ALL NOVEL chapter 28
28 – Refugee Village
The food Lucia made was quite delicious.
I don’t know what to do with the stew made with vegetables and meat, but I know how to make hard bread moist after a long time.
At first, Irene, who ate every bite, was helping Lucia by putting down an empty bowl before she knew it.
How long has she dreamed of a party life like this…
I wondered if I was a warrior before,
There were so many things I did that I was afraid to be homeless, so I didn’t know I was a porter…
“I will wash the dishes.”
“No. Irene! I will do this!”
“It’s okay. I didn’t do anything…”
“No. It’s because it’s easier and faster for me to do it.”
Lucia stopped her Irene from trying to help her, then concentrated her mana in her hand and summoned something of her…
“[Undine]”
An Undine in the shape of a little girl appeared and, as usual, was hanging around Lucia and playing around.
Lucia whispered something to Undine…
In an instant, it turned into a spirit dishwasher and was washing dishes instead.
If a human girl were doing that, she might suspect child abuse…
So the sun went down and the night came with thick darkness.
If I had to pick the hardest thing while sleeping, it would be the night watch…
No matter how much I have exceptional abilities and senses than others, I tend to fall asleep easily after a tiring day.
At that time, if the enemy approached, they might not be aware of it, so someone had to stand watch when they were homeless.
So when I say to stay vigil at the ex-hero party…
A saint who says she has to go to bed for early morning prayer…
The sorceress princess who says that if you don’t get enough sleep, you won’t be able to recover mana…
An elf girl who is far from the world tree and has to sleep because her energy is weak due to the wind…
I only remember dozing off in front of a campfire whenever I was homeless because I avoided my night watch for one reason or another.
But…
Now…
“I will stand by for the vigil.”
“Irene, there’s no need for that, we can all take turns writing together.”
“No. I slept a lot in the carriage earlier, so I’ll stand the night watch. Have a good sleep, Hero and Lucia.”
With a party member willing to stand guard…
“Leave the vigil to me. [Sylph]”
“…..?”
“Leave the night watch to Sylph and we can sleep.”
I thought I’d be able to get a good night’s sleep because I had a clever half-elf party member.
The next day…
Thanks to the sylph Lucia summoned and the barrier Irene had set up just in case, I woke up and looked around to see if anything had happened all night.
Maybe a bird passed by on a quiet morning landed for a while and then suffered a catastrophe,
It was a peaceful morning as usual, except that I was frozen to death in front of the bonfire we were burning due to Irene’s barrier.
Rather than cumbersomely preparing breakfast, I ate a simple cup of tea and set off for the next town…
“Irene, do you know what kind of tree that tree is?”
“Which one?”
“The tree over there on the hill.”
“Well…”
Since we made dinner together yesterday, we exchanged a few words, and then we heard chattering in the carriage all night.
I wonder if we got quite close today,
Irene definitely seemed to talk more than yesterday.
“Whoa.”
While I was listening to Lucia’s chattering voice from the start, Roman suddenly made the sound of stopping the carriage and slowing down.
“Roman, what’s up?”
“Hero, I think you should come out for a while.”
At Roman’s words, I got out of the carriage and looked ahead.
Not a single intact house was visible, and there were tents made of fallen cloth and houses roughly built with planks.
“Roman, where are you?”
“That… well… I passed this road a month ago, but there was no town like this.”
A village built in just one month…
People who saw a strange wagon entering the village began to gather one by one,
Looking at their behavior, they looked more like beggars than villagers.
The face also looked in such a serious condition that the cheekbones were protruding from starvation for several days.
“What brought you to this place?”
It was while we were examining the condition of the people surrounding our carriage one by one.
The oldest-looking villager among them was approaching me,
The surrounding people cleared the way for the old man to pass.
“Here is the warrior, and the people in the back are the warrior party.”
“Yes!!?”
Roman introduced me instead, and the old man in front of me as well as all the people around me were surprised.
Some were weeping while wiping their eyes.
“Oh my God!! I finally got to meet the hero like this!!”
Starting with the old man, all the villagers around him fell on their knees and began to wail.
“Get up. Why are you doing this all of a sudden…”
Feeling burdened, I tried to raise the villagers up, but hardly anyone thought of getting up…
“Hero, most of the people gathered here are from the western part of the continent.”
“That means…”
“Yes. We are refugees who fled here to escape the Demon King’s army. I lost my hometown, lost my home, and even my property was taken away by thieves nearby… Now I was just waiting for the day I would die.”
“…..”
“Still, it seems that God has not abandoned us yet. To think that the hero came to visit us like this…”
I didn’t come to the prosecution, but I didn’t say anything.
The western part of the continent is a place where neighboring countries are gathered around the Eritre Empire.
From what I’ve heard, most of the kingdoms, except for the Eritre Empire, have recently been destroyed by the demon king’s army.
From her point of view, I didn’t care to help Lydia, the sorceress who became the queen of the Kingdom of Jeremia, and Emilia, who became the crown princess of the Eritre Empire.
Perhaps the common people were suffering all the damage.
“Are all the villagers here?”
“No. At least the people here are in good shape, and most of the people in the house are sick.”
“The sick?”
There are so many tents and shacks that you can’t even count with your own eyes.
I got goosebumps at the thought that there would be sick people in there.
“Yes. Originally, we were heading to the Fjord Empire, but from the time we entered the northern part, one by one, people fell down and started to get sick… Now there are so many of them that we can’t move, so we’ve settled down instead of settling down.”
After hearing the old man’s words, I inadvertently looked back, thinking that there was no way to solve it…
Similar things like this had happened before, and it was up to Saint Emilia to solve them each time.
Our purpose is to defeat the demon king and kill the demon king, but when we meet people who are in trouble like this, we also help them as a public service…
Unless there was a saint or a priest, there was no way to help the sick in that house.
“It is endemic.”
“Huh?”
As I was about to give up, I heard Lucia’s voice standing behind me,
She walked past me and approached the old man and began to ask more details.
“Didn’t most of you start with a high fever?”
“Yes! You’re right!”
“In some cases, some people may get a rash or chills.”
“Yes!!! My grandson right now is a symptom of that.”
After hearing the old man’s words, Lucia was deep in thought, stroking her chin with her hand.
It was as if she knew the names of the sick people here.
“Lucia, are you aware of this disease?”
“That’s just my opinion… Maybe… It’s an endemic disease.”
“Endendeous disease?”
“Yes. It is a disease that occurs when people from the western part of the continent come to the north here and the climate, soil, and water quality do not match.”
At the name of a bottle I had never heard of, I just stared at her, hoping Lucia would explain it.
“Hero, did you ever tell me about the fjord empire?”
“What?”
“When you first went to the Fjord Empire, you said you had a hard time changing the water…”
“Yes. It did.”
“That is also a kind of endemic disease. However, it seems that there is a more serious disease here, or, in the worst case, an epidemic.”
“Ah…”
Lucia explained easily for me who did not understand, and the refugees who listened to it together looked up to her with hope.
“Ho.. By any chance… are you a saint?”
“Ah… No!”
Finally, the old man realized that Lucia was her saint and approached with the momentum to bow again.
Lucia waved her hands and made it clear that she was not a saint.
“It doesn’t matter if it’s not. Please save the people here. Even my grandson!”
“My mother too!”
“Please save my daughter too!”
Eventually, many of her people, starting with her old man, approached her and begged her to save her own family,
At this, Lucia looked at me with her perplexed face, as if asking for her help.
“Lucia, can you heal me?”
“I can do it, but…”
I knew why Lucia couldn’t make decisions easily.
According to the law set forth by the Great God Temple, only priests can heal people or register as adventurer guild healers,
If you do anything other than a priest, you could be arrested for blasphemy.
“Don’t worry. I’ll take care of everything… Heal people.”
“Yes…”
I approached Lucia, who was hesitant, and patted her on the shoulder a couple of times before making a gesture that seemed okay.