The Welcome (2)
If this had been a game, that last incident would’ve triggered a game over, letting him pick a new character on a fresh map. But life only ever felt this brutally realistic when it really counted.
What the hell… did I just pass out?
Patrick’s consciousness returned in fragments. He tried to open his eyes, but his eyelids felt like they weighed a ton. His body refused to move. Fortunately, while his eyes had gone on strike, his ears were still working overtime.
Who’s that?
Voices drifted around him. He focused, and the muffled sounds gradually sharpened.
“…Aren’t wizards supposed to be smart and all?”
“If you’ve only lived on the mainland, you might not know. Still, it’s lucky we found him so quickly.”
“Even so, who eats raw whelk without removing the salivary glands?”
“Maybe someone who doesn’t usually eat seafood would do that. Heh.”
“Looks like the innards were cleaned out, though.”
“He must’ve only half-understood what he was doing.”
“If he didn’t know, he should’ve asked! Goodness, he ate so much. Four of those big ones? It’s a miracle he didn’t get paralyzed.”
“He was probably too tired from the long journey to think straight.”
The first voice belonged to a middle-aged man, the second to an elderly woman.
“There’s so much we’ll have to teach him. Tsk tsk. If he was hungry, he should’ve come down to the village instead of wandering around eating whatever he found.”
“It seems the soldiers didn’t explain things properly.”
“Those fellows never do things right.”
The old woman clicked her tongue, but even through his immobility, Patrick didn’t find the sound unpleasant. Beneath the scolding, he could sense genuine concern for the young man’s hardship.
“Anyway, he took the medicine, so he should wake up soon. Bring him by sometime. I’ll cook him a proper meal.”
“Yes, I will. You go on ahead. I’ll stay a little longer and keep an eye on him.”
“All right, then. You’re working hard, Chief. Oh my, this door needs fixing too. It won’t even open properly!”
After grumbling about the creaky gate, the old woman’s slow footsteps faded away. At the same time, Patrick felt strength gradually returning to his limbs.
“Ugh…”
“Feeling a bit better, Mr. Wizard?”
After blinking a few times, a kind-faced man waved his palm in front of Patrick’s face.
“Whelk…”
“Your ears came back first, I see. That’s right, whelk. You ate them whole?”
“Yes…”
“You didn’t know the salivary gland sits right in the middle of the meat, did you?”
“Ah, I thought you only had to remove the innards.”
“Haha. Some things you only learn by going through them yourself. Here, water.”
“Thank you.”
Patrick, now a little more alert, noticed the pills beside him and offered his thanks.
“Thank you. I’ve already received help on my very first day.”
“We all help each other around here. The soldiers were supposed to hand you over to me, but they must’ve had something urgent and just left. When I heard the boat had departed, I rushed over and found you collapsed.”
“Ah… I was so hungry I could only think about finding something to eat…”
The image of the soldiers, their minds clearly set on drinking, flashed through Patrick’s mind. Feeling awkward, he scratched the back of his head. The village chief chuckled warmly.
“I heard you’re the village chief.”
“That’s right. I’m the chief of this island. It’s a tiny place with only a few households, so we take turns every few years. Feel free to speak casually. Ah, you’ve taken the medicine, so you should be fine now, but just in case, don’t push yourself for a few days.”
“Understood.”
“I left a sack of wheat and a sack of potatoes in the kitchen. Use them for now. We’re not exactly well-off ourselves, so we can’t provide more support, but if you have questions about farming or fishing, just ask. Come down to the village often.”
“Is that really all right?”
“Why wouldn’t it be?”
“Well, technically I’m a criminal…”
At Patrick’s dejected words, the chief silently patted his shoulder.
“From what I heard, you got caught up in some mess caused by important people?”
“……”
“That’s just how life goes sometimes. You can use the field behind the house as much as you like.”
“Thank you. How much should I pay for the lease, then?”
“Lease? Nonsense. It’s ownerless land anyway. Just use it. I’ll be going now. You must be exhausted from the long journey, so rest well! Ah, don’t come out!”
With another dramatic display from the gate, the chief also disappeared.
Things escalated so quickly.
Going to the beach to catch whelk felt like it had happened days ago. What a chaotic day.
I should’ve met the chief sooner.
Those damned soldiers. If you’re bringing an exile, you should at least do a proper handover. If they’d done their job right, he would’ve already received the sacks of potatoes and wheat, made some potato pancakes, and spent his first night peacefully.
At least the people here don’t seem to have any territorial attitudes.
His complaints were short-lived. Patrick began thinking positively. He hadn’t properly prepared for rural life, but the YouTube algorithm had known exactly what he was interested in. He’d watched plenty of videos from people who’d moved to the countryside.
The hardest part is always dealing with the neighbors.
The rural areas featured in those videos always seemed to be full of content goldmines—villains of every kind that you’d never encounter in the city. People demanding water fees, blocking roads so you couldn’t even enter your own house, casually walking into your home like privacy didn’t exist and rummaging through your belongings. A strange mix of wariness and inexplicable inferiority complexes toward city transplants turned every day into a spectacle.
But after talking with the chief, it seemed he wouldn’t have to worry about that here.
Tomorrow, I should check out that field behind the house.
Whether fainting counted as sleep or not, his eyelids grew unbearably heavy. And so, Patrick’s first day finally came to an end.
***
“Ugh!”
His eyes snapped open. The pouring sunlight played a part, but the bigger reason was a shift in his mindset. In his previous life, he would’ve muttered “five more minutes” several times, but the strange anticipation of seeing his own field made getting up effortless.
I guess I was more Neolithic than Paleolithic after all. Forget foraging—what’s the point? Let’s jump straight into an agricultural society!
The weather would warm up soon. He could ask the kind chief for some seedlings, plant a bit of the wheat from the sack he’d received, and try planting the potatoes that were already starting to sprout.
For this year, let’s not be too ambitious. The goal should be to plant a variety of things and see what grows well.
Creak! He pushed open the gate and followed the wall around. Since no one had lived in the house for a long time, the surrounding paths hadn’t been maintained. He had no choice but to push through weeds that reached up to his knees.
“That’s strange. He said it was right behind the house…”
But no matter how hard he looked behind the house, there was no sign of the field the chief had mentioned.
“He didn’t seem like the type to joke about something like this. Maybe ‘behind’ means a bit farther away?”
Just as he was starting to wish for a navigation system—
“Ah… No way…”
Patrick’s face crumpled. The soil in the weed-covered area where he stood looked subtly different from the soil along the path. The weeds grew the same, but there were fewer large rocks, and the ground was vaguely flat.
“This is supposed to be a field?”
Unable to accept reality, Patrick plopped down on the ground and sniffled.
“Mister, are you really a wizard?”
“Whoa!”
A child’s head suddenly popped out from between the weeds. Startled, Patrick toppled backward, and the kid burst into laughter, rolling on the ground.
“Y-you, what—what are you?”
“Me? I’m Ben. Hello!”
“Oh, uh, nice to meet you… Wait, no—what are you doing here?”
“I heard a wizard came, so I came to take a look.”
The friendly little boy approached with sparkling, mischievous eyes.
“Can’t you show me some magic?”
“Go away. I’m not in the mood to play.”
“Why aren’t you in the mood?”
“Look at me. Do I look like I want to play?”
“What do you look like?”
“Pathetic.”
“Why are you pathetic?”
Ah, so this was what a question-mark murderer was. Should he keep answering or not? After a brief moment of deliberation, Patrick decided to treat the kid like an NPC.
“Look, look. I was happy just getting a field to grow a small garden, but does this look like a field to you?”
“Isn’t it a field?”
“It is a field. A weed field, that’s the problem.”
“Why is that a problem?”
But the boy’s reply only made Patrick’s irritation flare.
“Why is it a problem? Can’t you tell just by looking? I have to grow crops on this land to survive, and it’s already a complete mess from the start. How could I be happy receiving useless land like this and being told it’s a field?”
“Want me to help?”
“……What?”
Then the boy grinned as if it were nothing.
“I’ll help. Pulling weeds together will be faster, right?”
“……”
For a moment, Patrick forgot what he was going to say. Then shame washed over him.
What am I saying to a child?
No matter how different the situation was from what he’d expected, the kid hadn’t done anything wrong.
This is pathetic.
And to top it off, he was being comforted by the very child he’d snapped at.
“But can’t you use magic for this kind of thing?”
“Huh?”
“You’re a wizard, aren’t you?”
“I am……”
“Isn’t there magic for times like this?”
That’s right. He was a wizard, wasn’t he?