Chapter 6: Yuuji Changing Jobs from “Pioneer” to “Farmer”.
The flowers of the sakura tree in Yuuji’s house garden were in full bloom.
It was spring.
It has been 2 years since Yuuji came to this world.
This was his third spring.
Today, it seems that there was an offline camp going on at Yuuji’s former house site
It was on the same day that was presumed to be the day that Yuuji was transported to another world.
The first time that there will be a person on the former house site.
Perhaps, everyone might come here just like him.
Was it his hope? Was it his uneasiness?
Yuuji had this complex expression as he gazed at the sakura flowers illuminated by the light of the sunset.
「Yuuji-nii, Sakura is beautiful!」(Alice)
Sitting besides Yuuji on the porch was Alice, who had a big wide smile on her face.
Right beside her was Kotarou. She was wagging her tail back and forth, somehow she was in a good mood.[1]
「Yuuji-nii, what’s wrong? Why are you making a sad face? Are you alright?」(Alice)
Alice said, I will pat you, and approached Yuuji. Her small hand patted Yuuji’s head.
Alice will become 7 years old this autumn, so sometimes she gave off the air of an “onee-san”.
Kotarou was only watching over Yuuji, who made a somewhat lonely expression, with a gentle look.
「Alice, thank you. Today, after eating the dinner and taking a bath, can you sleep together with Kotarou? I have something to do, so I will sleep outside tonight.」(Yuuji)
「Un, understand! Kotarou, today we will be together.」(Alice)
Even when Alice made an expression that showed that she didn’t really understand, she nodded and greeted Kotarou. What a good child she is.
Kotarou was “woof-woof” and barked towards Alice and Yuuji with a different tone for each person . As if saying,
“Yes, it will be fun, Alice. Although I am worried for Yuuji, I will deal with it tomorrow.”
If it was the time for a retreat, then she will retreat. What a reliable woman. She is a dog, though.
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After teaching knowledge about preserved foods to the peddler Kevin in the summer, Kevin returned once more in the autumn. He supplied Yuji with goods and reported the progress.
Just like how I was taught, I have completed kneading oats, wheat, salt, water and honey into cylindrical shapes and then baked it. The storage life is shorter than we had thought, but since it has excellent taste and portability, it is popular among the peddlers and adventurers! Kevin said in enthusiastically excited mood.
Meanwhile, the smoked food met with some unexpected difficulties. Although it turned out well half-way in the smoking, the storage life and taste still left something to be desired. Since the selection of the firewood is important, Yuuji and the bulletin board’s residents couldn’t offer any advice for this.
Well, it was no wonder. After all, no one knew the traits and characteristics of the wood in this world. In any case, Kevin came to a decision to make a small prototype smoker unit. He was still experimenting with slow smoking and hot smoking methods, so the commercialization for this would need quite a time.
Kevin consumed the trial products together with wine, since he was a bit concerned about the fat in his stomach.[2]
While these two goods were reasonably doing well, canned food and bottled food were going disappointingly. As expected, creating the container were too difficult.
According to Kevin, although thin iron plates existed and could be bent, there was a need to think about a cheap way of binding them. They could do it by heating them and then striking time one by one, but ho’ muc’ th’ labor cost fer it wil’ be…… Kevin’s accent slipped out.
The glass bottle for the bottled food also had its share of troubles, the size of the bottles was not uniform and the price was also expensive. Just like what Yuuji and bulletin board’s residents expected, the hurdle for these goods was too high.
On the other hand, from autumn to winter, Yuuji smoothly made progress in opening the surrounding area around the house.
On the southern side, the 10 meters wide area from the house site to the marker rope had been cleared from trees, the eastern side also had a large amount of trees already cut down. Since the ground was covered by snow, the tree stumps still remained in the ground.
The potato-look-a-like tuber (called potato from now on), that was planted in the southern side, had already been harvested in the autumn without any problems.
With a face covered by soil, Alice was squealing delightfully, Kotarou was also unusually cheerful.
With her rear legs proudly removing the soil, helping out while not forgetting to have fun, sometimes, the tubers would come out with the soil and hit Yuuji. She didn’t do this with any ill will. Perhaps.
As a ‘Visitor’, he taught his knowledge and received food and goods as compensation.
As a pioneer, he cut the trees and cleared the land to create a farming field to procure the harvest.
Perhaps it could be said that Yuuji who had begin working spend his autumn and winter days productively.
As usual, no matter how much he practiced, he could only use Light Magic.
Then, the third year’s spring arrived.
After receiving a report about the offline meeting, Yuji spent the night in the garden without sleeping.
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「Yuuji-nii, good morning!」(Alice)
Alice cheerfully greeted Yuuji who was squatting in the garden.
Perhaps she had noticed something.
Kotorou was howling, “Wau-wau” while rushed over to Yuuji.