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Volume 3 Chapter 9-2: Reconnaissance

「Everyone start heating up the jugs.」

A while ago I had come to the maple grove with the Fire Foxes before the Elves showed up.

We had to empty some of the jugs in order to begin collecting more sap so the first thing we needed to do was have the Fire Foxes do some work.

「Understood Cyril-kun. We aren’t supposed to make them boil right?」
「As expected of Kuu. You remembered it correctly. You need to get rid of the moisture without letting it boil. Keep going until it turns light gold in color. Once you think you’re finished, call out to me and I will check it.」

All the Fire Foxes nodded in agreement and began moving off to their own jugs to begin working.

There was a good reason for taking care of this work on the spot.

We have 140 jugs and each of them could hold up to 200L of sap making each of them incredibly heavy. In order to carry these back to Erucy to process them would make things highly labor intensive. Plus we would have to carry the empty jugs right back here anyways.

For that reason it was far easier to borrow the Fire Foxes’ ability to turn the sap into syrup on the spot. By doing it here we can reduce how much we had to carry to a fortieth. (40L of sap in 1L of syrup)

Today I had brought 5 extra jugs that had been made in the past few days.

Even better, we could empty all of the full jugs into these 5 jugs and leave the rest here.

「Kurone’s jug turned a pretty gold~」
「The one I made is prettier!」
「Kurone and Kemin you’re too soft. While you two were making two of them, Yukino has made three. So I’m the best!」

It looks like my three little sisters were having fun while doing their work.

Among the Fire Foxes, the three of them had some of the greatest ability. Most of the Fire Foxes were only able to handle one jug at a time, but Kurone and Kemin did two each and Yukino managed to handle three at once.

Rather than their pure power, I was more amazed at the precise control they showed over their magic.

Though it was hard to ignore Kuu, who was off to the side humming a song while handling four jugs at once…

「Alright everyone, let’s try to get this done before the Elves get here and give them a surprise!」
「We’ll do our best Cyril-kun」
「I’ll do my best for Cyril-niisama」

A delicious and pleasant smell wafted around the area.

I’m sure that this syrup would be amazing.

The Elves arrived one hour after the Fire Foxes.

Pretty much everyone was here, unlike when only the physically strong were invited. I had arranged for this so everyone would get a chance to sample the maple syrup.

By the time the Elves arrived, the Fire Foxes had finished processing the syrup and we had transferred it to the extra jugs. Our first batch of maple syrup ended up with a yield of 750L, which was more than expected.

In order to let the Fire Foxes rest from their exertions in producing the maple syrup, I had the Elves that arrived take the hoses and stick them into new trees to begin filling the empty jugs once more.

If there wasn’t a suitable tree nearby then they would have to carry the jugs elsewhere, so it was a labor intensive job in its own right.

「Cyril, I’m finished over here.」
「Chief, we’re all okay over here.」

Under the command of Lucy the Elves managed to get the job done.

This would end the work here today. In another five days we would have to do it once more.

「Good work today everyone. It’s thanks to your efforts that we got plenty of maple syrup. At this rate we’ll have plenty to sell, plus we’ll have enough for our own enjoyment as well.」

Everyone smiled when they heard me say that.

They may have been worrying because last time I said that I would ensure we had enough to sell before using the leftovers for our own enjoyment.

They were all keenly interested because the delicious smell of the syrup was wafting around the grove.

「Did you all bring your bread!?」
「「「Yes!」」」

They all shouted back energetically while pulling out their bread.

「Maple syrup is something made by the cooperation between both Elves and Fire Foxes. It might be a bit cheesy to say, but you could consider it the flavor of the friendship between both our races. I’d love it if you enjoyed the taste and the feelings that we put into it. Now, please line up.」

As my speech finished they all scrambled to line up.