Summary
The Great Fortune of a Small Village
Once upon a time, there was a young man named Kouta living in a small mountain village. Kouta worked as the village's only photographer and was skilled at capturing the village's beautiful landscapes. However, recently, due to heavy rain, the river had flooded, and no tourists were coming to the village at all. "I won't be able to make a living like this," Kouta lamented.
One day, Kouta was casually looking up at the sky by the riverbank when suddenly a boat appeared in front of him. It was a luxurious sightseeing boat owned by a wealthy man living in the village, and it was just about to set off to cross the river. When the wealthy man spotted Kouta, he proposed, "Would you like to join? I want you to promote my boat with your photographs." Kouta was surprised but gladly agreed, feeling that it was a chance to change the village's fate.
Kouta boarded the boat and continued to take beautiful pictures as they visited tourist attractions. A few weeks later, the brochure featuring his photographs was completed, and the village's name spread rapidly. Thanks to that, many tourists returned, and the village regained its liveliness. Kouta felt proud of his skills and was thanked by the villagers.
However, the villagers gradually began to forget about the wealthy man and didn’t realize that they had succeeded thanks to the boat he had provided. Wanting prosperity for the village too much, Kouta decided to hide that fact. He worried that saying such things might cause tourists to disappear again. Thus, the fortunate stroke of luck was forgotten, and the village mistakenly believed they had achieved this on their own. Even now, from time to time, the wealthy man's boat floats on the waves, quietly drifting with the shadows of a bygone fate.
