I'm the Knight of This Town
It was only natural for an apostle to rejoice when their believers diligently practiced their faith. The Unnamed Goddess's divine power was growing by the day, and thanks to that, Yohan, who borrowed her authority, grew stronger with each passing moment. Now, he could easily handle opponents like the Big Boss or the man-eating Troll Chief, whom he had previously risked his life to fight. In fact, hadn't he decisively eliminated the high-level devil he had missed last time in Patermachi? The devil in the guise of an old man—since the day they would clash again was bound to come, it was best to become as strong as possible in the meantime.
Yes. Either way, it was a good thing. Or so Yohan thought.
But... there was one problem. A very minor, cute little problem. The passion of the residents of the Nameless Village was at a level that would make even the fanatics of the Holy Kingdom take a step back. Well, to be fair, ninety percent of the residents were actually from Easthold in the Holy Kingdom.
"Ugh..." It seemed sleeping in was out of the question today. From early morning, a bustling clamor drifted in through the window.
"Sigh. I need to whip up some earplugs or something." Grumbling, he dragged himself out of bed, opened a dimensional portal, and stepped into the bathroom of his single-room pocket dimension to wash his face.
Not long ago, Yohan had been formally knighted by the Lord of Balifield, finally becoming the rightful ruler of the Nameless Village. The fifty or so new residents who had arrived in the village were adjusting without much trouble, aside from being pestered by their slightly too-cheerful neighbors.
Having some breathing room, he had spent his free time traveling across the continent, hunting down wanted criminals for bounties while scattering those damn promotional flyers to recruit new believers. After running around like a madman for several days, he had planned to quietly rest at home today, but...
Waaaah!
"Dammit." What on earth were they doing to make such a roaring racket first thing in the morning? Yohan threw on some clothes and marched toward the front door.
"Hey! What's all this racket in front of someone's house at the crack of—"
"Listen up, you lot! This bread is made from wheat blessed by the Goddess herself! If you leave even a single crumb behind, I'll crack your skulls open!"
"Whoaaa! It's real bread!"
He swallowed the rest of his words. For some inexplicable reason, dozens of villagers were gathered in the plaza near Yohan's house.
Standing right in the center of the crowd was his pointy-eared friend, who would actually make him feel uneasy if she didn't do something bizarre. Falco was shouting at the top of her lungs, holding a basket filled with steaming hot bread.
Recently, she had consulted Billy and installed an oven, making him think she had just obsessed over some new food again. It turned out she had actually succeeded in baking bread in the village. And it wasn't just any bread. With the help of a baker from Easthold, it looked like something you would actually buy from a proper bakery.
"..." Honestly... the aroma of freshly baked bread tickling his nose made his stomach rumble.
"Ah, Yohan! You're awake."
"Yeah, I'm awake." Spotting Yohan, Falco finished handing out the bread to the villagers and walked straight over to him.
"Smells great, right? Try some." She split a loaf of bread she had saved in her basket in half and handed the larger piece to Yohan.
"It really is... delicious. Maybe because I'm eating it on an empty stomach." He couldn't even bring himself to be angry anymore. Yohan plonked himself down on the grass nearby and munched on the bread.
"By the way, you must really have nothing to do. If you're that bored, you should come with me next time I go bounty hunting."
"That sounds nice, but our top priority is developing the village." Falco stuffed the last piece into her mouth and mumbled, "We're building a brewery and a blacksmith, so there's no rule saying we can't have a bakery."
"Hmm." Falco's argument made sense. Above all, running a village required money. And no matter how strong he was, there would be no bounties if there were no criminals left to hunt. That was likely why Falco was developing products other than alcohol to boost the village's finances. Besides, being self-sufficient meant reducing expenses. What a good girl. He cast a warm, gentle gaze at Falco.
"Yo—Yohan...?" Noticing his gaze, she stammered, looking flustered.
"Thanks. You're working hard in your own way to help out." Perhaps because such a sincere compliment had come from Yohan—whose vocabulary usually consisted mostly of profanity—Falco's eyes widened in shock. Ultimately, unable to overcome her embarrassment, her pointed elven ears flushed bright red.
"I—I mean..." She clearly had something to say but couldn't bring herself to utter the words. Frustrated by her own hesitation, she nervously twirled a strand of her hair around her finger. "R—Right. Next time, I should try putting some meat between the bread." After a brief pause, Falco suddenly sprang to her feet and hurried away.
"..." Yohan watched her retreating figure with a seemingly tender expression, only to suddenly let out a sly chuckle. "She really is weak to compliments."
"Shut up." In any case, he had successfully driven away the main culprit behind the morning disturbance. The villagers, having finished sharing the bread from the basket, quickly dispersed, leaving the area as quiet as usual. Of course, the sounds of people moving about could still be heard in the distance, but that level of noise was perfectly normal and didn't bother him at all.
"Hmm..." So, what should he do today? Brushing off the breadcrumbs, Yohan sprawled out on the grass and stared blankly up at the sky.
Lately, the members of the Goddess Knights rarely gathered due to their respective duties. Annie had taken office as the captain of the village guard, and she spent her busy days personally training the guards. Billy was spending more time with the engineers from the Holy Kingdom; rumor had it that he planned to pave the entire village and replace all the log cabins with sturdy brick houses. As for Charles... when they last met, he was already swamped with work from expanding his shop.
"Alright. Decided." After deep deliberation, Yohan chose his goal for the day.
"Let's go pick a fight with Wilhelm."
Wilhelm, the former sheriff of Junk Town, could be found at a construction site quite far from the center of the village.
"Hey, Mr. Wil. How's the manual labor treating you?"
"If you came here first thing in the morning just to pick a fight, shut your mouth and help out." As Yohan greeted him with a smirk, Wilhelm paused his work and snorted.
Wilhelm was drenched in sweat, having been working since early morning. With a rag wrapped around his neck like a scarf, he looked exactly like a seasoned construction worker.
"Honestly, I wondered if you'd adapt well, but seeing your face, I guess I had nothing to worry about." Wilhelm wiped the sweat from his forehead with the rag and shrugged. "At least in this village, there aren't daily commotions about someone stealing something or breaking someone else's leg."
Deciding to take a quick break, he plonked himself down right on the dirt ground. Yohan took a seat beside him and looked around.
The sounds of hammers driving nails into wooden planks and saws cutting through timber echoed across the site. Seeing several identical house foundations laid out, it seemed they were building homes for the new residents.
Wooden stakes were driven in according to precise measurements, and bricks and mortar were being stacked neatly to build brick houses. Once completed, they would look quite impressive. Yohan briefly imagined dozens of brick houses lined up along the paved road.
As he exchanged brief conversation with Wilhelm, it wasn't long before the villagers recognized Yohan and approached to greet him. The construction site was filled not only with the newcomers but also with many existing residents, all of whom had volunteered to help build the new homes.
"Oh, the Apostle is here. Good morning, sir!"
"Hey, watch your mouth. He's been formally knighted now, so you should call him Sir Knight."
Honestly, in terms of prestige, "Apostle" was far more noble. The lackey of a mere lord versus the lackey of a divine deity. Even though both were technically someone's underlings, they were on completely different levels.
"Yeah, good to see you. Everyone's diligent this morning."
"Well, we've got fifty new believers now. Shouldn't we build them each a house so they can fully settle down in the village?" one of the villagers replied jokingly to Yohan's greeting.
These people were now openly using the term "believers" instead of just "residents." Changing just that one word completely altered the nuance of their speech.
"Alright, then I should lend a hand too." Yohan immediately grabbed some tools and joined the work. Just by looking at the partially built structures, he could easily tell what needed to be done, and the sweating workers all welcomed him warmly.
In truth, when they first started the village expansion project, everyone had been clumsy. Consequently, despite having a decent blueprint, the actual work had been a series of endless trial and error. Now, however, everyone had grown so accustomed to it that they could easily rival professional carpenters.
On top of that, perhaps because the overall physical abilities of the villagers had improved ever since a few believers of the Goddess Church unlocked Miracle Arts, every single person now seemed like an elite worker on the construction site. Thanks to this, the progress of the construction was unbelievably fast, especially considering it was done entirely by hand without any heavy machinery.
Yohan immersed himself in the work without a break until around lunchtime. By then, the bread he had received from Falco had fully digested, and he was starting to feel reasonably hungry.
"Alright. Let's go grab some food."
"We can eat at the lodging for the new residents."
"Since we're at it, why not eat at my place? I've got some liquor I bought from the Royal Capital."
It wasn't some easily made fruit wine. It was a distilled liquor that was difficult to brew and had a high alcohol content to match.
"That sounds good." The two immediately left the construction site and headed toward Yohan's house.
"By the way, didn't you say you invited an acquaintance living in Balifield to settle in the village?" On the way home, Wilhelm asked, and Yohan nodded lightly.
"Yeah. A guy named Henry. He used to run a small shop in the Undercity, and we somehow became close."
"Then you must have told him to convert to the Goddess Church as well."
"I did. But I got rejected. He said joining a religion is something that requires careful thought."
"He's right. Insincere faith only ends up eating away at the believer's own heart." Agreeing with Wilhelm's words, Yohan nodded again.
"But... I bet his non-existent faith will start sprouting like crazy soon. He decided to open a branch of his shop in our village this time."
The Nameless Village was a place that didn't just self-suffice; it had an abundance of surplus goods. This surplus was either paid as taxes to the Lord of Balifield or sold in the market, but even when the villagers amassed cash, there was nowhere in the village to actually spend it. A few street stalls gathered around the plaza were the extent of it.
But if Henry's general store entered the village, the story would change. Henry had grown into a well-known merchant in Balifield, and thanks to that, the variety of goods he could bring into the village was substantial.
"As you know, old man, even if the folks in this village have fat wallets right now, they have nowhere to empty them."
"I see. You mean he'll lose his mind after seeing the sales figures and start seeking the Goddess." As Wilhelm spoke sarcastically, Yohan snickered. And that wasn't all. He could already clearly see the future where the villagers would tell Henry, 'Since we're buying so much from you, why don't you listen to what our Goddess has to say?'