"Enri, the barley fields are ripe, we need to start harvesting."
"Enri, who should gather herbs near the forest?"
"Enri, we spotted a bear."
All of the villagers came to her as if she were running the village. Day in and day out, she solved their problems, and enough was enough. She had to make a stand.
At first, it was only matters related to goblins, which was understandable. Then Yuri joined in and Enri was the one dealing with the servant of Lord Gown. Soon enough, everyone started to act like it was her village thanks to the connection and somehow she was effectively promoted to a minor noble, with none of the benefits.
Enri stomped out of the village towards the fields, where the older man spent most of his time working on fields together with his wife. Enri usually wasn't a confrontational person, but even the most patient of mortal souls had their breaking points.
She found the graying man and his wife tending to the fields with a group of other villagers, side by side. Before the attack, each family usually stuck to their fields, but now with a severe lack of working hands from the invasion, they had decided to work together as one for a few years so everyone had enough to pay the taxes and put food on the table.
"Ah Enri, good morning." The man straightened out, greeting her with a good-natured smile while wiping the sweat from his brows.
"Good morning." She returned the greeting; Despite her grievances, she still wished to be cordial with everyone as a fellow villager; there was no use in antagonizing those she lived with. "Elder, why is everyone coming to me about all their problems? I understand when they want help from the goblins, but I am forced to deal with everything."
"About that…" He sighed and leaned on the plow, motioning for his wife to continue. "Look Enri, we talked among ourselves and… We've decided it's best that you take over as the new village chief. Without you and your goblins, all of us would have little hope of surviving the winter. Besides, that lady Lord Gown sent treats you like you are in charge of us."
"But I…" Enri paused. The nearby villagers as one nodded in agreement. "I am just a farm girl, I…" Self-doubt sprouted within her.
"You have been doing great, I have been thinking for a while about passing on the duties, Please accept this request," The older man pleaded.
'Me, a leader? But I… maybe if I am the leader, Enfi will finally notice me. Then I wouldn't be just another farm girl after all. You know what, I'll take this position.' She had decided since she had been working so hard for others that a selfish thought or two were fine.
"I accept. But from now on if you need help from goblins, talk with Jugem." She issued her first order and departed before anyone could protest, jogging away.
With newfound determination, she returned to her home where today's breakfast was taking shape under Nemu's leadership. Her little sister was natural when it came to managing people, and sometimes it seemed she had more authority over the goblins than Enri did.
The moment she stepped into the backyard, she was met with Nemu's squeaky voice issuing an order. "The stew is ready! Paipo, Unlai, come help us carry the pot!"
Enri stopped in her tracks, watching the small procession. Two goblins were carrying the pot, with Mili ensuring they didn't trip over anything. In the front marched Nemu with a large wooden spoon, which she held up in the air like a general would a sword when marching troops to battle.
'She surely does enjoy making breakfast.' Enri couldn't help but smile at her sister's antics. At first, she was reluctant to let Nemu take charge, but the girl wanted to contribute and had quickly gotten most of the Goblin Troop on her side for bargaining and labor power.
"Enri!" Nemu noticed her and took a quick detour, running up to her. "Breakfast is ready!"
"That's great," Enri replied.
Nemu meanwhile gave her a critical look and waved for her to lean closer. Unsure what her sister wanted, Enri did as requested, kneeling. To her surprise, Nemu fished a still-fresh daisies out of the front pocket of her apron and put them in Enri's hair before she could object, sliding them into the folds.
"Now, go tell Nfirea that breakfast is ready. And don't forget to smile!" The girl grabbed the corners of her lips, twisting them into a smile.
"What's gotten into you?" Enri pushed her sister's hand away, standing up as she fiddled with the flowers.
"Just go!" Nemu puffed her cheeks and pushed her sister towards Nfirea's laboratory, heading back to the goblins.
"I'm going, I'm going." Enri quickly gave in. "Maybe we should make you the village chief," She added with a stifled laugh.
'She's very pushy today.' Enri mused as she approached the house which always had a strong herby smell about it. She had no idea what exactly Nfirea was doing, save for trying to make some new type of potion, but since it was for the saviors of her entire village, no one disturbed the boy's work, for fear of upsetting their saviors. He was the only person completely exempt from the standard villagers' responsibilities, enabling him to spend the entire day in his shelter.
Knowing how forgetful and distracted Nfirea always was, she just gave one quick knock before opening the door, announcing, "Enfi, breakfast is ready. I hope you weren't up all night again!"
There was no response, but that was well within the norm. Enri walked deeper in as she briefly inhaled, trying to get in as little of the heavy air as possible.
As much as the smell reminded her of the boy she loved, Enri still had a hard time getting used to it. But then again, she wasn't a city girl and, even in winter, spent a lot of time outside.
"Enfi!" She called out. There was no response. "He must be sleeping." She muttered.
Nfirea often slept by the table in his workplace and didn't bother to walk over to the house he lived in, too engrossed with his work he often was.
"Enfi!" She gasped, finding the boy on the floor with a vial in his limp hand.
Enri rushed over and lightly shook him, nearly making a vial fall out of his hands, so she quickly placed it on the table with the other vials before returning to him.
"Enfi!"
There was no response. She shook harder, but the boy refused to wake up. Something was wrong… Enri lightly slapped the boy's cheeks while practically screaming in his face. "Enfi, wake up! Wake up!"
Her attempts were futile, Nfirea showed no signs of life. Her heart pounded faster and faster, and her breaths grew sharper as her imagination went wild. She was no healer, she didn't know what to do.
'I must find help!' She jumped to her feet and ran outside, shrieking for Yuri. To her relief, the maid showed up beside her almost immediately, and upon hearing what had happened ran inside the house without hesitation, with Enri following mere paces after her.
Yuri kneeled and put her palm on the boy's neck. After a moment of listening to his pulse, she lifted Nfirea into a sitting position and spoke. "He is alive and breathing. If I have to guess, Nfirea has overspent his mana and passed out."
"Oh, thank the Gods he is alive," Enri let out a sigh of relief. "How can we help him?"
"I'm not qualified to deal with such a status effect. I think it's best to contact Lord Tabula and request directions. Keep him like this," Yuri ordered.
Enri did as told and kept Nfirea in a sitting position while Yuri grabbed the orb and politely contacted the boy's superior.
"Dear, I am going to Carne village to check on the local alchemist I hired!" Tabula emerged from his laboratory with a loud announcement.
"Why? Did Nfirea have a breakthrough?" Mariposa responded with a question, she lazily stretched with a yawn, taking a sip from her morning cup of coffee. There were some minor downsides to a physical body; a sleep cycle was one of them.
"He has overspent his mana, passing out. Better make sure everything is fine." Her husband replied as he readily cast a gate spell.
"Tabula! Human form! They don't know our true natures." She reminded him while using her innate abilities to hide her horns and wings, changing her eye color to blue in seconds. Her yellow cat-like eyes would still be a suspicious trait, but they could be passed off as just unique to those truly close to the Gods.
With how much effort she had put into having a good relationship with Albedo, there was no way in hell she would let her husband go on his own, potentially causing chaos due to his carelessness. All it would take was one misstep.
"Right, I should do that." Tabula stopped in his tracks and fished out a doppelganger ring from his inventory; considering that he had already changed his natural form to have all the functions the body needed to have, he rarely used the ring, but now was the time to use it for more beyond fundamental functions.
She was far too used to her husband's forgetful nature to bother, instead, Mariposa straightened her dress, grabbed her husband's hand, and put on a professional smile as they stepped through the portal.
Arriving at a small farming village wasn't as much of a novel experience as it should have been, although it was the first time she had a physical body, her familiarity with such an environment was mostly due to most of her kind choosing to live in similar villages in the astral realms, preferring a quieter life over the grandeur of temples and palaces. There was no need for huge displays of wealth when everyone knew that wealth meant little to those above them.
Yuri greeted them with a deep bow and led them inside a small house filled with thick clouds of strong-smelling fumes similar to the ones found in her husband's laboratory, fumes that made her wrinkle her nose at the strength.
The young man was held in a sitting position by a girl of roughly the same age by the shoulders. The boy was unconscious, his face pale, and his life signs… nearly invisible to even her eyes. The girl, on the other hand, had a heartbeat so fast that the blood-pumping organ practically threatened to explode at any moment. She was as pale as the boy, but her reason for such an unhealthy appearance was her extreme worry for the boy.
Reading people's emotions was such a natural habit for her kind; Mariposa didn't even hesitate to indulge in such privacy-invading actions.
'She has intense romantic feelings towards the alchemist, which aren't answered.' She observed as Tabula walked over to the boy and performed a mana transfer.
"Will Nfirea be alright?" The girl timidly asked, still holding onto the boy with a skin-whitening grip.
"There shouldn't be any lingering health issues. Overspending mana is not dangerous, only mildly unpleasant, and in the long run he will be fine," Tabula responded.
Nfirea slowly opened his eyes and glanced around with glassy eyes and a confused expression. His gaze eventually stopped on the girl. Their eyes met.
Mariposa watched with barely hidden amusement, as both faces not only instantly regained their colors but grew slightly red within seconds.
'They are heads over heels for each other, but neither has made a move. Ah, humans make romance so complicated. I wonder if I should make a push.' It surely wouldn't hurt, and if the boy was already overworking himself, then no doubt a relationship with this girl wouldn't make him abandon his duties. If anything, it likely would help to lead a more balanced life, which was in the interest of her husband who too often spent in her opinion a little too much time in the laboratory if it wasn't for her efforts.
The two youngsters hastily let go of each other as both scrambled to their feet.
"I am Tabula, this is my wife Mariposa, and it is nice to meet you in person, Nfirea, although circumstances might have been better." Tabula introduced her and himself.
"I'm sorry… I tried to follow the instructions, and once I saw the first results, I got too excited and didn't think of stopping, before I could realize… It was already too late. Look, there are tiny specks of red floating in the solution!" Nfirea grabbed a vial from the table and presented it before his employer, beaming with pride and effectively ignoring everything and everyone else.
"Fascinating; And you managed this with your current mana pool? If we optimized the process, you might be able to create a red potion on your own." Tabula was optimistic about the future, grinning.
"Let's give the boys some space." Mariposa motioned for the girl to follow and walked outside, closing the door behind them.
"I didn't catch your name?" She started the conversation as both walked out of the house, strolling in a random direction through the village, with Yuri tailing them.
"Enri." The girl replied timidly.
"There is no need to be so reserved. Seeing how my husband and Nfirea interact, I have no doubt we'll be close friends in the future, besides, I prefer things to be informal." She flashed the girl a smile.
"I just… hope Enfi won't push himself so hard anymore," Enri admitted. There was something about this woman that made her open up. Perhaps she was a friendly soul she didn't need to pretend to be tough in front of.
"He needs someone to ground him, speaking of which, why has neither of you made the move?"
"W-what?! What do you mean?" Enri suddenly stopped, flustered.
"Dear, you can't just wait for what you want to come… You need to take what you desire, otherwise, the life you dreamt of may never come."
"But what if he… I am just a farmer… and he is…" Enri stared downward, again rapidly filling with self-doubt. Typical for humans.
"What you are… is blind, my dear, all the signs were there… when you were next to each other, you just refused to see them… The doubts blind you… You know he likes you a lot… Nfirea, just like my husband, might be overly passionate about their job, but that doesn't mean they want to be alone… Be more courageous… and bring out the man you want to see from him." Mariposa moved in front of Enri, her shadow cast over the shorter girl.
"But… what if… " Enri looked up, staring into the enchanting eyes of the older woman. She could never compare to such beauty. Just like with her saviors, there was something otherworldly about Mariposa; she couldn't put her finger on it, but there was an undeniable wisdom in her words.
'I need to confront Enfi, I can't just wait around… Some other girl might decide to take him.'
"You are right, Miss Mariposa… I will talk to him." Enri nodded with determination, either she would be a taken woman tonight… or know for sure that there was no future with Nfirea and her; either way, she knew what to do next.
"I'll pray for your success, and my dear, remember that the woman is always the one who decides."
Editing by aidan_lo.
Proofreading by nate051499j6, aidan_lo, Squid, fvvck, Sluethen, x4x, clagan, Milk, Ainz-sama, LionLover and Stac.
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