Atelier Tanaka

Book 3: Chapter 5 (2)

Extra

I landed in the centre of the village, which was just a grassy square with a well in the middle.

I could see many young men working around the small village.

In my mind, a typical fantasy village would have the men going out hunting and leaving the women and children to protect the village. However, all I could see around me were muscly men busy working here and there.

Where are all of the women and children?

Ah.

I lowered the loli bitch onto the ground.

The people of the village soon took notice and began to surround us. All of them were well-built men with intimidating faces.

What have we done to deserve a visit from a great noble?

One of them, a man that appeared to be their representative, spoke to us. After noticing Ester-chans clothes, the man began acting subservient and even lowered his head, but he also seemed to be carefully watching us.

All of the men had incredible physiques. The shortest among them seemed to be 190 centimetres. They were all more than a head taller than me, had the same dark coloured eyes, brown hair cut short in the same style, and beards of varying lengths. All of this combined to give them a wild appearance.

Excuse me, but can I use one of your toilets?

?

He looked completely confused.

It was as if he had no idea what I was talking about.

Umm, well, I just want to use your toilet.

I heard you. That may be something common for people like you, but we dont possess something so luxurious. We can offer you an area among the trees thats been blocked off by a sheet, but thats about it.

thats good enough.

I-I see.

All right, toilet get.

I noticed that the men surrounding us were all staring at Ester-chan as if they hadnt seen a woman in months. They would occasionally glance over at me as if to say, Whats a guy like you doing with a girl like her?

Its a lolicon army.

Since they all look like bodybuilders, I thought theyd be interested in a different type of woman, but it seems I was wrong.

***

I returned to the small square feeling refreshed.

Ester-chan was where I left her and the group of muscular men surrounding her seemed to have increased. She wasnt acting like the daughter of a great noble surrounded by a bunch of mere peasants. Ester-chan didnt act like they were beneath her and didnt seem afraid of them, but they all seemed to be getting along rather well.

It looked like a young girl surrounded by all of her older brothers.

Sorry for the wait.

Welcome back. That didnt take as long as I expected.

Yeah, well.

Thats thanks to the images the loli bitch provided me before landing.

By the way, umm, d-do we still have some time to spare?

You didnt seem to think so earlier. Why do you ask?

Ester-chan was acting as cute as possible. Her head was looking down but her eyes were looking up at me and there were even tears forming in them. Shes going to ask me for something.

It will only take a little bit of our time, but.

What is it?

Before continuing, she looked at the faces of the gathered men around us.

They originally lived in a village not far from Tricklis, but the fear of an oncoming war caused them to flee in hopes of finding a safer area to live. Thats why theyre building this village here.

I remember hearing something similar to this in Kalis.

The Penny Empire lacks any form of social welfare, so Im sure this is an everyday occurrence.

So, right now, theyre just getting started on building their new village.

Oh, I see. You want us to help them rebuild?

No, thats not it. Youre more important to me than anything else. I know you have more important things to worry about right now and Id never ask you to do anything that would take you away from such an important task.

O-Okay, but you do want to help them, right?

Well, when these people were living in their old village, I was still Viscount FitzClarence, lord of the territory they were living in. I may not possess that title anymore, but these were once my people and theyre in trouble. I would never forgive myself if I didnt help them.

I think that is a truly wonderful mentality to have.

As usual, this bitch possesses a strong moral obligation.

Why couldnt she have directed this enthusiasm into protecting her hymen?

when you praise meI-I get wet.

So, what do you want to do?

Honestly, Im not sure where shes going with this.

The village seems to be coming along well. All of the men of the village seem to be in fine health and great shape. Several houses have already been built, theres another thats partially finished, and theres even a field thats already been planted and appears to be in good condition.

As I looked at her confused, Ester-chan looked triumphant as she said,

Well go to the womens village and negotiate on behalf of the mens village!

.

Womens village?

Sounds sexy.

But the mens village gives me a bad feeling.

Could you give me a more detailed explanation?

As you can already see, there are only men in this village.

Yes, I noticed that.

This village of men consists of men that all seem to be of a similar type that wished to establish a utopia of bodybuilders here in their new village, and, honestly, it seems to be going well for them. However, something I have noticed is that all of the houses here seem to be bog standard, and, since the men here decided to leave the women, Im afraid of what I might see behind closed doors.

But Ester-chan told a different story.

Not long ago, they were living in another village not far from here. They built that village together with the women, and it was nearly finished too before various things happened that caused a big misunderstanding amongst the women. These men were then forced out of the village by the women.

That seems.

I dont think something like that seems possible, but I cant deny the fact that there are only men in this village. It must be true. For the men here to abandon their village after putting so much work into getting it built, they must really be good people.

But they wish to reconcile with the women of their village, and they want me, as a noble, to act as their intermediary. We talked about this while you were in the toilet. Of course, I wont waste a lot of your time to help them.

So, its like that.

Thats the reason for there being a mens village and womens village.

Once Ester-chan had finished speaking, one of the men spoke up.

We apologize for asking such a great noble as yourself to help us. The women of our village can be stubborn but we hope the words of a noble may have more of an effect on them.

For some reason, this combination of polite attitude with his macho appearance is causing me concern.

Hes smiling at Ester-chan but that smile is causing me to feel a sense of imminent danger.

Hes not trying to deceive the loli bitch, is he?

.

Im starting to feel anxious.

The whole village of men and village of women thing seemed doubtful to me in the first place.

But I suppose I should help them out for lending me their toilet. And Ester-chan really wants to help them. I could easily deny their request, but that may leave Ester-chan with a feeling of regret later. She does seem to genuinely care about them.

I think I understand the situation. Well help you out.

You will!? Oh, thank you so much, sir!

The man bowed deeply and the rest of his group followed suit.

Lets get this settled quickly.

***

We headed off in the direction the men of the village directed us.

That must be it!

I think youre right.

We had only been flying for a few minutes. Even accounting for the dense forest beneath us, it shouldnt take more than an hour to get here on foot. The men built their village a lot closer than I expected. They probably assumed theyd be able to reconcile with the women at some point.

There was a tall fence surrounding the village and we landed at where I assumed was the front of the village where there was a small break in the fence.

We entered the village and found our way to the town square. It had familiar well in the centre with several women holding pails chatting away.

I called out loud enough for them to hear me.

The looks they gave me made me feel that if I were here by myself, I wouldve been chased out of the village, but their faces went rigid once they noticed Ester-chan wearing her noble clothing.

With that reaction, it should be easy enough to begin negotiations with them.

Excuse me, could we borrow a moment of your time?

What business does a n-noblewoman have with a small village like us?

A shrill voice responded timidly with a question to my question.

The voice belonged to a woman in her mid-twenties with shoulder length jet black hair. She also had dark eyes which made me feel a close affinity to her, but her skin was white. After all, the people of this world are still different than my own.

Id like to speak with the representative of this village!

Ester-chan roared.

Taken aback by the loli bitchs scream, the womans face turned blue and she said,

P-Please, wait just a moment! Ill bring her out immediately!

Please do.

The black-haired woman ran off in a panic.

The women that were with her dropped their pails and ran off after her.

There wasnt anyone else in sight, but I could feel the countless eyes focused solely on us.

Its making me uncomfortable.

But the loli bitch is acting like a high-and-mighty noble which should work well for us in this situation.

I can feel my heart wavering.

***