliance.’
I found myself repeating the organization’s name in my head, turning it over like something I’d just heard again.
‘It sounds like an organization that manages and coordinates multiple dimensions.’
I didn’t know much about it specifically, and it wasn’t immediately relevant, so I didn’t dwell on it. That remains true now.
‘Right, come to think of it, I was shocked the first time I heard of that organization.’
The day I first summoned Verity.
Back then, I thought I’d transmigrated the way it happened in novels. Since Verity wasn’t treating me like a seven-year-old, I asked him casually.
“Do you know what transmigration is?”
“Of course! We demons communicate with various worlds. There’s more than one world, you see. So I’ve seen transmigrators from time to time.”
“So that means—!”
“Yes! Transmigrators are executed on sight!”
Transmigrators are executed on sight.
‘Because…’
I found myself recalling that day’s conversation piece by piece, as if entranced.
Something was starting to click.
“Transmigrators spend all their time destroying the world order and the flow of destiny, the chain of causality, by acting as if they know the source material or whatever else.”
“When even one transmigrator shows up, at least ten thousand people suffer. They think they’re the protagonists of the world.”
My eyes widened in proportion to the lightning-bolt realization that had just struck me.
“Verity.”
I asked in a trembling voice.
“Can you create a transmigrator?”
“Excuse me?”
The demon, who was about to ask what I meant, locked eyes with me.
His eyes widened just like mine, and then began trembling infinitely.
Verity and I rushed simultaneously to the abandoned house where the laboratory records were kept.
And we began frantically tearing through the documents.
* * *
Transmigration.
The phenomenon of a foreign entity parasitizing a body.
Transmigrator.
When a soul from another dimension crosses over and seizes a body, and the original self of that body perishes, surrendering the dominion of the personality to the foreign soul—that is when one is called a transmigrator.
“Miss, take a look at this!”
“Wait! I just found something too—!”
Hebenia and Verity scoured the documents frantically, rapidly uncovering evidence to support the terrible hypothesis that had just occurred to them.
It was a far different result from yesterday, when they had only found records of herbs and minerals.
Yet Hebenia and Verity had no mind to celebrate this discovery.

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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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