Agricultural Village Arc ⑩ -Experiment and an Unexpected Visitor-And thus, the mages left and many months flew by.
As I predicted, or more like, somehow, the fields were indeed infertile.
What in the world is this–, the soil quality didn’t show any signs of improvement! And we didn’t even plant any crops after that too!
After the mages managed to speed up the growth of the plants, we harvested it, re-tilted the land, removed the weeds, and replanted. However, similar to the situation beforehand, or more like, to a greater extent, it seems that the plants are unable to grow.
Wow, a mage is so great—, if I could be a mage …… I was seriously harbouring such thoughts yet this is such a let-down! It is a tragic loss.
The magic by the mages only had a temporary effect.
Thus, magic isn’t really all that omnipotent. After all, the very act of magic is performed by humans. It probably isn’t a complete thing.
Somehow, I feel a slight affinity to mages. Both the mages managed to look cool even after their ikemen masks were taken off, but at the end of the day, they are still human.
Gufufu. I have no idea why but my chest is feeling all tight.
The Garigari village was again vexing over the issue of crop failure, though it seems that the village chief has already antic.i.p.ated the current phenomenon and said 「Aa, as I thought—」.
When the mages came to the village in the past, a phenomenon like this had happened. At that time, the plants managed to grow after they casted their spell, but after that, it felt as though the yields had decreased.
If you knew that, you could have informed the mages about it! Village chief!
The village chief must have been caught up in all that tension when he saw the crops steadily growing due to the spell, and forgotten to say anything.
Yeah, I can kinda understand that.
After seeing that, I instantly became dumbstruck. I understand.
Nevertheless, at the corner of the village was a field that didn’t seem to be affected by the crop failure phenomenon and had plants that were sprouting.
That’s right, it’s the Jirou-anchan’s field, which was incidentally supervised by Ryou-chan☆
If I had possessed magic, I would have taken it easy since any effort put into developing the agriculture would be meaningless. This is what I feel from the depths of my heart.
Being a dark horse to a certain extent, to reduce the risks, I prepared countermeasures that were worthwhile in the end.
Jirou-anchan became 15 years old and having been recognised as an adult, he became the owner of his own field. Although I might say that, it’s not that a new piece of land was cleared, it was simply just a portion of Otou-san’s land that was transferred to him.
The soft-spoken young man Jirou-anchan did not raise any objections and nods willingly to what I tell him to do. Not only is he soft-spoken, he is quite the obedient type too.
Together with Maru-anchan, who was in-charge of taking care of me, I and Jirou-anchan gave our all to the fields.
“I, who holds memories of my past life, would be more than capable to handle the cultivation of the crops!” I held this thought for a period of time but now, given that I’m a greenhorn at this, I would need to do some trials first.
Firstly, I divided Jirou-anchan’s land into 4 divisions.
①Mixing the ashes of straw and weeds to the soil, this field by the riverside had a mix of Tsurumame and rice grown together
②No addition of ashes and had a mix of Tsurumame and rice growing field
③Field which soil was mixed with the same kind of ashes but only rice is grown here
④Nothing is grown here
And now, the one the field that provided the best growth for crops is the ① field which had cinders mixed into it and had Tsurumame and rice growing in it. Runner-up is field ② which didn’t have cinders mixed into its soil while both rice and Tsurumame grew on it. There wasn’t a big difference in performance between these fields however.
Of course, since 2 varieties of crop were cultivated in these fields, the amount of rice growing was halved. Nevertheless, the field which was mono-culture was basically completely wiped out, so even if half of the crops in field 1 and 2 managed to grow, it would still be way better.
Field ③’s had fertiliser(cinders) added and compared to the villagers’ fields which didn’t use any fertiliser, there were still not a big difference as both kinds ended in total annihilation. Therefore, the most important factor is the addition of the bean plants.
Does everybody understand?
The above summary was presented by yours truly, in the recently inaugurated 「Villager’s Meeting」.
This was to facilitate the sharing of knowledge in agriculture and other informative matters on a regular basis. I initiated it.
Using a teacher’s pointer, made out of a stick, to draw explanatory diagrams (No words; drawings only), while reporting on the agriculture experiment was me, Ryou-chan the 4 years old.
After the incident when Ryou-chan was confirmed not to be a mage, the villagers were, at the beginning, dejected. Still, it’s not like my level of excellence decreased or anything, thus I managed to keep my status as an exceptional child due to my appeal as a desperately hardworking kid.
「Yes! I have a question. Why was field ④ made empty?」
Yep, that’s a good question. A rather good question indeed, son of the village chief.
｢It’s so that I can experiment to see the effects of letting the field rest. It’s called fallow farmland. After harvesting the crops planted this round, I plan to plant seeds in the fallow farmland and observe the growth of the crops.｣
Just like that, the lecture started and ended without a big fuss.
From the onset, I started acting cute and spoke with a lisp but I eventually got tired of doing so. The villagers didn’t find it extraordinary and embarra.s.sing so it became a Ryou-chan thing to put adults to shame.
Extrapolating my growth, I dare say that someday, I would become the village chief. Based on merit, yeah.
I’m awfully sorry but you’ve got to settle for vice-village chief, son of the chief. Umu.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
It has been 1 year since I have started meddling in agriculture. We started to obtain a considerable improvement in crop yield.
We conclusively found that a fallow farmland is beneficial for overall cultivation and made it mainstream. The field is usually divided into 3 portions, one of which would be the fallow farmland and would undergo a rotation system. Just that, more research has to be done regarding the fertiliser since fertiliser made with the ashes of the weeds isn’t that effective. Something like humus would be great I guess …… ideally we would have a paddy field though ……
What’s next would be to raise the levels of production of both rice and beans so that I can seriously work on developing Miso or soy sauce.
I believe that is my eventual goal.
I was awoken by my parents, who were grinning broadly while doing so. They were introducing me to some guy. Judging from his appearance, he seems to be in his late 20s and had black hair. His name seems to be ｢Claude = Rainforest｣. He is likely to be affluent based on his appearance.
My other brothers were still asleep. Naturally, it is currently before daybreak and the outside world is wrapped in darkness. I was partially asleep though, but my mind was still sharp.
It’s because I had a hunch that something very unpleasant is about to happen.
Next, the man held out his hand, cracked a smile and said, ｢Shall we go together?｣.
My mother and father were seated around the table, and on that table were 3 pieces of silver coins.
I ascertained the situation and then, my thoughts grinded to a halt.
｢Ryou-chan is an obedient and good child. Surely you would understand right? ｣
Okaa-san said that to me while giving off the feeling that she was gazing at me from a far far place away. Just like that, I was sold and became the black-haired man’s property.
I got on the horse-drawn coach together with the man.
Aa, again, I wasn’t loved.