Takarakuji de 40-oku Atattandakedo Isekai ni Ijuu Suru

As the candle lights lit up the slab indoors, one magnificent man with short, cut, grey-haired dark brown hair was headed to a large concierge desk to read out a report written on the leather paper in his hand.

The face of the man reading out the report is rugged and tells the story that its content is not fragrant.

On the desk there are several reports, besides the leather paper he has in his hands, beside which is placed a small ceramic with a feather pen and black ink.

The furniture placed in a room about sixteen tatami sizes as we speak in Japan is all qualitative, and besides the large carpet that joins animal fur, which is laid under the desk and chair where he sits, there is not a single item that looks expensive.

As he was thinking of something as he looked at the report, the door to the room was knocked.

"It's Isaac. We're back from the village of Grisea."

"Get in."

When he said so with his eyes dropped on the report, Isaac came in with a leather paper on his right hand, after a voice saying "excuse me".

Isaac, who comes into the room, gives the man who is still reading the report with a difficult face, the leather paper he was holding.

"Dear Narson, This is the situation in the village of Grisea, but it was not in the same situation as Mr. Narson had advised. On the contrary, in the village, waterways were drawn, and there was no need to worry about the water."

"... what?

The man reading the report - Narson - looks up at Isaac's report and sees the skin paper offered.

Isaac wandered upright, wondering if he had done anything wrong to Narson, who gave him a strange look as he read it.

"It says there was water through the waterway, but are you sure?

"Ha, there was indeed water flowing. The waterway was connected to a storage pond and about half of the water in the storage pond was accumulated."

"Impossible."

Upon hearing Isaac's response, Narson shifts his gaze from the report to Isaac.

Taking that shooting glance, Isaac scratched a cold sweat on his back, even though he didn't do anything else wrong.

"But I've actually seen it with this eye, so I was wondering if I could make a mistake..."

"Isaac, do you know the distance from that village to the river and the terrain around the river?

"... no, I'm sorry"

"... right"

When Nalson stood up, he pulled out two large sheets of leather paper from the paperwork shelves he kept on the wall.

"Fair enough. Let me explain now why there can't be any water flowing through the waterway. You should remember it well with geography."

Narson tapped Isaac's shoulder, which was dripping, spreading two sheets of skin paper on his desk.

One depicts a map of the vicinity of the village of Gricea, which he governs, and the other, a map of an area a little further from the village, also depicting a river that should be connected to the waterway to the village.

"Look, it's a distance from the village of Grisea to the river first, but it takes an adult foot to walk for four and a half minutes (about thirty minutes). Further, the sun continued to shine and there was little food, and there were considerably fewer young men and not enough labour in the war ahead. Tools and little bronze in the village."

Narson talked that far and said, "That's it, okay?" and check with Isaac.

To Isaac replying "Yes," Narson began explaining again.

"The report didn't say what time it rained, but just after you went to the village of Grisea last time...... roughly a month ago. If you're saying that it rained there, and then you desperately built a waterway, well, it's not a story you don't know. However…"

Narson said so, pointing with his fingers to the river on the map.

"If the waters of this river are high enough to pull the waterway, so be it. Unfortunately, the surface of this river is too low to pull the waterway. Even if we pull the waterway more upstream, the river leaves the village as we go upstream, and there are even a number of hills along the way"

"Oh my... So where the hell is that water from..."

Hearing Narson's explanation, Isaac roared as he looked at the map.

Isaac himself thought it was true that he had seen water flowing through the waterway, and that he had simply dug the waterway into the river.

But the waterway cannot be drawn from the river.

As far as the map is concerned, there are no other sources of water near the village, and no one can see where they have drawn water from.

It's not impossible if you chop down a hill or make a huge detour around the hill and pull a waterway, but it's not realistic in time or workforce.

"I don't know that either... well, you can tell by following the village waterway"

"Well, then again tomorrow, we will go to the village of Grisea"

Narson shook his head at Isaac, who courageously offered to do so.

"You have to do another job. Besides, the fact that water is being supplied to the village of Grisea is not bad news, so let's put it on hold now as to where the water source is. Anyway, from here to the village of Grisea, it takes a whole day to get on Lata. We don't have enough time to do that right now."

"... Yes, I'm sorry"

Isaac drops his shoulder when he adds one more area concern to Narson because of his lack of attention.

When Narson noticed how Isaac looked like that, he slapped his eyes loose all the time and gently slapped his shoulder again.

"Don't worry so much. How many times have you been to the village of Grisea? Besides, whatever the bad news is, it was good news this time. Wasn't it nice to know the geography in this case and vice versa?"

"But this time it would have been nice, if this had been irrevocable because of my falling..."

To Isaac, who was also depressed, Narson sighed at him, opening his mouth to change the story.

"By the way, how have you been with Reese lately? Are we getting along?

"What!? Yes, what, it's no different!

Suddenly shaken, Isaac looks up surprised and answers hastily.

To Isaac, who looked like that, Narson let him sigh in exaggeration.

"Isaac, you can't turn my daughter around like that. I don't know what kind of man he likes, but I'm pretty sure you can't drop him if you attack with the fort."

"... in Lady Narson, known as Arcadia's Shield, it seems like a castle fortress that is difficult to defeat, rather than a fort"

"Ha ha, don't you say good things! Surely he may not be at the fort around here!

to Narson, who is laughing heavily, Isaac

"No, it's not a joke, it's true..."

And he dropped his shoulder again.

Around that time, on the other hand, in the mansion of the village chief of the Grisea village in the matter, Yiliang had heard from Barletta and the village chief about crops and taxes, surrounded by a burning enclosure of patches and firewood.

"I see, roughly every two to three months you pay the crop as a tax, and the lord trades it with other areas to turn it into money"

"Yeah, I'll pay that money to the royal family, so I'll be blamed by the royal family for not collecting a solid tax. If the royal family agrees, it seems that crops and other items may be delivered directly instead of money."

"Hmm, Mr. Barletta knows things. I admire you."

When Ichigo said so, Barletta smiled in a slightly lit manner.

"My father tells me a lot. Being the daughter of the village chief, I can't show the villagers without some learning."

"Um, my daughter, Barletta is a very smart daughter. I think it would be better if you let me serve the nobles such as Lord Narson and add a little more learning than being in such a small village..."

To the words, Baretta smiled as she turned her face to her father.

"Yeah, I don't want to leave because I like this village. Besides, this house will be dusty as soon as I'm gone, right? In less than a month, your father will be a dust chunk."

"Dude, that's a terrible word. I can clean as much as I want."

The village chief's eyes are warm looking at Barletta as he says so.

Perhaps Barletta cares that the village chief will be alone in this mansion.

Looking at the two of them, Ichigo said, "(What a good daughter of kindness)," and he felt his heart warm.

"Uh, so this tax, was it 80% of the wood I paid before?

"Yeah, that's what Mr. Isaac instructed me to do yesterday. I'd really like to deliver the crop, but now that I can't grow potatoes in most fields in time, I plan to grow fast growing leaves and feed the village until I plant the beans I'll deliver next."

Yiliang nods "I see" and thinks a little about the wood to be delivered.

From the progress of the logging work carried out in the meantime to create an aqueduct, logging could be carried out without problems.

I don't know how much wood I last delivered, but now that I have the axe and scarecrow that Ichigo brought, I should be able to do the work without any problems.

"By the way, do you sometimes pay more taxes than what you're offered?

On a good question, Barletta nods, "Yes."

"I don't know about other villages, but if you get more crops than you planned, or if you're free and you pick up a large number of branches to use for firewood, you may also pay extra for some of the money you sold in other towns and what you picked up."

"Heh, how is that again?

"Dear Mr. Narson, think properly about our lives and decide on taxes, because even if you have any problems in the village, you will actively support us. In this famine, it just didn't seem possible."

"Oh, that's a good lord..."

Ichigo nodded with unexpected admiration at Baretta's answer.

Though it seems to lay considerable good governance, Narson's hardship would therefore not be halfway through.

Even if we are gentle, not all things will reward us, and as the village chief told us at dinner, there will always be a village out there to deceive the harvest and make ourselves easier.

If you make it too sweet, you'll put it up, and vice versa, if you make it too harsh, you'll rebel.

In all worlds, it will be difficult to manage business.

"So when tax revenues seem to fall all at once, like this one, we also want to manage to pay more taxes to Master Narson. I'm sure Master Narson won't have enough money to pay the royal family."

"I see... Now, you want to deliver the indicated wood, as well as the crop, if possible. How many fields still grow potatoes?

"I wish the potato fields had as much as the original 20% left. The other fields were totally hit in the sun."

"Twenty percent... um"

As for the village of Gricea, an honorary student in Narson territory (I just heard the village's name for the first time from the village chief), I just want to manage to pay a lot of taxes.

"(I won't be able to get more potato seedlings in time now, so when it comes to what I can do, is it about improving potato quality?)"

It would be quick if we brought a large number of crops and such from Japan, but the food in this world is very different in taste and shape, and if we suddenly delivered a large number of new crops, it is imperative that we be suspicious.

For now, I don't seem to worry about wood, so I thought it would be a good idea to take care of the crops in the village whenever possible and pay them as taxes.

"Um, can I show you the village fields tomorrow? I'd like to see what happens to the remaining potatoes."

"Oh, will you look at it? Thank you."

"Huh? Oh, yes. Just look..."

For some reason, Ichigo leans on his inner neck to the village chief, who bows his head in gratitude.

"So it's time to rest? It's been quite a while since the sun went down."

"Oh, right. Shall we go to bed?"

Barletta's voice opened the discussion that night first, and the three of us headed to the field the next morning.