Popcorn's Failed Mission
Popcorn had failed his mission.
The house the spirit brought back was a rickety thing woven together from thin twigs.
It was crude, but it still had a roof, walls, and even windows.
“Hehe, Spirit, what is this? Is this your house?”
When Marguerite asked, the spirit let out a sorrowful pipi and flew over to her.
Once it drew close, it reached out and plucked several leaves that had been hanging over the entrance of the twig house.
Apparently those had been the door.
“Pipi! Pipipi!”
The spirit proudly puffed out its chest.
It must have wanted to show off the house.
“It’s a very pretty house.”
She swallowed the words a little crude before they could leave her lips.
When Marguerite smiled, the spirit brought the twig house right up to her face.
“Pipi pipipi!”
It looked like such a struggle to carry that Marguerite reached out and helped support the little structure.
“Pipit!”
The spirit wiped its forehead as if exhausted.
Did spirits even sweat?
While she was still wondering about that, the spirit kept pushing the twig house toward her.
It was about to bump into her face.
Startled, Marguerite stepped back, and the spirit tilted its head in confusion.
“Pi?”
“Ah!”
She finally understood what the spirit was trying to do.
It wanted to put her inside the tiny house.
Just like the time with the plate.
“This is too small for a person to fit inside.”
At those words the spirit tilted its head again, then set the house down on the ground.
It flew over and grabbed her finger.
The spirit dragged her finger all the way to the little house.
When Marguerite crouched down in front of it, the spirit strained and lifted the house again, flying up once more.
It pressed the house against her face.
“Pipi?”
When it failed to shove her face inside, the spirit tilted its head again.
It seemed to think it simply wasn’t strong enough.
When it tried to force her in anyway, the twig house instantly fell apart and scattered.
It had looked reasonably well-made, but in truth the branches had only been lightly stuck together.
“Pi!”
The spirit let out a single wail and flopped face-first onto the ground.
The sorrow in its cry was on a completely different level from before.
“I’m sorry. I’m just too big.”
If she had been as small as the spirit, she could have gone inside the house and traveled with it.
Thinking how regrettable that was, Marguerite gently stroked the spirit.
“I really am sorry, Spirit.”
She could go if she wanted to.
She had two perfectly good legs; the spirit didn’t have to carry her.
If she could, she would throw everything away and follow the spirit anywhere.
But she couldn’t.
She simply could not do that.
If Marguerite ran away, the blame and punishment would fall on her real family.
“I can’t go with you… but still… the fact that you’re trying to take me away from this place makes me so happy. Just knowing you would do that for me makes me feel like I could fly far, far away, completely free.”
“…Pi… pipi… pii….”
Marguerite leaned down toward the still-crying spirit’s tiny body.
She brought her lips close and gave it the lightest kiss, then smiled with her whole face.
“Thanks to you, I’m truly happy. I haven’t felt this joyful since I came to the marquis’s estate. If I could have one wish… please stay by my side until the very last moment of my life.”
Then she felt she could accept anything with a smile.
The spirit shot upright and spun in a circle.
It thrust its little fist high into the air.
“Pipipi!”
It shouted as if declaring it would never give up, then flew out the window, leaving the ruins of the twig house behind.
As she watched the spirit soar into the sky, Marguerite suddenly thought of the World Tree sprout.
The news that a sprout had appeared on the dead World Tree had spread throughout the entire kingdom.
Perhaps this spirit had been born from that sprout at the time.
Now that I think about it, that’s strange.
After the news of the sprout broke, there had been many requests from both inside the kingdom and abroad to visit.
Because the World Tree was located in their kingdom, anyone wishing to make a pilgrimage needed the High Priest’s permission.
The High Priest followed the king’s will, so she had assumed he would use this opportunity to gain diplomatic advantages before granting approval.
Yet she had heard nothing about any pilgrimages being permitted.
It seemed some were even beginning to suspect that the appearance of the sprout had been nothing more than a fabricated spectacle to glorify the Saintess’s arrival.
Whenever she visited the palace, she occasionally caught such whispers.
Perhaps it was because everyone was terrified of what the king was planning.
Suddenly, everything concerning the World Tree felt ominous.
What on earth was happening?
The sprout on the World Tree definitely appeared. That much is true.
They could not have announced something like that as a lie.
No matter how full of schemes and intrigue the palace was, they would never dare speak falsely about the World Tree.
It would be exposed immediately.
“….”
For some reason, she felt as if a cold wind were blowing through her heart.
It was frightening.
She was truly terrified of whatever was unfolding.
Spirit.
Please stay by my side.
Don’t leave me until that time comes.
I beg you.
When they said the brides had arrived, I thought there would be dozens of them. At the very least, ten.
But the peddler had only brought two.
Besides the cargo wagon I had seen last time, there was one more large cart. The women were sitting among what looked like goods purchased from other villages.
The journey must have been rough.
Both brides looked utterly terrified.
When they saw us, they let out tiny shrieks and quickly bowed their heads. Their movements were so fast I couldn’t even get a proper look at their faces.
It was probably because the men were making such a ruckus, whistling and shouting.
Wanting to look good in front of the women, the men’s voices had grown at least twice as loud as usual.
They had puffed up their shoulders so much it looked like they had stuffed rocks inside their shirts.
“Quiet down. You’re scaring the brides.”
When I shouted, each of the men had something to say.
“The chief’s voice is three times louder than usual.”
“Your shoulders look like bird wings, Chief.”
“Trying to show off in front of the ladies, huh?”
No, it was only because your voices were so loud that mine got louder too.
And the reason my shoulders look raised is just your mistaken assumption that I’m your rival.
I was laughing in disbelief when Ji-geu came running forward.
“Hello, brides! I’m Ji-geu. My dad doesn’t have a bride yet.”
Ji-geu pressed right up against the cart and looked up at the women’s faces from below.
“My dad is really, really strong. He’s the best at farming in the whole village, and I picked out our field myself so it’s super good land. We’re going to be rich. If you come to our house, you can eat tons and tons of food.”
While all the other men were still hesitating, Ji-geu was the first to make his appeal.
The men’s previously fierce gazes instantly softened.
Laughter erupted here and there.
All eyes turned toward Ji-geu’s father.
“What a filial son you have.”
“I’m jealous.”
“Wish I had a son like that.”
Warren, who had been standing behind the crowd, called out to his son in obvious embarrassment.
“Ji-geu.”
But Ji-geu looked at me instead of his father.
“Chief! My dad really, really needs a bride. He prayed so much to the spirits, so please let a bride come to our house!”
“…I’d like to, but that’s not something I get to decide.”
Ji-geu’s eyes went wide.
“Huh?”
So did everyone else’s.
“Um.”
“Chief.”
“In cases like this, the chief usually decides.”
“Sometimes even when the chief says no, the villagers insist on going through with it.”
“That’s what power is all about.”
I was even more surprised by their words.
Since when did the chief decide marriages?
“This village has always struck me as unusual, but this is really something else.”
The peddler climbed down from his wagon, laughing loudly.
“Welcome back.”
When I greeted him, the peddler smiled brightly.
“Good to see you, Chief. You still not interested in selling that delicious boar meat?”
The fact that he asked about it right away showed just how much he had liked it.
“We barely have enough for the villagers as it is. Thinking about winter, we need to start storing food diligently from now on. If we catch another one later, I’ll think about it then.”
“I’ll pay a good price, so please keep me in mind.”
Well, that boar had wandered into the village on its own, so we were able to catch it. We weren’t about to go into the mountains ourselves to hunt one.
There probably wouldn’t be another chance like that.
Still, the idea that I was supposed to decide the marriages…
I looked over the men burning with competitive spirit.
Even Geob-bo, who was usually as mild as water mixed with water or liquor mixed with liquor, had a fire in his eyes.
And then there was Ji-geu, eyes sparkling with expectation.
If I made the wrong choice here, I might actually get stoned.
When my eyes met Warren’s, he gave a small shake of his head.
It seemed he had no intention of getting married.
In any case, our village had gained new residents.
That alone made me truly happy.
I walked up to the frightened brides and smiled with the most harmless expression I could manage.
“Welcome to our village.”
Mari blinked without realizing it.
The woman beside her seemed equally startled.
This was the first time they had seen a child smiling so brightly, the first time a child had come out to greet them, and the first time a chief had personally welcomed them.
The two women exchanged glances, then awkwardly climbed down from the cart.
“See? I told you this village would be all right. It’s different from the others.”
The peddler smiled warmly.
The young chief tilted his head.
“What exactly happened in the other villages to make you say that?”
“Well, I can’t really say. It’s the complete opposite of here.”
The peddler shook his head and spoke to the young chief.
“Ever since I started doing business, I’ve also worked as a marriage broker. But sending women to frontier villages always felt like throwing them into a den of beasts. It truly weighed on my heart.”
The young chief didn’t seem to fully understand.
He simply nodded as if to say I see, but the others seemed to catch on and nodded in agreement.
“Yeah, this place almost ended up the same way.”
“If those thugs had taken our supplies, we would’ve been just like the other villages.”
“Exactly.”
“We were really lucky to have a mage.”
“It’s all thanks to the chief.”
The villagers smiled at their chief.
Looking embarrassed, the chief scratched his cheek.
A mage? There was a mage in this village?
Mari looked at the chief again.
Now that she thought about it, this man looked different from the others.
Did all mages look like this?
A strange feeling came over her.
So mages really do exist.
In the village where Mari had grown up, there had only been rumors.
She had never actually met one.
Mari carefully stole glances at the chief and the other villagers.
Many of them were thin.
Their clothes were just as worn as in other villages.
But there were children laughing among them, and the men’s faces looked gentle.
This village really does seem all right.
Until they arrived here, Mari had kept her whole body tense, fists clenched tight.
If she hadn’t, she felt like she would have screamed.
Only now did the strength finally drain from her body.
As she let out a sigh of relief, the young chief spoke to one of the village women.
“Please look after these two for a while. If any of the men act out of line, feel free to beat them with a club.”
Mari was startled by his words.
In most villages, as soon as brides arrived, the men would immediately try to claim them.
There had never been a place where women were asked to look after the new arrivals or where the men were kept from approaching them.
But this village was different.
At the chief’s words, the village woman burst into loud laughter.
“Hahaha. Got it. Leave it to me, Chief.”
Mari was startled a second time by the woman’s behavior.
It seemed women in this village were treated as proper people.
“We have a community hall in our village. I helped build it too. I’ll show you the way.”
The boy who had introduced himself as Ji-geu grabbed Mari’s hand and pulled her along.
“This little rascal. He’s only saying that so his dad looks good.”
“How’s a man without a son supposed to live with that kind of envy?”
The men chimed in one after another, but they were all laughing.
No one was angry.
“….”
When the cart first set out for the frontier, it had been packed full of women.
The space was so tight that two or three had to sit in another wagon among the cargo.
The women’s faces had been as dark as if they were being dragged to a graveyard.
Most of the people in frontier villages were criminals, they said.
It was the last resort for those who could no longer stay in their villages or cities, and sometimes people were sent there in place of punishment.
Every time the women in the cart exchanged what they knew, they all grew even more terrified.
The only stories they had heard were terrible ones—that women who went to the frontier disappeared without a trace, or that they were beaten so badly they tried to run away and died.
Each time they passed a village, the number of women in the cart decreased, and those who remained grew even more frightened.
What they saw upon arriving at the frontier villages had caused that fear.
The rumors had not been exaggerations.
In fact, reality was even more brutal than what the women had heard.
When they saw how few women actually arrived, the men in some villages would start throwing punches or stabbing each other with knives.
In some places, an old chief would monopolize the brides together with his strong sons. In others, men who looked like bandits would beat the peddler, demanding he hand over the women who were supposed to go elsewhere.
The peddler had always handled those situations cleverly, but the women’s despair only deepened.
He would warn them that if they treated the women too roughly, he would stop bringing brides altogether, but it made no difference.
Some villages even declared that they would share the women among the entire village until new brides arrived.
Like Mari, most of the women sent to the frontier had been sold.
Some had been taken because they couldn’t pay taxes, others sold by their own families.
No matter what treatment they received, they had no choice but to accept it.
They had believed only an unhappy future awaited them.
But…
This place was different.
For the first time, Mari felt a swell of hope that she might actually be happy here.