442 New and varietal improvements

"So, what should I do, Brother Ars?

"Sorry to bother calling you, Kyle. Actually, Kyle would love to help. It's a rice variety improvement."

"Rice is the grain Brother Ars brought back from the East, right? If it's a breed that was grown over there, why don't we just keep growing it?

"Um, well, I'm going to do the same growing up. But you're not convinced of this breed right now. I wish I could make better rice."

Nelson Wetlands zone on Bales territory ruled by Vargas.

That's where I called Kyle.

The aim, as I told Kyle, is to improve the rice variety.

I wonder if the rice I got in the East is actually closer to Japanese rice than varieties such as Thai rice.

Cooking rice with pot-shaped magic props produced a plump and delicious meal.

but I wasn't entirely satisfied with the taste of it with memories of my previous life.

Somehow, it felt more like ancient rice than the modern rice I usually ate in my previous life.

Maybe rice in this world hasn't gone that far with varietal improvements.

Perhaps, but I don't think it's just the flavor, but the yield per land is small.

So, because I was going to make rice, I thought I'd even try to improve the variety.

It's cold around here, so it would be nice if it could be a cold-resistant variety with the same flavors and yields.

"Variety improvement? Brother Ars used to do a lot of things when he was still in Vulcan village, didn't he? I've heard Brother Hector say a lot about Hatsuka and other vegetables and wheat that Brother Ars has changed to make something good."

"Right. I've been doing a lot of research before. I haven't had much time since I became a knight and gained territory. Now, Brother Hector, I don't know if I can get my men to do it."

"Then shouldn't you ask Brother Hector, not me?

"No matter how much Brother Hector likes agriculture, you don't know anything about rice. Besides, I'd like to eat good rice soon if I could do it personally. That's why I have to ask Kyle. Can you help me?

"Well, if that's the case, shall we get it over with? I have other work to do. Spirit, please."

I'll ask Kyle to improve the rice variety.

Kyle accepted that.

And Kyle invokes the Spirit.

Kyle's spirits are different from the [Ice Summons] I use in the Fontana family.

It was in the northern forests of the Balkans that Kyle summoned the spirits of the plants that he had contracted directly, the woodwinds.

This woodwork manipulates plants in general, so much so that some of them are [guardian plants] in their magic as the Reed family.

It is also possible for Kyle to quickly stretch the surrounding grass just by asking the woodwork.

Ask Kyle's woodwork to help improve the variety this time around.

Here's how to do it.

Plant the rice in the fields I made and Kyle commands the woodwork to grow rapidly.

Then plant carefully selected rice from its harvested rice again to grow rapidly.

So let's repeat this and end breed improvements in a short period of time that would have taken years to decades, if they were meant to, or even longer.

"But how about I make a new magic one? Wouldn't it be better to make a spell about [rapid growth] or something?

"... No, you should stop. Do it and the land dies."

Kyle comes up with a suggestion to make a new magic.

If Kyle did sign with Woodwind, he could also make the magic of growing plants right away.

However, the proposal was rejected.

Because Kyle's woody can only grow plants rapidly, but that's all.

Plants absorb the land's nutrients and moisture as it grows.

Even if it could grow rapidly by the woods, the nutrition of the land would still be gone.

Even if once or twice you were okay with the strange power of the Spirit, it would be just as bad if you repeated it over and over again.

If you can magically speed up the harvest, you may not be able to grow the next time the land dies.

Humans are so selfish, I keep doing it even if I find out it will strangle me sooner or later.

In that case, it is also possible that the land of Fontana is deserted in the not-too-distant future.

Exactly. That's the future I don't even want.

but this will not be the case with this varietal improvement.

Because Kyle doesn't do it alone, so do I.

If it is my magic [soil improvement], I can restore the power of the soil in an instant.

Even if Kyle's woodwind grew rice rapidly, perhaps the land shouldn't die.

"So I pour water into the fields I [soil improves] and plant rice. Kyle then lets the woodwinds grow their love. So, let's prune it and plant the next one using the seed we got from it."

"What do you do with the seed sorting?

"Right. The original purpose is to taste, but it takes time to find out how much it tastes. Do you only sort heavy things that have sunk into the bottom by pounding seed into salt water, and then use the one with a lot of magic inner pack? Oh, and I'll summon the Spirit too."

"Huh? That means Brother Ars will summon you, right? What are you doing?

"I don't know how effective it is, but when we grow rice rapidly, we adjust the ambient temperature. I would like it to be a cold-resistant variety that will bear fruit even in the cold summer. Well, before that, Fontana was cold."

"Oh well. So, is this how ready you are? It's time to grow up for the first time."

"Whoa, nice to meet you, Kyle."

Thus, next to Vargas and the others making fields in the wetlands, me and Kyle embarked on a rice variety improvement.

In an unprecedented way of varietal improvement carried out over many days, rice rich in magic was produced with greater fruit and more resistance to the cold than rice obtained in the East, and then more harvest.

Thus, the cultivation of new varieties of rice, which should be called barca rice, began in Xinda, where wetlands are being developed.