Hideout in Another World: I Tried Building a Secret Base in the Middle of Nowhere

Chapter 85: Report

The next morning, we arrived at Savoia much earlier than planned.

Elizabeth managed to get us closer to Savoia than we expected.

Everyone was surprised by this, but for some reason, Elizabeth seemed the most surprised, twisting her head and bleating “Meh meh.”

Regardless of the reason, there were only benefits for the Bonus Company.

It seemed like we could significantly shorten our commuting time.

“Oh, Mil! And Bonus!”

“We both managed to survive, Miles!”

“Mil! We’ve been waiting for you!”

“Ah, sorry for being late. I heard everyone was safe… Ah, I’m really relieved.”

As rumored, everyone from Vaintz Village seemed to be gathering and living in front of the eastern gate of Savoia.

The women quickly gathered around Mil and disappeared from sight.

Starting with the carpenter Miles, the men timidly greeted Kuro, Shiro, Gisella, and gathered around me with smiles.

I didn’t expect to be welcomed so warmly, especially by Mil.

“Bonus, thank you. Thanks to you, we were able to survive safely.”

“Thank you so much, Mr. Bonus. I couldn’t do anything useful as the village chief at that time… Everyone survived and escaped because of Marie-san and Mr. Bonus.”

“Yeah, we couldn’t protect the village… but…”

“No, it couldn’t be helped… Looking back on it now, it’s a miracle that we survived.”

Although we were unexpectedly warmly welcomed, I couldn’t help but feel unexpectedly complex.

I had done what I could at that time, and even if a similar situation were to occur now, I don’t think we would achieve better results than we did then.

But even so, I don’t feel much of a sense of accomplishment now.

Rather, seeing the tired faces of the villagers coming out of the evacuation camp, I feel a strong sense of guilt for some reason.

I should have talked about Kane after all…

Until I came here, I thought I would leave it to Mil, but now that I see everyone’s faces, I feel like I have to explain it properly from my own mouth to be forgiven.

Perhaps unconsciously, I may have been avoiding coming to Savoia and meeting everyone from Vaintz Village.

If I had wanted to, I could have met the villagers in a day trip.

“I’m sorry for being late, but there’s something I need to tell everyone.”

“Yeah… I heard about Kane from Marie-san.”

“I see… But I want to talk about what happened to him again, this time from my own mouth.”

“Understood, shall we talk in private?”

In the center of the disorderly arranged tents, there was a space resembling a plaza, with logs serving as chairs scattered around haphazardly.

I sat down on one of them, Mil sat next to me, and the members of the Bonus Company sat down as well.

Mil already had tears in her eyes.

She must be experiencing even more complex emotions than I am.

The villagers gathered around her.

“Then, let’s talk about leaving the village and parting with everyone―”

Although we hadn’t planned it out, Mil and I took turns talking about what happened that time.

Of course, as we had decided beforehand, we omitted the details about Pink and Elizabeth, but we talked about everything else we remembered in as much detail as possible, suppressing our emotions and sticking to the facts as much as possible.

“And finally, with my own hands, I…”

Mil ended the story with a quietly suppressed voice.

I hesitated whether to express my own feelings about Kane, but in the end, I decided not to.

Even if it was something praising Kane, if I were to express my feelings here and now, it would feel like everything would become a deception.

If anyone has the right to say it now, it would only be Mil, who had taken action against Kane herself.

However, she also didn’t seem to want to say anything more.

I didn’t think that witnessing someone’s death and conveying it would be so difficult.

The people in the village also had solemn expressions.

Maybe they didn’t want to hear this kind of story either.

It will probably take some time before the reconstruction goes smoothly and this becomes a kind of hero tale.

It feels like everyone is being driven by some kind of obligation, making this gathering possible.

But at least for me, I now realize that this was a necessary ritual.

It feels like something is being put on my heart in real time.

But if I hadn’t started this conversation myself, I would probably have regretted it deeply someday.

“We… need to build… graves for them,” the village chief said unexpectedly firmly.

“Yeah, that’s about the least we can do,” I replied.

“Well, the question is whether we can return to the village…”

“It’ll be okay. The lord has promised.”

“Yeah, now’s the time to endure.”

The atmosphere among the villagers, who had just been sinking, began to change.

The village chief had said earlier that he couldn’t do anything, but he might surprisingly be fulfilling his role properly.

Mil, with tears in her eyes and a furrowed brow, took a deep breath, trying to change her mood somehow.

Still, I felt like I understood once again why Mil wanted to leave the village.

Of course, all the explanations Mil had given us before were probably true.

But perhaps in addition to that, she had found it difficult to continue being the same in the village as she had been before.

When Mil mentioned at the end that she had personally ended Kane’s life, a small scream went up.

Part of the emotion behind that scream seemed to be directed at Mil with fear.

Mil had really drawn the short end of the stick.

“Let’s make a meal of it! We brought a lot of ingredients with Bonus!” Mil stood up, changing the subject, and called out to everyone loudly.

Considering the cooking time, it was a bit early for lunch, but it was just the right time to change the heavy atmosphere.

It seemed like everyone wanted a change of mood, as they began to help Mil and tidy up the place, busy moving around.

—

“Wow, it’s been a long time since I had such delicious food and ate my fill.”

“Come to think of it, Miles, you seem to have lost weight, haven’t you?” While patting his stomach, I said so, and I felt like he had lost quite a bit of weight from the overall image I remembered.

As I looked around at the other villagers, I felt like a few of the men I remembered were also a bit thinner.

They should have been financially supported for their immediate living expenses, but perhaps the distribution wasn’t going well, or maybe the funds themselves were limited.

“Have you not been eating properly lately? I heard you were supposed to be financially supported to some extent.”

“Huh? Oh, actually, not really…” It seemed like something bad was indeed happening…

Miles began to speak with a somewhat serious expression.

“It was about three days after we fled to Savoia… Something really frightening happened.”

“Frightening?”

“Yeah, thankfully, we received financial support for our immediate living expenses from the lord. So, we received more money than expected from the village chief and decided to go to the market with the guy who was in charge of shopping for Savoia.”

It seems like the lord’s support was sufficient.

If so, was there a reason other than financial for them to go…?

Well, they probably weren’t used to shopping, or maybe they got involved in some trouble.

“Anyway, has Miles been to Savoia before?”

“I’ve been to Savoia a few times to buy carpentry tools. I wasn’t that familiar with it… Well, for that reason, six men were chosen as shopping assistants and went to the market.”

“Which market did you go to?”

“Oh, I found out later, but it seems the official name was the Dogor Underground Market.”

I couldn’t help but sigh.

Out of all places, the black market…!

I hate to say it, but it was the epitome of foolishness for country bumpkins with bulging wallets to go there without even hiring guards.

I could somewhat predict what would happen next.

Well, no one seemed to have been killed, so let’s consider it fortunate.

“It seemed like the public safety wasn’t that great, but since we could get goods cheaper than at other markets and we were traveling in a group of six men, we didn’t encounter any danger.”

“Huh? Were you able to buy groceries safely…?”

“Yeah, we almost got scammed. There was someone we usually left in charge of shopping, so we managed to buy them at a reasonable price. But the problem was after that…”

“Did you manage to get the groceries…? Then why?”

“Oh, there were women when we tried to return with a large amount of groceries… And they were quite well-built women… And our wallets still had money in them.” Miles started saying something ridiculously trivial with a strangely affected expression.

It wasn’t serious or frightening at all.

I almost thought about hitting him,instead Kane–, but when I thought about it, if he had been alive, he would have eagerly gone with them.

So, for the time being, I decided to listen to the whole story.

“So, that’s how we came to know the allure and terror of the city.”

Nothing unexpected.

Well, in short, it was a story of spending the remaining money on prostitutes.

I think they’re hopeless idiots, but it’s also a story that seems quite plausible.

They hadn’t received much education, born and raised in the countryside.

And I feel like Vaintz Village was quite open-minded about such things.

Telling them to restrain themselves might have been unreasonable.

Perhaps it was the village chief or the lord who should have been more considerate about that… but it would have been difficult in reality.

The stress on the villagers must be considerable.

“You idiot!”

“Ouch! That’s why I only eat once a day… please forgive me already…”

“Bonus-san, listening to stories from such a guy can make you an idiot and give you an STD, you know.”

“Bonus, over here.”

“Ah, Shiro…”

As Miles got his head knocked by passing village women, I too was pulled away by Shiro.

I see, so the emaciated men are the culprits.

While they brought it upon themselves, maybe it’s time to advocate for giving them a normal meal or something…

Without even reflecting on the Black Wolf Battle, people like Miles are undoubtedly essential for the village’s future.

And the women, while they seem a bit unkempt, don’t particularly look malnourished.

It’s a good thing they already buy groceries beforehand.

Well, Miles and the others probably had that much common sense… probably.

“Anyway, it doesn’t seem like it’s a good idea to keep the villagers in Savoia for too long.”

“Yeah, I think so too. Not just Miles and the others, but everyone seems to be affected negatively in some way. Being in an environment that stimulates desires but unable to work isn’t good either.”

Mil, who had somehow come over to us, seemed to have the same impression after talking with the villagers.

I should mention this to Azir and Hajiramu when I see them.

But still… there really are brothels around the black market.

“Bonus?”

“S-Shiro? What’s up? Well well! It’s a good time, so let’s go into the city of Savoia!”