Here? (1)
“Is it really okay for us to stay in the main house when there’s an annex?” Michelle had told us to move all our belongings into the separate building, so I had naturally assumed we would be spending the winter crammed inside it.
“That’s right. No matter how mild the winters are supposed to be around here, snow piling up like that is bound to bring cold. Besides, it’s far more efficient to share the fireplace and the iron stove in the main house than to run separate fires in both buildings.”
“I understand that, but… won’t it be uncomfortable for you? I heard nobles don’t usually live under the same roof as their hired help.”
“Who cares about that when it’s freezing? Stop talking and hurry up—bring the beds over and set them up on that side. Tilt, Jack! Get moving!”
I gave the orders in a deliberately forceful tone. There was a reason for it. I could already see exactly how this family would try to survive the winter. Since the sons, Tilt and Jack, were the ones who had to gather firewood, they would probably skimp on it and try to tough out the season with barely any heat.
A true noble might have complained about sharing living space with servants, but I wasn’t one. Sezanne had lived as a mercenary, so she was generous about such things.
Tilt and Jack carried the beds in from the annex. Even with Michelle helping, it took all three of them to manage it. The beds they brought looked like old-fashioned wardrobes with doors on the front.
“Is this really a bed? How do you even sleep in it?”
“It’s a maid’s bed,” Sezanne said, clearly familiar with the design.
“This is what maids sleep in?”
“Yes. It’s meant for two or three people, stacked vertically.”
When Michelle opened the wardrobe-like doors, the interior was divided into compartments. It reminded me of the bunks I had seen in documentaries about submarines or old sailing ships.
“I heard these were originally designed to keep out wild beasts. Of course, they also stopped large men from forcing their way in.”
“Ah, I see.”
Even if someone lusted after the maids, the narrow space would make any serious business nearly impossible.
“In a farmhouse like this, they were probably just used to block the freezing drafts of winter.”
I didn’t know why a place like this had such beds, but for people forced to endure midwinter in a single room, they seemed like a blessing.
“I can just use a straw-stuffed mattress out here in front.”
“Master, seeing that bed makes me want to hang fabric on ours too. Could you take out the cloth we had before?”
The bed Yanne and Sezanne used was the kind commonly called a princess bed—four square posts with sheer curtains draped like a canopy. Yanne wanted to wrap fabric around the posts for both warmth and privacy. It made sense, especially with an adult like Sezanne sharing the space.
I pulled out some thick fabric that could double as blankets. The three women immediately gathered, needles and thread flying as they turned it into curtains.
“What about you two?”
Tilt and Jack glanced around, then said they would gather firewood and check the barn and storage shed before heading out.
Once everyone had tasks, I began my own experiment. I lined a small wooden drawer with thick fabric, scooped in a handful of snow, and placed it near the fireplace. As the snow melted and soaked the cloth, I carefully laid five tiny seeds on top—tomato seeds, one of the twenty-two varieties the development team had sent.
It was winter, so germination should have been impossible. But if I kept the temperature stable near the hearth, roots might still form. The problem was how long that would take. I gave the dried seeds time to absorb the moisture thoroughly, then cast both an activation buff and a growth buff on them.
“Whoa!”
The seeds must have absorbed the buff’s magic immediately. White roots burst out in every direction.
“Wait—shouldn’t it be doing that?”
My only farming experience was growing kidney beans on sponges or thick cloth back in elementary school. Still, I knew roots were supposed to emerge from one spot. Thanks to the buffs, however, white roots were shooting out wildly from every side of the seeds. They spread in all directions, tangling together as they tried to burrow into the fabric and wooden box. It was grotesque—nothing but chaotic roots with no stems forming at all.
“Overgrowth, huh.”
When the roots threatened to completely cover the wooden box, I simply tossed the whole thing into the fireplace. A plant with stems and leaves might have responded to the growth buff by producing more of both and eventually bearing fruit, but a bare seed apparently couldn’t handle it.
I prepared the box again with fresh fabric and melted snow, then applied only the activation buff this time. Nothing visible happened—nothing to confirm whether the magic had even taken. I closed the lid and left it alone.
After dinner I checked and found a single white root had emerged. Germination had succeeded properly. Over the three-hour duration of the buff, the root had grown steadily until it was about five centimeters long. Normally that would have taken three or four days. Instead it had happened in just three hours.
I had Tilt and Jack make simple flowerpots from the leftover wooden planks. They brought in soil that had been frozen in the snow, but I didn’t transplant immediately. To kill any insects or harmful bacteria living in it, I poured boiling water from the stove over the soil as a makeshift sterilization.
Once that was done, I gave the seeds plenty of space and planted all five tomato seeds. I applied the activation buff again. Tiny cotyledons slowly lifted their heads and began to grow. As those seed leaves spread and true leaves formed, the stems elongated.
If I had added the growth buff here, the plants would have exploded like the Blue Moonlight Grass back at Hool Lake. But since they were in pots, I held back. Instead I layered on a luck buff and continued watching.
In a single hour the stems grew past a handspan, reaching nearly thirty centimeters. Side branches began shooting out in every direction. Knowing that proper tomato production required pruning, I used scissors to trim the suckers.
“Wow! That’s amazing. You were just making the pots before dinner, and they’ve already grown this much?”
Not only Sezanne but Yanne and Michelle’s whole family gathered around, fascinated by the rapid growth.
“Master! Flowers are blooming!”
Just as Yanne said, buds had formed at the tips of the branches and bright yellow flowers opened almost instantly. Everyone marveled at seeing blossoms in the middle of winter.
I looked for a brush to help with pollination, but when I couldn’t find one I simply plucked the most open flower and used it to brush the others. After some time the flowers began to wither, proof that pollination had succeeded. Where the withered petals fell, small tomato fruits began to set and swell.
“Sir Mage, you’ll need these to tie up the stems.”
Tilt returned with stakes normally used for bean vines. The moment he realized these plants would bear fruit, he had gone to fetch supports so the stems wouldn’t collapse under the weight.
Together we staked and tied the tomato plants. Everyone gasped in wonder as the small green fruits steadily grew larger and began turning red.
“Master, it’s incredible how fast they grow. What kind of fruit is this?”
“They’re called tomatoes. Back in my homeland, people said that when the harvest was good, even healers would cry with joy. They’re that nutritious—and delicious too.”
I picked a fully ripened red tomato and handed it to Sezanne first, then gave one to each of the others.
“When you first bite in, the juice—”
“Ah! It burst!”
Before I could finish warning her, Sezanne’s front was already soaked with tomato juice.
“You have to nibble one side gently first, suck out the juice, then chew. That way it doesn’t spray everywhere.”
“Then you should have said that first!”
Sezanne grumbled that even though she had no chest, the juice had still splashed all the way down to her stomach.
[Crunch!]
Yanne took a hearty bite and sucked the juice. She had expected simple fruit juice, but the explosive burst of liquid and soft flesh surprised her. Then she marveled at the unique tomato flavor. It was completely different from the apples and pears she had eaten before. If she had to compare it, she might say it was similar to a plum, yet still somehow distinct. She couldn’t quite find the words to describe it.
“There’s so much juice, and the texture when you chew it is totally unique! It has this fresh, green smell that I actually really like.”
The crisp bite seemed to carry the freshness of nature itself, and the slightly grassy tomato aroma only amplified that feeling. Sezanne had assumed the soft, juicy parts would have an unpleasant texture, but when she tried it the flesh melted away with a refreshing tang that left her astonished.
“What a strange taste. Why have I never known about something like this?”
I took a bite myself. Cool juice and that distinctive fresh, green tomato scent filled my mouth and nose.
Now I can finally make tomato ketchup and spaghetti.
The truth was, even when I fried eggs I had missed ketchup the most. That bright, tangy flavor was what I had craved above all. The thought of making homemade ketchup and using it in all sorts of dishes filled me with happiness.
Since I had successfully grown tomatoes from seed, I could try making gochujang with chili seeds next. I already had soybeans, so I could also attempt soy sauce, doenjang, and chunjang.
[Woof woof! Woof! Squawk squawk! Woof woof!]
I was happily imagining future meals when Col and the geese suddenly began barking and honking wildly. In the middle of a snowy night, the only people who would come knocking were uninvited guests. Everyone jumped to their feet.
I immediately pulled padded armor and a leather cap from my inventory and put them on, then took out my shield and mace. Tilt and Jack grabbed the long clubs they had prepared earlier; the ends had been sharpened into points, making them serviceable as spears. Sezanne hid behind the table with her staff ready, while Yanne and Michelle ducked behind the beds.
[Knock knock!]
“Excuse us! We had an accident on the road. May we stay the night?”
It was a deep male voice. Instead of opening the front door, I cracked open one of the wooden windows. Two sturdy men and a single horse stood outside.
“What kind of accident brings you here?”
Outside the window, Col had emerged from the barn and taken a low, threatening stance. The man farther back kept glancing over his shoulder, clearly wary of the dog charging him. I was glad I had installed a door in the barn that Col could use to come and go freely.
“Our horse died on the way to Booktoria. We’d like to stay until sunrise.”
“The main road is a full block away. Why didn’t you go to one of the houses right beside it instead of coming all the way here?”
“This was the only building with lights on.”
Now that he mentioned it, most of the other farmhouses extinguished their lights as soon as the sun went down and went to bed early.
“Do you have anything to prove your identity?”
“Well…”
Neither of them seemed to have any identification.
“See, I told you we should have made a mercenary tag under the name Ruke.”
“You’re the one who said we didn’t need anything like that, my lord.”
“That’s because my face is my identification.”
“Then why don’t you show them your face now? Though I doubt anyone here would recognize it.”
“Tsk.”
The man who had been watching Col hesitated, then pulled a pouch from his coat and tossed it through the window.
“That pouch is full of gold. There’s no reason for us to rob a farmhouse like this, so take it and open the door already. We’re going to freeze to death out here.”
Tilt picked up the pouch, opened it, and saw that it really was packed with gold coins. It could have been stolen, but I noticed another saddle on the horse behind them. It looked as though their original mount had died in an accident and they had salvaged only the saddle. Their clothing also appeared expensive, so I told Jack to open the door.
“Whew, it’s warm in here.”
The two men stepped inside, shaking snow from their cloaks and looking around the house.
“Oh! This isn’t an ordinary farmhouse. I suppose we should take our shoes off.”
Lord Berk seemed surprised to find wooden flooring in what he had assumed was a simple farm dwelling. None of the farmhouses he knew had proper floors. Seeing the furniture and the man wearing padded armor and carrying a kite shield, he wondered if this was actually a knight’s residence.
“My lord, there is a mage present.”
At Ruke’s words, Lord Berk turned and saw that it was true. A woman holding a mage’s staff was watching them.
“Hm? Lord… Lord Berk?”
“You know me? Hahaha. See, Ruke? I told you I don’t need an identification tag. My face proves who I am. Hahaha.”
Curious about the man who was so pleased to be recognized, I glanced at Sezanne. She had already lowered her staff.
“That person is definitely of high status. There’s no need to worry.”
“‘Person’?”