Chapter 23
It was the morning after Allen had declared he would take care of things around the house. It was around six o’clock. Allen got up and headed to the living room.
"Good morning, Mother."
"Good morning, Allen."
Since the day before, he had stopped calling them Papa and Mama and started calling them Father and Mother instead. He went to the earthen-floored entryway, picked up two wooden buckets with handles, and went outside. It was already nearing the end of October, and the mornings were bitterly cold.
He headed for the communal well. There were several wells dug throughout the village for farmers to draw drinking water and the like. It wasn’t very far away.
"Good morning."
"Oh, you’re Rodan’s boy. Morning."
There were already four or five people waiting in line. Allen joined the queue. Watching the person ahead of him, he figured out how to pull the rope to draw water from the well. He’d seen it from a distance before, but this was his first time doing it himself.
The adults looked at him in all sorts of ways, wondering why a child was there or remembering that Rodan had been badly injured.
When his turn came, he pulled the rope to draw water into the bucket attached to the well.
Splash.
Without making a fuss, he filled both wooden buckets to the brim. The adults watched, apparently curious to see what he would do.
"Hey, kid, you won’t be able to carry that much water home!"
"Oh? Thank you for your concern."
With that, he carried the wooden buckets home, each holding about thirty liters. The adults stared after him, dumbfounded.
(Father really is strong. His buckets are bigger than everyone else’s, too.)
Thinking that, he returned home and poured the old water from the water jar into the narrow irrigation channel beside the house. He put the jar back where it belonged, then poured the water from the buckets into it from a height above his chest.
"……"
Telesia watched him, but couldn’t say a word.
"Mother, Gerda-san is going to show me how to harvest potatoes this afternoon. Is there anything I should get ready?"
"Y-Yes, I suppose so."
With his mother Telesia’s belly beginning to swell and her needing to care for Rodan and Mash, Allen would be learning how to harvest potatoes from Gerda.
The day before, Allen had declared that he would take care of things around the house. That meant not only doing the chores he was already helping with, but also working in the fields. Replacing the water in the jar every morning, which Rodan had done until now, was part of that, too.
The day before, Rodan, Telesia, and even Gerda had tried to reason with him, reminding him that he was only six. But Allen was so determined that they concluded it would be better for him to try it himself and see how difficult and impossible it was, rather than simply talk him out of it.
Telesia carried breakfast to the room where Rodan was resting. Their house was very cramped, so he couldn’t make it from the couple’s bedroom next door to the living room. Telesia lovingly fed him.
After breakfast, Allen cleaned up and did the laundry. Doing laundry had recently become part of his daily routine. He’d also stopped throwing stones, a practice he’d kept up for three years since he was three.
After lunch, Gerda came over. He’d had work to do in his own fields that morning, so he’d come in the afternoon.
"Allen, we’re harvesting potatoes, so carry this basket."
Gerda sounded a little stern, as if he meant to make Allen give up right away.
"Yes, Gerda-san."
Allen seemed to understand what Gerda was getting at and listened seriously to his instructions. Then they headed to the field.
The field beside Allen’s house was basically all Rodan’s.
(There are four or five plots separated by paths. There’s wheat, potatoes, beans, leafy vegetables… Looking at it this way, it’s pretty large.)
It was a rather large field for one person to manage.
(He must have leveled up quite a bit. Maybe it’s from hunting so many boars.)
Rodan had been hunting Great Boars, Rank C magic beasts, since before Allen was born. He must have leveled up, and it was easy to imagine that he was stronger than an ordinary villager.
Of course, it wasn’t as vast as a field worked by a tractor in the modern world. But in a civilization where fields were tilled with hoes and spades, it was quite a lot for one family to manage.
Allen entered one of the fields his father had tended day after day. Withered stalks lay across the ground.
"You pull it out like this to get the potatoes."
As Allen stepped into the field, taking in the sight with deep emotion, Gerda explained how the work was done. The muscular Gerda grabbed a withered stalk in one hand and yanked it out with great strength. Potatoes of all sizes came out with it. Like Rodan, Gerda had grown quite strong from hunting boars.
The potato they had just dug up was similar to a sweet potato in taste and appearance. It was sweet, too, and Mash’s favorite.
"Like this?"
"Yeah. The roots run deep, so give it all you’ve got."
Allen gripped a stalk in one hand, just like Gerda, and tried to pull it out.
"H-Hey, you can’t pull that out with one hand—"
Before Gerda could finish, Allen yanked the potato out with sheer strength, just as Gerda had.
"Do all the potatoes go in the basket?"
"Y-Yeah. We’ll sort them out at home. The little ones are seed potatoes for next year."
Holding a different stalk in each hand, Allen pulled them out one after another. He shook off the dirt and put the potatoes in the basket, which quickly filled up.
(We won’t finish harvesting all the potatoes in one day. But we can’t spend all our time digging them up, either.)
"Should I take these to the yard?"
"Huh? Oh, yes. You’re pretty strong, Allen."
"Yes. I’m your son, after all."
Allen kept loading potatoes into the basket, but there were still plenty buried in the ground. These potatoes would be the Allen family’s staple food throughout the year.
Once they were all harvested, there wouldn’t be room for them in the earthen-floored entryway. They would have to be piled in a corner of the yard. Allen’s yard was enclosed by a shabby fence, but it wasn’t small. There was enough room to store the harvest and to play knights with Krena.
The basket was now full of potatoes. Since it was a large basket, it weighed more than a six-year-old child. Allen gripped it with both hands and lifted it. Gerda’s eyes widened as he drew in a sharp breath.
Rodan, Telesia, and Gerda didn’t think Allen was weak at all. They thought he was stronger than most children. They’d watched him play knights with Krena for three years, so they knew he didn’t move like an ordinary child. His daily chores had also given them glimpses of his strength.
But what they’d seen until now had only been a glimpse. Allen walked with his small feet sinking into the soft, tilled earth, softer than the path between the fields.
(It’s light. Good thing I boosted my Attack.)
He had shifted his holder away from Plant cards, which he’d favored to boost his Magic, and stocked up on more Beast cards instead. He’d adjusted his card lineup for farm work.
Allen had stopped trying to suppress or hide his stats. He would go all out with housework and farm work. With his mother pregnant and his younger brother at home, he couldn’t afford to hold back. And with a Sword Saint living nearby, he figured a little attention wouldn’t matter. He was a serf who’d been judged to have no talent, after all.
(With farm work to do, it’ll be hard to favor Plant cards. I’ll have to adjust the card lineup carefully. And also…)
He looked toward one corner of the field.
"Is that field also one Father manages?"
Carrying the basket piled high with potatoes, Allen looked at a field where the grass had grown as tall as he was.
"Yeah. I’m supposed to clear the weeds and plow it next year."
It was fallow land that hadn’t been touched this year.
(I see. So that field is Father’s, too. The grass is withered, and it’s a decent size. Looks good.)
Serfs couldn’t own land, but they were assigned plots. Those plots were generally passed down from generation to generation.
As Allen was piling the potatoes in a corner of the yard, someone came to the house.
"Excuse me. Is Rodan home?"
"Huh? It’s the Village Chief."
The Village Chief, Deboji, had arrived. Allen remembered his face from seeing him up close several times at the Appraisal Ceremony and the banquet. Gerda answered him in a voice thick with anger.
"Oh, Gerda. I heard Rodan regained consciousness. Come along—you’re coming, too."
"Y-Yes, sir."
The Village Chief hadn’t come alone. He had brought a young man, about fifteen years old. Allen had never seen him before.
The Village Chief strode right in through the gate. The way he entered without hesitation made Allen think of the difference in status between the Village Chief and a serf.
While Allen and Gerda watched, the Village Chief approached the front door.
"What brings you here, Village Chief?"
Telesia came out of the earthen-floored entryway. Allen noticed that her voice sounded different from usual. It might have been the first time he’d heard that tone from her.
(Mother’s angry. Well, if the Village Chief hadn’t told Father to let commoners join the hunt, Father wouldn’t have ended up like that.)
"I heard Rodan had regained consciousness, so I came to visit him after his serious injury."
As he spoke, he showed them the small barrel and some food the young man had brought.
"He’s in the back."
She didn’t tell them to leave. Instead, she led them to the bedroom she shared with Rodan.
(That young man’s trembling.)
The young man was shaking like a leaf.
"Dear, the Village Chief has come to see you."
"Hm? Oh."
The young man left the gifts in the living room and headed for the bedroom. Rodan was sitting up in bed, watching him.
"I-It’s my fault you ended up like this. I’m so sorry!!"
The young man sat on the floor, bowed his head deeply, and apologized. He seemed to be the commoner whose actions had led to Rodan’s serious injury.
"Huh? Well, if you still want to go next time, be more careful. Everyone’s putting their lives on the line."
"Huh? O-Okay."
The young man had expected a different response. For a moment, his expression went blank.
The Village Chief told Rodan to take care and get some rest, then headed home. It seemed he’d come along because the young commoner couldn’t come by himself. The two left through the earthen-floored entryway.
Allen and Gerda had potatoes to dig up, so they watched them leave and then returned to the field.
"Gerda-san, was that the man?"
"Hm? Yeah, that’s right."
Gerda explained what had happened that day. During the boar hunt, a new commoner assigned to hold the line had lost his nerve, and the hunt had turned into a melee. The boar had charged at the young man, who was too terrified to move.
"Rodan got badly hurt protecting that guy. And I’m sure you know this, but don’t tell anyone. He doesn’t like people talking about things like that."
As they walked along the path between the fields, they passed several serfs. They must have heard somewhere that Rodan had regained consciousness, because they were carrying things in their hands. They were going to visit him.
Allen found the sight deeply heartening.