Chapter 554 – In the Underground Water Field

I returned to the botanical garden with the Water Dragon parent and child.

All three of them seemed fascinated by the botanical garden’s scenery, particularly widening their eyes at the flower fairies’ welcome and the floating Noble Leaf planters moving through levitation.

“The outside world is quite lively, isn’t it?”

“Hehe, indeed it is.”

Pernas and Invel appeared quite intimate with each other, though their remarks seemed rather carefree.

“Mm, welcome back.”

“Welcome back, Theodore-kun.”

“Mmm. I’m home.”

Michelle, who had been touring the botanical garden, returned with Sheila and Irmhild, so I took the opportunity to formally introduce Mahr, the Water Dragon parent and child, and Belius who had accompanied us as Claudia’s escort.

“This is Water Spirit King Mahr, and my friends Pernas, Invel, and Lasnote. And… Belius might look intimidating, but he understands human speech and is usually quite gentle, so there’s no need to worry.”

“Y-yes.”

Michelle’s eyes widened at the sight of Belius, but Belius himself remained calmly seated, wagging his tail. It seemed he was being careful not to appear threatening this time, refraining from grinning at Michelle.

“Now then, well…”

I wondered how to introduce the Water Dragon parent and child. While Michelle had no personality issues, from their perspective, she was a human they were meeting for the first time. When I glanced at the two of them, they nodded quietly.

“Since she’s here with us, I assume she’s someone trustworthy?”

“Yes.”

I nodded in response to Pernas’s question. Judging by her meticulous research approach, her reputation among residents near the Barony of Silun, and how Noble Leaves and spirits seemed to take to her, I could say she was a trustworthy person.

“In that case, you may tell her about us.”

“Understood. Then…”

After nodding to the Water Dragon parent and child, I turned back to Michelle and formally introduced them.

“These three are using a Humanization Spell, but they’re actually a Water Dragon parent and child.”

“A Spirit King and Water Dragons? I-I’m Michelle.”

Though Michelle looked nervous, given the extraordinary company being introduced, she seemed somewhat desensitized to the surprises.

“Pleased to meet you.”

When Mahr extended his hand, Michelle reciprocated with a handshake. Seeing this, the Water Dragon parent and child also each shook hands with Michelle. Since this was their first time transforming from dragons to human form, not only Lasnote but Pernas and the others were slightly awkward, though it seemed to be a rather fresh experience for them. Pernas kept opening and closing his hand.

Now then. With everyone gathered, let’s head to the underground paddy field.

The rice seedlings had grown to about 10 centimeters. According to Forset, they were just at the right stage for planting.

“So these are rice seedlings?”

As expected, Michelle seemed unfamiliar with rice and paddy fields. She looked around at the structure of the paddy field illuminated by magical light, then carefully examined the shallow boxes containing the rice seedlings.

“That’s right. These were germinated from seed rice and grown as seedlings.”

Since I needed to explain various things to Michelle today, I had brought the seed rice with me.

After holding the seed rice up to the light to examine it, Michelle remarked.

“It resembles wheat.”

“I believe they’re related species. Like wheat, it’s a crop with high yield per unit area.”

“I see…”

Michelle nodded with a serious expression.

After confirming the overall condition of the paddy field once more, we proceeded with the work following Forset’s instructions.

First came the work of leveling the field. By making it flat and then adding water, we could remove debris and such. Well, being an underground paddy field, there probably wouldn’t be much debris, but we followed the procedure anyway.

Using Earth Magic, I turned over the mud in the field and leveled it flat.

“How’s this?”

“Yes. I think it’s fine.”

After Forset touched the field and nodded, Caduceus in his cat form used his tail to open the water gate. We let water in, stopping it at the appropriate time.

Now, now. Finally, we could move on to rice planting.

“Well then, shall we give it a try?”

We could have used Golems for the task, but since this was a special occasion, we decided to try doing it by hand first. I took off my shoes, removed my outerwear, and rolled up my sleeves. Using Levitation to float the seedling boxes, I took seedlings from them and planted them in the paddy field along vertical lines at regular intervals.

“Is this about the right spacing?”

“Yes. That’s just right.”

Seeing this, Forset smiled, tied up the hem of his clothes to shorten them, and began planting seedlings along the adjacent line.

“I see. Then I’ll help too.”

After watching the work, Ashley and Michelle also nodded, shortened their sleeves and hems, and began planting rice alongside Forset. Then everyone else joined in as well.

Princess Stephania and her group, the spirits, the Water Dragon parent and child, and the flower fairies all cooperated in planting seedlings, making for quite a lively work session. Pietro was also using clones, but perhaps because we emphasized everyone working together, he kept their numbers modest.

Corulis and Belius seemed to refrain from entering the paddy field due to their large size, but they could plant seedlings without stepping in if they stayed at the edges. Corulis skillfully used the tips of its claws to plant seedlings in the corners. Similarly, Belius used his tail to skillfully plant seedlings.

“I haven’t done this since I experienced it once as a child.”

“Me neither. Normally, people around me stop me from doing such things.”

Princess Stephania and the others seemed to be enjoying themselves. Hmm. So King Melvin and King Eberhart had them experience farm work.

“The policy is that we should know at least once about the effort behind the bread that reaches our tables.”

When Rosemary provided this supplementary explanation about their conversation, Marlene also nodded with a smile.

“I see.”

Father had done something similar with Daryl as part of helping him understand the lives of the citizens, so King Melvin and the others were doing the same thing.

“Hmm. So this is how humans go about their activities?”

“It’s a valuable experience.”

Hearing this conversation, Pernas and Invel seemed to have some thoughts about it. Lasnote also held up a seedling toward the light, her eyes shining.

We divided the work and planted rice in a pleasant atmosphere. With the help of the flower fairies too, we finished planting all the seedlings without it taking too much time.

Then we washed the mud from our hands, feet, and fur in the irrigation channel’s water, using Earth Magic and Water Magic to clean every corner thoroughly.

“This is quite helpful.”

After thoroughly removing the mud from the fur on his hands and feet using magic, Pietro smiled.

“Well, maintenance must be quite troublesome too.”

After finishing with washing up and such, we looked over the paddy field once more.

“It’s beautiful. Since it resembles wheat, I imagine when harvest time comes, the entire field will turn golden?”

“Yes. When they grow more, the green will look quite beautiful too, and as you said, harvest season has its own charm.”

When Michelle spoke, Forset smiled.

The sight of rice seedlings neatly arranged across the paddy field bathed in magical light was indeed beautiful. Since it was the result of our work, it also felt like we had completed a task.

“What happens from here?”

Grace inquired.

“We need to pay attention to whether the planted rice has fallen over for some reason, avoid insects that might eat them, check if other plants have mixed in, or if they’ve become diseased. Even underground, some can wander in.”

With Halvaronis, those problems were probably fewer than usual, but apparently not zero. If that’s the case, then we should be careful about those points even in the underground paddy field.

“And then… temperature and water temperature management are also important. Once they’ve grown to a certain extent, they require less care, but for a while we need to watch them carefully. Normally, it takes about four months until harvest, I believe?”

“Harvesta and everyone else say they’ll work hard on that. I’ll also come check on them properly since I’m worried about these little ones.”

When Floria said this with a smile, the Noble Leaves and flower fairies nodded.

…Yeah. We seem to have quite thorough preparations. Considering the cooperation of the Noble Leaves, I think we might be able to harvest earlier than planned.

Forset nodded at Floria’s words, then said to Michelle.

“I’ll compile those procedures and precautions into documents for you.”

“Thank you. It seems this is actually a crop that requires considerable care. If grown outside, there would be effects from rain and wind too… Insects and diseases are also points we’d need to be even more careful about.”

“That’s right. The underground paddy field has controlled air and water temperatures… But ideally, I’m thinking if we can supplement that area with the power of Noble Leaves.”

“Indeed. When placed together, they seem to grow much more vigorously.”

Forset and Michelle exchanged various words like this.

Well then. The rice planting has been safely completed for now. Since we still have rice brought from Halvaronis, the plan from here is to return home and have a tasting session during dinner.