Chapter 27 - I want to try farming

Chapter 27: I want to try farming

I awoke from being bathed in the morning’s sunlight.

With a big yawn, I slowly sat up in the bed and rubbed my blurry eyes as I stretched.

The empty room that I called the bedroom now has a fine bed that Toack made in there. I obtained the mattress and blanket from the ladies that he had introduced me to, and the bedroom was completed around two weeks ago.

Thanks to that, I was able to sleep comfortably today as well, waking up with no back or hip pain whatsoever.

My bed is large enough to fit two adults and the mattress’s cushioning is so good that there would be no need to be afraid even if you jump right in it. It had cost me a fair bit of money, but I don’t regret it at all since I’ll be using this bed every day.

In addition to the bed; the drawers, carpets, bookshelves, the chair and the small round table all gave off a lived-in feel.

I couldn’t help but feel a kind of excitement that isn’t suited for my age now that I finally have a comfy place to live in; it’s like I went back to being a kid.

After I thoroughly enjoyed the feel of the bed, I got off it and opened the window.

The refreshing morning air brushed my cheeks.

When I took a deep breath, I could feel the fresh air entering my body and it felt very relaxing.

I enjoyed the feel of the fresh air for a little while before I left to draw water from the well to wash my face.

「Good morning, Aldo-san」

「Morning, Ergys-san」

I returned a greeting to a fellow villager who came to wash his face like I did.

It was just a casual one word greeting, but it still made me feel elevated.

It’s been a month since I became a hunter. My life has been stabilized for the most part and I’ve become familiar with the village.

At first it was only Ergys-san, Fiona-san, Flora, Toack, and Aisha who I could talk to, but now my circle has expanded to Loren-san, Kyle, the village’s aunties, uncles and their kids.

Now whenever I walk into the village I hear “How’d your hunt go today?”, “Morning~”, “How’ve you been?”. I never thought that being greeted and cared for was such a joy.

I drew water out of the well to wash my face while I had such thoughts.

The cold water robbed away the heat, and all my sleepiness disappeared at once.

I had completely woken up physically and mentally from the cold water and fresh air, so I quickly headed home to start making breakfast.

Today’s menu is the leftover vegetable soup that I made from yesterday, stir-fried boar meat with mushrooms, and bread with raisins.

The vegetable soup was of course, Toack’s secret recipe. With Flora’s teaching on adding pico as the secret ingredient, it was easy to reproduce the vegetable soup after carefully chopping up the vegetables to the right sizes.

The face Toack made when I had him try the soup I reproduced was an amusing one.

He made light of me thinking that surely I won’t be able to recreate his soup, so his eyes widened so much from the shock when he tried it.

As I recalled the funny scene of that time, I put the mushrooms along with some edible herbs into the frying pan. Then, I cut the boar meat from the boar we caught yesterday into bite-size pieces and put them onto the pan to be stir-fried.

Next, I put in a touch of salt and pepper and let it cook a bit. Then, when I could smell the sweet aroma coming from the fat of the meat, I start to mix everything together.

The sizzling sound that was coming out of the pan was very pleasing to the ears. The mushrooms and herbs were cooking nicely and turning into a really nice color.

The pot of vegetable soup placed on the fire next to it was also producing a warm smell, as if it was signaling that it’s near ready.

By sniffing in the sweet, luxurious smell of meat and vegetables, my stomach rumbled. Both of those smells were assertively strong.

I poured out a bowl of the vegetable soup, plated the stir-fry and carried them to the table.

Of course, I also brought the whole pot of soup to the table as I will be getting refills for sure.

I prepared the pre-made bread with the raisins from Aisha and quickly got started on the soup.

「Ahhh… it tastes so good」

With the original flavors of the vegetables concentrated, the soup was very delicious.

The onion that was boiled until it was kind of mushy was the best. Each of these softened up vegetables were soaking in their own flavors.

It’s also nice to dip the bread into the soup before eating. I can taste the wheat along with the flavors of the vegetables that it soaked up.

You can eat the bread that turned hard from yesterday if you have soup to go with it.

After eating the bread and soup a bit, I moved on to the stir-fried boar meat with mushrooms next.

When I took a bite of the boar meat, the condensed flavor of the meat overflowed in my mouth. Unlike the venison which had a mild taste, I could fully taste the flavor coming out from the center part of the meat.

It was only seasoned simply with salt and pepper, but that brought out the ingredient’s flavor.

I continued to eat like that and the plates were emptied in no time.

Right now, I’m savoring the last sip of the vegetable soup like I was tasting wine.

As I saw the floating pieces of vegetables in the bowl, something came to mind.

My life has more or less settled down now, so maybe it’s about time to try to do some farming that I’ve always wanted to try.

I had purchased the missing daily necessities from merchants and obtained the furniture I wanted for my house. I’ve gotten used to the mountains of Nordende so hunting is not a problem either. Recently, I’ve started to wonder what I should do in my free time more and more.

Since I don’t need to hunt every day, I wonder if I can do a little farming.

Eating the meat I hunt and the vegetables that I grow. That’s the life I wanted to try living.

Ergys-san told me that he’ll teach me about farming, so let’s pay him a visit today.

With that in mind, I stood up after I gulped down the rest of the vegetable soup.

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I exited my house and walked on the road that led to the village square for about ten minutes.

When I headed towards Ergys-san’s house, I saw Flora working in the fields behind Ergys-san’s house.

“Hello”

“Hi there”

When I got close and greeted her, she stood up and greeted me back with a smile.

There was some kind of leafy vegetable in her hand.

It looks like she wasn’t working on getting rid of the weeds today. Instead, she appears to be harvesting the same type of vegetable she has in her hand since I can see more of them in the basket by her feet.

Since I wanted to start doing some farming, I can’t help but ask her about it.

「What kind of vegetable is that? 」

「Oh, this? This is a radish. It was planted a while ago and now it’s gotten big enough」

Flora replied as she showed me the vegetable with a red bulb.

「It looks like a turnip, but the color’s not white and the size is different, huh… 」

「Hmm? You’ve never eaten this before? 」

「Although I’ve had turnips before, I’ve never had one that’s like this small」

As I replied so, Flora cleared off the soil that was attached to the radish and started to wash it with the water from a bucket.

「Here, please take this one and try eating it」

I received the radish from Flora then I immediately sunk my teeth into the part with the red bulb.

As I munched on it, I noticed it had a nice texture to it and it was very juicy. And as I chewed more after that, there was a tangy spicy taste. There may be people out there who are not fond of this spiciness, but I liked this quite a bit.

「How is it? 」

「Hm. It’s quite fresh. It has a good chewing texture, and I like this tangy-spicy taste」

Yup. It’s really delicious also thanks to the fact that it was freshly harvested. This taste of freshness would not be possible unless it was picked out on the spot. It’s really a privilege that I got to taste this without being the one who grew it.

While I was immersed in eating this, I noticed Flora looking at me with a gentle smile.

「I’m glad that you were interested in this. This vegetable can be harvested in just twenty or so days after it’s planted. We still have lots of these so please take some if you want」

「After just twenty days?! That’s so fast! 」

I was shocked at the short number of days it takes before it can be harvested as I stuffed my face with the radish.

It’s okay to eat it like this, but I think it might also be good to make a salad with this and eat it together with some dressing. I’m sure it would bring a nice twist of tangy spiciness to a salad. And since it resembles a turnip, slicing it to pieces and boiling it doesn’t sound like a bad idea either.

「Oh, by the way, what brings you here today? 」

Flora asked me while I was thinking of different ways of cooking the radish.

Oh, right. I came here to ask Ergys-san to teach me about farming.

I almost left with the radish to immerse myself in cooking it.

「Since I’ve more or less settled down here, I thought that I’d try a little farming」

「That sounds like a good idea! 」

「But since I’m starting out for the first time, I thought that I’d ask Ergys-san to teach me the ropes」

「I-is that so…? 」

Hm? She was so happy just a second ago, so why does she look down all of a sudden?

I’m a bit confused, and Flora is fidgeting while she keeps glancing this way.

I know she wants to say something, but I have no idea what she wants to say.

I tilted my head as I waited, then Flora gripped onto my hands tightly.

「U-um!! About that farming teaching thing… Can I do it? 」

「Ehh? Well, if you’re willing then by all means…but aren’t you busy, Flora? 」

I noticed since I started living here that Flora took parts in doing laundries, cooking, harvesting vegetables, gathering flowers and field work.

If she were to give me farming lessons, we would have to make a few trips to my house. I thought that would be tough for Flora who was already physically weak.

「It’ll be fine! I’ll go tell my father! 」

The person in question happily went in her house.

I rarely see Flora so hyped.

She always worked so hard on the fields, so I guess I’m glad to have her as the one who’ll teach me about crops.