Home/The Seven-Year-Old Village Chief of Exile/ch 4

Chapter 4

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After the storm of tears had passed.

"Hebenia, are you hungry?"

"I made some stew."

"Oh my, look at your pale face. Come on, eat and get your strength back."

Perhaps embarrassed by having cried in front of me, the adults quickly ushered me to the first-floor dining room, lifting me up as they went.

As soon as I sat at the table, a bowl of cream stew was placed before me.

Packed with meat and vegetables, it looked appetizing just to behold.

"Wow, this is really delicious...!"

At my exclamation, Uncle Pofina puffed out his chest.

This voluntarily bald uncle had been in charge of cooking in the exile camp, having been sent there for murder due to food hygiene violations.

According to him, he'd been a fairly famous chef.

After the meal, we moved to the garden outside the house.

Stepping outside, my eyes went wide.

'Whoa, was this a rich person's house?'

I sat down on the lawn, and my bottom, which had grown accustomed to hard floors for two months, twitched at the touch of the soft grass.

I wasn't the only one—everyone else reacted the same way, which was a little funny.

Uncle Modi, the eldest of the exile family, stepped forward.

His charges were group assault and organizing and operating an illegal organization.

"Before we discuss what to do next, I'd like to express our gratitude to Hebenia once more."

"Now, a round of applause for our heroine!"

Ian grinned and lifted me up again.

Once more, enthusiastic applause and cheers poured out.

I placed my hand over my heart and playfully bowed my head.

"But why us?"

Aunt Nema, who had been brought in on false charges of selling counterfeit goods, spoke up.

"What the guards said bothers me."

"Clearly, they wanted us to mine ores..."

"But just for that?"

Everyone tilted their heads in confusion.

We decided to check if there was anything we all had in common.

But even among the twelve of us, including myself, we couldn't find a single common thread.

"Let's think about that later."

Uncle Modi continued the discussion.

"For now, our priority is to decide what to do going forward."

Everyone nodded at Uncle Modi's suggestion.

I agreed as well.

'He's right.'

The family who had been unjustly imprisoned in the exile camp had regained their freedom.

But it was only half-freedom.

We were still trapped in a primeval forest teeming with monsters, and we'd become dead people before even clearing our names.

'If I'd known they were framed, I would have wished for them to escape outside...'

Did I make the wrong wish?

Just as anxiety crept in at the thought that I might have made a mistake.

"Still, thanks to Hebenia, we can breathe easy."

Libby, beside me, wiped her chest in relief.

"Hebenia, you haven't seen it yet, have you? The demon filled the storage shed to the brim with food. There are clothes, shoes, and fabric too!"

"Enough to last us a lifetime."

At Ian's joke about it being almost obsessive, everyone burst into laughter.

'They look so much more at ease laughing...'

Only then did I notice that they seemed far more stable than before.

"Thank goodness. We're not ready to go outside yet anyway."

"That's true. Even if we claim we were framed, who would believe us?"

"Well, to be honest, I didn't believe you all were framed either. I apologize, belatedly."

"It's okay. Everyone probably felt the same."

"Except me—I thought you were all hardened criminals."

I quietly listened to the adults' conversation.

'That's right.'

For reasons unknown, the Emperor had framed innocent people and imprisoned them in the exile camp just to mine ores.

And then, when they were no longer useful, he tried to kill us immediately.

'For now, it's safest to bide our time here.'

My judgment hadn't been wrong.

I had helped the exile family.

"Then."

I raised my hand to ask for the floor.

"Let's live well and eat well."

That would be the best goal and plan we could have right now.

---

"Shall we take a look around first?"

Following Ian's suggestion, we decided to explore our new dwelling.

The village was incredibly vast.

It took a good hour of walking just to reach the forest's edge.

"This seems to be the residential district."

"Is this where the nobles lived? Look at the size of those buildings."

"No, it's the commoners' district. Too small to be mansions."

"And yet they're this big..."

We could clearly sense just how prosperous and grand a city Exilium had once been.

We also went to check the storage shed, and just as Libby had said, it was packed not only with food but also with clothes and other daily necessities.

'Lord Demon...!'

I'd thought he was just a handsome germaphobe pervert, but he was actually such a benevolent being!

'From now on, I'll call him Lord Demon with respect.'

"Still, there isn't a single animal here either."

Libby looked up at the blue sky wistfully.

"I miss even the sound of birds now."

Whether because of the monsters in the primeval forest, this new dwelling—like the exile camp—had not a single ant to be seen.

That made the pristine, peaceful scenery feel slightly eerie.

Just then.

A beast's roar came from outside the storage shed.

Our eyes met, and Libby and I hurried toward the source of the sound.

In a weedy clearing, the adults were murmuring.

As we got closer, Aunt Elva, who had been imprisoned for violating pharmaceutical laws, was sitting on the ground, poking through the weeds.

'Whoa, her eyes are half-rolled back...!'

I froze in shock, but Ian came over and explained.

"She says she found an incredibly rare medicinal herb."

"A herb?"

"Not just any rare herb!"

Aunt Elva jumped up and shouted.

"It's, it's Dulcevia—a rare herb!"

She was so excited that bloodshot veins appeared in her eyes.

I examined the herb.

It was a plant with heart-shaped leaves. When I leaned in and sniffed, it gave off a sweet honey scent.

"It's a precious medicinal ingredient with excellent effects on almost all ailments—detoxification, hemostasis, inflammation relief, you name it. That's why it's nicknamed the panacea."

Apparently, artificial cultivation is impossible.

It was already so rare that it was only found once or twice a year, and for the past few decades, none had been discovered, so the academic world had considered it practically extinct.

And yet, here it was, growing like weeds before our eyes.

'That means...!'

My eyes rolled back just like Aunt Elva's.

"Is it expensive? Is this worth a lot?"

"One stem is enough to feed a family of four for twenty days!"

And it wasn't just Dulcevia.

Apparently, valuable herbs and mushrooms were growing abundantly in every corner of the residential district.

"Th-this is incredible...!"

I couldn't help but marvel.

"All this money, and we can't even sell it!"

Aunt Elva and I beat the ground together and wailed.

This was definitely a situation worth letting out a beastly roar.

---

Aunt Elva confidently stated that the herbs and mushrooms we found today were worth several billion liv at the very least.

But so what?

'We can't sell them...'

Still, I consoled myself that at least I'd learned one piece of common knowledge: the currency unit was "liv."

"Oh, right."

Then Libby called out to me.

"The demon left word that you should summon him when you wake up."

"Really?"

"I just remembered. I hope we didn't keep him waiting too long."

"Lord Demon wouldn't get angry over something like this. Besides, I just woke up."

"That's true, but..."

Libby trailed off with an awkward smile.

'Is she scared?'

Looking closely, the others also seemed quite afraid of Lord Demon.

He's such a kind being who helped us—I wish they wouldn't be so frightened.

Still, just in case, we decided to make some preparations in case Lord Demon was angry.

Returning to the building we'd first stayed in, I picked up a small stone and drew a summoning circle outside.

An inverted star, and a circle.

To finish, as always, with saliva.

"Ptoo."

"Wh-why are you spitting?"

"That's the summoning price."

"What?"

The adults buzzed in shock.

"The demon took a seven-year-old's saliva as payment..."

"As expected of a demon. What he desires is filthy..."

In the meantime, the summoning circle erupted in a dazzling light the moment my spit touched it.

'Huh?'

Was it like this before?

I was puzzled by the reaction, different from what I remembered, and then thick, pale smoke billowed out of the circle.

At the same time, a grand and majestic opera began to play as background music.

Boom!

With an ear-splitting explosion, shiny, glittering shoes burst through the smoke.

'Whoa, is he actually mad because I summoned him late?'

But I didn't think Lord Demon was like that...

Still, given the situation, I quickly signaled to the family behind me.

"Lord Demon!"

"Lord Demon!"

"We believe in you!"

"We have hope!"

We promptly dropped to our knees, prostrating ourselves on the ground, and praised him like insane demon worshippers, shouting our devotion.

But when there was no response, I lifted my head and peeked with one eye.

"......"

"......"

A red silk shirt with tacky floral prints, paired with wide black pants.

A thick gold necklace, and an angel tattoo visible between his undone buttons.

A rough, fierce impression, a thick and sturdy build.

Tacky bleached, disheveled yellow hair.

And finally, intense eyes like weathered suns.

The demon, oozing a late-century gangster vibe, was looking down at us as if we were crazy.

I stared back at the demon as if he were crazy.

'A demon with an angel tattoo.'

Does that even make sense?

---

To distinguish him from the previous Lord Demon, I temporarily named this newly summoned demon "Bleached Demon."

The first thing Bleached Demon did was, of all things, scold us.

"Have you lost all sense after a few years of exile? You idiots have no fear of the world, worshipping demons!"

Does it even make sense to get scolded by a demon for demon worship?

"If you have time for such useless nonsense, love your neighbors and take care of yourselves! Look at your bodies! You're all skin and bones—argh!"

But since he wasn't exactly wrong, we huddled down and silently endured the harsh lecture.

'This feels just like getting a lecture on living righteously from a murderer...'

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