Tangent.
　It's been a year.

　It's been a year since I, Dariel, came to the village of Lax.
　A lot of things have happened.

　I was expelled from the Demon King's army, I thought I was a demon, but I turned out to be a human, I became a resident of this village, and I worked for this village for a year.
　I'd like to think it was a fruitful year.

　I am now a member of the Lax Village, and the bonds between us have grown stronger.

　What kind of changes have occurred in the village over the past year?
　Myself.

　Let's take a look at that area in turn.

◆

　First of all, regarding the entire village of Lax, this has developed greatly.

　The return of the Mithril mine to the hands of the human race was a major factor in this.
　With the establishment of an important center in the neighborhood, the importance of LUX Village has increased and the number of people coming and going has also increased.

　The mithril dug out of the mines is transported to the village of Lax, where it is processed into weapons through a variety of processes.

　The smithy, built on the outskirts of the village, is manned by a number of blacksmiths called in by Grandpa Smith, who hammer the mithril day and night.

　The finished weapons are put on wagons and transported to various places.

　Mithril weapons are more powerful and expensive than any other weapon made of any other material.
　The trade brought huge profits and helped the village grow.

　The blacksmiths who moved into the village were highly paid.
　The people who originally lived in the village also sold firewood, medicines, and animal meat to such blacksmiths, and they were very successful.

　There is still a lot of work to be done, though, as development is still in its infancy.

　And as for me personally, here's what I've been up to....

　I got married.

　The guy is Marika.

　Needless to say, the catalyst for this was the incident in the sauna.
　Things were progressing at a brisk pace from then on, and before I knew it, we were getting married.

　And it didn't stop there.

　A child was born.

　The flow of events was so swift that it was scary.

　A healthy boy was born.
　I named him Gran.
　I took the liberty of borrowing part of his name from someone I adore like a father.

　When he was a dark soldier in the Demon King's army. I had completely given up on the idea that I, who couldn't even use magic, would ever get a wife.
　The fact that I can have a family at the age of thirty makes my second life truly fulfilling.

　Every time I look into my baby's bed and see my child sleeping, my vision is clouded with tears of joy.
　Seeing me, Marika, who had become my wife, said, "You.

You," she said. You don't want to be moved here, do you?

　She has rapidly prepared herself for the charms of a married woman in the past year.

'You're only the first, aren't you?

　And rubbed his own stomach.
　.........
　Apparently I have to work harder still.

　Well, having many children is not unusual in the countryside.

　Also, there was another change when I married the village chief's daughter, Malika.

　I became the village chief.

　It's a promotion.
　I'm sure you'll be able to find out what's going on in the village.

　As for the recommendation for me as village chief....
'It would be inconvenient for an important person like you to not have a single title,' he says.
　I say.

　My mithril dealings with the demon tribe through my old friend Rizeto are still going on, and the knockers in the mine still trust me first and foremost.
　I'm the one who will take the lead when something goes wrong, and they say it's easier for me to move around if I have a title of village chief.

　I'm sure he'll continue to work for the village, of course, but as for me, it's a point that I can't argue with.

　It's a good idea to have the rightful succession route in place by marrying the village chief's daughter, Malika.

　So I became the village chief.

　The man who was the village chief when I visited is no longer the chief, but his father-in-law.
　He is the father of my beloved wife.

　His father-in-law used to be both village chief and guild master, but by handing over the village chief role to me, he focused solely on being the guild master.
　So it's not a complete retirement, but he's working with me in the direction of organizing the adventurers in the village.

　That said, though, he leaves most of the work of running the village to me and dotes on his first grandchild, Gran, every day.

　As village chief, I have a lot of work to do.

　It wouldn't have been so difficult when the village was a backwater village before the mine was reclaimed, but now I'm very busy.

　The fact that they're leaving the village's future in my hands makes it a great responsibility, but at the same time it's a rewarding one.

　Since I was born a man, I'm the master of a castle!
　No, it's just a village.

　And then.....
　This past year has been a year of celebration, but there were also sad things.

　Grandpa Smith passed away.

　He was a blacksmith who had known many things as a blacksmith and had mastered the skills of a master blacksmith for many years, but he had passed away along with all those precious things.

　The cause of death was old age.

　He had been working vigorously since it was decided to open a blacksmith's shop in Lax Village.
　He called in many young blacksmiths from his home village to spread his skills and contributed greatly to the reestablishment of the forge in Lax Village.

　He passed away suddenly without a long illness.

　On that day, the work to open the forge had come to a close, and we all drank and made a lot of noise to celebrate the opening of the forge.
　In the midst of it all, Grandpa Smith was more excited than anyone else, talking about his dreams without being worthy of his age, and screaming that he was going to bury his bones in the village, and he was drunk.
　He was carried away by his disciples and left on his bed and never woke up.

　The funeral was held in our village.
　We discussed the possibility of returning his body to his hometown of Blacksmith Village, but we wanted to respect what he had said the day before, so we erected his grave in the village of Lax.

　His disciples told me that he had been in poor health to begin with, but he had rushed to the village of Lax.
　They said they were surprised to see that he was surprisingly healthy after that trip, but I wonder if he had returned to the last few months of his life, when he was at his most brilliant.

　I had no idea that he'd actually make my Hermes sword his last work.

　The forge that was opened is running without problems, directed by my grandfather's apprentices.

　Their goal is to surpass their master's skills, based on the teachings he left behind.

　Believing that one day they will create a masterpiece that will be even better than the Hermes Sword.

　Over the course of a year, many things have changed in our Lax Village.

　We've made progress in some areas, and there are still many things that we need to work on.
　LUX Village will continue to change in the years to come.

　The story will continue to unfold in this village.