episode_0158

“First, secure enough supplies to somehow last until spring. Although the price has doubled… … There’s nothing I can do because it’s urgent.”

” When you say that, do you mean you are trying to find a separate way?”

” That’s how it should be. I feel like they raised the price on purpose to keep me in check. Fuel cost is a fairly large item among the product costs in my blacksmith shop.”

“I guess it’s because of the nobleman called Marquis Kurid who you mentioned a little while ago.”

The village chief must have heard Marquis Kurid’s name muttered, and nodded as if he understood.

“Okay. Even if it is a little expensive, we secure a quantity and instruct the residents of the territory to grow additional firewood flowers. If that happens, we will be able to put out the urgent fire right away.”

“Please do that.”

The village chief said that he would have the residents of the territory plant at least a few firewood flowers. Since the price of firewood flowers has become expensive anyway, they will also plant firewood flowers for their own use, so it was clear that it would not be difficult to pick out a few flowers.

Since only firewood and flowers were not used for heating anyway, as the village chief said, urgent fires could be extinguished. Maybe I could spend this winter at a cost that was no different from before.

“I will now go and instruct the residents of the territory to grow firewood and flowers.”

No matter how well the firewood flower grows, as it is a plant, it takes time to grow and to dry to be used as fuel, so the village chief quickly left the mansion.

After the village chief left, I was left alone in the office and continued to worry about how to handle this matter.

“… … Ha, it’s a real shame that you can’t farm with skeletons.”

As I was thinking so much, I was very disappointed that skeletons couldn’t farm. No, it’s not that it couldn’t be built, but it didn’t produce any real results.

It didn’t really affect people, but since skeletons were undead, they tended to give off the aura of death. As a result, it was not suitable for farming, which requires a lot of vitality.

This is because it does not have a significant effect on the growth of crops, but has a significant impact on the germination of seeds. Even if you sow seeds around the undead, they will not sprout.

Of course, the impact is greatly reduced if you are just a few meters away, but that doesn’t mean it’s completely fine. If you look at the garden right now, there are some areas where the grass is growing a little less due to the repeater skeleton buried a few meters below.

Taking those things into consideration, farming with skeletons wasn’t a very good choice. Even if you farm, you don’t get proper results. It could also be said that there was not enough benefit to be gained from using skeletons.

It would have been more beneficial to put more skeletons into the blacksmith shop and use the resulting capital to purchase crops.

“Um… … . Should I try to find serfs and grow the food myself?”

Since I couldn’t farm with skeletons, I thought it wouldn’t be a bad idea to get serfs and have them do the farming.

Since firewood and flowers were needed in large quantities anyway, I thought it wouldn’t be a bad idea to hire a large number of serfs and become self-sufficient. Since there was a surplus of land anyway, it seemed possible to create an area to specialize in cultivating only firewood and flowers.

“I need to think about this part slowly. First of all, I told you to save up enough supplies to last until spring.”

I thought that using serfs was a good solution, so I ended my continued worries. It’s a little bit, but I have some time to spare, so I can think about it slowly.

After finishing my worries, I headed straight to Jiena, who was waiting for me.

And as soon as I entered Jienna’s room, I put away all the painful thoughts and had a good time. I don’t know if it was because I was having a good time with Jiena, who was hugging me warmly, but I felt like the trouble that the Marquis of Kurid had given me was completely gone.

“I’m the CEO… … . It’s a little embarrassing to touch my belly fat… … ?”

“Without any belly fat? This is just touching skin.”

As I was smoothing the skin on my abdomen, which was soft and soft like silk, and which was difficult to even call belly fat, Jiena squirmed and said she was embarrassed.

However, since he was holding her in his arms and placing his hand on her abdomen, Jienna could not run away.

“I’d rather touch somewhere else!”

“I touched enough other places a while ago. I like it here now.”

“Ugh… … !”

Jiena blushed angrily, as if she was embarrassed to touch her stomach even though she had a smooth abdomen without any flab. It was clear that he was truly embarrassed as even his ears turned bright red.

Of course, that appearance only made me want to touch it more.

As I was touching the devil’s belly fat as if it was restoring my exhausted mind and body, Jienna, who could not hold on any longer, wriggled hard and escaped from my arms. Although it only looked delicate, its power was quite strong, so unfortunately, I couldn’t catch it.

“Okay. I won’t touch it, so come back in.”

Although it was a shame that I couldn’t touch her belly, holding Jiena in my arms felt like I was relaxing in the forest, so I tried to bring her back to bed. However, Jiena gently shook her head and put on her gown. Her pale naked body was instantly hidden by a gown.

“Wait a minute. I forgot to put the moonflowers out by the window.”

“Moonflower? Not sunflowers?”

“Unlike sunflowers, it is a flower that blooms at night when the moon is bright. It is in full bloom on days when the full moon rises. If you pick the leaves then and dry them well, you can use them as a bathing agent.”

At the same time as Jiena took out a small flower pot, saying that she was using it as a bathing agent, a scent similar to the scent that Jiena sometimes gave after taking a bath spread throughout the room.

Ziena immediately opened the window slightly and placed a flower pot on the window sill. As time passed while we were having fun, the moonlight was already shining outside the window. In the sky, twinkling stars formed the Milky Way.

“Oh?”

And the moonflower flower, exposed to the shining moonlight, immediately began to respond. It’s been a few seconds since I put it down on the window sill, and the flower buds are already moving.

Slowly, although at a very slow speed, the flower bud moved towards the moon. Just as sunflowers are said to move toward the sun in the sky, moonflowers bloomed buds straight toward the moonlight.

I was blankly looking at that for a while, and before I knew it, the moonflower flower had opened its buds toward the moon.

“Wow… … . It doesn’t seem like it’s been that long, but have the flowers bloomed already? Is it really this fast?”

“That’s not necessarily true. That’s because there’s a secret that elves can use. I told you this last time, right? Elves are friendly to plants. That’s because I accelerated it a little more. If it were just an ordinary flower growing in nature, it would be five times bigger than now… … ? It must have taken that long.”

While I was dazed, watching the flower buds move, I felt amazed by what Giena said as she came up to me. This is because the plant moved quickly because it was raised by Jiena, an elf.

“Awesome… … .”

I couldn’t help but say that it was amazing, but at the same time, something came to mind. Since elves are so friendly to plants, I thought it would be a good idea to leave the firewood and flowers to Jiena.

“Ziena!”

“Yes, yes?”

I hurriedly called Jiena, and she looked at me in shock. Jienna tilted her head as if asking why I was calling out so forcefully, and perhaps misunderstood my intention, and tried to secretly undo the gown she had tied up.

That was nice, but that wasn’t the purpose of calling Jienna right now, so I fastened the gown again.

“Can you grow firewood flowers well?”

“Firewood flowers? Yes, that’s right. Those raised by elves will last longer than those raised by humans. Firewood flowers grow well

The longer it lasts, the longer it rides.”

When I heard that I could make firewood flowers that burn longer, I thought about leaving the firewood flowers to Jiena instead of the serfs. No, more accurately, the idea was to find more elves and entrust them to him.

Using serfs is not a bad choice, but if you can get excellent firewood, using elves could also be a good choice.

Simply put, I was told that a mineral that melts at a higher temperature was recently discovered during a joint study between alchemists and researchers. It is a mineral contained in ore temporarily mined from another mine I own, and research on it was in progress.

Accordingly, a higher temperature was required, which required the input of more firewood. This is because an alchemy solution that can raise the temperature all at once was used, but the firewood flower had the disadvantage of burning more than three times faster.

Of course, it was inevitable that a situation would arise where more firewood and flowers would be needed. In such a situation, if firewood grown by elves could burn longer, it was possible that using elves would be more efficient than serfs.

If farming was done using physical abilities stronger than those of humans, it would not be unreasonable for one elf to replace dozens of serfs.

I thought that if I could get a slave elf like Jiena and have them work for a certain period of time instead of promising them exemption, I would be able to extract enough value for it.

Unlike my abnormally long lifespan, the average lifespan of humans in this world was not long. Among them, the period during which farming could be done properly was shorter. Considering that, it was not unreasonable to put one elf and hundreds of serfs on the same line.

So, the more I thought about it, the more I became convinced that it would be better to use slave elves rather than serfs to create firewood and flower plantations. Perhaps it might be possible to be completely self-sufficient in firewood and flowers.

“Ziena. Can any elf easily grow plants?”

“Yes, that’s usually the case. However, there are differences between elves. If you are an elf who can handle spirits, you can raise it even more easily. I’m not good with spirits, so I can’t handle them.”

“Really? That’s right… … .”

My thoughts became more firm when I heard that any elf could easily grow plants, and that elves who could control spirits could grow them even more easily.

“You said you were going to purchase your people with the money you saved up until now, right?”

“Yes. Although it is still a bit lacking, we will soon be able to rescue our enslaved compatriots.”

I nodded at the sight of Jiena smiling brightly with a hopeful expression. And, he immediately came up with a suggestion.

“Ziena. I will help you buy the elves who are being sold as slaves. Instead, can you make the elves work as much as they are worth?”

“Like you said when you first bought me?”

“That’s right. Right now I need a large amount of firewood and flowers. You can have people do it, but aren’t elves good at growing firewood and flowers?”

Perhaps because I had asked her a little while ago if she could grow firewood, Jiena immediately understood my intention and nodded.