Chapter 34
Chapter 34. The Girl’s Sefitiana
It had already been four days since Balak stayed in a village on the opposite side of the border line connecting to Veshnu, in the west of the Tessibanian Empire.
If it became known that the great head of the Valita Trading Company had come to such a place in person, there would surely be unnecessary talk of investment and development. So he entered the village disguising his identity as a wandering painter.
Saying he had come all the way from the capital to paint this small, insignificant village, people welcomed him and told him various stories.
About a waterfall in the back mountain known only to villagers, or how a quite famous trading company head was from this village.
Or mysterious stories that had been passed down for hundreds of years.
“So if you need good paint, go to the Uraitan Trading Company. I’ll put in a word for you.”
“Haha. Thank you, Village Chief.”
“That child is probably the most successful person from our village. I hear they’ve even opened a branch in the capital this time. Isn’t that amazing?”
Balak nodded as if agreeing with the Village Chief’s words.
As far as he knew, the Uraitan Trading Company had recently been caught trying to smuggle goods into the empire to reduce tariffs, resulting in the permanent revocation of their imperial business license and expulsion from the Merchants’ Association.
It was a sensitive time when everyone was rushing into commerce to make money after the war ended, and even the imperial family was on high alert.
Getting caught at such a time meant that what would normally end with a fine was instead severely punished as an example.
Being far from the capital, it seemed the news hadn’t reached here yet, but as the Village Chief was the best person to get the information he wanted in this village, Balak didn’t tell the truth.
“By the way, I heard there’s one more remarkable person from this village.”
“Hm?”
“—I mean Sefitiana.”
At Balak’s words, the Village Chief noticeably flustered and stopped in his tracks.
“Th-that…”
“I heard the person who first discovered Sefitiana hundreds of years ago was from this village.”
“Come now. How could there be someone related to such an extraordinary thing in this remote village?”
“Milona said you would explain it to me.”
“Milona…!”
The Village Chief sighed, thinking of his granddaughter who had fallen for the handsome painter and wandered near his lodgings every day.
“As you know, that jewel, no matter how much of a divine miracle it is, is just the cause of war for common folk like us. There’s nothing good in getting involved.”
“It seems it’s not just a circulating village legend.”
The Village Chief looked at Balak with a start, realizing he’d been caught out.
Red hair covering the nape of his neck, sturdy build, sharp eyes, deep features, and a bright impression.
While the profession of a wandering painter wasn’t entirely satisfactory, he wasn’t lacking as a match for his granddaughter to take over the village farm.
After a moment’s consideration, the Village Chief nodded and continued walking. Balak followed.
“Honestly, it’s been passed down for so long that I don’t know how much of it is true. As you know, how many places are there with legends related to Sefitiana?”
“That’s right.”
Indeed. He had collected an enormous amount of information to see the actual Sefitiana just once.
There were too many legends related to Sefitiana in Tessibania and Veshnu, but the problem was that ninety-nine out of a hundred were lies.
Because Sefitiana was discovered right on the border where the two empires met, both sides had fabricated all sorts of legends to increase the persuasiveness of their ownership claims.
Given this reality, it took too much time and effort to discern the truth, so the collection of information about Sefitiana had been temporarily halted.
Until she said she wanted that information.
“Still, I’d like to hear it. I think I need to know the village well to fully capture its charm in my painting.”
“If you insist…”
The Village Chief moved towards the back of the village.
I heard it was a forest where no one lived. Balak took in the forest scenery with his red eyes.
“I’ll say it again, but this isn’t a definite story. Take it with a grain of salt, and I’d appreciate it if you didn’t spread it around.”
“Understood.”
Soon, a small clearing appeared among the trees. The undergrowth was lush, seemingly unmanaged for a long time.
“Believe it or not, this used to be the site of a house where people lived. Can you see the cut tree stumps on the ground?”
The Village Chief bent down and roughly pulled out a handful of weeds, tossing them aside.
“About 800 years ago, a girl living here first discovered Sefitiana, I heard. Honestly, how many places claim the same thing, but the story I’m about to tell has been passed down only in my family, who have been village chiefs for generations.”
The Village Chief dusted off his dirt-covered hands and started walking with his hands behind his back towards a small path behind the clearing.
“It’s not particularly a secret, so I sometimes discuss it with the villagers.”
This was also something Balak had pondered over before coming here. It wasn’t particularly grand or treated as a great secret.
Just that a woman who first discovered Sefitiana had lived in this village.
Following the Village Chief a bit further in, a small, shabby grave appeared.
It seemed more maintained than the house site, but the sparsely grown weeds looked no different.
“This is that girl’s grave. Only the name remains, but it’s almost erased and hard to see. I heard it was Harsha… no, Anna.”
“—Ansha.”
“Right, that was the name. How do you know that?”
Balak knelt and brushed his hand over the wooden sign stuck in front of the grave.
As he dusted off the hazy dirt, the word ‘Ansha’ was written in an almost extinct ancient language.
‘Clearly, this was written before the founding of the empire. It’s an easy character to recognize immediately, but few people knew how to use writing at that time.’
Balak stood up and smiled as if he had drawn something.
“I think Milona mentioned it.”
“Oh my…”
“Then do you know where this person obtained Sefitiana?”
“I’m not sure about that. I heard she picked it up buried in the ground while plowing a field.”
If that was true, it was too humble an origin compared to Sefitiana’s reputation.
Isn’t it very different from what they were saying at the temple, about a jewel formed on a tree that grew where God struck lightning?
Balak silently laughed, recalling Vinea’s voice comparing Sefitiana to merely a ‘rock’.
“So after getting Sefitiana and discussing with the villagers, she seems to have left this place alone. The ruler of the country at that time was the infamous tyrant Salbare. If he found out Sefitiana was here, it would only be a matter of time before the village was razed to the ground.”
Tyrant Salbare. He was the king who led the Orbanteon Kingdom before the founding of Tessibania.
Known for his tyranny, immersed in luxury, pleasure, blood, and slaughter, he met his end at the hands of Knight Abraltan, the founding emperor of Tessibania.
It was a history that anyone born in Tessibania would have heard at least once.
“There was no way to sell it carelessly even if you had the divine jewel. Who would pay a high price for the jewel? For a commoner in such a small rural village, they could just kill and take it. For the same reason, all the villagers seemed reluctant to dispose of the jewel. In the end, this girl named Ansha took responsibility and left the village.”
“They could have just hidden it or buried it again. Was there a separate purpose?”
“I don’t know about that. We can’t ask someone who’s already dead and turned to dust, so we can only guess. It’s not just anything, but a divine jewel said to cause miracles. Even the villagers might change their minds at any time, so I guess leaving was the right choice.”
“What happened after that?”
“My, how impatient. Wait a moment. Shouldn’t we show at least minimal respect in front of the deceased?”
The Village Chief picked a couple of wildflowers growing haphazardly around the grave and placed them in front of it.
“I’ve covered it with new soil every time it gets washed away by rain, but it still looks quite shabby. Would you like to offer flowers too?”
“I’m fine, thank you.”
“How insensitive. You’ll make many women cry, tsk tsk.”
Balak neither confirmed nor denied, just slightly narrowed his cool eyes.
He had made many women cry whom he had spent one night with just to relieve his pent-up desires, but now he was in a position to worry about the opposite.
‘No, should I hope she would even call me for one night?’
Putting aside the strange mix of bitterness and expectation, Balak watched as the Village Chief bowed his head briefly toward the grave.
Finally raising his head, the Village Chief stroked his chin with his wrinkled hand and made an awkward expression.
“You must think it’s ridiculous. Paying such respects to the grave of someone from hundreds of years ago whose name I can’t even remember properly.”
“Not at all. If she truly was the first person to discover Sefitiana, such a shabby grave doesn’t make sense.”
“Hmm, actually, that’s not the reason. Where was I in the story?”
“You were talking about the girl leaving the village.”
“Right. After that, how many years passed, Knight Abraltan succeeded in his rebellion and founded Tessibania. The world changed, and so did the girl who had left the village with Sefitiana. The girl returned to the village as a woman.”
“Did she have Sefitiana?”
“No. Whether she sold it or gave it to someone. At least in the story I heard, there was no mention of Sefitiana’s whereabouts. It seems unlikely she used it herself, as she took her own life not long after returning. They say she was full of hatred and murderous intent. Because it ended badly, we pay respects like this, worried that something unpleasant might happen to the village.”
Girl, woman, Sefitiana, hatred and murderous intent.
It didn’t seem like a story deliberately made up to claim ownership of Sefitiana. Wasn’t it too gloomy compared to other stories full of all sorts of miracles?
It was subtly specific, and the house site and poorly maintained grave were clearly made long ago, too old to have been hastily fabricated.
‘Above all, being from before the founding of the empire, there are few oral traditions related to Sefitiana that date back this far. There must be something to this.’
The animal instinct that had allowed him to grow the Valita Trading Company at an incredible pace over the past four years was speaking to him.
“That’s all I know. There are many blank spaces, and aside from the grave and house site, there’s no evidence, so it’s almost like a fairy tale.”
“Still, it’s been very helpful. Really.”
“Ahem, well then, we have a pig we’ve caught. Would you like to join us for dinner? My granddaughter will be there too.”
Balak just smiled without answering. It was obvious what the Village Chief was hoping for, but it was time for him to return. To his employer whom he unrequitedly loved.
‘I hope this information pleases you, Vinea.’
Swallowing her name that he would soon speak aloud, Balak turned his back on the small, shabby grave.
