After Valetta heard this, she let out a sigh of relief.
From that story she could guess the aim of the army that was coming to the village. She believed that they weren’t coming to capture Kazura.
If their aim was to capture Kazura then they wouldn’t send a cavalryman to inform the army’s time of arrival to the village.
When the villagers heard that an army will come, the very first thing came to their mind was about Kazura’s existence in the village as the Greysior in the legend, which caused them to fall into such extreme thinking.
Though Valetta had momentarily thought about explaining her reasoning to the villagers, they wouldn’t just accept it.
Rather than explaining to the agitated villagers, she thought about another way to temporarily calm them.
After deliberating for several seconds, she quickly faced the villagers and started giving several instructions to them.
✦✧✦✧
While Valetta was giving instructions to the villagers, inside his own room Kazura was stuffing his clothes and various articles into the travelling bag.
From what Valin had said, it seemed that Isterian Army was getting close to the village.
Although he didn’t know what objective the Army had in coming to this place, he judged that it would be better if he disappeared from the village, at least for the time being.
If the Army was to stay at the village for several days, there was the possibility that his existence would be discovered at some time during that period.
After all, Kazura was a person that shouldn’t exist in this village, if the Army was carrying something like a citizen registry of the village, even if he’d had a similar appearance as the villagers, he would still eventually be found out.
Kazura was stuffing his personal belongings into the bag and saw the mountain of books in the corner of the room. He was thinking that he might need to bring the books back, when Valetta, who had finished the talks, entered the room.
「Kazura-san...... Ah, are you already done packing up?」
Finished with packing his bag, Kazura was looking at the books in the corner. Looking at him like that, Valetta displayed a smile.
「Yes, for the time being, I will take refuge in Japan. The Isterian Army that Valin talked about previously, how soon will they arrive at the village?」(Kazura)
「No, it will be 1 Koku...... 2 hours before they arrive. In the meantime, we need to conceal everything that mustn’t be seen......」(Valetta)
Hearing Valetta’s answer, Kazura once more turned his attention towards the piled up books.
「I wonder if it will be alright, leaving these books behind..... What’s the purpose of that army to come to this village anyway?」(Kazura)
Valetta, who was asked by Kazura, put her hand near her mouth and thought for awhile.
「I don’t really know their objectives, but since they sent a cavalryman to contact the village, it seems that their reason to come to this village is not Kazura-san. Maybe they will just pass through this village and head for another direction or they are just stopping by as a part of training.」(Valetta)
Hearing that their objective was not him, Kazura sighed out of relief.
Previously, when he went to Isteria, there was some trouble with Nelson’s daughter. He was worried whether or not this would cause something to happen.[5]
Just like what Valetta had said, if the army’s objective was just stopping by for training or an expedition, then he would be able to return to the village before long.
「I’ll be glad if that’s true. However, well... Just to be sure, it will be better if I return to Japan...... Not only these books, but the hoes and tools that I gave out to the villagers also need to be hidden.」
Hearing Kazura’s words, Valetta replied that it would be alright and smiled.
「Not long ago, I instructed the villagers to put all the tools that Kazura had brought and hide it below the floor. Even if they are checking the space below the floor, since it was dark they wouldn’t be able to tell them apart from bronzes hoe so I think it won’t be discovered.」(Valetta)