Translated by Refulgent for Four Slimes Translation
Chapter 1 – 14
An omen of calamity
About 2 years pa.s.sed since the king’s inspection of Kukuri village. Spring had just arrived.
In those 2 years things had changed, Hausto Frontier Earldom set up a military camp near the village, and both soldiers and doctors arrived with them.
At first the villagers had welcomed them. However, most of the soldiers were ill-tempered, vulgar and oppressive, and before long the villagers and soldiers were hostile to each other.
One of the main reasons was that the forest was turned into an off limits zone.
There were many good quality medicinal herbs that the villagers liked to gather from areas within the now off limits zone. Because even the relatively safe areas were included, many villagers were opposed to the idea entirely. The man in charge of all the dispatched soldiers ignored the villagers opinions and decided who got in based solely on his own discretion.
Even worse than that, some of the soldiers picked the herbs themselves and secretly gave them to traders, in order to earn some money on the side.
There was a growing divide between the villagers and the soldiers.
Being a village with many former adventurers, they were more used to dealing with monsters than even the soldiers themselves were. Both the normally purchased reserves and the gathered stockpiles of herbs had of course run low due to the soldiers changes.
“Mom, I have a ton of herbs!” .
I was putting all my energy towards collecting herbs, as the village’s stockpiles were running low, all thanks to the soldiers.
I could reach even far away places in a short amount of time with Sky Flight, so I’d taken charge of gathering herbs. Mother and gramps would mix and dispense them, while father was in charge of going out to hunt.
Occasionally I would learn things by myself, or while helping them mix the herbs, so I gained a basic understanding of herbalism as well.
“Good job. Was it hard to gather all of these?” .
Mother asked. It wasn’t much trouble since I could use the Investigation and Appraisal skills.
I answered in a vague way so she wouldn’t be worried. Mother took the herbs from me and went back to her own work. When father returned home, she would stop mixing the herbs, and would start preparing dinner.
After spending many days in this way, one day was different, and mother fell ill. Fortunately, we had stockpiled some medicine so it was cured quickly. However, her physical strength didn’t return completely so she continued to rest during the day.
When I thought of things that were both easy to digest and rich in nutrients, yams stood out, so I went and left the village to dig some up.
But when I left the village, I got held up by some of the rotten soldiers.
“Hey, wait just a minute there, kiddo.”
“You’ve been gathering a lot of herbs lately, haven’tcha? Hand some of ’em over.”
The soldier said, asking the likes of a 12 year old (in appearance only). It seemed a pain to deal with, so while ignoring him I tried to walk straight past, but he grabbed my shoulder.
“Don’t just ignore us, what a brat… whoaAAUGH–“
I grabbed the hand he put on my shoulder, twisted it down and smashed it toward the ground, knocking him unconscious.
“What do you you think you’re up to you d.a.m.n brat!” .
The remaining guard struck at me in rage but I showed him no mercy.
“Secret technique, ‘son’ killer!”
[TN: son being slang for d.i.c.k in j.a.panese]
and struck with a forbidden attack.
With a backwards glance at the soldier who fainted in pain and slumped over, I used Flying magic to reach where I wanted to go in the first place.
Maybe I’m being a little too honest in saying so but I never had very warm feelings for the soldiers, so I decided to say it had been done in self defense.
Once I found the yams at my destination, I quickly got to work.
First, use earth magic to change the soil surrounding the yams into sand. Next, while being careful not to break them, dig them out of the sand. Finally, use water magic to wash them, followed by fire magic to burn off the whisker like roots and store them in the Magic Bag. Complete.
In roughly 2 hours, I could dig out 5 yams in a roughly 1 meter area. In the previous world, I might have dug out only 1 yam, and it might’ve taken longer than 2 hours even. Magic really is convenient.
The yams in this world lie somewhere between a j.a.panese and Chinese yam. They’re more sticky, are very nutritious and are an easy to digest food but, they aren’t eaten very often in towns and cities.
The most common ways of eating them here are to cut them into round slices and fry them, or to chop them into small pieces and have them in a soup.
In my house, we would grate it and add it as seasoning to rice (which wasn’t common but we did it), or add it to das.h.i.+ when we made soup. Of course, I was the one who suggested it. It wasn’t the usual way to eat them in this world but now it’s secretly gaining popularity in Kukuri village.
Incidentally, the rice here seems to be mostly the indica strain of rice, so many people here parboil it instead of boiling it directly.
While gathering the yams, I took the opportunity to hunt some rabbit and maru birds, bled them and put them in the bag as well.
When I returned to the village, once again the soldiers were there, but this time I used the thunder magic 『Stun』 and they were easily stunned. It was in self defense after all, so it can’t be helped. If we were attacked at night, we’d know right away due to s.h.i.+romaru, who had grown to a length of 2 meters now.
I made dinner that night, it was rabbit soup with grated yam, and boiled rice. Surrounding me at the dinner table were father, mother and gramps.
The forest had changed but it seemed trivial to them. I spent many enjoyable days with the same smiling faces that hadn’t changed since long ago all around me. Even now I thought that this happiness would continue on in this way and even become greater in time.
That was, up until the disaster that hit us 1 month later.
[Author’s Note]
It turned out a bit short but I divided it up to switch between scenes smoother. Next will be a smaller chapter that connects 14 and 15.
We’ve now surpa.s.sed 1200 bookmarks, thank you very much.
[Translator’s Note]
As this chapter was comparatively calm (boring) I went ahead and included the next mini chapter, a short transition as well. Chapter 15 is longer and more exciting than this, so please look forward to it!