Three years have passed since then.
　Now I am fifteen years old.
　After the wheat harvest, the population of the village increased to seventy.

　There were forty more people in the village. Not only were there young children, but many of them were quite large, about ten years old, which indicated that the food situation was not good.

　For the next three years, there was no famine, but as more parents gave up their children from heavy taxes, the current population is a hundred.　It's not funny.

　From my point of view, no country's population is very large.
　I'm sure the number of children born each year isn't that many either...
　It's pretty bad, isn't it?

　Of course there are children who were abandoned or sold into slavery outside of this forest.

　By the way, as for the breakdown of the hundred, there were thirty children between the ages of fifteen and twelve, and forty between the ages of eleven and eight. Forty are between the ages of eleven and eight. There were 30 children under the age of 8.

　The old fields in the village are no longer sufficient, so they are starting to cut down trees to increase the number of fields.

　There are four cows, ten goats, and ten chickens. Ten chickens.
　We want to introduce pigs when we can afford more, but....

　Any more would be rejected by the surrounding villages.
　It's because they were originally given to me through forced negotiations for a small number of them.

　Oops, I shouldn't forget something about the animals.
　Recently, Seo-yeon found three baby hawks.

　He said he couldn't bear to see the parents coming back to the nest, so he brought them here.
　They seem to be a large species of falcon, but with the terrifying size of the raptors that roam the skies of this world, they were probably eaten.

　I told them to throw it away because I doubted they would be able to raise it, and it would take a lot of meat to raise it, but they told me that their situation was a little different than ours, but they couldn't abandon a child without parents.
　Finally, they asked me to help the other kids and I had no choice but to admit it.

　Well, abandoning them would be bad for their education.
　Besides, Sojourn, Tetra, and another kid named Lulu were starting to show some talent for witchcraft.
　So maybe if I could put my soul on this hawk...
　They also had a secret plan to do so.

　Incidentally, as planned, the three hawks are hunting with the three of them.
　As long as the results are good, all is good.

　Also, in the last three years, we've completed a survey of the entire forest and found several abandoned villages.
　They're from a time before our village, and they're in shambles, but they're better than plowing them from scratch.

　If the population increases further, there are plans to move people there.

　Incidentally, the relationship with the Gryphon is still going on.
　I regularly take him drinks and talk to him.

　I want him to protect me when I'm in need.

　And now, I'm on my way to Yuria's place alone.

　We had all gone to see Julia to have the children trained in witchcraft.
　But recently, she had asked to meet with me once every three times, just the two of us.

　I don't know why.　
　When I asked him, he replied that it was because he was a maiden.

　I don't know, I don't know....

　Hey, Julia. I'm here...
　As I wade through the grass, Yulia pops into my eyes.

　Naked.

　''Wait, Alms!
　Julia sinks into the lake in a panic.

　The only thing that looked unfortunate was her back.
　It was a beautiful, white back.

　And there was one thing that bothered me.

　''Hey, what's that little letter-like thing on your shoulder?''
　'What?　Oh, these are sacred letters.

　The sacred script is a picture like the characters used in rituals........ It's like a 70 percent picture with 30 percent letters. It has a very complicated shape.
　It has no practical use.

　Is it witchcraft?
　Yeah. Everyone chops it up when they're about five years old. But it doesn't do much good, I guess. It's just that I feel it's better to get a tattoo, so I do it. By the way, the difference between this and a tattoo is that the person who gets it will glow when they touch it.
　But the kids didn't have any of that, did they?
　That's because it can only be carved by a certain amount of sorcerers. You have to be a good authority.

　I see.
　You mean, a chopped-up person is a person of high birth.

　I wish I could do it.
　'Ha-ha-ha. Ha-ha-ha. I'll give you a chance to have Alms come to our country.
　I can't do that.

　For now, though.
　If the village continues to grow in size, it will be noticed at some point. It's not going to be good for us unless we belong to some big country.
　For the time being, though, I'll turn to the bat and cheat.

　Even if I take that kind of thing into account, I have to focus on my relationship with Yulia.

　...or rather how long are you going to be looking at me?
　Yeah, I'm sorry.

　I turn back.
　The water makes a noise, and after a while I hear the sound of cloth scraping in my ears.

　Being fifteen years old, Julia has become quite a woman.
　Specifically, her breasts.

　Lately, my son is also starting to show some reaction.

　By the way, Tetra has breasts. She doesn't have poor tits. Don't make a mistake there. They'll kill you if you get it wrong.

　"Alms. Dressed. You can turn around.
　I'm finally forgiven.

　Hey, why were you bathing in the water?
　'Well, I stepped on a doozy today and the guards found me. We had to chase after them. I managed to throw him off, but I was sweating all over the place. I didn't want to go on meeting Almus.

　That's a tough one.
　Or perhaps it's more surprising that we haven't found them in the last three years.
　You're too incompetent to be on the lookout.

　I may not be able to come by on occasion, but I'm sorry?
　That's good. Just be careful.
　When I answered that, Julia looked a little sad.

　Was I being too gentle?

　Here's a piece of bread.
　'Yes!　This is delicious.
　Julia takes the bread I offered her with great pleasure.

　Julia seems to be quite upper class, but I hear the food still doesn't taste good.
　I can't blame her for not having the technology, though.

　My bread is made with eggs, goat's milk and yeast bacteria.
　It has to be the best bread in the world.

　And this.
　I hand the small jar to Julia.

　'What?'　This is it!
　"Honey.

　Julia rolled her eyes.

　
　Apparently, they gather honey by bringing a nest from the forest, raising it and collecting honey.

　It's a bit of a hassle.

　So I decided to make a hive.
　Bees have a habit of making a hive in a narrow space.

　If I made a hive, I didn't have to go looking for bees.

　By the way, I wondered if you can't get stung by a bee. The old man (the director) of the orphanage was so fierce that he got rid of the wasps without protective clothing and served fried bee stings at his dinner table.
　I watched him from a distance, so I know the point.

　The question of whether anaphylactic shock is okay is easily answered. Because I was stung twice before I even thought about building a hive.
　That means this body is fine as far as bees are concerned.

　Of course, I didn't let the kids do it. I don't know if they'll be able to tolerate it.

　'Delicious!　That's great. There's probably a lot of them.
　'Not a lot. There's a fair amount.

　In order to collect honey, it is necessary to destroy the hive. That's why we have to gather the bees again.

　In modern beekeeping, it is said that there is a way to collect only honey without breaking the hive....
　I don't know.
　They used some kind of awesome looking machine, so I can't make it anyway.

　I should have watched more honey-related variety shows.
　I never imagined I'd be transported to another world, you know.
　If I had known, I would have looked it up online.

　I don't know if it's a good idea to think about this stupid stuff.

　Anyway, this honey is a weapon.
　It could put you in a position of power.

　In exchange for this knowledge, I might be able to save your life.

　"Come on, come on, tell me what you know.
　'No. We're so few in number that we have to use this kind of knowledge as a weapon to survive.

　I'm really sorry, but I can't tell someone who might be an enemy what's important to me.
　Well, I've told Yulia a lot.

　So what are we going to talk about today?
　'King Rosyth's country your country's political system. I thought it was about time you heard about that.

　Well, I can imagine some of it.

　Yeah. It's like a coalition of clansmen with King Rosais at the center. It's the same in every country. Our country is more of an alliance than a master-servant relationship because of the power of the great families. In fact, as far as King Ferm is concerned, we haven't been able to get a handle on it.
　"King Ferrum is the king of a recently independent country?
　Yeah, yeah. 'Exactly four years ago, when you and I met. There was a famine, and I was able to gain control of the land by rallying the disaffected people to the cause of the great family of the time, the House of As. So he became independent of King Loseys. He pays tribute to King Loseys and King Domorgal. So we didn't do anything about it. It would destroy us if we crossed King Domorgal's kingdom.

　Julia cowered her shoulders.
　It seems that King Rosais' country and King Domorgal's country have three times the national power difference.
　It's understandable, considering the presence or absence of iron weapons.

　I'm sure you'll be able to find out more about this. He's too ill to fight, but he can't. Sigh........
　Julia sighs sadly.
　'It seems that even spellcasters have their problems.

　'But King Ferrum seems to be in trouble lately too. Even though the king has changed, it doesn't mean that his farming techniques have changed. It's like he's suppressing his discontent with violence. If anything happens you'll be in good hands?
　I don't want to. I don't want to be involved in killing each other if I can help it.

　I've already killed five people in the last three years.
　If we give them back without killing them, more will come.

　We need to kill them to warn them.

　I've had my hands full with some of them and I don't want that to happen to my children.
　I don't know if I'll ever get it done.

　"By the way, Alms. Would you like to meet my father?
　I don't want to pay my taxes. You know that.
　If we get control of some place, we have to pay taxes. I don't want to do that.
　I want to postpone it as long as possible, even if it's an inevitable fate one day.

　'Huh?　Did I tell you about my father?
　I don't. But your father is a great man. So there's a good chance it's automatic.
　'Oh, yeah. Ha-ha. That's good. It's all right. As far as taxes are concerned. If we had to pay them, I think we'd be satisfied with this much honey every month. Besides, don't you think it would be nice to have some kind of contingency plan?
　'Hmmm, that's certainly true,'

　That's a tough thing to do if you don't want to hang out with anyone.
　Now that we have more people, we have more things we want.

　Livestock, for example.
　We would like to have more, but to do so we need a big partner.

　Clothes, salt, and medicine.

　Well, we'll only see him once.
　'Yes!　See you tomorrow. Right here at the lake. I'll bring you your clothes, don't worry about it.

　This is how I ended up meeting Yulia's father.