Chapter 132

Rice, Husked Rice
Since it was also a request from Brother Chris, we came to Helios Village a week after returning from the Great Forest. Life has really been hectic lately. I want some time to relax.

The dragon egg is scheduled to return the next day, so I tried to leave it in the room, but it bounced along after me.
I can’t ride a horse while carrying the dragon egg on my back, and during horse travel, Atre usually rides in a sling, so this time we came by carriage.

I want to report about the pseudo-slime holy water, but since Father and the others went to the royal capital regarding the dragon scales, I haven’t had the chance to talk about it yet.

Helios Village is surrounded by a wooden fence.
Once inside, there’s a large road that leads straight to the building where everyone lives, and it looks like they’re constructing houses on both sides of that road. Even though it’s being developed by just 38 beastkin, their progress is really fast.

Some people have already moved into completed homes, but apparently about half are still living in the large building.
Last time I came, it was a two-story structure, but now it’s three stories, and they had added four guest rooms. Saphid told us we should stay there tonight.

“Did they build it because we visit so often?” Brother Gerald asked.

“We prepared it as temporary lodging for people like yourselves, Mr. Bogartz, and others who come to teach us reading, writing, and magic. I’m sorry, though—there’s nothing inside the rooms yet.”

“We came prepared to camp, so it’s fine. Sorry to trouble you,” Brother Chris replied.

Without delay, Natalia guided us to go see the fields.
The fields closest to the residences were growing spices. According to Natalia, they planted them near the village because they’re the most profitable crop.

Then we passed the vegetables and wheat fields that the beastkin eat, and came to the rice area. From here, the village looks small.
Seeing how much farmland has been cultivated in just three or four months, I’m once again impressed by the beastkin’s capabilities.

Perhaps Brother Chris was thinking the same.

“It’s amazing they developed all this in such a short time.”

“So this is rice. It’s still in the growing stage, right? What will you do, Hardt?” Brother Gerald asked me.

I explained that I would use my blessing—Growth Acceleration—on just a portion of the field and take it home.

I used water magic to sprinkle water over the area, saying “Grow big!”
Hopefully, we’ll be able to harvest the rice tomorrow.

The next day, when we visited the rice field, the ears of rice were drooping under their weight. It looked like a bountiful harvest. The grain heads had dried, making them ready for harvest.
I taught Brothers Chris and Gerald how to cut the rice and began harvesting using wind magic.

Natalia said, “The blessing of the Plant God is really amazing. I want to learn it soon too.”

“Didn’t you study it for a while when you were staying with the Knights Order?” I asked.

“I’m practicing water magic now. I was told I can’t practice blessings until I can control my water magic properly.”

“I was the same, so you just need to keep practicing. By the way, what do you do with the straw?”

She said they use it to cover the soil for winter vegetables and also for bedding now that they’ve started raising Cocottes.

I suggested that if there’s any leftover, they could make rice-straw paper with it.
When asked, “What’s rice-straw paper?” I showed them some.

I explained that there’s a patent fee for learning how to make rice-straw paper, but it can be paid in installments, and if they can’t pay, they can submit rice-straw paper and have half of the payment taken from the buyback amount. Since it's a government project, there are no extra charges for paying in installments.

“To think you can make paper from straw—this country is really advanced.”

“This was actually made in the neighboring Shinana Village. It doesn’t last long, but it’s useful for quick notes, rough drafts before finalizing something, or for calculations.”

They said they wanted to show the paper to the villagers, so I gave them some.

My brothers cut the rice, and I used wind magic to gather the stalks. I asked them to adjust the wind so it wouldn’t scatter the bundles.

“How will you handle threshing?”

“You can do threshing?”

“We use it for wheat too, so we have a threshing machine,” Natalia said.

We packed the large amount of rice stalks into a magic bag and returned to the village. Natalia and the others said they’d handle the threshing, so we left it to them.

We returned to the assembly hall to discuss things with Saphid and the others.

“As for Raul and the others' reward for accompanying us to the Great Forest—ten troll magic stones and one dragon scale. I’d say one troll stone is worth three gold coins. I’m not sure how much the dragon scale is worth,” Brother Chris told Saphid and Raul.

“I’m sorry, we used to barter for goods, so we’re not really sure about money values,” they said.

Brother Chris explained, “With one troll magic stone, you could probably buy three Cocottes or thirty large sacks of wheat.”

“Are you sure we can receive that much? Isn’t that a mistake? In the beastkin country, we only got three sacks of wheat for a troll stone.”

“Forget about the past. From now on, you just need to learn what the fair prices are. There are people out there who will try to cheat you, so reading, writing, and arithmetic are important.”

“Yes, even just the troll stones are a huge amount. I feel like receiving the dragon scale as well is too much.”

“Thanks to Raul and the others, we reached the dragon without trouble. This is proper compensation, so I hope you’ll accept it. If you want to exchange it for money, we’ll handle it with you. If you want to store it, we’ll give you the scale.”

“No, please exchange it for money. We’d like to use it to fund village development,” Saphid said, and Raul nodded.

Saphid also requested that reading, writing, arithmetic, and magic instructors be dispatched. Since those who learned water magic had returned saying how convenient magic is, the villagers are eager to learn quickly.

After Brother Chris finished his discussion with Saphid, Natalia gave us the threshed rice, and we returned to the mansion.

What do you think about this chapter?