The Village's Name and the Saintess's Time Limit

As a winter job, I ended up helping out with Gozoh's Iron Golem hunting. It's supposed to be a scary place since there's a threatening monster around, but the guild's purchase price is marked up because of it. Of course, since I know everything about the dungeon, there's nothing scary about it for me.

Well, it worked out great since I had something I wanted to ask anyway.

While transporting an Iron Golem we'd defeated, I asked Gozoh.

"By the way, what ended up happening with the village's name, Gozoh?"

"Huh? … Ah, sorry. I-I was thinking about it but never said anything."

He totally forgot.

"I see. That's pretty harsh even if I'm just a figurehead village chief, don't you think?"

"… Oh yeah, come to think of it, you were a figurehead?"

"I see, I see. So it's Gozoh-Roppu-Love-Love Village then. Man, what a great name."

"Wha—no, that's not it! I properly… thought of the name Goleenu."

You just looked at a golem and made that up on the spot, oi.

But Goleenu Village, huh. Well, it's not bad. Part of me feels like just going with it, and I like how it plays on "golem" which represents our dungeon and inn… I wonder if golem is golem in this other world's language too? There's even a skill called [Create Golem], so the possibility is high.

"Does it have a meaning?"

"… Something like 'Village of Golems,' I guess."

"That's pretty half-baked. Well, whatever, that works."

"Eh?! M-maybe you should think about it more seriously before deciding?!"

"No, it's a wonderful name that Gozoh spent so long thinking about. There couldn't be anything better… Let's gather the villagers at the tavern and make a grand announcement. Gozoh, you'll explain the name's meaning to everyone."

"Sorry! I just made it up on the spot, give me a break!"

"Hahaha, I figured as much."

Hahaha, Gozoh and I laughed together.

"But we're going with Goleenu. It has a nice ring to it."

"Seriously…"

And so the nameless village became Goleenu Village.

It's a much better name than Gozoh-Roppu-Love-Love Village.

"Speaking of which, it's been snowing. Are the winter stockpiles doing alright?"

"Yeah, we're set on that front. Rather, since you've been letting the village residents use your inn's hot spring for free, we need way fewer firewood and magic stones for heating magic tools. We've got plenty of surplus. There's also a lot of slightly old flour stocked up in the warehouse. The taste isn't quite as good, but there's no problem eating it. Actually, now that trade routes to Tsuia and Pavera are established and this village is being used as a relay point, merchants are passing through even in winter."

In other words, stockpiles are perfect. And even if we ran out in the worst case, we could import. Did he use those hundred gold coins I gave him to develop the roads or something?

With the cave toll coming in too, it's nice that income increases without doing anything. I guess this is the thrill of investing… Oh, and if things go well, I'll get even more gold back, right?

"Gozoh… merchants really are amazing."

"They sure are. But you're something else too, just casually handing over a huge sum like that."

Lately, with the Saintess throwing money around, I've stopped thinking of a hundred gold coins as a lot.

If I get more gold back, maybe I'll try depositing two hundred next time.

 

＊ ＊ ＊

 

A few days later. It seemed like a reply letter had arrived from the Holy Kingdom.

Its contents… were a return order.

"… A return order? I haven't accomplished anything yet!"

"It says they want to hold you accountable… that doesn't sound good."

"Accountable? For what?"

It seemed like the letter Rokuko wrote had also arrived safely.

There was also one addressed to Rokuko.

The contents were a troublesome excuse: "We have no intention of going to war. We deeply regret this. This was not our intended message; the Saintess acted on her own. Please give our regards to the Emperor," along with "We will have the Saintess return." I'm glad they didn't suddenly declare war—I can't take responsibility for that.

"I don't understand. They're summoning me for questioning and telling me to return as soon as possible… They say they can't provide additional funds."

"Guh, then I should have been more frugal with that cake…! But I couldn't resist that temptation! It was a rare item, and they said there were only eight slices left. I have no regrets!"

Yeah, the cake. When I treated her to one slice, she immediately pre-paid eighty gold coins to buy the whole cake at ten gold per slice. Despite being short on money, she didn't hesitate at all. Sweets are terrifying.

Fresh eggs, plenty of high-quality sugar, rich milk, and pure, fine wheat flour. A cake made luxuriously with all of those, plus the [Cook] skill bonus on top. For something served in a small mountain village like this, ten gold coins per slice might actually be cheap.

After buying it, she put it in her own [Storage], so time stops and it won't spoil.

Also, while we can make as many cakes as we want since we can produce unlimited ingredients, we hadn't made a new one, so saying "this is all that's left" wasn't a lie.

"Given that the letter has arrived, even if I stall, three more days is probably my limit…"

"In that case, I have no choice but to at least capture the dungeon and bring back an achievement. I apologize to Village Chief-sama, but getting approval after the fact will have to do. To repay Village Chief-sama for providing such valuable goods, I'll give it my all."

Oi, what's this Saintess saying about getting approval after the fact?

… We're going to have to get serious about defense too.

I left the Saintess monitoring to Rokuko and went to talk to Rin.

Rin was lounging in a room I'd made nice and warm.

"Hey, Rin. You awake? Mind if we talk for a bit?"

"Nn? I'm awake. What is it, Kehma?"

"Actually—"

I told Rin that the troublesome Saintess would be coming for about three more days.

If Rin does its best to defend, that should be enough.

"I'm counting on you, Rin."

"Nn…"

Rin said that while still rolling around lazily. I couldn't sense any motivation from it, but maybe it's in hibernation mode or something?

Hibernation… that sounds nice. I want to hibernate too. Preferably spring-sleep, summer-sleep, and autumn-sleep as well.