The strategy meeting was over, and everyone left, including Towarta. Ari, on the other hand, seemed to be watching Towarta, who was talking briefly with Lune, before leaving.
Having no other goal, Ari thought of following Towarta, who knows where he went but Ari no longer had any other work, she had chatted a lot with Lune before meeting Towarta.
And he thought it would be interesting to chat with Towarta too
Following Towarta who was walking away, Ari immediately caught up with him and walked beside him.
"The meeting is over, don't you want to chat with the others while waiting for nightfall? It would be interesting if we did a quest and got to know each other better. Speaking of doing quests and getting to know each other... You won't regret chatting with Lune, she's an interesting and quite fun person"
Towarta listened, silent for a moment before replying. His ego as the son of a god was so large, he felt no need to chat with humans. But he knows, he can't show his ego because if he shows it too clearly, he will get into trouble with humans. But after all that, his ego is unstable, unclear.
"I have no business with Lune, I don't need to get to know him better, we are just partners on a quest"
"Then what about me?"
Towarta stopped walking, his ego, which had been high during the meeting, now starting to decrease.
"So do you, but if you have something to say, I'll listen."
"Are you an unstable person?"
"What? No... Why would you think like that?"
My mother's friendly nature that was passed down to me is starting to come back!
"Ah, it turns out you're just a shy person. Am I wrong? I can guess a person's character after talking and paying attention to the way they talk, you know?"
This woman is dangerous for me...
"Well, it's not good to force someone to talk."
Towarta stared at him for a moment then resumed walking, as did Ari. She still followed him.
By looking at the direction Towarta was going, Ari could guess that Towarta was going to the harvest field.
Ari was right, Towarta was going to the harvest area. Ari noticed that Towarta's steps had become a little slow, he wanted to enjoy the view.
As far as the eye can see, there are only stretches of rice fields and other vegetable fields, the wind there feels so cool, the atmosphere is so peaceful and comfortable.
"You like this kind of view, do you?"
Ari looked at Towarta, he couldn't see his expression, Towarta always covered it with his helmet while Ari met him.
"This village has such a vast harvest area, but why is only half of it in the storage shed? While I was wandering around here alone, I took the time to visit the storage shed But the warehouse did not look full, even though the harvest should have been able to fill the storage shed"
"Oh, that... We give half of the harvest to the kingdom as tax and protection fees. Although we do not know where the protection referred to by the kingdom lies… We villagers only hire adventurers for protection, there has never been anyone from the kingdom to protect us, there has never been…"
"Hiring adventurers is quite expensive, considering their job is to guard an entire village like this. Where do you pay them?"
"Village savings money, We villagers save together to be able to hire adventurers"
"I see…"
"There are quite a lot of monsters around the village, but we are quite lucky that they attack us at intervals of one month because if they fail to plunder, they will plunder other villages then return to this village"
"Like a cycle"
"Y-yeah"
Help others, and others will help you. Mom, this is what you taught me. But, this time i'm not here to help for free, I'm paid for this.
"Let's wait for nightfall, and you evacuate immediately. Night is coming soon, better do it early"
Ari nodded and immediately ran toward the evacuation center. It seemed the other were also starting to evacuate, as Towarta see from here. Across the harvest land, there are residents' houses.
"Towarta, we are counting on you!"
Ari turned and quickly ran back to the refugee camp. Her back slowly disappeared, leaving Towarta behind him. The sun was about to set, and that meant the quest had begun.