Farm Work and the Forest

The next morning.

Today, I decided to help Grandfather with the farm work. It seemed that he grew wheat and vegetables in his fields. The cycle apparently involved planting wheat seeds in autumn and harvesting the wheat around the beginning of summer, then growing summer vegetables in the field where the wheat had been harvested and planting wheat seeds again once those were harvested.

Apparently, vegetables that had to be planted during the wheat-growing season were grown in a different field.

Today happened to be the day they harvested the wheat, so I would help with that.

"Leon, grab that sickle and come to the wheat field."

"Okaaay!"

Since there were no machines in this world, of course everything had to be harvested by hand. The field was pretty large... This is going to take forever.

When I went to the field, Grandmother, my uncles, and Dad had already started harvesting.

"Leon, start over here."

"Got it."

Chop, chop, chop...

Chop, chop, chop...

I continued cutting wheat in silence for a while. Whew, this is exhausting. I thought I'd made decent progress, but when I looked back, I had barely gotten anywhere!

This is bad... At this rate, we'll never finish. When I looked around, I saw that Grandfather had covered at least three times as much ground as I had.

Why!? Does he have some kind of trick?

Watching him, I saw that the amount of wheat he cut with each swing was completely different from mine. Is it the way he uses the sickle?

I tried desperately to imitate him, but I couldn't get the hang of it. I gave up on mastering the technique and kept cutting wheat without taking a break, determined to be at least a little useful.

After a while, it was time for our lunch break.

"Leon, you worked pretty hard. That's impressive for your first time."

"Really!? Thanks!"

Grandfather praised me like that over lunch. I'd been feeling down because I thought I hadn't been much help, so it made me happy. I couldn't help but grin.

"Yeah, thanks to you kids helping out, we made great progress! How about we go to the forest this afternoon? There should still be some wild greens we can gather at this time of year."

"I want to go!"

I'd only ever been to the same part of the forest, after all. I was looking forward to seeing a different forest!

"All right, then. Leon and I will go gather lots of wild greens."

"Yeah!"

While we were talking about that, Marie, who had been eating lunch with us, wanted to go to the forest too.

"Me too! I want to go too!"

"You want to go too, Marie? But the forest is a little far away."

"Yeah! I go to the forest all the time, so I'll be fine!"

"I see. Then you can come with us."

After the three of us finished lunch, we prepared to go to the forest.

"We're off!"

"Be careful. Don't cause any trouble for your grandfather."

Dad was worried about us going to a different forest than usual. We had the beast-repelling bell and everything, so we'd be fine, but Dad was pretty overprotective.

After walking for nearly an hour, we reached the forest. It really was a little far away.

It didn't look all that different from the forest we usually visited, but since many people came and went in the forest near town, there were quite a few paths worn into the outer areas. There were hardly any here.

This forest must not get many visitors. We should be able to gather a lot.

"All right, I'll go first, Marie will follow me, and Leon will bring up the rear. Let me know immediately if anything happens."

"Okay!"

"Got it."

And so we entered the forest.

The forest was practically a treasure trove of food. We found lots of fruit, such as raspberries, and although the wild greens, like tara buds, had grown a little large, it was apparently still just barely the right time to pick them, so we gathered quite a lot.

"Big haul, huh, Big Brother!"

Marie had been looking delighted the entire time. So many people visited the forest we usually went to that we could never gather this much there. This really was fun. Even I was getting excited.

"You two, people don't usually come this far into the forest, so the footing is bad and there are wild animals around. Be careful. I think you'll be fine as long as you have the beast-repelling bell, but just in case."

"Okaaay!"

"We'll be careful."

We continued gathering things for a while, but once our baskets began to fill up, we decided it was time to head back.

"Shall we head back soon?"

"Yeah! We gathered so much, Grandfather!"

"Sure did."

Grandfather was completely charmed by Marie's cuteness and was grinning foolishly. That's Marie for you. She'd already wrapped him around her little finger.

Well, with a face that cute, who could blame him?

Just as I was thinking something silly like that, I heard a rustling sound from somewhere.

I snapped to attention and scanned our surroundings. A still-small bear cub emerged from the bushes. I let my guard down for a moment, charmed by how cute it was, but quickly steeled myself.

If there was a cub, an adult bear had to be nearby, too. If it realized its cub was near us, it might attack immediately.

"Grandfather, maybe we should get away from here right now."

"You're right. Let's hurry before the adult bear gets here."

Just as we started to leave quickly, the adult bear emerged from deeper in the bushes. The moment it saw us, it charged at us in a rage.

What should I do...? When I looked at Grandfather and Marie, Grandfather was carrying Marie and fleeing out of the bear's path.

I ran in the same direction for the time being.

However, the bear changed direction and charged straight toward us. This is bad. Grandfather was carrying Marie, so he probably couldn't move very quickly...

I wanted to avoid revealing my abilities if possible... But dying would defeat the purpose. With my knife in hand, I decided to use body enhancement, at least.

I ran to the side of the charging bear, gathered as much magic power as I could into my right leg, and kicked the bear sideways.

Naturally, I couldn't send the bear flying very far, but it lost its balance and fell, so I managed to stop its charge somehow.

However, the bear immediately tried to get back up. I wanted to finish it before it could rise, so I used Boost to close the distance in an instant, cast Build Up on my arm, and swung my knife down at the bear's neck.

But the knife wasn't very sharp, and the blade didn't sink in very deeply. What kind of knife is this!? It's useless!

Taking advantage of the instant I was distracted, the bear swung its arm and tried to knock me away. I hastily cast Build Up on my legs, kicked the bear, and jumped backward.

That was close!! I can't let my guard down.

My attack seemed to drive the bear into a rage, and it charged at me even faster than before. I dodged its charge at the last possible moment and slashed at its neck with my knife.

All right! This time, I cut deeper than before, and a great deal of blood was pouring from its neck.

However, the bear still tried to charge at me. It's not dead yet!?

I readied my knife and faced the bear again.

However, the bear suddenly collapsed with a heavy thud and lay there without moving.

Is it dead...?

I cautiously approached and prodded it with my knife, but it didn't move at all. It's dead.

...Thank goodness no one was hurt. That was pretty dangerous.

I really feel like I should hone not only my magic, but also my swordsmanship and hand-to-hand combat skills. If I want to keep all my attributes hidden, I can only use healing magic or body enhancement magic at a level that won't give me away.

But the question is how I'll learn those skills.

If I remember correctly, the Royal Academy has swordsmanship classes, too. For now, I'll take the swordsmanship class and study it seriously.

Still, what terrible luck—to run into a bear despite wearing a beast-repelling bell.

Well, it was probably just an ordinary bell rather than anything special, so I suppose it couldn't be expected to work perfectly.

As I was thinking that, Grandfather and Marie came over to me.

"Is it dead...?"

"Are you both hurt?"

"I'm fine."

"I'm fine too! Big Brother, you're amazing! That was so cool!"

Marie excitedly told me how cool I was.

...It was worth the effort.

"Still, Leon, you're incredibly strong..."

"Maybe I have a talent for swordsmanship."

I racked my brain as I talked with Grandfather, trying to somehow explain it away.

I'd been told to keep my abilities hidden as much as possible.

"But you looked like you were very used to it."

"That's because... I've run into a bear before, too. I thought I was going to die that time. This time, I was used to it, so I was able to deal with it calmly."

"Is that so...?"

Grandfather still looked unconvinced. I had to somehow change the subject...

"More importantly, do people ever run into bears in this forest?"

"Almost never, as far as I know. I've heard that even when people occasionally spot a bear, it rarely attacks. For you to have fought a bear twice, Leon, you must have incredibly bad luck."

The first time was because I hadn't been wearing a beast-repelling bell and had wandered deep into the forest... But this time was just a coincidence, right?

Maybe I really am unlucky. I'd better be careful.

"I'll be more careful from now on. More importantly, what should we do with this bear?"

"We can't carry it home, so I suppose we'll have to leave it here. I can't butcher it, either. Your other grandfather probably could, but I don't want the bear's meat or hide badly enough to come all the way back here."

"Right. Then let's hurry home before other animals come."

When I looked around, the cub was gone too. We didn't want it to bring another adult bear here.

"Come on, Marie, let's go home. Weren't you scared?"

"I was a little scared, but Big Brother defeated it, so I'm fine now!"

"What a good girl you are, Marie."

As he said that, Grandfather vigorously ruffled Marie's hair.

We left the forest and started home, walking faster than usual.

Even though I knew we weren't likely to encounter another wild animal, I must have been tense, because once we left the forest, I felt relieved and all the strength drained from my body.