Not Sure, Another World Reincarnation

One way or another, we all ended up venturing deeper into the forest. We found the injured woman near a small hill, or maybe it was a cliff? Either way, she was sitting at the bottom.
It seemed we startled her when we pushed through the bushes to approach, and in response to her reaction, I asked what had happened. She explained that she’d been chased by a boar and, while trying to escape, had fallen from above and sprained her ankle. She said our sudden appearance had scared her because she thought the boar had circled around and found her again.
When I looked up, I saw a large bush at the top of the cliff. Just beyond it was a sudden drop in elevation, it would be easy for someone to fall without realizing. I couldn’t help but think, ‘Yeah, anyone would fall from that.’
Her leg wasn’t broken, but the sprain was bad. As I was wondering whether to use a potion, Lily stepped in and began treating her with healing magic. Eeeh… She gets mad when I do that kind of thing, but then she just goes ahead and does it herself? Well, I guess she’s trying to keep me from standing out too much… but still, it kind of annoys me.
That aside, the woman we helped was from a nearby village. She had gone into the forest to collect wild herbs.
Since it would be a waste to rescue her only for her to get attacked again by wild beasts or monsters, we decided to escort her back to the village. We’re not in a rush, so a small detour wouldn’t hurt. It was Lily who first suggested this.
“You’ve even healed my injuries… Truly, thank you very much.”
“No, no, we’re heading to our next adventure, so it’s okay. Ah, let’s go and collect the basket you dropped.”
“No, please, you don’t need to go to that much trouble…”
Hmm, Lily has great communication skills, so I’m grateful I can just leave all this to her. When I try, the conversation tends to head in a different direction.
While listening to her story about being attacked by the wild boar, we managed to retrieve the basket she dropped while being chased, then walked back to where we had our lunch break and took the carriage straight to her village.
When we boarded the carriage, our seating arrangement remained the same: Arisa and Kuro sat in the driver’s seat, and Lily and I were in the cabin with the woman we helped. By the way, her name seems to be Anna. From the looks of it, she’s in her early twenties? I’m not sure though.
At first, she seemed a little embarrassed to climb in, riding in such a splendid carriage made her think we were nobles or wealthy people, and she became somewhat frightened. I explained that it was a misunderstanding and managed to convince her that we were just ordinary adventurers. Still, if a party made up of only young girls is riding around in a carriage like this, I suppose misunderstandings are unavoidable… Not that I plan on giving up the carriage. Ah, I put all the potted plants on the roof into [Storage]. It would look a bit silly to someone we’re giving a ride to.
To ease the tension, we chatted about various things and learned that Anna is the daughter of the village chief. She’s already married and has three children. Ah, in this world, people become adults at fifteen, so I suppose marriage and childbirth happen earlier?
However, her eldest child, a girl, had been kidnapped by goblins while playing in the forest with other village children some time ago and went missing. They knew goblins were responsible because one of the children managed to escape.
By the way, her daughter was rescued by adventurers, unharmed, and returned safely, along with the other abducted children. This story… it’s starting to sound familiar.
While talking like this, we arrived at the village without any problems. It felt a bit overbearing to ride the carriage through the village, so those of us in the cabin got out and walked. Arisa stayed on as the coachman, but Kuro had some free time, so she got off and followed us, looking around rather restlessly. However, even after leaving the carriage, our presence still attracted attention thanks to Norn and Bell, so getting off didn’t really change much.
Villagers watched from a distance as we arrived at the village chief’s house, and the chief and several family members came rushing out, showering us with thanks. It wasn’t exactly late yet, but it was around the time she should have been home, so they had already started discussing whether to go out and look for her. They were still quite cautious, especially after the recent goblin kidnappings. We were met with an overwhelming amount of gratitude.
“Thank you, thank you so much! It’s thanks to you all that my daughter returned home safely. Please, stay the night!”
“Ah, no, we just happened to be passing by, so there’s really no need to go that far…”
Overwhelmed by the chief’s enthusiasm, Lily started backing away, but she was hit with a sudden ambush! Well, it was to be expected. His granddaughter, who had been kidnapped and recently returned, was one of the children we rescued from the goblin legion’s nest. She had just come home after playing and, upon seeing us, made quite a fuss.
“Ah! They’re the big sister team of adventurers from that time!”
“Hm? Mina, what’s going on? Adventurers from that time?”
“Yeah! Them! These big sisters are the ones who saved me from the goblins!”
“What?! Really?!”
“It’s true! And the big sister team helped my mom too! Thank you!”
“What a thing…! Not only did they save my daughter, but they also saved my granddaughter! I must express my gratitude! I could never face my ancestors otherwise! Dear adventurers, please, I can’t offer much in the way of hospitality, but stay with us tonight!”
He rambled on, and without giving us much chance to refuse, we were taken to the chief’s house and given a warm welcome.
That’s why there was such a wide variety of food on the table, about what would qualify as a feast by the village’s standards. I’ll pretend I didn’t notice that there was way too much food for us to finish, yeah.
The taste was neither particularly good nor bad, but the dishes made the most of the freshness of their ingredients. Spices like pepper and such… they can be quite expensive…
That said, the wild boar steak, seasoned with salt and herbs, was absolutely delicious. Arisa was especially happy about it. Apparently, it had been aged in an icehouse and is only served on special occasions, like weddings, funerals, or festivals. It’s surprising, rural villages really don’t lose out when it comes to good food, even without fancy spices.
As the conversation flowed, we ended up staying in the village for a few days. After the delicious feast, we were shown to a detached building belonging to the village chief’s house. By the way, this building is used as lodging for guests and caravans. When they have a lot of guests, they also use the village meeting hall. If the guest happens to be a noble, they’re housed at the magistrate’s residence, which is located a little distance away. Ehhh, so there’s a Magistrate apart from the Village Chief?
Apparently, the magistrate is a knight who oversees several villages in the area. He patrols the surroundings and hunts monsters, which is why those villages suffer less damage from magic beasts. He also occasionally teaches the younger villagers, and as a result, the village’s youth—or vigilante—group is said to be more skilled than those in nearby villages.
Although their peace is thanks to those efforts, younger children don’t really understand such things yet. The chief’s granddaughter was kidnapped because the kids had wandered farther than they were allowed, due to a poor sense of danger, so we were told.
Fortunately, she returned home safely, and on the other hand, they were able to instill a better sense of caution in the children thanks to this incident. The village chief laughed with a mischievous expression, wait, what are you planning…?
By the way, these beds were hard. My back’s going to hurt… Let’s just use a homemade mattress. Ah, Lily and the others, do you want one too? Well then, I’ll swap them out for everyone.
The next morning, the Chief’s daughter brought breakfast to the detached house. The meal consisted of last night’s leftovers, vegetable soup, and black bread. Yeah, plain, but delicious.
However, even though we’re staying for a few days, we really don’t have anything to do… I suppose we’ll just wander around the village.
So, we decided to go explore, or rather, take a walk around the village. Arisa took Kuro to check out the surrounding forest. Lily came along with me, since she had a lot of free time. The Village Chief’s granddaughter joined us as well.
Well, we’re just wandering around… Yeah, there really isn’t much to see in the countryside. Fields, fields, and more fields. Men working the land, women doing laundry, young mothers chatting while babysitting. It’s peaceful~.
With Mina, the Chief’s granddaughter, showing us around, we quickly completed the full tour. Yeah, there’s really not much here.
Perhaps noticing the look on our faces, Mina took us to the only general store in the village.
“And this is where you can shop in the village.”
So, the general store’s lineup is… Hmm, yeah, I get it. Sorry for making you take us around, Mina.
“There’s also a blacksmith shop…”
Oh, a blacksmith, huh? Sorry, but I don’t have much hope there, so I’ll pass. When I asked the general store’s owner, he said most of the blades they sell were made by the local blacksmith. Eh, well, I already used [Appraisal]…
But I didn’t want to leave completely empty-handed, so I told them I’d buy all the surplus vegetables they had. The shop owner’s son ran off to ask the Chief for permission to sell from the village stockpile.
We headed over to the village’s storage hut. The vegetables deemed okay for sale were stocked in large quantities, it made me wonder if they weren’t overdoing it. Thanks to the efforts of the magistrate and the vigilante group, there’s been little damage from wild animals, and for the past few years, the harvests have been stable enough that a good amount of vegetables get left over and eventually rot. In fact, the shop owner said it would be a huge help if I bought the extras.
If that’s the case, I won’t hesitate, I’ll buy them all! If I keep them in [Storage], they won’t rot. And if there’s ever a poor harvest, I can sell them in bulk. Of course, I’d sell them at a normal price. I don’t want to make excessive profits and draw resentment.
Still, when I later spoke to the Village Chief, it turned out they sold me more than just the surplus, they sold more than their required stockpile. With the money from the sale, the Chief plans to buy up surplus inventory from surrounding villages to help spread the wealth. Between this and the situation with his granddaughter… isn’t this Village Chief a little too stubborn?
Just like that, it was already past noon, so we decided to head back to the Chief’s house. Along the way, we chatted with Mina, who’d looked like she had something she wanted to say the whole time. Probably the usual “something’s bothering me” pattern…
The story she finally told us was… quite the hassle.
It’s a common tale: a large magic beast takes up residence near the village and starts attacking livestock. Apparently, this one ate a bunch of goats.
Mina’s reason for wanting to do something about it was her mother and newborn brother. Her mother, Anna, has a condition that makes it hard to produce enough breast milk, and she’s prone to blocked ducts. So she often substitutes with goat’s milk. But with the goats being attacked, that’s becoming a problem. Not that the goats would instantly repopulate if we took out the beast, but she’s worried that if nothing’s done, the remaining ones will get eaten too.
Then, right on cue, the strong team of big-sister adventurers who saved her before show up, of course she’s going to ask for help! And so, she did.
Hmm. I get how you feel, but…
“Lily, what do you want to do?”
“Hmm… I understand how she feels, but I have a bad feeling that taking on a request like this without going through the guild could cause problems later.”
Exactly.
“For now, let’s check with the Village Chief.”
“Yeah, that’s probably the safest choice…”
Well, for now, we’ll put this matter on hold.
No, it’s not that I don’t want to help, I really do understand how you feel, but this is still our job. Adventurers aren’t champions of justice, or heroes, or anything like that.
So, please… it’d be a great help if you could stop looking so sad. That expression is giving me a crushing sense of guilt…
The “Magistrate” referred to in this chapter was originally a 代官 (Daikan). Typical translation tools turn Daikan into Magistrate, which given the historical description of the role according to wikipedia, should work for this character, but it looks to me that translating titles and ranks has always been a bit iffy in this series. Since I’ve only been translating that past few chapters, I’m not sure if it’s the author who is responsible for that, or if translators just haven’t been consistant. Anyways, my point here is that we may need to come back and change this later, depending on what information we get in a bit… I’m not looking too deep ahead, but this character may come up again within a few chapters.
And yes, I realize what is written as a vigilante group sounds more like a local militia, but the author used “自警団” and not “民兵団”, so I decided to just keep it as a vigilante group. Translation over localization, but in this case, maybe it was Ashi-sensei who was wrong?