Chapter 147
Translator: penny
Chapter: 147
Chapter Title: Refugees - 2
As the chill of winter began to creep in,
Lugeron Village welcomed an unusual number of visitors.
A great many of them.
"Can't you take us in?"
Over thirty women hoped to settle in Lugeron Village to escape Hardron's plundering.
A village chief should normally welcome outsiders eager to make the place their home, but this time the number was far too great.
And strangely enough, they were all women.
"Where are your sons and husbands, abandoning their mothers and wives?"
The chief found this peculiar and posed the question right away. The eldest woman among them let out a deep sigh.
"Our husbands died in the war, and our sons were murdered by bandits."
"Every man in your village met that fate?"
"Oh, no. The ones with families took their loved ones and settled in other villages already."
"Heh heh."
"Please help us. No other village will take us in."
The chief understood their plight from the old woman's words.
Lugeron Village hadn't been their first choice.
They had tried more promising villages first, only to be driven out because they were widows or orphans.
'They came here grasping at straws.'
The chief wanted to shelter these pitiful women, but he couldn't let personal sympathy dictate village policy.
"I'm sorry, but our village can't accommodate so many."
"How can you say such a thing!"
The old woman flew into a rage at the chief's words.
To her, it was no different from telling them to die.
But the chief had no choice either.
Winter preparations were already underway in earnest. He couldn't just add more mouths to feed on a whim.
And Lugeron Village had barely fifty residents.
Only fifteen able-bodied adult men who could truly contribute labor.
Take in more than half the village's population in women?
It wouldn't just strain them through the winter—it might even eat into the seed grain needed for spring planting.
"At least take a few of us."
"Even as concubines, please—just help us."
"That's right! Some of us are still virgins!"
"Haa... Give me a moment to consult the villagers."
Overwhelmed by their desperate frenzy for survival, the chief reluctantly stepped back.
He gathered all the village elders and called a meeting.
Thanks to Sian's expansions, the meeting hall was spacious enough for everyone.
"So, what does everyone think?"
Kan answered as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
"Chase 'em out, naturally. Winter's almost here—why add more mouths?"
"Hold on a second."
Selnia shot Kan a look of utter disbelief.
"You're just going to leave them to die?"
"Then what?"
"We discuss it together. Lives are on the line here."
"Discuss all you want—won't change a thing."
"How would you know?"
Carlson gently pointed out the issues to Selnia, who was glaring daggers.
"Ms. Selnia, food isn't the only worry. Housing to shelter them, fuel for winter heating—those are problems too. And right now, we don't have houses available for thirty people."
"Well..."
"This is exactly why women shouldn't sit in on village meetings."
"What does being a woman have to do with it!"
Selnia lunged at Kan in fury, forcing Carlson and Tom to sweat bullets calming her down.
'Everyone's siding with Kan.'
In the heated tension, Elsia quietly read the room.
'Turning them away is the right call.'
More villagers would be nice, but only if the timing worked. This wasn't just a loss—it could threaten their own livelihoods.
'Unlike last time, no obligation to coddle outsiders.'
As Elsia expected, the group voted to turn away the thirty refugee women.
Even the women agreed.
Taking on concubines would only complicate their own standing at home.
'Poor Selnia.'
Elsia silently pitied the one holdout, Selnia, and was about to voice support on Sian's behalf when an unexpected voice from beside her dissented.
"We should take them in."
"Chloe?"
"We have some leeway now. It might be tough, but pretending not to see them isn't right."
Elsia showed genuine fluster—something rare outside of Sian—for the first time.
"Haa, this girl's not getting it either."
Kan heaved heavy sighs at Chloe's words. Tom, irked by the sight, cut in.
"Kan, shut it."
"Tom?"
"I said shut it. Or should I grab my hammer and make you?"
"....."
Kan was stunned by Tom's sudden threat.
But Tom wasn't the only one.
"Mr. Kan, watch your tongue around my wife."
Carlson went so far as to draw his sword in warning.
"W-Why are you all coming at me like this?"
"Kan, step outside. That's an order."
"?!?"
With even the chief joining in, everyone felt the shift in mood.
These three shared something in common.
Besides their closeness to Sian, they weren't like the other villagers—content frogs in a well, ignorant of the wider world.
Tom had grown up as a blacksmith, exposed to noble authority from childhood. Carlson had seen noble cruelty firsthand on his adventures. The chief knew of noble power through his friend Ian.
And Sian was a noble titleholder-in-waiting. Chloe was his wife.
Lugeron's backward isolation meant villagers rarely encountered nobles and thus underestimated them, but nobles could kill on a whim without consequence.
Sian didn't flaunt authority, so it didn't show, but even Tom minded his words around him.
Especially when it came to family—his ultimate reverse scale.
All the more so for his most beloved woman.
"Chloe... you sure about this?"
"Ms. Elsia, do you think I misspoke?"
"No, but..."
Elsia fidgeted awkwardly before Chloe.
It was the gulf between concubine and proper wife.
Elsia couldn't speak for Sian, but Chloe could.
It was a privilege unique to her, his first love.
"My husband is the champion of Hestia, goddess of love and hearth—a duke of the Holy Kingdom, founded by the nymphs who serve as the gods' proxies."
Having studied wifely decorum under Hellia, Chloe asserted her view with fitting poise.
"If we don't help them, who would look at my husband and see Hestia's champion?"
"I get what you're saying. But as you know, it could bring hardship on us."
"We've had far more hard days than easy ones. Now we've got some breathing room—but Lugeron Village stands today because of my husband's devotion. If we turn away women suffering like we once did, won't he be disappointed in us?"
The chief inwardly marveled at Chloe's transformation—from simple country girl just a year ago.
'Blood will tell. She's more her grandfather than her father.'
True nobles, acknowledged by the gods themselves, pass on their lineage even in ruin.
Recalling Ian—Sian's noble father—the chief cautiously endorsed Chloe's stance while adding his own caveat.
"We'll do as madam suggests. But only to the extent we can manage."
"Of course. I'll speak to my husband myself."
"Thank you for your understanding."
The villagers were baffled by the chief treating Chloe as superior, but the quick-witted ones began piecing together the implications.
...
"That's what happened."
I was left dumbfounded by Elsia's report.
"Haa... I'm not that saintly a guy."
The "champion" title was something the Holy Kingdom had foisted on him.
He was worlds apart from the noble, self-sacrificing type like his father.
Just a selfish bastard who cared only for his family and his own well-being.
'Though I'd help folks in a bind if I came across them.'
Not the sort to go out of his way seeking them like some great hero.
"Dissatisfied with Chloe's independent decision?"
Elsia probed cautiously as I sighed.
"Nah."
I had no intention of helping them personally, but as lord, aiding others was part of the job.
'Might as well use this to boost our numbers.'
Lugeron Village had always suffered from chronic depopulation.
Its notorious reputation scared off potential settlers.
Monsters everywhere, lousy soil, hardly any people.
As a fief, it was dogshit.
No room for being choosy in a place like this.
'All women does give me pause, though.'
Later, once my fame grew, wandering knights like Gregor would come seeking vassalage. I could marry them off then.