Several days had passed. It seemed Padde and his companions had collapsed in the woods of a small settlement at the southwestern edge of the Holy Amelia Kingdom, only to be rescued and taken in by Lupe, a village hunter and the master of the house.
"Judgin' by your clothes, you boys come from good families, don'tcha? Yet you're real hard workers, ain't ya."
The old woman of the hunter's household offered words of appreciation to Padde and the others.
"Ain't that the truth. I never would've imagined you'd build such a fine house, either."
Lupe praised them, looking around at Padde and the group with an impressed nod.
Having heard that the village chief's house had been blown away by a tornado the week before, Padde and his crew had decided to construct a new one.
"Well, about that..."
After all, Lady Mika, the white-winged female Transcender, had drilled them relentlessly.
Padde was sure that every single one of them had a strained grimace plastered across their faces at that moment.
Indeed. The Transcenders serving under Kai Heinemann, starting with Lady Mika, had forced task after impossible task upon them. To make matters worse, failing any of them meant getting gnawed on by that rodent monster, Lord Akujiki.
That was why they had scrambled desperately to clear every single trial. He figured everyone was reliving that nightmare right now.
He had no idea what those Transcenders were planning. But since they had been dumped here, there had to be a reason. For now, all they could do was live each day with everything they had.
When they explained that they couldn't return to their hometown for certain reasons, the village chief had warmly welcomed them and leased them a plot of land in the settlement. There, Padde and the others had divided up the chores, built a small cottage, and started living in it.
"Big Brother Padde!"
While repairing the roof of an old building, he spotted the hunter's youngest daughter, Sachu, walking toward him, hand in hand with the village chief's granddaughter, Sanya.
"Oh, Sache, Sanya. What's up?"
Halting his work, he called down to the two of them.
"Grandpa said he wants to consult with you about something, so he asked me to come fetch you!"
"Got it. Hey guys, let's go."
Padde hopped down from the roof and gestured for the rest of the crew to follow, but—
"We've still got these repairs to finish. You go on your own."
At Bill's words, the rest of the guys all smirked, silently agreeing.
Padde had once saved Sanya when she was attacked by a monster. After that, they had started chatting casually. That was all there was to it.
Yet these idiots had apparently convinced themselves that Sanya had feelings for him.
Maybe things would have been different when Padde was an arrogantly prideful brat before being abducted to that wasteland, but the current Padde understood his place all too well.
His looks were below average, and on the inside, he was complete trash. He wasn't the kind of guy a beauty like Sanya could ever mistakenly fall for. In short, they were in completely different leagues. These guys should have known that better than anyone.
Still, purely in terms of work efficiency, having just Padde handle the discussion with the village chief was more than enough.
"Fine. I leave the rest to you."
Leaving them with those parting words, he headed toward the village chief's house.