CH 102

Chapter 102 – Harvested!

“Oh, oh. So this is how you cut them.”

Mette was holding a scythe that I had made as she cut down the Grank wheat.

“Don’t swing it around too strongly. Also, keep your distance from the others at all times.”

I said, and the demihumans replied cheerfully as they continued to harvest the wheat.

The following morning after our return from Varthburg, we had set about harvesting the Grank wheat.

Melk watched the carefully working demihumans and muttered.

“It would be faster to do it alone.”

“Aye, that might be the case for Mette, the Kijins and Minotaurs.”

That scythe was made of purple iron, and was both very durable and sharp. And so it cut through the wheat with ease.

But the Kijins and Minotaurs were too worried about their surroundings, and looked a little nervous. They probably wished that they could swing the scythes around more freely…

Also, perhaps I could modify some of the Golems, so that they could specialize in harvesting and other farm work.

Under Wiz’s instructions, the Grank wheat was separated by grain and stem. This was done by the slimes, who could cover the wheat with their bodies and absorb only the grains. After gathering like this, they would unleash the grain into a nearby box.

Long ago, during an expedition, I had made a grain threshing machine for some farmers.

Perhaps it was because Wiz had seen this, that they were able to do something similar with their own body. As if Wiz was saying that they could do it better. Wiz could be strangely competitive sometimes.

I did make a threshing machine anyway, but considering their speed, I could just leave it to the slimes.

“It seems that things are also going well with Ms. Ecleshia and the Ents.”

Iria muttered as she looked at the Ents, who were moving the weeds to the side of the wheat fields.

Once the weeds were gone and there was bare soil, they used their roots to mix the dirt.

I meant to extend the waterways from the river, and expand the fields so that they were five times larger than they are now.

Once the fields were expanded, half of it would be taken up by Grank wheat, and the other half would be filled with the Magibeans from Varthburg, as well as other vegetables.

“It will be even more beautiful when it’s big.”

As Melk said, an expanded field would be quite a sight to behold.

However, the larger it was, the harder it would be to manage. And we would also have to do something about birds and insects.

It was also possible that boars would come to devour the crops.

As I thought of such things, I noticed that there were numerous dark shadows flying in the south sky.

Melk saw this and muttered.

“Monster crows?”

There were figures with even larger wings in front of the Arrow Crows… It was Asuha and the Tengus. They were all wielding weapons.

The Tengus used crossbows and bows to shoot down a number of them, and then the Arrow Crows turned around and fled.

And then Asuha moved away from the other Tengus and flew down towards us.

“Ms. Asuha! Well done!”

“You can leave matters of the sky to us. We are used to dealing with Arrow Crows.”

Asuha answered confidently.

She used to seem a little timid, but recently, she had become more confident in herself, and her words showed how reliable she was.

“However, there sure are a lot of Arrow Crow attacks these days. When I talked to Ms. Ecleshia about it, she said that they came yesterday as well.”

“I see…”

I looked at the demihumans who carried the Arrow Crows that had been shot down.

Melk also watched and muttered.

“We’ll be able to eat some delicious roasted bird again. But now that I think about it, you don’t eat much Arrow Crow, Joshua.”

“Th-that’s not true. They are delicious. But yes, they do seem to be showing up a lot now.”

There were not that many wild Arrow Crows.

Most of the Arrow Crows that humans saw were raised by the Demon King Army as part of their aerial fighting force.

And so for this many to be seen here… It must mean that another great army is heading to the south.

The threat of the Demon King Army would remain for some time then.

Aside from that, there was a reason that I tried to avoid eating the Arrow Crow meat.

As long as human cities were falling to the south, there was no doubt in my mind that these Arrow Crows were feasting on human flesh. So to eat such monsters would mean…

Well, all humans and monsters return to the soil once they die. So there was no point in thinking about it too much. And it would be wrong to tell the others, who were not even human. I didn’t want them to worry about me. However, our food situation was not stable yet.

“In any case, it would probably be best to tighten our security towards the south. Also…”

I turned my eyes to the river.

“We should go and take a look to the south just once. The sea should not be too far away. Perhaps we can learn something about the Demon King Army’s movements. Though, I’m not sure how long it will take.”

Asuha nodded at my words.

“I have once flown south along the river. From here, it is about the same distance as Varthburg.”

“Oh, I see. In that case, perhaps I should make a boat and go out to sea.”

I said, and then Melk wagged her tail.

“Melk will go too. To this place filled with salty water.”

“I-I will go in order to protect Sir Joshua!”

“I want to go this time!”

Iria and Mette said without hesitation.

The three of them had never seen the sea before, and so they seemed very interested.

“Alright, then we shall go tomorrow or the day after. To the sea.”

Iria and the others agreed readily.

To look into the movements of the Demon King Army…but also, I wanted to find out more about the demihumans of water, known as the Kappa, that Monica the elf had talked about. If they would cooperate with us, then the Fendel Alliance would be even stronger.

According to Monica, the Kappa used to live near the river to the north. However, it was rare to catch sight of them now.

Because of this, it was likely that they had gone up farther north along the river, or moved to the south sea.

Only, the farther you went to the north, the more human territory there was.

In that case, it seemed more likely that they would have gone to the less populated southern sea. That was what I thought.

Either that, or they had become extinct…

“In any case, today, we are making bread. But before I make an oven…there is something I have to make first.”

I turned towards the riverside, where the wind was strong.