The spring parade was approaching.
Since it was an annual tradition, I wasn't about to suggest we stop it now. Zabuton and the Civil Official Girls had been preparing for it bit by bit since last autumn, after all. As a festival that the entire village could enjoy, I was more than willing to cooperate.
I was cooperating, but... well, was the scene where I emerged from the reservoir actually necessary? Even though it was spring, the water was still cold. This was just a performance before the parade itself, right? Wasn't it a bit excessive?
"Please look over there," someone suggested.
I followed their gaze to the reservoir, where the Pond Turtles were swimming in a perfectly straight line. Since they couldn't march on land during the parade, they were practicing hard so they could at least participate in the opening performance. If the scene where I emerged from the water was cut, the Pond Turtles' moment in the spotlight would be cut along with it.
...It seemed I had no choice.
However, I hoped someone could use magic or something to go easy on the water temperature. I wasn't asking to warm the entire pond, just the spot where I would be submerged. Something that wouldn't trouble the Pond Turtles... I left the details in their hands.
Versa, who had been quite dejected, had finally regained her spirit. I had agonized over how to help her, but the solution turned out to be simple. While her hobbies were prohibited in the Village of the Great Tree, they were perfectly fine elsewhere. Consequently, Versa began commuting to Village Five to pursue her creative activities.
Personally, I had been concerned that her hobbies might have a negative influence on the residents, but the Civil Official Girls assured me that everything would be fine. They told me quite bluntly not to underestimate the Demon Kingdom.
Apparently, stories involving relationships between men—Versa's particular interest—had deeply permeated a segment of the population under the pen name "Versa." It probably wasn't a coincidence that she shared a name with the genre. Over the years, that "Versa" brand had produced numerous factions and had been thoroughly refined. The girls claimed that even if a classical-style book were released now, it wouldn't cause so much as a ripple in society.
Even after hearing that explanation, I couldn't say I was entirely at ease, but I figured it was dangerous to get too deeply involved, so I left the matter to them. I did, however, issue one strict command.
"Keep the 'Versa' reading materials out of the public eye."
To this, Versa and the Civil Official Girls replied in perfect unison.
"These are not things meant for public display!"
...Then why, back at Versa's house, were we... Oh, I see. It was considered safe to show people who actually came to the house. Right. I didn't really understand the rules. At any rate, I decided to leave Versa's affairs to those who understood her.
In the Ranch Area, a herd of cows and a herd of goats were facing off. The goats held an overwhelming advantage in numbers. Perhaps emboldened by their success in driving Isree into the muddy pond, the goats extended both ends of their line, attempting to envelop the cows in a Crane Wing Formation.
In response, the outnumbered cows simply barreled into the goat herd individually. As if to say that such clever tactics were useless against brute force, they scattered the goats in short order.
That settled that.
"Now, now, you goats. Is it really right to seek help from me only at times like this?"
I shooed them away, telling them not to use me as a shield. I also warned them not to go trying to eat the World Tree leaves on their own. If they did, the World Tree Silkworms would bind them up. Besides, the cows had clearly been holding back, so it wasn't as if anyone had broken bones. They just had to endure the defeat. If they absolutely couldn't stand it, I told them to ask a Holy Slime for healing.
Lu was currently away. She had gone with Beezel to install several Short-distance Teleportation Gates to create a connected route. Since the locations had already been secured, she was expected back in less than half a day.
However, a bit of a problem had arisen regarding this new route. The villages and towns being connected had previously served as resting points for caravans. While the Short-distance Teleportation Gates would release them from that burden, they would also lose the profits they had gained from travelers.
Concerned about this, the plan had been to mandate an overnight stay at various points along the route, but this mandatory stay became the issue. Since people were being forced to stay the night, the locations needed proper lodging facilities, even if they weren't top-tier. Adding one or two inns might have been manageable, but ten or twenty was impossible.
There was a severe shortage of both materials and manpower. While materials could be procured with enough money, people capable of managing an inn couldn't be trained overnight. Even assigning existing staff to new lodgings had its limits.
The villages were in a particularly difficult spot, as they had never had proper inns before. Usually, they just gave travelers permission to camp out in the open. Building a real inn in such a village was a tall order. In short, there simply wasn't enough lodging to go around.
The Demon King was no fool. He had anticipated these problems, so he had been working behind the scenes with the Dalfon Company and the Goroun Company to arrange for accommodations.
Despite his efforts, the villages and towns along the route pushed back. They told him quite clearly that if he was going to force them to build new inns, he should just cancel the mandatory overnight stay altogether. It seemed they disliked the idea of their local lifestyles being drastically altered by a sudden influx of overnight guests. Furthermore, various Merchant's Associations expressed their support for the cancellation, arguing that the route would be more convenient without the forced stop.
The Demon King had proposed the mandatory stay out of concern for the future of these towns, but when the residents themselves said it was unnecessary, he had no choice but to back down. The mandatory overnight stay was cancelled.
As a result, the Demon King was currently resting in the village, playing with the cats to soothe the exhaustion of having to revise his entire plan. If travelers were just going to pass through, the placement of the gates would need to be changed for convenience, and he had to anticipate the new set of problems that would arise from that.
While I was feeling impressed that the Demon King had it so tough, I was hauled away by the Civil Official Girls. Apparently, it was time for a meeting.
During a break in the meeting, I ate some zenzai with mochi in it. We had a surplus of mochi that we hadn't managed to finish over the winter. Since it was excellent as a preserved food, there was no real rush to consume it, but since we would likely be pounding more mochi this coming winter, we ate it while we could.
I wondered what to do about the Kuro and Yuki Zenzai stall in Village Five. The original plan was to only open it during the winter, but there had been requests to keep it going year-round. However, serving hot zenzai seemed a bit off once the weather turned warm.
Should we shift back to the ramen stall I ran for a while? No, that was so popular it became a problem in itself. Besides, it took too much effort. The beauty of the zenzai stall was its simplicity; you just handed over what was already prepared.
In that case... well, the other food stalls I could think of besides zenzai and ramen were soba, roasted sweet potato, taiyaki, takoyaki, crepes, melon pan, ice cream, sandwiches, warabimochi, and shaved ice.
Given the season, I wondered what would be best. I decided that this was exactly the sort of thing I should consult everyone about during the meeting. Having reached that conclusion, I finished my zenzai. I noticed a few others were still eating.
"Ah, there's no need to rush. Take your time."