The next day at the afternoon after we became a real family, Lieber came to our house along with around 10 Knights.

The Knights were quite surprised about the fact that such a remote village which was a.s.saulted by a Goblin King wasn’t annihilated completely.  

A man who looks like the captain amongst them approached us.

“Might you be the Surges Crybird-dono?”

“Yes, I am. And you?”

“Forgive me for my late introduction. I am a Knight who serves the Colonise Viscount. My name is Third Albose. I am honoured to be able to meet the renowned Surges-dono. I had heard about you working as a bodyguard at a remote village. So it was this village. Now I know that Surges-dono was here, it made sense how you could repel the Goblin King.”

“No, it wasn’t possible with only my strength. This is the result of the collective cooperation of the villagers”

“You are being modest.”

“I am not being modest at all.”

Before Surges strong tone, that Knight faltered for a moment but he immediately recovered his smile afterwards.

“I see. So that’s the result of Surges-dono’s excellent leaders.h.i.+p.”

Surges doesn’t reply and the atmosphere turns awkward but in that moment Lieber enters the room.

“Third-dono, firstly I want to explain about the damage in the village and discuss about the reconstruction plan of the Collet village. Well, let’s talk about it at my mansion. Surges-dono, I just arrived at the village so could you please explain about the battle and damage done to the village?”

“Understood.”

Surges looks towards me but I shake my head.

“I will help on cleaning up the village.”

“I see. Do so then.”

Surges, Lieber, Captain-like man and his adjutant headed towards the Lieber’s mansion.

“We will also help.”

The remaining Knights suggested that.

“Thank you. Then let’s start with burning the corpses of the remaining Goblins.”

It seems the discussions continued until the late night at that day. Surges returned home in the middle of the night.

The next day, Lieber headed towards Koru Thread in order to report the incident and seek a.s.sistance. He started his travel along with the Knights in a hurry.

Two weeks after that, that captain called Third Albose came back to Collet Village along with more than 30 soldiers.

Everybody thought that they had brought back construction materials and food provisions but there were nothing on the wagons. That was quite strange.

By the order of that Captain, all of the villagers were gathered. All villagers gathered with nervous expressions.

“By the order of the Colonise Viscount-sama, tax rates were changed starting today. Everybody who lives in this pioneer village shall pay 5 Gold Coins immediately.”

“Don’t mess up with us, you b.a.s.t.a.r.ds! Look at the state of the village. The granary were burnt down. At this rate, they may not even be able to survive this winter. There is no way they can pay this money.”

Villagers were dumbfounded before this absurdity, so in their place, Surges speaks sharply.

“Surges-dono, this is the order of the Viscount-sama.”

The captain hang out the order parchment and said with a fake smile using a sarcastic tone.

“Did Viscount-sama really give out such a ridiculous order?”

Surges s.n.a.t.c.hes the order parchment from Captain’s hands and gives it to Chris.

“Even if it is Surges-dono, you can’t badmouth about Viscount-sama.”

Captain rebuked Surges without changing his relaxed expression.

“Honey, it is unbelievable but this order parchment is the real thing.”

Chris said with a pale face.

“Of course it is. I can’t understand what you are talking about.”

Captain said that with a shocked expression as he took back the order parchment from Chris.

“You b.a.s.t.a.r.ds… Right, what happened to Lieber?”

“He was suspected to misappropriate the support funds for this poineer village so he was arrested. He did something stupid, right?”

“Lieber is not a person who would do something like that.”

Surges declares and approving voices from the villagers rise.

“You don’t have the luxury of worrying about others now. If you can’t pay 5 Gold Coins, you will be enslaved.”

The villagers turned pale when they heard those words of the Captain.

I gently pull the sleeves of Surguess and state my guess.

“Probably, Viscount is planning to abandon this village. When he compared the tax incomes he will get from the village to the costs of reconstructions and developments while protecting it from monsters, he must have judged that it would be more economical to abandon it. However it would be bad for his reputation if he were to just leave alone a village which was just suffered from an goblin a.s.sault, thus he decided to put all the blame on the villagers so that Viscount wouldn’t be seen in fault and on the top of that he can also earn some money by enslaving the villagers.”

“I know that but what should we do?”

Surges said in an irritated mood.

“In short, we can’t save this village unless we change the mind of Viscount. Or we can also annihilate the soldiers here and become the criminals wanted by the country. We should choose one of the two.”

Surges dragged me away implying that I shouldn’t talk imprudently anymore. I don’t want to yield to those kind of sc.u.ms either. However I can’t think of any other method. This world is really a s.h.i.+tty place. Surges shows a momentary anger hearing my words but it was only momentary. I frustratingly bit my lips and my my hands were trembling. I guess they noticed it too. Chris says nothing. Medea frustratingly glares at that Captain. Eventually Medea also needs to see the ugly side of the human nature but firstly I was planning to show her the good side of the human nature. It was quite unfortunate that she firstly had to see the ugliest side of the human nature. I hope she doesn’t completely detest human race because of that.

“d.a.m.n it! What was my last 15 years for then?!”

Surges looks up to the sky while murmuring that. I also look up to the sky alongside with him but sarcastically it was a clear blue sky without a hint of clouds.

“I am glad that Surges-dono understands it.”

When the Captain says that the surrounding soldiers are relieved and their tensions ease up. I guess those soldiers were here to deal with Surges in case he objects.

The villagers was being chained one by one but all our family could do was just to watch it.

Suddenly as if he remembered something, Captain says.

“That’s right. You should also have monster cores of the Goblins. Submit them as well.”

“All of the Goblins were defeated by Crybird Family so Crybird Family has the owners.h.i.+p of them. According to his contract, Surges-san owns the monster cores or materials of the monsters he defeated. Isn’t that right, Surges-san?”

Hunter Rabbid-san who was one of the few surviving men in the village says that but that’s a lie. The number of monsters which was defeated by the villagers is at the higher end. Surges couldn’t respond momentarily so I replied in his place. I don’t want those sc.u.ms to steal anymore than this.

“That’s right. Goblins were defeated by our Crybird Family. There is no reason for us to submit them to you.”

“Who is this brat?”

“He is the second son of the Crybird Family.”

“What do you mean by ‘All of them were defeated by our Crybird Family.’? All of them must have been defeated by Surges-dono and Chris-dono. A brat shouldn’t b.u.t.t in so haughtily.”

“The one who defeated the Goblin King with his mighty magic is Larcus, Mr. Knight.”

Rabbid-san says that but there is no way Captain would believe it.

“What can a little kid like him really do? You are telling stupid lies, do you want to be whipped?”

I hurriedly b.u.t.t in.

“No, he is telling the truth. Do you want me to try the same magic which defeated the Goblin King on you?”

I could use the Darkness attributed magic without a problem right now since I was fuming with anger.

“Search through the houses of the villagers and gather anything worth money.”

I guess my anger and the truth was transmitted to him through my silent tone, Captain amusingly dropped the topic and ordered around the soldiers.

“Larcus, you are an amazing person. When the Lieber’s mansion was a.s.saulted, everybody had surrendered to their fates but you came up with such a concrete plan at the last minute and gave everyone hope. I am sure that you will become someone who will change this world. No, please become one.”

Rabbid-san makes such a speech to me.

“Rabbid-san… I will definitely change this world.”

After Rabbid-san was satisfied with my answer, he was taken away by the soldiers.

House-hunting ended and the party departed to Koru Thread, leaving only our Crybird Family behind.

The cruelest beings towards the humans are always the humans themselves.