Ore No Ongaeshi: High Spec Murazukuri Chapter 13

Delayed, but as you noticed, I had some troubles with the site. The one at universalnovels is still down and trying to get everything ready on this site took more time than I expected.

But now everything is up and running without issues (I think).

There are some things to explain before the chapter… well, just two to be honest.

Senbakoki, also called Thousand Teeth Thresher. Here's a short video ill.u.s.trating what it is, how it looks and how it's used. Liscia is the only young girl/young woman in the village, the rest are basically kids. So, she's kinda like the "older" of the kids. For more info, you'll have to wait until the next chapter.

I really wanted to finish this chapter and see your comments on this ? we're getting really close to the end of the first volume. Currently is 2 am here, so I'll post it and go to bed. It might be a little late, but like I said, I really wanted to have this chapter out as soon as possible.

Night night. Enjoy.

Episode 13: The food of hope.

A month quickly went by since I first came to Urd Village.

“All right, with this, the Inahon harvesting is finally completed today.”

The grain harvesting of the Inahon, native to the natural paddy fields near the forest was finally over. The sight before me was one filled with the newly harvested and now empty paddy fields.

“You guys, you really did well.”

I spoke towards the children, who just like me, were gazing at the state of the rice fields.

“We really finished it, all of this…”
“At first my arms and back hurt so bad I wanted to cry…”

They felt deeply moved after finally completing this job, trying to express themselves with words.
Manual rice harvesting took a lot of time, and was very taxing on the body. And finally accomplis.h.i.+ng this goal, they were very touched by having done it all with they own power.

“It not good to be impressed forever, guys. We need to start preparing for next spring’s rice planting.”
“Ehh, you really are a slave driver, Yamato-niichan! ”
“For real–“

It takes time and effort to cultivate rice throughout the whole year.
It was necessary to turn the soil over, having the bottom layer on top, before the winter arrived.
In addition to that, I wanted to prepare some sort of soil improvement, and have it ready before the spring planting began.

(The amount of Inahon harvested in comparison with the size of the natural paddy field was small. I suppose that is the limit it has while growing in the wild.)

That natural paddy field near the forest was the savior of this village, it  really helped against the food shortage in Urd.
However, the yield was far below the harvest j.a.pan would have of a field of that size, because while in its natural state, the hand of man had never touched it to help it improve.

(But interpreting it the other way, we can still increase the yield.)

Therefore, my plan was to improve the paddy field.

Between the Edo period, and the Meiji and Showa era, the technology used on the rice harvesting and processing in j.a.pan improved by leaps and bounds. With the invention of new agricultural machinery, the implementation of fertilizers and the use of cattle in order to help with the plowing, in some cases, the rice yield even doubled.
I intended to apply that same technology and knowledge to improve the level of civilization on this different world's village.

(And in order to do that, the power of the Oxen and the smiting techniques of the old man Gaton are needed)

So, looking forwards to next year’s production, I decided to start preparing.
The labor force in this village was limited, with only children and old people as its inhabitants. For that reason, I was trying to implements as many agricultural reforms as I could to make their life styles a little easier, to improve this world's civilization.

(With my knowledge of my former world, of j.a.pan. I’ll improve this environment, to make it suitable for the Inahon cultivation. I also can count on the help of the outstanding blacksmith Gaton and his two grandchildren)

For Urd Village, which had fallen into quite a dilemma, these were really miraculous gifts.

(And above all…)

“Yamato-niichan, we’ve finished loading the tools to the cart.”
“What kind of job are we going to do next after getting to the village?　Tell us! ”
“Hey, guys!　Don’t rush Yamato-niichan!　Don't you see he’s making that ‘troubled face’ again? “

But the most miraculous gift was ‘them’.

The children of Urd, always bright and devoted to any job I gave them. Without them, harvesting the Inahon and hunting wouldn't have been so smooth up to this point.

I will not say it out loud, but I really appreciate them.

“By the way, Liscisan. Am I really making a ‘troubled face’? ”
“That is… well… no… I believe that Yamato-sama who makes such a face is still wise and lovely! “

Next to me, Liscia was troubled on how to reply to my question.
Perhaps she's been feeling that way since long ago. Honestly, I felt a little shocked.

(I could get used to the life in this village. It would also be good to try and be a little more amiable…)

I intended to be as polite as possible, since the whole village was taking care of me, an outsider.
But in the future, I think I'll be a bit more careful about my troubled expressions. But for that, first of all, practicing a ‘smile’ was needed.

“Hey!　Yamato-niichan is making a weird face now! ”
“Wooah, it’s true!　That's a really funny face! “

“Hey, don't be rude to Yamato-sama! ”
“But it’s the truth, Liscineechan.”
“Waa, quick, everyone, run away from neechan! “

Let me rephrase it.

The children of Urd are bright and dedicated, and even reliable.
But… it might be better not to tell them how I feel for now.

“Ok, let's go back to the village.”

At least I was able to reconfirm that I was still not very good at dealing with children. And like this, we finished the Inahon harvesting at long last.

◇

After cutting all the Inahon native to the forest, we came back to the village.

“Properly clean up all the tools. After that, let’s go help with the thres.h.i.+ng work too.”
“Ok! “

To my words, the children replied energetically. Being able to change gears so easily, energetic children are indeed amazing.

“Yamato-dono, the Inahon finished drying, so we’re now thres.h.i.+ng it.”
“Oh, that’s great, Village Chief.”

The work I asked them to do before leaving seemed to be progressing well.

“Good, if it’s dried like this, it will become easier.”

I said while checking the current moisture content on the Inahon.
The Inahon was spread in the village square, it was that which we had cut down with sickles near the forest previously.
To briefly describe the method, it was a simple sun drying. By doing this, the moisture evaporated making the grain last longer, and it actually also improved its flavor.

After this, what was left was only for it to be pa.s.sed through the thresher.

“How's the tool doing? ”
“So far, it's going well.”

I went to check the progress on the thres.h.i.+ng I instructed them on doing during my absence.
Gaton was the person supervising the thres.h.i.+ng tool, and the ones working on it were the old people and the children who didn't come to the forest today.

“But that aside, this thing called ‘Senbakoki’ is a really convenient tool. As expected of the ‘Sage’.”
“I think that you, who made this tool from that rough sketch I gave you, are more incredible. Gaton jii-san.”

“Sadly, I can't take the credit this time, it was made by my grandchildren.”
“So those two made it… no wonder it’s shaped like that.”
“p.i.s.s off, boy.”

As usual, Gaton answered with that crude vocabulary of his. However, the sense of completeness given by the tools the Mountain Clan People made was still amazing.
Speaking of which, who is this ‘sage’? Recently, I've often heard the villagers calling this t.i.tle. I’ll have to check it out.

By the way, this ‘Senbakoki’ was an epoch-making farm equipment invented in the Edo period. It was a revolutionary invention which dramatically improved the tedious and time-consuming thres.h.i.+ng of that era, increasing its efficiency and speed.

All I did was pa.s.s a simple rough sketch and have Gaton in charge of its production.
But by his earlier words, this time it was his grandchildren the ones who made this senbakoki.

They should be around the age of elementary school students. To be able to replicate such an apparatus, the skills of the Mountain Clan just keeps surprising me.

After checking the thres.h.i.+ng, I then moved over to the warehouse.

“So all of these are Inahon… With this much rice, we’ll have more than enough to last us until autumn of next year.”

Confirming the number of hemp bags filled with rice, I made a rough estimate.

“Instead of eating wheat, this will surely become the staple food for Urd in the future, ‘Rice’… right? Yamato-sama.

Impressed while looking at the stacked hemp sacks filled with rice, Liscia expressed his thoughts. She was pleased with the prospect of this grain becoming the new staple food.

“Yeah, that's right. In the future, we will continue to plant wheat, on a lesser quant.i.ty though, and Inahon will be the main crop.”

In Urd Village, wheat had been the staple food so far.
But in recent years, the growth of wheat had been unstable due to changes in the climate. In order to compensate for that, they purchased it from traders and stockpiled it.

But this became a critical situation when the bandits appeared in the highway to the big town, and that made trading impossible.

“Inahon can be cultivated every year continuously without any problems, so rest a.s.sured.”
“Such an unbelievable story… that’s really great news, Yamato-sama! “

There was the risk of ‘continuous cultivation damage’ by only growing wheat in the same place.

Compared to that, rice was an excellent grain that could be cultivated and harvested in a well-balanced manner. As for the climate, since the Inahon had been resistant so far while continuously growing wildly in the forest, there was nothing to worry about.

“In the spring of next year, we will plant and cultivate the Inahon seedlings. We’ll mainly use the natural paddy field near the forest. I’ll also try to cultivate Inahon in the destroyed wheat fields in the village as an experiment.”
“So you will remodel the wheat fields into rice fields… can that be done? Yamato-sama.”
“That’s where the Wild Oxen and the farming tools I had Gaton make come into place.”

I explained to the anxious Liscia in order to rea.s.sure her.
If my agricultural reforms get right on track, the food production on the village will stabilize as a result. We will also resume the raising of livestock and the cultivation of vegetables, in order to enrich our lives.
The reason being, people cannot live healthy and enriched lives with rice alone.

(If the grain production and food gathering becomes stable, the state of Urd Village will surely improve…)

Urd was blessed with a natural environment in this mountain basin. Gifted with abundant water and clear air.

And although deep into the forest wild beasts lurked, we could gather the blessings of the forest once the crossbow squad got up and running. With this, the need for firewood to be used as fuel and wild beasts fur and meat, would be covered.

(It may still take a while. But now, people can keep on living since they can now see the light of hope)

I was looking at that same hope in the form of the villagers performing the thres.h.i.+ng with a smile on their faces. I was sure it would somehow work out.

“Yamato-sama…”

It was at that moment.
Liscia quietly called to me from my side.

Her voice had a different tone than usual… I wonder what was this about.

“Yamato-sama… could you please lend me some of your time tonight? I need to talk to you…”
“Yeah, no problem. What’s wrong? “

Liscia was the only young girl in the village.
Her knowledge and presence had always helped me. And since it was her request, there was no reason to refuse it.

“Thank you, Yamato-sama!　I’m looking forward to seeing you tonight…”

After saying that, she happily left.
I wonder what she would want to talk about…

So, I was invited by Liscia, to meet her tonight.

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