Chapter 4
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It’s been a few days since Volg and the others arrived and started building the residence . Right now, their presence has been a huge plus for Arnold fief . For delivering their daily necessities, the peddlers have been really active . Thanks to the payment that I received for the land price and nuisance fee, I start to let go of our budgeting problems .
In the raspberry flower garden where the honey bees are gathered, I thought about my younger brother, Jörg . I went to visit him after the day of our match, but I couldn’t . I was told that his wounds were deep and he hadn’t regained consciousness . I leave it for a while and decide to go visit him again around the time he should be awake . It’ll come any time now .
I want to talk with Jörg about a lot of things . I wish that I could close the gap with my younger brother even for just a little . It’s for his sake, sure, but it’s also for my sake .
I think I’m going to make him some sweets that suits us brothers and bring it to him .
“Just as Kurt-sama said, the honeycombs are filled up by a white substance . ”
“Yeah, I’m happy that it has reached this point . Inside that substance, there’s a new queen bee among the larvae . ”
Right now, while cleaning the bee hives just with Tina, we have a new task: to increase the number of bees . The organism that we call bees will hatch from eggs that can only be laid by the queen bee . Furthermore, in a hive, there can only be one queen bee . That’s why there’s a limit to the pace and the number of bees we can increase in one hive . Conversely, if we transfer a queen bee to a different hive, that queen bee can make a new colony and increase the number of bees more efficiently .
“But it feels kind of strange to intentionally hatch a queen bee . ”
“That’s human’s intelligence . ”
The difference between a queen bee and common bee only lies in their food source as a larva . Only by feeding a white substance called royal jelly that it can grow into a large and strong queen bee, capable of laying many eggs .
Usually, by feeding a number of queen bee larvae candidates with royal jelly, there’ll be one among them that safely grows into a queen bee, while the rest of them are killed . They won’t create a new one unless the current queen bee is old and weak .
However, we can hatch an artificial queen bee . By modifying one section of the hive, we can carry royal jelly for the larvas inside . The bees have this habit of feeding royal jelly to larva in a peculiar shaped room called queen cell (oudai) in the corner of the broods . Therefore, it’s just the case of how to form a queen cell .
Moreover, the nutritious royal jelly that can nurture a queen bee can also become a high grade medicine . I was thinking to sell them once we could harvest them, eventually .
“The larva inside the queen cells that we prepared is growing into a queen bee as we speak . We’ll transfer it to a different hive somewhere with some worker bees and drones . Once it happens, the hatched bees will increase even if we leave them alone . ”
With this, we can make another new hive . There are only ten hives now, but I’m aiming for fifty hives next year . The hive boxes can be made thanks to the surplus budget, the materials are also being purchased little by little .
“Kurt-sama, we can increase the number of bees and hives, obviously… but we can’t catch up with the tasks . ”
“That’s what’s been in my mind, too . ”
Tina is right . Originally, this pioneering village has no extra personnel for the reclamation . On top of that, we’re already lacking manpower from the additional task of taking care of the chickens . Among them, there’s no one who has already seen the task of beekeeping . Tina and I already have our hands full by taking care of ten boxes . I can’t even begin to spell the trouble that fifty boxes would bring .
“How about taking people from other villages?”
“It’s possible . This village is the newest one, so the reclamation takes up the most of our time, but the other village has new children . If we put up a recruitment, people will probably flock here . At the very least, I want to get as many helping hands as possible this time . ”
One of the purposes of land reclamation is to feed the villagers . However, due to the issues of reclamation pace and the number of children, there are also villagers who can’t succeed their lands, those second sons, third sons . I should conduct a scouting for these capable personnel . Once I do that, the other village will be happy from reducing the excess mouth to feed, while my village will be happy to receive the additional manpower that we’re lacking of .
However, I want to avoid that method this time as much as I can . If we successfully cultivate fifty beehives, other villages will soon follow . Once we come to that, the excess members they currently have will become necessary .
“Did you think about other plans?”
“I’m going to Marquis Fernandes’ place to bake pastries as a present for the duchess soon . I’m thinking about recruiting people to immigrate to our settler’s village at that time . The other side is much stabler than ours, they have also stopped their reclamation progress, so they have an extreme surplus of members . I’ve been meaning to increase the population of the Arnold fief itself . ”
“That sounds wonderful! This land will become wealthier than we are now!”
“That’s right . Reality is harsh, though . Whether they choose to come here or not is a problem by itself already . Moreover, it’s out of question if we can’t increase their earnings, including for those additional members . If we can’t make them think that coming here will increase their livelihood, no one will come . ”
“Arnold is infamous for being poor, so they may not wish to come here . ”
Seeing Tina’s worrisome mumble, I can’t help but to smile bitterly .
“For now, yes . It maybe no good this time around, I think . Once our honey business goes well, though, that kind of image will soon disappear . Anyhow, the honey we have here has already received a stamp of approval from Marquis Fernandes for its taste . Once we start selling them, I’m sure we’ll become a wealthy village in no time . ”
The honey will surely bring an enormous fortune for us . Well, we still have the problem of lacking manpower to reach that point, though . Realistically speaking, we can recruit people by saying they have nothing to lose this time . If that’s still no good, we can borrow people from other villages, start selling in small scale, then start recruiting again for the next cycle .
While thinking about that, we’re proceeding with the tasks to increase the number of bees . For now, in order to cultivate new bees, we let the stockpiling nectar being used by the bees, so we can’t harvest too much honey . This is our future investment, though . It’s for the sake of harvesting way, way more honey than we have now, next year .
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After doing a bit of work, I returned the kitchen again . I’m here for the sake of making sweets for Jörg . I realized that this was the first time I did something like this for that guy . In that sense, maybe I was strange . For the sake of him who has been the closest to me, let’s make the sweets . That is my duty as his older brother .
If I had looked at him properly and loved him, our relationship would certainly be far different than what we have now . I can’t change the past, but I can change the future, so I’m going to make special sweets for the sake of it .
The sweets that will patch up my bond with Jörg, one that will send him off to his new stage .
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Finally the brother’s arc! …kay maybe it’s too much to say “arc”, I bet it’s already done in the next chapter . Meh .
Please note that I have limited vocabulary in beekeeping . If you’re interested in it, there are many sites to learn from! If I, for one, live in an open area instead of being surrounded by neighbors, I would have learned to do it years ago . xD
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