NOVEL NEXT Book 2: Chapter 1-1: New People
「Impossible! Go home, we can’t afford to have 50 more mouths to feed at this point!」
「That’s right, this is the elf village!」
When I returned to the village I saw the Elves surrounding the Fire Fox women and loudly denouncing them.
All 50 of them were young Fire Fox women. Forty of them were in the late half of their teens and 10 of them were in the early half. All of them looked exhausted with battered appearances and clothing.
Fire Foxes looked mostly human but with large ears and a fluffy tail.
「Please listen to us. We have no other choice, this is the only place we can go!」
Amongst them one of the older Fire Foxes raised her voice.
She was around 160cm tall and slightly shorter than me. She was slim with a rather large chest…practically a grown woman’s body.
Her face had gentle looking features, but the intelligence and strong will that dwelt in her eyes removed any impression of weakness and replaced it with vigor.
Even the good quality of the fur on her tail set her apart from the rest.
It was a face I knew well. My former fiancee, Kuu the Fire Fox Chief’s daughter.
「That doesn’t matter! We don’t have enough surplus to take care of 50 new people!」
Roleau the roughneck yelled. When I wasn’t in town he acted as my proxy.
He was physically strong, defended the village, led the hunting party, and was fairly popular.
Adding to that his parents were well respected and he was one of the elves in the village who could read and write. All these combined to make him an obvious choice for me.
If I were to speak honestly if popularity and ability to read and write were the only conditions, then Lucy as a well educated and popular shrine maiden was my preferred choice. However, choosing Lucy would surely be seen as an act of favoritism.
I’d forgive any mistake she made and couldn’t act harshly towards her. For these reasons I couldn’t give Lucy a clearly defined post like that. It was my responsibility as Chief.
「I don’t expect you to take us in for free. We’ll work properly and we have brought gifts as well. We won’t ask for luxury. We simply want enough food so we don’t starve and someplace that we can endure the cold in.」
「No. Absolutely not. Leave right now! You guys lost to the Empire and came running over here right!? You think we can shelter people like that!?」
Reacting to Roleau’s words a cute young Fire Fox poked her head out from behind Kuu and glared at Roleau.
「If only the Elves hadn’t been controlled by the Empire then this wouldn’t…!」
Roleau flinched at the vehement anger expressed by such a young girl.
「Shut up Kemin.」
「But Kuu-sama! It’s the elves’ fault that…」
「I said shut up.」
Kuu said more sternly and the young girl Kemin shut her mouth. Roleau quickly reclaimed his previous momentum.
「No matter what you say we will drive you out!」
It was no surprise that Roleau was refusing them so bluntly.
First of all the timing was terrible. It was almost time for the snow to fall. In this situation it’d be prohibitively difficult to obtain more food.
If this was earlier we could have assigned the Fire Foxes work and increased the amount of food we produced…however now that winter was practically here any jobs that needed doing would practically disappear. More people appearing at this time was simply a burden.
To add on top of this, the village had enough food for a small surplus. However, if we added another fourth of the current population, 50 people, to this equation we wouldn’t have enough reserves.
Just the other day we had divided and handed out the supplies for the winter, if we were to accept these Fire Foxes then the entire process would have to be redone.
If we did that then we would not have any food stores left.
Furthermore the circumstances behind their arrival was an issue as well. There was only one situation I could think of that would cause only young women to escape.
That situation was the Empire defeating them miserably.
The Empire wanted the magic stones from the Elves and Fire Foxes.
In order to obtain them they needed to make sure our races continue to procreate. For that purpose it was fine if they only left the women alive. Since a child would be the same race as their mother those kidnapped by the Empire would be treated worse than livestock.
In order to avoid this horrid fate, when worst came to worst the women would be allowed to escape.
Exactly like how the Fire Foxes were now.
If we were to forsake them now then I doubt they had anywhere else to go.
For any race without a magic stone within them they were the perfect prey. They could kill them, take their magic stones, and sell them to the Empire for exorbitant prices. It’d be right for the Fire Foxes to think of everyone except us as natural enemies.
Emotionally and logically for the benefit of Erucy I wouldn’t leave them in the lurch.
「Roleau I thought I told you to reserve final judgment for matters involving Erucy til I arrived. I’ll take over from here.」
「But Chief Cyril…」
「Believe in me and leave this to me.」
「If you go so far as to say that…」
I took a deep breath and smiled before opening my mouth. The Fire Foxes and Elves gazed at me.
「I extend my welcome to you Fire Foxes. I apologize for making you repeat yourself, but could you please inform me as to the purpose of your visit today?」
「Cyril-kun?」
Kuu looked at me with some surprise on her face.
「It’s been a while Kuu.」
I said and Kuu’s face slightly softened before quickly returning to her previous tension.
Her expression was filled with a sense of responsibility and grimness. It conveyed to me that, just like I was burdened with the lives of my fellow countrymen, so was she with hers.
「You will be conducting the negotiations?」
「As you can see I am currently the Leader of this village…no this country, Erucy.」
「Country?」
「That’s right. Since we’ve picked a fight with the Empire we are no longer a single village living beneath their tyranny, but a single country working together with common purpose.」
Even though we say that we were still only a self-styled country. In order to become a proper country we would need to be acknowledged by another country besides the Empire. Until another country became involved in this we would still be considered an Imperial Village that was rebelling.
But even so we needed to continue to name ourselves as the country Erucy.