The Abandoned Duchess Seems to Want a Peaceful Life - Chapter 35

Chapter 35: The End of the Harvest Festival and the New Village's Name

"Oh, that's right, I was thinking of registering the former serfs' settlement as a village soon. If it's all right, could you have everyone in the settlement discuss what to name the village?"

"The village's name, you say?"

"Yes. I'm sorry I've been slow to bring it up, with me staying shut up in the lord's manor lately. There's no rush, so I'd like it to be a name people can feel fond of."

Continuing to call it the former serfs' settlement was awkward, and it was rude to the people who had become freemen. Now that the corn shipments were finally over and things would be a little calmer, Melfina had thought it would be good for the people of the settlement to talk it over and decide.

"In that case, if it would not be disrespectful, we would like to give it your name, Lady Melfina..."

"What!?"

"Everyone is deeply grateful to you, Lady Melfina. If it were a village named after you, I think everyone would treasure it..."

"Melfina Village has an awkward ring to it. And a village named after the lord is, well..."

Even when a road was given the name of the ruler or the powerful of its day, it was almost always on the premise that the place would become the center of that land.

The Enkar region already had Enkar Village. If a new village bearing Melfina's name were founded here, it could easily be taken to mean that the village would become the center of this land, or at least that the lord intended it to.

That would hardly be a welcome development for the people of Enkar Village, who had been developing the Enkar region for decades. And as a lord, she could not sow the seeds of needless quarrels in the land she governed.

"But Melfina Village sounds awkward, and it would be hard for me to say. Besides, the lord's manor is in Enkar Village."

"I see... No, I only thought how wonderful it would be if it came true. I spoke on impulse, and I apologize."

"No need to apologize. I was happy at the thought."

"Then we will discuss it with everyone and come up with something inoffensive."

A name is inoffensive if it isn't Melfina's? What kind of judgment is that!? she thought.

Nid's shoulders had clearly drooped more than before, and she was flustered, wondering how best to console him, when Marie beside her murmured softly.

"...How about Melto Village, or Fina Village?"

"Melto Village..."

"I think it's a good idea. 'Melt' also carries the meaning of a thaw. It seems a fitting name for the first place where the frozen land was made into fertile ground through Lady Melfina's wisdom."

"That is... a wonderful name. I'm sure no one in the settlement would object."

Nid said this to Cedric's words with a flushed face, plainly excited.

It seemed it would end up as Melto Village after all. Melto Village was something Melfina had no strong reason to oppose either.

She felt a bit self-conscious, but if it let the people of the settlement feel attached and call themselves residents of that village, then it was a good thing.

"A village with Lady Melfina's name... How very enviable."

When she glanced at Lutz, who muttered it as if complaining, their eyes met, and he immediately let his gaze wander in panic.

She felt she had become much closer to him than at their first meeting, but the instinctive fear of nobles still seemed to be ingrained in him.

"But Enkar Village carries the fine name of the Enkar region itself."

"Enkar Village only came to be called that because there was no other village around here. We kept calling it 'the village, the village,' and before we knew it the name Enkar Village had stuck."

I see, she thought. If a land has only one village, no name is needed to distinguish it from others. And if this was the only village in that classification, it was natural that it came to be called by the name of the land.

"I've already grown fond of the name Enkar Village, and everyone was born and raised in a village with that name, aren't they?"

"That is true, but..."

"I like it, Enkar Village. After all, the manor where I live is here."

"...So it is. Lady Melfina is in our village."

Relieved that Lutz seemed convinced, she felt the touch of a cold wind on her cheek and looked up.

The sun at this time of year went to bed early. Within the hour, twilight would arrive.

"Shall we start cleaning up soon? Just carrying those ale barrels back to the lord's manor will take quite a while."

"In that case, let's have the young men of the village help. Well, they're empty, so it won't take long."

"They really did come out empty, didn't they. If you wouldn't mind, I'd appreciate your help with washing them tomorrow."

"Then I'll send a few of them to the lord's manor before noon..."

As Marie and Lutz talked, a stir ran through the crowd as everyone began preparing to clean up. The stalls were folded away, and the crates were to be gathered in a set place today and returned to the drying shed where they had been, tomorrow.

"Today was fun."

"Yeah, I laughed so much my cheeks hurt."

"You asked that girl to dance, didn't you? Looked like it went well."

"Stop it. But we did promise to go to the forest together next time..."

Watching the people cleaning up, with bouncing words and steps, Melfina was thinking that she should help in some way too, when it happened.

Before she knew it, a man was sitting on the crate opposite her.

"Lord, hello. It's a fine festival."

"Thank you. Did you enjoy yourself too?"

"Yes, I only just arrived, but I never imagined it would be this lively."

Among the many faces with deeper, more Western features than in her previous life, the man had an oddly flat face. His eyes were narrow as threads and slanted, a face of the type known as a long oval.

At any rate, she had no memory of seeing him in Enkar Village before.

Was he a craftsman from Ricardo's group or another workshop? As if it had shown on her face, the man smiled, curving up the corners of his mouth.

"I'm someone who left this village long ago to find work in a bigger town. I was a third son, so there was no farm for me to inherit, and I wasn't strong enough to clear a field of my own, so I thought I'd try a way of living other than plowing."

"I see. I hear there are many like that."

It was not unusual for people to head from the countryside to big towns and cities looking for work. Ed, Cliff and Rad, who now supported Melfina from the shadows and in the sunlight at the lord's manor, had also come together from the same rural area to Soarasonne, the capital of the Oldrand duchy.

The man before her was probably one of those who had left Enkar Village in search of work.

"At the start of summer my father sent word that the Enkar region was short of hands and that I should come back and help. But I live on the road, so I received the letter late, and that's how I ended up arriving today."

"I see. What do you do now?"

"I'm a traveling entertainer. My old man doesn't think much of a wandering life."

Traveling entertainers and wandering minstrels were people who traveled from place to place showing their acts and earning their living that way. Some belonged to groups, and others traveled alone.

Bound to no particular land, they paid the town entry tax to put on shows in cities and towns, then set out again. Since they paid no other fixed taxes, they could not receive the protection of guards or constables, which made it a dangerous trade.

It was understandable that a parent would not want a child to make a living at such a risky work.

"You've stopped letting the pigs loose in the forest, haven't you."

The topic jumped suddenly, and Melfina looked up with a start.

"Yes. With free-range pigs, we couldn't manage their numbers properly, and it was unsanitary too."

A sow gave birth to twenty to thirty piglets a year.

Even so, only one or two remained per household, because the rest either wandered off somewhere or were killed by wild animals.

It had apparently been fairly common for pigs to be found in villages several villages away. If the owner was too far away, he could not go to retrieve them, and in the end it was all swept under the rug, and that too was part of letting them roam free.

Since Melfina had begun managing them all together, pigs were either not bred unless needed, or several households wanting new pigs would confer, split the bred pigs among themselves, and cull the rest.

"If they're penned, they won't be attacked by wild beasts in the forest, either."

"Yes. The beasts of the forest must be in trouble, with no pigs plump from autumn acorns to be found."

The man said it in a somewhat cynical tone.

"Lord, will this village grow bigger from now on?"

"Yes, that's what I'd like to see."

"I imagine people will increase, livestock will increase, and villages will increase."

"I hope so."

"I think that is... a wonderful thing."

The conversation had begun to feel rambling.

The sun was starting to set, and the light had dimmed slightly.

Come to think of it, I wanted to help with the cleaning up.

She could no longer sense Cedric, who should always be standing behind her.

Just as she thought something was strange, she felt the touch of a hand on her shoulder.

"Lady Melfina? What's the matter?"

Marie, who seemed to have finished giving cleanup instructions and returned, was looking at her with a puzzled expression.

Cedric was behind Marie too. They were the familiar faces of her everyday life.

"Oh, Marie... Wasn't there a man here just now?"

Looking across, she saw only a single empty crate lying there. It seemed everything except Melfina and that crate had already been cleared away.

"There was no one when I came. ...Are you tired?"

"No, I was just spacing out a bit. He must have gone back to the cleanup work too. How careless of me, I forgot to ask his name."

He had called Melfina "Lord."

He had probably really returned to the village only today.

He had distinctive features, so she would recognize him if she saw him again. When that happened, she would ask his name.

With that thought, Melfina returned to the everyday, and before long the matter was pushed to the back of her mind.