The Veteran Signs First
“Huh?”
Madam Seo Bok-ja, the star of the show as the winning bidder on Sweet Potato No. 1, sat staring at the boy in front of her.
A Saturday morning, and a customer had appeared out of nowhere.
It was Seo Ji-on, the owner of that sweet potato farm down the road.
The boy held out a piece of carrot along with some papers.
“What in tarnation's this?”
“It's a contract.”
Two sheets of paper in total.
A farmland lease agreement and a farming operations commission contract.
Put simply, they were documents designed to absorb both the land and the workforce known as Grandma Seo Bok-ja.
The papers stated that once the harvest of the currently growing crops was finished, she would grow, cultivate, and deliver crops produced by our farm from the next planting onward.
“A contract? Hmm, let's see now...”
Grandma Seo Bok-ja narrowed her eyes and began scanning the documents.
“The writin's so small, I can hardly see a thing.”
“Have this first while you look.”
I dipped a piece of fresh carrot into the dipping sauce I'd prepared and handed it over.
Crunch!
The crisp sound of raw carrot being bitten rang out refreshingly.
I'd worried the carrot might be too hard for her to chew, but that was underestimating her.
Grandma Seo Bok-ja's teeth were remarkably sturdy.
“Land sakes!! My eyes just went bright as a flash!”
“You can see clearly now, right? Take your time and read it through.”
Grandma Seo Bok-ja picked up the papers with a hearty laugh.
“So you're sayin' you want to expand into a farm that grows carrots like these?”
“Carrots and plenty of other things besides.”
The crops we'd be creating from here on out were limitless.
There were so many varieties of seeds in the world.
And besides, the problems people faced were all different.
I would develop the moneymakers, no question about it.
“I see. Hmm, the terms... oh, here they are, written right here.”
As Seo Bok-ja began reading through the documents carefully, her eyes started to grow wider and wider.
Then, her eyes practically bulging out of her head, she turned to Seo Ji-on and asked:
“You're tellin' me this ain't a lie, and they'll really pay me this much every month?”
“I don't put lies on paper.”
Even so, for Madam Seo Bok-ja — who farmed simply because she had nothing else to do — this was a considerable offer. No, an absolutely staggering one.
The terms he had proposed were as follows.
First, a full-time position with no fixed term.
A salary of five million won deposited into her account on the first of every month.
Performance bonuses paid separately based on harvest volume.
For privately owned land, rent would be calculated and paid separately; for tenant-farmed plots, a full one hundred percent of the agreed rent would be provided.
If extra labor was needed for farming work, eighty percent of the hiring costs would be covered.
That alone was already an incredible deal.
And on top of it all came the crowning clause.
The benefit of selecting three crops of her choice to receive every month.
In other words, things like the sweet potatoes or the carrot she'd just eaten — items that money couldn't buy — would be provided free of charge.
Is he too young to understand the value of money?
Why would he offer something like this...?
Grandma Seo Bok-ja looked at me with a puzzled expression.
I smiled and explained.
“Special seed crops have gotten really popular. I want to expand the farm a bit, but it's hard to do alone, so I'm looking to veterans for help.”
“Veterans?”
“Yes. When it comes to farming, you're the experts, so I figured this level of investment was necessary.
Thump — the corner of Seo Bok-ja's mouth twitched.
She'd nearly toppled right over.
I leaned forward slightly and lowered my voice.
“Actually, this is a secret, but...”
“...But?”
“I'm planning to reach out to everyone farming in Jakgol-ri eventually, but you're the very first, Grandma.”
The very first?
At those words, Seo Bok-ja clenched her fist and sprang up from her seat.
Thanks to the sweet potatoes, her body didn't ache even with such sudden movement.
It felt like being back in her fifties.
If she kept receiving crops from this boy regularly, she was certain her body would grow even younger.
She darted into the inner room, then reappeared holding something.
“Grandma?”
“Ahem! Gotta stamp it, don't I?”
“You could take a few more days to think it over...”
“Think it over, my foot!!”
This was a guaranteed win, plain and simple.
And Seo Bok-ja the gambler was not a woman who would choose deliberation under conditions like these.
“Where do I stamp it?”
Thunk—
Stamp in hand, I left Grandma Seo Bok-ja's house feeling thoroughly satisfied.
After that, I went around collecting stamps from the others using much the same method.
By the time twelve o'clock rolled around, I was carrying no fewer than fifteen signed documents.
In terms of land alone, that came to roughly 6,000 pyeong in total.
Including the land I currently managed, that brought the grand total to about 7,000 pyeong.
Of that, the land where farming could begin immediately amounted to around 2,500 pyeong, including my existing fields.
My goal was to complete the mana inscriptions on all the farmable land by tomorrow, before the move.
Since reaching the 2nd Circle, I had never really struggled to inscribe or maintain Mana Land.
But whether I could inscribe all of the newly added farmland was a slightly different question.
My plan was to inscribe the most urgent plots first, and if I hit my limit, reach the 3rd Circle and sort out the rest afterward.
The 3rd Circle, huh.
I'd picked up the key a little while ago while eating potatoes.
I could still feel that sensation vividly.
A third mass of condensed mana, of uniform intensity.
Reaching the 3rd Circle didn't simply mean becoming stronger.
Rather than mana accumulating to increase raw power, the greater focus was on flexible application.
Mana that once flowed along a single track could be layered, level upon level, and utilized in three dimensions.
I hadn't yet pinned down that starting point precisely.
But it was only a matter of time.
When that moment came, I'd be able to handle far more land than I could now without any trouble.
“Whew—”
I caught my breath and organized my plans going forward.
There was a mountain of things to do.
This was no time to be standing blankly by the roadside.
I had to visit the fields where work was set to begin on the upcoming first of the month.
I'd haul out a bundle of stakes, complete the inscription work, and then it would be time to sort the moving boxes.
I went from plot to plot, carrying out the work.
Splitting what had once been a single daily session into multiple rounds was absolutely killing me.
“Ugh...”
Exhausted as I was when I finally got home, I still had to bustle around packing.
...I ended up staying up late packing and fell asleep late.
I couldn't drag myself out of bed in the morning, so I skipped my workout too.
Bam— Bang—
“Ji-on! Time to get up!”
If it hadn't been for the racket and my mother's voice waking me, I might not have gotten up at all.
I rubbed my eyes roughly and rose from bed.
“Bong-gu, come here.”
“...Grrroink?”
I woke Bong-gu, who had been dozing beside me, and settled him on my shoulder.
Losing him during a move would be a disaster, after all.
Granted, I could find him anytime, but that would be a hassle, wouldn't it?
Stepping out of my room, I found the move in full swing.
Movers bustled in and out, hauling boxes. Appliances wrapped in layer upon layer of blankets, and belongings packed in green boxes and yellow baskets, were carried out the door.
“Ji-on, why don't you go ahead with Grandpa and get the new house ready?”
“Okay—”
Following my mother's instruction, I rode in Grandpa's car toward the house we were moving into.
Once there, I brought Bong-gu into a room and started cleaning.
An enormous amount of organizing, cleaning, more cleaning, more organizing.
“Ugh...”
The high-intensity labor continued from yesterday straight into today.
Whew, I'm completely worn out now.
Turns out moving is the kind of work that steamrolls right over muscles strengthened by sweet potatoes.
But for all the exhaustion, my mood was bright.
Moving, in Seo Ji-on's memories, held nothing but bad ones.
To a smaller house, from Seoul to the countryside where he didn't know a single kid, to an old, worn-down house...
Yet today, everyone was moving to a bigger, better home with smiles on their faces.
If moving were always like this, I could do it a few more times.
We got the house in order, unpacked, and finished arranging the furniture that had arrived on moving day.
The newly purchased dining table gleamed and suited the house perfectly.
A little while later, my mother and father arrived at the new house with the last of the belongings from the old place.
“Having the furniture already set up really is nice.”
The movers helped unpack and organize before leaving.
Of course, there was still a mountain of things left to sort, but it was enough to manage a meal right away.
“Since our move's done, how about some jajangmyeon?”
Mother pulled something out of a basket and held it up.
Instant noodle packs — jajang-getti, black-bean-sauce-flavored ramen.
“I bought them at the co-op yesterday, just in case.”
“Hehe, that's the spirit.”
“I want some too!”
“Kyuut!! (Me too!!)”
The family cheered at Mother's announcement.
Bubble bubble — water came to a boil in the pot, and soon the smell of jajang filled the new house.
“Not you, Bong-gu.”
“Groink?! (Why not?!)”
“Too much sodium. It's bad for you.”
Instead, the sulking Bong-gu was given honey and a carrot.
“Thank you for the meal!”
“Kyuuu... (I'll eat...)”
The jajangmyeon vanished in an instant.
Even after dinner, everyone kept sorting boxes for a good while.
“Ji-on, you've got school tomorrow, so you'd better sleep early.”
“That's right, off to bed with you.”
Yielding to my parents' urging, I retreated to my room.
Granted, the room was still packed full of things to unpack.
But there was at least enough floor space to spread out a blanket.
“Bong-gu, you sleep over there.”
I laid a cushion on the floor and flopped down on top of the blanket.
Today was exhausting too...
“Hrk, kehup—!”
Feeling something grow brighter, I jolted awake in fright.
Ptui. I wiped the drool from the corner of my mouth.
When had I fallen asleep?
“Huh...?”
The clock read seven.
Morning exercise was out of the question again today.
“Off to school I g— wait. Dad, Grandpa, where are you two going?”
When I stepped outside my room, my father and grandfather were bustling around.
Noticing me standing there awkwardly watching them, my father said:
“We have to visit the farms where work is starting.”
They needed to stop by the fields that were ready for planting right away.
There were crop seeds to deliver, and discussions to hold about the delivery of the crops grown from them.
On top of that, there were plenty of documents to collect, and since these were elderly farmers, it would all take some time — that was the gist of my father's explanation.
So he and Grandpa would split up and go around the farms separately.
“So it'll just be Mother at home today?”
“I suppose so. Someone has to stay behind and sort the boxes.”
That was fair enough.
But Mother seemed a little hurt the last time she'd been left home alone.
“Bong-gu.”
“Kyu?”
“Stay with Mother today, okay?”
“Kit groink! (Rojaer dhat!)”
Where does he even pick up words like that?
I scooped the little guy up by the scruff of his neck, set him down near my mother as she organized the boxes, and said:
“If anything happens, send me a thought right away.”
“Groink. (Understood.)”
Somehow, I felt uneasy.
Just leaving Bong-gu behind didn't feel like enough.
Somehow I had a feeling Mother would feel a bit left out again today.
And sure enough.
After school, Bong-gu's thoughts reached me.
'Ji, Ji-on. Mom's drinking the white stuff. Drinking a lot!!'
'White stuff? What?'
'...It s-says something like... mak-geol-li?'
I froze.
Suddenly I remembered the cracked dining table we'd thrown out during yesterday's move.
When I got home, it would be just me and Mother in the house.
...It'll be fine to go in, right?