Isekai Nonbiri Nouka
chapter-44

Wine was produced.

Loo and Tier suggested a taste test event but when it was announced, it became a drinking event and eventually became a party.

Though I have made much wine, the amount of consumption of the residents is enormous.

Four barrels were emptied in that party.

Maa, I’ll just continue to make wine as much as I harvest but….

The evaluation was too good.

「This is the first time I taste wine as good as this.」

「Ah, delicious」

「Was wine supposed to be this good?」

「One more cup」

「You drink too much. Show some modesty…I’ll drink my share though.」

It’s not bad and it really tastes like wine but….I don’t think it is enough to be praised that much.

I think it has not fermented that much, it tastes sweet…

「Husband, let’s increase the vineyard.」

「My liege, I’m inexperienced but let me do what I can to help you.」

「Village chief, leave the barrel making to me.」

Thus, the number of vineyards for wine increased.

That’s probably a good thing….

By the way, the wine was popular with the kuros too.

Of the four barrels of wine, the kuros drank one.

Dogs…..this is the first time I saw one getting drunk and stagger while walking.

Afterwards, I noticed that the kuros concentrated on guarding the vineyards…..I want to think that it’s just my imagination.

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Wine was not something to be consumed regularly, it was supposed to be served at an event or something.

Though there are some objections, they consented in the end.

Probably because everyone thought that the supply won’t last if it is consumed regularly.

I don’t dislike wine and I’m not craving for it but something inside me considers wine as a luxury good.

In my previous world, wine was consumed in medieval time casually because drinkable water is hard to come by but we can draw clean water from the well here so we don’t need to rely on wine.

Maa, the requests of the citizens to bring out wine increases as they thought of several reasons to demand for it but that is another story.

TN: Side Story: The Village’s Wine Rebellion

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Now that we’re breeding cows and chickens, milk and egg supply are now secured.

As a result, the number of dishes we can cook has increased.

I need to increase the number of chickens so I did not use them all for cooking.

Only those eggs that are not laid in the hen house are to be consumed.

I tried cooking using it.

The first dish I cook is a plain omelet seasoned with salt and pepper.

Delicious.

A nostalgic taste.

Suddenly, I saw Kuro’s head lying on the table.

I gave him some.

Kuro ate it with satisfaction.

Next….pudding.

Ingredients are milk, eggs, and sugar.

Since I extracted sugar from sugarcane, I have enough on hands.

I cooked it and poured it into a wooden glass.

That felt good.

Now, I’ll have to put it somewhere to cool it down…should I put it in the cellar?

While waiting for it to cool down, I experimented on making caramel sauce.

Caramel sauce is made by heating a mixture of sugar and water.

But it is not as simple as I thought.

I burnt it many times before I succeeded.

However, everything I’ve done was in vain.

The smell of burnt caramel sauce is very sweet.

Loo, Tier, Flora, and the onis who were supposed to be doing their respective job are unexpectedly standing by the door.

…….

Because of the low supply of eggs, I only managed to make five puddings thus, a battle has occurred.

Even if the onis were up against Flora and Loo, they did not back out.

Seeing that, I abandoned the thought of winning a pudding myself.

After that, the elves and the angels heard about the pudding. The result, the eggs are now exclusively for pudding making.

I want to hasten the increase of the number of chickens.

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A guest came to the village.

This was the first time.

Seeing his fine clothes, he’s probably a noble.

But he’s not flashy enough so he’s probably a bureaucrat.

He came here alone while being guided by Gran Maria’s group.

The guest is not human.

If my senses are correct, he might be someone from the demon race.

Therefore, I met him with a moderate number of people who can fight.

Loo, Tier, and Flora. The kuros are hiding behind the scene. The high elves and lizardmen are also there while holding their respective weapons.

The onis are also in that place and are all behind me.

Gran Maria brought him alone. Kuudel and Corone are not here.

It is because it is dangerous if all of us gather in one place.

Because of that, Zabuton is not here too.

「I am the Demon King’s envoy. I would like to meet the representative of this place.」

Demon King’s envoy.

He looks like a normal human being but he’s a demon after all.

Anyway, since he’s looking for me, I stepped forward.

「That would be me.」

「You?」

The other party was stunned for a moment but managed to calm down after a bit.

I probably am too far from what a legitimate village chief looks like.

「How impolite of me. My name is Beezel. I am the demon king’s envoy.」

「I’m Hiraku.」

Because the other party did not say his last name, I did not say mine too.

He probably only cares about first names.

The man who introduced himself as Beezel showed various things as proof that he really is the demon king’s envoy. After the confirmation, he gave me some presents.

「It is a token of our acquaintanceship.」

「Thank you very much.」

I don’t really know what are the things he gave me but seeing Loo’s pleased expression, these are probably good things.

Normally, I should have a few more exchanges of pleasantries but I want to move to the main subject.

「So what does demon king-sama wants?」

For this occasion, I add “sama” to the demon king.

I don’t want things to go bad and be in trouble.

「We want to discuss about our relationship with this place.」

「That’s the only message?」

「N-no, I have a certain level of authority. I have enough power to decide our relationship with this place.」

「Ah…..I see.」

He wants to discuss their relationship with this place.

I recalled the demon king’s sphere of influence.

In other words, do they want us to pay tax?

Or do they want us to leave?

I previously heard that I don’t need to worry anything about the demon king since he never helped us with anything.

Should I consult this matter with Loo and Tier?

When I turned my gaze to them, they returned my gaze as if saying they leave everything to me.

…..

I see.

They entrusted this to me.

This negotiation.

The basics of negotiation. First, you need to be resolute with your proposal.

「If you recognize us living here, I am willing to pay 10% of our harvested goods as tax.」

10%.

I tried presenting tax which is basically profit.

It is necessary to propose a cheap tax first since he will definitely propose a heavy tax later.

And since we volunteered to pay tax, it’s a good point for them.

By paying taxes, we are basically saying that we recognize and has no plan to defy the demon king.

However, since I don’t know much about the economy of this world, I said a bullish percentage first.

That is, 10% of the harvest.

「Eh? A-are you sure?」

Areh?

The other party is totally surprised.

That, does it mean that the tax I proposed is not too low…?

Since he’s surprised, let’s continue.

「Please come and get it before winter every year.」

If you want our tax, get it yourself.

TN: Yeah, show him who’s the boss.

「I-I understand. We will follow that arrangement.」

Areh?

After that, we finalized the details.

The tax is 10 percent of the harvested goods.

However, it is limited to field crops.

Milk, eggs, honey, and wine are not included.

In addition, crops with low yield are not included too.

They are crops that do not fill one large barrel per harvest.

If there are things that the demon king’s party wanted, we must agree first and they have to purchase it from us.

After summarizing all of those things and writing it in a document, Beezel returned.

Though I gave him souvenirs, I reflected. As expected, I might have been too aggressive for him to agree to all those clauses.

He gave me presents too.

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「…did I do just fine?」

Everyone looks troubled upon hearing me.

Then, Loo says

「I think it was not bad at all. By paying tax, we will be under the other party’s protection.」

「I agree. Even so….fufu, 10%?」

Tier laughs as if something is funny.

It seems like the normal tax rate for harvested goods is from 50% to 60%. Depending on the place, it might even rise up to 90%.

「It was also nice to let him get it. It is indirectly saying that we don’t want them to take up residence here.」

Ann nods.

Eh?

I don’t have such intention….

「We can harvest many times a year. Since they will only come once before winter, they won’t be able to accurately measure our production volume. To gain the protection of the demon king’s army with less than 10% tax….as expected of the village chief.」

Ria puts together her opinion.

I never plan such a thing. I plan to properly calculate our tax and pay our share with the right amount….

Maybe this is the common sense of this world.

In any case, case closed.

Let’s go back to work everyone.

By the way, the souvenirs we gave Beezel are valuable medicinal herbs. They are all around medicine that can be made as a medicine or as an ointment.

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Demon king’s castle.

「Beezel, how was it? What was the other side’s demand?」

「They said that they will pay tax.」

「What? They are willing to be under us?」

「Yeah」

「…But they have enough power to exterminate that wyvern.」

「You’re right but that was the other party’s proposal.」

「There might be something behind this.」

「I also thought so, but …. We have no choice but to accept it.」

「Why?」

「The blood sucking princess and the angel of annihilation are there. Not only that. There were countless inferno wolves and high elves. Lizardmen and onis too….」

TN: Blood Sucking Princess = Loo, Angel of Annihilation = Tier, Angels of Holocaust = Gran Maria, Kuudel , and Corone, Snipers of the forest of death = High elves. You probably have the idea of how powerful they are now.

「No way? That’s not possible.」

「It was one of the angels of holocaust that acted as my guide. That time, I thought my life will be over…」

「Unbelievable….but with that war potential, they can really exterminate that wyvern.」

「I know what you mean. With that war potential, how can I not adhere to their proposal? It is impossible to refuse. The moment I refuse, they will turn hostile.」

「Mou, mou…..then, what did you….」

「I agreed but we need to do something. Fortunately, their representative is someone easy to talk with.」

「Is that so?」

「Yeah, he even gave me souvenirs.」

「Hou, what did you get?」

「I haven’t checked yet.」

「Let’s check.」

「I’ll show it to demon king-sama otherwise, it will look like I received some bribe.」

「It will be a problem if it is something dangerous, let me check.」

「Mou….you’re right. Let’s check a little.」

「Oh, this this….this fabric? Inside are….fruits? It looks like appo but with better shape and color.」

「Yes, ah, don’t eat it without permission.」

「I’m poison tasting it. Hnn, delicious. No, it’s pretty good. This is amazing!」

「Really? You really are….areh?」

「What happened?」

「This sack where you get that fruit….」

「Oh….what a beautiful fabric. Something wrong?」

「Th-this….this fabric is made from the thread of a demon spider. Moreover, judging from the size of this fabric, it is made by the great demon spider.」

「Demon spider, you mean the overseer of death?」

「Ah」

「”Great”, the one that fought with the demon king 100 years ago and ended with a draw….」

「Considering the size of the fabric … there is no mistake.」

「Did he intentionally gave something this important to you?」

「I want to think so but ….it was used as a fruit wrap?」

「Then he did not give it as a gift. Then that means, the great demon spider is there…. I, I will resign today.」

「Please wait. You are the top of the four heavenly kings. The number one on the list. Are you really going to escape? It’s a….Wait! I’m still talking! Let me come with you!」