Farmland Reform (1)

The next morning, Kent woke up. Beside him, Caro was sleeping peacefully while still naked. Last night as well, the two of them had worked hard until late to replenish Al’s magical power. As for Al herself…

“Master… This much magical power… I cannot eat it all…”

She was sleeping beside Kent with a satisfied look while talking in her sleep. And for some reason, she was naked too. Her chest was completely flat, but the two things asserting themselves there drew Kent’s eyes. On the opposite side were Caro’s as well.

“When I compare them, Caro-san’s might be a little bigger.”

Victory went to Caro, who had a subtle swell.

“Master, what are you comparing? I know you like big ones, but you do not have to say it out loud.”

“Whoa!”

Kent was startled by the sudden voice. Apparently, Kent’s mutter had woken Al up.

“Besides, if I want to make mine bigger, I can do it like this, you know?”

Suddenly, a soft sensation was conveyed to Kent, and he realized that it was Al’s enlarged chest. However, Kent thought that breasts of that size on such a small body did not look right.

“You understand very well now that balance is important, do you not?”

“…Yes.”

Kent ended up agreeing after Al said that. Then, before he realized it, Al’s chest had returned to its usual flat state.

“Kent-san, good morning.”

“Ah, good morning, Caro-san. Did I wake you?”

“No, it is about time to get up, so it is all right.”

Caro also woke up, and Kent and the others prepared themselves before they were called for breakfast.

It seemed breakfast was ready, so Verna came to the hut where Kent and the others were staying to call them, and they decided to have breakfast together with Verna’s family.

“Kent, Caro, what do you plan to do today?”

Verna asked Kent and the others about their plans for the day.

“We plan to go to the farmland today.”

“What will you do at the farmland?”

When Kent answered, Verna asked further.

“Actually, a certain person asked us to reform the farmland. The three of us will be helping with that.”

“Is that so? By a certain person, do you perhaps mean the Acting Lord?”

“…Y-Yes, that is right.”

“So Kent and the others have met the Acting Lord? What kind of person was he?”

“…Um…”

Kent answered Verna while keeping things about the Acting Lord vague. Well, it should not have been wrong.

“Kent-sa…n, if you need manpower, I was thinking of calling everyone together. What do you think?”

The Town Head, who had almost called him with -sama, hurriedly corrected himself and asked whether manpower was needed.

“Let’s see… We will check the state of the farmland in the morning, so it would help if you gathered people from the afternoon onward.”

“Understood. Then I will arrange it that way.”

“Thank you.”

Thus, after securing personnel, Kent, Caro, and Al decided to head to the farmland.

“Even so, it is full of grass.”

Caro said that while looking over the fields. When they came before, the wheat was close to harvest, and beautiful wheat-colored fields had spread across the area, but now the harvest was over, and weeds were growing thickly everywhere.

“It looks like they were left as is after the wheat harvest ended.”

Kent said that while checking the state of the fields. Because of the previous lord’s policies, every field had been used to cultivate wheat, so the balance of the food situation had become extremely poor. Kent thought that unless they improved that, the issues regarding food circumstances and income from the territory would not be solved.

“Master, for now, should I just wither all these weeds?”

“Even if we cut them by hand, it’s too wide, so it would turn into quite a huge job.”

“Then I’ll wither them all.”

“Huh?”

Kent had judged that cutting them by hand would be difficult, and he intended to buy grass cutters from his device and have the farmers help with the mowing work. He had also considered using herbicide, but considering health issues, he wanted to avoid using it on farmland as much as possible, and cost-wise, using it on this vast land would also be quite difficult. However, Al moved to solve it from a different angle.

“Ei!”

When Al shouted, the weeds growing on the farmland withered in an instant.

“Al-chan, amazing!”

Caro said in surprise when she saw that sight.

“Ahem! If it’s up to me, weeds are easy to get rid of.”

Al said that even while she looked quite sweaty and strained.

“Hey, don’t push yourself too hard. But thanks.”

“Master praised me.”

When Kent said that, Al replied happily.

“Then, Al, you can rest here for a while. Caro-san and I will go look around the farmland.”

“Yes, I think I will be able to move again after a little while, so I will rest.”

After letting Al rest in the shade of a tree at the edge of the farmland, Kent and Caro decided to proceed farther in.

“Even so, it has been weeded beautifully.”

“It really has. It matches the field boundaries cleanly too, and grasping that in an instant is amazing.”

Usually, she often used magical power for trivial things, and they did not feel that she was all that amazing, but after seeing her work this time, the two of them understood Al’s greatness once again. After that, Kent and Caro looked around the vast weeded fields, checked the water sources, soil, sunlight, and other factors, and considered what crops they should cultivate going forward.

“Al, how are you feeling?”

“Yes, I can move now, but it seems I used a little too much magical power. May I replenish it in the grass shade over there?”

“Huh? Now?”

“Yes, now. Is that not allowed?”

The magical power replenishment Al mentioned seemed to mean that thing he had been doing with Caro at night since they came here.

“Al-chan worked hard, so I do not mind.”

“But we’re outside?”

“There are no people around us, so it should be fine… I think?”

Caro also seemed to briefly consider that it was bright outside, but she judged that it would be all right.

“Now that it has been decided, please begin at once.”

Thus, Kent and Caro ended up doing it outside for the first time.

“Um, excuse me for interrupting while you are busy.”

“Whoa!”

“Kyaa!”

After that, the two of them got very carried away, and it seemed a fair amount of time had passed, because the Town Head spoke to them apologetically. Since they had been completely in their own world, they had not noticed the Town Head approaching and were startled.

A short distance away, the farmers had gathered and were watching them with lukewarm gazes. It seemed the Town Head had noticed Kent and Caro getting carried away outside, made the farmers wait, and came to call them alone. However, the farmers seemed to have fully understood what they had been doing. Since the Town Head knew that Kent was the Acting Lord and Caro was the Lord’s daughter, he did not say anything more.

“Being close is a good thing.”

“Youth is nice.”

“When I was young, my wife and I used to do it during breaks in the middle of farmwork too.”

The farmers, unaware of such circumstances, muttered one thing after another. While listening to that, Caro fixed her clothes with her face bright red from embarrassment, and the Town Head watched her while breaking out in a cold sweat.

“Oh, you folks are the ones from that time… Thanks for helping us back then.”

Kent and the farmers had met during the bird damage countermeasures, so they quickly warmed up to one another. Everyone was grateful, saying that it was thanks to Kent that they had been able to harvest the wheat safely.

“Now then, the reason we had you gather this time was that I intended to have you carry out weeding work on the farmland, but as you can see, the work has already been finished…”

Because they had been looking only at Kent and Caro’s act, the farmers had not noticed the change in the farmland. When it was pointed out to them again, they seemed quite surprised.

“Oh my, when did that happen?”

“I’m shocked.”

The farmers said such things one after another when they saw the beautifully weeded farmland.

“So I would like to move on to the next stage… First, we will greatly reduce the cultivation area for wheat. On the land freed up by that reduction, we will cultivate other things.”

Kent began explaining the plan.

“But is it all right to change what we cultivate without asking the Lord?”

“That’s right, that’s right.”

The farmers seemed afraid of being punished for changing the crops on their own.

“That is all right. Permission has been given by the Acting Lord, so rest assured.”

“If the Town Head says so…”

The Town Head’s single statement seemed to reassure the farmers.