The youth troupe mistook Arisa's words, derailing it to a strange direction.
"U-um. Is Onii-san a slave trader?"
"No, I'm not. I'm just a traveler."
After I denied it, Pipine looks dejected.
I don't think she's selling herself--feeling intrigued, I try searching her village.
--What is this, 90% of the village are in Starvation state.
Apparently, it'll be dangerous if she can't get food by selling herself.
Moreover, I wonder what this mean, many villages in this country are in similar states.
It makes me remember the old Muno territory.
"Why don't you tell us if you have something troubling you? I might be able to help you, you see?"
The girl hesitated for a bit, but it seemed she was at her wit's end, she talked about the village's distress and appealed for some food even for a little.
"Please! We don't have any money in our village, but there are nine unmarried girls including me. If you sell us as slaves in Shiga Kingdom, then the money for the food will--"
"Calm down. For now, let's go to your village as we have some extra supply of food."
I persuaded the girl and we decided to go to the village with the youth troupe.
We're using a snow boat I've made for the noon play. The main body looks like a canoe made of ice, the jib sail receives the wind to make it move.
"Fast~"
"Pochi has become one with the wind nodesu!"
"Uhhya~, scary."
"Nn, intense."
Our girls seem to like it very much, but the girl's having a face cramp and keeps silent due to the unexpected speed.
A Snow Leopard attacked us in the middle of the way, but it misread the snow boat's speed and landed behind.
It'd be troublesome if it chased us, so Tama brought the Snow Leopard down with an icicle shuriken.
Before long we saw houses between the snow.
Looking from the distant, Nadare village is a small village built on a mountain slope with only around 70 people.
There are big joint barns along the one-story houses buried in the snow, but not even one has any livestock inside.
Mysteriously, there are only a few men, the women consist of the 80% of the villagers.
Snow had begun to fall from the sky when we arrived at the elder's house.