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Chapter 201: Daily Life

I wake up early in the morning, take Riche on a stroll and gather various stuff like plums and apricots growing on the mountain.

I poke X-Stick between the branches and rustle the leaves and fruits to drop the plums. Yellow ones fall from time to time, but the completely ripe ones drop the easiest. I usually spread a cloth underneath to catch them, but for today I cheat a bit and use wind magic instead.

It’s also convenient since I can blast the leaves and branches that fall too. The spirits happily get blown away, so things are pleasantly boisterous.

「X-Stick, can you get the one on the right? 」
「Ou! 」
X-Stick not only pokes around, he’s playing a huge part as a fruit picker pole. I’m leaving the fruits that don’t fall easily even when shaken, like peaches and loquats, to him.

X-Stick isn’t that interested in fruits so I’m tossing him some hamburgers instead.

I made the bright red plums into jam during the first year, and now the branches are drooping with lots of fruits so the harvest is huge again. It’s nice munching on them straight out of the jar after pickling in brine for a while. The apricots will be made into jam and also candied.

Riche sniffs at the plum. Not sure if it’s because it’s sour; he sneezes and ends up falling on his bum.

Figs are usually planted for summer and for autumn. The leaves can be used for wrapping cheese so from time to time, I prune the branches with dense leaves that sunlight doesn’t reach, then chuck them into 【Storage】 .
.
Let’s use the loquat for tarts. I tried one and the flavor is surprisingly deep, and ripeness is just right. Loquat varies a lot in the depth of taste. I prepare sour ones when the flavor is light, but this one’s flavor is strong and sweet.

Zucchinis female flowers are the ones with the fruit sitting at the base of the flower, while the males have thin stalks behind the petals. There’s not a huge difference in the taste, but when making raw salad I prefer to use the crunchy female fruits. The males don’t get damaged easily compared to the female flowers, so I’m using them for fritters.

I also harvested wheat just a while ago and also set the stilts up for the tomato and cucumber. I planted some hard wheat suitable for pasta last November so they’re ready to harvest around this season. I didn’t plant much because it’s hard, but the scenery of fields of wheat and rice was also lovely.

Once harvest is over, this area is usually left to ‘rest’, or maybe it’s more accurate to say it’ll become a pasteur for the sheep. Well, that’s usually, but I planted soybeans because the livestock I own isn’t few. The paddy fields are planted in rotation of wheat and soybeans.

I diligently spent my days harvesting different crops, a little bit for each kind and with the help of wind magic from time to time. The spirits seem to have memorized the pattern; they happily helped me while playing and horsing around. From time to time, they even surprise me with out of season fruits and flowers.

Alright, I think it’s time for Chris and the others to go now, so let’s bring them some bento while seeing them off. Reid is with them so I can only use so much. Ah, being restricted is so hard.

Hmm, maybe ham and cheese sandwiches, meat pies and booze are a safe bet huh. Ah, let’s also toss in some fried white geese.

Time is frozen within 【Storage 】 so it’s fine even if I had stored them for so long, but just think about carrying a lot of raw stuff all the time… That’s a bit… But then, it’s also my fault for hunting like a mad man for the sake of blankets, so I still got so much more inside 【Storage】.
I even sold them before during the great confusion in the Guild by slipping it in with the other stuff.

Should I sell this through the island? That island’s purpose is so that I can sell stuff that has been affected by spirits, so I think they’ll allow me to slip in a few pieces with the other trade items — ah, no, I don’t want 【Storage】 getting discovered.

I wonder, to what extent will the heroes interfere? I just can’t picture their power and strength in my head. If the heroes are powerful, then Lightball will also become stronger so I think the chances of her getting involved with me will go down.

I already 【Cut Ties】 with Lightball, but that’s not the end of it; I also made sure she can’t remember me.

If I use her to become my strength then she’ll protect me, but I refused because that meant we’ll have a connection to each other. It’s just I don’t have any penalties associated with getting involved — that’s what the other deities told me, so I made Lightball cast it herself; stuff like 「You won’t and can’t remember me」,「You can’t create a situation that will make you remember how you involved me 」and the like.

Thanks to Ludere and Khadar’s advice, it feels like I’m also taking advantage of Lightball’s tendency to ignore her own failures. Unfortunately, it can only affect the events in this world, so it cannot erase my sister’s and the other’s memories of me when we were still in Japan.

It’s just that the heroes beside Lightball are also affected directly. Moreover, I also heard from the spirits that fled that she protects only her own kin from the heroes and the changeling.
Lightball was actually strong enough to do the summoning before she lost her powers, so the vestiges of power — ah, no, it’s only because she got many descendants and retainers that she can do that, I guess.

Everything around Lightball is affected by her and her kin, but their influence also includes the conditions of「Lightball won’t and can’t remember me」and「Lightball can’t create a situation that will make her remember how she involved me 」. The best part of that is that she isn’t even aware that whatever she does has those effects.

That combined with the deities’ protection completely removed me from the scenario.

So go ahead and be more powerful, be stronger, you heroes. All for my peace!! — Ah, but I’m also working hard to become stronger ‘coz I have trust issues and I feel nervous leaving everything to other people. Working in the fields and creating stuff strengthens my deities, so I’m doing my best.

Besides, the thought of them irritates me to no end, so I want to make Riche stronger than Lightball. Ahh, but I also wanna let him stay being so cute.

****

Lilith ate all the bread so I delivered more to Butler. I also headed to where Chris and the others were to give them bento.

「Twi — Jean, thanks for going out of your way to make these! 」
「Yeah, you guys are set to leave and yet I made you all strip after all. 」
I tipped the laundromat separately from the payment fee and asked them to prioritize ours and have them delivered the same evening. Even so, Chris and the others had to travel without a change of clothes.

「Thank you very much. The dishes you made yesterday were very delicious too. 」
Reid praised me.

「Ohhh, fried chicken!! 」
Dean opened his bento, picked one and tossed it into his mouth.

「Eh, Retze, you’re not going? 」
Retze was the only one not carrying anything.

「I don’t have any weapon that needs to get fixed up in the fortress city, so there’s no reason for me to tag along. 」
「Ah, I thought you’re gonna visit the store with the pretty lady. 」
Dean and Chris averted their eyes.

Hoh, so you’re really going, huh? To the store with the pretty lady.

「Ugh, I’ll also do my best to save up! Ahh, but I also want to take a breather!! 」
I thought something snapped; it’s just Retze screaming his heart out.

Oh, I forgot about this, come to think of it, Dean paid me for the spirit sword I made for him.