Home/The Seven-Year-Old Village Chief of Exile/ch 39

Chapter 39

I quickly poured out my words in that gap.

"If we oppose the Emperor, we'll naturally face attacks. We need to secure our fighting force for that. We can't just wait around for the villagers to get stronger."

"Hmm..."

Finding my argument reasonable, Ian's reluctant expression began to soften.

I quickly added another point.

"And monsters are money. Their meat is delicious, and their hide, blood, and bones sell for a lot."

"Libby wanted to make her staff out of a lich's bones, didn't she?"

"See? I'm not talking nonsense."

"But is it even possible to raise monsters?"

Ian pointed out the most fundamental question.

"You're such a fool, oppa."

I declared confidently.

"You won't know until you try!"

"Right, now sit back down here."

In the end, Ian sat me back in the leg-twisting chair.

---

Thanks to Verity putting away the clubs, I avoided the leg-twisting.

[Credibility lost.]

Instead, I was made to wear a sign around my neck with my wrongdoing written on it, and sit in the leg-twisting chair for about ten minutes.

Still, they set up a parasol so I wouldn't get heatstroke and put water beside me.

"It seems I've managed to maintain my dignity as village chief."

"I thought you'd lost that long ago."

Verity, who had set up a long chair next to me and was reading a book, chuckled.

The chair was in front of the village hall, so we kept running into adults going to the fields and kids playing on scooters.

The adults burst out laughing the moment they saw the sign around my neck.

The kids chatted happily about the snacks Uncle Pofina would make for them.

"You're not showing any signs of reflection."

"I have nothing to reflect on."

"You're still sitting there for the full ten minutes, though?"

Just then, the watch on my wrist vibrated. An alarm signaling that ten minutes had passed.

"...This is the first time I've experienced this kind of discipline."

I turned off the alarm by touching the watch.

I'd always been scolded or hit without ever knowing what I did wrong.

Having only had those experiences, Ian's discipline was refreshing to me.

'Effectiveness aside.'

So I happily sat through the ten minutes.

"Is raising monsters impossible?"

Standing up from the chair, I stretched.

"Ugh, come on. In novels and movies, people make contracts with sacred creatures like dragons and fight alongside them, and even fall in love."

"Do you want to fall in love?"

"That's not the point of this conversation."

Verity, who had been answering casually, closed his book and stood up.

"Raising monsters isn't entirely impossible. With this world's technology, lower-tier monsters might be possible."

However, monsters are inherently violent and lack pack instincts, so raising them like livestock is impossible.

No one actually does it.

"Then the monsters living in the primeval forest..."

"It's more realistic to say they'd raise you all, breed you, and eat you. It's cruel, but that's how it is."

"Oh dear."

I didn't like that reversal.

"But as for fighting power..."

Verity, tapping my head like a bouncy ball, uttered a word that made my ears perk up.

"There's the option of a familiar."

"A familiar?"

Hearing that word, I recalled what the primeval forest had originally been used for.

"This place was originally a playground for the long-haired Lord's familiars, right?"

"Ah, that's right. You remembered."

Familiars.

Literally, personally controllable monsters.

"Can we do that too?"

"With effort."

Verity explained how to create a familiar.

"A mage who has surpassed a certain level subdues a monster with their power, makes it submit, and then casts a binding spell."

"......"

"Simple, right?"

"It seems easier to just die."

My seemingly viable plan evaporated like a bubble.

Deflated, I slumped back into the leg-twisting chair.

"I have no motivation..."

"A young person shouldn't say things like that."

"Hmm..."

As I expressed my dissatisfaction in various poses, I suddenly remembered something strange.

"We've roamed the primeval forest several times, but we've never encountered them once."

"The familiars? Are you curious?"

"Of course."

I sat up straight again.

"You said the monsters in the forest were originally gathered as snacks for the familiars."

"That's right."

"Could we ask the long-haired Lord to let us take care of them? They'd be incredibly strong and surely become a great fighting force."

"Shall I ask?"

I was surprised by the immediate offer.

"Just so happens I've received a reply regarding the barrier issue."

Verity said, pulling out his phone.

"He said he'll tell you how, so call him. We can ask about the familiars then too."

"All right! Woohoo!"

Bouncing with excitement, I paused for a moment.

"Hmm, but familiars are like pets, right?"

The long-haired Lord was currently on leave to help his pregnant wife.

He'd even created this spacious playground and stocked it with snacks so his familiars wouldn't get lonely.

"They must be precious family to the long-haired Lord. I shouldn't just take them for our convenience..."

"You're already thinking of passing them off, so don't worry."

"...Huh?"

I stopped, about to bow my head in shame.

Verity must have already pressed the call button, because a ringing tone came from the phone at his ear.

And after a moment.

"Ah, hello?"

As soon as the call connected, Verity bowed at a right angle.

"Oh, my Lord! I hope you and your household are in good health. Yes, I'm fine too. Yes, yes. How is the Lady? Oh dear, I hope the morning sickness passes soon..."

Wow.

There was something oddly poignant about seeing Verity bowing and speaking so politely.

'I can feel the office worker's plight...'

This was the first time I'd seen Verity lower himself like that. He hadn't even done that when Bleached Demon was around.

'The long-haired Lord must be truly great.'

I nodded along beside him, matching the rhythm, when Verity brought up the familiars.

"Our Lady is curious about your familiars, my Lord. Would it be alright for her to meet them?"

I waited anxiously for the answer.

"...Ah, just give them away?"

My eyes, which I'd squeezed shut, opened slightly.

'That conversation...'

Weren't the familiars precious pets to the long-haired Lord?

"Haha, it's fortunate timing. Since our Lady is interested, you can get rid of those two."

Verity, who surely knew better, casually used that disrespectful word.

And though I couldn't hear it, the long-haired Lord didn't seem to mind.

The conversation seemed to be going well—a smile bloomed on Verity's face.

But my smile vanished completely.

'Is he trying to abandon his familiars to me? And Verity thinks that's fortunate?'

I felt a boiling anger, like witnessing someone abandoning a pet on the highway.

"My Lady."

Verity said, phone still to his ear.

"The Lord says he wants to speak with you."

"Give it to me!"

"Why are you angry again? I've transferred the call to your watch, so you can just speak through it."

As Verity said, a phone icon appeared on the watch face on his wrist.

"Hello!"

[Little ant, you're energetic this morning.]

"Long-haired Lord, have you been well? First of all, thank you for listening to me. But isn't it wrong to treat familiars, who should be raised with love, like objects? That's not right!"

[You little thing, so chatty.]

"I'm not little! I was recently diagnosed as overweight."

"My Lady, that's not something to brag about."

[No, no. Small and cute things look good when they're plump.]

The long-haired Lord's words that I was just the right size cheered me up a little.

'No, I shouldn't be happy! Don't fall for praise so easily!'

Barely steadying my wavering heart, I said.

"Lord, still, treating your own familiars like objects..."

[They're not my familiars.]

The long-haired Lord said in his characteristic relaxed tone.

[The ones I'm giving you are different.]

"B-but still, it's not right to talk about them like objects..."

[Hmm, I'll be more careful next time.]

I'd expected him to dismiss it, but the long-haired Lord readily accepted my criticism.

I felt embarrassed for getting angry on my own.

[Little ant.]

"Yes?"

[Are you having fun?]

His tone was so casual it might make the listener feel slighted.

But the corner of my mouth curled up.

"I'm doing well, thanks to you!"

[Kids should be a bit chubby. Don't starve yourself trying to manage your weight. When I last saw you, you were all skin and bones.]

"My Lord, you sound like a grandmother..."

"I agree! But Verity always gives me the smallest slice of bacon."

"Which is why you've lost weight. Childhood fatty liver is dangerous."

As I bickered with Verity.

[......]

A very faint sound came through the watch.

Verity and I simultaneously looked down at it.

'He, he laughed...!'

I quickly looked at Verity. I thought I might have misheard, but Verity's dumbfounded expression confirmed it.

[Little ant.]

"Yes!"

[Don't be picky with your food, and turn off the lights by nine. Brush your teeth thoroughly after eating—don't forget interdental brushes and floss. And watch out for alcohol, smoking, gambling, drugs, and men.]

"Pardon?"

[I'll hang up now.]

Toot, toot—.

The icon on the watch face changed from a phone to an inverted star.

"It seems..."

Verity said quietly.

"His paternal instincts are overflowing, since he's about to become a father."

"Maybe that kind of dad wouldn't be so bad..."

"We'd have to hear the Lord's side of that, wouldn't we?"

"......"

"Ack! Stop poking my side!"

---

That evening.

Verity handed me an envelope, saying he'd received it from the long-haired Lord.

I was preparing to observe the villagers' hobby classes starting tomorrow, and I looked inside the envelope.

Ian and Libby came over to see too.

"...Oh."

Ian gasped.

"What's wrong? What is it?"

"A title certificate..."

"What?"

At that, I examined the document again.

It was a faded, old sheet of paper, covered in elegant cursive, and a large key emblem stamped with a gleaming golden seal.

"It's the title certificate received by the first generation of Clavis."

Verity confirmed it once more.

"Good heavens..."

I swallowed dryly.

"Why is he giving me this useless thing?"

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