Chapter 1188: Mimi and the Storybook

Having become friends with the village children, Fran was playing with them on the ground floor of the inn today. Due to the rain, they could no longer play outdoors.

「This is the storybook that everyone gets.」

「All the children have it?」

「Yeah.」

Mimi, who had warmed up to Fran and Urushi, brought us an interesting sounding book. Apparently, all children in Raydoss receive the same storybook.

She probably thought we would find it fresh, since we’re not from Raydoss.

Paper is pretty cheap in this world, but distributing a book to every single child for free should cost a lot of effort and money. Raydoss must have some important reason for going that far.

I quickly realized that reason after Mimi starting reading it to us.

「Then, the Red Knights of Raydoss stood in the way of the loathsome invaders, the soldiers of Kranzel.」

The book was packed to the brim with anti-Kranzel propaganda material. There were multiple stories, and every single one depicted Kranzel and Belioth as villains. Meanwhile, the Red Knights, soldiers, and nobles of Raydoss were portrayed as heroes.

However, we’ve heard that the indoctrination never took root in this village. I can understand believing propaganda if you’ve been hearing it repeatedly since childhood, but it seems the former mayor was so awful that he overshadowed the brainwashing effect.

I saw the adults listening to Mimi’s story reading with wry smiles. They clearly didn’t hold this book in high regard.

The book was simply trying too hard to be anti-Kranzel, at the cost of sacrificing the quality of the writing and plot. I wouldn’t call it complete garbage, but it was far from interesting. I get the feeling it was written by an amateur expressing their hatred for Kranzel rather than a professional author.

At least it serves the purpose of teaching kids how to read though.

It seems Mimi didn’t even find the stories that interesting. However, she did smile a bit when reading the last part.

「And so, the Red Knights restored peace to the village. Marco and Aisha got married and lived happily ever after. The end.」

Mimi closed the book after reaching the ending.

「Hehehe, what did you think?」

「Nn. Interesting.」

「Yay! It’s not that great of a story, but I heard that you liked rare stories. Besides, I kinda like the ending a bit.」

「The ending?」

「Yeah. Everyone becomes happy in the end, right?」

「I see.」

「But both Marco and Aisha went through so much pain. I wonder if they’ll really be happy even if it ended well…」

Well, yeah. The two protagonists lived a very eventful life, to say the least. In order to emphasize Kranzel’s cruelty, the author had the two suffering constantly at the hands of Kranzel.

First their families got massacred, forcing them to flee their homes. They futilely tried to take revenge, which resulted in Marco losing his arm. Then, the Red Knights appeared out of nowhere to easily defeat Kranzel. The story comes to an abrupt end with the protagonists supposedly living happily ever after.

「But it’s better to have a happy ending than a sad one, right? I’m sure they’re living such incredibly happy lives that they could forget all their troubles.」

「Right.」

Fran had a gentle gaze as Mimi desperately expressed her thoughts. Mimi doesn’t have her parents since they got killed by magical beasts several years ago. She currently lives with relatives and is well cared for, but she’s become increasingly withdrawn and doesn’t smile much anymore, from what I’ve heard.

Fran probably sensed similarities between Mimi and herself. She’s always especially kind to Mimi in particular.

Mimi continued reading the rest of the stories, but they were pretty terrible. All of them had the same kind of abrupt happy ending.

It feels like the kind of trick that will only work on a child, but I guess happy endings are better than the alternative.

The next day, the children asked Fran to teach them swordsmanship, and she agreed to give them some basic training. It seems they heard from the soldiers that Fran was a master of the blade.

All she really did was teach them basic swings though.

「Hiyaaa!」

「Nn. Good form.」

「Teeei!」

「Your footwork isn’t bad.」

「Eeei!」

「Great spirit.」

She praised their efforts while parrying the attacks. I’m relieved she has no intention of starting another boot camp in this village.

The adults gradually began gathering as well, and they also joined in. It wasn’t just off-duty soldiers; there were hunters and such as well.

In Raydoss, it seems anyone in a profession that involves going outside the village is expected to fight, since they may encounter magical beasts.

Apparently, even merchants seek any possible opportunity to improve their skills.

「Seeei!」

「Be more aware of your footwork! You’ll get countered like that! Like this!」

「Guuuh!」

「Doryaaah!」

「Your weight distribution is good, but your arm strength is weak! Use technique instead of power!」

「Gwoh!」

Fran entered in a slightly more boot camp mode when sparring with the adults. Though still not serious, she gave them stricter instructions, and did not hesitate to subject them to a bit of pain.

I thought she might be going too far, but all the villagers were smiling.

「Wow, that was some good training.」

「You can say that again.」

「We gotta handle the village ourselves, since the Red Knights can’t protect us all the time.」

According to them, the Red Knights had sent a notice to the neighboring villages.

The notice claimed that the Red Knights were currently engaged in a special mission, so they wouldn’t be able to perform their usual patrols. Also, the villagers were to notify a nearby garrison if any dangerous monsters appeared. That’s the gist of it.

I bet the Red Knights aren’t functioning properly because of the significant losses they suffered during the war. However, telling everyone what really happened will only cause mass panic.

That’s why they came up with this “mission” the Red Knights were supposedly occupied with.

No doubt they needed to reassign the remaining Red Knights as efficiently as possible.

「One more round?」

「Yes please!」

「Nn, let’s do it!」