Chapter 45
The villagers kept going on about the village chief, but of course, we couldn’t give him back.
The only way to see him now was to request a visitation at the prison.
└ [Just go to jail with him then.]
└ [From bakery business to prison business?]
└ [Well, jail is still a kind of bread (pun).]
└ [But he’s the victim though,ㅠㅠ]
└ [Let’s arrest him for making my blood pressure spike.]
└ [I literally chugged water reading this.]
To the ever-complaining comment fairies, this suffocating pace felt like a major crime.
But in the world I lived in, it wasn’t a crime—so I had no choice but to keep trying to persuade them.
Kin repeated what he’d said in a firm voice.
“You all need to do it. Every other territory citizen is doing it, and if you truly can’t manage, then agree among yourselves and hire someone.”
“But we only know how to do basic work. How are we supposed to hire someone and manage all that…?”
They didn’t want to learn anything new. They just wanted to live the way they always had.
They had lived so long simply doing what the chief told them to, that they only knew how to follow passively.
└ [I’m sorry for mocking the chief earlier. Turns out he had more agency than these people.]
└ [Father… Mother… Anyone, please come clean this mess up.]
One villager, seemingly desperate to avoid the responsibility, looked around before pointing at Noil.
“Um, what about that gentleman over there?”
“M-Me?”
“You’re smart, aren’t you? We don’t understand any of this…”
But a teacher is someone who helps you learn to do things on your own—not someone who helps you forever.
He might assist for a bit, but ultimately, the villagers would need to become self-reliant.
‘But… they don’t look like they have any desire to learn.’
So they’d just keep asking for help. That wouldn’t be good for either side.
└ [These NPCs are so frustrating, I can’t watch anymore. I’m dropping this series.]
Even the dropout fairies—silent until now—exploded with frustration.
I wasn’t planning to just sit back and listen either, so I stepped up beside Kin and offered a suggestion.
“Let’s appoint a new chief!”
Rather than convincing the whole village, it would be much quicker to just train one person and get things running.
Kin seemed to agree, and after only a brief pause, he pointed to someone.
“You, the man over there. Judging by your demeanor, you must have worked elsewhere before moving here.”
Apparently, he figured holding a vote would only lead to another round of “I don’t know,” so he nominated someone directly.
The man he pointed to appeared to be in his 40s—one of the oldest villagers.
Since this village was less than 10 years old, he must’ve worked somewhere else before coming here.
Of course, being from this “Hoguma” (pushover-sweet potato) village, he wasn’t exactly assertive, but he answered earnestly.
“Ah, well… I used to do construction work before.”
“Mr. Jacks fixed a lot of stuff around here. Doors, pillars…”
“Didn’t you even read blueprints? You understood letters and numbers and such.”
Now that it wasn’t being forced on them, the other villagers started volunteering information.
“Someone who’s already been helping manage the village—perfect. Please assist us with village affairs. You can even use the former chief’s house as your office.”
“B-But I…”
“Also, from now on, all village funds will be entrusted to Mr. Jacks.”
As soon as Kin mentioned money that used to go to the corrupt chief, Jacks fell silent, tempted.
The amount the chief had been siphoning off was no small sum.
‘Whether they continue to give that money to him is now up to the villagers.’
If they felt it was too much, they’d probably negotiate, cut it down, or split the work. It meant village meetings would finally become active.
Whether they’d been tricked or not, all these people had come here for money.
Faced with the temptation of funds and an official position, Jacks finally nodded.
└ [Phew, is the “Hoguma” arc over now?]
└ [This is why literacy is so important…]
Exactly. These kinds of problems wouldn’t plague the next generation of kids.
Because Mr. Noil would be teaching them how to read and write!
With the adult matters settled, Noil stepped forward.
“Then I’ll take this as agreement to send the children to the academy. Kids, come this way.”
“Ah, but that ‘academy’ thing is a bit…”
What now?! This is a different issue?!
Just when the adults had calmed down after dumping the chief’s duties on Jacks, now they were taking issue with the school.
“Doesn’t that cost money? We don’t have the funds to educate the kids.”
“No, it’s free of charge.”
“But the dukedom, or whatever… you’re all nobles, right? Highborns don’t really understand lives like ours.”
“I’m not a noble…”
“We’ve done fine so far without learning to read…”
No, you haven’t! You got ripped off by the chief!
Their attitude of “I don’t want change, I just want to live the way I’ve always lived” now extended to their kids.
Parenting is something you can’t just delegate to others—so they were sticking to their usual, passive selves?!
└ [There’s a sweet potato harvest this year in Hoguma village~]
└ [Must be the local specialty]
└ [Sweet potatoes + prison bakery… we’re getting… sweet potato doughnuts?!]
└ [LMAO it’s delicious though]
└ [Sweet potatoes and chicken breast = perfect diet meal]
└ [I’m choking…]
└ [Are you trying to make my library go on a diet? ^^]
The comment fairies, now resigned, just joked among themselves.
If the village chief had deliberately ruined the kids’ futures, then the parents were ruining them through sheer lack of planning.
└ [My kid has trauma from having bad parents]
They were nothing like Count Tortor, so I wasn’t reminded of him.
But I did have a strong allergy to adults who didn’t care about the future of their kids.
‘I seriously can’t take this.’
Noil wasn’t the type to speak harshly—so I stepped up again.
“Excuse me, everyone.”
I’d been observing long enough. I now understood how to handle them.
“We’re right. You’re wrong. If you disagree, then give us your proper opinion.”
The kind of stubbornness only a child can get away with.
But for people who just keep saying “No” to everything, forcing through with sheer will is the only thing that works.
‘If it’s easier for them to be told what to do, then fine—I’ll decide for them.’
As soon as I asked them to state their own opinions—
“Well, I mean, we’re not against it, really…”
Just as expected, they all backed off.
It’s easy to shoot down others’ ideas. Voicing your own is hard.
‘Good enough. As long as they’re kind to the kids, that’s what matters.’
└ [Seriously, how much more spoon-feeding do they need?]
└ [Let’s pin our hopes on the next generation of Hoguma village.]
Right. The children still have every chance to grow up well.
As I watched the adults slowly disperse, I blew out a sharp breath.
Then I felt a hand touch my head.
When I looked up, Kin was gazing down at me.
He brushed my hair gently, then bent down to meet my eyes and smiled.
“Did you learn this from a book, too?”
“Eh? Oh, no… it’s just… the adults wouldn’t listen.”
“So this was Miss Rose’s own idea?”
His smiling eyes narrowed, then turned sharp—as though he’d found something fascinating.
“Now I’m curious just how much this brain of yours knows. I’d love to open it up and see.”
Just moments ago, his demeanor had felt like it did when talking to Hestina—but the conclusion was creepy.
└ [Is that academic interest… or suspicion…?]
└ [If this were a wholesome child-rearing story, the response would’ve been, “Wow, she’s so smart!”]
└ [This isn’t a parenting story—it’s a survival story.]
Despite myself, I blurted out an innocent-sounding but very real concern.
“O-Open my head? How?”
“Haha. Of course not. That was a joke.”
Was it really a joke? His earlier look had seemed way too intense for that.
Thankfully, Kin didn’t press me further and turned to Noil instead.
“Looks like things are mostly sorted. From now on, we probably won’t need to meet after every class. Let’s gradually space out the meetings. Traveling to the estate each time must be tiring for you.”
“Yes, that sounds good.”
“Miss Rose… if you’re heading back to the estate, would you like to ride with me?”
There it was again—that calculating, foxlike look scanning his target!
If we ended up alone together, he’d probably try to dig into my intellect again, so I quickly stepped back.
“No, thank you! I want to stay for class too. I’m going to read picture books to the kids. And the teacher invited me to his house!”
“Ah, yes. I promised to show her some interesting books from abroad.”
“Is that so? Then I’ll head back first. If I stay here any longer, I feel like I’ll start getting dumber.”
With that parting shot, Kin stormed off, thoroughly fed up with the village.
└ [Maybe he just likes smart people?]
└ [So it wasn’t suspicion, but a crush? LOL]
└ [Who confesses with “I want to open your brain”?!]
└ [It probably just means he’s curious what’s inside her head.]
Whether it was admiration or suspicion that he felt—
‘Smart people are hard to deal with… too many mental landmines.’
It was one of those days where I found myself missing the kind Duke Valente and his son…
