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“Beth!! When you’re done grinding the flour, come over to my place for a bit!!”

Her childhood friend Amy called out loudly from outside to Beth, who had been grinding flour with the waterwheel that day.

The village Beth had grown up in was a small village, so everyone was practically like family.

“What is it, Amy?”

Beth poked her flour-covered face out from the window.

“Our grapes are looking weak again. Why do you think that is? Come take a look for a bit.”

Beth, who was supposed to be an ordinary country girl in every way, had just one small special skill.

It was the ability to somehow understand what silent plants were asking for.

From flowers that would not bud to wheat whose yield was poor, if Beth got serious, most problems were solved.

However, the specialty of Beth’s village was handcrafted wooden goods, and everyone generally worked in woodworking, while the elderly were all able to grow crops well enough through experience. Beth’s ability had never had much chance to show its true worth, and to begin with, Beth was not a farmer’s daughter. She was the daughter of a mill.

If splendid crops grew in the fields for their own food, everyone was fully satisfied with that, and if enough flowers bloomed for them to admire themselves, they were fully satisfied with that. And if, from time to time, she could help solve problems with the crops of her childhood friends or neighbors like this, that was enough.

After finishing her work grinding flour, Beth rushed over to Amy’s garden, stared intently while touching the grape leaves in Amy’s field, tried putting a green fruit in her mouth, and after thinking for a long while, she said,

“I’m not completely sure, but I think you should try adding rice bran and ash to the soil. I’ll give you some leftover rice bran later, so try mixing it into the soil. I think half as much ash as rice bran should be enough.”

Amy looked relieved and said,

“I’m so glad! I thought the grapes might have caught a disease like last time. It really was a good thing I consulted you early back then, too. When it comes to plants, if I consult you, Beth, it gets solved right away, so it really helps.”

“I’m glad I could be useful. Did the roses bloom nicely after that?”

“They did! Just like you said, bugs were starting to get on them, so I got rid of them early. You really would be incredibly valued if you married into a farming family, but you only tend your own home vegetable garden, so it’s such a waste of talent.”

Amy said that while playing with her curly blond hair.

“It’s fine, since it’s useful enough to me and to you, Amy. Besides, to become a farmer, I’d have to go all the way to the flatlands far from here, and they’re so busy that the only days I could read books would be rainy days. With milling, I can read while the flour is being ground, so it’s my calling.”

“I wonder what’s so great about books. And besides, the ones you read are all about magicians-sama from the royal capital. For country commoners like us who have no magic power, it’s a distant story.”

What Amy said was perfectly reasonable.

The books Beth read were always adventure stories about the achievements of royal court magicians from the royal capital or the magic corps of the royal army, and they were all stories of a world that had absolutely nothing to do with the daughters of farmers or millers in the countryside, where even people with magic power were rarely found.

To Amy, they were fairy tales she could not sympathize with in the slightest.

“That’s exactly why they’re good! Reading stories that are incredibly far from reality and daydreaming dreamily about them is wonderful.”

Beth said that and looked up at the sky dreamily. For Beth, who could not use magic, adventure tales where magicians played an active role were nearly her only pleasure in a country life with little entertainment.

“Yes, yes, playing in your world of delusions like that is fine and all, but show a little interest in the real world too. Who are you planning to go with to the next autumn festival? Everyone is starting to pick out their partners already. You’ll be in trouble if you fall behind.”

The autumn festival was the most important day of the year in this extremely rural place.

The young people of the village spent the whole year distracted over which member of the opposite gender they would go out with at this autumn festival.

“I’m going around with Amy again this year! Let’s eat grilled mutton skewers together again.”

Beth, who was truly hopeless in this department, said that with a silly grin, but,

“Idiot! This year, I’m definitely going to get a wonderful boyfriend by the autumn festival, so I absolutely won’t go around with you, Beth! If you don’t hurry up and get a boyfriend, eat skewers by yourself this year!”

Saying that, the two girls without boyfriends looked at each other and laughed together.

Even though she had only been spending such quiet, leisurely days.