It has been a week since the rabbits were brought to the house.
Two hornet rabbit coops are already finished yesterday. It takes more time than I expected, but then again I order the builder to change many things, mostly related to safety. If I didn't order him to change some part of the coop, some horned rabbits might escape from the coop using their horn. So nothing I can do about that.
The coop has two partitions. Each partition can house 2 adult horned rabbits, or it can house an adult and four baby rabbits. As of right now, there are 2 coops already built so I can house eight adult horned rabbits at maximum.
Why each partition can only house two rabbits you ask? Well, it is obvious… I want to increase the number of horned rabbits. In making a partition for two horned rabbits, I want to increase the chance of breeding between the rabbits.
In the last week, I have traveled to four other villages in Northwellen. Today I am traveling again toward another village. This time, my destination is a village on the foot of one northern mountain. There is an iron mine in that village. That village is called Lothpine Village.
Just like usual, I am going with Claude and the young boy Lief. In the past week, I have known that Lief is a smart boy that can do many things. Because of that, I gave him a task to look after the horned rabbits. Three days ago, I ordered him to count how much the horned rabbit consumes in a day.
"How is it? Will the amount of hay be enough to feed the horned rabbit?" I asked Lief that is now sitting in front of me on the horse cart.
"For two horned rabbits, the hay we produce on the farm is enough. Each adult rabbit eats around 300 to 400 grams of hay every week. If the number of horned rabbits is to increase, the amount of hay we produce right now is not enough." Lief answered seriously, sometimes I forgot that he is still a child around 10 years old.
"How long can we last? Assuming we have 16 rabbits?"
Lief thinks for a bit before answering. "Hm?? We should be able to last for three months?" But he looks like he is not sure about his calculation.
"We need a new source…" I muttered to myself. Actually, the horned rabbits can eat on the grassland nearby. But I want to make this rabbit farming to be sustainable. I want to make sure the rabbit can be bred without making the grassland here lose its grass.
When I looked at Lief, he shows an unsure expression. "Is there something you want to say?"
"Uhm… I might know how to get the hay," Lief says in a small voice.
My eyes opened in a little shock. I then signaled Lief to continue.
"You see, last week when Lord Aquila go to Hardersfield village. The villager that saw you killing the wolves can't help but admire your fighting style. It has become a hot topic there.
"Some villagers want to send their kids here to let them learn under Lord Aquila. Maybe we can make some deal with them… But only if Lord Aquila wanted to?"
Hearing his idea I subconsciously praised Lief, "What a good idea. You are a genius, Lief! I will need your help to transmit a message between me and the village later."
Lief is the son of the village chief, Hamund. Sometimes he has a free time when he can go back to the village. Maybe that was when he heard about the village kid.
Now for his idea… I like that. I also think about another matter when Lief said his idea. It has been tugging my mind since I thought about that. Lief's idea might be able to solve both problems at the same time. Let's think about his idea more before doing it.
* * *
Lothpine Village is a village on the base of the north mountain range. In this place, many pine trees grow naturally from the base of the mountain until high up the snowy mountain.
When we are near the village, we see around 50 adults human gathering at the center of the village. There is a big fire in the middle of that big group.
"Claude, what is that?" I asked Claude in a small voice.
"I am sorry, I also don't know," answered Claude, also in a small voice.
I looked at Lief, hoping that he will know what the villagers are doing. Too bad, Lief also doesn't know what the villagers are doing.
We keep moving until we reach the edge of the village. The villagers noticed our group.
"Good morning," Claude greets the villagers. "I am sorry to disturb you all. Is the village chief here? I am Claude the servant of the Count of Northwellen. I have sent a letter to him yesterday."
An old man comes out from the group, "I am the village chief here. I received your letter yesterday, and don't worry you are not disturbing anyone here."
The old man stopped for a bit and look at me. "Pardon me for being rude, are you Count of Aquila?"
"I am Aquila Lockway, the lord of Northwellen. Nice to meet you … ?"
"Pardon me, this old man is called Bered, the village chief of Lothpine village," said Bered introducing himself.
"Nice to meet you, Bered. So what are you doing right now?" I decided to ask Bered about this situation.
"Today, a friend of all of us here passed away. He died in a battle against a great boar." Bered paused before continuing, "My lord, I have a request. I want you to bless our friend to embark on his last journey."
Claude wanted to stop Bered, but I signaled to Claude that I will do this.
"Sure. What should I do?"
Bered put a surprised expression on his face. He might not expect me to go along with him, "Thank you very much. Lord Count only needs to follow me."
Bered then clenches his right hand and put it in front of his face, the villagers following suit. I followed the other and clench my right hand. Bered then started to talk in a language that I didn't know. I can only assume this is a farewell message toward the dying man. I can feel that the atmosphere here is serious. No one here makes any sound, except a small sound of someone trying to stop crying. It must be the dead man's family. This situation keep going until Bered stopped reciting the unknown language.
When Bered finished the rite, he ordered two villagers to move. That two villagers bring a man's cold body toward the big fire in the center of the village. The dead body is thrown into a fire, reducing it into ashes in no time. Well, it is not a 'no time', I am pretty sure time passed. But I didn't notice that time passed this fast.
"Thank you very much…" said Bered to me when the ritual is over.
After that Bered welcomed me to the village chief house. I do the usual stuff that I have done in the other village. I look for information from the village chief and asked many questions. I do that till the day started to close.
From my journey to many villages in the Northwellen. I have found something interesting. Northwellen area has a high amount of death related to magical beast attacks. At Hardersfield, we were attacked by a group of wolves. In this village, a villager died after an attack by a great boar. In the other four villages, there are no incidents when I came but they all said that a magical beast attack is not rare. The other villages also said that it is normal to lose a villager every month or so.
This is the other problem that I thought of when I heard Lief's idea. I want to reduce the lethality caused by a magical beast. By training villagers, I hoped to make a village guard from the villagers. On the other hand, I can receive payment for training the villager. I really should consider this, let's ask Ema and Claude about this. They are the one that knows most about the situation in the manor. I'm pretty sure they know how significant this will be. Or they might find that the idea is not a good idea. Well, I'll just ask them tomorrow.