This magic item, the Faucet of Spring Water, could make 200 litres of water a day. Apparently, it had been designed by the sage of a certain country.
This was not a common item, even in big cities. She had heard that there were certain places where gigantic versions of this item served as a city’s water supply.
Enri wiped herself down with a moist towel.
“Uuuu, it’s cold.”
While the water’s temperature was fixed, one would still lose a lot of heat from wet skin if the air was cold. However, Enri grit her teeth and bore with it, then rubbed herself down with the towel. She had done so before she slept, but still she did it again.
Enri still remembered that incident — when Lupusregina had called out to her while humming, a playful grin on her face — and vowed that she would never drop her guard.
Still, magic items were really great.
Enri had thought that countless times.
Carne Village had a lot of residents now.
Over 90 % of them belonged to the Goblin Army Enri had summoned, and this village could not support all of them.
The first problem was accommodation.
The Goblins had solved that by chopping down logs from the Great Forest of Tob and building simple housing. However, the problems of insufficient food and water were harder to deal with.
Their initial solution to the lack of food was the produce of the forest, but they could not forage enough to support all the Goblins. Therefore, they had asked Lupusregina for help, and in return they had received food aid. Of course, that food was only borrowed and would have to be paid back, though fortunately there was no deadline attached.
The next problem was a lack of water. In the past, the village well had been sufficient, given that there had not been that many people. But now that the amount of people in the village had increased so drastically, they had to set up a roster to draw water all day long.
Even then, they could not collect enough water, so they had to dig new wells very far away. If they dug them nearby, they would be tapping the same water source, and there was no telling if the wells would dry up.
Fortunately, the Dwarves who had moved to this village had solved that problem.
They had come in the summer, and during the course of fall and winter, they had become close friends.
Are those people still making new magic items?
Until about two months ago, the sound of explosions and flashes of light had been a common occurrence, but now everything had settled down. At most, some of them would drink outside and get into fights, but that was all.
The existence of the Dwarves was now an integral part of the village’s functioning.
In the past, there had been no blacksmiths in Enri’s village. Thus, she had to go to the city to buy tools, or beg the very rare travelling blacksmiths to make them for her.
There had been a blacksmith in the Goblin Army she had summoned, but having him bear the heavy burden of the village’s repair work would surely lead to problems. And then, the Dwarves had appeared, and they had taken up that job.
The most important thing was that their loyalty to the Sorcerer King rivaled that of the humans from Carne Village. This village had been saved several times by the magic caster who became the Sorcerer King, Ainz Ooal Gown. Anyone who heard someone badmouthing His Majesty would immediately go up and beat the offender into a pulp.
The Dwarves seemed to feel the same way, and they often said things like, “That celebration made me feel proud of myself again” “Did you see how jealous they were?” “Drinking time!” and so on while they imbibed. Enri did not quite understand what they were talking about, but they could feel their gratitude to the Sorcerer King in their words, so the villagers opened their hearts to them.
After she was finished, Enri put on her clothes.
Her husband did not seem to have woken up yet, so she decided to get the chores done.
Until recently, her husband had been handling the task of potion-making. But recently, he had stopped working on such tasks. Instead, he was involved in the storage and preservation of herbs, which would be important in the future now that the village’s population had increased. In addition, he also helped with Enri’s work as village chief. He worked hard for the village, so she had to work hard for him too.
After stepping outside, the familiar scenery — that of the ever-growing Carne Village — came into view. Carne was now larger than an ordinary village because the Goblins Enri had summoned had added their own living quarters to it.
“Alright then…”
Enri clenched her fist.
In order to make breakfast, she had to draw the ingredients from the food store.
“Good morning, General-kakka.”
The form of a black-clad Goblin emerged from a murky shadow.
This was something she saw every morning, so Enri replied without any surprise:
“Good morning. Nice weather we’re having.”
“It is as you say, General-kakka. According to the Goblin Weather Forecaster, it seems it will be sunny all day long.”
“Really?”
Enri had long since abandoned any resistance to being called General.
She had told them countless times that she was not a General, but the message had not gotten through. At this point, being the Village Chief was pretty much the same as being the General, so she had decided to accept it.
Incidentally, there was a unit called the Goblin Rear Echelon Support Unit. It was populated by people with rare vocations. Apart from the Goblin Weather Forecaster, there was also the Goblin Strategist, Goblin Blacksmith and so on, for a total of 12 jobs.
“Oh, General-kakka, it seems your bodyguard has arrived. Your servant shall now excuse himself.”
The black-clad Goblin faded back into the Shadows, and the familiar Redcap took his place by Enri’s side.
Personally, Enri did not like the Redcaps. They had an evil look on their faces; in short, they were very scary.
In the past, Jugem had accompanied her, but as the former troop leader, he was now one of the many managers of the greatly-expanded Goblin force.
In truth, the duty of escorting her should have fallen to the silver-armored Goblins after his departure, but for various reasons, the Redcaps had ended up filling that role.
Frankly speaking, there’s no need for escorts or whatnot.
She did not think anyone could evade the Goblins’ eyes and reach the heart of the village, but she could not completely ignore their worries.
Trailed by the Redcap, she headed toward the larder that adjoined her house.
She opened the door and saw a cramped place packed with barrels and bottles, with many glass flasks lining the shelves. In its depths was a small mountain of grain, and hanging from the rafters were bales of sweetgrass and jerky.
The reason why they had so much food was because the Goblins had put a lot of effort into breaking ground and opening up new fields.
Currently, there were a lot of new crop fields surrounding the village in a large radius. While repaying the food they had borrowed would be difficult, they were at least self-sufficient for this year. In addition, they had captured chicken-like monsters and tried breeding them. If all went well, they would be able to fully repay the food they had borrowed.
After selecting the ingredients for today’s meal, Enri headed back outside.
There was a massive wall in the corner of her vision.
It might have been within the village, but the wall was not made of wood. It protected the Dwarven workshops, and standing sentry within it was the Death Knight who had slaughtered the knights that had terrorized Carne Village in the past.