TFOA Chapter 27

"What? You're saying it was a stray dog that did all that?"

"Yeah."

The next day.

Niksi learned the full story of the incident that had come up in the village meeting from Gilbert.

The livestock disappearances and attack incidents were the doing of what appeared to be a stray beagle.

They found a beagle dead at the entrance to the back mountain behind the village, with blood and chicken feathers stuck to its mouth. Why it died wasn't exactly clear.

The dog was quite aged, and his theory was that it might have died choking while trying to swallow a chicken it had hunted with its worn-down teeth.

After all that earnest deduction, it turned out to be an old beagle's doing.

Her flawless 'Artist catches the culprit and makes a friend!' strategy! Niksi wildly tousled her own hair.

Yesterday she had worked so desperately to persuade him, even forcing herself to dredge up memories from her dimming past. All her efforts had turned to bubbles.

"How?! How on earth did it open the chicken coop door? How did it drag off the goat? Does that dog have an IQ of around 130?"

"The dog's smarter than me?"

"No, but how could it commit such a perfect crime? It's not like it opened the chicken coop door with its paws!"

"The owner forgot to lock up properly."

"Who's the owner? Tell them to come out."

"Grandmother Charlotte."

"Tell her to go back inside. Her knees hurt, where's she going to go."

Anyway, the fact remained that the campaign had fallen through. Disappointed, Niksi sat on the wooden fence and let out a deep sigh.

"...Then what about that thing?"

"What?"

"That trap that injured Helen's leg. Isn't that connected to the animal deaths at all?"

"No connection. That was just an accident. When we cleaned up the village early this year, we thought we'd removed all the dangerous things like landmines and bombs along with traps like that... but I guess some were left behind."

When he put it that way, there wasn't much to say.

In the end, the incident was concluded as a stray dog mishap.

Deflated, Niksi went limp and leaned back against the fence.

"Still, since the villagers are worried, I'm thinking of doing patrols tonight and tomorrow night."

"Patrols?"

The patrols Gilbert spoke of were closer to taking a stroll around the village with lanterns around midnight.

A ritual-like walk to check if there were any suspicious people around. If there were any wild animals.

But to the new neighbor, it sounded a little different. A surprise event by the name of nighttime walks.

"I want to go too."

"I figured you would."

He chuckled softly.

"Then come to the village hall at midnight tonight."

"Great! What should I bring? Snacks? A club? Or a stun gun?"

"Nothing quite so elaborate... but snacks would be good. We'll get hungry pretty quickly walking around."

Niksi decided to go home immediately and gather tree fruits from the back mountain.

As midnight approached. Niksi packed various odds and ends into a small backpack.

From small berries to pop in her mouth when she got hungry, to a magic wand that could resolve any problems amicably should they encounter any bad guys.

"You're here?"

In front of the hall stood Gilbert in light clothing.

As she had expected, he carried nothing but a modest lantern.

Just then, clear bell chimes announced the hour.

Niksi and Gilbert began their patrol starting with Edgar's house, where he ran a seeds & seedlings shop.

The village had hardly anything that could be called street lamps, so it was quietly dark without a single light.

Moreover, since country folk's days followed the sun, everyone had gone to bed by such evenings when the sun wasn't up, so there wasn't even the smallest sound. Even breathing could be heard loudly.

Rustle rustle. It was the sound of stepping on grass that was just beginning to grow.

"Gil, want to eat this?"

Niksi rummaged through her pocket and pulled out cherry berries. These were the ones she had spent the whole day picking only the ripest for this night walk.

"Thanks."

There was no reason to turn down Auvers' sweet and sour summer cherries.

Gilbert placed five cherries on his palm and put them in his mouth one by one.

"What are you talking about. I picked a lot, so eat plenty!"

She opened the backpack she had carried over to show him. Just as Niksi said, the backpack was crammed full of bright red cherries.

"What's this?"

Gilbert pointed to something brown and elongated buried deep among the cherries.

"A magic wand that sends bad guys to the other world."

"That's a revolver..."

"A magic wand."

"How cool."

She said she was making thorough preparations, and she had prepared even something like this.

Gilbert made a firm resolution that he absolutely must not let her have occasion to draw that wand.

A narrow alley with stone walls on both sides. A green-roofed house with roses in full bloom.

Landscapes she hadn't known because she usually only took familiar paths.

Niksi greeted a cat sleeping sprawled out lazily on a low warehouse roof.

Gilbert told Niksi, who was asking whether there were any other events besides this surprise night walk, about several events that might sound enticing.

"In winter there's something called caroling."

"Caroling?"

"Yeah. At midnight crossing from Eve to Christmas... so exactly like right now, it's an event where we leave presents in front of the villagers' houses. It's called caroling because we leave presents while singing carols."

"Santa Claus announcing his arrival?"

"Something like that."

"Will you do it this year too?"

"Yeah. Remember this patrol route well. It's the route we'll have to deliver presents on this year."

"What? I want to start over from the beginning!"

Gilbert caught the back of Niksi's neck as she tried to run off.

"Isn't there more?"

"What more?"

"Village events! If possible, something that happens in summer like now. That way I can look forward to just that one thing and live passionately through this summer."

"Hmm."

In the quiet night when everyone was asleep. Niksi's eyes lit up at the unexpected event announcement.

"After the early summer rainy season ends, dirt accumulates by the sea, right? There's an event to clear that out..."

"Not labor."

"It's still an event. When that's done, we hold a bazaar on the beach."

"Hmm... near the sea is a bit..."

"Of course we hold it in the fields near the beach too."

"I'm so excited! When does the rainy season come?!"

Having apparently forgotten she had said she disliked the rainy season, Niksi spoke as cheerfully as a child waiting to open presents.

"Before that, we need to prepare for the rainy season first. All the berries we worked so hard to plant might get washed away in the water."

At his words, the novice farmer became solemn.

It was the solemnity of someone who would clearly be devastated without any preparation.

'Wait.'

For a moment, the village head felt a chill down his spine. This person, surely she wouldn't actually be unprepared for the rainy season?

"...Listen carefully, Niksi."

At this rate, not only would the berries get washed away in the rainy season, but the tears and sorrow of a farmer who had ruined her crops would get washed away together too.

Gilbert seized the moment when Niksi had become serious to lecture her on how to dig water channels in fields in preparation for the rainy season.

"You understand, right? You absolutely must pile up the dirt a bit higher than the expected water level."

"Ugh. It'd be better to just make a floating garden."

"In theory, that's right, but wait Niksi. I'm warning you beforehand - absolutely no making our village float in the air or turning it into a giant's house on top of a beanstalk."

One absurd thing like that beanstalk was quite enough for Auvers.

That's why Gilbert sternly warned her when he saw that impish look on Niksi's face.

"Roger that, old sport." Niksi saluted.

'Come to think of it, the rainy season is coming soon.'

Even though good and bad weather was irregular, the rainy season was amazingly precise.

'There'll be a lot to prepare.' Gilbert thought.

When summer came with sleepless, hot nights, there was something the Grace family always used to do.

"...We would go on picnics to the violet fields, or camp in small tents in the middle of wheat fields."

Violet field picnics were something he'd only heard about and been to just once, and even that had long since been ruined because the flower fields had vanished.

But the wheat fields were still standing, and summer camping was quite a decent idea.

A slightly elevated spot where lots of wind blew.

The tent would sometimes get blown away while sleeping, but even so, it was a summer when they had laughed.

"Camping?"

A questioning voice with a drawn-out ending spilled out from beside him.

The excited voice with obvious intent was funny, making Gilbert burst into laughter.

"Should we?"

"Why are you even asking? We should do it right away."

"You might not like it."

"If it's with Gil, I wouldn't dislike anything."

Her cheeky wink was especially sweet today.

"...Then let's go sprinkle fertilizer in the sweet potato field in the morning. You wouldn't dislike that, right?"

"Hey, I said no labor. It's canceled, canceled."

'...Did I stare at the light too long?'

Strangely, yellow light was dancing in his field of vision. Whether it was the lantern light he was holding creating afterimages even when he closed his eyes or what.

Gilbert rubbed his eyes to erase the yellow vision.

Making his efforts pointless, his neighbor who was the embodiment of yellow itself brought her face close.

"Sleepy?"

"...When I'm with the most raucous neighbor in the village, that's unlikely."

"But your eyes are red."

Gilbert reflexively put up his hand to block Niksi's face as she came closer.

It was such a reflexive action that even Gilbert himself was flustered after blocking her face.

"Don't come that close."

"Why? Do I stink?"

"Uh... I'm not really sure about that... you might...?"

Gilbert carefully removed his hand.

Do I stink...! Niksi was shocked at the possibility that she might stink.

At that ridiculous expression, his vision that had been yellow just moments before instantly returned to normal.

Ahem. Gilbert coughed a few times and walked ahead.

"Let's go quickly, Niksi. At this rate, dawn will break."

"Really? Is it awful? Bad enough that you can't walk with me?"

Niksi ran after him, out of breath.

Niksi began the rainy season preparation water drainage project.

Making paths for water to flow out between the prettily sectioned fields, and sticking in support posts so the seedlings wouldn't have their stems broken by the rainwater.

Just when she was getting into this hard labor in earnest, the sound of horse hooves clattering came from nearby.

It was the sound of Edgar from the seeds & seedlings shop coming with a big cart from far away.

'Why is Edgar coming all the way to my house? Did I order something? I've already planted all the sweet potato and potato seedlings. So what's left is...'

Sunflowers?

Niksi, who had been gritting her teeth through the continuing hard work just moments before, beamed and ran over with her hoe still gripped in her hand.

The sunflower seedlings she had ordered in early spring had arrived.

"Niksi. The sunflowers you ordered."

"Edgar!"

The cart was packed full with seedlings that hadn't bloomed yet. Cute little things with two leaves each, smaller than a palm.

They still looked modest and no different from bean leaves since they hadn't grown much yet, but if planted now and given plenty of sun and water throughout summer, they would soon grow much taller than the current Niksi.

"Should I unload them in front of your house?"

"Yes! Yahoo! Thank you, Edgar!"

Excited Niksi helped him unload the seedlings to the ground.

Her head was already full of sunflowers. Someday, there would be an endless yellow scenery blooming in front of her yard and on the path up the hill.

The rainy season and whether to lay water channels or not quickly disappeared. It was due to her optimistic habit of immediately eliminating anything boring.

After moving all the seedlings to her yard and giving Edgar some cherry juice, Niksi stood proudly in the middle of her yard with an excited face.

And boldly declared:

"I forgot to bring the shovel from the artist's house."

The number one essential equipment for planting sunflowers. She had forgotten that important thing.

She had taken it when filling up that awful bean pit!

The ground in front of the yard fence had been dug up in advance, but the problem was in front of her own house, the path going up the hill.

Even with proper shoveling, that place would take more than half a day, but to dig up that ground with bare hands?

It was nothing short of a novel form of suicide.

'The artist is probably about now...'

Niksi stuck her neck way out to look down at the wide wheat field below the hill.

Sure enough, the artist who had just arrived in the middle of the field to paint was visible, laying out his things and sitting down.

She gathered strength in her stomach and yelled with all her might:

"Artiiiiist! I left the shovel at your hoooouse! Can I stop by your place?"

She could see the artist in the field below startle at her words.

When he looked in her direction, Niksi waved both hands frantically.

He gazed steadily at her, then turned his head back toward the canvas. It was a clear dismissal.

So Niksi brought out a full-length mirror and shook it at him. What was she trying to do, blind someone? That couldn't be ignored.

She could see the artist hurriedly rising from his place. He bent his waist as if something was on the ground, then straightened up. He was gripping something in one hand.

It was her shovel.

To minimize incidents of Niksi bursting into the house, he had brought it out with him when he came outside.

'Artists really are considerate!'

With a delighted heart, Niksi rushed down the hill and received the shovel from the artist.