The Mother Who Stormed the Field

"I-Is this re-really how you do it......?"

Still crouched in place, Lee Dae-kyung froze stiff and looked up at me. The hand spade he'd clumsily gripped was trembling like a leaf.

"That's right! You've actually got a knack for this!"

I patted him on the back while subtly moving my mana behind me. I straightened the crookedly tilted seed potato, deepened the soil that hadn't been dug down far enough, and carefully covered the potato over with earth......

"I-I did it!"

It was finally finished. Whew, sweat rolled down my face in a trickle. He'd managed to plant exactly one seed potato.

Yesterday, after the waterway construction on Land Plot 1 was completed, I merged that land with the plot I'd purchased from Go Jin-mook and performed the mana inscription. That made the two of them collectively Mana Land Plot 3.

Calling each parcel "Mana Land Plot N" would have been exhausting, so this worked out nicely. Since they're connected, checking their status and managing them is far more convenient.

"I-I planted it! Ji-on, it was re-really me......!"

"Yes, yes, amazing. Good job."

Unlike how he'd been shaking earlier, Dae-kyung's eyes were now sparkling with excitement. I gave him a rough pat on the back and handed out seed potatoes to the rest of the club members.

"Chi-woo, you take from over there to that end. Chae-ah, you're here. Yoo-jin, you're over there. Choi Seo-dan, you go from here to there."

Teacher Park Ye-ji had agreed to co-supervise the kids with me.

"Hey! Why am I the only 'Choi Seo-dan' to you?"

Seo-dan shouted as she took her seed potato. A question that didn't warrant an answer. I ignored her and turned away — it was about time for it to appear.

Come out, System......!

There it was. A Clever Potato, this time.

"Clever" seemed to point toward an enhancement of intelligence. Since Dae-kyung, the boy with the stuttering problem, was the one who planted it, I'd expected an effect related to speech — so this was a surprise.

I gazed at Dae-kyung, who was still cheerfully planting his potatoes the wrong way. He'd wished to become even smarter when he was already first in the whole school. Why? Wasn't he smart enough as it was?

Just as the club members had scattered to their own plots to plant their seed potatoes, Teacher Park Ye-ji's phone suddenly began ringing loudly. Riiiing — riiiing-riiiing!

"Oh dear......!"

The moment the flustered teacher answered the call, a furious shout exploded out of it.

Wow, a brand-new species of clueless lunatic. Who yells like that the instant someone picks up?

"Ma'am, please calm down. I can only understand you if you speak calmly."

Teacher Park lowered her voice and explained things patiently, but her opponent was no pushover.

"Ma'am, the students are on a field trip right now, so we can't come back...... Hello? Ma'am??"

She even hung up on her unilaterally. Incredible. Incredibly rude!

Teacher Park Ye-ji's face darkened in an instant. "Ji-on, how much longer do you think this will take?"

"I'd say at least another hour."

Hearing my answer, the teacher looked over the students' faces. Half of it was anxiety about whether they'd have to go back to school; the other half was eagerness to plant their potatoes as soon as possible.

Having made up her mind, Park Ye-ji slipped the phone back into her pocket. "All right, kids. We've got two more hours here. Even if it takes longer than that, remember — safety comes first."

"Yes, ma'am!"

The kids' faces brightened, and they immediately set to work digging into the soil with gusto. Teacher Park and I went around checking their progress and bringing them the tools they needed.

Time flew by, and it was nearly the end of class when Seo-dan cried out in awe.

"Sprouts are already coming up! They're huge!"

Strictly speaking, they weren't sprouts but potato stems — the seed potatoes had already sprouted before being planted. But what mattered right now was that the stems had grown fast enough to be visible to the kids' own eyes.

"They really did grow quickly. What kind of seed is this, exactly?"

There was something unusual in Teacher Park Ye-ji's eyes. I spoke carefully.

"Even if I told you it's a new variety, you probably wouldn't recognize it. I just happened to obtain it, myself......"

"You just happened to obtain something like this?"

Tch. Sharp one, aren't you. I gave an awkward laugh and tried to slip away. Club activities were about to wrap up anyway, and the kids had to head home, so I figured it would blow over without resolution. And sure enough, the question of where my seed potatoes came from was left conveniently unanswered.

Though the cause of what came next was quite different.

From a distance, someone was shouting at us.

"Dae-kyung! You!!"

It was the raised voice of a middle-aged woman. Familiar, somehow...... Oh, right. I remembered. The person who'd been shrieking the moment she got Teacher Park on the phone earlier.

At the voice flying in from far off, Lee Dae-kyung's body went rigid. He turned his head slowly and muttered as he watched an ajumma striding toward us, big steps closing the distance.

"......M-Mom."

So the ferocious ajumma was apparently Dae-kyung's mother.

Teacher Park Ye-ji left the garden plot and approached her. "Ma'am, how did you get all the way out here......"

The ajumma stopped mid-stride, planted herself, and then seized a fistful of Teacher Park's hair.

"Kyaaah!"

"T-Teacher!!"

"You crazy woman! You drag a kid here who should be studying every spare minute, and put him to work in a field?!"

The stunned kids rushed in and began pulling the teacher and the woman apart.

"Stop it, ma'am!!"

"Ma'am, let go of her!"

Teacher Park, too, desperately tried to pry the fingers out of her hair. But the ajumma only clutched the teacher's hair all the harder and screamed.

"You won't listen no matter what I say, so I guess I have to teach you a lesson like this! You damned woman!"

She was shockingly vulgar and foul-mouthed. I approached the two of them while pretending to help break up the fight. And then......

Thud—

"Kyaaah!"

"Agh!!"

I shoved both of them toward the field. They tumbled head over heels and only came to a stop at the edge of the plot.

"You! What is the meaning of this!!"

The ajumma roared at the top of her lungs. Ugh, so loud.

I looked down at the two of them. And at the system window that had appeared beside them.

Snickerr—

I spoke to them. "Both of you, quiet down and step back a bit, please."

Hup— the two of them were lifted to their feet. "......!!"

Teacher Park looked startled, but once she'd found her footing, she brushed the dirt off her clothes. The ajumma, on the other hand, was bristling and fuming. The one thing they had in common: both of them had shut their mouths, just as I'd told them to.

The kids watched all this and started murmuring among themselves.

"Looks like they calmed down a bit after rolling around in the dirt."

"At least nobody's grabbing hair anymore. Insane. What was that just now?"

I glanced at the kids and said, "Guys, I think it's about time you headed home, don't you?"

"Aw, this was really fun though......"

"But club's over anyway, and you were all about to head home, remember?"

"That's true, but still."

"The teacher probably needs to talk with Dae-kyung's mom, so we should go, right?"

The kids hesitated a moment, nodding in grudging agreement. Not openly eavesdropping on a conversation between a parent and a teacher was an unspoken rule among students. Snuck listening was one thing, but with everyone watching like this, no real conversation would be possible.

"Okay, then I'm heading out first."

Park Chi-woo spun on his heel as though his interest had run out, grabbed his bag, and slipped away. Lee Chae-ah chased after him. Jung Yoo-jin, the club's youngest, who'd been awkwardly hovering at the edges, was pulled along by Choi Seo-dan's hand.

"S-See you next time, sunbae!"

"See you tomorrow, Seo Ji-on."

Now all that remained here were the teacher and the ajumma, standing motionless under the harsh sunlight at the edge of the field, plus Dae-kyung, watching nervously — and me.

"You can both speak freely now."

The moment my words fell, the ajumma started shouting, jabbing a finger at me.

"Y-You insolent brat! How dare you look down on your elders!"

At the abuse the ajumma hurled at me, Teacher Park Ye-ji furrowed her brow. "Ma'am, calm down and speak rationally. And don't take your anger out on my student."

"Hah! That boy shoved me, and you expect me to calm down?"

"You grabbed my hair and threw me ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠off balance — that's why we both went tumbling."

"What?!"

She showed no sign of settling down whatsoever.

Lee Dae-kyung, who'd been watching the whole scene beside me in a fluster, spoke up. "J-Ji-on, I-I'm sorry."

Seeing him so utterly deflated made my heart ache. Just as I was about to pat his shoulder —

"What are you apologizing for! You keep your head down everywhere else, so why stutter now of all times?!"

Dae-kyung's shoulders trembled violently. So that was why. No wonder Lee Dae-kyung was timid and stuttered despite having no real shortcomings.

So this was the cause.

"You stutter because your intelligence is low! If you just studied more, you'd fix the stuttering too, and......"

"Ma'am. Shut that mouth of yours."

I couldn't listen to another word of this.

When her voice suddenly wouldn't come out, the ajumma clutched at her own throat. "......!!"

"I've heard a little about you, and you really are something. You've been talking to your son like this all along, have you?"

What does it mean to be a parent? Honestly, having been an orphan for so long, it was a realm I knew little about. But there were things I knew from Seo Ji-on's memories, too.

A parent is someone who cherishes and respects their own child, and helps them stand on their own two feet. Not a being that simply raises its voice, persecutes, and drives them into a corner the way this woman did.

"From now on, you'd better do something called thinking before you speak."

"J-Ji-on."

Dae-kyung grabbed my arm in fear. "Dae-kyung, would you take this over to my house with the teacher for a moment? I'll give you the address."

I handed the equipment-laden sack to Dae-kyung.

"M-Me?"

"Yeah, I'd appreciate it. Teacher, please come up here."

At my words, Teacher Park Ye-ji's body moved too. "Whoa—"

Having stumbled out of the field and stood bewildered for a moment, the teacher hurried up the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠path. Then she came over to me and whispered quietly, "Ji-on, I think this is a problem the teacher should handle......"

"This happened near my land, so I'd like to deal with it myself. Why don't you stay with Dae-kyung?"

After a moment's hesitation, Teacher Park looked at Dae-kyung, still trembling like a leaf, and nodded. Once the two of them disappeared from view, I turned to the ajumma.

"From now on, I'm going to show you how hard the work your son did today really was — and how remarkable it is that he endured it."

I'd entrusted the kids with the fieldwork during today's club session, but naturally the completion rate wasn't anywhere near 100%. How much could total beginners manage, after all?

Looking at the 26% of remaining land, I smiled.

"Now ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠then — let's have you feel it with your own two hands."

The accomplishment and joy of farming, and just how remarkable her son truly is.