The Village and the Missing Soldiers

“There isn’t anyone to farm?”

“Yes, that’s right……”

The village head bowed his head, extending his words as if apologetic.

He was putting on a pitiful face, but his complexion was quite good, and his previously gaunt cheeks had filled out and looked plump. It was because he was eating much better than when he was starving.

The residents of Ador village had adapted better than Sian expected.

He had worried since the land in the mountains was so barren, but the land of the former village, which had been desolate due to drought, was apparently even worse.

Moreover, since Theodore had started living in the mountains, the magic had been purified to the point where wildflowers bloomed, which seemed to have a good effect on them as well.

During the winter, Sian had fed the villagers with the emergency crops he had stored, and now that spring had arrived, they also wanted to start farming.

However, the lord had conscripted the able-bodied men, resulting in a labor shortage.

Even if they had recovered and felt better, most of them were old people and children.

“Hmm……”

Sian pondered. In any case, he had decided to accept them, so it was correct that he should help them with farming so they could live well here in the future. But the labor to farm… he couldn’t figure out how to solve that.

Since the Dark Elves were procuring their food in their own way, he couldn’t ask them to farm together.

Moreover, he felt he had already been too apologetic, asking the closed-off and human-hostile Dark Elves to help the villagers settle inside the mountains. He couldn’t ask them to help with farming too.

Then, they would have to procure labor from outside. That wasn’t easy either. Sian frowned and pondered.

“Um…… Lord Dragon.”

“Yes?”

The village head cautiously called out to Sian. Sian looked at the village head with a puzzled expression.

“How about bringing back the men who were conscripted?”

“The men who were conscripted…?”

“Yes, my grandson was also conscripted at a young age, replacing his sick father… If it’s possible to bring them back……”

“Hmm……”

The village head’s eyes moistened at the thought of his filial grandson. Sadly, Sian felt nothing in particular as he watched this.

Rather, he was thinking about whether the village head’s opinion was reasonable.

Certainly, as the village head said, it would be of great help to farming if the young men who were conscripted were brought back.

But the problem was that they weren’t like slaves who were taken to labor camps, but soldiers belonging to the lord’s army.

If they were in the middle of a territorial war, they would be sensitive to the number of soldiers, and they could get caught if they did something like sneaking the villagers away.

“That’s going to be difficult.”

“Even so, maybe a few……”

“I could have gotten you guys out with a sleight of hand, but it’s different with soldiers. It’s hard to know where they are, since they might have been taken to the battlefield.”

“……”

“And it’s dangerous to touch the soldiers. Other races also live in this mountain, so I can’t put them at risk.”

“Is that so……”

Sian looked down at the gloomy village head with an awkward expression.

In fact, farming was just an excuse, and as the village head and the villagers had no more worries and were getting more comfortable, they seemed to be missing their separated families.

But no matter how many times he thought about it, he saw no reason to bring back the conscripted residents.

“For now, do what you can on your own. You don’t need to pay taxes to me, just enough for you to eat.”

“Yes, I understand, Lord Dragon.”

Seeing the gloomy face, Sian also felt disheartened.

But it was much better to live self-sufficiently within what they could do, rather than looking for and bringing back the soldiers from the village, whose location he didn’t even know at this point.

At that time, Sian could only come to that conclusion.

***

Having finished the reminiscing, Sian thoroughly examined the face of the soldier whose eyes seemed to meet his for a moment.

Whether it was atavism or not, the grandson looked like his grandfather, the village head, not his father.

It seemed as if the village head had looked exactly like that when he was young.

Sian absorbed the soldier’s appearance with a mix of curiosity.

‘He looks exactly like the village head.’

They were so identical that he couldn’t possibly mistake them.

He was going to watch how the lord’s soldiers who were sent this time were investigating, but he unexpectedly discovered a soldier who was likely the village head’s grandson. Even for Sian, it was a little embarrassing.

Moreover, hearing the other soldiers whispering, it seemed that the village head’s grandson wasn’t the only one from Ador village here.

‘Hmm… What should I do?’

Sian had told the village head just recently that there was no way to bring back the soldiers whose whereabouts were unknown. But he found them right away.

Sian sighed inwardly, glancing at the few soldiers with gloomy expressions, looking up at the mound of dirt.

“Let’s not go any closer to this side, it’s dangerous.”

“Hmm, we seem to have gone in a bit too deep.”

The soldiers had already entered the vicinity of the barrier where Sian was standing.

The soldiers who appeared to be superiors realized this and turned around.

Then, another soldier next to him asked with a doubtful tone.

“It’s not dark enough for monsters to appear yet, is it?”

“If you go any deeper from here, you definitely won’t be able to get out.”

“What do you mean?”

The soldier asking the question had a youthful face that suggested he was new.

Looking down at him, an older soldier clicked his tongue.

“The master of the mountain doesn’t allow you to go inside.

There are a lot of soldiers who didn’t know and went in deep and never came back.”

“Isn’t that just being attacked by monsters or mountain beasts?”

“Don’t talk nonsense. Then there would have to be some trace, but it was completely clean. As if the person just disappeared.”

“Geez, a dragon in this day and age. Kids believe in those things.”

“Hey, don’t say things like that, okay?”

“……”

Listening to the soldiers’ bickering, Sian stroked his chin.

Due to the barrier that prevented entry, a few people would sometimes wander around in the same place.

Among them were armed soldiers.

It was because the emperor, who had been eyeing the mountain even after the agreement, had secretly dispatched them.

But every time, he would erase the memories of those wandering in the mountains and send them back out.

Why were they being treated as missing?

‘Those guys, did they desert….’

Maybe a few of them really did get lost on their way back, but that wouldn’t have been a lot of cases.

But if the soldiers were being treated as missing, they probably didn’t return on purpose.

‘Well, I wouldn’t want to go back to the military of my own accord either.’

Recalling his memories as a human, Sian gave a bitter smile.

He thought that the soldiers’ hearts were similar in any era. Nodding to himself, Sian’s head perked up at a sudden thought.

‘This… can’t I use this well?’

The soldiers from Ador village he just discovered.

And the words that soldiers would sometimes go into the mountains and disappear.

It fit together perfectly, as if a puzzle was being put together in his head.

“Hey, you guys, stop it and come out.”

“……Yes.”

The soldiers from Ador village, who had been gathered with grim faces, slowly answered and turned around.

It was when they were about to move towards where the other soldiers were.

“……!”

The soldier who was behind stumbled. And instantly fell.

With a thud, the other soldier turned around with a puzzled expression.

“Hmm…?”

But he saw nothing. The shadowy foliage was only making a small sound as if it were rustling in the wind.

The other soldier, tilting his head, was approached by another soldier, who asked.

“Why, are you okay?”

“No… I just heard a strange sound over there.”

“Ugh, you too, don’t get spooked, and hurry back. Did you take care of the others?”

“Yes. No problem, let’s go back now.”

As if forgetting that he was just nagging the junior soldiers, the soldier who had turned around nodded readily and turned around.

The dreary wind continued to blow in the direction of the foliage he had just looked at.

“Uh… where is this?”

The soldiers who opened their eyes in a new place looked around with puzzled expressions.

They seemed to have been in the forest until just now, but this place was a room with all sides closed.

There was also a strong scent of wood that smelled like it was recently built.

Most of the soldiers were from the countryside, so they noticed that.

“Are you Eddie?”

“Gasp…!”

The soldier who opened his eyes first turned his head in surprise at the sudden voice.

But he couldn’t see anyone where the voice had come from. The soldier’s face turned pale.

‘Oops.’

Sian, who had forgotten that he had cast a transparent magic on his own body to avoid the soldiers’ eyes, realized it belatedly and quickly undid the magic. Then, the sound of gasping could be heard from all around.

“M, magic user…?”

When a person’s figure appeared out of thin air, the soldiers were dumbfounded.

There seemed to be a manual as a soldier of what to do in this situation, but as soon as they realized that the opponent was a magic user, their minds went blank.

“Are you Eddie, right?”

“M, me?”

“Yes. The village head’s grandson from Ador village.”

“Gasp… How did you…?”

The soldier, who was once again addressed by Sian, opened his eyes wide.

No one knew that he was the village head’s grandson, except for the soldiers who were conscripted with him.

Being the grandson of a village head in a rural village wasn’t something to boast about, so he didn’t bother to tell people about it.

But someone who didn’t know him at all knew that fact. Even the person who seemed to be a magic user.

Edward stared at Sian with trembling eyes.