Ch.145Mr. Smith’s Daily Life

Mornings on the farm start early.

“Cock-a-doodle-dooooo!!!”

As the rooster’s crow from the village henhouse cuts through the quiet dawn silence, the sky gradually transforms into the beautiful colors of daybreak under the influence of the rising sun.

It’s dawn. At this time when darkness has lifted enough that there’s no difficulty seeing ahead, the people of the pioneer village—most of whom rely on agriculture as their main livelihood—were beginning to wake up and start their day’s work.

In an era where not only electricity but even fuel for lighting was extremely precious, nights ended quickly in a time when daily work depended on natural light. And as nights became shorter, mornings naturally came earlier.

Anyway, those who had awakened prepared simple breakfast meals at the fireplaces that were essential fixtures in every home.

At least in this pre-modern era, heating and cooking mostly happened in the same place. Even the ondol heating system that readers might be familiar with uses heat generated during cooking for warming the home, doesn’t it?

In short, in this era, heating equipment was also cooking equipment. And in such times, the staple food in each household was what was commonly called the “eternal soup.”

It was an unidentifiable food where soup was endlessly boiled with water and leftover ingredients continuously added. While commonly thought of as inn food, what those inns served was essentially home cooking.

Therefore, although this soup might lack some authentic flavor since travelers didn’t add various ingredients, it still contained enough meat to be rightfully called a luxurious dish.

In modern terms, it was similar to a stew made from leftover ingredients from the refrigerator. The farm folk ladled this from their cauldrons—which represented a significant portion of their household assets—into bowls made of hardened bread crusts.

Even though dishes and tableware had become commonplace, such bread bowls were still used in rural areas. These bowls could serve as emergency food and, together with their contents, constituted nearly a complete meal.

With this hodgepodge soup in bread bowls accompanied by pickled turnips, breakfast preparation was complete.

“Honey, breakfast is ready!”

“Thank you!”

The newlywed couple, married for about a month, finished their average meal with expressions still dripping with affection.

After pleasantly conversing and finishing their early breakfast, with their stomachs now full, they took out their farming tools, which constituted a significant portion of their household assets.

Typically, farming tools of this era, regardless of time or place, were mostly made of wood or stone. However, within Lord Alzar’s domain, this was completely different.

The internal Lure Barony supplied abundant iron equipment, making metal relatively inexpensive, so even ordinary farmers generally owned at least one or two iron farming tools.

The tools this newlywed couple gathered were the standard farming set:

Hoes, pickaxes, shovels, hand axes, harvesting sickles, plus plows and logging saws.

With these tools provided by the domain to the pioneer village members, the couple headed to their field to finish harvesting the remaining rye.

Perhaps it was thanks to cooperating with neighboring farmers for land reclamation? This family had completed their land clearing several times faster than others and was already growing and harvesting fast-growing (though lower-yielding) rye.

As the couple stepped outside with this in mind, they spotted a familiar face among the busy farmers heading to their fields and waved enthusiastically.

“Kem!!”

“Oh, Smith!!”

Kem, a half-werewolf friend they’d made since coming to the village, was heading somewhere with hunting tools hanging from his body when he spotted Smith, the husband, and changed direction toward the couple.

“Nice to see you, Kem.”

“Good day to you, Mrs. Smith.”

Kem politely bowed slightly to his friend Smith’s wife. Seeing his wolf head and gentle eyes, Smith couldn’t help but smile wryly at the strange feeling it evoked.

Who would have thought he’d not only meet a werewolf—a monster from stories—but live in the same village and become friends with one?

If someone had told this to Smith just a year ago, he wouldn’t have believed such an incredible fact. With an awkward chuckle, he chatted briefly before parting ways with his friend.

“See you tonight at ‘the place’!”

“Sure thing!”

They had arranged to meet at the domain’s only tavern, which distributed one glass of fine wine per person daily.

Shortly after, the Smith couple arrived at their assigned farmland and began their now-routine trap check by walking around the perimeter.

Unfortunately, no prey had been caught in any of the traps.

In this world, wild animals were considered assets belonging to the lord whose domain encompassed their habitat. In an era where hunting grounds were viewed as assets, hunting was strictly regulated for ordinary farmers.

This is why “hunting rights” were considered a privilege, and with few exceptions, hunting by commoners was strictly regulated.

These exceptions mainly included cases of self-defense, accidental animal deaths, the tacit permission to hunt flying birds, and most notably, the right to hunt and trap agricultural pests.

Even though animals belonged to the lord and hunting was the lord’s privilege, without pest control, crop yields from domain farmlands would decrease, reducing tax revenue.

Therefore, some domains permitted hunting small animals like rabbits and field mice, while many more allowed farmers to set traps on their own farmland.

Crops cultivated by humans were delicacies to wild animals, so the number of herbivores targeting field vegetables and grains was beyond imagination.

Of course, these were still just small creatures. By now, with indirect hunting permits issued, hungry humans had rushed to set traps, resulting in a situation where no animals were being caught despite the traps.

Anyway, after noticing no animals had been caught in their traps, the couple began their farm work with slight disappointment.

Having brought their handcart, they harvested the fast-growing but low-yielding rye while beginning simple land management in preparation for the upcoming autumn planting.

‘This part is damaged….’

They repaired broken sections of the crude fence made of sparsely placed branches stuck in the ground, while also plowing the field deeper to create ideal conditions for autumn wheat to grow.

After working diligently for some time…

“….Phew.”

“Let’s take a break before continuing.”

“Good idea. Ugh, when will my circumstances ever change?”

After several hours of silently focusing on farm work, the Smith couple, feeling the need to rest, sat in the shade to escape the sun and wait for the heat to subside.

Even though autumn was approaching and temperatures were starting to drop, the daytime sun still created summer-like heat.

Working in such heat would only lead to heatstroke or sunstroke, so they figured it was better to rest in the shade and recover their strength during the hot midday.

Some farmers took naps, others ate simple nutritional snacks they’d brought, and some gathered to play dice games.

‘….Huh?’

While Smith was absentmindedly staring into space, he suddenly noticed an unfamiliar group of people heading toward Lord Alzar’s farmland….

Once he recognized these prospective village residents, Smith recalled what the lord had mentioned recently.

What was it again…. Something about testing a new farming method that could eliminate fallow land?

From Smith’s perspective, he didn’t quite understand why the lord would sacrifice his own profits to experiment on his farmland, but upon reflection, there was no reason to dislike the lord’s willingness to undertake such experimental challenges.

While Smith was quite conservative about new technologies and resistant to change, as was typical of farmers in this era, he wasn’t so stubborn as to firmly reject innovations proven through experimentation.

The lord hadn’t threatened punishment for not adopting his proposed farming method, and frankly, Smith was open to trying it if it seemed reasonably effective.

….Though talk of planting crops with different nutritional needs together wouldn’t mean much to someone who barely understood what nutrients were.