Caesar had wanted to know more about this world"s history, alas, he decided to put those unnecessary thoughts aside and focus on the farmers in front of him.There were about five or so fox-kin men present in the shack, they were all relatively the same height, standing at 5 feet and 10 inches, they adorned ragged looking clothes with an abundant amount of stains and had unkempt hair. It was apparent they didn"t care about their personal hygiene.
*screech*
One of the farmers got up from their chair and walked over, he had a strange looking monocle covering his right eye and folded ears atop his head.
"M-Musashi, what are you doing here?" A very high pitched and shy voice escaped from the man"s mouth, he had long obsidian hair that greasily fell over his eyes just barely covering parts of the monocle.
"Haha, you"re just how I remembered you Juzo, you haven"t changed in the slightest!" Musashi replied while roaring in laughter.
Juzo"s face visibly reddened as he averted his eyes, he was acting comparable to a shy schoolgirl which baffled both Caesar and Ahri.
"Alright, alright, enough banter… this is Caesar, he had just informed me of his abundant knowledge when it comes to agriculture and farming, I figured you would enjoy conversing with him on the topic" Musashi spoke while gesturing to Caesar with his hands.
Juzo shifted some of his hair away from his face and closely examined Caesar with shining eyes, "I-I would love to talk about agriculture with you! It is my pa.s.sion, I hope we can learn some things from each other" Juzo said awkwardly and put his trembling hand forward.
The corner of Caesar"s lips twitched as he took Juzo"s hand with his own, the man visibly shivered once they touched hands and even Caesar couldn"t help but feel uncomfortable.
"It"s a pleasure to meet you Juzo, my name is Caesar" he introduced himself with an elegant smile.
"T-t-the pleasure is all mine" Juzo replied humbly whilst bowing deeply, as if afraid to look Caesar in the eyes.
An awkward silence ensued as Juzo refused to let go of Caesar"s hand, the other four farmers looked at this scene with a wry smile and reminded Juzo.
"It"s not polite to hold on to someone"s hand for too long, Juzo!" one of the farmers reminded with a teasing smile.
Juzo abruptly pulled his hand from Caesar and bowed even deeper, as if he wanted to kiss the ground… "I-I"m terribly sorry!" he apologized in a sincere tone to which Caesar couldn"t help but shake his head with a wry smile.
"No need to apologize, let"s get down to business, shall we?" Caesar pulled up the bowing man and asked with a professional smile.
"Y-yes, of course, please follow me" Juzo replaced his previous shy smile with an eager one and led Caesar out of the shack, Ahri and the rest naturally followed after them.
Juzo led Caesar to the right of the shack and a few dozen rows of different plants, flowers, and other forms plantlife were present.
They were neatly arranged in each row, giving off a very sophisticated feeling which impressed even Caesar.
Juzo looked at the plants, trees, and other foliage with love in his eyes, as if was looking at his own children… He turned toward Caesar with a proud smile and opened his arms up wide.
"Welcome to my garden!" he said excitedly.
Caesar nodded his head in recognition and walked past Juzo, he walked through the rows of plantlife and examined the plants closely to determine which sorts of vegetables and fruits were present in the garden.
"Wheat, potatoes, tomatoes, apples, and corn" Caesar listed off each fruit and vegetable he could visibly determine, although this was a different world, it would appear their vegetables and fruits were relatively the same.
"Wow, I"m surprised you know what each of these plants are, just by glancing at them!" Juzo spoke in an excited tone whilst closely following behind Caesar.
Caesar was by no means a farmer in his past life, in fact, there was plethora amount of people who had known more about the subject in comparison to him, however, discerning the difference between a potato and wheat was something any normal person was capable of.
Caesar only knew the basic methods related to farming such as irrigation, diversity, rotating crops, and of course, flood control… all of which were things you would learn in any basic agricultural or geographical course at a university.
"How come you haven"t spread out and made the farm more abundant? The amount of wheat in this vicinity is only enough to feed at most, a couple thousand" Caesar asked curiously while delicately touching the petals of a nearby flower.
Juzo scratched the back of his head bashfully with a strange blush spread across his face, "t-that is, we get a lot of rain in this area, the amount of water is hard to control when we have a surplus amount of plants, thus, around 50% of our crops last year died to the seasonal floods." Juzo explained with an embarra.s.sed smile.
"Hmm," Caesar hummed mysteriously and stood up from the ground, he observed the nearby terrain and stroked his chin in contemplation.
"What are your current counter-measure for the floods and excess rain?" Caesar asked inquiringly.
"We don"t have any means to stop the rampaging waters, thus, every night during the flooding season we pray to the heavens for mercy" Juzo explained with a calm smile to which Caesar looked at him baffled.
"You mean to tell me, your only tactic to stop the floods is to pray at night?" Caesar asked with a dumbfounded expression.
Juzo shook his head with a wide smile, "no, we pray during the day sometimes as well" he revealed.
The corner of Caesar"s lips twitched, he could not detect any fallacy in Juzo"s words, even Ahri and the kobold elder behind him open their eyes wide in surprise.
Caesar facepalmed, "you don"t use any simple form of drainage or flood protection? Such as digging a ditch around the crops or forming small pathways to drain the excess water near the plants to somewhere else?" Caesar asked in exasperation.
Confusion gleamed in Juzo"s eyes as Caesar continued to explain…
"Similar to a moat, you can dig a relatively large ditch around your stronghold so that the waters fall inside the ditch instead of rampaging inside and killing your crops…"
"If the ditch was full of water, how would we leave our kingdom?" Juzo asked.
"You can, of course, use a drawbridge or a wooden plank to walk across, not to mention, with the number of plants, vegetables, and starch saved, there would be a surplus amount of food compared how much you currently have" Caesar further explained, while both Musashi and Juzo stroked their chins in contemplation at his words.
`"sigh, it would appear you are quite knowledgeable about raising the plants, alas, protecting the plants seems to be where you need to improve… perhaps, you could lend me some of your troops, Musashi, and I a.s.sure you, your strongholds defenses will improve alongside the protection of the crops" Caesar sighed deeply and turned around to face Musashi.
"Hmm, very well, I will send Leo and Faust to a.s.sist you on this endeavor, since it would seem you three have already gotten to know each other" Musashi decided after a few seconds of thought, he was an easy going man, and with someone explaining to him a few feasible ideas, how could he refuse?
"Thank you," Caesar replied courteously and half-bowed elegantly to which Juzo at the side nodded his head with excitement.
"If what you say is true and we don"t have to cripple the number of crops used, we can plant some more!" Juzo spoke with realization apparent in his tone as if he was a kid that just found a new toy.
Caesar ma.s.saged his temples, "I can"t believe they would put such an imbecile in charge of the food, one of the most important aspects in any kingdom, stronghold, or country…" he thought inwardly while glancing at Juzo skeptically.
*clap*
*clap*
"Well, that"s enough talk about troublesome things I don"t understand, Caesar, I will let you do what you need to do tomorrow, as for now, let"s duel each other in my private battlegrounds, I"ve been itching to test your capabilities" Musashi clapped his hands and interrupted everyone"s train of thought.
Caesar ran his slender fingers through his long and elegant hair while an eager smile slowly formed on his lips… "very well, I have also been wanting to test how strong the clan head of a medium-sized clan in the dark continent is" Caesar responded and put his hands behind his back.
The moat and irrigation would have to wait until tomorrow, for now, the duel with Musashi was more attractive to Caesar.