Chapter 405
Summer
Today, as well, we started farm work from the morning. Everyone helped Grandpa and engaged in agricultural tasks.
Starting early is the wisdom of our predecessors. Heavy labor after the sun rises puts a lot of strain on the body, so it's easier to finish while it's still cool, around the time the morning mist lingers.
Nina-san and Serai-san are weeding and harvesting the crops that have ripened in the field.
Here, Serai-san, who has extensive experience with farm work from helping out at home, is teaching Nina-san various things, and it's interesting to see their usual roles reversed.
"See, if you cover the furrow with soil like this, the root vegetables will grow even bigger from here."
"Hee~, that's interesting, isn't it?"
(Mhmm mhmm, they're doing their thing over there too. Alright, I gotta work hard as well...)
"Coach. Can you fix this part of the embankment here?"
"Yes, Grandpa. Leave it to me."And so, what I'm doing is repairing the embankment.
It's the work of fixing the embankments around the rice paddies and irrigation canals that are starting to collapse. You get into the paddy, scoop out the mud that has collapsed, then pile it back onto the embankment and pack it down. For an ordinary human, this would be an incredibly tough job.
But no problem. I am the Slime Master.
Just as birds fly freely through the sky. Just as fish swim effortlessly through the water. The mud is the Slime Master's domain.
When your feet sink into the muddy mire, the balance of fulcrum, effort, and load is disrupted, making it impossible to pull them out as you'd like. But for a Slime Master who understands such properties and can handle them fully, moving freely is possible.
After all, my lower body is completely covered in a slick, slippery slime like an eel, nullifying the mud's adhesive power. And by making only the soles of my feet, which need resistance to act as a fulcrum, into a sticky, adhesive slime, I can move through deep mud without any difficulty whatsoever. That's the mechanism.
"Hmm. Coach, you're quite the salamander-like fella, aren't you?"
"Hahaha. But, is that a compliment?"
"Aye. I've never seen anyone quite like you before."
"Is that so? Thank you."
Hehehe, I received the Salamander Award from Grandpa. Hmm, but maybe the Salamander Award would be better if I had a choice.
Speaking of salamanders, they're famous in games and such as fire spirits. They're often translated as something like "fire lizards." And that's because they were thought to be creatures that could truly live within fire.
The reason for this dates back to ancient Europe, when a newt or salamander, or something like that, was put into a fire stuck to some firewood. However, because its body was covered in moisture-rich slime, it didn't burn to death immediately and apparently crawled out of the flames.
Well, the logic is the same as a movie stuntman protecting his body with flame-retardant gel.
But the people back then, who knew nothing of that, misunderstood, like "Whoa, what the heck is this thing!? It's a living thing, but it doesn't die even when burned?!" and that's how the belief started.
I'm sure that jump-to-conclusions person was some important noble or someone with high social status.
"Hey, did you know? Salamanders can live even in fire! That there is a true fire spirit!!"
""""Huh?""""
"What? You don't believe what I'm saying?!"
""""N-No! Salamander, fire spirit, sir!""""
And so, the fire spirit, which was originally believed to have a human form, gradually came to be believed to have a form like a lizard or a salamander. Yeah, even ancient scholars like Aristotle left behind some writings to that effect.
Well, it's a story about how there were many such twists and turns in an era when faith, science, and chemistry were all jumbled together.
...
After finishing the farm work from the early morning like this, we ate a late breakfast, and the hot daytime when the sun is high in the sky is free time.
Grandpa takes a nap, Nina-san checks the inventory and maturation level of the salted meat. Serai-san seems to be on the phone with local friends again and has returned to her room.
As for me, I was finally freed from potion-making as well, so I was leisurely repairing my suit while cooling off in the shade of the barn.
"Haa~, today the sky is also high, clear, and blue. And those are some amazing cumulonimbus clouds. Hmm, I've composed a verse. The sound of cicadas / resonates towards the clear sky / The towering cumulonimbus clouds ...Wait, with the cicadas and cumulonimbus clouds, the seasonal words are duplicated."
Just as I was spending time like that, I heard the sound of a car approaching, and it stopped in front of the Serai residence's gate. Wondering what it was, I stopped working and went outside to find someone getting out of a 4WD that had stopped on the other side of the open gate.
"Oh, Jung! I came to see you too!"
"What, Shark!? Why are you here!?"
The person who got out of the car was Trident's little bomber girl, Toga Ruri, aka Shark.