34 - Marquis Maron
Episode 34
8. Midsummer, "How can the Lord live alone?"
Everyone's gaze focused on me at my cold-hearted remark.
The lumberjack family bickering in the Maron Keep garden, Rango and Reikart surveying the surroundings from afar, even Fatima.
I swung my legs danglingly outside the window frame and said again.
"This is my house. Who decided to make a fuss about whether I live here or not? I never gave permission. As I said before, I just helped out because I felt like it. Don't even think about settling down here slyly."
"Lord…"
"Fatima, you should leave with these people this time. You're not planning to live here forever, are you?"
I tried to sound scary, but I'm not sure if it worked. I can never figure out what Fatima's expression means.
Why are her eyes drooping like that? Why is her mouth turned down, and why are her eyes so moist?
"Um… what about you, no, the Lord?"
A lumberjack's wife asked. I stared intently at the woman, wondering what she meant.
"If we all leave, will you take us again? And then, after that… will you live here alone like that again?"
"What nonsense are you talking about? Of course, I have to live here. You know who I am."
The evil Sorceress Hayley.
I mimed slitting my throat with the edge of my hand and said,
"Do you know what happens when a prisoner wanders around outside the prison without permission?"
A heavy, uncomfortable silence filled the air. Was it because they belatedly remembered what kind of person I was? The lumberjacks gripped their wives' hands tightly.
Anyway, the most important thing to me was the fact that there was no food here, so I said to them one last time.
"We'll be leaving soon. I'll take you to Grandis, so get ready."
Then, I pulled my legs inside and slammed the window shut. It was an action I took hoping that the loud noise would convey my firm resolve.
But this damn old keep betrayed me again.
Crash.
The old window fell off. Not inward, but outward, crashing at their feet and half-destroyed.
Whoosh. Wind blew in through the windowless wall, and my long hair fluttered.
"Even if we're leaving, we should fix this before we go."
"Just go."
"I can't do that with a troubled heart. Lord, please take a look."
One of the good-natured lumberjacks examined the window frame here and there, then sighed and said.
"I'm glad I brought some things from home. You go ahead and get some wood from over there. Choose well-dried ones. You check for hinges and anything useful, and since we can't do anything about this glass, we should at least put up a wooden shutter."
"What about the measurements? What do we use to measure?"
"Open my bag."
His wife quickly opened the bag. The lumberjacks were all wood experts and carried various tools as if they were part of their bodies, and they couldn't bear to leave them behind when they left home, so they brought them along.
The men quickly went to get wood, and the wives, who had been shouting to leave this ominous land immediately, glanced at me furtively and gathered around Fatima.
"Hey… is there a kitchen here? We have a conscience, we can't just leave like this. We should do something before we go. So you can store and eat."
"Yeah, give us some laundry. Is there a well or stream here?"
"What about cleaning? Who's going to do it?"
Fatima mumbled.
"Auntie, there's a kitchen, but there's almost nothing useful. As for laundry… you need clothes to do laundry. I don't think she's ever cleaned either."
"Why? No, why?"
"Come this way for now."
Fatima took the women to the kitchen. I don't know why, but even as she went, she kept glancing at me and distorting one of her eyes strangely as she blinked, which was very annoying.
What's wrong with her?
I turned my back on the gaping window and set off to find my Dryad.
I just wanted someone to take my side, but the carnivorous Dryad, who was better than a Demon in every way, watched a woman catch a duck and turn it into meat in an instant, and naturally squeezed in among them and took a seat.
"I didn't know there were Dryads living in the Contaminated Zone. I haven't heard of them since I was a kid, so I thought they had all disappeared. Is it because it's remote?"
"Uh-huh."
"Is it livable because there are no people?"
"Everything else is bearable… but there's no food here."
"Food?"
"There's not enough land to farm either. I barely managed to grow strawberries, but the season is already over… and the potatoes haven't grown enough yet, so I'll have to wait a long time for them to get big enough to eat."
"Oh my! What do you eat, Dryad?"
"I just starve… trying not to move as much as possible. If I run around, I get hungry."
"Come here. I have a pie I packed from home. Have some of this."
"You guys have to go to Grandis soon, right? It's a long walk, so eat it on the way. Don't try to give it to me. I'm fine."
"We can make more!"
"Don't make me say it again. I told you there's no food here?"
Why isn't there any? I brought a whole wagon full from Grandis last time. What is she talking about?
I watched my Dryad's antics blankly. It was absurd and funny. When did she become so good at acting pitiful? I never taught her that.
"Dryad, this land isn't very good for farming. It's too hard and dry. This side has a high proportion of sand, and it's difficult to get water to that side. Why don't you make farmland outside the keep walls instead?"
Doraji opened her big, moist eyes and mumbled.
"I don't know how to farm…"
What is she talking about? She produced such plump strawberries from that hard, dry land.
"Dryad, you said you have seeds, right? Give them to me. Are there any tools we can use for farming? My husband said he's going to cut down trees over there, so let's go over there for now."
"Don't plant too much. After you all leave… I'll have to do it all alone anyway."
Doraji spread out her small, leaf-like hands. Stars twinkled in her round, moist eyes.
The lumberjacks' wives looked back and forth between my Dryad and me, then suddenly grabbed her hand tightly and said.
"We'll do our best."
Selbon was a mountainous village with a harsh natural environment. Lumberjacks gathered and spontaneously created a village, and the wood produced there was sold at a high price, so it was recorded as a city on the map. It started as a mountain valley with no farmland.
They were people who had diligently developed such a village for generations. The lumberjacks not only cut down trees but also knew how to process wood and make anything, and the women were experts at cultivating the rough land and growing food.
A day later, my broken window had become a defensive fortress window with twice the thickness and even shutters.
I stared blankly at it and asked.
"Who's attacking?"
"It's not that…"
The good-natured lumberjack laughed heartily and scratched his head.
"Well, even if the Lord was such… a person, you know. A young lady is going to live alone in this remote area, so as we were making it, it kept getting stronger and stronger."
His colleagues chimed in.
"It won't open even if someone pulls it with force from the outside, and it won't be pierced by arrows or anything like that. Well, that's how it is. Anyway, that's it."
"Arrows? Who's coming here to kill me?"
"Oh, it's not like that."
I chuckled. I opened and closed the window they had made several times with both hands, then opened and closed it again.
It was sturdy but smooth. I didn't ask what they had done, where they had gotten the useful hinges, or where the oil had come from.
"Thank you so much."
They had gone to that lush forest to cut down trees and made a fuss all day to make this, so it was a natural greeting.
…or so I thought.
"Oh my…"
One of the women covered her mouth with her hand and stared at me intently. Fatima, who was next to her, shrugged her shoulders, saying, "See, I told you so?"
Doraji looked at me like a father marrying off his grown-up daughter, and Reikart turned his head and chuckled, wondering what was so funny.
Feeling annoyed, I looked around at them and said.
"If you're done, let's get going."
Why are you all doing this? I'm not that easy.
