< Previous Chapter | All Chapters | Next Chapter >
Chapter 6 – Frontier Village
Rodan had just got home.
“Ooooii, Theresia, I’m home~!”
“Oh! You’re home early today! Is everything alright?”
Theresia headed for the main room, surprised to see her husband, Rodan. There was dirt everywhere.
“Ah, I’m not hurt or anything. The Great Boar was a bit wild, so I fell once or twice. Is Allen awake?”
It was mid-October, and the harvest season was almost over. All that was left was the potatoes, but they were usually harvested later. Today, Rodan seemed to have gone hunting in the nearby forest with the other village men. Naturally, they were all serfs.
They were serfs, so they were supposed to be farmers, but for some reason, they went hunting during the fall and winter. Allen wasn’t sure why.
“Well, as long as you’re okay. Are you sure you want to take Allen with you?”
“Yeah, I promised that I’d show him the skinning and butchering. They already started, so we should get going.”
Rodan entered the nursery with his huge body.
“Wake up Allen~. We hunted a Great Boar~. It’s su~per hu~ge.”
“R-really Papa? I wanna see da Gweat Bowr!”
Said the person who was 1-year-old on the outside and 36-years-old inside. He was trying his best to express his enthusiasm age-appropriately.
“Let’s go! I’ll take you! Because you promised to be a good boy~”
“Yaaay~, Wooow~”
Last time, when Allen heard that his dad had hunted a Great Boar, he asked his dad to show him the next one. Rodan agreed, but only if Allen was a good boy. But Allen was already always a good boy because he didn’t really cry or scream much.
Rodan had just always wanted to say “If you’re a good boy”.
Rodan picked Allen up, held him to his chest, and left. It looked like Theresia wasn’t coming with.
It seemed like she didn’t want to see the butchering.
Rodan left early in the morning, and he had been running around the woods, hunting, fighting, and generally tumbling around, so he should have been really smelly, but Allen didn’t mind at all.
He knew how hard Rodan worked for the family.
Actually, this was Allen’s first time seeing the village in person. Usually, he could only see it through his window, through the front door, or from the yard with Theresia.
(A rural landscape filled only with fields. There are some houses over there.)
It was a village with a lot of fields. Each of them had a different color, probably because of all the different crops being grown. Since it was already October, most of the crops had been harvested, except for a few, like potatoes.
Full of the spirit of curiosity, Rodan called out to Allen, who was busy taking in the village from his perch on Rodan’s chest.
“Look Allen! An Albaheron!!”
Rodan pointed at the sky, and Allen saw something flying in the distance. It looked pretty big. It was too far away to see clearly, but there was definitely a large bird in the sky. He wondered how large its wingspan was. It was so big that it didn’t feel like it could exist back in the real world.
“Arba-haron?”
“Yeah. They migrate north this time of year. That’s just one of them, but they fly in flocks too. They say that when the Albaherons start flying, it marks the beginning of fall.”
“Monsta?”
“That’s right, it’s a monster. Well, it’s a monster that doesn’t come down to the ground very often, but your papa ate some once and it was super tasty.”
“Whoaa~”
“If there’s a monster bigger than that flying around, make sure you hide in the house!!”
“Okay! Dwagon gonna eat me.”
“…….”
“Papa, wha’s wong?”
Rodan was just staring at the Albaheron. After wondering about it a bit, Allen called out to him.
“Hm? Oh, it’s nothing. We’re almost at the Great Boar! It’s su~per hu~ge.”
“Kay!!”
A few months later, Allen would find out that he was named after the Albaheron, which could fly anywhere in the world. The son was named after the father’s desire for him to be free.
Of course, Allen didn’t understand at the moment, and was looking around the village curiously.
(This looks like a residential area. So we live on the outskirts of the village? Boar! A Great Boar! It’s my first time seeing monster!”)
After about an hour’s walk from their home, the fields disappeared and houses lined the street. At the end of the street, where there was a large gate, was looked to be the village entrance.
In front of it, there was a Great Boar. It was already partially butchered, but it still had its original shape. Nearly 50 people were gathered, and some of them were dividing the boar into pieces.
(It’s huge. It’s over 10 feet long. That’s definitely not the size of a normal boar.)
Allen was overwhelmed by the tremendous presence of the Great Boar. It was about the size of a hippopotamus from the real world. He couldn’t help but stare at its head, which was covered with horns and tusks.
Rodan had told him that there were monsters, but this was Allen’s first time seeing one.
Rodan carried Allen nearer and nearer. Everyone’s eyes were on them.
(Ah right, I stand out.)
Apparently, Allen knew why everyone was staring at him.
“Oh! Rodan’s here. Hey, everyone! It’s the man of the hour!”
A person from the dismantling crew shouted.
“Oi, oi. No need to shout, it wasn’t a big deal.”
“Come on over, ya big shot, we’re gonna run out of meat!”
A man as muscular as Rodan steps out. He had a beard and chest full of hair, which complimented his gorilla-like face and body.
He was holding a young girl that looked about Allen’s age.
“No need to cause a scene, it was just a lucky stab in the neck.”
Apparently, Rodan had dealt the killing blow. He looked pretty embarrassed by all the praise being poured on him.
“Oh!? You brought Allen today? It’s been a while since I’ve seen him, but his hair and eyes really are dark.”
Teresia and Rodan had brown hair, but Allen’s eyes and hair were just as black as they were before his reincarnation. Apparently it’s quite rare here, and a lot of people stare.
Also, Allen looked a lot more like his mom, Theresia, than the rugged-looking Rodan.
“That’s right, Gerda, cuz he was a good boy. Allen, say hi to our neighbor Gerda.”
“Nice to meet you, my name is Allen. How do you do?”
(Oops. I greeted him normally. What’s a 1-year-old supposed to sound like again?)
“Oi oi, is this kid really only 1 year old? My kid’s also 1, but it’s like night and day.”
“Yup. He’s not like me. He’s smart.”
Both Rodan and Gerda didn’t really mind that Allen could speak so well, despite being so young.
They were serfs who had never had children before, and they’d never been to anything even close to a school.
But it is what it is.
“Ah, you’re finally admitting you’re dumb, eh? Ey, Kurena, introduce yourself too.”
“I’m… Kurena….”
(I see, so that’s what I’m supposed to sound like.)
Kurena had pink hair and blue eyes.
Perhaps embarrassed by the attention, Kurena hid her face in her dad, Gerda’s, chest.
It was on this day that Allen and Kurena met for the very first time.
“Oi oi, what happened to your usual tomboy attitude?”
Gerda grinned, but Kurena kept hiding her face, glancing every now and then at Allen. Everytime she did, her eyes met Allen’s.
Rodan talked with his neighbor while walking towards the half-processed carcass. It seemed like they were going to take a closer look at the Great Boar.
(Ohhh, a real monster. I bet that if I hunt enough of them, I’ll level up. I can’t wait to be strong enough to fight them.)
“How stwong is dis monstah?”
“Ah, so, this is a C-rank monster. If you find a monster stronger than this, you have to run away, okay?”
(Hmm, so it takes around 20 people to defeat a C-rank monster?)
Allen rested in Rodan’s arms, watching them process the monster with rapt attention. Someone called out to Rodan, saying that it was ready. Rodan went up to the butcher who was holding out a bundle of meat tied up with a string.
(That’s a lot of meat. It’s like, 20 lbs. Is this the reward for defeating the Great Boar? So this is the dried meat we have sometimes?)
Sure enough, while holding Allen in one hand, Rodan received the meat with the other. It seemed like some people got a chunk of meat, probably for participating in the hunt.
“Seen enough yet? Theresia’s waiting for us, so let’s go home, okay?”
“Kay.”
With that, Rodan and Allen headed home on the same road, souvenir in tow.
< Previous Chapter | All Chapters | Next Chapter >
Thanks for reading! 🙂
JATranslations 