NOTE: Welcome to the first chapter of Part 2! If you’re reading this through novelupdates, there might be some confusion regarding the chapter titles, therefore, if you haven’t read Part 1 yet, please go and read it here. The rest of this story won’t make much sense without it! Enjoy!
Six months have passed since the war with the East.
The avalanche of the Nexies’ people coming to the east has caused much speculation, but General Valmonter, the General Commander of the Magic Division, has explained to the nations about the collapse of the North and the fact that the North has become a land of spirits, and asked for their understanding. The eastern country is now under the control of Elementia and Rhodocaius, and it seems that the future of the country is still undergoing trial and error.
Elementia’s expedition is quite busy, with not only Rhodocaius, but also Kainahatan joining in. Therefore, the knights have been moved as well. The knights are from the 1st to the 6th Knights groups, just like the Magic Division
There are many more people than the magic division, all with magical powers and only nobles.
The second brother of the Tizar family, Sörth, is a member of the First Order, and the eldest brother, Henrik, is an official in the castle.
I’ve met both of these brothers at the Tizar house, and I sometimes have tea with the second brother, Sörth, from time to time. Most of it was the influence of the third sister, Marielle, who is married to a merchant family. My sister is married into a large merchant family in the royal capital. That’s why she cares for me in some way.
The Knights of Elementia were created to protect the royal family, but now it seems to have a different meaning.
“The reason why the nobles of Elementia have magical power and are able to live better than the common people is because they will use their power to protect the country in case of an emergency. Otherwise, those born without magic power would not be able to recognize such a disparity, right?”
Zak once said it to me that way.
***
Since then, I had asked Zak to bring the date palm seedlings from the eastern continent of Kainahatan, via the southern continent of Rhodocaius, to the Cross Island, and set up a date palm plantation on the island. I was grateful to have some help from Akaino, the dwarf uncles, all the elves, and various other races.
It was a coincidence that I learned of the existence of date palms when Zak and I went to Kainahatan to look around the market and shop for them.
“It’s sweet and delicious.”
The dried fruit, which was slightly larger than my fingertips, were different from what I had seen in my previous life, and the color and shape were distorted, but when I bit into it and ate it, I was filled with nostalgia for its sweetness.
In fact, I have memories of the ‘dates’ from my previous world.
When I asked Zak on the spot, I found out that they were also called ‘dates’ here.
These “dates” were a favorite food of mine. They are very good for you, and there is a very tasty variety. The sugar in them is glucose, which is the main energy source for the brain.
It was also good for when I was tired and lightheaded. Even if you eat carbohydrates such as rice and udon you’ll have to wait for the brain to absorb the decomposed sugars. But if you can eat dates, they will be absorbed by the small intestine immediately.
Even though they were nature’s bounty, they had a thick sweetness like caramel, were easy to eat without habit, and were a strong ally for women when it came to improving bowel movements, anemia and dieting. They are also full of ingredients that pregnant or postpartum women need.
In my previous life, when I woke up in the morning before work, I used to eat three of these small dates and drink a glass of milk to help me think better.
There were many different kinds of dates, and among them, I preferred the small, thick ones, but the large, sticky and soft ones were similar to dried persimmons in color and texture. Some of the dates have vertically grooved seeds that were shaped and colored like peanuts.
By the way, my plantation on Cross Island is built on the western tip of the island, near the other Shion Castle. To get to that plantation, I ride to the plantation in a cart that I let Filgred and his horse pull, or I have the Akaino take me there, or I ride my own horse, and so on.
If Zak is with me, we’ll sometimes transport with a magic circle, but I enjoy doing all sorts of things on the island, so that’s what I do on the way to and from the plantation.
The farm his fully equipped with a resting place and administration building, as well as a warehouse that the dwarven men built in a flash, making it a proper farm. For now, I’m still in the trial stage of researching dates, so it feels like I’m just having a good time together with a group of volunteers.
In the meantime, I’ve been pondering the possibility of turning it into a job for the island’s ‘inhuman’ people who want to work here. And I have one other plan in mind. I’m still going through the trial and error process, and I’d like to discuss this with Zak and everyone else.
On Cross Island, I’m not just doing this farm, I’m doing other things, and I’m flying around the island with Akaino. We had tea at Mr. Selvado’s place, went on a secret mushroom-picking trip (white truffles) with a dwarf uncle, and even followed him to get honey from a shade bee. I learned a lot by going to various places and listening to their stories.
I also go to see the mogul farming of the elves.
In Kainahatan, a handful of locals pick and eat only what they need from the date palm trees. The fruits are ripe on the tree, dried in the sun and half-dried, and then are eaten little by little.
Climbing up a 20-meter-high tree to pick them is not easy, so only a few people can do it. The rest of the time, the fruits would fall to the ground and be eaten.
To start a farm from there, I think a lot of preparations for management and breeding of the fruit into a delicious and easy to grow date palm will be necessary.
The date palm grows to a height of about 15 to 25 meters, so I want to keep it as low as possible so that I can produce good quality, tasty fruit on a regular basis. Is there anything close to the kind of ‘dates’ that I once loved? Now we just need to figure out what else we can do with the date palms.
After the collapse of Nexies, the people who came in from the north in a flurry are now protected in a refugee camp in Kainahatan. Zak told me that they will need a place to work in the future, and I am in the process of thinking hard about what I can do to help.
Date palms take a long time to grow from seeds, and it is only after they have grown that the distinction between male and female can be seen, so we decided to use the method of making seedlings from armpit buds.
The side buds should be close to the root of the parent tree. The root development seems to be better than the side buds in the upper part of the tree.
With this, it should grow two or three years faster than the side buds on the top. But I came up with this knowledge from my previous life. The extent that plants have the same characteristics in this world is something cannot easily be understood.
On Cross Island, magic is used to speed up the growth rate.
It is also necessary to regulate the temperature with magic to resemble the soil quality of the East, and everyone is very enthusiastic about researching how to grow the plants at different temperatures and humidity levels and how to make them grow better.
It has been found that it is important to replant date palm seedlings and irrigate them for a while immediately, and that it is best to keep the soil moist for several months.
Even if this kind of thing works well on Cross Island, we don’t know what will happen in a different location.
And then there was the problem of pollination. In this world, we don’t have the concept of artificial pollination, but on cross island, we ask the shade bees to do it. In this way, the fruits are completely different. This is also a challenge if we want to farm locally.
I wore a straw hat, a long-sleeved shirt, thick, ankle-length pants, and boots. When we farmed, Filgred would usually be by my side.
Everyone who helped me on the island was also doing some kind of work at a distance.
Filgred was dressed similarly to me and carried the pots of seedlings on his cart. He always prepared the necessary tools with great care and attention to detail.
“Miss, would you like to take a break now? I’m afraid we won’t be home by tea time.”
“What? What are you afraid of?”
“No, it’s decided. It’s Silk.”
“Silk?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
Filgred nodded with a serious face and I chuckled and replied.
“Yes, well, let’s go back to the mansion after we plant this”
I had previously grown some date palm side shoots in an unglazed pot made of light material.
I take it in my hand, hold the root of the seedling with my middle and forefinger, turn the pot over and pull out the soil, and plant it in the field.
“Yes, let’s do that. The master will be worried about you.”
With that said, he was also deftly planting the rest of the seedlings he had in hand.
His light-hearted tone and joking demeanor might have fooled me, but I know from my past association with him that he is very careful and serious in his nature.
And he is as obedient to Silk as he is to a sister.
But it’s not just Filgred. I might be the same.
Ever since I came to the mansion, Silk has always been like my teacher, my sister, and my mother. Sometimes stern, sometimes kind, and always guiding me. It has always been reassuring to have her by my side. She is a dear person to me.
Akaino flies around in the sky above me and teaches me various things as well.
It seems that some trees are already full of date palms, which are turning color. He told me that the fruit had turned out to be sweet and tasty when he tried them.
There is a sign at the entrance of the farm on Cross Island that says “Everyone’s Farm.”
This was made by Mandrake. Mandrake had also made the sign for the Mandragora Farm.
He’s pretty handy. At first, Mandrake wanted to be the caretaker of the date palm plantation, but everyone was upset saying, “He’s the caretaker of the mandragora plantation, and he’s got to take care of the mandragora properly, so don’t add any more!” Well, I don’t blame them, there’s mandragora running around the island sometimes…
“You can’t do that! You shouldn’t say that! I’m trying my best to do my duty!”
But in the end he gave up and asked to make a sign instead, so I let him do it for me.
He was very good at it, even drawing a cute picture of a date palm in color on the wooden sign. He had surprisingly good skill.
The date palm fruits are called dates in Rhodocaius and Kainahatan, just like it was in my previous life.
It’s a plant we don’t have in Elementia because of the different climate.
This is the same fruit with the same name as my previous life’s memories. I don’t know how it works, but it seems that almost all the similar things are converted into the same name or similar names in my mind. That doesn’t necessarily mean that they are exactly the same, but there are some things that are only slightly different. I know that from my past experience.
For example, the bambu, which is similar to a bamboo sapling and grows in the mountains, tastes and looks very similar. But it is only about one meter tall and grows on the mountain all year round, regardless of the season. It takes about 3 months for the plant to die after growing. When it dies, the next one grows up from the roots below.
In the previous world, there were many different kinds of dates in different places, different sizes and shapes, and some of them were expensive and cheap. But over here as well, it seems that there are different types of dates in Kainahatan and Rhodocaius.
The same date can have different tastes and textures depending on the amount of water left in it, as well as the ingredients that each type contains.
In my previous life in Japan, I used to buy dates at an online organic shop. The dates were medium-sized, bright orange in color, and had a delicious caramel-like richness and sweetness. The texture wasn’t as sticky as dried persimmons, and they didn’t have that peculiar flavor. I enjoyed the natural sweetness of the persimmon in my tea, and even ate it as is.
You can eat it with coffee or as a sweet alternative. The Zahidi variety, which I liked, was medium sized, about 2 to 3 cm in size, much smaller than the 4 to 5 cm major type. The semi-dry, sticky, fruits were sweet and dense like sweet red bean paste, but it was more suitable for my lifestyle to eat three small ones rather than one large one. That would be my favorite.
Therefore, if I’m going to see them in the store, I’d like to see the light and thick types, the soft and hard ones, and then the rest of them in different sizes.
In the old days of the previous world, people used to travel for dozens of days in the desert with just these dried dates and camel’s milk.
The ingredients were researched and treated as a tremendous miracle sweets in that world.
I was concerned about pesticides and such, so I opted for organic products, but I’m happy to say that there are no pesticides to worry about in this world.
I removed my straw hat and looked up at the sky.
—Oh, how high the sky is and how blue it is…
Akaino circled pleasantly through the blue sky and said, “Kue—”
“Do you want to go play?”
“After having tea.”
Then, with Filgred, who was preparing to leave for a while, green dates scattered all around him as they came falling in pieces from above. There were also blue bananas mixed in. It would hurt if it hit me. I don’t know where he was hiding them.
“Hey!”
“Akaino is naughty. Maybe he doesn’t enjoy the fact that I’m always working in the fields with the young lady.”
Filgred is laughing.
It’s the work of the Akaino. Of course, they all scattered around without hitting due to Filgred’s magic. He knew that would happen, and he still did it. Lately, Akaino seems to be in a rebellious phase. But that kind of phase was cute too.
With a whoosh, he swooped near the ground and flew away, leaving a black banana near me and running away.
“Oh, it’s a black banana.”
Filgred laughed as he saw me pick it up and immediately peel and eat it.
“Hmm, I guess Akaino is just trying to get the attention of the young lady.”
“Shon’t wolly, I’ll fowwol oo layer” (Don’t worry, I’ll follow you later.)
“Ah!”
What is it? Why is Filgred is flailing and looking around behind me?
“Miss, you haven’t been well-behaved to be picking up and talking to me with food still in your mouth.”
When I turned around, I saw Silk standing behind me with her arms crossed…
…It seems she came to pick me up because I was late to return home.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
T/N: Alternative Title: “Dates 101”
Anyway, this is officially the start of volume 2 of this series so I hope you enjoy! I’m personally hoping that I’ll see more interactions between Fii and her old family. If you haven’t already read Part 1, you can read it here.
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