Chapter 8 - Photographic Perils

Kuro's Village - Dawn

The rain arrived mercifully along with the sun, thankfully washing out the smell from the night before.

However, when Simon awoke and exited the small house he had been temporarily granted by Kuro, he was shocked to see nearly all of the villagers running around naked in the rain. Not in celebration, but in a hysterical frenzy to rid their bodies of the stench from the night before.

Simon shook his head slightly before weaving his way through the naked masses, eventually arriving at Kuro's house. Simon knocked on the familiar-looking door a couple of times before entering unannounced as he had several times before. However, the sight that awaited Simon inside caused him to quickly exit the building and slam its door shut, nearly ripping the thin door from its hinges.

Inside, Kuro had been frantically washing his body with some sort of sponge. The image of an elderly naked man dutifully scrubbing the area beneath his skin flaps was now firmly etched deeply in Simon's unfortunately photographic memory.

Simon dejectedly collapsed on the front steps and quietly hung his head, trying to think of anything to get that haunting image out of his mind.

Fortunately or unfortunately, an opportunity soon presented itself.

"Simon?"

Simon was pulled from his self-imposed isolation by the clear bell-like sound of Kayae's voice emanating in front of him. He raised his head with a smile planning to address the small girl in the same fatherly manner he usually tried to speak with her in, but his smile quickly turned into a frown. In front of him, Kayae was standing naked in the rain while apparently trying to strike a somewhat risque pose despite the bright blush present on her cheeks.

"A-aren't you going to wash too? I-I'll wash your back..." Her bell-like voice reduced itself to a barely audible whisper as she spoke.

While Simon's original estimation of the girl's age to be between 9 and 10 had been nearly 5 years off the truth, it didn't make much difference in the grand scheme of things. Kayae's actual age was closer to 14 according to Kuro's memory. Apparently, her small stature resulted from chronic malnutrition through her early years, a fate seemingly ubiquitous among the young in the village. It had negatively affected her growth as well as the other childens as a result.

Regardless of that fact, Simon wasn't an idiot. He knew exactly what she was trying to do after observing her behavior during their various past encounters, much to his dismay. Deciding the best course of action at the moment would be to dodge the question and play the fool, Simon quietly nodded his head before staring intently at the wound across the girl's stomach.

"I see you've been keeping it clean. Good. Now go dry yourself off and put some clothes on before it gets infected."

Kayae's rosy cheeks puffed out after having her plans seemingly foiled by Simon's overly protective fatherly attitude and stormed off in a huff towards her house.

Come back in thirty or forty years. Simon shook his head at the thought.

"Simon? You can come in now."

Simon stood up but stopped before opening the door.

"Please tell me you are at least wearing clothes now."

"That's yer own damn fault for barging in here without permission!"

Kuro's angry voice echoed from behind the door, causing Simon to smile softly as he opened the door.

Kuro’s House - Dawn

"Now then, what's on yer mind?"

The two of them were sitting on the ground like they usually were, drinking tea from a set of small wooden cups.

"Multiple things, actually."

"Oh?"

"First of all, the bandit attacks. Two attacks in a week seems...odd."

Kuro set his cup down on the floor before speaking, "Aye, It is. In all honesty, before this week, we've only been attacked by bandits three times since my grandfather founded this village. Shortly after, he and the rest of the tribe were relocated to this area. I guess in that regard, we were fortunate."

Simon's eyebrow tilted upwards as he drank from the cup, "How so?"

Kuro stroked his chin, "As you already know, the area that we beastmen were relocated to was...less than hospitable. The area we were relocated to wasn't designated as a buffer zone or prone to bandit attacks. Instead, the area was apparently prone to monster attacks from the forest."

"But as far as I'm aware, monsters haven't attacked this village in a long time."

"Aye, they haven't. During my grandfather's generation, he led a group of several tribesmen into the forest. They managed to massacre the local monster population early on. While completely exterminating them wasn't a feasible option, thinning out their numbers was. So they cut the forest back a significant distance before the monsters could repopulate."

Simon nodded his head in understanding.

"So, the monsters don't roam far out of the forest, and your grandfather had the forest cut back from the village. I guess that does explain the lack of monster attacks. It seems that your grandfather knew that the tribe would be here for the long haul."

"Aye, he did. But, according to my father, he carried out the action shortly after the tribe arrived here rather than waiting and seeing how the monsters would react. His apparent reason for this was that he knew the village's population would continue to decline as the years went on. Therefore, he guessed that such an excursion wouldn't be possible by the time my father took over the position of Village Elder."

"That explains the lack of monster attacks, but, again, what about the bandits?"

Kuro shook his head while pouring himself another cup of tea and doing the same for Simon, "I don't know. Perhaps the bandits have been forced further south due to the plague or..." Kuro's voice trailed off as he stared into the teacup in his hand.

"Or the other villages are already gone?"

Kuro let out a long sigh, "Aye. That appears to be the case. At least after you mentioned that the plague may have been sent from the capital."

Simon crossed his arms while closing his eyes before continuing to speak, "Alright, that covers the bandits. Onto the next matter."

"And that is?"

"Food. We captured seven horses last night. Is it correct to assume that they will be butchered for food to feed the village?"

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Kuro's ears shot up at the outrageous suggestion, "W-What? Are ye crazy!? Each of them horses is worth enough gold to feed the entire village for a month!"

"Only if you can sell them."

Kuro's expression shifted once again, agitation clearly showing in this voice, "What do you mean?"

Simon slowly set his now empty wooden cup onto the floor and stared directly at Kuro.

"Kuro, who would be willing to buy horses obtained during a bandit raid and sold by beastmen that aren't supposed to have any means to defend themselves from such attacks?"

Kuro's ears fell flat against his head, and he leaned back across the floor as the realization hit him like a ton of bricks, "Divines be damned!"

He suddenly shot up in a rage, tossing the teacup through the open window and hitting something.

"Owww."

Kuro quickly turned his attention towards the window while Simon simply shook his head.

Busted.

Simon had been aware of Kayae's presence since she arrived but had already decided to ignore her.

"Kayae! Get yer ass in here! What the hell are you doin snoopin around by the window?!"

- - -

Kayae was currently sitting across from the two men while receiving a one-sided verbal lashing.

"Simon! Aren't ye going to say anything to her?!"

Kuro suddenly turned his attention to Simon, who was quietly sipping tea with his eyes closed since the girl had been discovered.

"Kuro." Simon opened his eyes while staring at the elderly man. "I'm not her father."

Silence filled the room for a moment as tears welled up for the first time in Kayae's eyes. The small figure quickly shot up and ran out the door, slamming it loudly on her way out.

"Simon."

Kuro turned towards Simon with stern eyes, "I know I told you to say something, but that was by far the worst possible thing you could have said."

Simon closed his eyes and took a sip of tea before replying, "I know."

Simon's casual demeanor and response caused the elderly man to fly into a fit of rage.

"You knew that, and yet you decided to say it anyway? Simon, you know I and the villagers love you like one of our own, but you can be a real nasty bastard at times! You know that?!"

"I do. But it needed to be said."

Kuro lets out an exasperated sigh before standing up to retrieve a flask from a nearby cupboard and drinks deeply, "Aye. I know that, but still, you could have let her enjoy it for a bit longer. That poor girl never knew who her father was, and her mother disappeared one night four months ago after leaving a note promising that she would be back in a month with food. She's got no one left."

Simon opened his eyes, staring into the empty teacup, "Kuro."

The elderly man turns towards him while emitting a sigh and hands over the flask.

Simon gave the liquid a quick sniff before taking a short swig from the flask with a raised eyebrow, "Potato Vodka?"

"Aye. After all, potatoes are the only damn thing that we can grow around here, or well, used to grow before this damnable plague. So anyway, where were we?"

"The butchering of the horses."

"Ah, right. Fine. I'll give the order later. First, however, you'll have to kill um. I don't mean anything by it, but none of the villagers are going to be willing to kill those horses."

Simon tilts his eyebrow up at that statement.

"Why?"

Kuro chuckles lightly before taking a swig from the flask, "Aye, I guess you wouldn't know, not being from around here and all. Horses are the symbol of the patron deity a majority of the villager's worship, myself included. While eating one isn't a sin in and of itself, killing one is."

"I see. Does this Patron deity have a name?"

"Aye, she does. Her name is Pegasus."

Simon's eyes widened slightly at the name, "She wouldn't happen to be a white-winged horse, would she?"

Kuro nods his head, "Aye, she would be. How'd you know?"

"Just a guess," Simon replied after gently placing the wooden cup on the floor. Kuro's ears twitched slightly as the air around Simon slowly started to chill.

Magic? He thought to himself for dismissing the notion after being unable to see his breath.

Simon let out a soft sigh before speaking in a tired, matter-of-fact tone. "Seven horses aren't going to be enough to feed the village, Kuro. We'll likely have to resort to more extreme measures to ensure the village's survival. The sooner the better."

"More extreme measures?"

"More specifically, the bandits themselves."

Kuro briefly lets go of the flask, barely managing to catch it before it hits the floor, and quickly stands up. The elderly man quickly stuck his head out of the window and looked around before latching it shut tightly while Simon sits motionless, seemingly unsurprised by his reaction, "That's not something that's even an option," Kuro said sternly after sitting down on the floor with his arms crossed.

"But it is," Simon replied coldly with even sterner-looking eyes than Kuro managed to muster.

"N-No, it's not. Even if we were starving more so than we are now, we wouldn't resort to that."

A frown appears across Simon's face as he replies, "Really? Even if those you care about were dropping dead all around you? Even as you watched your own body start to feed on itself to survive? Even as you watched the children become unable to move or even cry out as they quietly accepted their fate? Could you watch as the light faded from their eyes knowing you could have prevented it? I couldn’t. Could you?"

Kuro's hands began shaking nervously while pondering the situation.

Perhaps his grandfather might have been able to, or even his father, but Kuro knew deep in his heart he wasn't strong enough to watch something that horrific happen, especially if he could somehow prevent it.

"N-No." he finally muttered softly before downing the remainder of the flask's contents.

Simon nodded his head quietly after receiving the response he expected.

"Simon, h-have you?" Kuro's gaze turns towards Simons.

"More times than I'd like," he replied with a grimace before spitting into his empty cup.

Kuro stares at the now empty flask, seemingly praying for it to spontaneously refill itself before quietly speaking, "H-How will you do it?"

Simon closed his eyes and sighed softly, "Boiled meat compressed into blocks cut into strips and smoked. The world's worst jerky basically. Ideally, it'd be a 4 - 1 meat ratio but unfortunately, that's not an option. More than likely the final ratio will be between 3-2 and 1-1."

The elder gulped loudly before breathing in deeply to steel himself, "What will you need, exactly?"

"Buckets and bowls. The large kettle from the mess hall. Access to the blacksmith for an hour or so. I need to make something capable of grinding down the meat into a paste to better mix it and something to compress it back into a solid block. I'll also need some easily digestible fibers to act as a binder to keep the mix together while compressing it into blocks during the boiling process. After that, it's a rather simple but grotesque affair. Simply shave off strips of meat before hanging them up to smoke-dry."

Simon noticed the elders tired face turning a light shade of green but chose not to mention it.

Not like I can blame him.

The two sat across from each other for a quiet moment before Kuro rediscovered the courage to speak.

"I-I'll see that you have what you need. Please. Please. Don't tell the other villagers what you are up to. I'll tell them myself when the time is right but for now, please keep it to yourself."

Simon nodded quietly, "And the extra set of hands?"

The beastmens head shook solemnly before replying, "I'll ask Kuritn. He's trustworthy despite not originally from the village."

Simon nodded quietly again before readjusting his position on the floor. "Anyway, let's move on. I've got a method that might deter the bandits. It's a bit unsightly, but it's quite effective. Moreover, it doesn't fall under the category of fortification structures, so none of the kingdom's restrictions will be impeded. Not that it really matters at this point."

Kuro's eyes widened slightly at the prospect, "Oh? What do you have in mind?"

A sad smile flashed briefly across Simon's face before he could respond. Something about that smile sent shivers down the mans spine, his tail standing on end.

"N-Never mind. I get a strange feeling I don't want to know. Anyway, is there anything else?"

"There is, more specifically, this."

Simon reached into a sealed package at his waist and pulled out a small rotten potato.

Kuro and Simon's noses inadvertently curled upwards at the stench permeating off of the potato.

"Alright, I get it. You want to talk about the plague then? Put that damnable thing away now unless you want to see me naked again, "Kuro waved one of his hands in front of his face frantically while pinching his nose with the other.

"Not yet, Do you know the name of the disease afflicting this potato?"

Kuro stopped fanning his face for a moment but kept one hand pinching his nose closed, "No, I don't. Does it even have a name? As far as I'm aware, it's only ever been referred to as the plague."

Simon noded his head before continuing, "It does, Phytophthora infestans, or more commonly, potato blight. Where I'm from, it's ravaged entire countries in the past and nearly wiped out entire populations."

Kuro released his nose before inching his face closer to the potato, "You know what it is? Does that mean you know how to cure it?" his eyes looking upwards towards Simon with newfound hope.

"Maybe. Nothings certain, but I'll do what I can."

Kuro nods his head several times, "Just let me know whatever you need, and I'll see to it that you get it."

A sad smile appears on Simon's face, once again causing Kuro's tail and ears to stand on end.

"In that case, gather all of the villagers in the mess hall three days from now. I've...Got to prepare a few things."

Simon quickly stands up and exits the building, seemingly headed towards the closed-off cellar. The same sad smile still present across his face.