Chapter 227: The Golems' Agriculture — A Familiar Trope?
May arrived, and fresh green leaves began to vividly color the town.
It is the season when plants become full of energy.
The development of the Black Soil Zone is progressing smoothly, and preparations to create wheat fields have also begun.
Of course, wheat is important as it is the staple food of this world.
However, personally, there was a crop I wanted to grow as soon as possible.
Because Aurasneer, James, and the others had found a tributary river flowing into the great river in the south, I couldn’t stop that desire.
“Oliver, we found a reasonably large river in the Black Soil Zone!”
“Oh, so you found agricultural land with abundant water. Then let’s make that.”
Since it’s a crop not grown in the Albion Kingdom, no one has experience with it.
Based on the knowledge Oliver gained from the Akashic Records, we decided to use Golems for the labor force.
We had to hurry because we wanted to have the seedlings for that crop prepared by mid-May.
We were hoping to plant the seedlings in June.
That crop is… rice.
The Black Soil Zone gives off a strong image of wheat, but with abundant water, rice cultivation isn’t impossible.
According to the knowledge Oliver found using the Akashic Records, a variety of rice called “Daohuaxiang” is cultivated in the black soil region of Heilongjiang Province in China.
In Japan, it’s apparently a popular variety similar to Koshihikari.
Thinking I’d grow rice if the conditions were met, I had asked the Levant Company to order seed rice for us.
We put the seed rice in saltwater to sort it.
The heavy seeds that sink to the bottom have a lot of endosperm and are of good quality.
“William-sama, the seedling boxes are ready.”
“As expected of Oliver, you work fast.”
A seedling box is a container used to adjust the environment, such as temperature, until the seedlings sprouting from the seed rice grow to a certain size.
In my original world, they are usually made of plastic.
Here, too, Oliver had prepared ones made of plastic.
We had the Wood Golems handle the work of laying soil in the seedling boxes and sowing the seed rice evenly.
Performing the exact same task accurately is a field Golems excel at.
“Master, is this good?”
“Thank you, Theo. It looks great.”
While the seedlings were growing, Theo, who came to help, built a vinyl greenhouse for us.
The Production Skill is truly convenient.
A magnificent vinyl greenhouse was completed in the blink of an eye.
Once the seedlings grow to a certain size, they are removed from the seedling boxes and moved to the vinyl greenhouse.
After growing them while managing the temperature until they are about 10 cm tall and their roots have spread, it’s finally time for rice planting.
Working like this, I realize there are quite a few processes before actual rice planting.
People in the past used to say they put their heart and soul into growing rice, and I realized once again that farmers go through truly painstaking steps.
Now then, it was finally time for rice planting.
Nowadays, rice planting is done by machine, but back when it was done by hand, it was apparently back-breaking heavy labor.
In this world too, I’d like to make a rice transplanter eventually, but first, it’s hand planting.
Well, I say “hand,” but it’s not human hands.
In the paddy fields—built at a rapid pace using Earth Magic while the seedlings were growing—the Wood Golems lined up in a row.
Bending at the waist, they planted the seedlings one by one.
The Wood Golems correctly repeated the precise motions.
The seedlings were planted neatly at equal intervals.
That’s all well and good, but…
“Oliver, why are the Golems dressed like this?”
For some reason, the Golems were all working with matching traditional hand towels (tenugui) wrapped around their heads.
“Eh, isn’t this style the standard trope? There was information saying it’s a traditional scene representing early summer.”
“No, well, it might have been like that in the old days. But in the era I lived in, it only remained in things like sightseeing events.”
“Is that so. But well, it makes the Golems look cute, so isn’t it fine?”
“That’s right, Brother. Cute is justice.”
Sophie, who had come to watch the rice planting, also agreed with Oliver.
Ever since I started attending the Royal Academy, I haven’t been able to make much time to spend with Sophie.
That’s why I had invited her, asking if she wanted to come see the Golems plant a rare crop.
“Yeah, well, I guess you could call it cute.”
“This will absolutely become popular.”
Since Sophie pushed the idea so strongly, we made postcards of the Golems planting rice and lined them up at the shop in New Wrexham.
When we did, they unexpectedly became a hugely popular item.
You really never know what’s going to be a hit.
