To my relief, Shuri and the others returned several days later. They’d brought back a substantial haul—way, way more than I’d anticipated. In total, there were around one hundred individual tuber vegetables, which seemed to be split across ten different varieties, plus an assortment of random seeds.
I just hope they’re edible...
I asked the ants as much, pretending to eat one of the potato-like crops. The ants nodded in approval. Twenty or so ants nodding in unison was a vaguely unsettling sight.
For now, I decided to try planting some of the tubers in the newly plowed field. Vegetables need proper nutrients to thrive, so I gave making organic fertilizer a try—something my father had once insisted on teaching me, whether I liked it or not.
First, I dug a largish hole and installed a wooden frame, like a planter box, around it. Into the hole went all the food scraps, as well as dead leaves, grass, and other bits of natural waste, which I subsequently stomped down and compacted. I repeated the process over the next few days, adding whatever food scraps we had and stomping it down again. The dead leaves were a little dry, so I added a bit of water too. Once it was nearly full, I set out into the forest, hoping to find something that looked like fungus or mold. Natural bacteria was great at accelerating decomposition. I wasn’t entirely sure that parallel worlds had natural bacteria, but luckily, I managed to find something vaguely mold-like.
And in you go... Should be fine, I think.
Now I just had to wait about six months for it to fully break down—which wasn’t a particularly enticing thought, so I used magic to fast-forward the date in the manure pit by a year instead.
I love magic. The fertilizer looks perfect! So I’m guessing that was mold after all... That might come in handy later. Mold’s pretty useful in a lot of ways.
I spread my new fertilizer over the soil and mixed it in, tilling the plot into neat rows as I did. I still wasn’t sure the tubers would grow in here—if they could even grow at all—but there was only one way to find out. I cut each of the tubers into smaller chunks, making sure each chunk had at least one eye sprouting from it, and planted them in the soil. By the time everything was planted, my field had over fifty furrowed rows. My friends had worked hard to bring back so many of the tubers, so I hadn’t wanted anything to go to waste. Even after exhausting myself making fifty rows, though, there was still a lot of field to spare.
This field is just too wide... Maybe I should have spread the rows out more? Who knows? Not me.
Since I had room to spare, I decided to plant some of the seeds that the ants had brought back too—although I didn’t have any idea what they’d produce. Before planting them, though, I first verified that they were edible via my somewhat dubious charades.
Okay, sorry guys, but you need to pick a representative. I can’t handle everyone nodding at me at the same time. You’re ants. It’s creepy.
Plow and plant. Plow and plant. It took over half a day to finish planting the seeds, by which time the number of rows had doubled. I took a step back to survey my work. When I first thought of growing some vegetables, I’d been picturing something like a small hobby garden. The field before my eyes resembled something from a commercial farm. I wasn’t quite sure where I’d gone wrong.
Later that afternoon, today’s hunting squad returned, dragging an assortment of prey behind them with their teeth. I was always impressed by how easily they seemed to carry the monsters, which were always much larger than them.
You’re all so strong! Who’s a good wolf— Er... Shion, are you floating just a little...? Nah. Gotta be my imagina— No, you’re definitely floating. Hmm... Well, I guess this is a parallel world. There’s magic here. Floating wolves aren’t too odd.
I’d become a master at turning a blind eye recently.
While I was butchering the latest lot of meat, two of the carcasses disappeared into the ant’s nest.
Enjoy your meal! You guys sure earned it. Baby spiders, you’re gonna have to wait a little longer, okay?
The baby spiders had recently started preferring their meat on the cooked side. The wolves still liked theirs raw, but they seemed to prefer it when I drained the blood first. I assumed it tasted better that way.
Another one... What are these things?
Lately, I’d realized that most of the monsters contained a weird gemlike stone. It wasn’t every monster, but at least ninety percent of them produced one of the slate-gray pebbles.
Animals back home don’t have stones inside them... I think. Yep, definitely not. The only stones you’d find inside a living thing would be kidney stones or something... Maybe these monsters were sick? Nah, the stones are always right near the heart. Heart stones? I don’t think that’s a thing... But what causes stones to form near a monster’s heart? Ha, as if I’d know. Either way, I’ve got way too many of these piling up. I wonder if I can use them for something? They’re starting to take up a lot of space...