TFOA Chapter 1. The Fields of Auvers.

In the end, she failed at dying. So she came here.

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"Do you see that wheat field over there? We'll arrive soon."

At the coachman's words, she poked her head out the window.

Blue-green fields and the wheat field beyond them. A small rural village bordering the sea in the southern part of the continent. It was Auvers.

The local specialties were dried cranberries, wax made from pine sap, and violets. Nothing particularly special.

Well, these days children eat chocolate instead of dried cranberries. They'll even scrunch up their faces in disgust at cranberries baked into bread or pastries.

Just half a year ago, wax was flying off the shelves for cleaning gun barrels, but now that the country was at peace, it hardly sold at all except for sealing letters.

As for violets, they were just as useless back then as they are now.

Niksi neatly folded the map of Auvers village.

'Right. Cranberry bread was the most popular at the supply depot, and the days of cleaning gun barrels with pine resin wax are long gone.'

Niksi rolled the medicine bottle in her hand. A few hours ago, she had placed her fourteenth resignation letter on Colonel Arthur's desk and fled.

The problem child of the unit and mad chemist. This escape was by no means impulsive. She had already scouted out a quiet place to live after her (dis)honorable discharge and even prepared a house.

Since her colleagues might go wild or come after her because of her desertion, she ran off without saying anything to them. It's better to cut problems at the root.

Still, she had some affection for them, so she casually let it slip to just one comrade she was closest with. But that guy would have brushed it off as 'spouting nonsense again.' Soldiers who write reports and researchers who write papers are always a bit off anyway.

This was the shepherd boy strategy. By usually telling lies and nonsense as naturally as eating meals, she made it so that even when she occasionally told the truth, no one would believe her.

'Absolutely perfect.'

The war that seemed like it would never end had ended. And the carriage that seemed like it would never reach its destination had stopped.

Niksi poked her head out the window. The fresh scent characteristic of pine groves wafted through the air.

"We've arrived!"

They had arrived in front of a field overgrown with brush and a crumbling abandoned house. The coachman wore a puzzled expression, wondering if this was really the right destination.

Niksi got off the carriage with her modest luggage consisting of just one small bag. When she added an extra 100 euros as thanks for his trouble, the coachman's puzzled expression disappeared entirely and he headed back the way he came with a beaming smile.

"Good. Let's take a tour of the house first, shall we?"

After the war ended, she had spent all her savings to buy this empty house on the outskirts of Auvers and the surrounding fields. That was exactly what was now before her eyes - fields full of thickets and a dilapidated abandoned house.

It was damper than she'd expected, but fortunately it got good sunlight, and if she climbed up on the fence around the edge of the field and craned her neck, she could see the village entrance, so it wouldn't be lonely.

'With the remaining money, I wonder what I should repair first. This needs fixing and that needs fixing too.'

Tables of different heights, an old wooden sofa, a grimy rug, a cupboard with peeling paint. Everything looked at least ten years old and tacky.

"Hmm."

Let's just smash it all first.

The 'Queen of Destruction' forged by over a decade of combat and laboratory explosions. The first thing she did was shove everything into the fireplace.

Niksi wiped the sweat beaded on her forehead with the back of her hand after hacking apart the wooden sofa with an axe that had been lying around.

A fire blazed in the fireplace. With warmth spreading through the house that had been without people, both the chilly interior and the overgrown field visible through the window looked quite peaceful.

There was a lot of dust, so she opened the window. To the south, the sea was faintly visible.

Niksi gazed at the rippling blue expanse before closing the window again.

After throwing out the furniture in the house, burning it, hauling water in a dented bucket and hanging it on the iron bars inside the fireplace, and scrubbing the floor raw, Niksi could finally collapse on the floor.

[I'm going to become a farmer.]

At Niksi's out-of-the-blue declaration that she was going to become a farmer, her colleagues laughed as if they couldn't believe it.

[Where did the Niksi who was dog-loyal to the country go?]

[Stop talking nonsense and just write that stem cell genetic engineering paper you were working on, Nick.]

[Are you serious, darling? You'll be getting medals and promotions soon.]

[Wait thirty years to do farming after you get an honorable discharge. Then you can live carefree until you die.]

Just as they said, if she let her life flow naturally, it would be relatively close to a 'successful life.'

Her homeland had won the war, and they were able to win because of the biochemical weapons she had invented.

After the war ended, she became the hero who saved the country, and now that the country was entering a period of stability, she just needed to step onto her shining life path.

"What good would that do now?"

Niksi got up. She couldn't spend her first day of farming like this. She needed to wash up and greet the villagers.

That's why she had packed her bag full of expensive chocolates instead of daily necessities.

After hurriedly washing up, she threw on an awkwardly fitted light blue dress and left the house.

Passing the creek with its stone bridge and crossing over the wheat field hill, Auvers village came into view.

The village was so tiny compared to the city where she used to live that she could cover it with her palm from the bottom of the hill and hide it completely. Red brick that contrasted with the bronze and gray marble of the city. Charming ivory-colored buildings that looked like they were baked from beach sand.

'New things are always exciting!'

Niksi gazed at the village visible in the distance with flushed cheeks.

"Welcome to Auvers village! What did you say your name was?"

"Niksi. I don't have a surname."

Gilbert, who introduced himself as the village head, laughed heartily and shook hands with her. He looked young for a village head. An impressive person with thick brown curly hair and olive-colored eyes. His smiling face was quite attractive.

'About my age, maybe? Or younger?'

Niksi looked around inside the village hall and sank into the cozy sofa in the reception room.

Apparently pleased with Niksi's chocolate gift, he immediately heated some hot milk, dropped three chocolates into it, and handed it to her.

"You're living in the northern forest by the fields? There should only be an abandoned house there."

"Oh, I bought that house. I like quiet places with few people. I also like the metasequoia path nearby."

"The scenery is nice. You can see the sea too. But it's been an abandoned house for a long time, so it's not really fit for people to live in, is it? There must be a lot of weeds."

"There are definitely a lot of weeds - it was hard to find the front door. If I were a bit shorter, I would have gotten lost in the weed patch. I haven't lived there long enough to know if it's livable yet. I'll find out whether it's a livable place or not by living there."

"That's good. I welcome you as a neighbor."

Gilbert chuckled as he replied.

As soon as Niksi finished her hot chocolate, he kindly offered to introduce her to the villagers.

After completing the simple paperwork to become a village resident, Niksi followed behind him.

"You said you came from the city? Then you probably have most daily necessities... Is there anything else you need? Oil for lamps, or fragrant oils to remove musty smells?"

At Gilbert's words, Niksi furrowed her brow as she recalled what she currently needed.

Noticing that she needed quite a lot of things, Gilbert pointed to a shop at the corner of the road and said it was Helen's general store. It was a place where climbing roses elegantly wrapped around the shop sign.

There was no one in the store. Niksi wrote,

<From. Your kind neighbor, Niksi's gift.>

on the chocolate wrapper and slipped the chocolate into the mailbox.

"Come to think of it, I don't have bedding. But that's okay, I can just cover myself with my outer clothes and sleep."

"You really don't have the basics. It's almost spring, but Auvers mornings are still cold. If you sleep without bedding, your mouth will go crooked."

"Wouldn't it balance out somehow if I alternated sleeping on my right and left sides each night?"

"Ha ha, it wouldn't be okay. I'll lend you bedding. I have some prepared for guests."

"You're kind."

"Don't mention it."

Next to the general store was Mullen Edgar's 'Seeds & Seedlings' shop.

<Potato and Sweet Potato Seedlings for Cheap Sale>

The signboard written directly with lime was impressive. Because the handwriting was horrendously messy.

The shop owner Edgar happened to be smoking in front of his store. With great gusto, Niksi scurried over to him and handed him chocolate.

Edgar jumped up in surprise. Cigarette ash fell onto his ashen beard.

"I'm Niksi from the northern forest by the fields."

Niksi said with a beaming smile.

Edgar silently looked back and forth between the chocolate and Niksi as if observing them, then went inside the store. His stomping footsteps sounded like someone who was quite angry.

'Did I do something wrong? Or is this what they call territorial behavior?'

After blinking a couple times, Niksi nudged Gilbert with her elbow and whispered quietly.

"Hey, Gil. Did I do something wrong? Does he maybe have a chocolate allergy?"

"He's embarrassed. Uncle Edgar is very shy."

"A shy gentleman sees a new neighbor greeting him and frowns before going into his house?"

Thud! A sound came from inside the store. Niksi was startled and opened her eyes wide like a rabbit.

"It just seems more believable that he simply doesn't like new neighbors."

"...Auvers folk are just like that."

Gilbert shrugged as he spoke.

After another thud sound, Edgar came out carrying a basket woven from straw. Still with a grim face, he stared at Niksi intently before abruptly holding out the basket.

The basket was full of dried sweet potatoes and jerky.

"Wow. That's an amazing amount of dried stuff."

They must have been dried well throughout the winter, as they maintained their pale color without discoloration.

Edgar stroked his beard as he replied.

"Mullen Edgar."

"Yes, Mr. Edgar. Thank you. I'm Niksi. I don't have a surname."

"If you eat too many, your jaw will hurt, so only eat four a day."

'But is it really okay to accept all of this? He didn't clean out his entire household, did he?'

Niksi looked at Gilbert with a troubled expression over the basket full of jerky and dried sweet potatoes. Gilbert shrugged again.

Resigned, Niksi put jerky in her mouth to lighten the basket even a little. A moderately salty and mild meat flavor filled her mouth. It had a slight wine fragrance, as if it had been aged in wine before drying.

"Thank you. I actually needed to strengthen my jaw since it often goes crooked."

"Then five pieces."

The jerky suited even Niksi's finicky palate. She finished one piece of jerky right there and also put a dried sweet potato in her mouth. It was soft and sweet, despite being dried.

"I was originally planning to only grow cranberries and blueberries, but this taste makes me want to grow sweet potatoes."

Niksi ordered thirty sweet potato seedlings from Edgar right then and there. The shy Edgar smirked and replied, "Deal with the weeds in your field first before talking."