Chapter 191
Chapter 191
“I'm going to build a farm here.”
“Oh…….”
The bright sunlight before noon shone down on the land where old dead trees had been cut, leaving only their stumps behind.
This was my own island, purchased from the Academy.
“Billet, what are you going to grow here?”
Rapin crouched down and toyed with the soil, then looked up at me with curious eyes.
“Well. There’s a lot I want to grow. But first…….”
The most basic seasonings needed for cooking are salt and sugar.
I harvested salt only occasionally from my sea farm, but I had always relied on the market for sugar.
Still, I wanted to cook using ingredients obtained solely through my own effort, not something acquired from others.
So I planned to resolve that this time.
“For now, I’ll try growing sugarcane.”
“Sugarcane?”
“You’ve never heard of it? Think of it as a plant that produces sugar.”
“Oh…….”
Her eyes sparkled brightly.
“I didn’t know there was a tree that grows sugar fruit.”
Sugar fruit, huh.
Rapin’s expression was cute, but I wasn’t sure how to properly explain sugarcane to her.
“No, it doesn’t grow like fruit…… The process is a bit complicated. I’ll show you later.”
“Okay. I’m looking forward to seeing how sugar is made.”
Sugarcane originally grows only in tropical environments.
But this snowy forest did not have the right conditions for sugarcane to grow.
Still, what did that have to do with me?
‘I’ve got Boogi.’
If I farmed using Boogi’s ability, environmental conditions didn’t matter. It was even possible to harvest top-grade crops.
But before making the field, I had to deal with the tree stumps in the way.
There was no need to dig up the roots with great effort. I could simply open Subspace, store just the stump portion, and then expel it elsewhere.
The work went smoothly. The hollowed sections caused by Subspace were filled back in with a shovel.
‘The surrounding plants are dead too. It’s completely dead soil.’
I needed to mix in compost or organic matter and break up the hardened layers.
‘I wasn’t even planning to make that large of a field, but there’s quite a bit to do.’
Before farming, I had to restore the soil’s health first.
It wasn’t something that could be finished in a day. Given the process, it would probably take several days.
I was digging up the ground with a shovel alongside Rapin when—
Grrr….
When I looked toward the source of the sound, my eyes met Rapin’s.
“……Rapin, should we eat first?”
To prevent the fire from spreading, I made a Dakota fire hole and lit a fire inside.
After pouring water into a pot, I boiled pasta noodles made from flour produced on the farm.
“Billet, this reminds me of before.”
“Yeah. During the Comprehensive Examination, we dug a hole in the ground and lit a fire like this too.”
As the noodles cooked, I heated the tomato sauce I had prepared earlier beside the pot. I scooped out the boiled pasta and added it to the sauce, tossing it lightly.
Just as I finished the pasta and served some into Rapin’s bowl—
Phrung~!
Perhaps it smelled the food, because Lotti came running over.
“Did Lotti come because you want some too?”
Rapin welcomed her, but I stopped the silver deer.
“Hey, you. If you eat this, you’ll get an upset stomach. Here, have this instead.”
I handed her a small basil leaf, but Lotti shook her head and kept nudging toward the pasta.
“I told you, you can’t eat this. You won’t be able to digest it.”
“Billet, Lotti doesn’t want to eat the pasta.”
Rapin explained Lotti’s intention.
Phrung…….
“Yes, yes.”
Rapin listened to Lotti’s cry, widened her eyes slightly, then asked me,
“Can’t you give some of the food you made to Shia too?”
So it wasn’t for herself—she wanted to bring it to Shia?
“Well.”
I looked at Lotti. She seemed to be pleading with me as well.
If I refused, I’d be the bad guy here.
I sighed and opened my mouth.
“……Shia’s staying near the Treehouse, right?”
Phrung-!
After hearing Lotti’s response, I portioned out some pasta into a bowl and stored it in Subspace.
Then I headed to the Treehouse.
But beneath the tree, the area felt oddly empty.
‘Right. The mushrooms I was growing are gone.’
I had planned to harvest them later, but they had all disappeared.
‘Animals ate them…… or did Shia pick them?’
Most likely.
‘Yeah. It must’ve been pretty hard to find food right now.’
It was winter, and snow was falling.
Most fruit-bearing plants had gone dormant.
Even if you found fruit, they would be small and astringent.
‘She was already small, but yesterday she looked even thinner. Maybe she hasn’t been eating properly.’
I climbed the ladder and knocked on the Treehouse door.
“I’m coming in.”
Even though I said that, there was no response.
“I said I’m coming in.”
I carefully opened the door.
Shia was crouched in a corner, glaring at me.
Around her neck was the scarf I had given through Lotti, neatly tied. Her wounds were no longer visible.
“……Why are you here?”
“Nothing much. Have you been eating properly?”
“Hmph. That’s none of your concern. I’m not hungry at all…….”
Grrr….
The sound came from Shia’s stomach.
Her face turned bright red.
“Don’t laugh.”
“I’m not.”
“Don’t laugh.”
“I really didn’t.”
Barely suppressing the twitching corners of my lips, I stepped inside.
“The mushrooms under the Treehouse—I was growing them to eat later. I planted them during the Comprehensive Examination.”
“……!”
Shia looked slightly startled.
“……When we return to the Academy, I’ll compensate you.”
I had only been testing her, but she admitted it more honestly than expected.
“No, you don’t need to compensate me. That’s not why I came.”
“Then what?”
I opened Subspace and took out the bowl of pasta.
“Here.”
Her eyes wavered briefly, but she glared at me again.
“Eat. You haven’t been eating properly here, have you?”
Shia didn’t deny it.
Silence meant affirmation.
“While you’re on the island, I’ll take care of your three meals a day.”
“……!”
She flinched in surprise.
She looked at me with a puzzled expression, then averted her gaze and narrowed her eyes.
“You don’t have to do that for me.”
“Right. I don’t. But don’t misunderstand—I’m not giving this out of generosity.”
“……?”
“I’ll feed you, but in return, there’s something you need to do.”
“Work?”
“It’s nothing much. Just do some cleaning.”
“……Cleaning?”
I told her my request.
I wanted her to clean up the area that had burned during the Comprehensive Examination.
Her eyes trembled. She looked flustered for some reason.
“What will you do?”
“…….”
Even though I asked, Shia couldn’t answer easily.
Billet’s proposal was simple.
In exchange for providing breakfast, lunch, and dinner, she was to clean up the fire-damaged areas in the eastern and northern regions.
Shia had always eaten the bare minimum and refrained from using her strength.
……But.
Whenever she ate food cooked by Billet, an abnormal surge of energy filled her.
It had been the same when she ate the baked apple he made.
Her strength had surged instantly—enough to shatter a massive monster in a single blow.
After sustaining herself on astringent fruit and raw mushrooms, once she ate Billet’s pasta, she found herself unable to refuse his proposal.
It was the first time she had tasted food this delicious—so much that she couldn’t help but look forward to whatever he would bring next.
So she came to the place Billet had mentioned.
“…….”
The surrounding trees were blackened, as if completely burned.
The specific tasks Billet requested were these:
Removing dangerous dead trees, collecting and burying burned debris, leveling unstable soil, and removing structures at risk of collapse.
As Billet said, she began by toppling the twisted old trees.
The long-dead trees, hollow inside, collapsed easily with just a little force.
She gathered the charred branches and bark scattered on the ground and buried them in a shallow pit.
To prevent ash from scattering, she covered them with soil and pressed it down several times with her feet.
She leveled the sunken ground and unstable edges, removing anything that might cause someone to trip.
After finishing one section, Shia looked around.
Being here reminded her of the Comprehensive Examination.
By her father’s order, she had attacked a cadet and knocked him unconscious, then injected him with an unidentified substance.
That cadet possessed fire attributes. But until he was injected, he had been cautious enough not to cause a wildfire.
Once injected, however, he lost control—and the wildfire spread.
……In the end, the cause of the fire had been Shia, the one who administered the injection.
She was cleaning the area when something caught her eye.
A completely burned bird’s nest.
“…….”
Inside were four round lumps of charcoal.
Shia cautiously stepped toward it.
She wanted to look away.
She didn’t have the courage to face the truth.
She wanted to leave.
But in the end, she gathered her courage and approached to confirm.
“……Ah.”
As expected, they weren’t charcoal.
They were eggs.
Eggs that had never hatched, scorched black.
For the pair of birds who built that nest, those eggs had been hope.
……And Shia had taken that hope away.
She knelt before the nest.
She couldn’t say anything. Her throat tightened.
“……I-I’m sorry.”
She knew words couldn’t fix it. But she still wanted to say them.
This had been the animals’ home.
A place where new life was born.
But…… it had all burned.
Shia looked around again.
Everything was black.
She knew better than anyone that she was the cause of it all.
She bit her lip.
Because of me.
Not just these eggs.
Because of her, countless lives might have been lost.
She had always felt sorry.
But…….
Seeing it directly, she finally understood how horrific that day had been.
Her hands trembling, Shia finally burst into tears.
“……I’m sorry. Everyone, I’m truly sorry.”
Nearly two months after the fire had been extinguished, Shia finally knelt in the burned land and sought forgiveness.
Then she stood and wiped her tears with her sleeve.
……She couldn’t just blame herself and grieve.
She had to turn this blackened land into a place where new life could be born again.
That was what she had to do.
As someone who mainly enjoyed console games, I never understood the appeal of idle games.
……But.
Cleaning Up the Fire’s Remnants.
Progress: 41%
‘So this is why people play idle auto-hunting games.’
I completely understood.
A sigh of admiration escaped me.
The progress bar rose just by breathing. Problems solved themselves. How could that not be fun?
‘Well, I guess I’m not just breathing?’
Technically, the progress rose because I was providing Shia with three meals a day.
‘And that’s all it takes? This is amazing.’
It was the ideal structure.
‘The speed’s faster than I expected.’
I knew Shia’s physical abilities were exceptional.
But I hadn’t expected her to handle it this quickly.
‘Maybe it’s because my cooking tastes good? Either way, the faster the better for me.’
At this rate, my field clearing would be done within a few days too.
‘……Then I’ll finally get to see it.’
I opened the Animal Farm system and looked at the pink Incubator on the screen.
Golden Sun Parakeet Egg
Hatching Progress: 94%
Clack, clack! The egg keeps moving! It seems ready to hatch! Just a little more patience!
Only 6% remained until hatching.
‘Shia will probably finish cleaning the fire site in three days, and my field clearing will be done in a few days too.’
It had taken far too long for this egg to hatch.
‘Yeah, I bought you for such an absurd price at the Auction House, and you made me wait this long? Let’s see how impressive you really are.’
It wouldn’t be long now until I finally saw its face.