Chapter 337: Mukouda Cultivates a Field
After a lunch of Gyudon with soft-boiled eggs, the gyu- in the Gyudon made from sliced Blue Bull meat, by the way, we spent a little more time relaxing in the living room.
Fer went back to his nap, this time he was joined by Sui and Dora-chan.
I started another drip-bag coffee and was browsing through [Net Super] again. This time looking up stuff for myself.
“I supposed I should get about 10 pairs,” I muttered. [4] “Socks are just one of those things the modern world makes better.”
I’m getting holes in my old socks too, so it was time. Oh, I should get some bath salts too since we’ve been taking baths every day. Let’s get my favourite carbonated yuzu bath salts.
“Should I get something with a different scent too?” I mused and ended up with four different kinds of bath salts. I’ll try out one of the new ones tonight.
Let’s see, what else should I buy…
“Mukouda-san, we’re done transferring the soaps and shampoos.”
“Oh, that was quick.”
The job was supposed to be done by the men but since the women were super efficient with their own jobs, they helped out with the decanting jobs too. I also tasked them with the job of transferring the hair tonic into nicer looking local bottles and transforming them into Divine Medicine through a drop of Sui’s Special Elixir (low grade).
“We managed to do it quickly thanks to the dropper provided by Mukouda-san. Celia performed the task very efficiently, so it did not take us long.”
[6] “Did she now?”
[8] At the compliment, Celia looked away shyly. This girl did not stand out much but she did her job well and quickly. Even though she’s young, you can count on her to clean even the most obscure corners of the house, making the place spotless.
Naturally, the ‘dropper’ in question was something I bought from [Net Super].
It certainly makes the job much easier. [5]
“There’s still a lot of the medicine left,” [7] said Teresa as she handed over the bottle of Sui’s Elixir carefully. “I’m returning it now.”
[6] I shook the bottle and indeed, there was quite a lot left over. Looks like even 200 sets of hair restorers barely made a dent in it. Well, that’s good news since it meant I could transform loads of ordinary hair restorers into Divine Medicine with just one bottle of elixir.
“Right, I might have to ask your help again soon. For now, thank you for your hard work. You too, Celia-chan, thank you for your hard work.”
The ladies all nodded and accepted my thanks with a pleased, ‘Yes’. Although Celia-chan’s ‘yes’ was a little shy.
“Lotte also worked hard!!”
“Good job, Lotte.”
“Speaking of which, does Mukouda-san have any other work that needs to be done?” [7] asked Aiya.
I thought over a bit. The house had been cleaned, the refills done and prep work for dinner all prepared… There was really nothing more to do.
“Nothing in particular today. It’s a little early but you can take your break for the day.”
When I said that, the women turned to each other, “Then, let’s go shopping.”
“Shopping? What are you planning to buy?”
“We’re running out of vegetables, so I thought I’d buy some.”
“Buy vegetables? Didn’t I give you a magic bag? You can just buy a lot and put them into the bag…”
Teresa and Aiya laughed a little nervously.
“Well, we’re safe now and don’t really need escort everywhere but it’s still not safe to be seen walking around with a magic bag…”
“Ah, right…” I had forgotten just how valuable magic bags were…
Since I have an [Item Box], I’m usually not troubled by a lack of space to store things. To me, magic bags only came into use when Fer went hunting with the others. I had completely forgotten that the rest of society don’t normally have access to something like an [Item Box]
“Wait, does this mean you have to go out and buy vegetables all the time?”
“Yes…?”
[4] “We still have a lot of the less perishable vegetables like potatoes and carrots but perishables such as mushrooms can’t be stored too long and should be used up within three days,” said Aiya.
[4] “It’s a little pricey to buy these things in the city but we don’t have other options for now,” said the practical farmer Teresa.
“If there’s nothing else, may we be excused?”
“Yes, sure, no problem.”
“Please excuse us,” Celia-chan echoed her parent.
Lotte-chan waved her little hands and me, “Brother Mukouda, bye-bye~”
I waved them off.
So…
Vegetables, huh?
When it comes to vegetables, it’s better to have freshly harvested ones. Especially when it comes to easily perishable veg. Moreover, I looked out the window at the uselessly wide garden and said. [5] [4] “I have such a lot of space too…” [5]
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“Right, you want the soil to be about like this?” [7] I asked, after expanding magic through my hands into the ground.
“Yes,” said Alban. “Soil of this texture is good for growing things. Soft but not too fine. I say, magic is really incredible. I had no idea that it could be used like this.”
I was cultivating the land next to the servant’s quarters behind the main building. Having my own vegetable garden has lots of advantages.
If the crops grow well, I could have fresh produce at hand. [6] Maybe even grow some other world crops.
More importantly, the reason why I even attempted this as a hobby was because I have Alban. An actual farmer and expert in growing things. [2] When I approached him about making a vegetable garden, he was very enthusiastic. Well, it made sense for a man from generations of farmers to love the soil.
At first, I thought of turning the front garden into farmland but was given a solid no from not only Fer but Sui and Dora-chan as well. Personally, [8] I like the idea of coming home to a neat field but when my familiars realised that the trees and bushes they liked so much would have to be cut down to flatten the landscape for farmlands, well, they have some oddly strong opinions against it.
I guess in hindsight, it makes sense to have the vegetable garden by the servant’s quarters. The Albans would be in charge of the crops, of course, since they came from farming stock.
The land itself was about the size of a tennis court. So, it was probably more like a large-ish garden than a proper farm to Alban. [5] [6] Still, small plot or not, things had to be done properly.
Which was why I was aerating the soil and getting rid of stray stones in the ground with my earth magic. Normally, this kind of job should be done with a hoe but I thought I’d try using magic and see what happens.
Magic is all about using the imagination. [8] So, I imagine the closely packed soil growing bubbles and stones collapsing into sand. Having a bit of sand in rich soil is good for keeping it loose.
My experiment turned out to be a success. However, my magical range was pretty small, only about 3 meters square, so I had to do this over and over again 20 times before the entire tennis court size field was done.
Halfway through, I had to take a break and let my magic recover before continuing.
Anyway, the ground was soon properly aerated and loose.
“Phew, I guess this should be good enough?” [7] I stood up and stretched. “Hey, I’ll leave the tilling to you guys, yeah?”
[6] “Ou!”
All the commoner menfolk had gathered with hoes and spades in hand and were already turning the aerated ground into neat rows starting from the other corner of our little ‘field’. [5]
Naturally, the boys were learning from Alban how to make properly raised mounds.
“Woah! It’s a field, it’s a field!” [2] Lotte-chan cried, [6] happily hopping from side to side with a shopping bag flapping in her arms.
“Mukouda-san, this is…”
“Well… as you can see…” I waved a hand at where the men were working
“It’s a field…” [5]
“Ahem, I figured since I have proper farmers in my employment, we might as well try growing some of our own food. That way, we can enjoy freshly harvested vegetables.”
It would definitely not go to waste since everyone would be eating it. [6] If we happen to have a bumper crop of anything, well, I’m sure they have a way to preserve food here. Otherwise, there’s still the magic bag.
“Hey, hey, what are we going to grow in this field?” Lotte-chan asked as she bounced up and down.
[4] “Ah, hmm. I haven’t really thought about it, but what did you use to grow at your farm, Lotte?”
“Hmm, we have potatoes. Lots of them.”
“I see, shall we grow some too?”
“Yeah!”
“Also…” since I have my own personal ‘farmland’ we should grow fruits and vegetables from another world. Let’s see, what should I grow…
“Mukouda-san? We’re done with the tiling work.”
“Oh? Good job!”
[8] The raised ridges were all very neat and very farm-like, similar to pictures of farmland I’ve seen on magazines and television.
“Right, shall we take a break?”
While I was looking through [Net Super] for snacks, Muskmelon popped up as the No. 1 recommended fruit on sale today.
[6] Oh my, Muskmelon is usually pretty expensive but I’m a rich guy now, fufufu. Also, once we’ve eaten the melons, we can keep the seeds and try raising them. Who knows, they might just grow well here.
If they happened to fail as a crop, we can just grow something else so it’s worth a try.
With that in mind, I also bought my favourite Watermelon.
Hmm, [Net Super] seems to sell anything and everything regardless of the season. Which made me think that it’s not directly connected to Japan. There must be some kind of magic behind it that keeps everything in stock.
I mean, there were certain things ‘in season’ such as limited edition strawberry products and stuff, but certain things such as peaches and watermelons were not meant to be found on the shelf at the same time.
Well, this was all my personal speculations. Regardless of the reason, I’m really glad to have all these wonderful fruits on sale regardless of the season.
In other words, so long as I have the money, I can eat whatever I want.
After some consideration, I bought a boxful of Watermelon and a box of Muskmelon. [8] While the ladies were cutting up the melons, my familiars trotted up.
“Oh, hello. Do you guys want a bit of fruit as a snack?”
“Sure,”
“”Of course! Of course!””
““Fruits~””
The children were sent off to call the guards over to eat too.
My familiar’s portion was peeled, deseeded, cut up and set out on plates for them.
“Right, this one is Muskmelon and these are Watermelon. The Muskmelon is sweeter and Watermelon is both sweet and refreshing.”
Fer & Co. began to eat the cubes of fruit.
“Ah, everyone else, please go ahead and eat. The little black things in the Watermelon are seeds, so please save them so that we can plant them later. Alban, what do you think about growing these? Would you like to try growing other world fruits and vegetables?”
“Oh, yes! Of course!”
We had already saved the seeds when cutting up the Muskmelon just now so that only leaves the Watermelon seeds.
“It’s sooo swe~et!” Lotte-chan shivered with pleasure as she ate the Muskmelon.
“This red fruit is really sweet and refreshing. It’s the first time I had anything like it,” said Alban, his eyes rounded with surprise.
“Yes, yes, they are delicious aren’t they and… [5] Tabasa, why are those two crying?”
The idiot twins were eating and crying at the same time. Both were crying out something that sounded like ‘This sweetness soothes the emptiness in my heart!’
“Mn… I’m not sure why but it’s probably because they haven’t had any meat today.”
[9] “No meat?” I looked at them dubiously. Cats were technically carnivores, aren’t they? I mean, Tiger Beastmen should favour a meaty diet even if they could process fruit and grains too, right?
[9] “Hmm, they only had bread and eggs for breakfast and lunch today.”
[9] “… and nothing else?” I turned to the ladies in shock. Embezzling? So quickly? But-
[9] “No, no, Mukouda-san,” the ladies shook their heads quickly at me.
[9] “Today’s breakfast might be a little lighter than usual but we have two different egg dishes and ham on the table,” said Teresa quickly.
[9] “For lunch, there’s Orc meat soup and vegetables. Made with Orc bones, root vegetables, chopped Orc meat and a choice of rice or bread on the side.”
[9] “Mm, yes, Aiya’s soup was delicious as usual,” commented Tabasa calmly while the twins made gagging faces in the background.
Ah, I’m starting to understand.
[9] It happened to me too, actually.
After battling with so many Orcs for such a long time, just the thought of Orc meat was enough to make me feel sick.
Yesterday’s dinner was a Yakitori bowl. For breakfast, I managed to eat a small Orc Meat Soboro but, then again, I had not been operating under a petty Barrier and ended up covered in wounds like the twins. [5]
Still, I had not expected them to be so delicate.
I laughed to myself but then sobered up.
Right, I should be the last person to laugh at someone else for being ‘delicate.
Anyway, [Net Super] has loads of different kinds of seeds for sale. For now, I bought seeds for lettuce, cucumber, tomato, eggplant, corn and pumpkin seeds.
[10] The gardeners, and Lotte-chan, studied the seed packets curiously. Especially the brightly coloured pictures of the vegetables in front.
“I’ve only seen these two before,” said Alban at last, pointing out the lettuce and tomatoes. “They aren’t exactly the same but similar enough.”
[10] “Is this a good weather to start planting seeds?” I asked.
[10] “There’s no bad weather to plant seeds. Some days we get more rain, other days we get very little rain but we can plant them anytime.”
“Ah,” looks like they don’t really have four-season weather like Japan, if the weather is more or less the same all year round.
Anyway, the men have made several rows of ridges so we can plant one kind of seed for each ridge. Aside from making sure to inform them to plant the gourd plants further apart from each other and to erect poles for them to climb, the men pretty much took care of the job themselves.
In fact, the job finished very quickly. Seeing everyone staring at the field with enthusiasm, I looked through [Net Super] again and bought a bottle of liquid fertilizer and a watering can. I diluted the fertilizer with water and let the eager men take turns watering the plants with the fertilizer.
Once that was done, we settled down to look over our new vegetable garden.
“I hope we could get some sweet things from it,” said Lotte-chan with a smile.
Well, well, looks like someone had been charmed by the Muskmelon.
“Me too, I hope everything grows well.”
Especially since they were all grown from seeds from another world.
[Gumihou: Mukouda-san, I hope everything grows well too.]
[1] Structural Change: Combine 2 paragraphs
[2] Structural Change: Combine 3 paragraphs
[3] Structural Change: Combine paragraph & dialogue
[4] Structural Change: Change passive sentence to dialogue
[5] Delete Repetitive or Pointless Information
[6] Additional Information for Aesthetic Purpose
[7] Add Dialogue Tag
[8] Creative Licence Taken – give a reasonable reason why familiars protest against turning the gardens into farmland aside from ‘we dun wanna’
[9] Give a proper exposition on the twin’s trauma
[10] Give proper seed examining scene.