2. A Small Village
2. A Small Village
Lisete Village was a village overall filled with a peaceful atmosphere and warm colors.
There, Daihan, the general store owner, was humming a tune while wiping a jar that was just as shiny as his head.
-Ddallang.
"Welco... huh?"
A cute girl entered the store. Stunned by her immensely mysterious atmosphere, he stared blankly for a moment.
"......Haven't seen this kid before."
As Daihan snapped back to his senses and muttered, Ella walked in with a ddubang-ddubang stride, pulled something out from her waist, and placed it on the counter.
It was a red, glowing stone. At a glance, it looked like a ruby, but as soon as Daihan recognized the stone's true identity, his eyes widened dramatically.
"M-Mana crystal!"
"Is it valuable?"
"Of course it's valuable, but—where on earth did you get this......"
"I'm glad you recognized it."
"?"
Ella looked around here and there in the general store. She needlessly picked up a bowl to inspect its back, and even poked her hand into a hole in the wooden floor.
At first, Daihan was baffled by Ella, who completely ignored his questions, but his curiosity won out over his absurdity.
"What are you looking for?"
Ella reached up to a rather high shelf with a gging-gging sound. Daihan brought down what she was trying to grab.
"Thank you."
Ella placed the basket on the counter and went off to pick out a few more items.
There wasn't much. A trowel, a watering can, a hoe, and so on.
"Do you have apple tree seeds?"
"I do, but...... why do you ask?"
"To farm."
"Every single answer you give is truly unexpected. Wait just a moment."
Daihan sighed and headed to the storage room. Before long, he brought out a pouch.
"Here are the apple tree seeds."
"How long will it take to harvest?"
"It takes at least four years."
Ella rubbed her lips with a serious expression.
"Then do I have to starve for four years?"
"If you're only going to plant apple trees, then yes, you'll starve. But... with a mana crystal of this size, you could live off it for the rest of your life."
"What crops are quick to harvest?"
Ella still didn't answer his questions.
Daihan had already grown accustomed to her way of speaking.
"Radishes. They take about 20 days to grow."
"Then please give me radish and potato seeds."
"Alright."
Daihan brought out the seeds from the storage room again, placed them on the table, and said,
"I'll give you everything for 15 shillings."
"Please give them to me for 13 shillings."
Ella's eyes sparkled.
'No way, did she just want to try haggling?'
Reminding him of his own daughter, Daihan nodded with a warm, gratified smile.
"Sure. I'll give you a discount."
Because, in truth, he had originally called something worth 10 shillings 15 shillings.
Ella, looking thoroughly satisfied, grabbed the mana crystal with both hands and lifted it up.
"Please exchange it for this mana crystal."
"That won't do."
Daihan shook his head side to side.
"A small store like ours can't handle something like this. To give you change, selling this store 100 times over wouldn't be enough."
"I don't need change."
"W-What?"
Ella set the mana crystal down on the table and gathered her other items one by one.
Although there weren't many items, Ella's frame was so small that her arms were completely full.
After staring blankly at her as she waddled away, Daihan belatedly snapped back to reality and hurriedly blocked her path.
"Are you trying to turn me into a scammer...?! A mana crystal is at least 50 gold. I don't know the exact market price, but I know a stone of this size would fetch way more than that."
"I will only earn money through farming."
Ella finished with just those words and dodged around Daihan, moving her short legs once again.
She was a strangely mysterious girl.
Staring blankly at her retreating back, Daihan quietly looked at the mana crystal held in his hand.
And then he shouted at the top of his lungs,
"I'll put it on credit, so go farm and bring back the harvest! I'll hold onto this as collateral!"
**
Returning to the cottage, Ella set down the items she bought from the general store in one spot and rolled up her sleeves.
A vast plain stretched out before her. Having a large plot of land was a very good thing, since it meant she could plant all kinds of crops.
'From now on, I'll make a living through farming alone.'
In truth, just a while ago, she had gone to the castle of the strongest demon nearby and snatched that mana crystal.
Looking at the young demon weeping sorrowfully, Ella felt a pang of guilt, but she had no choice due to her lack of starting capital.
After all, one needs basic tools and seeds to farm, doesn't one?
"Then first, shall I try planting just one?"
Ella picked up the trowel and squatted down. She scooped out a bit of soil with the trowel, planted a radish seed, and patted it gently tok-tok.
Then she hugged her knees and quietly watched. She stayed like that for quite a while with eyes full of anticipation.
.
.
.
.
.
"...When will it grow?"
Naturally, no crop grows the moment it is planted. She knew this, but since the growth speed wasn't visible to the naked eye, she felt a bit frustrated.
Using magic could make it grow right away, but she didn't want to do that.
After pondering for a moment, Ella nodded as if she had made up her mind.
"I should at least make the growth speed visible."
As Ella snapped her fingers, clear blue mana shimmered like a heat haze from her soft hands.
Thinner than a strand of hair, threadlike lines of mana precisely split into tens of thousands of strands and reached out into the air.
Her golden eyes shone as if they held stars within them.
It was the moment the magic of the great archmage who reduced the Demon King and his vast army to ashes unfolded.
==============
[🌱 Growth Progress]
■□□□□□□□□□ 1% (25 days left until harvest)
==============
The mana in the atmosphere, the components of the soil, and the subtle vitality of the radish seed synchronized with the spell, displaying the information visually.
'Should I add just one more?'
==============
[✨ Current Status Scan]
💧Thirsty.
==============
Since she lacked knowledge about farming, it seemed she needed at least this much help from magic.
Even so, she felt proud that the very first magic she used in this world was related to farming.
"Alright, shall we get started then?"
With all preparations complete, Ella began farming in earnest.
'Abeoji said you have to till the field before sowing seeds, right? Otherwise, the roots can't grow straight.'
Ella picked up a small hoe, squatted down, and tilled the ground chyap-chyap.
Recalling the memories of watching over her abeoji's shoulder as a child, quietly imitating him was a joy in itself.
Soaked in those memories for quite a while, Ella caught her breath and stood up.
Thinking that an enormous amount of ground must have been tilled by now.
"......."
...The ground was tilled as tiny as rat droppings. Without even needing to walk around, it was visible at a single glance.
However, seeing that brought a wave of touched sorrow rather than futility.
How hard must abeoji have had it? When even tilling this tiny bit of soil was exhausting. The farm abeoji cultivated was far vaster than this.
That huge land all by himself......
"Ah, he used to hire 20 foreign workers alone."
During harvest season, about 50 people used to come.
Ella shook her head side to side. Still, he worked directly himself quite often. He had just relied a bit on outside labor after getting older.
Because abeoji farmed all day long, his back was bent......
'His back was stiffer and straighter than mine.'
......Come to think of it, he used a tractor. Ella tapped her own head tong-tong. The devil keeps ruining my memories and romance.
Shaking off her worries once again, Ella picked up the trowel this time.
She scooped out soil and planted two or three seeds. Repeating that process, she realized there was no need to dig holes one by one like this, so she dug a long furrow.
She sowed the seeds at appropriate intervals. Since there weren't many radish seeds, by the time she finished sowing them all, the supply was almost running out.
After planting the very last seed and tapping it gently tok-tok with the trowel, Ella stood up.
Hwaaaa.
Ella's eyes sparkled. It was merely a small vegetable garden, but a magnificent sowing had been completed.
It was the first farm in her life created by her own power. Though its size could only be seen as feeble for now, her small heart pounded at the thought of filling this wide field to the brim someday.
"Ah right, I have to water them. I almost forgot."
While she was immersed in the lingering emotions for a long time, Ella realized an important final step remained and brought over the watering can.
"Mm."
However, there was no water in the watering can. Ella looked around left and right.
Naturally, in this place that was just an open field, water did not exist.
'There is a lake, though.'
It was quite a distance. Even if she moved busily with her short legs, it would take about 30 minutes round trip.
"......."
Ella looked toward the lake, then at the vegetable garden, then at the watering can, repeating this several times.
"Abeoji watered with sprinklers too."
Blinking with half-lidded eyes, Ella cast magic once again.
Recreating modern sprinklers with magic was surprisingly a bit difficult. For that to work, it would have to lean into the concept of an artifact, but she didn't even have a proper medium, did she?
Pulling up underground water veins to directly contact the seeds was the most realistic approach.
As long as she drew the magic circuit well once, it seemed she could use it in a way that pulled up water only when mana was injected.
"What was that magic formula again?"
Creating a new spell was a troublesome task. Therefore, Ella decided to pick and use one of the spells she already knew.
In her past life, back when she frequently roamed the battlefields.
She used to draw up the underground veins along the Demon King's army's advance route, turning the ground into a marshland in an instant to submerge hundreds of thousands of troops into the mud.
It was one of the wide-area spells she used often. Ella narrowed the range and power of that area-of-effect spell and cast it as is.
"Oh dear."
The problem was that because the planetary structure differed from Earth, not only the water veins but a whole bunch of other strange things (?) were drawn up as well.
Highly concentrated minerals and the earth's nutrients were all forcibly shot right into the seed.
-Kkieeeek!
As a result, unable to handle the nutrients, the radish shrieked and underwent crazy rapid growth.
"U-Uh-oh, no."
Ella flailed her arms around, not knowing what to do.
===================
[🌱 Growth Progress]
▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇ 99% (3 seconds left until harvest)
[✨ Current Status Scan]
🌊 Moisture Oversaturated (On the verge of exploding!)
===================
Deu-deu-deu-deu—
The ground vibrated crazily. Realizing it was already too late, cold sweat trickled down Ella's forehead.
Ppok!
At that moment, the radish revealed its first appearance to the world.
"......."
It was, out of all the radishes Ella had seen in her life, the most horrific-looking radish.
Its size was one thing, but because it looked just like a human, it was the very definition of the uncanny valley.
Ella trudged over, grabbed the head of the thing that was no longer a radish, and pulled it up.
-Kkaaaeek!
"Oh, shit."
Terrified, she slammed the screaming radish onto the ground and stomped on it fiercely.
......It seemed to have absorbed so many nutrients that it even gained vitality.
Looking with a pathetic face at the radish that had been beaten to rags, Ella muttered,
"......Let's give water with the watering can."
Ella limply put the radish into the basket.
Still, a harvest was a harvest, so she had to collect it, didn't she?
But it looked so unappetizing.
Ella glanced over toward the direction of the village.
......Shall I try bringing it over for now?
**
Ella placed the basket on the counter with a nervous face.
Staring at the radish for a long time, Daihan spoke,
"What is this monster?"
"It's a radish. I came to sell it. I'll give it to you cheap."
Come to listen, it really was.
Apart from its strange appearance, it retained the exact characteristics of a radish.
Its red skin and especially the shape of its leaves were like that.
However, naturally.
"I'm sorry, but this has no market value. You can just return it to nature."
With her shoulders slumped, Ella returned to her dwelling.