Upon entering the village, I pulled on the reins to stop the carriage.
"Mule, stay put right there until I call you."
"Miki!"
After giving Mule a brief reminder to behave, I hopped down from the carriage with Luke in tow.
"I'm a traveling merchant, and you're my apprentice."
"Huh? Ah, yes! Understood, Master."
Realizing this was a cover story to conceal our identities, Luke hastily nodded in agreement.
Taking Luke with me, I stepped into the village.
There was no life in this place.
Far from it, there were unmistakable traces suggesting it had recently been plundered.
"Master... this is..."
Sensing the grim atmosphere, Luke looked up at me with a troubled expression.
"Hmm... Is anyone there—?"
I drew a breath and called out in a loud voice.
I made sure to project a tone that sounded as harmless and unthreatening as possible.
A subtle stir rippled through the tightly shuttered houses. Sure enough, several doors cracked open just a sliver, and I could sense people peeking through the gaps to gauge our presence.
Yet, not a single person stepped outside.
Just as I considered calling out once more—
An elderly woman emerged from a house a short distance away.
Leaning on a wooden cane, she made her way toward us with an unsteady yet age-appropriate gait.
"Who might you be?"
Her voice was laden with wariness as she inquired about our business.
"I'm a traveling merchant. We've run completely out of drinking water, so would you be willing to spare a little—even just a single cup? Of course, I'll pay you for the trouble."
"..."
The old woman stared intently at me.
Her gaze seemed to probe whether I was speaking the truth.
"Very well. Please wait a moment."
With that, she turned on her heel and headed back toward her house.
She gestured as she walked, and a young man came outside.
"Go fetch some water from the well."
"All right."
The young man nodded, cast a suspicious glance in my direction, and ran off toward the heart of the village.
After a short wait, the man returned holding a cup of water.
Together with the old woman, he walked back to where I stood and held out the cup.
"Will this be enough for you?"
"More than enough. You have my thanks."
"M-Master, that—"
Luke started to speak, but before he could say another word, I took the cup and drank it down, tilting my head back toward the sky.
I knew what Luke wanted to say.
The water the man had fetched was far from clean by any stretch of the imagination.
Young though he was, as a eunuch, Luke was accustomed to the standards of the imperial palace.
Especially of late, having been assigned to my personal care, every drop of water he ever saw was crystal clear.
Imperial luxury dictated that tea leaves from a specific region be brewed exclusively with water from a designated spring.
Taken to the extreme, some aristocrats would even preserve winter snow and melt it to boil right before serving.
Compared to that, this water was certainly murky, but it was by no means undrinkable.
Having drained the cup, I handed it back to the man.
"Thank you very much. That was a great help. It isn't much, but please take this—"
Saying so, I reached into my robes to offer a silver coin, but the old woman slowly shook her head.
"No, that's quite all right. We couldn't possibly take money for a mere cup of water."
"A cup at home and a cup drained on the road carry very different value. Please, accept it."
I extended the silver coin further, but the old woman shook her head once more.
"If we take that now, it will only be stolen from us. Worse, we could be beaten or even lose our lives over it. Please, put it away."
"Mmh..."
I gave a slightly exaggerated reaction.
I had already deduced what the old woman meant and what she feared.
It was easy enough for me to grasp the situation, but Luke was bewildered.
"Why would taking this put your life in danger?"
Luke asked the old woman plainly, with innocent directness.
Perhaps because the question came from a guileless child, the old woman let out a small sigh and answered without hesitation.
"Because even if we held onto it now, the lord's army would just take it from us."
"The lord's army?"
"Pardon me, but are your food supplies being seized as well?"
Taking advantage of the opening, I spoke up in Luke's stead.
Since I was an adult rather than a child, their wariness returned; both the old woman and the man standing just behind her visibly furrowed their brows, the man recoiling slightly on guard.
"Forgive me, but I often see such things while trading across the provinces. Does the local lord practice requisitioning from the land?"
"...It wasn't like this before."
"What does that mean, Master?"
Luke asked, looking puzzled.
Grateful for his candid curiosity, I went with the flow and explained—much like a teacher instructing a student.
"There are broadly two ways to supply an army with food. One is through transport and supply lines, and the other is through local requisition."
"Huh? Don't they just transport and deliver everything?"
"The Empire does that, but the closer you get to the frontier, the more often supplies are requisitioned from local farmers. After all, hauling goods to regions far from the granaries costs a great deal of money."
"I-Is that so...?"
"Even so, they used to have supplies brought in from the interior, so they never laid a finger on us. But ever since that bastard started calling himself emperor—"
"Go."
The old woman cut the young man off in a reproving tone.
He had clearly been looking for an outlet to vent his bottled-up frustration, but the cautious elder was warning him not to speak recklessly in front of an outsider.
"But it's true! And Lord Eisen is just as bad! Because he burned down their food stores—"
"Quiet!"
The old woman snapped at him even more harshly, causing the man to choke back his words.
"What does that mean, Master?"
"Hmm... If I had to guess, General Eisen probably burned down the stockpiles of food the enemy had requisitioned, so they came back to pillage again to make up for the loss."
"Exactly!"
"Lord Eisen is not to blame. He compensated us properly, didn't he?"
"And that got stolen too, didn't it?!"
"Are you going to blame Lord Eisen for that as well?"
"...Aargh, damn it all!"
Bested by the old woman, the man stamped his foot in a fit of temper and stormed off.
...Well, given his position, it was understandable.
Eisen—Jerry Eisen had torched the Eiler Army's supply depots.
To replace the lost provisions, the Eiler Army plundered even more.
Jerry had compensated the villagers in some way—yet that, too, had been seized.
Had Jerry done nothing, this wouldn't have happened. But as the old woman pointed out, blaming him for offering compensation was misguided, leaving the young man fully aware of that reality yet unable to stomach the misery of it all.
To think Jerry's actions had led to this state of affairs.
Jerry's conduct was by no means a mistake.
Tactically and strategically, it was the right move.
Burning the provisions of the Eiler Army—a force that had declared independence from the Empire without establishing a solid foundation of governance—was entirely sound.
It was simply that certain people ended up drawing the short straw and bearing the brunt of the fallout.
"...Please wait a moment."
Saying so, I turned around and headed back to the carriage.
I leaned the upper half of my body inside.
"Miki?"
"Good girl, just stay on standby."
"Miki!"
"Huwawa."
While soothing Mule, I summoned Huwawa so she remained hidden from outside view.
Holding what I had instructed Huwawa to create, I returned to the old woman.
Then, I offered "it" to her.
"It isn't much by way of thanks, but please take this."
"What is this?"
The old woman remained wary and made no move to accept it.
What I held out was a palm-sized box.
Opening the lid revealed a bulb-like object resting inside.
"This is one of the goods I trade in. If you plant it now, you'll be able to harvest a massive yield in about a month. It should produce enough to feed everyone in this village, I reckon."
"...Something so precious?"
"Not compared to a cup of water on the road."
"Still..."
"True, there's always the chance it might be stolen again. In that case, I'll plant it right here. Even pillagers wouldn't go digging up planted seeds, I imagine."
With that, I dug a hole in a conspicuous patch of ground and buried the "seed."
"...You have my thanks, traveler."
"Not at all, the pleasure is mine."
"Hey, Granny! Everyone! Lady Etna is here again!"
The young man from earlier came running from the back of the village.
As he shouted at the top of his lungs, the villagers who had been holding their breath in hiding suddenly burst out from their homes all at once.
A moment later, a convoy pulling multiple wagons appeared from the direction the man had come.
"What is that?"
"That would be Lady Etna, a merchant's daughter from nearby. Ever since the plundering began, she's been traveling around to villages in similar plights to hand out hot meals."
"I see. A soup kitchen providing meals that can be eaten on the spot, rather than leaving food behind to be taken."
The old woman nodded faintly.
After offering me a brief parting word, she turned around and hobbled toward the relief party with her cane.
"Master."
"Hmm?"
"What was that thing you buried?"
"Oh, plainly speaking, it was gold."
"Huh? Money?"
"That's right. I had Huwawa coat the outside to make it look like a seed. It's designed to crack open and emerge on its own once spring arrives. Handing over money right now would only get it stolen."
I deliberately refrained from mentioning that this conflict would be settled by spring anyway.
"You can do something like that?!"
"Indeed."
"Amazing... There really isn't anything you can't do, Master."
I chuckled softly.
The ones capable of doing anything were Huwawa and the others.
"Ah, that's right! That water from earlier! Are you going to be all right?"
"That is even less of a concern."
I chuckled once more.
"No poison in the world affects me. Apophis neutralizes it all. Murky water like that is nothing to worry about."
"...Ah, like with the alcohol!"
"Precisely."
Remembering the revelry in the pavilion, Luke had a moment of realization.
His expression quickly shifted back to one of deep admiration.
"Incredible. You truly are amazing, Master."
Smiling faintly, I turned my gaze toward the food distribution.
There was a young woman speaking with the elder.
She seemed to be the central figure of the group, which meant she was likely the "Etna" the villagers had mentioned.
Perhaps hearing about us from the old woman, she cast her gaze in my direction.
When our eyes met, a look of slight surprise crossed her face.
After giving an instruction to a man who appeared to be her subordinate, she walked straight toward me.
I stood my ground and waited.
A merchant's daughter traveling about to distribute hot meals.
That meant she might possess further information.
I waited where I was until Etna came right up to me.
Standing before me, Etna gave a serious nod of greeting and spoke in a low voice that was barely a whisper.
"It is the highest honor to gaze upon the imperial countenance."
"Hm? You know who I am?"
"I am the honorary knight, Etna Aiwan."
"...I see."
That explains it, I thought to myself, fully satisfied.