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Chapter 23 – Digging Potatoes
It was the day after Allen made his promise to protect his family. It was 6 in the morning, and he was awake. He went into the living room.
“Good morning, Mom.”
“Good morning, Allen.”
Since yesterday, he had stopped calling them “Mama” and “Papa” and started calling them “Mom” and “Dad”. He went to the entryway and grabbed the handles of the two wooden buckets. It was late October, and the mornings were very cold.
He went to the watering hole, which was a well that they had dug in the village so that serfs would have drinkable water.
“Good morning.”
“Oh, Rodan’s kid. Morning.”
There were already about 4 or 5 people in line, and Allen lined up behind them. He watched the people in front of him to see how to draw water. He’d seen it before, from afar, but this was his first time doing it himself.
The adults gave him looks that said “What’s a kid doing here?” and “Rodan must be really injured.”
When Allen’s turn came, he pulled the rope to scoop water using the bucket attached to the well.
Splash
He filled up his two wooden buckets like everything was normal. The adults were watching him with curiosity.
“Oi, brat. If you take too much water, it’ll be too heavy to take home.”
“Hm? Thank you for your concern.”
The adults watched in amazement as Allen went home with his two wooden buckets, each holding 8 gallons of water.
(I knew it. Dad is strong. Our buckets are so much bigger than other people’s.)
He returned home and dumped the old water out into the canal next to the house. He put the water jar back, and filled it with the water from the buckets, above his chest height.
“……”
Theresia saw what he was doing, and couldn’t say anything.
“Mom, today, after lunch, Gerda is going to show me how to pick potatoes. Is there anything I need?”
“Ah, r-right.”
Theresia’s belly had begun to show, and she had to take care of Rodan and Mash. Therefore, Allen was going to learn how to harvest potatoes from Gerda.
Yesterday, Allen had declared that he would take care of the family. That meant, on top of the housework he was already doing, he would also do the fieldwork. Drawing water in the morning was part of that.
Yesterday, Theresia, Rodan, and Gerda all opposed him, saying that he was only 6 years old. However, Allen was adamant. They came to the conclusion that, instead of convincing him, it’d be easier to let him try and fail.
Theresia brought breakfast to Rodan. It was a very small house, but he couldn’t go from their bedroom to the living room.
Allen ate, cleaned up, and did the laundry. He recently added laundry to his daily routine. He had stopped throwing stones, which he had done everyday since 3 years old.
Gerda came after lunch. He had to work the fields in the morning, so he came in the afternoon.
“Allen, I’m going to pick the potatoes, so you hold this basket.”
He was a bit stern, like he wanted Allen to give up right away.
“Yes sir.”
In an attempt to convey his intentions, Allen listened earnestly. They continued to the field.
The fields by Allen’s house were all basically Rodan’s fields.
(So we have around 4 or 5 fields, divided by a small road. Looks like there’s wheat, potatoes, beans, and some leafy greens.)
It was a large area for one person to manage.
(Well, he’s probably pretty high level from hunting all those Boars.)
Even before Allen was born, Rodan had been hunting Great Boars, a C-rank monster. He had definitely leveled a lot, and he was probably much stronger than the average villager.
Naturally, it wasn’t as large as the tractor-managed fields of the real world, but in a world where they only had hoes and plows, it was quite big for a single family.
Allen entered one of the fields that his father had tended, tirelessly, day after day. The ground was covered in wilted stalks.
“To get the potatoes, you pull it like this.”
While Allen was full of deep emotion, Gerda explained the work. Gerda, large and muscular, tugged a withered stalk with one hand, producing potatoes of various sizes. Gerda, like Rodan, was really strong from all the hunting.
The freshly unearthed potatoes looked and tasted like sweet potatoes. They were Mash’s favorite.
“So just like that.”
“Yep. They’re pretty deep in there, so go all out.”
Copying Gerda, Allen grabbed a stalk with one hand, and pulled.
“Oi, oi. You can’t do it with only one–“
Before Gerda could finish, in one fell swoop, Allen pulled out the potatoes. He had matched the strength of Gerda’s pull.
“Do I put the potatoes in the basket?”
“Ye-yeah… Then you take them home and sort them. The tiny ones will be seed potatoes for next year.”
Holding a stalk in each hand, Allen pulled them out, shook off the soil, and put them in the basket, which got fuller and fuller.
(It’ll take more than a day to get all these potatoes. I can’t just dig them up.)
“Do I take these to the yard?”
“Huh? Ah, yeah. Allen, you’re strong, aren’t you?”
“Yes, I am my father’s son.”
Allen kept filling up the basket, but there were still a lot more potatoes. These potatoes would be a staple food for their family throughout the year.
When everything was harvested, there wouldn’t be enough room in the entryway to store them. Instead, they would be stored in a corner of the yard. The wall surrounding the yard was tattered, but the yard wasn’t small. He could store the entire harvest and still have plenty of room for playing knights with Kurena.
Allen filled the basket. The basket was so big that it weighed more than a 6-year-old child. He gripped it with both hands and lifted. Gerda’s eyes widened and he gasped.
Rodan, Theresia, and Gerda all knew that Allen was pretty strong, more than the average child. They’ve seen him playing knights with Kurena for the past 3 years, and they knew that his movements weren’t that of a normal kid. They’ve also seen glimpses of his strength during his everyday chores.
However, he had only shown them the tip of the iceberg. He walked, with his little feet sinking into the soft, plowed soil.
(It’s light. Good thing I increased my ATK.)
Originally, he had prioritized having more Grass F cards, but now he had increased the number of Beast cards. He had changed his loadout to farming mode.
Allen had stopped hiding his stats. He decided to do the fieldwork at full throttle. And because his mother was pregnant with, and nursing his younger brother, she couldn’t say anything even if she knew. There was a Sword Saint next door, so even if he stood out a bit, it’d be fine. In the end, he was just a serf without a talent.
(As long as there’s fieldwork, I can’t fully load up on Grass cards. I have to adjust the card distribution appropriately.)
He looked at a field in the corner.
“Is that field also ours?”
While carrying a basket full of potatoes, Allen looked at a field where the grass had grown to his height.
“Ah, right. He was gonna pull the weeds and start plowing for next year.”
It was fallow land that was left untouched this year.
(Hoho, so it is ours. The weeds are dead, and it’s a decent size.)
Serfs couldn’t own land, but they could have land allotted to them. This land would generally be passed down from generation to generation.
Just as Allen was putting the potatoes in the corner of the yard, someone came by the house.
“Excuse me. Is Rodan here?”
“Hmm? If it isn’t the mayor.”
Mayor Deboji was here. Allen remembered him because he had seen him up close during the appraisal ceremony and the banquet. Gerda reacted to the mayor with an angry tone.
“Oh, Gerda. I heard Rodan had regained consciousness. Hey, you, follow me.”
“Y-yessir.”
The mayor wasn’t alone. He had brought a young man, about 15 years old. Allen had never seen him before.
They walked through the gate without hesitation. That was the difference in status between the mayor and a serf.
While Allen and Gerda watched him, the mayor approached the front door.
“Is something the matter, Mayor Deboji?”
Theresia came out of the house. Allen noticed that her tone was different from usual. This was Allen’s first time hearing her like this.
(Mom is angry. Well, if the mayor hadn’t insisted that commoners join the hunt, then Dad wouldn’t be where he is.)
“I heard that Rodan regained consciousness. I’ve been wanting to see him ever since I heard about the injury.”
Having said that, he gestured at the young man, who was holding a small barrel and some food.
“He’s in the back.”
It sounded like she wasn’t going to kick him out. Theresia led the two into the bedroom.
(For some reason, the teenager is trembling.)
The youth shivered, rigidly.
“Honey, the mayor came to see you.”
“Hm? Ah.”
The young man left the gifts in the living room and headed to the bedroom. Rodan, who had raised himself on the futon, looked at the youth.
“I-I’m sorry! It was all my fault!!!”
The young man got on the floor and bowed his head to the ground while apologizing. It seemed that this was the young commoner responsible for Rodan’s injury.
“Hm? Well. If you’re going to go hunting again, be careful, okay? It’s dangerous, for everyone.”
“Eh? Ah- Y-Yessir!”
The youth didn’t expect him to answer that way. His face went back to normal for a second.
Then, saying that everything was resolved, the mayor left. It seemed that he came with the youth because he didn’t want to come by himself. They left through the front door.
Allen and Gerda had potatoes to dig, so merely watched the situation, before returning to the field.
“Gerda, who was that?”
“Hm? Ah, right.”
He told Allen what had happened. The commoner was part of the wall team during the Boar hunt, but he was frightened by the Boar and fell over. Then the hunt turned into a fierce melee.
“Rodan got hurt protecting him. Don’t tell anyone, cuz, y’know, he doesn’t want people to know.”
As they walked along the road, they passed by some serfs. They overheard someone saying something about regaining consciousness, and saw that they were carrying something. They were visitors.
When Allen saw this scene, he was filled with pride.
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Thanks for reading! 🙂
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