The Village That Died Today

“Huh? What did you say?”

Sian stared at the village head, dumbfounded.

To be accepted. Who was accepting whom?

The more he thought about it, the more absurd it was.

“Please, Dragon-nim, take us in. We beg you.”

“No, what in the…”

“If we continue like this, we will all die…” cough cough.

“…”

The village head choked, struggling to cough. This suddenness was truly absurd.

“What is the meaning of this?”

“Well…”

Unable to continue the conversation, Sian asked the man standing beside him.

The man, stammering, finally managed to continue.

The gist of their story was this:

The border village adjacent to the mountain of death, where the land was generally dry, and crops didn’t grow well.

Even so, they had somehow managed to live diligently, but a few years ago, the lord had raised the taxes harshly, leaving the already tight village in a state of ruin.

“The current lord is a greedy man, it seems.

A few years ago, he frequently started wars in the territory, raised taxes severely even in these border villages, and if they couldn’t pay on time, he forcibly conscripted young men and didn’t send them back.”

“Hmm…”

Kali, who was beside her, whispered to Sian. As a Dark Elf skilled in gathering information, he was well aware of their circumstances.

Sian looked at the village people with their dirty appearances again. Since young men had been conscripted instead of paying taxes, it was understandable why there were so many old people and children.

Anyway, although the situation was dire, there was nothing Sian could do for them. Sian shook his head.

“I do not interfere in the affairs of humans. So, go back.”

“Ah, we can’t….”

Perhaps they had gone through all sorts of hardships and come here.

It was pitiful just to look at them, as their hardship was evident.

Especially when he saw the children, who seemed to be the same age as Theodore, Sian’s heart ached.

But getting involved with her wasn’t good for them either.

If the lord was that wicked, he wouldn’t be happy to see the villagers leaving.

Sian was fed up with clashing with the Orta Empire.

“We heard that Dragon-nim is a very compassionate person. Please, have mercy on us…”

“Me?”

Sian, who had a reputation for being compassionate even though he didn’t know it, was dumbfounded.

He had never helped others like the saints in the stories, but just lived in the mountains without doing anything.

He didn’t know how she got the reputation of being compassionate.

The village head, looking at the bewildered Sian imploringly, opened his mouth again.

“We heard that Dragon-nim showed mercy to the wandering Duke.”

“Wandering Duke?”

“Yes.”

“……?”

It was a familiar name somehow. Sian furrowed his brows and searched her mind. Then, a person came to mind.

About 100 years ago, a beggar-like wanderer had broken through the barrier and wandered around the mountain.

Since he was a human of the great magic-user class who could cross the Dragon’s barrier, Sian, who felt a sense of crisis, had gone to see him directly.

But as it turned out, he wasn’t a great magic-user, but an ordinary person who had fortunately passed through the barrier because he had an ancient artifact. If Sian hadn’t gone to see him in time, he might have been killed by the magical beasts.

Anyway, after knowing the whole story, Sian had tried to take the ancient artifact and chase the wanderer away. But the wanderer, clinging to Sian, cried that the artifact was his entire fortune.

Sian hesitated for a moment. Even if the wanderer took the artifact and went back, he wouldn’t cross the barrier again, since he had suffered a lot this time.

However, the same thing could happen if someone else possessed the artifact later.

Especially if a high-ranking person from the Empire obtained the artifact, it would be the worst.

So, in the end, she didn’t return the artifact, but because the wanderer was begging so pitifully, Sian’s heart softened a bit at the time.

So, she had given him the magic stone fragments that she was developing with Kunta at the time.

To think that that was embellished and spread as a story.

“The wandering Duke, who was blessed by Dragon-nim at that time, became a millionaire by selling the magic stone!

After that, he wrote an anecdote about Dragon-nim and spread it to his descendants.”

“What… did you say?”

It was truly absurd. He had even written the story into a book? By whose authority? Her copyright?

Sian had never given permission for that.

The village head and the villagers stared at Sian, whose mouth was agape with disbelief, with bright eyes.

“Ugh… this is troublesome.”

“If you command it, we will drive them all out.”

“No, wait.”

The people flinched at the terrifying aura that Kalley was emitting.

Sian stopped Kalley, who looked as if he was about to cause a commotion.

It was a bit of a hassle, but she didn’t want to kill them.

Besides, she thought that if she harmed them and bad rumors spread, it wouldn’t be good for Theodore in the future.

Theodore, who had grown up, wouldn’t necessarily hide the fact that she was his teacher.

Then, it would be more helpful for Theodore’s reputation to have this embellished story spread. Sian, who had been bewildered, calculated calmly.

Sian finally decided to help them, thinking of Theodore.

However, even if he helped, how she would help them was the problem. There was a limit to Sian helping them directly.

Even if she handed them something like money, like the Duke, it wouldn’t end if the evil lord kept extorting taxes harshly.

‘Should I kill the lord?’

Sian muttered inwardly with a serious expression. She could kill a wicked lord in the boonies without a trace.

Perhaps the Empire wouldn’t even care much.

But it was also unsettling to kill someone. Besides, it wasn’t just the lord who was the problem.

Since the entire Empire was rotten, someone worse could come even if they removed the current lord.

In the original work, Theodore clashed with the wicked lords countless times while traveling the out-chamber as he grew up.

Of course, the protagonist, Theodore, would punish the lords like bursting a soda, and later, he would participate in the Empire’s civil war and make a great contribution, becoming famous.

Sian’s role was just a villain. It was a mere role that only left a trauma in the protagonist’s childhood and had nothing to do but be punished by the grown-up protagonist and prove his ability later.

It might have changed a lot from the original work by now, but still, Sian was well aware of her place.

Punishing the wicked lords was something Theodore, the protagonist, had to do later.

Then, how should he help them? He couldn’t give them money, and he couldn’t punish the lord. Sian pondered.

“May I… may I borrow a little of Dragon-nim’s territory’s land?”

“Land?”

“Yes, the land of our village is already barren, and crops don’t grow.

If we go back, we won’t be able to pay taxes anymore, and everyone will be dragged away by the lord and die.”

“Uhm.”

It seemed that they would die whether they went back or died here. Sian, looking at the exhausted villagers, said.

“Are the people here all of you?”

“Yes, these are all of us, excluding the men conscripted by the lord.”

“There aren’t many.”

Even if there were no young men, it was too few for a village’s population. The village head replied with a mournful expression to Sian’s muttering.

“Many… have already lost their lives.”

“Hmm.”

“Dragon-nim, if Dragon-nim does not accept us, we will all die. Please show us mercy.”

The village head, who said that, knelt first, and the villagers behind him knelt before Sian as well.

Sian looked down at them with an embarrassed expression.

“In the first place, your land and this side are not that… Ah.”

The reason the land around the mountain was dead was because of the Dragon’s magic.

The area inside the barrier where Sian resided had even more accumulated magic, so the land condition would be worse than the village’s.

But there was also a part that Sian had overlooked. That was the medicinal herbs.

The medicinal herbs, which grew steadfastly without being affected by the magic, also purified the land a little.

So, crops were also growing on the land where the medicinal herbs were planted.

It didn’t suddenly become fertile land, so it was only enough to barely grow staple crops like potatoes and sweet potatoes.

Still, for people who had been starving for days, even that would be a great blessing.

“Well, it’s not like there’s no way.”

“R-really?”

“Yes.”

Sian nodded. Watching the hope blooming on the faces of the village head and the villagers with a calm expression, he opened his mouth.

“Let’s pretend you all died today.”

“Yes?”

The startled village head opened his eyes wide and blinked repeatedly. The expressionless man’s face still remained before him.

“That… what…?”

He wanted to think she had misheard, but Sian’s face was very serious. Sian smiled, looking at the village head and the villagers, who were trembling.

“Sian-nim, are you really going to give them land?”

“Yes.”

“Sian-nim!”

The residents were supposed to have died in a landslide while wandering outside the village because they had nothing to eat.

The lord would dispatch soldiers to check, but they wouldn’t bother to dig up the debris and take out the corpses one by one.

Then, the villagers who became the deceased would come into the barrier and settle down.

They would have to coordinate other things in the future, but even now, some Dark Elves were helping the villagers immigrate.

Sian had returned to the mansion because she was worried about Theodore, who was alone.

“Well, let’s see how things go for now. It’s a pity if we just drive them away.”

“Pity? There’s no point in Sian-nim feeling such an emotion towards those people.”

Kali particularly disliked other races, so Sian didn’t take his violent remarks seriously.

He was more concerned about the quiet mansion. Was Theodore already asleep?

Sian approached Theodore’s room and knocked on the door.

“…Theo?”

But he heard nothing. Sian furrowed his brows and carefully opened the door.

“……!”

There was no one in the room.