Home/The Seven-Year-Old Village Chief of Exile/ch 19

Chapter 19

"Waaah! Aaah! Mommy! Mommyyy!"

The reunited mother and daughter sobbed loudly. Their faces turned red as if they might burst, and they desperately clung to each other's clothes.

Aunt Daliss endlessly stroked Flora's face.

"Let me look at you, okay? Why is my baby so thin...!"

She cried even more, heartbroken that her daughter looked thinner and gaunter than the last time she'd seen her.

"......"

"......"

The exile family's faces also showed a stirring poignancy. Some turned away and sniffled.

The tears were contagious, and I sniffled too.

'They must all be thinking of their own families and friends...'

The longing in their eyes was clear.

It wasn't the time to be thinking about this in such an emotional moment, but an idea I'd been harboring since we rescued Flora and brought her here came back to me.

'Instead of sending the exile family out, what if we brought their families and friends here instead?'

But it seemed too selfish a conclusion, so I quickly dismissed it.

---

Libby, who had quietly closed the bedroom door, said.

"Auntie and Flora are asleep."

The reunited mother and daughter hadn't let go of each other for a moment, and eventually, they'd collapsed from exhaustion, still holding each other.

"Sigh, oppa, what are you going to do now..."

Libby looked at Ian with a pitying gaze.

"It seems Auntie won't have time to think about romance for a while."

"What, does everyone really know?"

"Didn't you know?"

Libby was even more surprised.

Ian closed his eyes in despair.

And I was watching the scene from the front yard with Uncle Modi, who had come representing the exile family.

Uncle Modi asked.

"Hebenia, do you think it'll work?"

"I'd say within five years they'll be sharing a blanket. Maybe Flora saying 'I wish Ian oppa were my dad' might speed things up."

"...Did you see something strange out there?"

"A guy walking around in his underwear."

"What?"

"They say it's fashionable these days."

Shocked by the ways of the outside world, Uncle Modi kept pressing his temples with his eyes and mouth tightly shut.

I patted his back and comforted him, saying, 'The world is a cruel place.'

After finally calming down, he spoke.

"While you were gone, we thought about what to do going forward. And we reached a decision. Unanimously."

I nodded silently.

'Just as expected.'

Will you help us get outside?

'I will help you.'

During the time we'd labored together, I'd grown attached to them. So I would help them for their happiness.

"We want..."

I clenched my fist so my resolve wouldn't waver.

"...to live here."

"Yes, I'll definitely help—"

...Huh?

I stopped mid-answer and tilted my head.

"Pardon?"

And asked again.

"You want to live here? Not leave?"

"If you'll allow us."

"Of course, I'd love that!"

I quickly answered.

"Since we'll be comrades in the revolution!"

"What?"

"What about your families outside?"

I continued the conversation as if nothing had happened.

"Don't you want to see them? They're precious to you. You were all sad seeing Aunt Daliss and Flora."

"Because of that, we have another request of you. It's shameless, but..."

"Don't tell me you want to bring them to the exile camp?"

"Yes."

"How..."

How could they make a decision that suited me so perfectly!

I rejoiced inwardly.

But since Uncle Modi looked so troubled, I wisely kept my mouth shut and waited for his next words.

"We were just ordinary people, content with our given lives. So we naturally loved where we lived. The Empire was our pride and glory."

But we were betrayed.

By the country we trusted to protect us.

"Even if we clear our names, I don't think we can live as we did before."

"......"

I could only nod.

The Empire turned innocent citizens into heinous criminals. And the people closest to them must have witnessed the entire process.

Even if they cleared their names and regained their freedom, would everyone around them believe it?

Would they willingly embrace them, saying they'd been through a lot?

'I can't be sure.'

Reality is cruel.

'And...'

It's a sad guess, but we couldn't overlook the possibility that those close to them might have been complicit in this terrible tragedy.

A prime example was Ian. He'd come to Exilium because of his colleagues' betrayal.

He'd even witnessed the process of their betrayal himself.

"Uncle."

I gently took Uncle Modi's hand.

"Let's start a revolution together."

"So I didn't mishear after all."

"Of course, it'll be difficult. But wouldn't it be satisfying to kill them? Technically, we'd be acting in self-defense."

"Child, don't make such a chilling proposal with such a kind voice."

"Sign up now, and with our one-plus-one deal, we'll find the traitors and let them taste hell!"

"What's 'one-plus-one'..."

Uncle Modi asked for some time to think.

But I knew. This was a polite refusal.

"Hebenia, you're strong, but we're just ordinary humans."

In other words, they were afraid because they didn't have the power to oppose the imperial family.

I understood perfectly.

'I endured and kept my head down too when I was powerless.'

Just as I was thinking, 'I guess it really is difficult,' my spirits sinking.

'...Wait, didn't Ian oppa get incredibly strong?'

I recalled Ian's training in the primeval forest.

"Uncle Modi."

I asked.

"Is it easy to hunt monsters?"

"It's difficult."

It takes at least ten skilled people to take down a single monster the size of a house.

"What if one person can do it? Like the man-eating monsters outside the village."

"Then that person would be at the level of a 'transcendent.'"

"Transcendent?"

"It means a person with power that surpasses human limits. For example, saints, archmages, aura masters..."

"......"

As I listened, my heart pounded.

'But Ian oppa did it...'

Thanks to training with Verity's help, Ian had hunted a monster on his own. Even if it was just for the final moment.

And I too, with their help, had used my power to kill a monster.

'So if the adults here spent about four or five days in the primeval forest, couldn't they also become as strong as a transcendent?'

A revolution would be easy!

Just as I was happily planning the future, Verity came looking for me.

"My Lady! The health checkup results came in, but they keep getting returned because you haven't set an address. Please check them as soon as possible!"

"Health checkup...?"

Ah.

"I'll mail them to you in a week!"

"But we don't have a mailbox!"

"Make one, you idiot!"

"Oh dear."

I'd completely forgotten Bleached Demon's words.

---

I asked the adults if they could make me a mailbox.

The uncles who happened to be honing their woodworking skills made me a small mailbox right there.

"You could have just wished for it from me."

"Please don't interfere with our social reintegration training. Skills improve with practice."

"Such enterprising and constructive people. That's what makes them even better."

Soon, a mailbox that looked like a little house was completed. It was crude but had a certain rustic charm.

No sooner had we planted the mailbox in front of the gate than envelopes appeared out of thin air and slid into it as if sucked in.

"Wow!"

I pulled out the mail that filled the mailbox to the brim, one by one.

There were a total of twelve envelopes, one for each person, with names written on the outside.

"Line up, line up!"

I handed out the envelopes to the adults standing in line. I set aside Aunt Daliss's envelope, as she was asleep.

Fortunately, most of the exile family received clean bills of health.

It was probably thanks to the life that was too comfortable and luxurious for an exile camp.

We never missed a meal until the day before the guards were going to kill us.

That's why I was diagnosed as overweight.

'Oh my...'

For me, who had always been underweight in my previous life, the word 'overweight' felt refreshingly new.

'I must have been eating and living really well here.'

Just then.

"...What's this 'Cold-Blooded Demon Knight'?"

A chuunibyou-like phrase came out of Ian's mouth. My ears perked up at the interesting word.

"Oppa, what's wrong? Has chuunibyou finally hit you?"

"There's something strange written in the 'Other' section. And what the heck is 'chuunibyou' that you keep mentioning?"

"Other section?"

I checked my own report.

There was a box labeled 'Other' at the end of the paper. All mine said was that I was overweight and should consult a guardian about diet and exercise.

"Hebenia, you don't have anything?"

"All mine says is to exercise because I'm fat."

"You look fine and plump."

"What, Hebenia, you're supposed to control your weight?"

"Libby unnie."

"Uncle Pofina is overweight too. And he has some weird aptitude written."

"Uncle Pofina too?"

I felt a slight sense of betrayal.

"Libby unnie, did you get an aptitude too?"

"Yeah. Mine says 'Archmage blessed by a demon.'"

Libby looked defeated.

"My younger brother is a trainee temple knight—if it gets out that his sister is an archmage blessed by a demon, he'll be kicked out immediately!"

"...Unnie, your crime is armed robbery and murder."

If he was going to be kicked out, that would have already happened.

'But she said she wanted to worship demons, and her brother's a knight trainee?'

These strange aptitudes weren't just limited to Ian and Libby.

All the exile family members had childish and cringey 'aptitudes' written on theirs.

"We have strange things written on ours too..."

"Is this 'Bloody Berserker' supposed to be me?"

"......"

Everyone except me.

"Hmph."

I found out later that the adults had already noticed I was deflated. Apparently, my duck-bill pout was hilarious.

But the real shock was something else.

Uncle Pofina.

"Uncle, you're a bald chef and my fellow overweight comrade—so why is your aptitude 'Shrine Maiden Who Controls the Fate of the Stars'?"

"Ah, that's a typo."

Verity corrected it.

"It's not 'shrine maiden,' it's 'shrine dancer.'"

"What, that's even scarier..."

The exile family, including me, were deeply shocked.

They whispered among themselves as if they'd witnessed something terrible that should never have come into the world.

They seemed more shocked than when they'd learned the Emperor had framed them.

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