Strange Visitor

The villagers were mostly all on the same wavelength from the moment Aurelius appeared in front of them.

They had no idea what he was, but they certainly didn't want to make him angry!

Riding a stag with a herd of deer behind him was probably the most normal thing about their little town's strange visitor. The man himself had antlers growing from his head and clearly wasn't human—his angelic beauty just made it even more clear. Or rather, appearing in the midst of winter, wearing thin silk robes and a crown laden with fall leaves—just after a sudden burst of the previous season struck the world? This being wasn't so much as trying to pretend to be human!

The villagers unanimously turned to look at their chief, unashamedly sacrificing the poor, kindly, middle-aged woman to the magical being.

The village chief felt all the gazes on her and winced. She hid a sigh and stepped out from the crowd, just enough to pull the being's attention. Her body stiffened under his cerulean gaze.

"W-welcome, Lord Glorianus," the village chief bowed stiffly. The being blinked at her, and she tried not to visibly shudder. "This village is humble, but we would gladly open up our homes to you! Stay wherever you'd like and take whatever you need. We'll be sure not to bother you."

Rory stared down at the woman, around his mother's age (if she were still alive), and his head was filled with nothing but baffled silence.

'Are they afraid of me? That's… really upsetting.'

Some corner of his heart forgave Jahreszeiten a little bit more for the previous incident, now that he was on the opposite side of a similar response.

It didn't feel good at all to have people react to you with terror when you were just trying to be friendly!

"Well… thank you. Of course I'll pay for anything I need. And I'm not a lord or anything like that, so there's no need to be so formal around me."

The chief stayed stubbornly bowed. "That's very gracious of you, Mr. Glorianus, but we don't require anything in exchange. I'll guide you to somewhere you can stay the night if you'd like to follow me."

Rory smiled bitterly and followed the woman to what he strongly suspected was her own home. It was larger than his house back home, but small enough to still feel cosy and warm in the winter. The furnishings were nice and colorful, and there were keepsakes here and there from children who had long since grown.

The chief opened the entire place up for him to use at his leisure, and then made for the exit.

"Just a moment, madam chief," he called.

The woman froze in the doorway and turned around. She smiled accomodatingly back at him. "Yes sir?"

"You should know that the ancient forest spirit, Jahreszeiten, has awoken. It was him who changed the seasons earlier, not me. I'm merely his Druid."

"The… ancient forest spirit? Jahre…?"

"Jahreszeiten."

The middle-aged woman gulped and turned around to properly face the Druid. "Wh-what would Lord Jahreszeiten ask of us, sir Glorianus?"

Aurelius mused, 'I'm really starting to get a sense for what you mentioned before, Jahre, about Druids being ambassadors.'

"Indeed," the spirit replied. "You should know my will by now, Aurelius. I hope you would put this village at ease."

Rory smiled politely at the village chief. "Nothing at all, madam chief. Jahreszeiten loves humans and animals and is happy to let his forest be your home." The Druid's smile faded, "That said, if you're grateful, I would suggest that you minimize mining, tree-felling, and forging ores from this forest as much as possible."

Jahre quickly spoke to correct his druid, "I said I don't mind if they do such things."

'But you also said that it hurts you,' Rory gave a firm mental reply. 'Perhaps you don't mind, but I do and they should.'

The Druid smiled kindly again. "That's all I had to say. Thank you for lending me your home for the night, madam chief."

The woman bowed anxiously and left as soon as she could. While Rory familiarized himself with the place and made to settle in for the night, Jahreszeiten allowed his thoughts to idle.

'He cares.'

How warm that felt. How endearing a notion it was to have a frail little mortal looking out for his well-being. He was temporarily lost in those comforting ideas.

While they traveled through the woods and slept by camping, Aurelius kept himself fully clothed at all times. But now that he had a proper home to spend the night in and a bed to sleep on, there was finally a reason to use the nightclothes he had packed.

The young man worked his fingers into the silk sash about his waist and unwound it, allowing it to come loose and fall about his ankles. As he was about to shrug the outer layer of his robes off his shoulders, Jahreszeiten snapped out of his stupor and asked eagerly, "Oh! Am I not dismissed this time?"

Aurelius, who had simply forgotten the spirit was still watching due to his lapse into silence, flushed bright red up to his ears, which Jahreszeiten found to be adorable.

'Y-you're dismissed,' the young man replied. 'I'll speak to you again in the morning.'

"… Very well. Sleep well, Aurelius."

Disappointed, the spirit stopped focusing most of his attention on his Druid and cast his gaze over the rest of the forest instead. He wasn't looking for anything in particular, just something to catch his eye. His territory was vast and inhabited by many living things, so it didn't take long for something interesting to turn up.

There was a group of dirty and mangy humans, gathered in a cave and drinking cheap alcohol to keep warm. All of them were men, and from their sorry state compared to the village-dwelling humans, Jahreszeiten assumed they were outcasts. Such things happened often among wolves, another type of pack animal, so he was familiar with the concept.

Basically, they had been kicked out to find women to form another tribe and failed, right?

'Sorry creatures,' the forest spirit thought with pity. 'They should at least be able to stay somewhere warm until spring.'

As it so happened, there was such a warm place not too far from where the stray humans were holed away…