Chapter 399: Within reach for now
Chapter 399: Within reach for now
When we met up with my wives and the abducted women and returned to the village, Akane had finished tending to the injured, and the deceased had been buried thanks to Titan.
We were met by the village chief.
「Everyone, to you who had saved this village of ours and even saved the abducted women, my words are not enough to show our appreciation.」
The village chief bowed his head deeply. I hurriedly stopped him.
「Please raise your head. We just happened to pass by.」
「No, if it were not for you lot, the village would have been decimated. The village women would have suffered a fate worse than death.」
The villagers who gathered around the village chief all fell to their knees and began to speak words of gratitude to the point their foreheads were on the ground.
「Everyone, please calm down! Please stand up for now!」
I managed to make them stand, but then I noticed.
Likely because there were those who died from the attack from the orcs, the villagers were not in good spirits, nor were they energetic…… and many of them were skin and bones.
When I looked around the village, the field wasn’t that big. Even if they supplemented it with hunting prey for food, it’s barely enough to keep them alive.
And so, I tried talking to Sophia, Akane, and the others about offering the orcs to them.
「Isn’t that fine? At this point, what would we do with the money from selling the meat and materials from orcs?」
「Yes, I think it’s a great idea.」
「Thanks. I’ll talk to their side.」
I immediately told the chief about supplying them with orc materials, and once again, he knelt on the ground. As I had guessed, this village’s food situation wasn’t great, and it had taken a turn for the worse after the collapse of Sydnia.
「Let’s dismantle it immediately. We should make a storehouse, too. We can’t freeze it to keep it for longer, so we need to process them into jerky.」
「Takumi-sama, please calm down. The chief is confused on what to do.」
I was about to go wild with all sorts of thigns to do when Sophia stopped me. Ah, the chief is indeed flabbergasted.
「F-for starters, I’ll make the storehouse, so please dismantle the orcs.」
「Okaaay!」
「Very well!」
Maria and Laeva replied cheerfully and immediately dismantled the orcs.
There were a lot of orc corpses, so the the villagers began helping out of their own volition too.
「Ok, I’ll do the storehouse in the meantime.」
I asked the chief to show me a place where I could build the storehouse without obstructing anything, then I built it in one go.
A 2-story 1-basement solid stone storehouse was completed just like that, and the chairman just stood still, dazed and mouth agape.
I covered the basement with ice using magic to make it similar to an ice house. This would probably preserve the meat for a while.
They were dismantling the orcs in the village square.
Ferryl, Seru, and Gloam also received a a bunch of orcs for meal time.
It was then that the chief regained his composure.
「Please make use of the materials that could be liquidated to restore the village. Please be courteous especially towards the those who lost relatives.」
「I am eternally grateful, but is it truly alright?」
「It’s no problem at all. You will need to go to the Adventurers Guild, so please be careful on your way there.」
「Truly, our sincerest gratitude.」
Quick to stop the chief who seemed to be trying to bow down on the floor again, I took out the orcs from my Item Box and lined them up.
「The village will be saved with this. Would it be alright to share this meat with nearby villages?」
「I see no issue. Even if they were made into jerky, it would still be difficult for this village alone to finish off. Moreover, this village is free to use the ingredients and materials of their own volition.」
Don!
When I placed down the Orc General’s body last, the village chief was dumbstruck and jawdropped for the Nth time today.
The sellable materials and meat were to be classified I also helped out using magic. Things like 『Dehydration』 and 『Aging』 were easy enough, after all.
The dismantling continued late into the night. And while that was happening, Marnie and Maria were made a large batch of food with the orc meat.
The empty hands were provided with food, and the dismantling ended well into the night.
Once the orc meat and materials were stored, we borrowed the plaza to rest. Night watch was covered by Titan. Ferryl and the other familiars were there too.
***