Volume 6 Chapter 30-4 Love Letter
Edited by: Kanaa-senpai
Well then, next… let’s go to Uno’s place.
The teleportation gate closest to the Valley of Trials was the one in the Forest of Wolves. I would greet the twin beast-goddesses at the gate and ask them to let me pass through.
The forest was also called the Forest of No Entry, or the Forest of No Return. At first, I thought going through such a place often would be foolish. But fear fades with habit. Somehow, the wolves had started treating me like family. Even Ms. Uruu allowed me to groom her now.
Even that fox — the one that had become scared of humans — showed herself sometimes. I still wanted to pet her, but maybe keeping a little distance was best. For wild animals, maybe that much space between us was perfect.
* * *
”Hey. Is this how you greet someone now?”
I had just jumped into Uno’s home and, without a word, started pulling concrete parts out of my magic bag and laying them out.
Uno looked at me with sleepy eyes full of annoyance.
Ah. Now I understood how my dad felt when he tried to do Sunday carpentry in the yard while watching Mom’s face to see if he was in trouble.
”Sorry,” I said. “But you’re the only one I can rely on, Uno.”
No matter what she said, Uno always spoiled me in the end. That was one of her charms too.
Her home had a strange space inside it, where time flowed differently — much faster than outside. The dwarves used such places too, but Uno’s was far beyond theirs. Thanks to this, I could dry the concrete completely in no time.
It was also a perfect place to sleep without worrying about time. The high priests were always tired from too much work. Being important seemed kind of sad, honestly.
For me, no matter how busy I got, I could always bring my paperwork here and take my time finishing it. Uno and I could work while chatting and relaxing. She’d give advice, and we’d laugh now and then.
Dragons and high-level spirits like Uno were smarter than humans. They had so much free time that even running a country felt like a game to them.
* * *
In this world, we had cheap paper like straw paper. There were magic computers and even magic tools that acted like printers — they burned letters into paper with heat.
And yet, official documents still had to be written by hand on expensive parchment.
At first, I wanted to fix that. But Uno stopped me.
”Humans write down too many things when paper is cheap,” she said. “That just makes more useless work. Is that really what you want?”
I hadn’t thought of that. She had a point. If there’s too much paper, people will start writing things they don’t even need to.
Thanks to wall barley, no one in this world had to worry about starving. Maybe, as ruler, I should try to make sure people didn’t have to work too much either.
Long ago, Roman emperors tried to give their people fun things to do. But here, the people wanted peace and laziness more than fun.
I had rushed into being king, trying to do everything. But Uno’s words made me stop and think about what people really wanted.
What they wished for… was a kingdom where lazy people could be lazy.
In a world with wall barley, hard work wasn’t really a virtue anymore. For people who hated effort, a peaceful, sleepy life was the dream. Then… maybe what I was doing wasn’t wrong.
Of course, not every otherworlder wanted to laze around. Some priests preferred prayer over food. Some merchants loved money more than sleep. Those kinds of people needed a place too.
Even the ones who moved from Toyata Village — they were the type who wanted to eat tasty quail meat, even if they had to work hard for it. Huh? That meant the ones who stayed behind were the really lazy ones.
Could they survive on their own?
Well, Mr. Laken was still there. He would figure something out… right?
The more I thought, the more confused I got. Maybe I wasn’t cut out to be a king after all.
But here, I had all the time I needed. I could sit and think slowly.
* * *
There was still one job left: filling a mountain of magic stones with mana. It was a simple, boring task. But sometimes, repeating a simple thing like that helped me calm down.
I thought I would get sick of it — but watching each one fill up, little by little, was kind of fun.
It reminded me of how I used to love popping bubble wrap as a kid.
”I guess I can’t help it,” Uno said beside me. “It sounds kind of fun, after all. And I am your wife… I should give you a little strength, right?”
She sat down next to me and started helping.
There weren’t enough charging tools to make it faster, even with two people, but… doing this kind of quiet work together felt warm.
It made me smile.
Notes:
• Uruu – The wolf.
• Mr. Laken – The Toyata village head and guild branch manager
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Edited by Kanaa-senpai.
Thanks for reading.
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