“I see. Still, you’ve come all this way—why don’t you rest here for even a moment before you go? I’ll bring you something to eat.”
“Oh my, thank you.”
While Dawi went to prepare the food, the knights looked around his ranch.
The five knights who had been to Dawi’s ranch before exchanged a few words.
“It’s completely different from last time.”
“It really looks like a ranch now.”
“Not looks like. It is a real ranch. He’s got livestock and fields.”
The senior knight, too, recalled Dawi insisting that a tent he had pitched was a ranch.
‘Back then, I thought he was just a mad mage…’
Surprisingly, he seemed to have a decent character, and he appeared to be managing the ranch quite seriously in his own way.
In any case, even though Dawi was an outsider, and even though the ranch was located away from the basin that was practically the territory proper, he truly looked after the territory like a citizen of Snowhill.
‘No. I should just think of him as one of our people.’
Hadn’t he even laid a brick road now? Dawi was undoubtedly a citizen of Snowhill.
While they were thinking this and that, Dawi brought out warmed bilberry wine and roasted Big Horn meat.
“I only seasoned it lightly with salt. Is that all right?”
“Meat tastes good even with just that. Haha!”
“Thank you!”
“We’ll enjoy it!”
The knights each thanked him as they received the food.
The meat was served on wooden plates, and the wine came in cups made from Big Horn horns. Each knight took up a horn cup, drank the wine, and tore into the meat.
“Once you’ve finished, please ride with me in my wagon.”
“Oh my, you don’t have to go that far!”
“Yes! We can make it to Snowhill easily from here!”
Dawi spoke as he brought out boxes of eggs from the stone icehouse.
“It’s not that. I happen to have business there too. Ah, maybe because it’s spring, those fellows are laying a tremendous number of eggs. Hahaha!”
“Oh, is that so? You’re not selling them all, are you? You ought to leave some for hatching.”
“Yes. I picked out the ones that looked the best and set them aside.”
Near the brick stove in the center of the ranch, there was a place where the ducks and geese brooded eggs. Ten goose eggs, ten duck eggs.
Strangely enough, the geese and ducks took turns brooding the eggs without distinguishing between their own and the others’.
“Ugh, that was a good meal!”
“Thank you for the meal!”
Dawi took the dishes from the knights.
“Rest for a moment, and I’ll prepare the wagon.”
After roughly washing the dishes by the lakeside, he hitched Malmari to the wagon.
Then he loaded the egg boxes he had taken out earlier onto the wagon.
“Please get in! I’ll be counting on you to keep the eggs from breaking on the way!”
“Oh my, of course. Thank you!”
“Let’s go, Malmari! Giddyap!”
Clack, clack.
Malmari moved along the brick road. Since he was carrying eggs, Dawi drove slowly this time.
.
.
.
“…You’ve come again so soon?”
“Yes. I thought I’d bring the knights back, and also trade some eggs…”
“It certainly is nice now that there’s a road.”
The knights got down from the wagon and saluted the baroness. Then they each untied the bundles they had filled with crops. Since they had packed them tightly with only the grains separated out, it was a sufficient amount to use as seed.
“With this much, there should be no need to go out again. Thank you all for your hard work.”
The irrigation facilities were still under construction. What had been unexpected was that the dwarves had stepped forward to help.
They had helped design the irrigation facilities, and the waterways were being built according to that design.
“Now then, Mr. Dawi… what have you brought this time?”
Dawi opened the lid of the egg box and said,
“These are… eggs.”
The baroness’s eyes widened slightly.
“It seems they’ve already started laying?”
“Yes. Maybe because it’s spring, they’re laying quite a lot. Haha!”
“Eggs are… a truly precious food in our territory. Unless you’re lucky enough to find bird eggs, they’re hard to eat.”
“Oh, is that so? Then from now on, you’ll probably be able to eat them more easily than before! Hahaha!”
At Dawi’s words, the baroness hesitated slightly before saying,
“But… we don’t have enough garlic to give you.”
Garlic was the item Dawi had traded for the most. Because of Dawi, they had even increased the amount of garlic they grew in the garden.
“Ah… hmm… That’s fine! I don’t mind receiving other crops.”
“Hmm… We have some onions and carrots. Would you take those?”
‘Carrots? Horses like carrots, don’t they? Malmari will like them!’
Dawi thought to himself, then answered.
“Yes, that sounds good!”
“Ah, we also have a few apples…”
“Apples?”
When Dawi spoke in slight surprise, the baroness burst into a soft laugh.
“Yes. Didn’t you see the apple trees in the garden? We have apples too.”
“Then… since eggs are quite a precious food, let’s exchange by the box rather than by the pouch. I’ll give you one box of onions, one box of carrots, and one box of apples.”
Giving one box each of crops grown in the garden was practically the same as giving him almost the entire harvest.
“Oh, it doesn’t need to be that much. Just one pouch each would be…”
“The ranch will keep growing, so won’t eggs become more and more common? When that happens, I’ll trade ten boxes of eggs for one box of apples.”
“Ah! That’s true! Hahaha, understood!”
Dawi received one box each of onions, carrots, and apples, then happily drove the wagon back. On the way, he put one carrot and one apple into Malmari’s mouth.
.
.
.
“…What is the baron doing right now?”
At the baroness’s question, the butler replied,
“It is currently his swordsmanship training time, so he is likely at the training grounds.”
“There isn’t much time left before I put down the role of acting lord.”
Dawi did not know this, but the previous baron—the baroness’s husband—had died after being infected with the zombie virus. Among the baron’s family, only the baron had lacked antibodies.
The son who had inherited the barony was fourteen this year. He was the son the baroness had given birth to in her teens.
The current baron was too young to act as lord, so the baroness had taken on the role of acting lord until her son came of age.
Once her son came of age, the baroness would put down both the role of acting lord and the title of “baroness.” The one to be called baroness from then on should be her son’s wife, not herself.
“…If you step down as acting lord, do you perhaps wish to remarry?”
“Pardon? Haha, no. I just… thought it wouldn’t be bad to put aside the duties of a lord and live leisurely on a ranch.”
“…If he was a former military mage, he would have received a life peerage. There would be no issue with his status.”
“Haha, Butler. I said that isn’t what I mean. And… it has been a long time since the empire collapsed. Would an imperial title matter?”
The butler spoke firmly.
“It matters. The empire has not perished. This is merely a temporary vacancy. The imperial family possesses more than a hundred knights. There must surely be living imperial blood somewhere, and the empire will be established again.”
“…I see. That would truly be wonderful. We would worry less about food, too…”
***
“There really are more of them.”
After hearing news of the zombies moving north, Dawi led Malmari down the Allos Mountains. Because the slope of the mountain was steep, the zombies were unable to climb properly and kept slipping.
“Guuuh…”
Hidden away, Dawi watched as a zombie climbed the mountainside, only to slide back down again.
‘Only a few lucky ones will make it over the mountain range. I don’t have to worry about them coming in a swarm.’
Dawi quietly turned around and returned to the ranch.
“Guuuh…”
The zombies that failed to climb the mountain scattered east and west along the mountain range.
.
.
.
“Hooonk!”
Dawi was slowly getting used to mornings that began with the strange cry of a goose.
“No need for an alarm… Huaaam.”
Opening the ranch gate, harvesting corn, feeding Malmari, changing the water bucket, finding eggs and putting them in the stone icehouse, putting corn kernels into the geese and ducks’ feed bowls—a repetitive, ordinary life.
He sat for a while on the chair placed by the lakeside, watched the geese and ducks swim around, and ate breakfast.
He checked the fish trap, cleaned the silver trout he had caught and stored them in the stone icehouse, brushed Malmari’s coat, and then checked whether the fence was intact. He looked around the house, stable, and ranch to see if there was anywhere that needed repairs.
Then Dawi remembered.
“Ah! Pine resin tar!”
Previously, the baroness had given him some, saying it had waterproofing, insect-repelling, and preservative effects.
Dawi took out three buckets of pine resin tar that had been sitting in a corner of the house.
“She said to warm it before using it, right?”
Dawi placed the pine resin tar near the fireplace and melted it until it became sufficiently thin.
“Let’s see… something I can use to paint…”
Dawi cut off a hairy part from a wolf pelt, wedged it between two thin pieces of wood, and tied it in place with string. Thus, a bristle brush was completed.
Dawi took one bucket of pine resin tar outside, dipped the brush into it, and began applying it to the log house.
Swish, swish.
He had been applying the pine resin tar for quite some time.
“Dawi! Sir Dawi Barokeu!!”
A voice calling Dawi came from far away.
‘What is it?’
When Dawi turned his head, he saw a knight running along the brick road.
Sensing that the situation was not ordinary, Dawi first put the geese and ducks inside.
“Hurry, hurry, get in!”
“Hooonk!”
“Quack! Quack! Quack!”
He filled the feed bowls in the ranch, then scooped water from the lake with an empty bowl and used it as a water bowl. Dawi placed the water bowl beside the feed bowls and locked the ranch gate.
“Hah! Hah! Something terrible has happened!”
The one who had come running was a knight Dawi was acquainted with.
“What happened?”
As he spoke, Dawi called Malmari and prepared to ride.
If a knight had run all the way here like this, then something must have happened in the Snowhill territory.
“Zombies…! Zombies have appeared!”
“What? How could zombies be there…”
Dawi’s ranch was on the other side of the mountain range surrounding Snowhill.
Before zombies entered the Snowhill territory, they should have caught Dawi’s eye.