Home/The Seven-Year-Old Village Chief of Exile/ch 77

Chapter 77

Uncle Pofina, formerly my overweight comrade but now boasting a sleek waistline that shocked and betrayed the many who knew him.

"Sigh, that uncle's become so annoyingly glamorous."

Libby also had much to say about Uncle Pofina's transformation.

"Once, his shirt rode up when he stretched, and damn, his belly button was scandalously sexy."

"I find you more frightening for recalling that impression..."

"No, I'm serious! Uncle Pofina's been getting really glamorous lately!"

"So they're really getting a divorce?"

Verity didn't even pretend to listen to Libby's exclamation.

I tried to sneak a piece of Ian's bacon, but quickly straightened up.

I felt Verity's cold gaze, but I feigned ignorance and continued.

"She did come to me for counseling."

Uncle Pofina's wife's name was Sesol.

A former chef, they had been work colleagues.

I relayed what I'd heard from both sides.

"Uncle Pofina comes from a fairly wealthy merchant family..."

His self-made father was quite conservative and constantly pressured his children to marry.

Fed up, Uncle Pofina met a work colleague, Aunt Sesol, who was going through the same problem.

And they married out of solidarity.

"But then Uncle Pofina was framed and sent into exile."

That's when the problems started.

"Aunt Sesol was fired for being the wife of a criminal, and since the party involved was gone, the divorce couldn't be processed—she suffered in many ways."

So she joined the gang for revenge.

"It was a contract marriage, but they still developed a deep bond from living together."

"Sometimes friendship is stronger than love."

Ian and Libby nodded in understanding.

"No, they're getting a divorce?"

I explained again to the two who were misunderstanding.

"I told you earlier—Aunt Sesol joined the gang to get a divorce."

To get revenge on her husband who'd disappeared without signing the divorce papers.

She'd only joined the gang to take down the bastard who'd vanished without properly ending their marriage.

Since it was a loveless marriage from the start, Aunt Sesol had no interest in whether her husband's crime was a frame-up or not.

"......"

"......"

Ian and Libby fell silent.

I fully understood their reaction.

After hearing the story, I too had stopped trying to understand their lives, thinking, "Well, there are couples like that too."

"But they might not get divorced."

Because I'd found a problem during the consultation.

Currently, all the exile camp prisoners were registered as deceased due to a monster rampage.

Even if they somehow got a dead person's signature, there was no guarantee the government office would accept the divorce agreement.

In other words, divorce was impossible for the time being.

And another thing.

"During the consultation, Aunt Sesol seemed conflicted."

"Where's that earlier momentum...?"

Ian, already tired, asked cautiously.

Libby had already taken her finished plate to the kitchen.

"Because Uncle Pofina got pretty."

"Oh, come on..."

Now even Ian got up to do the dishes, signaling he didn't want to hear more.

Soon, the sound of the two arguing over who would do the dishes came from the kitchen.

"But Uncle Pofina really has gotten prettier."

Verity, the only one remaining at the table, said.

"He seems to be getting a sense of his aptitude."

'Shrine Dancer Who Shakes the Fate of the Stars.'

Uncle Pofina, the owner of this shocking aptitude, had noticeably changed.

His belly, as plump as mine, had shrunk, and his face had become smaller, making his sleek head even more attractive.

His waist in particular had become very slender.

And his fashion sense had changed too.

Before, he wore the usual plain tops and bottoms, but recently he'd taken to wearing oddly form-fitting clothes.

His tops were now sleeveless and shorter in length.

One time, Aunt Elva had even gotten angry, saying she felt disgusted with herself for feeling flustered.

"That day, Auntie chugged some strong liquor. I was the one who gave it to her."

"That must have been the day Sir Ian was looking for the cooking liquor in the kitchen."

The village is so peaceful.

Verity summed it up in one sentence.

---

The next day.

"Divorce isn't urgent right now."

After much thought, Aunt Sesol decided to temporarily put off the divorce with Uncle Pofina.

I asked honestly.

"Did you fall for Uncle Pofina?"

"Oh, that's not it."

Aunt Sesol immediately denied it.

"But he's nice to look at."

Some people had been so flustered they'd downed strong liquor in anger, while others found Uncle Pofina's looks pleasing to the eye.

He'd somehow become a man with many sins.

"Adult love is complicated."

"We don't love each other."

"Yes, I'll support your dry and arid married life."

After that, I continued to juggle my busy schedule.

First, I prepared to establish the trading company with Uncle Modi and Verity.

"We need to decide on the main products."

"How about the first-aid kits I mentioned before? We could get the temple's official endorsement to increase credibility."

"That sounds good. With the recent herb supply issues, there should be considerable demand."

"Then we need to specify the types and effects of the medicines..."

"How about selling monster parts too? We could directly supply the magical engineering academy in the Deste Territory..."

I brainstormed businesses that would become the village's main source of income and established concrete plans. Nothing was easy, but it was all very enjoyable.

'The village is moving.'

Now we no longer had to hide.

Every time the village took a step toward the outside world, the villagers' faces were filled with anticipation.

I wanted to fulfill that expectation.

So a packed schedule didn't bother me.

Of course, as village chief, I also remembered to communicate with the villagers.

"Wow, look at that unnie!"

"She's riding the scooter with no hands!"

"She's so cool!"

"Me too! I want to do it too!"

"Teach us! Teach us!"

Especially, it was my job to play with the children on behalf of the busy adults.

Though my body was young, my mind was a mature twenty-five, so I took good care of the children.

"Oh my, look at Hebenia being so excited."

"Even though she's usually mature, seeing her like this reminds you that she's still a child."

"By the way, what's she wearing?"

"She says it's a magical girl battle suit."

"What's that on her back? A club? And it's pink?"

"She says it's a magic wand."

I always collapsed after playing with the children.

I'd take a short nap, then wake up and eat a snack.

Snack time was one of the routines I looked forward to most, but recently Verity had been monitoring my snacks to keep me from sneaking them from Uncle Pofina.

"Even a mother-in-law wouldn't watch her daughter-in-law that closely."

"Please understand the deep concern of a butler for his Lady's health."

"Your concern is so deep my appetite is drowning."

Still, the snack portions had increased slightly, so I let it slide.

Today's snack was dried fruit, nuts, and a slice of heavily sugared pound cake.

"Listen while you eat."

For me, snack time wasn't just a break.

It was also part of my work.

"The company contacted us this morning. The first interrogation of the demon and angel we captured in the Antema Territory has just ended."

I listened attentively as I carefully cut the pound cake, which was smaller than my palm.

"To get straight to the point, we found nothing."

"Why?"

"They're under a vow of silence."

"That damn vow."

"Fortunately, the vow magic can be lifted—it just takes time."

"That's truly a relief."

I suddenly recalled the sad story about the father who'd been up for a promotion.

I also asked about his situation.

And oh my.

"It was obviously canceled."

"Oh dear, suffering for the sins of a child..."

"Turns out the father was the one who taught his son the vow and undead magic."

"Wow."

I dropped my fork in surprise, and it clattered loudly against the plate.

'Wow, this is so interesting and exciting, but...!'

I quickly corrected my thoughts and composed my expression.

Many people had been hurt by this incident. So the story of the demon father and son wasn't something to make light of.

According to Verity, it was the father demon who had instilled demon supremacist ideology in his son.

"The demon world is in an uproar. Thank goodness we caught them before the Interdimensional Alliance noticed—if this had been discovered, who knows how harshly they'd have been dealt with..."

Verity muttered that he'd lost a thousand years of life.

The demon's refreshing good looks, like a schoolgirl's first love, had visibly soured like expired juice.

'The Interdimensional Alliance.'

I repeated the name of the organization I'd heard again in my mind.

'An organization that manages and coordinates various dimensions...'

I didn't know much about it, and it wasn't urgent, so I hadn't paid it much attention. That hadn't changed.

'Right, come to think of it, I was really startled when I first heard about it.'

On the day I first summoned Verity.

Until then, I thought I'd possessed someone, like in a novel's plot. Since Verity didn't treat me like a seven-year-old, I'd casually asked.

"Do you know about possession?"

"Of course! We demons communicate with various worlds. The world isn't just one. So I've seen possessed people quite often."

"Then...!"

"Yes! Possessors are summarily executed upon discovery!"

Possessors are summarily executed upon discovery.

'Because...'

I recalled the conversation from that day, sentence by sentence, as if possessed.

I felt like I was getting a clue.

"Possessors are always going on about the 'original story' or whatever, disrupting the world's order, the flow of fate, and causality however they please."

"When one person possesses someone, at least ten thousand people suffer. They act like they're the main characters of the world."

My eyes widened in proportion to the realization that struck me like lightning.

"Verity."

I asked in a trembling voice.

"Can you create a possessor?"

"Pardon?"

As the demon asked back in disbelief, our eyes met.

Soon, his eyes widened like mine, shaking endlessly.

Verity and I simultaneously headed to the house where the lab materials were stored.

And we began frantically searching through them.

---

Possession.

The phenomenon where another being parasitizes a body.

Possessor.

When a soul from another dimension takes over a body, and the body's original self is destroyed, leaving the foreign soul in control, it's called a possessor.

"My Lady, look at this!"

"Wait! I just found something too...!"

Hebenia and Verity examined the materials like mad, quickly finding evidence to support the horrifying hypothesis they'd just conceived.

Unlike yesterday, when they'd only found herb and mineral data, this time the results were completely different.

But Hebenia and Verity had no time to celebrate.

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