Fly the Flag of Fire!

Kids are rolling and playing as they step on the blues of summer grass. Wherever you discover wildflowers and insects, laughter is smiling, and Lauri can't help but fall back.

But if you turn your gaze, the sight pops in that you have to look at the root of your brow. That's Kiko Village. After a season of frequent visits as a pedestrian, Lauri is somewhat surprised every time she comes.

(I wonder if that's a play too...... although I'm obsessed)

There are children who throw stones repeatedly toward the target of the wooden formation. A large percentage of boys. Five steps away in adult stride, aiming and releasing with a serious look. It is a sharp throw inside. If I hit it, I'm making a painful noise and hitting it.

"Speed is the battle at this distance. Hit it first. Hit it in a row next. What you need to do to do that is to make the throwing a small waste. The trick is wrist."

It is certainly Marco who sets an example by saying so. It is Lauri who is no longer surprised there. Taking three pebbles in his hand, he also threw three to keep his wrist back sharply standing. Biscuit, Biscuit, Biscuit and the hitting sound exploded petitely. The surrounding area sees it with a strange face and resumes throwing to imitate it immediately.

After a while, the stone is recovered and the distance is further away by about five steps before throwing again. That's how we went through the stages and ended when most of the stones stopped reaching us.

"Were you here, Mr. Lauri?"

"Hello, Marco"

Lauri never insults a beautiful girl who has greeted her refreshingly. The reason for going to this village is also to meet this boy. Taking the time to make friendships… it is also one investment.

"It was like an army training landscape, but in the defense of the village?

"No way. It's for personal self-defense."

"Really? In a bunch of people. Oh, and if they throw stones at me, I think it's a threat..."

"If it's for group combat purposes, I'll let you practice stone throwers. You can prepare it as soon as you knit the string, and you can want more flight distance if you have a shape attached to the tip of the stick. Stones are also more effective in sorting and processing some form and size"

"Oh, yeah... right..."

He is a child who speaks of Nico and the military.

"More than that, did you get what you were asking for?

"Yeah, I checked the battlefield trail as I was told, there was. It's in the back, so check it."

"It helps. This will make it easier to cross the winter."

"If you say so, I guess so. But you know very well..."

"That's where the two armies went over the winter, and then the battlefield moved a lot. It's stranger if you don't have any left."

Speaking softly, the two legs headed toward the village chief's house. of dirt walls. That is a large category of building in the village. On the back of it, where the slab roof was stretched from the house, there is a heavy linen bag mixed with firewood and large cookware. If Marco had opened up close, it would have contained black soil, dead grass, and countless particles.

"Did you carry every piece of dirt? Come on, it must have been heavy."

"Hey, I don't know much about agriculture. I'm afraid of making a mistake."

"Looks like you've had a rough time"

"Oh, I wish you felt a little thankful."

While they are bickering, their gaze is poured into one grain above Marco's palm. It's a seed. Marco asked Lauri to explore and acquire the land where the Royal Asrian Army and the Eberian Imperial Army once fought each other for a long time. corner of the wasteland...... behind the main ruins of the Royal Asurian Army, they were buried in weeds.

"But this is feed for military horses, right? Was that a quamp?

"It is a root vegetable that can be harvested from winter to spring if sown in the fall. Harvesting is not good for preservation, but it grows well in lean areas, so it is used in the military for feed aid on the battlefield. Depending on the dish, it can also be used as food."

"You know how to cook that, don't you? It's true, you know..."

If you peek into its face as you explore, as always, the boy smiles with his eyes narrowed.

"The strange thing is, it's something."

Bottomless mystery, unwiped discomfort, and somewhere disloyal demons and... they shine bright in neutral childhood. Lauri infers that it may belong to some kind of demon. If you're fascinated, you can't turn back anymore, while you give up.

"Why are you... in this village?

Unexpectedly, such a question rolled out of my mouth. I said it. Lauri herself was surprised. It is clear that Marco is trying to enrich this village, and that is a natural aim as the next village chief. The education, the quamps, the stone-throwing, and Lauri remembered the strangeness there.

It's Marco, who looks sensible and knowledgeable. That's exactly his personality in that it's the least childish thing there... but if we were to aggregate everything for the purpose of lumping the village, the way seemed far-fetched. Kwamp is fine. There will be no stone-throwing, no putting children in charge of the village's defense, and there will be nothing we can say to keep the future workforce from being taken by wolves and crowds.

But Lauri thinks. I don't understand education. What Marco is teaching the children of the village is in fact not contributing in any way to the expansion of the village's productivity. Negotiations in town are for adults, and if it's a difficult business meeting, it's a story that only needs one Marco. I don't need a person who can do a lot of calculations.

The fundamental role is different from that of a village and a merchant. The former is a primary industry, and it is profitable to mass produce products at work. The latter is a tertiary industry, which generates profits from trafficking. What an educated human needs is a part of its trafficking, and in a village that is a production site, no matter how much reading and writing calculations can be made, it is a treasure possession. Marco said things like "To not lose money"... ordinary villagers have fewer occasions to lose money themselves than they originally did.

In the first place, is a human life named Marco something that ends up rooted in one of these peripheral villages? His blue eyes are always clear, and it seems to Lauri to be looking somewhere far away. It's unnatural to spend time in a village with immense power as a person, as if you didn't mean it... yes, you even look interested in playing.

"I don't have enough hands and feet..."

That's what I said and stretched my right hand. A child's fleshy, puckering fingertips are offered in the void like they want something.

"Not long enough, not strong enough. I can't handle swords or spears with this hand, and I won't stay on this leg. You can't fight. This body is only small… there's nothing I can do."

Pin and stretch to your fingertips, and your right hand that you can grip. I can't even guess what I'm going to grab or what I'm going to mourn if it doesn't reach me. But Lauri was convinced of the pneumonia that leaked out of Marco. After all, this boy must be a dragon in people, and when the time comes, he will run through heaven.

"I was thinking of leaving the village as soon as possible..."

Gently, in a small voice, Marco said.

"But I have parents. My father is old and my mother has been lying down for a long time. Even if you can give up your position as village chief, you can't be impotent to be taken as a runaway, given the prudent happiness of the family"

Talk like trouble, but strangely, there's even a satisfying grin on that look. That seemed so ticklish that Lauri felt kind of warm.

"I hope the village is rich. As much as that, I wish the villagers were strong. You know what? They say a healthy organization is not operated by one distinguished person, but by a large number of people there. That makes the organization more complex, and that complexity drains the extremes and creates stability?"

What I enjoy talking about is probably the story of the village after I left myself. I can feel some kind of vision there. I guess in that rich landscape, the future that those Blue Sky classroom kids started running the village, there's no sign of Marco growing up. Do you hope so, anticipate so, and feel lonely about it?

"Extraordinary beings can't make everyday life. In the not-too-distant future, I will be on the battlefield. It's not a long time to be in this village. Five or ten more years...... I guess that's the place. So let's sow a lot of seeds while we can, and that's why I'm in the village."

It is Marco who rolled the seeds of Kwamp with his fingers looking important and thus concluded. The rationale for calling itself “extraordinary” was extra lauri.

More than an emergency, it's an anomaly. This boy Marco.

As far as Lauri knows, there's no other child like this. When it comes to five or six years old, I wish I could be my own. Okay, if I could have made a simple calculation, I'd be old enough to be excellent. Shall I read through the newspapers, teach reading and writing calculations, and teach the art of throwing stones for protection, while others plan to introduce new crops?

(You're not even joking... I'm not even willing to tell anyone)

Besides, they're just anomalies on the surface. That's not the part where Lauri's afraid. What is truly unusual is its gaze, standing behavior, tone...... pressure as a person. In Lauri's consciousness, this boy is older than himself. I've been careful since Marco cautioned me to "stand out weirdly," but the truth is that I want to speak with polite respect.

And what seems to be the basis of that prestige is the knowledge of mystery. To sum up each of the fragments, Marco Boy has as if he had service and service experience. In the military, the experience of the brave prostitutes is more than in the regular army, and in the merchants, the experience of a considerable store feels like breathing inside a small body.

(Impossible. I can't be there... 'Strange thing, something'?)

Rauli swallows everything with an unspeakable charm.

"... there will be another war," he said?

"Definitely. Strategically, it's already happened. As long as there are there and here, constant wars are laid down for both countries. Is the plague still red today? 'That's right."

"Ha, you know that too." Which blood is red?

It's a front-line song about being made before the kingdom of Asuria began to be pushed by the onslaught of the Everian Empire. The fact that the situation has returned around that time has been re-evaluated in recent years in Shirai.

"'There is no wine colour of nobility, in the colour of the blood of the common people of both countries'"

I sang with all my voices together and laughed face-to-face.

"Oh! There he is! This is where you'll be if you get laid!!

The laughter was overthrown by a tall rage. The sound of kicking the ground also bravely walked over, and the woman who became royal, her name was Hannah. The habitual brown hair is unconstructively draped into one knot, and the seemingly indulgent eyebrows capture Marco shittily.

"... nothing like this, it's behind my home, Hannah"

It is Marco with a look like he gave up somewhere. Lauri knew about her, too. Around twenty when I was a year old? She lost her husband in an accident early, and now she's living with Marco's mother's care and nursing as a job. And the “help” spearhead often seems to extend to Marco.

"I heard you were playing downhill, but when I picked you up, you weren't there! Oh, I don't want to play dirt... let's wash our hands first, shall we? Look, your mother's waiting for you."

Let Marco stand in momentum, pay the dust, try to hold him halfway and take him away. I guess the history of the battle so far has spoiled him irresistibly by playing a dragon called Him. The blue eyes are also half-eyed and vain. But Lauri saw. Kwamp seeds in my hand... I was called out to play dirt and put it back in the bag with great handiwork before it was struck down.

"Ha ha, your lady is strong all the time"

It was Lauri pounding the sack of hemp he had struggled to carry in that place where something cloudy sprayed his chest.

(This is the routine... from the side of a normal life, I'm a bad traveler who stuffs and hangs out with cute boys in the country. It's my morality not to be seen grabbing people...... but is it Marco's rooting?

Lauri stood up.

(The dragon boy who was able to sleep showed me his will. Looks like we have some concrete prospects. I have to do more than I asked him to do and prepare to help me to the fullest when I move out)

Try stretching your right hand into the void. The length of an adult arm, but not as strong as his little arm showed. It was the hand of those who had passed away in time. He seemed unhappy with his childhood and weakness, but I guess even that has already exceeded the expectations of ordinary people. Where do we lead the world?

Hold hands. I don't know what he wants to grab. That's what I can't predict. But what I want to grab is obvious. It is a dragon scale. To see where it leads.

(For that... yeah, I'm sure there's no choice. He would understand. You shouldn't be banned from going in and out.)

Yeah, nodding, Lauri headed to the front door of the village chief's house. There's a whole bunch of cute kids' clothes in that backpack. Let's improve our current position by dedicating what Marco's mother and Hannah wanted… so determined.