Chapter 167: Baby Birds

Ping!

Rino grinned to himself. After much difficulty, the daily quest was completed, and he still had a day to spare before the time was up.

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Daily Quest #19

Objective: Plant new crops

2/1 Rice

2/1 Wheat

2/1 Corn

2/1 Soybean

Time Limit: 14 Days

Tutorial here.

Reward:  Intermediate Culinary Skill

Claim your reward here.

Penalty: Deduct 24 hours of sleep upon failure and [Curse of Overtime] until quest is forcefully completed.

===

Without delay, Rino claimed his intermediate culinary skill reward and was about to sleep when an urgent report came in through his soul bond.

There was only a moment of hesitation before Rino pulled his hood up to head outside. It was early in the morning, so the sun wasn't too bad. Instead, the lich was now eager to meet the newborn quails that they bred almost two weeks ago. It took longer than expected for the baby quails to be born, but the latest report from the genesis fairy told him that they had five new chicks in the cage.

As the population expanded quickly, Rino wondered if there was a way to hasten the barn building process. Even with the trolls and earth gnomes helping, they were still short on building materials that had to be shipped from Noir Province. Should he prioritise the new sky palanquin productions instead?

As he considered the pros and cons of doing so, Rino found himself staring at quite the crowd around the quail cage. He raised a brow. The trolls were carrying the earth gnomes that they previously could not get along with so that the earth gnomes could see the new chicks better. In fact, the drows were taking their duties seriously and ushering the crowd to form an orderly line so that everyone gets a chance to look at the chicks.

"No feeding!" the farming fairy in charge shouted. "No patting either. They need time to know their parents."

Slightly disappointed, the crowd groaned, but that did not dampen their excitement as a new wave of discussion about the new names surfaced. Rino decided to remain where he was to listen to what his townsfolk were talking about. The spectres proposed some really great names but the trolls decided against naming farm animals. They had reasons that made sense, and Rino had a feeling it came from experience.

"Naming them will make killing them harder. They're not here to stay for long."

The reality made everyone slightly troubled, but it was the genesis fairies who assured them nothing would change even if they had names.

"It would be great if they could live their short lives to the fullest before the time comes. Every child born is deserving of love regardless of circumstances. Besides, there's no reason to kill them immediately after they grow into adults. We can always wait for them to grow older before doing it."

Her logical reasoning appeased everyone, and they started discussing and voting on names.

"That chick has a spotted beak! We could call him Spots!"

A drow raised a brow at the suggestion and craned her neck. "How do you know it's a male?"

Rino mulled over how he should make use of this event to foster a better community bond from a distance. As a ruler, he had little experience dealing with so many different parties with so many different opinions. It was inevitable for arguments to happen, and Rino wasn't keen to become an oppressive ruler.

Maybe he could throw a party for this and join in on the fun to understand everyone a little better. Town Zera's occupants joined for different agendas, and it was up to RIno to give them something common to talk about to relate to each other better. He recalled how parties were a thing in Spudville. That king toad hunting competition was probably the first Noir Province event that brought everyone together despite the hate towards several individuals like Fowler.

That was it. Rino needed a community hall or space for this event. On top of building sky palanquins and a barn, he had to create space for mass gatherings and create festivals. It was typical for the farmers in the previous world to throw a festival after sowing in spring. There was also a harvest festival hosted in autumn that everyone looked forward to. 

Too engrossed in their discussion, nobody noticed that Rino successfully mingled in the crowd, lining up to get his turn to see the newly hatched chicks.

"Next-!"

The drow who was in charge of ushering faltered when she saw who it was.

"M-my king!"

Rino schooled a neutral expression and played it off coolly as if he was just passing by. "Can I see the newly hatched chicks?"

Blinking twice, the drow stuttered and quickly made way for Rino. Almost at once, the noisy discussion in the background fell into pin-drop silence. Nobody was expecting to see their ruler here. Why would he line up to see the quails when he could obviously cut the line and demand priority? It was too strange!

The chicks were an ugly black and brown coat of feathers that looked damp. Some were still sitting in their shells while others were starting to tumble about clumsily. The sleepy and innocent vibes of life reminded every undead about how precious creation was. Rino was no exception. He was reminded of the previous world that he used to love until he gave up on trying to love something that didn't love him back.

The tiny chicks had a yellow underside, and Rino chuckled to himself as the mother quail helped her child find orientation on those tiny pink feet. The chick had little white toenails, and it chirped rather quietly.

"Are chicks meant to cheep quietly?" he asked.

There were no farming experts around, so the earth gnomes could only guess. There were some louder chicks and some quieter ones, so Rino decided it should be fine.

"The feathers of this chick are duller than the others. Is it going to be alright?" a curious earth gnome child asked.

Rino simply picked her up from the ground and lifted her to his shoulder so she could get a better view.

"Male birds tend to have more brightly coloured feathers, and female birds have duller colours. She's chirping fine, so it doesn't look like she's sick," Rino explained.

It was something he learned from going on frequent hunting events arranged by various nobles. He might not know how to shoot an arrow before coming to this world, but he learned several fascinating trivia from the hunting escorts.

The crowd nodded in understanding as they learned something new. It was slightly insignificant, but it was still something interesting to know. Rino let them decide the names after everyone agreed that there were three females and two males in the new batch.

He watched as the quails started to get used to flapping their damp wings. The feathers were starting to dry, and already, some were hopping around just minutes after their hatching. The parent quails looked ready to find food for them, so Rino tasked the caretaker to get some quail feed. 

The imprinting process on baby quails was an important one, so Rino told everyone to give them space and observe only at a distance while the parent quails hunted food for their chicks.

"In commemoration of the new life in Town Zera, I declare that there will be a celebration tonight!"

Rino's decision took everyone by surprise, even himself. He did not know how to celebrate the birth of the quails, but this was a time as good as any other. With so many people present, Rino decided that it was best to leave the town tonight and hold the celebration in the living cave instead. He was already used to hosting celebrations in caves from Noir Province's tradition.

They might not have a lot of food in the granary because Rino forgot to build one here. However, they had some things that Noir Province did not have. The purple potatoes made for tasty and sweet snacks that could be harvested at any moment. Rino did not forget about the cave mushrooms. Some of those were edible, and the gargoyles constantly processed them for feeding the pygmy hogs. In addition, Rino could forage many things from the jungle to supplement their lack of food variety.

"For today, the drows and earth gnomes will forage and hunt for ingredients for the celebration tonight held in the living cave. The fairies and spectres are in charge of cave decorations. Trolls are in charge of maintaining the fields and working on the barn project. We have an expanding family of livestock that need new houses. Once the new batch of materials arrives from Noir Province, I will ask the pygmy dwarves to teach you how to create sky palanquins. We need more carriages to transport materials."

After Rino finished assigning tasks to every individual to prepare for tonight's party, he turned back to look at the quails. Already, he could see just how loved they would be. In a few more months, there might be a dozen quails and more rabbits than he could manage.

It was best to work on expanding the crop production. After all, there was more to just sacrificing them to the offering reward shop.