Chronicles of The Hardships of Komachi in The Sengoku Era

my sincerest apologies for losing control of myself.”

“It’s okay, I don’t mind.
Let’s instead talk about how to solve the issues of your village.
But before that…”

Shizuko lightly clapped her hands towards the entrance.
As a result, the door was opened and serval women carrying trays entered the room.
Leaving a tray in front of everyone including Nisaku’s group, the women bowed once before leaving.

“You must be exhausted from the long journey.
Please sate yourselves first.
We can discuss after that.”

What had been left in front of them was food.
There was rice porridge with pickled plum as well as several slices of pickled vegetables.

While Nisaku’s group had been hesitant at first, at Shizuko’s “Please don’t hold back and enjoy.” they tried the rice porridge.
Maybe this was the first time they had seen rice porridge as they started eating it like they were expecting something to jump out.
But eventually, their hunger might have won over their fear, they started eating heartily.

“I have no words to thank you for these alms”

“Ah, no, it’s fine”

She didn’t know whether it was just his character or whether he was originally from a samurai family or similar, but Nisaku was very courteous.

To Shizuko it had been nothing more than a small effort to try and stop the shivering induced by the coldness stimulated by extreme malnutrition by offering them rice porridge which was easy to digest and warmed the body.

“Now then, about the issues of your village, please let me tell you my conjectures first.
Please correct me if I am wrong about anything.”

“Please do so.”

Shizuko might have called them conjectures, but she was quite certain that what she was about to tell him was more or less correct.

After all, she had noticed these issues in spring, but had refrained from meddling as they were a problem of another village.

“There is too much mud mixed in the river running through your village to use its water, isn’t it, Nisaku-sama?”

Instantly, the expressions of Nisaku’s group stiffened.

And not just them.
The same was true for the others like Daichi, Tagosaku or Kinzou.

From this, Shizuko was convinced that her thoughts couldn’t be that far from the truth.

“And because the mountain is dark and damp even during the day, animals no longer enter your hunting grounds.
As a result, you can’t make a living off of their meat and pelts, and suffer from a constant lack of food.
Are these the two issues bothering you?”

“….
Are you able to wield supernatural powers? How did you figure out the reasons for our problems?”

“Nothing quite that complicated.
People living in the mountains produce firewood, charcoal, timber, minerals, meat and leather.
I only drew my conjectures from that.”

Minerals are used for money, blades, farming tools, and everyday items, so there should be close to no influence from the mountain being dark.

So the people who would be bothered by the mountain being dark and no longer attracting animals would be people like hunters, charcoal-burners or lumberjacks.

“The trees are standing together densely, hindering their growth, and the sun barely reaches the forest floor anymore, right? Furthermore, the ability to absorb carbon dioxide is reduced, the undergrowth vanishes, and the ground becomes too poor to allow the trees to take root properly.
As a result, the lower branches of the trees wither, leaving them thin and tall and not sellable as firewood.
That is what I make of the situation.”

“…..
I might not understand half of your words, but in general it is as you say.
There are no trees that can be used as firewood.
And as there is no food, the beasts won’t come, leaving us without meat to sell.”

“As I thought.
in that case, we need a『well』and 『periodic thinning』as solutions.
As for the river, we will need a filtration device.”

Shizuko had easily provided a solution to the problem which had plagued the villagers for a period of years, if not decades.

The ease with which she provided the solution was such that Nisaku was completely unable to understand what she said at first.

“Kinzou-san.
Do you have all the tools for the『well』 I asked you to make before?”

“Eh? Ah, yes.
I did prepare the things as you told me to, village chief.”

“Okay.
Tagosaku-san, please collect some charcoal, long plant material and some pebbles for me.
Daichi-san, please bring me a big bucket and a cloth big enough to envelop the bucket.”

“Alright, understood!”

“Understood”

Recounting whether she had everything necessary covered with this, Shizuko looked at Nisaku’s group and remembered something important.

“Saki-san and Osora-san.
Please prepare a food packet we can take with us to the other village.
I want the people over there to do some work, and they won’t be able to work properly on an empty stomach”

“Yes”

Osora energetically responded to Shizuko’s words before rushing out of the room.

‘I haven’t even told you which items to pack!’ Shizuko thought, but let it be, considering that such detailed instructions were probably not needed.

“Well, um… What are you doing?”

Nisaku asked Shizuko, unable to keep up with the string of events with an expression of surprise on his face.

“We will be going to your village and fix the problems you are having”

Shizuko exclaimed brightly as though to blow away Nisaku’s worries.

One koku (roughly 2 hours) later, Shizuko and company departed towards Nisaku’s village, each carrying the items they had prepared.

As expected, ascending a mountain was too much for Saki and Osora, so they stayed in the village while the food they had prepared was carried up by the men.

Shizuko had traversed this mountain for almost two years now, collecting and hunting all manner of things, so climbing the mountain was like taking a walk in her backyard.

However, not having climbed the mountain for a long time, Kinzou and Tagosaku were completely out of breath around halfway to their destination.

Because of this, they were slightly behind schedule when they arrived in Nisaku’s village just past noon.

“Wai-, I can’t anymore….
I’m dying…..”

“Village chief….
Where do you get that energy from….
uff”

The moment they arrived in the village, Kinzou and Tagosaku keeled over.

Drawing wheezing breaths, they greedily gulped down the water from the bamboo canteens on their waists.

“I have been climbing this mountain looking for herbs and hunting deer.
That might be where I got my stamina from?”

In contrast to the duo completely out of breath, Shizuko was not much different from usual and answered lightly.

She might have worked up a light sweat, but she was nowhere near Kinzou and Tagosaku’s state of complaining about being at the limit of their strength and stamina.

“We’ll start working after I finish the discussions.
Make sure to catch your breath by then, okay?”

With these parting words, Shizuko left the worn out duo and Daiichi, who had forced himself to keep standing despite his exhaustion, and entered Nisaku’s village.

They entered the village with Nisaku’s group at the front, followed by Shizuko, with Wittmann, Kaiser, and König bringing up the rear.

“Ah, welcome back village chieeeeeeeee——–!!”

With three wolves following them, there was nothing that could be done about the screams each time they met a villager.