Long live the Emperor!"
"""Long live the Emperor!"""
With one leading, the villagers held a cup in one hand and shout together, then they laughed 'Gahaha'.
Mia who was free after selling all the sake plopped down on my lap as I was sitting on the ground and then she abruptly played her lute.
It's a fun melody with "I hate drunkards" tones sometimes mixed in.
Next to Mia, there's Nana carrying some children who have come to pick up the dishes.
"Master, secured the young organisms so I report."
The children carried under Nana's arms don't look like they dislike it as they're absorbed in gnawing rice crackers.
"You've a beautiful wife and a cute daughter."
"Nn, happy marriage."
"I see, the daughter must be happy too."
Mia looks satisfied hearing the old weaselkin.
She must have thought that she is the wife, but unfortunately I think she's mistaken.
However, there's no need to point that out and displease Mia.
While patting Mia's head as the lute's tone changed to [Fun Feast], I mix in with the villagers' chat.
"So I've come here to sell my sake, but is it alright for you to take a break from the field work?"
"Yea it's fine. Emperor-sama has distributed pesticides you see."
"Thanks to that, we got rid of the troublesome pest."
Mumumu, pesticides huh... I'm a bit worried as to whether they get the dose right.
"We also got the mowing rabbits."
Mia who heard rabbit mentioned moved her line of sight at us.
She must be interested in it.
"What kind of rabbits are they?"
"It's a kind of rabbit that only eats weed without caring the crops."
One of the elderly points at the field.
It's a small rat-sized rabbit.
"If ya don't put them in the hut during the planting and budding seasons, they'll eat them all with the weed like what happened at Gozan's place ya see."
"I've failed as rep of the village."
I see, it has a habit of eating the plants that have just grown huh.
"Thanks to them, farmwork's easier now."
"During the free time, the young 'uns often went outside the village to make more fields."
"Ain't it fiine, something or otheer, the new fields will be theirs, young 'uns must pull themselves together."
Are they developing new private fields in long term?
Hearing that, Nana tilted her head and entered the conversation while still carrying the children.
"Monsters outside the village are dangerous so I warn."
"It's alright. The empire force comes and defeats monsters and bandits y'see."
"Not bandits, they're tigerkin liberation army right?"
"People who're brandishing weapons and steal food from villages are bandits enough."
I tried searching the map around here and just as the villagers said, there was no monster around here, even on the mountain foot, there were only weak monsters whose levels are in single digit.
"The knights come patrolling here once a month even now."
"They went sword hunting and took the village's swords and spears away, the peeps were maad, but--"
"We got farming tools instead."
"After getting something this good, we'll get punished if we complain ya see."
An old man carrying a sturdy looking farming tool made from iron is showing it off.
"They also made the well with clickety-click."
"Not clickety-click, it's water pump!"
"Oh ain't it fine. Yer' the only one who calls it water pump to look smart."
Apparently, they even have a hand water pump.
The government here seems to be doing quite good.
I might have come to respect the emperor unconditionally if I hadn't saw the parish.
"What'd you say!"
"Try saying that again!"
The two old weaselkins who have been quarrellings since earlier catch each other's collar and glare un-befitting of their ages.
"Good grief, weasels are easy to pick a fight."
"Don't say that, our blood boil fast since the time of ancestor-sama."
The old weaselkin that I met first covered for his race hearing an old rabbitkin's grumble.
As it looks like it's going to devolve into a fist fight, the village elder finally stands up, unable to remain indifferent.
"You fools! If ya want to fight, do it in front of His Majesty the Emperor!"
The village elder shouted while carrying a sake bottle in one hand.
He looks like he's ready to enter the fight.
I feel that there was a lot of intellectual and rational ones among the weaselkins I met outside the Weasel Empire, but looking at the villagers here, I end up thinking those people must have been an exception.
Still--Emperor?
No way there's a teleport gate in such a remote village, is it some kind of term?
My doubt quickly clears up.