Itâs been three months since the end of the year festival .
To pa.s.s the time, Iâve been diligently making gla.s.s beads . Wooden sculptures? Never heard of herâŠâŠ1
When the snow stopped falling, sensei announced that school would be reopening so the next day, I pa.s.sed by Suzuranâs house on the way to school like usual in order to wake her up . After all of our lessons ended, just as we were about to go home, I was called out by sensei .
ăCaam-kun doesnât really need to come to school anymore since youâre already capable enough when it comes to the fundamentals . Because of that, starting tomorrow, it has been decided that you will be exempted from the mandatory attendance at school . That is the conclusion that we have come up with after consulting it with the other teachersă
was the only reply I could come up with .
It seems like my graduation will still be held together with everybody else, or at least thatâs what we were told . Rather, are they doing this so that they can tell me to work for the village?
Suzuran who was next to me also heard the news and said,
ăStill come to wake up tomorrowă
Did she get used to it, I wonder? She doesnât usually let her emotions show on her face but sheâs letting out a slightly troubled look .
ăOkay, I understand . Rather than the meeting place, is it okay if I just immediately go to your place?ă
Itâs probably better if I ask Ichii-san and Ricoris-san about this .
ăâŠâŠeven if that might be the case, Iâll still come over and wake her upă
I told them about it as I was drinking the tea I received .
ăAraăŒsorry for all the trouble . If thatâs the case then why donât you just move in together?ă
*Bffftt! Cough cough cough . *
Tea was forcefully spit out .
ăNo, thatâs alright . My house isnât that far away from hereă
This goes without saying but both Ichii-san and I were the ones who did the spit take back there .
ăAhăŒ is that so? The two of you would probably be fine if you live together in those newly opened rent houses, right? Since Caam-kun is diligent and good at cooking . Youâll also have to find work since you no longer have to go to school . Iâm thrilled that Iâll get to see the face of my grandchild earlier like thisă ăPlease spare me already from your jokes . And itâs not that I donât have to go, Iâm just exempted from the mandatory attendance . Iâm more or less still enrolled . Also, Iâve only been living for eight years and, as expected, I still donât have a stable source of income so for us to be living togetherâŠâŠă
Well, Iâm already 38 years old inside though . I donât know how long it takes from conception to delivery in this world but in the worst case, Iâll already have a child before I even graduate . Please spare me from that .
ăAraăŒ those things donât really matter . Right, dear?ă ăY-yeahă
He was letting out a bit of cold sweat while averting his gaze .
ăWhen we were about your age, we were already living togetheră
Oh yeah, it does seem like they eloped since Ricoris-san looks like sheâs from a well-off family . Iâve never seen Suzuranâs grandparents and the only members of the Kishin2 tribe Iâve seen are her family .
ăIâll settle for travelling back and forth to wake her up every morning so letâs not change anything for nowă
I bowed my head as I requested that .
ăOh, thatâs too badă
It seems like she truly was disappointed .
At that moment, Suzuran came back from the chicken coop after she finished feeding the chickens . She immediately sat next to me and drank her tea like it was the most natural thing to do . Thanks to that, I got to experience the feeling of a man adopted into his brideâs family . Iâm okay with it since Iâm already used to it but Ichii-san who was seated in front of us had a really scary look . I just drank my tea to gloss it over . He didnât say anything about it so Iâm sure that Ricoris-san was giving him a discreet warning .
He was scowling at me as he drank his tea . Then, Suzuran suddenly said,
ăCaam, want to raise ducks so, need your helpă
I looked at her parents and they gave me a nod so it seems like theyâve already discussed this . So you already gave her permissionâŠ
ăSure . I donât really mind but, how many are you planning to raise?ă ăHmmăŒ?ă
She became quiet for about ten seconds then,
ăIf pairs then, 10 sets?ă
This time, Ichii-san was the only one who spit out his tea .
ăAhăŒ isnât that a bit too much? Look, even Ichii-sanâs surprised . Couldnât you decrease it a bit? How about four, for example?ă ăWould be difficult to increase if only a few since it seems like not like chickens that lays lots of eggs . Better if plenty from the beginning . If it gets little warmer, egg laying season will start thatâs why a single bird would start laying about 10 eggs . If thatâs the case then wonât be able to eat much for the first year so want to determine the number that will raise ahead of timeă ăO-okayâŠă
She always becomes talkative whenever it comes to meat but this is the first time Iâve heard her talk like this .
ăThen, would it be fine if we just start by buying three or four? If it gets to the point where the number being raised is not enough, weâll just purchase the ducks that are being raised in the villageâs shared pond . We can also discuss if weâre going to buy water birds from the fish farm at that timeă ăHmmăŒă
She started making a serious expression that I havenât seen from her before . After about 30 seconds, she then replied .
She really thought about it, huh .
With the approval of Ichii-san, we discussed the approximate location and the size of the pond that will be made . Once we had decided on those, I drew lines on the specified area and drove in sticks on the corners . I would be building this whenever Iâm free .
ăIâm going to prepare the materials so Iâll leave the rest of it to youă
That felt a bit like a father saying âPlease make a dog house for my daughterâ . My affinity with wood isnât that good though⊠Is that alright?
During dinner yesterday, I pa.s.sed on to my parents what I was told at school .
ăIâm not really sure what you should do so you should go and ask the village chief yourself . Youâre different from me since your smart thatâs why youâll probably be asked to be some helper for the village so work hard with thată ăThatâs right . That would be safer as wellăŒă
So Iâll only have to do what Iâm told . Well, I guess thatâs how it is . According to that conversation, it seems like the people from the village already have expectations of me . Well, itâll probably work out one way or another .
As always, I went to Suzuranâs place to wake her up . I wanted to go to school as usual but I had to find the village chief first since I donât know where that person usually is .
I went to the village square and yelled,
ăCHIIIEEEFFFăŒăŒ!âŠâŠ CHIIEEEFFFFFFFăŒăŒ!ă
But he didnât come . He would usually appear behind me or from my blind spots . Well, itâs fine if heâs not here since I can settle that matter with Suzuranâs ducks .
Even though it was more or less still morning, I didnât skip out on my greetings .
ăWell then, Iâm going to start with work, okay?ăŒă
I said that to Ricoris-san and she replied,
ăIâll leave it to youă
After greeting Ricoris-san, I first hammered in stakes on the designated corners . I then laid my shovel on the ground to measure the approximate distance to the center . When I found the center point, I also hammered in a stake there .
Using the magic for making the fields, I mixed up the soil to let the water flow in making sure that the clay particles would sink to the bottom . Doing that would make it so that the water wouldnât permeate into the ground .
I somehow managed to draw in water from the ca.n.a.l and succeeded in making the simple pond . Water would still need to be replenished from time to time so I also added a drainage barrier . The pond for water birds was surprisingly dirty so I made that to avoid letting the filthy water flow back into the clean ca.n.a.l . Later, Iâm going to try and find animals that maintain the clean water quality from the villageâs fish breeding area . Like crayfish and pond snails for example .
Using the other chicken coop nearby as a reference, I also made a ducks house and laid down straw on it . Since Iâve already done that, I arbitrarily decided to make beds as well . The things I added onto it started piling up that I ended up making it a bit larger than the other one .
As the sound of hammering continued to resounded in the area,
ăYou called out to me earlier?ă
a voice suddenly came from my back . Because of that, instead of hitting the nail, the hammer hit the wood causing it to be dented . d.a.m.n you, village chief!
He sure comes at unexpected moments as usual . Since he doesnât have any presence, I wonder if this person has ăConcealmentăor some other spy related skill? I couldnât hear his footsteps either . Well, I probably wouldnât have been able to hear his footsteps either way since I was hammering something earlier .
ăEr, starting today, Iâll be exempted from mandatory attendance at school so Iâm going to have at least a year of spare time . Because of that, I was going to ask what I should do for the villageă ăUmu, youâre originally a student so I havenât been thinking about that . Iâll come up with something so just do what you have been usually doing for now . Weâll probably have you stand as a lookout or partic.i.p.ate on the patrols . Youâll also have to partic.i.p.ate in meetings to some extent . After those jobs, all thatâs left is to join in with the adults for subjugation requests or hunting . Consider what you want to do from those Iâve mentionedă ăI understand . Iâll come up with my answeră
After I said that, he didnât do anything particularly strange and just normally walked toward the center of the village . While wondering how he does those elusive actions of his, I kept on watching him until he was gone from my sight but I didnât see any odd occurrence . Heâs a really mysterious old man .
During the second day of work, I finished fencing the pond by surrounding the area in planks . The planks were about waist height and there were gaps that were just enough so that the ducks wonât escape . Theyâre poultry so they wonât fly, right? As I was worrying about that, I went to ask the onee-san who manages the fish farm .
ăIf you raise them for eating, water birds wonât fly you know? Well, they can but only as far as five to ten meters I guess . These guys are heavy so they wonât be able to fly . You need to be careful when it comes to strong birds though, like those monsters that fly in the sky . ă
She said that with a pleasant smile as she immediately began feed the freshwater fish with the feed she got from who knows where .
Hmm, aerial countermeasures, huh . Predatory birds wonât be a problem if I just make nets using reinforced string but when it comes to monstersâŠâŠ Well, Iâll just leave it to Suzuran when that time comes .
I went to the stream near my training area in the forest to look for crayfish, pond snails and aquatic plants . Since I havenât visited it for a while, my training area is starting to look run down .
ăSorry about this . Iâll come and do some maintenance on you lateră
Was what I said as I left and immediately started my search . I used magic to scoop out some of the water that was flowing on the stream in front of me . I then shaped it into a sphere and checked if there was anything inside . Itâs difficult trying to find things inside the stream . The water is always moving so you wonât be able to find anything from above .
ăOhăŒ there they areă
I murmured as I caught some crayfish and pond snails . I used magic to create a water ball and stored them inside of it . I found it strange how they donât fall outside of the water ball but I just decided not to mind it . When I went to the swamp that was a bit deeper into the forest, I found a turtle there so I just went ahead and caught it for the time being . And then, after picking suitable aquatic plants, I decided to go home .
On my way home, I asked the onee-san at the fish farm if it would be okay to put some of the crayfish, pond snails and aquatic plants there . I got her approval so I place them in the pond . Iâll put the remaining half in Suzuranâs duck pond .
Since the turtle was looking quite pitiful, I build a some sort of floating island in the middle of the pond and released it there . It immediately started to bask in the sun and thinned its eyes, with a blank face . Should I build some sort of turtle nest? Donât really like turtles compared to other animals though⊠I also havenât eaten it before so I canât really say anything about the taste .
Half a year later, the floating island has already been occupied by the ducks and the turtle was starting to look even more pitiful so I just decided to make it a bit larger .
Once she came back from school, I reported to Suzuran .
ăIâve more or less completed ităăThanksă
She replied as she hugged me . Iâm not sure if she did that because she was being grateful towards me or if sheâs just really glad that she can already start raising ducks . Ricoris-san was just grinning while looking at us but Iâm really glad that Ichii-san isnât here to see this .
After that, I gave her instructions on how to refill the pond with water from the ca.n.a.l once the water level starts decreasing . While I was doing that, Ichii-san came back with the ducks . From what I heard, it seems like he went out of the village to buy the ducks . Thanks for the hard work .
We immediately released the ducks on the pond and they delightfully started swimming . Then, they started dipping their faces into the water and started eating the crayfish and pond snails .
ăTANISHI3ăŒăŒăŒăŒ!!ă
I screamed that in my mind . And I even had put them there to improve the water quality, even if just a bitâŠâŠ Both my face and my mind became blank . How do I improve the water quality of a pond with just ducks in it?
I donât know where she heard it from but Suzuran brought feed that was made up of foliage plants and started scattering it around that area . If that was given out a bit earlier, we could have probably extended the lifespan of the pond snails even for a bit . I honestly made light of the omnivorous nature of aquatic birdsâŠ
Footnotes: 1 . Reference to Akagi from kancolle . just copied how it was translated in the wiki⊠2 . I made a mistake with Suzuranâs familyâs race since I completely missed the âç„(kami/shin/jin)â kanji . Rather than just oni, theyâre from the Kijin(éŹŒç„, also read as Onigami/Kishin) tribe . Kijin/Onigami/Kishin is translated as âfierce G.o.dâ but it can also be âogre/oni G.o.d . Iâm not sure if I should use onigami or kishin⊠3 . Because âPOND SNAILăŒăŒăŒăŒ!!â would have sounded lameâŠ