Farm Inspection

Caro and I, guided by the Town Head, headed toward the farmland where the wheat was being cultivated.

Verna apparently had to clean the house, so we left her behind at the Town Head’s residence.

“It seems my daughter has been a nuisance. I apologize. As you can see by her personality, people her own age won’t give her the time of day; she’s been isolated without any friends in this town, and it’s been quite a concern. It’s a bit much coming from her own father, but it would be a huge help if you could become true friends with her.”

“I don’t mind that at all.”

“I don’t mind either.”

Both Caro and I showed understanding toward the Town Head’s request.

Guided by him, Caro and I arrived at the farmland where the wheat was being grown.

“It’s needlessly vast, isn’t it?”

“Needless, huh… True, we are managing this much land with only a small number of people.”

I was surprised by the overwhelming scale of the farmland. This wouldn’t be a problem if we were cultivating it with agricultural machinery, but managing it by hand looked like it would require a staggering amount of labor. The wheat had grown to a point where it seemed almost ready for harvest.

“Oho, Mr. Town Head. You’ve come back, have ya? Did ye forget somethin’?”

“Good work. It’s not that; I had some people who said they wanted to see the farmland, so I’m showing them around.”

“I see, I see. Guests, it’s just as ye see it, but please take your time lookin’ around.”

““Thank you very much.””

A farmer in the fields called out to us. From the way they spoke, the relationship between the farmers and the Town Head seemed to be good.

“I felt the relationship with the farmers was good, but how is it in reality?”

“Let’s see. I don’t think it’s bad with me. However, the relationship between the farmers and the guards is not good. Part of it is that the guards are fundamentally the ones who handle the tax collection.”

“I see. So, how are you handling the bird damage prevention?”

I threw questions at the Town Head one after another.

“As for bird prevention… like that, the young folk take turns chasing the birds away. But they come back immediately, so there’s no end to it. As you said, Kent-kun, it’s needlessly vast, so they have to keep up this work until the harvest; it must be quite a burden on the young ones.”

The Town Head spoke with a look of half-resignation.

“Kent-san, can’t you do something?”

Caro asked me.

“For bird prevention, bird netting is the most effective, but the farmland is too wide, so the cost wouldn’t be worth it. If there are people to do the chasing, there’s something called a sound-chasing pistol that uses gunpowder.”

“A sound-chasing pistol? What kind of thing is that?”

Caro asked me with interest.

“By the way, Mr. Town Head…”

Understanding what I was trying to do, Caro drew the Town Head’s attention. In that gap, I ordered a sound-chasing pistol from my terminal.

“Let’s see, set this here and… done.”

“That’s a strange shape.”

Caro’s eyes sparkled at the sight of something she was seeing for the first time. What I was holding was a pistol-shaped tool used for bird prevention. You insert a cap containing gunpowder and pull the trigger; the gunpowder explodes and makes a loud noise. Since it doesn’t fire a projectile, it’s safe and doesn’t harm the birds.

“Kent-kun, what is that?”

Before I knew it, the Town Head was also looking curiously at the object gripped in my hand.

“Well, just watch.”

I stepped into the field and leveled the sound-chasing pistol. Since I forgot to prepare earplugs, I pressed one ear with my finger and the other with my arm, confirmed no one was around, then pointed it upward and pulled the trigger.

BANG!

A loud explosion echoed out.

“Kya!”

“Whoa!”

Caro and the Town Head were startled by the massive sound.

Then, the startled birds took flight all at once.

“The sound was incredible, but those birds that wouldn’t budge no matter how much we chased them have all fled at once.”

The farmers who heard the noise gathered to see what was going on.

“Town Head! There was a huge sound, what happened?”

“When I told young Kent here that we were troubled by bird damage, he showed me that noisy tool from before; we were just testing it, sorry for startling you.”

“I should have said something first. Sorry for the commotion.”

The Town Head and I bowed to the gathered people and apologized.

“Kent-kun, I understand the effect well. That thing called a sound-chasing pistol looks quite expensive; is it something we could actually obtain?”

“For now, I don’t need it, so I’ll give this to you. I’ll explain how to use it later.”

“That is generous. To receive such a convenient thing is a huge help.”

I decided to hand the sound-chasing pistol I just took out to the Town Head.

Hearing that, the farmers were overjoyed. Then, I explained to everyone how to use it. (Since you just set it and pull the trigger, the explanation itself was very simple.)

The farmers immediately used the sound-chasing pistol they received to chase away the birds.

“Also, birds learn, so if they judge that there’s no actual harm to them, it will lose its effect. Please be careful to use it only during the harvest season and not at other times.”

“I see. Understood. I’ll make sure to be careful about that.”

After that, Caro and I looked around the wheat fields under the Town Head’s guidance. Caro pulled out her smartphone here and there to take photos and noted down necessary items in her notebook.

In this territory, under the instructions of the previous Lord, nothing but wheat was cultivated; every single field grew wheat.

“I think the idea was that if you profit by selling wheat, you can just buy other food, but I feel the balance is too poor. I feel it would be better to have a few more types of crops.”

“For example, what would you recommend?”

I felt uneasy about the current cultivation method, which was completely “all-in” on wheat. It looked like they could harvest this year if things continued this way, but if some kind of problem occurred, the lack of other varieties would lead to catastrophic damage. I recommended cultivating multiple types to diversify the risk.

“My recommendation would be sweet potatoes, but since it’ll be after the wheat harvest, the planting season will have passed. Utilizing the time until the next sowing, it might be good to grow summer vegetables like tomatoes or cucumbers.”

“I don’t know about what you call sweet potatoes, Kent-san, but I know tomatoes and cucumbers. However, if we start now, it seems like it would be difficult to procure the seeds.”

The wheat currently being grown was soon to reach harvest season. As we inspected, Caro and I discussed what would be best to do afterward.

“Kent-kun, have you studied agriculture or something?”

The Town Head, who had been listening to our conversation with interest, asked as if impressed by my knowledge.

“No, I haven’t done any particular study, but I used to work at a shop that handled those kinds of things…”

Needless to say, I was referring to the home improvement store where I worked in my previous world. Since they had a rich selection of gardening supplies, the clerks needed a certain amount of knowledge to help customers. Necessarily, while expert knowledge wasn’t required, one had to memorize the general details (at the very least, the names of the products).

Having finished the inspection of the farmland, the three of us returned to the Town Head’s house.

“Mr. Town Head. Today was a very good learning experience. Thank you very much.”

“Thank you very much.”

“No, no, I couldn’t do much, but I’m glad if it was a reference for your studies.”

Caro and I thanked the Town Head.

“Father, welcome back.”

“Oh, I’m home.”

When we entered the Town Head’s house, Verna greeted us.

“Welcome back, Kent, Caro. Of course you’re staying for dinner, right? I’ve prepared it for you.”

It seemed Verna had prepared dinner and was waiting for Caro and me to return.