Chapter 28 Going to the City
Edited by: Kanaa-senpai
A few days after Ronald-san’s visit, Diana and I were going to Denar, the nearest city to the settlements, to exchange materials and buy foodstuffs.
As a preparation, slaves are now loading Heindahl’s materials and crops from the settlements into wagons.
Although there is only one kind of crop, we planted the seeds of a fast-growing crop on the first cleared farmland, and since we have some surplus except for what we eat, we are planning to sell it as well, depending on the selling price.
”Oh, it’s good, it’s good.”
Meanwhile, I was playing with the horse that was pulling the wagon.
In my previous life, I had always loved small animals like cats, dogs, and hamsters, but horses are quite adorable too.
”Master Neil, we’re done loading.”
”Okay, Diana, do you know what this girl’s name is?”
”The horse’s name? No, I don’t.”
”Well, is it all right if I name her?”
”Yes, it’s all right. The horse is also the property of Count Atmiras. Even if the horse has already been named, there is no one who would object to Master Neil naming it something new.”
”No, I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
Diana’s thinking is as dry as ever, and I think it would be better for the horse to have a familiar name, but it’s no use if I don’t know.
It’s too sad to call her Horse, so let’s think of a name for her.
”Hmm… Dian?”
”Master Neil? Why did you choose my name?”
”No, no, I don’t mean anything serious! It’s just that Diana’s name was the first thing that popped into my head!”
I felt an inexpressible pressure from Diana, and I hurriedly explained myself.
”So the first thing that popped into your head was my name… is that right?”
Diana sat down quickly in the coachman’s seat.
”Come here, Master Neil, get in too.”
”Ah, yes.”
Oh, she doesn’t seem to be mad at me? I thought she would have complained about it or something.
Anyway, I sit down next to Diana, and with Diana controlling the reins, the wagon we’re riding in slowly accelerates to leave the settlement.
”Ah!”
This is the first time for me to ride in the coachman seat, but the view is surprisingly nice, even if the ride is not so comfortable.
”Master Neil, please don’t fall out of the seat because of your excitement.”
”I know, I know, I’m not a child.”
Apparently, she saw that I was so excited that I could see it from the corner of her eye.
I felt a little embarrassed, so I tried to be careful, and I sat back down deeply in the coachman’s seat and looked ahead to the road ahead.
To get out of the settlement, we first need to go through the forest, and if we drive along the road that is wide enough for one wagon to pass, we can get through the forest and join the city road that leads to the city, but there is a mountainous area in between, and the road winds its way between mountains. It takes more than an hour just to pass through the forest.
Moreover, the entrance to the forest leading to the new settlement is a good distance away from Denar, the nearest city, so it is almost impractical to go there by foot.
This means that there is no need to worry about the slaves escaping from the settlements on their own feet.
”Some day I’d like to cut through the mountains and make a road wide enough for wagons to pass straight through.”
”Before we can make it easy to get around, we have to make it attractive enough for people to want to stop by.”
”I know.”
No matter how convenient the traffic is, no one will want to stop by the settlements where there are nothing but fields.
First of all, we have to create something attractive enough to make people want to visit the settlements, even if it’s inconvenient.
”But first we have to lay the groundwork. If the land is not a safe place for us to live, it will be difficult to attract people.”
”I guess our immediate goals are to secure a stable source of income and food, right?”
”Yes, those two things are absolutely necessary.”
We then began to discuss how we could use the time we had on the road to solidify the ground in the settlement.
However, we were confronted with the question of how far we could say that the land had been settled, and our discussion somehow turned into a question not of how to settle the land, but of what we could call the land “settled”.
”After all, can’t we say that the land has been solidified only when we can put soldiers in place and deal with monsters?”
”Personal safety is certainly important, but even if we hire soldiers, we need a stable income, and if we don’t have multiple sources of income to stabilize the situation, we can’t say that the land has been solidified to that extent, can we?”
”Then, how many sources of income can you say you have to have to be stable?”
As you can see, because Diana and I had different final destination points, our discussion somehow turned into an argument.
I wanted to secure a stable income for the settlement so that we could have enough funds to hire soldiers and cope with the food crisis, while Diana thought it would take too much time, and suggested that we should just secure a minimum income source and troops, and then proceed with the settlement.
This argument would continue until we reached the city, but we didn’t know at that time that this argument was a so-called “counting one’s chickens before they’ve hatched”.
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Edited by Kanaa-senpai.
Thanks for reading.