You Are Happy
It had only been a few days since the rooster started lingering near the village.
A rooster usually gathers several hens around him.
At least that was how it worked on Earth, and I assumed he wouldn’t come because there would be other hens.
Yet whether this pair had no flock to begin with, or the rooster had simply taken an unusual liking to this particular hen, or perhaps because they had been raised by humans back on Earth, the rooster appeared near the village exactly as Marguerite had predicted.
Every day he wandered the outskirts, crowing at the top of his lungs.
When the rooster cried out, the hen would answer with a flurry of clucks, and then the rooster would reply from far away.
By that point it was impossible not to feel a pang of pity.
We already had plenty of ducks, so I thought it might be kinder to simply let the two of them stay together. Marguerite, however, proved to have a heart forged from iron.
Instead of releasing the hen, she moved the coop a short distance from the house in hopes of luring the rooster closer.
With the chicken coop in one hand and the hen in the other, Marguerite marched energetically toward the new spot.
The coop was light, but still fairly large. Carrying both it and the hen in one hand made for an awkward, tiring walk.
I offered to help, but Marguerite seemed to view this chicken-capturing operation as the perfect chance to prove her competence.
What exactly she wanted to prove, I wasn’t sure.
She refused my assistance and instead recruited the children.
While Marguerite scouted a suitable place to set down the coop and hen, Orange trailed right behind her.
It apparently believed that wherever the coop went was now its territory.
The children followed in a noisy line, chanting “chicken, chicken, chicken.”
They had been promised one chick each if they helped catch the rooster.
Once the hen was placed in the clearing, Marguerite and the children hid a short distance away, camouflaging themselves with tree branches.
Even so, they had simply stuck a few weeds in their hair and held leafy branches in their arms. Anyone who looked could tell they were people, not trees.
The villagers who stopped by to watch clutched their stomachs laughing before heading back to their work.
The rooster appeared soon enough.
At first he kept his distance, circling warily, but whether impatience had set in or he was simply foolish, he gradually drew closer despite the obvious humans holding branches.
The moment he came within reach was when Orange chirped alongside the hen with a bright Ppi-kko-kkok.
In my opinion, he seemed to mistake the bird inside the coop for one of his own chicks.
The instant the rooster reached the cage, Marguerite and the children sprang up together.
But as usual, things refused to go according to plan.
Their legs had gone numb from crouching, so their reaction was a beat too slow.
The startled rooster bolted, and Marguerite and the children immediately gave chase.
Orange joined the fray, Popcorn zipped excitedly overhead, and the whole scene descended into glorious chaos.
I’m sorry to say it, but the sight of Marguerite acting like her honor was on the line and the children desperately pursuing the rooster for the sake of a promised chick was utterly hilarious.
What should have been a delightfully amusing day nearly ended with a fatal collision between a person and a bird.
Haah…
I let out a breath of relief and approached the man who had collapsed.
Geob-bo had caught the rooster.
His abilities might look infinitely lower than the other men’s, but perhaps because he originally came from a quiet rural village, the chicken had simply ended up in his hand the moment he reached out.
He was an excellent farmer who looked born to till the soil, so it was still a mystery why someone like him had ever become a thug.
“Are you all right?”
The fallen man seemed to have suffered a concussion. He blinked with a dazed expression.
He had to be Marguerite’s brother; the resemblance was striking.
This man was also remarkably handsome.
I felt a small stab of envy.
When I offered my hand, he reached out a moment later and took it.
While he stood up, Marguerite accepted the rooster from Geob-bo and placed it inside the coop.
“Teacher, what do we do now?”
“We can’t get our chicks anymore?”
“Mr. Geob-bo, can I work at your house and still get a chick?”
“My chick…”
The children milled about in confusion, frantically searching for a way to secure their promised rewards.
I had overheard them talking earlier. They believed that if the hen laid eggs, those eggs grew into mother hens that laid even more eggs, and they would become twice as rich.
Becoming wealthy through ducklings already seemed like a foregone conclusion to them.
“Since everyone helped, I’ll give each of you one chick once they hatch,” Marguerite told them.
The children instantly switched to a festive mood.
“Yay!”
“We’re going to build a kingdom of ducks and chickens!”
“We’re going to be rich!”
Never mind that the eggs hadn’t even been laid yet.
“Once I get rich selling ducks and chickens, I’m going to buy a goat. Goat milk is good for babies,” Ji-geu said, smiling shyly behind his hand.
He had been watching his little sibling a lot lately; it seemed he was already thinking ahead to the baby’s arrival.
Of course, not only had no baby been born, there wasn’t even news of a pregnancy yet.
Even Marguerite looked stunned by the children’s excitement.
She approached with a helpless laugh and spoke to the still somewhat dazed man.
“Brother, it’s been a long time. Did you receive my letter?”
“Letter?”
“Huh? You didn’t get it? I thought that was why you came looking for me.”
Marguerite tilted her head, then naturally slipped her arm through mine.
It was her usual habit.
“Jinwoo, this is my second brother, Jerold.”
A faint trace of disappointment flickered across the man’s face.
I felt a little flustered myself.
I had expected a tearful, overjoyed reunion, but it seemed that seeing her brother after so long took second place to the rooster.
The disappointment lasted only a moment. A calm joy soon spread across Jerold’s features.
“She’s just like she was as a child. This girl was always so lively.”
Having said that, Jerold bowed politely.
“I am Jerold, second son of Baron Kono. She may be noisy and somewhat lacking in the refinement expected of a lady, but she is my precious sister. Please take good care of Marguerite.”
Marguerite was simply being Marguerite.
After being taken to the marquis’s household she had seemed to transform one hundred and eighty degrees into a perfect noble daughter, but it looked as though she had already returned to her original self.
She was, in every sense, the wild tomboy of her childhood.
Jerold let out a deep sigh of relief.
She is happy.
If she were not happy from the depths of her heart, if the present were painful, Marguerite would have burst into tears and clung to him the moment she saw him.
But this child was happy here in the village.
She was living well with a steady heart at her husband’s side.
Because her present was happy and stable, she could greet him with a casual “Oh, Brother, you’re here?”
There was not a single shadow on Marguerite’s face.
The natural way she linked arms with her husband suggested their marriage was a warm one.
…
No matter how affectionate a noble couple might be, they would never behave that way in front of outsiders.
Marguerite definitely received a proper education as a noble lady, so why…
The thought crossed his mind, but Marguerite was no longer a noble.
Her husband also seemed delighted by her behavior. If both husband and wife were satisfied and happy, then that was enough.
“My name is Jinwoo.”
My sister’s husband greeted him with a gentle smile, then apologized for not visiting the family in person before the wedding.
It was only a few sentences, yet Jerold immediately understood that Jinwoo was not the sort of person one would expect to find in a village like this.
He did not appear to be a noble, yet his every movement carried refinement and his speech was equally polished.
It was not an act; these manners were deeply ingrained.
There was also a scholarly air about him. He must have studied extensively.
In this world, study was impossible without money.
Jerold himself had not relied solely on family funds; he had received support after being introduced to a sponsor.
Judging by his bearing and appearance, he did not seem like someone who belonged in a frontier settlement. How had he ended up as chief of a pioneer village?
The most striking thing was that the man belonged to a race almost never seen in this country.
Jerold had never encountered anyone who looked like him.
He was intensely curious about the man’s true identity.
…Well, I’ll probably find out soon enough.
The way Marguerite’s eyes sparkled as she stood beside her husband made it clear she was itching to talk about him.
The villagers who had been watching eventually returned to their tasks. Jerold headed toward the village hall together with the couple.
He realized only now that he had not come alone. The peddlers had followed.
They apparently couldn’t wait even for the short walk to the hall.
Marguerite drew close and whispered.
“Brother, my husband is the Saintess. He commands the Spirit King, a phoenix, and the legendary slime. The whole village is filled with spirits. Thanks to him, I can see the spirits’ true forms clearly now too.”
…
Marguerite, you haven’t lost the ability to separate reality from fantasy, have you?
He stared at her with an unintentionally serious expression, but then noticed Jinwoo smiling softly at his sister from a short distance away.
On Jinwoo’s shoulder perched the small bird that had nearly collided with him earlier.
Its eyes, however, were extraordinary.
They held a color impossible for ordinary birds.
Golden eyes…
He didn’t know what the legendary slime or Spirit King were, but Jerold had read about phoenixes.
He was certain an old text had described their eyes exactly like this.
No way.
When he looked back at Marguerite, she nodded with sparkling eyes as if to say, Yes, that’s right, exactly.
Wait, you’re joking… right? The Spirit King? The legendary slime?
What on earth is going on?
Jerold unconsciously turned his gaze toward his sister’s husband.
If this man was the Saintess, then who—or what—was the Saintess currently in the royal palace?
Marguerite suddenly poked him in the side.
“It’s a secret. It would cause problems if word got out. My husband doesn’t want to go to the palace. He says he’s not interested.”
The smile on Marguerite’s face as she spoke was the brightest he had seen all day.
“Chief, while we’re at it, please increase the meat supply significantly.”
“Raising the price as high as possible with a small volume is all well and good, but the quantity is simply too low. Chief! Show some ambition!”
“This is a royal supply contract. An honor like this is something ordinary people might encounter only once in a lifetime.”
The moment the peddlers saw me their eyes turned bloodshot. They spoke frantically, spittle flying.
They clearly wanted to increase the amount of meat they could sell.
But the royal family?
I had known they were trying to sell to a good client, but I never imagined they were supplying the palace itself.
“Did you tell them the meat came from our village?”
When I asked, the peddlers shook their heads vigorously.
“Absolutely not. This is our golden goose. Why would we reveal it?”
“The moment we speak, we’ll be cut out of the deal. We can’t say a word.”
The two spoke almost in unison.
“Then please continue to keep it secret from now on as well.”
Even if our village became known, it was only food. The royal family would have no reason to take interest.
But Marguerite was convinced I was the Saintess, and Jeong So-hee was in the royal palace.
If someone realized we were the same race and began to suspect we were both from another world, it could cause serious trouble.
The chance was small, but I had no desire to create even the slightest possibility that Marguerite and Jeong So-hee might meet.
A wife and an ex-girlfriend crossing paths—could there be anything more horrifying?
The peddlers had no intention of revealing the meat’s origin either. In fact, they looked relieved.
They had apparently been quietly worried that we might try to contact the royal merchants directly.
“Chief, a child will be born soon. You’ll need money, won’t you?”
“Even just a little more would help.”
“Madam, is there anything you’d like?”
Desperate to increase the volume, the peddlers kept pestering Jerold to put in a good word.
“I already gave you the book,” one of them muttered without thinking.
Jerold’s face instantly flushed scarlet.
Just what kind of book was it?
When I showed interest, the peddler grinned.
“It’s a truly magnificent book. An essential item for any man!”
As he spoke he made a subtle gesture with his fingers suggesting intimate relations between men and women.
So this world had erotic books too.
When I swallowed reflexively, Marguerite’s eyes widened.
“N-no, that’s… I mean…”
As I found myself making excuses, Popcorn seemed to sense the strange atmosphere.
It flew from above the children’s heads and stared straight into my eyes.
It looked at me quietly together with Marguerite.
It appeared Popcorn had taken Marguerite’s side.
No… I mean… It wasn’t that I wanted to read it. I was just a little curious, that’s all.
When I scratched my cheek, the peddlers smiled awkwardly and fell silent.
Watching us, Jerold smiled gently.