The Gatekeeper of a Town Declining Once Again

Celebrating 100 chapters!

But this is just a story about some old guy who's a gatekeeper.

It's short on flair, so instead he picks his nose.

“Welcome to Yoshanka. This is a town where ‘the wind is cold, but people's hearts are warm.’ Enjoy your stay.”

After carelessly rattling off the town's slogan and letting the traveling merchant in through the gate, the guard Sidelock picked his nose.

It was boring.

The job of a gatekeeper in a country town.

Yes, it was boring.

Boring, once again.

It had become boring.

1 month had already passed since “that day.”

The number of people visiting Yoshanka had gradually begun to decrease, and now things were completely back to the way they were.

The town had reverted to the desolate place it had been before.

No, the Trade Association bunch, who had bet on the boom continuing, had gone and sunk money into expanding their shops and opening up new ventures.

But since the people vanished, they were now clutching their heads in despair, their faces pale as they realized they couldn't recover their invested funds.

In that sense, maybe things were even worse than before.

Many of Yoshanka's merchants were on the verge of bankruptcy, gasping for air.

If the merchants disappeared, the number of people living in Yoshanka would decrease even further.

The town of Yoshanka had begun to tumble down the stairs toward its own destruction at a speed faster than ever before.

(Well, not my problem. Until I die, anyway...... it'll hold out somehow. Probably.)

Sidelock pulled his index finger out of his nose.

......That was the biggest one he'd gotten in a while.

“That day” referred to the day the cursed child girl was banished from Yoshanka.

It was also the day Sidelock's drinking buddy, Chief Dakkante, returned from his business trip, and the day the numerous frauds committed by the receptionist Pilitza came to light.

Ah, and I suppose it was also the day that arrogant and memorable silver-haired brat, Kamasse, left this town.

The cursed child was banished from this town; what happened next?

First, the delivery of Cysh grass to the Adventurers' Guild almost completely stopped.

Apparently, this came to light during the interrogation of Pilitza, but the “Kaise Forest Cysh grass” that had been such a hot topic recently had actually been gathered and delivered to the guild by that cursed child.

Now that I think about it, that cursed child once showed some grass that looked like that to Kamasse right here in front of the gate. I just remembered it now.

Pilitza had apparently conned the cursed child out of her Cysh grass and pocketed the profits.

To hide this fraud from those around her, Pilitza had kept the truth a secret.

And as a result, that cursed child was driven from town without receiving a single thing in return.

Then, what happened?

First, the merchants and apothecaries who had been coming to Yoshanka for the medicinal herbs vanished from the town.

And next, since exploring the demon realm was far too dangerous for the meager amount of Cysh grass one could find no matter how hard they searched, the adventurers began to disappear as well.

Previously, even if they couldn't gather medicinal herbs, adventurers could make a decent living by collecting Togodo eggs.

But the Togodos, their lifeline, had vanished from the northern cliffs that were supposed to be their habitat.

In one fell swoop, Yoshanka became a town with no profit and no appeal for adventurers.

There was no reason to stay in such a town.

Naturally, the adventurers vanished somewhere.

The bustle disappeared from Yoshanka.

“Fuwa~ah! It's been so boring lately-ssu~! Nice to be able to relax, though.”

Beside him, Yoza was saying something carefree while yawning.

“With this few people coming, I'm worried about the town-ssu. This is that black-haired, black-eyed curse at work too......! Unforgivable-ssu!”

This guy, the Trade Association big shots and the like, everyone who had actively worked to banish the cursed child, all said the same kind of thing.

That the town had become desolate again was the fault of that girl's curse.

But if they had left that thing in town, an even greater disaster would surely have befallen it.

So there was no helping the situation.

It wasn't their fault, they said.

(Well, that's just shifting the blame.)

I mean, this guy. Yoza.

On that day, when the cursed child was banished, it was apparently this guy who got the ball rolling for the Trade Association bunch who tried to throw the girl out without any legal basis.

Apparently, he'd claimed that the cursed child had avoided the gate and instead run up and over the outer wall.

He must have argued that not using the main gate meant she had some guilty reason, and that the only option was to drive her out of town.

Well, apparently he fired them up saying stuff like that.

Hey now, you're a guard, aren't you, I'd tell him.

What the hell are you doing, I'd tell him.

There's no such law, I'd tell him.

Sure, when Harinna pestered me, I did say, “I'll look into it.”

But I never had anything this heavy-handed in mind.

Say you found the cursed child getting around by climbing over the outer wall.

Unexpectedly, there was a person capable of doing such a thing.

Then the proper procedure is to report it to the Magistrate or someone, ask what he wants done, get your orders, and act on them.

And he just went and acted on his own judgment, damn him.

If this gets judged as misconduct, some kind of disciplinary action is definitely coming down on me too.

Negligent supervision, after all.

Don't screw with me.

Fortunately, perhaps because the target was a cursed child, no warnings have come down from above.

“......Come to think of it.”

“Hm? Sidelock-san, what is it?”

“Ah, sorry. I was just talking to myself...... Yoza, you said you saw the cursed child running up the outer wall, right?”

“Ah, yes! The wretch, that's how she was slipping past the eyes of us gatekeepers-ssu! Unforgivable-ssu, right!”

“......How does anybody even manage something like running up an outer wall......?”

“Hm? Hmm...... Well, it's gotta be that-ssu, right? She must've used some evil cursed power to do something-ssu! Good thing we got her out before she could turn that power on the townsfolk-ssu!”

“......I see.”

This is what I'm talking about.

His own assumptions have gone and become the truth.

As far as the mindset of a guard who should maintain impartiality goes, it's truly terrible.

If left alone, this guy will definitely pull something similar again.

But then again.

Strictly speaking, as his superior, it might be my place to reprimand Yoza, but if I did that, it would mean I was indirectly criticizing the Trade Association that this guy had hitched himself to.

In a tiny town like this, being hated by the merchants leads to a miserable life.

So I won't say anything.

And Yoza won't change a bit.

Yeah, well, it can't be helped.

It's not my own problem, so whatever.

I'll just make sure I'm prepared to avoid any responsibility.

(......Ah, but man, it's boring......)

Thinking about this and that in a rambling fashion, Sidelock looked up at the sky and sighed.

Spread across it was the same cloudy sky as always.

Not something pleasant to look at.

The sea wind howled and was cold, and there were no money-making deals lying around either.

Would a day ever come when Yoshanka regained the bustle it had 1 month ago?

(Probably not.)

That was the last dream seen by the dying town of Yoshanka.

It was a pleasant dream.

And dreams are things you eventually wake up from.

(......What if)

But, what if they hadn't driven that cursed child out, and had taken her in, here in this town? What would have happened?

Wouldn't something, some new story, have begun in this town?

Sidelock felt that, somehow.

(......Nah, it's too late now, so whatever.)

They had driven the cursed child out.

The town of Yoshanka had begun to grow desolate once again.

Hashing out the cause and effect of it all is, at the very least, no job for a guard.

With that thought, Sidelock stopped thinking about the cursed child, then and there.

Then, frowning at the unpleasant sea wind blowing at him as always, he faced forward, gazed down the wasteland highway with no one on it, and started picking his nose.

There it was: the same daily life as before.

That was the story of Yoshanka afterward.

Since they drove out the person who was the cause of the town's boom, the town naturally became desolate again.

They got what they deserved.

And Sidelock.

Despite being a named character, this old guy did absolutely nothing until the very end, didn't he?