By the Grace of the Gods (LN) - Volume 10 - Chapter 11

Chapter 7, Episode 11: Three-Day Weekend, Day 3

On the morning of my last day off for the weekend, I was standing near the entrance to the abandoned mines.

“There it is!”

I spotted a carriage coming my way, up the road that led to Gimul. Seeing Lilian and Hudom confirmed my presumptions. I waved to the carriage to let them know where I was, and showed them to a suitable parking spot. Then, Fina, Maria, and Jane emerged from the carriage; I quickly greeted them.

“Good morning, everyone. Thanks for coming all the way out here.”

“My, how the time flew by!”

“This is quite a lovely carriage.”

“The one in the village is much more of a rickety thing than this.”

“So I see. Looks like a real nice piece of work,” I remarked. The carriage was one of the three I had seen parked in the empty lot by the shop before; since it brought my guests from the duke’s, I had pegged it to be a decidedly high-end carriage.

“Nice? It’s an exceptional piece of work.”

“I suspected as much, Hudom.”

“The duke was simply going to throw it away. Please, call us whenever you need it.”

“Thank you.”

Incredibly, this carriage (along with another one) had been loaned to me. Apparently, Reinhart left a message for me, to the effect of “expect to be very busy in due time,” and that this would probably help me get around somewhat easier. Hence why I was using one for a personal errand. Of course, the free transportation and assistance from the duke wasn’t all I had to be grateful for.

While I was out two nights prior, not only did all my employees (save for Carme) babysit the children from next door, but they were also there to greet the guildmaster and the duke’s employees. They later asked for an explanation for my absence, so I gave them one, only for them to offer their assistance there as well. I happily accepted, and today, they were out here with me to learn the basics of farming from the three farm girls.

“Thanks again for coming out here in your free time.”

“Ha ha! Why so stiff?”

“We owe you, after all you’ve done for us. It’s the least we can do.”

“I, for one, am simply happy I can pay you back for a change. But what’s with your sudden interest in farming?”

“Oh, I guess I haven’t told you yet...” I explained how farming would apparently help to improve the finesse of my wood magic. Of course, the part about the god of agriculture being the one to clue me in on that was my little secret.

“I see. That makes sense.”

“You sure you want us around? Magic is totally uncharted territory to us.”

“Don’t sweat it, Fina. Learning the spell’s subject is crucial for learning magic.”

“See? Hudom gets it,” I said. He took the words right out of my... Wait, what? “Are you a magic user too?”

“Yeah, but I’m far from a pro at it. I can use some wood magic, plus I’m decent enough at water magic to water plants.”

“That’s great!” Knowing Hudom had magical knowledge made him seem all the more reliable. Now I was actually looking forward to knowing him better... “Follow me, I’ve got a little space set up.”

I took them to the west end of the mines, where there was a decent-sized patch of level land. I had rushed to clean up all of the overgrown weeds, so when the others, particularly the farm girls, suddenly stopped and stared, I started to wonder if I’d overlooked something.

“What is it?” I asked.

“Well, uh...”

“Isn’t that a greenhouse over there?”

Indeed it was. Part of the plot was on level ground, but it also hosted the greenhouse I’d tried building, seeing how cold it was this winter. I took my inspiration from plastic-covered greenhouses, but I had used the hardened solution of sticky and crust slimes, which made it look like a glass-covered construction. At this point, I realized that glass was a rare commodity in this country. Of course, they were surprised to see a building that looked like it was made entirely of glass.

“Oh, so all that isn’t really glass?”

“I almost had a heart attack.”

“That’s what we use for the windows in the shop. I should have known...”

“Most impressive,” said Hudom. “Greenhouses aren’t a common thing, even among nobles.”

Guess that explains their reaction, then.

I showed them into the greenhouse, where it was much warmer, thanks to the hardened solution which blocked wind but allowed sunlight in. It was noticeably muggier than outside. Of course, one could open the vents positioned on either side of the greenhouse as well as above the doors on either end, but I figured some sort of system to adjust the temperature and humidity in the greenhouse seemed more beneficial.

“Now, where shall we start from?” I asked.

“Can you show us what you normally do first?” Fina spoke up. “We would like to see how you farm with magic.”

“Absolutely!”

At their request, I started my usual routine. I softened the ground with earth magic, had the scavengers mix in fertilizer and build a ridge, had the sticky slimes plant seeds, watered them with water magic, encouraged their growth with wood magic...

“Voilà!” I had a field of dante flowers. They were a very useful flower, since I could produce cooking oil from their seed, steep their roots in a dandelion coffee, and feed their stems to some sticky and latex slime.

But... Everyone was still silent.

“Um...”

“Goodness... What can one even say to this?”

“Magic is quite amazing.”

The girls seemed impressed, albeit a bit confused as to the process, while Lilian didn’t seem surprised, since she had seen the process before at the duke’s, but still wore a half smile.

Hudom, meanwhile, seemed positively astounded. “Wha... What in the...? What is this? Some kind of illusion spell?”

“Uh, Hudom? Is something the matter?”

“What isn’t the matter?! You made these sprout and grow in the blink of an eye! All of these! Just now!”

“C-Calm down!” I pleaded. I wasn’t following his excited rambling.

“R-Right... Sorry about that. It was just such a shock, I couldn’t help but get carried away. Do you have a lot of magic ability, chief?”

“I do, but a big factor is the scavenger slimes making good-quality fertilizer that helps the plants grow.”

“In that case, your slimes and the fertilizer they produce are incredible. I’ve studied a fair amount of normal fertilizers made from manure and compost, and even potions that help with plant growth. I doubt there are many of them out there that could reproduce this effect. I know of some that might, but powerful potions have strong side effects. As far as I can tell, these dantes are completely normal. Thriving, even. The average mage would have run out of magic,” Hudom muttered.

I turned to the girls.

“We don’t use potions for this in the village.”

“They’re too expensive.”

“We’d need a lot if we’re intending to use it all over the farm.”

They answered with virtual resignation.

“You do know a lot about the subject, Hudom,” I said.

“My family’s been the royal gardeners for generations. All that stuff was drilled into me when I was a kid.”

That explained his expertise, but if his family were always the royal gardeners, whom I assumed were tasked with maintaining the palace grounds...

“You’re a noble, Hudom? I had no idea.”

“Well... My family has a barony, but I ran away. Not that I have the right to use the family name, anyway, but the title’s only driven friends away in my travels, or made people turn down my challenge, or scared girls away. I’ve made a habit out of not talking about it.”

I had seen some people become intimidated by the mere mention of nobility, which I assumed made his task of challenging someone in a fair duel a bit troubling. Not that I cared much about his title, nor wanted to dig into someone’s past they didn’t want to share.

“My old man’s a baron of the robe, anyway. It doesn’t really mean much,” Hudom chuckled. “So don’t treat me any differently,” he said to the girls.

They seemed a bit taken aback by how quickly he turned it around.

“Are you sure?” Fina asked.

“Of course! Like I said, it’s just that my old man works at a castle. His work isn’t much different from any other gardener. And I left that behind. I don’t have any power. I think our shopkeeper has a lot more power than me, seeing how easy it was for him to get the duke’s help.”

“You have a point!”

“That’s all it takes?!” I protested, as the three girls, and even Lilian, nodded along in realization. What’s going on? I’ll admit I’d always thought I was treated very well.

“Not in a bad way, of course,” Hudom added, and the girls chimed in.

I decided to return to my agricultural studies.

“From what you’ve shown us, you didn’t interact with the flowers in their growing process.”

“Normally you have to weed out the field and cull the weak flowers out.”

“I see... I knew there should have been a selection process, but I didn’t know which ones to cull. I figured I could just pour magic into the less healthy ones and they’ll turn out the same.”

“Wood magic can make plants grow,” Hudom explained. “But it costs a bunch of magic, and rapid growth can hurt the plants themselves. So even magical growth should be spread out over days, keeping your magic expenditure per plant and the damage you deal on them lower. Even the plants that don’t grow as much or get sick have the strength to grow strong themselves. Instead of forcing them to bloom, you want to help them grow on their own.”

After receiving some more pointers about my magical agriculture...

“Now let’s move on to growing crops! Chelma gave me some potatoes that have sprouted! We can just plant these as is, and they’re easy to grow!”

“You brought something too, Jane? I brought some beans that could be grown with magic.”

“I have some wheat as well.”

Using some seeds that I had and the girls had brought, I started my hands-on training.

“Stop!”

“You need to cull them right about now.”

“Something you need to look out for...”

“Hey, let’s replant the less healthy ones over here. You could practice more wood magic on them.”

And eventually, I learned how to grow crops I’d never grown before.

“When wheat grows to this point, you need to step on them.”

“You need to take more time with these beans...”

While I hastened their growth with magic, they made sure to teach me critical steps I needed to take along the way.

Every time I learned something new, I was made painfully aware that my previous method was carried by the brute force of magic. All in all, I wound up learning a lot on what was ostensibly my day off.