The North Welcomes Labor (2)
Meow-.
Meow-.
If any human who considered themselves a 21st-century butler had seen this, their eyes would have turned into hearts, and they would have been jumping for joy at the sight of the most adorable balls of fur in the world.
However, the beasts and monsters nearby trembled at the sound of the fur-balls' cries and hurried their feet to get as far away from the thicket as possible.
There was a power in the cries of these fur-balls that made weak creatures tremble with fear.
Something between the low-frequency sound of a predator and the Fear of a monster.
Meow!
The spotted one, having urged on the yellow cat that was taking a lazy nap on a rock, leaped high into the air and performed a somersault.
Lightly.
By the time its feet touched the ground, its body had already changed.
A human with sharp, slit-like, jewel-like eyes. No, could you call them human when two ears were still twitching on top of their head and a tail was still swaying behind them?
Meow!
Meow!
Meow!
Dozens of cats nearby performed somersaults as if they had been waiting, and they all transformed into human forms with ears and tails.
There was only one individual who hadn't changed into a form close to a human.
- Yaaawn-!
It was the yellow cat, their leader.
"Get ready! The spider hunt starts now."
- Can't we just go as we are? It's a hassle.
"Hiss!"
- Threatening people in that form just looks weird.
The lazy yellow cat let out a sigh of resignation—phew—and then performed a somersault.
Lightly.
And what it transformed into was not a human form.
- Meoooow!
A creature the size of a calf.
A cat?
"Wow, here comes another one!"
"Which village is it?"
"Let's see-, the flag on that cart is... Ah, it's Heliath!"
"Heliath? Where's that?"
"You know, the village by the lake where you can see the aurora well."
"Ah, they decided to name that place Heliath?"
"That's what they say."
"That's a good name."
"We should have named the villages sooner. It's so convenient."
"That's for sure. Are they one of the favorites to win, too?"
"Yeah. They say once the kids in that village turn fifteen, they can take down a wolf or two easily, regardless of gender."
"Whoa."
Around the open field where the hunting competition headquarters was set up, spectators were cheering and chatting, looking toward the hunters of a village returning from afar.
"It was a good idea to give each village a name."
"We need it to distinguish them."
"It seems like this competition has also increased the sense of belonging among the villages."
"It seems like their understanding of each other has deepened a bit, too, right?"
Aiden and Kalisa were very satisfied as they watched the people chatting.
The original purpose of starting the hunting competition was to encourage healthy leisure activities without alcohol, but the secondary benefits were greater than expected.
'Each village has established a martial training system centered around the athletes, and a sense of community has emerged. It seems a sense of homogeneity has sprouted, as they realize other villages are also members of the North participating in the same competition.'
Clatter, clatter, thud!
While he was lost in thought, the hunters from Heliath village finally arrived at the measurement tent.
"We are submitting our hunting results!"
"We will verify them!"
A whopping five cartloads of monster carcasses. As the low-level officials and workers at the measurement tent began to unload the carcasses from the carts one by one and line them up on the ground, gasps erupted from all sides.
"That's crazy, those are Giant Rats! Ugh, look at those teeth!"
"There's a Snow Wolf, too. Its claws look like awls."
The merchants also gulped down their saliva.
'Harpy wing feathers...! I heard they are incredibly trendy as quill decorations for the nobles. We must get those!'
'Huh? That's a Steel Mole! I definitely heard the Viscount in the South saying he wanted one without any scratches to make a taxidermy...'
The merchants were busy calculating in their heads.
"How much do you think it's worth?"
"I think it's three times more than we expected."
"Are you sure?"
"Of course. Monster carcasses were our main trade in the past, too. By the way, it really is impressive."
Kalisa let out a dry laugh.
"Even during the trade at the beginning of this spring, there had never been a trade of this scale."
"Well, that's obvious."
Aiden responded to his adjutant's admiration as if she were stating the obvious.
"Isn't it stranger if the result of an individual hunting alone as a side job near their house is the same as picking the ten best hunters from each village and having them move as a group in a place crawling with monsters?"
No matter how excellent an individual's ability is, it cannot compare to moving with a common goal in a place where the stage is properly set.
'If this goes well, it could make quite a bit of money.'
Aiden's heart felt at ease.
The tax rate on the sales of monster byproducts caught in the hunt is 20 percent. Considering that the tax rate for individual transactions is usually 35 percent, it is a significantly lowered amount, but since the quantity is so large, the Lord's Castle has nothing to lose.
"Should we raise the tax rate by another 5 percent from the next competition?"
Kalisa, who was a merchant, pointed this out immediately, but—
"There's no need for that."
Aiden shook his head.
"I don't know for sure, but there will be festivals in each village. The village that achieved good results will have a festival for that, and won't the village that didn't do well be happy because they brought in a lot of money?"
"That will certainly be the case."
"Since they will have more money in their hands with a lower tax rate than usual, if festivals or similar events are held with a happy heart, eventually all the residents of each village will receive the trickle-down effect. So, I won't raise the tax rate. Just tell the village chiefs to coordinate well so that there are no disputes over the distribution of the sales proceeds."
"As you command."
The sun was about to set.
"Is Team Lord's Castle the only one that hasn't returned yet?"
"Definitely!"
"I wonder how they'll do..."
"They're one of the strongest favorites to win, aren't they?"
"Of course, they have Brikal, who catches bears like he's catching foxes!"
Now only one team remained. Team Lord's Castle.
"Here they come!"
And finally, they returned. 'Team Lord's Castle', returning majestically with long shadows against the reddening sky.
Thud-!
"It's five carts!"
"It's the same as Heliath village!"
"Then do we have to check the individuals? The team that caught the ones with higher points wins, right?"
"This, I can't know the result until the end."
The spectators were saying one thing after another, but—
"Then we'll be back, Administrative Officer!"
"Huh?"
Jamie, who was pulling one of the carts at the front, smiled brightly and ran back toward the mountain range with an empty cart.
"I'll be back too!"
"Me too!"
"I'll be back soon."
"?"
The manager of the measurement station, as well as the spectators, were all left blankly watching 'Team Lord's Castle' disappear.
"What was that just now?"
"...Who knows?"
Brikal, the chef who was left alone, scratched the back of his head awkwardly and replied.
"We tried to bring only the ones with the highest points, but we ran out of carts. Haha."
"......"
There was no need to look at the winner of the competition.
Sizzle-.
Gulp.
"You're drooling, wipe it off."
"Ah, yes! Hehe."
Dozens of bonfires were lit in the open field where the competition headquarters had been.
Pigs, sheep, chickens, and ducks were generously placed over the bonfires.
As the meat fat dripped, people's mouths watered, and it was a dinner table that made mouths water even more because it was all free.
"You were very generous. Hehe."
"Look at how much tax we collected this time. We have to do at least this much."
The meat was all provided by the Lord's Castle. It was originally for the hunters, but thanks to preparing such a large amount, there was enough for the spectators, merchants, and nearby villagers to go around.
'It's the first competition, but we have to do this much so it will be a success next time.'
Aiden thought about preparing seats for spectators and receiving one admission ticket each from the second competition onwards.
It would be fine to increase the number of merchants a bit more.
'Should I call not only merchants who buy monster carcasses but also various workshop brokers?'
If workshop brokers who sell various farm tools and hunting supplies to hunters who have made a lot of money offer high-quality goods that are usually hard to see in the North,
'If it goes well, it could be a double-tax event.'
Once tax when selling hunting results. Once tax again when they go shopping with the proceeds.
Aiden's mouth began to twitch just at the thought.
'If the tax is doubled, the businesses I can do are also doubled...!'
Wouldn't the work he could do double, no, quadruple?
Shudder-.
Aiden shuddered at the dizzying ecstasy.
- Are you cold, meow?
It was then.
"?"
When he looked to the side at the strange resonance, he saw a strange yellow cat skillfully tearing into one of the lamb chops that should have been in front of him.
"A cat? You shouldn't eat this. It's salted."
Aiden thought the strange resonance he had just heard was a mishearing of the wind, and reached out to clear the lamb chop the cat was eating.
"I'll give you one without salt. Wait."
Normally, that would be impossible. There was no way there would be lamb to share with a stray cat when there wasn't enough meat for people to eat.
But tonight was a night he didn't want to be that stingy.
- I like salty things, meow.
"Whoa!"
Aiden, who was cutting the unsalted meat into small pieces, fell backward as if having a seizure.
It wasn't an auditory hallucination.
- If I catch the ones with green blood, will you trade them for meat? I caught a lot of those, too! Trade them for this meat, meow. I liked it, meow.
Clang, clang, clang-!
Dozens of hunters reflexively pointed their weapons at the tiny yellow cat that was leisurely wiping the lamb fat off its fur.
Everyone was surprised, but it was an instinctive movement to prepare for danger.
- Humans here are definitely different from humans in warm places, meow.
"A, a talking cat!"
"It's a monster invasion! It's one with reason!"
- Is this mine? I'll eat it well, meow!
Dozens of sharpened blades were pointed at it, but the cat was eating the lamb chop nonchalantly.
Its expression looked very satisfied.
"Administrative Officer!"
Jamie, who had approached his side, urged him to give an order.
"Taking the form of an animal and speaking human language means one of two things. Either it's a monster that has evolved enough to have reason, or it's a beast that has swallowed a spiritual herb! It doesn't change the fact that we have to kill both, but-."
"This is why humans are..."
A voice that sounded like a feline predator growling low was heard from behind.
"Their knowledge is shallow and their actions seem even lighter than that."
It was a human with two cat ears sticking up sharply on top of their head.
...Are they not human?
- Still, the meat was grilled well, meow!
"Hiss! Is this the time to be talking about meat?"
A hair-trigger situation.
And Aiden finished his thought.
A cat that speaks human language.
And if a person with cat tails and ears appears at the same time, the answer is one, right?
"Cat-folk?"
There are monsters, so why wouldn't there be beast-folk?
Aiden was confident that he wouldn't be particularly surprised no matter what came out in this damn fantasy world.
"If it's Cat-folk... Gasp! B, b, beast-folk?"
"My god, they say beast-folk, beast-folk!"
But absurdly, the residents of this fantasy world were making a huge fuss.
They were the ones who were pointing blades just a moment ago, but now they were burying their heads and trembling, or falling on their butts in unsightly positions.
'Why are they like that?'
Humans who were giggling while looking at a lion-headed, eagle-bodied monster with five eyes just a moment ago—is it worth acting like that just because of some beast-folk?
'Anyway, this neighborhood. I can't understand it.'
Anyway, there was only one thing Aiden needed to confirm.
"How many people are in the tribe in total?"
- Our tribe? Thirty-one!
At the yellow cat's words, he heard a fuss like, "There are over thirty! Beast-folk are thirty... thirty!", but he ignored it for now.
Because that wasn't what was important.
"There are over thirty members in the village, but if they aren't registered in the family register, there are many problems."
Beast-folk or whatever.
If they have reason, huh? They have to register their population, right?