Chapter 5 - Chapter 4: Daily Life in Another World
Three days had passed since Mika made up his mind to live as Mika.
He walked steadily inside the fence that surrounded the village, observing the village's condition and looking out beyond the village.
The fence was over two meters high, with wooden posts driven into the ground and horizontal planks attached to them.
If the entire vast Rish Village was enclosed in the same manner, it seemed to require a considerable amount of manpower.
It was probably impossible for just the villagers alone.
A significant amount of manpower must have been deployed during the early construction of Rish Village.
Was there really enough value in this Rish Village to warrant such effort?
Or perhaps, something that was expected of it.
Mika did not know what it was, but if he continued to observe the village, he might find out eventually.
(I don't have knowledge that allows for historical verification... In terms of imagery, it feels like a remote area of medieval Europe? But there are window panes.)
He tried to grasp what kind of world this was, but in the first place, he didn't have much knowledge himself.
Glass panes themselves did exist before the Common Era, but they were not transparent.
He felt that transparent glass windows became widespread around the 17th century, but he had no proof.
Initially, there was no technology to create large transparent glass, so small pieces of glass were used for windows.
And the windows in this village were also lattice-like structures using many pieces of transparent glass, each about ten centimeters on a side.
He had asked Amalia and Loretta subtly about this world, but he hadn't gained much.
In the first place, neither of them had left the village much.
Amalia had lived for thirty years and had never even visited the neighboring capital city, Kotontesse.
There were probably elderly people living in the village who had lived for sixty years but had never left the village.
(I know there was an era where that was normal, but the fact that I am there is...)
Thanks to the memories of Mika Noisheim, there were few things he didn't understand in daily life.
There were rarely situations where he would be immediately troubled by living.
Well, rarely, at least.
Having knowledge and actually doing it are naturally different things.
It was the so-called cultural shock.
(There's no choice but to get used to it, but it's certainly inconvenient.)
First, there were no water or sewage systems, so water had to be drawn from the well every morning.
Dishes used also had to be washed in the well, so usage was kept to a minimum.
Still, there were wooden vessels and spoons, and the habit of using a pointed wooden stick instead of a fork was better than nothing.
Considering that in this world with weak concepts of hygiene, people eat with their bare hands, he felt deeply grateful that cutlery existed.
Provided one didn't think about the hygiene of the person cooking.
The saving grace was that basically, the food in this world was either roasted or boiled.
He had no choice but to believe it was disinfected by heating.
By the way, regarding the wooden stick used instead of a fork, it was easy to understand if you imagined it as using only one chopstick.
You used it to spear things or to scoop them up when a spoon was difficult to use.
Would this evolve into a fork in the future?
It was a little exciting.
Toilets were available in the houses, at least.
There was also a habit of wiping the body with hot water.
It existed, but given the state of toilets and wiping without water or sewage systems, one could imagine the environment.
The saving grace was that the toilets were of the so-called pit latrine type, with a jar placed under the floorboards, and waste was put into it.
To make fertilizer for the vast cotton fields that were the material for textiles, there was a mechanism to regularly collect and exchange those jars.
Thanks to that, a minimum level of hygiene was maintained.
If the habit was to just throw it away somewhere... He didn't want to think about it.
Also, in this world, religion was so permeated into daily life that it was a bit terrifying.
Praying before meals was fine, but the fact that God occupied the center of "thought" was the issue.
This was very troublesome; that things falling, fire being hot, the sun and moon existing, rising in the east and setting in the west, flowers blooming and bearing fruit, were all thanks to God.
Perhaps because he was originally Japanese, or because he lived in a world with advanced science, he couldn't get used to a way of thinking and living centered on religion.
After the new year, he would visit a shrine for the first visit, throw rice showers at weddings in churches, and burn incense at temples for memorial services, but he didn't find value beyond "form" in those things.
Probably, many Japanese people are like that.
Well, even if he argued with the people of this world that "there is no God," the destination would be crucifixion or roasting.
So, saying "yes, indeed" and basically agreeing with everything, following the Japanese spirit of "go with the flow" and "when in Rome, do as the Romans do," would be wise.
Religion preaches tolerance and generosity to people, yet history proves the terror when its exclusivity runs wild.
(They are all nice people, though.)
It might be a sense of camaraderie or village consciousness, but the villagers were truly kind to Mika.
The story of him collapsing from an injury had already spread throughout the village, and all the adults who saw Mika said, "I'm glad you're getting better."
There were not just one or two people who gave him fruits picked from the fields that morning, saying, "Eat a lot and get well."
He couldn't help but wonder how they would react if he were Ritsu Kuhashi, an outsider, but that was a somewhat mean assumption.
Treating village children and outsiders on the same level was impossible, no matter how you looked at it.
"Well, we've arrived."
Mika had come to the South Gate of the village.
For these three days, he had been helping neighbors with other children, but in the afternoon, he had been walking around the village.
Although he knew the general condition of the village from the memories of Mika Noisheim, there were many things he wouldn't notice without seeing them with his own eyes.
Children and adults focused on different points.
Moreover, if the cultural levels were orders of magnitude apart, the impressions held by those who considered it normal and those who saw it for the first time were completely different.
Therefore, he had made it a daily routine to walk around and see with his own eyes.
On the first day, he went to the North Gate, the main entrance of the village.
He had passed through it in the morning while helping in the fields, but at that time, he had just passed through.
So this time, he observed various things including the area around the North Gate.
The gate was made of stone and timber, looking quite sturdy.
The gate doors were made of metal grates and opened inward toward the village.
The road to Kotontesse extended straight north from directly in front of this North Gate.
There were fields on both sides of that road, mostly cotton fields.
Immediately after leaving the gate was a river, and the bridge spanning the river seemed to be well over thirty meters long.
It was a bridge that could be called the lifeline of the village.
It was wooden but had a solid construction.
As soon as one entered the village from the North Gate, there was a watchtower, and a wide road called the "Main Street" that pierced straight through the village headed south.
When Mika looked, no one was in the watchtower.
He thought it was fine, but he wondered if there was no one there because of a shortage of manpower.
Beyond the Main Street, there was an open place called the "Central Plaza," which was quite far north from what one would call the center of the village.
In front of the plaza was a church, and around the plaza were the Village Head's house, the Meeting Hall, and the village's only store.
In front of the Village Head's house, a large box-like object that looked like a clock was placed so it could be seen from the plaza, and next to it was a bell tower.
The clock looked mechanical, but unfortunately, he couldn't check the inside.
It had only one hand, so it was probably a clock with only a short hand.
One could easily imagine a relaxed life that didn't need minutes or seconds.
It was a clock representing twenty-four hours in one full circle, set so that 6 AM and 6 PM were at the horizontal position.
The next day, he went to the west side of the village.
Well, there wasn't anything special there.
Houses were just scattered sparsely over a wide area, but he checked them while looking from a distance, saying "This is Mr. XX's house" and "This is Mr. YY's house."
Besides that, he looked at a building like a barn built near the fence, researching that "there is space between the fence, so it's perfect for hiding."
In short, he was just wandering around.
If he did that in his original world, it would be a reportable offense.
(Well, if it's a child he knows, he wouldn't be reported in either world.)
He inevitably viewed things from the perspective of Ritsu Kuhashi, but that was unavoidable.
Rather, if a forty-seven-year-old man could act like a seven-year-old child in three days, that would be scary.
He should just try to act like Mika Noisheim as carefully as possible.
He walked around the entire west side of the village, but there was nothing he needed to see.
If he had to say something, perhaps there was a forest beyond the fence.
Mika approached the fence and looked at the forest beyond through the gaps in the horizontal planks.
This forest surrounded the village to the south, east, and west.
Or rather, it was more correct to say the village had been built eating into this forest from the north.
Perhaps the village had gradually eaten into the forest as it expanded.
"Why build a village on this side?"
Mika looked at the forest and wondered.
It was about the river to the north.
He was told there were beasts in the forest and it was dangerous, so he shouldn't go there.
In fact, it seemed that packs of wild dogs and wolves had attacked the village since ancient times, and boars had broken through the fence and invaded.
It seemed that injuries caused by beasts occurred every year.
But if there was a forest, anyone could predict such damage.
Since there was a river immediately to the north, building the village on the other side of the river should have reduced such damage considerably.
The river was a natural obstacle.
There was no reason not to use it.
If there was one river between the forest and the village, he thought damage from beasts would be significantly reduced.
He crossed his arms and put his hand to his chin, pondering.
(Is the assumed external enemy not beasts...?)
If the goal was to reduce damage from forest beasts, the village should have been built north of the river.
But if they were anticipating external enemies from the north, the current location made sense.
(...Maybe I'm overthinking it.)
Seeing the western sky take on a reddish hue, Mika turned around.
And today was the South Gate.
It was a large and sturdy gate, no less impressive than the North Gate, and it also had a watchtower.
This time, the watchman was properly there, and one could tell they were on guard against the forest.
However, the South Gate seemed to be closed, with a large bar locked across it.
He wondered why a South Gate with almost no human traffic was so large, but perhaps it was for transporting timber.
If they were just bringing in firewood and food, such a size wasn't necessary.
They probably used horse-drawn carts or ox carts to bring in timber in bulk.
"Hello, Mika-kun."
While observing the area around the South Gate, a voice came from behind.
Turning around, a petite woman wearing a nun's habit was walking toward Mika.
With her gentle smile and beautiful golden hair sparkling in the sunlight, her figure was like that of the Virgin Mary.
But Mika knew that this beautiful Virgin Mary would say things that sounded like an old man when she laughed.
He hadn't forgotten how he had panicked when Loretta suddenly hugged him, and how he had laughed hysterically while holding his stomach.
"Hello, Sister Radi."
He replied with a bright voice that gave no hint of his thoughts.
Radi seemed to visit the elderly, the injured, and the sick in the village every day, granting [Heal] and listening to various consultations.
She was probably returning from someone's house or on her way to someone's house now.
"You seem to have recovered completely. That's good."
"Yes. I heard I was helped by Sister Radi. Thank you very much."
Mika bowed politely.
He almost said "Thanks to you" or "I apologize for the delay in thanking you," but considering his age, that would be strange.
Even if he used somewhat rough language, it would be dismissed as "because he's a child," but that would be harder to handle.
Being polite for a child was easier for a former adult.
Even with a single apology, Mika was very careful when saying "I'm sorry."
Normally, adults would say "Excuse me" or "I apologize."
Especially the word "Excuse me" was convenient and had been used in various situations.
He often said "Excuse me" when expressing gratitude or when wanting to request something.
With this versatile word sealed away, he often had to choose his words carefully even in small conversations.
"Hehe... Mika-kun is good at saying thank you. It's great. Don't worry about it. But you mustn't do dangerous things anymore, okay? Everyone gets worried."
"I'm sorry."
Radi squatted in front of him, matching his eye level, and gently stroked Mika's head as he apologized honestly.
Looking straight into Radi's eyes, his own reflection appeared in her blue pupils.
There was something Mika couldn't help but be curious about regarding Radi.
Yes, [God's Miracle].
When Mika collapsed on the road, it seemed his life was saved by [Heal], a [God's Miracle].
It was a word that came out when Loretta explained it, a mysterious phenomenon present in the memories of Mika Noisheim.
It seemed he had seen it several times before switching bodies.
[God's Miracle] that instantly healed people injured during farming or attacked by beasts.
It was strange and eerie, but Mika had no intention of denying the phenomenon itself.
Because Mika himself had scrapes all over his body, and they had healed in one night.
But he couldn't help but think this.
What exactly was this?
The greatest evidence that this world he was in was completely different from his original world.
And because of this power, God occupied the center of people's "thoughts," causing their thinking to stop there.
Gravity, combustion, heat conduction, weather, celestial movements, human illness, even life and death, it was all said to be the work of God.
Because this "outrageous" phenomenon actually exists, people don't try to go any further.
Even physical phenomena not intervened by [God's Miracle] were dismissed as "what God has ordained."
"Sister Radi. What is [God's Miracle]?"
Mika had intended to ask Radi directly.
At times like this, children are fortunate.
They are not blamed for not knowing.
Even if an adult wouldn't be excused for not knowing, children were mostly forgiven.
If anything happened, he would just say "I'm sorry" and be forgiven.
"[God's Miracle] is... the love of the Gods."
Radi's face was momentarily blank, but in the next instant, she said it with a very sparkling expression.
Seeing such Radi, Mika was the one who looked blank now.
"When the Gods created the world with their mighty power, humans were also created together. The Gods entrusted the management of the world to humans, but humans could not stand against the great power of nature. That was natural. Humans were created by the Gods, and the world was also created by the Gods. The Gods lent a part of their mighty power so that humans could shape the world correctly—."
Here it comes again.
It was a parade of praising and extolling the Gods.
How wonderful and compassionate the Gods were.
She went on and on about how they enveloped and watched over people with their overflowing love.
(Oh, crap...)
The reverence and love for the Gods spun from Radi's mouth never stopped, and her expression had changed from ecstasy to rapture.
(This is the minefield... Please, someone stop her.)
He tried to time an interruption, but Radi's words flowed without a pause, making him wonder when she even breathed.
"That power heals and fills the righteous, but dries up and destroys the wicked. The God of Water said: Hear, faithful children of the Gods. You shall be forever moistened, healed, and filled. The first Saint. The first user of [God's Miracle]. Saint Hildinlander received a blessing from the God of Water, raised his glorious right hand—."
He didn't know what to do and wanted to hold his head in his hands.
At that moment, a voice came down from above his head.
"What's wrong, Sister Radi?"
Looking up, there was a man looking down at Mika and the others from the watchtower.
He looked about forty years old.
He had a stern face with scars on his left cheek and right chin, with slightly long hair tied back.
His face was somewhat imposing, but now he had a somewhat relaxed expression.
"Oh, Diego-san. Thank you for your hard work."
"Yes, Sister is hard at work too. Besides, is it okay to be here? Is it already over for today?"
According to the memories of Mika Noisheim, there was almost no information about this man.
He only knew that he sometimes saw him.
Hearing the words of the man called Diego, Radi let out a "Ah!"
"That's right. I still have something to do after this. Thank you, Diego-san. Well then, Mika-kun too. If you look like this, you should be fine tomorrow."
Saying "Excuse me," Radi started walking, but stopped immediately and turned toward Mika.
"Let's try it tomorrow when you come to the church. It's a bit early, but... it might be a good opportunity."
Saying only that with a smile, Radi started walking again.
As Mika watched her off with a blank expression, a voice came from above his head again.
"That was a disaster, monk."
Diego said that with a bitter smile, in a voice just loud enough for Mika to hear but not reaching Radi.
It seemed he had called out because he thought Mika was in trouble.
"Um... thank you very much."
"Yeah."
Leaning his elbow on the railing of the watchtower and propping his cheek with his hand, he watched Radi leave with his eyes.
"That person is a good person, and a great person, but that is just..."
Saying that, Diego made a grim face.
He might be a bit fed up with Radi's overflowing love for God.
"I was helped by her the other day too."
"Oh, that was serious? Well, when you reach an age like a monk, things like that happen. Right?"
Dying at seven years old, was that so common?
This person says some scary things.
When he couldn't reply, Diego spoke to him again.
"Well, don't be too reckless. Partly because everyone gets worried..."
"...Partly because... what?"
"You don't have to be reckless right now. You'll have a time when you're forced to be reckless anyway. Just wait and see."
Saying that, Diego burst out laughing loudly.
After that, he also gave the valuable advice, "To learn moderation, you should be reckless to an appropriate degree."
He understood what he meant, but that wasn't something to say to a child.