Chapter 210: Let's Solve the Food Problem!

◆ Liliera ◆

“Here I gooo! Heave-ho!”

Jairo-kun, having leaped high into the sky, clad himself in flames and dove at the monsters on the ground; the moment he did, the monsters caused a massive explosion.

“Uwooh! What power! Those giant monsters with a single blow!!”

“Wh-What an outrageous boy!”

The Dwarves raised voices of astonishment at Jairo-kun’s fighting style.

“Hahhaa! Bring ’em on!”

And then Jairo-kun imbued his sword with flames and mowed down the approaching monsters.

“A-Alright! We can’t lose to that boy either!”

“Yeah. After all, His Majesty Honorary King Rex went out of his way to teach us! We’ll show the results of that!”

” ” “Ooh!!” ” ” “

Inspired by his battle, the Dwarves charged toward the monsters clad in brand-new armaments.

“Oryaaa!!”

When the Dwarf at the front swung his great axe, a monster’s hard carapace was cleanly severed.

“Nuun!!”

And when the Dwarf next to him swung down an iron hammer, the monster’s carapace was smashed with a crunch, as if breaking an eggshell.

“A-Amazing! To defeat monsters this easily!?”

“Watch out!!”

A Dwarf who was surprised by the performance of the new equipment was attacked by a monster’s giant pincers.

“W-Uwaaah!?”

However, the armor made by processing the old bark of the World Tree didn’t even budge when hit by the monster’s attack.

“S-Seriously…”

It was to the point where the Dwarves themselves were raising voices of surprise at the tremendous performance of the equipment they made.

“Hey, hey, save the surprise for later. For now, focus on the monsters in front of you.”

I cut down the monsters that approached the bewildered Dwarves and urged them to pay attention.

“S-Sorry. You saved me.”

While looking around the battlefield, I headed over to back up the other Dwarves.

“Even so, this is… beyond expectations.”

Although the Dwarves fighting on the battlefield were surprised by their own performance, none of them were struggling.

Rather, they were in a dominant position against a massive swarm of giant monsters.

Moreover, without any magical support.

“At this rate, we really don’t need mages.”

Yes, we were fighting the monsters without the support of mages.

The trigger for this happening… was a single remark from Jairo-kun.

“If Bro and the others fight first, the battle ends in a flash and we don’t get a turn!”

In fact, when a battle breaks out, thanks to the magic of Rex-san and the Elves… or rather, Rex-san’s magic, the battle situation instantly turns in our favor, so the battle was over before Jairo-kun and the Dwarves’ backup arrived.

And because that situation continued over and over, he threw a tantrum saying they wanted to fight too.

Well, it’s not like I don’t understand how he feels.

Regarding this, the Elf warrior chief, Sharaza-san, and the Dwarf elders accepted it.

After all, since Rex-san is here, we can rely on him in an emergency, making it perfect for training on efficient fighting methods and situations where mages can’t fight.

“Besides, thanks to His Majesty Honorary King Rex, we have reclaimed the ancient Dwarven arts, albeit only partially. We want to test this technique and the performance of equipment using the old bark of the World Tree, which we couldn’t process until now.”

So it seems they also wanted it to double as a test for the new equipment.

“Uwoooh!! Thanks to the method of identifying weak points in materials learned from Master Rex, I can tell exactly where to attack this monster!”

“Hahahaha! So this is where you’re weak! Here ya go!”

However, like those Dwarves over there, thanks to Rex-san’s outrageous techniques, the Dwarves had been strengthened not just in equipment, but in technical aspects as well.

“Kyu-Kyuuu!”

Incidentally, Mofu-mofu was also running all over the battlefield freely and defeating monsters.

“Mokyu mokyu.”

…Well, in that child’s case, it seems more for the purpose of eating the monsters rather than defeating enemies.

While we were fighting like that, the enemies were naturally annihilated.

“T-Tremendous. To think the Dwarves would achieve such an overwhelming victory…”

The Elves watching this battle from the rear were looking at the overwhelming increase in the Dwarves’ fighting strength with astonished eyes.

Yeah, I understand. I feel like saying that too after seeing Rex-san’s shenanigans.

“Hah! That was refreshing!”

“Good work. You played a huge role.”

“Yeah! Thanks for supporting the Dwarves too, Big Sis Liliera!”

When I appreciated him for fighting on the front lines the whole time, Jairo-kun also thanked me in return.

Heh, I thought he only cared about fighting enemies, but before I knew it, he had become able to look at his surroundings.

I can’t afford to be careless either.

“Fufu, thanks.”

Having finished the battle, we left the retrieval of monster materials to the Dwarves and were about to return to the World Tree, but noticing a white furball moving in the corner of my vision, I immediately went to retrieve it.

“Ah, hey Mofu-mofu. Rex-san told you not to go outside, didn’t he?”

“Kyuu?”

For some reason, this child wants to go outside the village excessively.

I wonder if it wants to hunt monsters in the forest?

◆

“Hmm.”

While taking a walk through the branch town of the World Tree, Sharaza-san was looking at a field made on a branch and groaning.

“What’s wrong, Sharaza-san?”

“Oh, it’s Lord Rex.”

“Is something troubling you?”

When I asked, Sharaza-san scratched their head with a complicated expression.

“Well, you see… we’re running short on food.”

“Food?”

Following Sharaza-san’s gaze to look at the field, there were many crops bearing fruit… not.

“The fruits look kind of small.”

Yes, the crops bearing fruit in the field were small, and the number was low as well.

“As you say. The crop yield is poor this year, and at this rate, it seems it won’t go around to everyone.”

“What do you do at times like this?”

“We enter the forest to hunt for wild vegetables and weak monsters… however, doing so in the current forest is a considerably difficult task. This time, we must prepare for casualties.”

I see, you have no choice but to go hunting outside for the amount you can’t harvest in the fields.

However, to do that, you have to enter a forest where massive swarms of monsters roam.

It must be truly difficult to regularly harvest enough food to feed everyone in the village under those conditions.

Is there anything I can help with… I know! Since we’re at the World Tree, let’s make that!!

“Umm, Sharaza-san. If it’s alright, could you let us help with procuring food too?”

“That would be… helpful, but wouldn’t it deviate from the contents of the request?”

Sharaza-san told us we didn’t have to go that far since the request to us was only the defense of the village.

Hmm, this person is an honest and good person… no, Elf.

“I don’t mind. Enhancing logistics is also part of defense, after all.”

“…You have my gratitude.”

Yes, the lack of food is a problem that affects everyone living in the village.

It’s not a good feeling for people who can’t fight to starve.

“Then I’ll make fertilizer for the fields right away!”

“What!? Fertilizer? Are you not going to help with the hunting?”

Perhaps my words were unexpected, but Sharaza-san raised a voice of surprise.

“Eh? By fertilizer, don’t tell me you’re making that again!?”

Amidst that, Liliera-san, hearing about fertilizer, raised a voice of bewilderment.

The that Liliera-san mentioned refers to the fertilizer we used in Hongio Village.

“No, I can’t make that fertilizer with the materials here, so considering the future, I plan to prepare a fertilizer that can be made solely with materials that can be gathered from the World Tree.”

“A fertilizer made solely with materials from the World Tree? Sounds like something outrageous is going to be made…”

“No, no, it’s just normal fertilizer. Besides, the World Tree is a treasure trove of materials, after all. There are mountains of parts that can become fertilizer.”

“Fertilizer from World Tree materials, huh… Feels like a terribly wasteful way to use them…”

Ahaha, it’s just recycling weeds.

I went to a place in the branch town where there were no buildings and scraped off the old, hard bark around there.

“That bark becomes fertilizer?”

“That’s right. The old bark of the World Tree is filled with high-quality nutrients, so when the peeled-off old bark falls to the ground and becomes leaf mold, it provides abundant nutrition to the surrounding land.”

“Heh.”

Well, those nutrients just get reabsorbed by the World Tree, though.

“But this isn’t all I’ll use.”

I advanced further towards the tip of the branch and gathered several small sprouts there.

Even though I say sprouts, since they’re the size of the World Tree, they’re large chunks that take an armful to hold.

“These sprouts are leaves the World Tree spreads to gain the sun’s blessing, and they’re filled with a different kind of nutrition from the bark.”

Having gathered several other materials as well, I immediately started making the fertilizer.

I pulverized the old bark of the World Tree into powder, squeezed the World Tree sprouts into it to extract the moisture.

By mixing them, it turned into a paste, and once mixed to a certain extent, I added the sap and flower nectar of the World Tree and mixed it again.

“…Alright, done!”

What was completed was a clear, fluorescent-colored liquid.

“This is… fertilizer? It looks completely different from the fertilizer you made before.”

“And isn’t the amount too small? This won’t be nearly enough to scatter over the fields on the branches, will it?”

Seeing the completed liquid, Liliera-san and Sharaza-san were skeptical whether this could restore the fields.

But that’s to be expected. Because this medicine wasn’t completed just with this.

“It’s fine. This Elixir was prepared as an intermediate material. It’s only completed as a fertilizer by mixing this with the pulverized World Tree bark.”

Saying that, I sprinkled the Elixir over the powder made by mixing the World Tree’s young bark and withered leaves that I had prepared in advance, and mixed it thoroughly.

“Heh, it becomes fertilizer by mixing it with Elixir… right?”

“Hoh, an Elixir made from the World Tree… wait?”

” “Wait, ELIXIR!?” “

Then, for some reason, Liliera-san and Sharaza-san widened their eyes in surprise.

“W-Wait wait wait!? Th-That liquid just now was an Elixir!? That legendary one!?”

“I-Is it true!? Did you really create that legendary medicine from World Tree materials!?”

“Yes, I can make it. This World Tree is quite small compared to normal World Trees, but it’s still a splendid World Tree. So you can make Elixirs normally, you know?”

“No, I don’t think you can make Elixirs normally…”

“Or rather, I do not even know how to make an Elixir in the first place…”

“Eh?”

What does this mean? How to make Elixirs using World Tree materials is something most people know, and for a housewife, it should be a basic practice to stockpile handmade ones for emergencies…

“Ah, I see.”

I see, so that’s how it is.

Sharaza-san and the other warriors of the village must have spent the time they would have used to learn how to make medicine on improving their combat skills instead.

Even in the battle the other day, the Elves were the vanguard and the Dwarves were the relief personnel, so they probably divide roles such that specialized people make medicine as well.

Regarding this, an acquaintance from my previous life said that division of labor is an important system to give people who can’t fight a sense of being useful to those who are fighting.

If you make one person able to do everything, the burden increases and the acquisition of skills gets delayed accordingly, so he said the existence of specialists to provide support is important.

But it brings back memories.

It’s true that an Elixir cures most injuries and illnesses, but in reality, treating them with magic is faster and easier.

Besides, medicine is a perishable item, so the bottleneck is that it rots unless given special treatment.

Partly because of that, keeping Elixirs constantly stocked fell out of practice.

“To use the legendary Elixir as a binder for fertilizer… Rumor had it that only a few bottles remained in the treasuries of major countries, and they’re rarely ever used.”

Heh, major countries are cautious, as expected.

To properly prepare Elixirs even in this era where magical treatment has become mainstream.

Even though small countries prioritizing efficiency all stopped producing Elixirs.

“So, here is the Elixir fertilizer. If you scatter this over the fields, the soil will instantly recover and you’ll be able to harvest a massive amount of crops!”

“O-Oh, we are grate… ful. I am extremely concerned that you used an incredibly precious Elixir for fertilizer, but…”

“No, no, Elixirs are easy to make, so you don’t have to worry about it, you know?”

” “No, normally you can’t make Elixirs easily!!” “

Eh? I don’t think that’s true, though.

“At any rate, with this, the problem of food shortage is solved!”

◆ Sharaza ◆

“T-To scatter this…”

We were scattering the fertilizer containing Elixir given by Lord Rex over the fields.

Because the elders were reluctant, we somehow obtained permission by scattering it on a portion of the field to check the situation, but… still, to scatter Elixir on a field.

“Is it… really okay to use this?”

To be honest, I was filled with anxiety over whether it was okay to use the legendary medicine on a field.

However, realistically, since it had already been turned into fertilizer, the fact of the matter was we couldn’t just throw it away either.

“Eeei! Now that it’s come to this, we have no choice but to use it!”

Resolving myself, I scattered the Elixir-containing fertilizer over the field.

After finishing scattering all the fertilizer, the mental fatigue from earlier suddenly hit me all at once, so I decided to go home and sleep immediately.

Honestly, I didn’t want to stay awake and think about this matter.

And the next day.

“Wh-What is thissssss!?”

Seeing the field that looked exactly like a forest, I couldn’t help but let out a scream…

Truly, who on earth is that gentleman…