Chapter 481 - Plum Wine and Sericulture

Chapter 481 – Plum Wine and Sericulture

The plum tree has grown to the point that it is already fruiting.

Seeing that, I thought of plum winemaking.

I have never made plum wine before.

I have never done it in my previous world too.

Fortunately, I know how to make it.

I saw it on TV.

I’ve seen it many times.

Though it was quite a long time ago, I think it would be fine.

-0-

First, harvest plums that are already blue.

The spiderlings helped me with that.

Thanks.

Next, wash plum carefully one by one.

I had a hard time because I did it alone.

After that, soak them in water for several hours to remove resin.

That was hard too.

I drain the water and dry them in shade.

As expected, this is really hard to do alone so I asked for some beastgirls to help me.

We took the dried plum and prepared urns where we’ll put them.

The urns are as big as I can carry and it was disinfected by boiling water earlier.

The next thing to do is to put in the plums and rock sugar alternately in the urn layer by layer but we don’t have rock sugar so I substitute it with honey.

And pour in some alcohol….

The alcohol that should be poured is called white liquor but what is this white liquor?

I don’t know.

For the time being, I think any alcohol would be fine…..though I know that it shouldn’t be wine.

I select a distilled alcohol with relatively high alcohol content and pour it into the urn.

After that, cover it, and done.

No, it is only done for now since there are still things that need to be done in the future.

We still need to extract the alcohol later.

And we can only start doing that after at least six months.

I would even prefer a year.

I’m looking forward to the day I’ll drink it.

-0-

All in all, we prepared 12 urns of plum wine.

We don’t have enough honey so 8 of them are using sugar instead.

I’m a little anxious but it’ll be fine.

We put them in the basement of my mansion.

Work, complete.

Ah, I forgot an important thing.

「These are alcohol. Sorry to disappoint you but they are not sweets.」

That’s what I said to the fairy queen who has been following me.

「But you used a lot of honey and sugar?」

I’m sorry.

And dwarves.

I know you want to know the taste but no taste test for now.

If I allow you to taste it, I can already see them disappearing in less than half a year.

This alcohol takes time to make.

I’ll call you once they are ready so give up.

-0-

Thinking about how it will receive good reviews from the dwarves, I thought of increasing the number of plum trees.

…..

But it uses a lot of honey and sugar so I guess I should leave it as it is?

I can increase the number of plum trees but let’s think about how much of it will be used in plum wine.

Let’s use the remaining plums in making dried plums.

I’ve never made dried plums before but it should be similar to salted plum.

It shouldn’t be too difficult.

Yeah, let’s do that.

-0-

Let’s put the plum tree matter aside for now.

It is already time for spring harvest.

It will be a good harvest again.

I’m thankful.

The lamias have come to help us harvest.

When harvesting is over, they’ll help the dwarves in making alcohol.

Thank you as usual.

-0-

Before summer.

Sericulture started in Village Two.

The reason it only started now is because we prioritized stable food production in their own village first.

In addition, there’s a powerful competitor for it like the web of Zabuton’s group. We don’t even know if there will be a demand for silkworms.

It is also necessary to prepare silkworm huts and tools like spindle wheels.

Those made the minotaurs of Village Two reluctant to start sericulture since they don’t even know if they can recover the cost of starting it.

However, it happened last winter.

Gordon, the representative of Village Two, suggested that they would like to start sericulture.

At that time, he took out 200 reward medals from Village Two.

He wants to use those medals to build facilities and tools for sericulture.

As for me, I have no problem if Village Two wants to start sericulture.

I even support them.

Because of that, I told Gordon that those reward medals are unnecessary but Gordon insists on me taking them in case that they’ll fail.

If I provide the facilities and tools for free and the minotaurs’ sericulture fails, they feel like they can’t show their faces to me anymore.

Even if I forgive them as the village chief, they will be known by other villages as someone who caused trouble.

Although they are not confident with the success of the sericulture industry, there are people who depended on sericulture for a living before so they are even willing to repeatedly fail until they make good threads.

The minotaurs were depending on sericulture before but that doesn’t mean that they can successfully do it now too.

However, if they use reward medals to start sericulture, even if they fail, the only ones who’ll be laughed at will be the foolish minotaurs and not Village Two.

Because of that, they can only start sericulture if I receive the reward medals.

I’m a little troubled but I decided to receive their reward medals.

Comparing what they are doing to a business, I indeed feel the same. I would rather start a business using my own funds rather than using other people’s funds.

Also, if I did not accept this, the discussion about sericulture will not progress.

As for me, I welcome business proposals from Village Two and it is not limited to sericulture.

If the sericulture in Village Two became successful, other villages might start something new too.

Then, each village will develop more.

That’s a good thing.

I took the reward medals that Gordon handed over but I’ll return them as a reward when the sericulture became successful.

In short, I’m just keeping it for them.

I officially received it but it’s not like I want to.

-0-

When we decided to carry out the sericulture business in Village Two, I ordered silkworms and tools from Michael-san’s Goroun Company.

I thought he could easily buy them from those who are doing sericulture too but I was wrong.

If they sell silkworm to other sericulturists, they’ll be worried if their own threads will be sold so they rather not sell them.

Because of that, Michael-san hired adventurers to catch them in the forest.

Adventurers, you have it hard.

However, does this mean that there are silkworms in the wild?

I thought they were totally domesticated by people?

-0-

Sericulture tools are not so special.

They are readily available.

The problem is the spindle tool that turns silkworm cocoons into thread.

It is not available on market. It seems like you can only get one if you order it from a craftsman.

I consulted Michael-san if silkworm cocoons can be sold.

He said that I can leave turning them into threads to a company in Shashaato City that specializes in doing that.

When I told that to Gordon, he did not immediately refuse but thought a little first.

As a result, no tool was required and no spindle tool is necessary.

When I was thinking why, I saw a spiderling riding on Gordon’s shoulder but why is it even on Gordon’s shoulder?

It says that it will take care of turning the cocoons into threads and the threads into cloth.

Ah, you mean the spiderlings of Village Two?

Great.

Thank you for your cooperation.

Though it still hasn’t started yet.

As for me, I’ll apologize to Michael-san for the trouble.

-0-

The facility was built by the high elves after consulting the residents of Village Two.

The silkworm hut where silkworms will be raised is simple but it is big since the minotaurs are the ones who’ll use it.

There’s only one silkworm hut for now.

Once the sericulture business gets on track, it will be easy to make new ones.

-0-

I planted trees whose leaves are silkworm food using the AFT.

I planted them at the beginning of the spring.

-0-

After the silkworm hut was built, silkworm larvae were brought from the Goroun Company. Thus, sericulture started in Village Two.

What surprised me was the size of the silkworm larvae that were brought in.

The silkworm larva I know is around…..7 to 8 cm.

Well, there are some silkworm larvae that are around that size but there are also larvae that are around 20 to 30 cm.

It looks like a completely different silkworm species.

Are these giant larvae safe to keep?

It’s okay.

You’ve already taken care of them before.

Okay.

The facility is…..it’s also big so I guess there’s no problem even if some larvae are big.

….thinking about it, are there silkworm larvae that are bigger than these?

There is also a one-meter class.

Really.

I feel like I want to see one but I also feel like I don’t want to see one.

For now, do your best to raise the number of silkworms.

The 200 ordinary size silkworms, the goal is to increase their number to tens of thousands.

The 20 big silkworms, the goal is to increase their number to thousands.

Do your best to reach those goals.

To feed the silkworms, you can use the leaves of the trees I raised but they are still young so you can’t pick too many leaves.

They said that they’ll collect leaves from the trees of the forest.

It seems like they have planned it for a long time so there won’t be any feeding problem.

Got it. However, if you’re going to the forest, don’t forget to have the kuros escort you.

And make sure no one will get injured.

-0-

And spiderlings, you don’t have to cultivate friendship with the silkworms….their lifespan is….

Eh?

The small larva can live up to ten years?

The large larva can live up to a hundred years?

Moreover, if they feel danger while making a cocoon, they’ll leave the cocoon and run away?

….

Are they really silkworms?

Are you sure they’re not some kind of other creatures?

No, well, since they lived in the wild, they have that kind of instinct.

Okay.

Yeah, you are silkworms.

I’m sorry for doubting you.

-0-

Ah, Gordon, let me ask you something.

Are these larvae not dangerous?

Do they attack?

As long as you feed them, there won’t be any problem.

Okay.

…..

Make sure they always have food available.

-0-

I pray for the success of Village Two’s sericulture.

If you need help, don’t hesitate to tell me.

-0-

As a side story, when counting them, one should use “tou” and not “hiki”.

TN: Tou is a counter for big animals while hiki is used for small animals

I guess it’s because the history of silkworms in this world is different.

They even exist in the wild.