WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
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◈ Got a Gallery in the Wild ◈
Chapter 193: Omen (3)
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[Post title] Trying to Farm
[Author] Wild Grylls
[Post] (Photo of Wonmo sitting)
[Post] Can anyone give me some advice?
└ [Heavenly Demon]: Wonmo is adorable no matter how many times I see him. I want to hold him.
└ [SwordTasteMaster]: Seriously. Can't you make a doll that looks like him?
└ Grylls needs to give everyone their own Wonmo!
└ I'd rather have a doll than Wonmo. I don't think I could afford his food.
└ But why farming all of a sudden? Is something urgent going on?
└ [Wild Grylls]: We have more mouths to feed now, and the holy knight guy says he wants to do it.
└ Now you're making a guy with a missing foot farm?;;
└ Are you actually human? That's fucking awful lol
└ [Wild Grylls]: No, fuck. I'm only letting him do it because he said he wanted to. It's not forced.
└ Put your hand on your heart. Have you really never made him work?
└ [Wild Grylls]: Don't worry. I already asked him to help build the house.
└ ;;;
└ You're worse than I imagined;;
└ You're already putting him to work lmao
└ Well, Grylls is the homeowner, so he has to listen to the homeowner lol
└ [GrowGrow]: Do you even have land you can farm there? A kitchen garden would be one thing, but farming needs a lot of space.
└ [Wild Grylls]: We have plenty of manpower, so I think it'll be fine.
└ [GrowGrow]: If that's the case, it doesn't matter, but normally you need to spread compost or lime over the field two or three weeks beforehand.
└ [Wild Grylls]: Two or three weeks beforehand?
└ [GrowGrow]: That lets the nutrients soak in properly. It's the same for a kitchen garden.
Figuring out how to farm for Ludwig.
After I made a post in the Gallery, quite a few people shared their know-how.
One registered user was especially helpful. They explained everything in detail, so I followed their advice.
‘I had no idea we needed to prepare two or three weeks ahead of time.’
I knew farming wasn't easy.
People sometimes said, “When I retire, I'll farm,” but in most cases, that was closer to a hobby.
They were far removed from actually farming for a living.
Besides, this place wasn't as developed as where I used to live, so plenty of things would have to be done through physical labor.
I already felt like I was hitting a wall.
└ It's the Forest of Four Seasons. Isn't the soil naturally rich in nutrients?
└ That's what I think too. It even has Adult Mandrakes, so nutrients shouldn't be a problem...
└ Honestly, wouldn't crops grow fine on their own even without compost?
└ [GrowGrow]: I think so too. If you till the field properly and scatter the seeds, they'll probably grow well.
└ [Wild Grylls]: That's the most welcome thing I've heard so far.
Still, this was the Forest of Four Seasons.
Rare medicinal herbs and all kinds of plants grew here.
For ordinary crops, simply tilling a field would probably be enough.
└ [GrowGrow]: What are you planning to plant, though? The way you prepare the field changes depending on the crop.
└ [Wild Grylls]: Give me a second.
I turned to Ludwig after hearing GrowGrow's words.
“C'mere, c'mere.”
“Kyu?”
“#$%%. C'mere, c'mere, c'mere.”
“...”
Maybe Ludwig wanted to hold fluffy Wonmo at least once.
He beckoned Wonmo over, calling for him to come closer.
A full day had already passed, but Wonmo still hadn't approached Ludwig.
It wasn't that Wonmo was wary. I was here, so there was no reason for him to go to Ludwig instead.
Ludwig had probably been too overwhelmed on the first day to think of anything else.
Which meant he had a little room to breathe now. He was trying to get closer to Wonmo.
“Kyu~”
Maybe Wonmo understood how Ludwig felt, because he toddled over.
Then Wonmo burrowed into Ludwig's arms and began rubbing his face against him.
Ludwig's stiff expression had vanished without a trace. All that remained was a dad smile, the highlight of the scene.
“Kyu. Kyu.”
“Eheheheh.”
Hmm.
It reminded me of my father, who'd said he'd throw out any dog I brought home.
Once I actually brought one home, though, he cherished it far more than he did me.
He'd even made a huge fuss about wanting to take it on walks himself.
‘He told me to stay home and play on my computer.’
It was all a memory now.
My parents had passed away, and the dog we'd raised with such care had reached the end of its lifespan too.
Anyway, I asked Ludwig what crop he wanted to grow.
He seemed to think for a moment, then drew a picture and showed it to me.
“...Bread? Flour? Wheat?”
He had drawn bread. Bread was made with flour, and flour was made from wheat.
I roughly drew a stalk of wheat and asked if that was right. He nodded.
I immediately told GrowGrow the name of the crop.
└ [GrowGrow]: Wheat? Wheat has trouble growing unless the soil is fertile. The weather needs to be dry too.
└ [Wild Grylls]: We'll give it a try. We're starting tomorrow, anyway.
└ [GrowGrow]: All right. First, here's how you prepare the field...
GrowGrow told me how to prepare a field.
I thought I could just run a plow or pitchfork through it a few times, but that wasn't it.
We had to make raised rows to plant the crops on, along with drainage ditches for the water to run off. There was more to do than I'd expected.
I wrote down the method GrowGrow taught me in my notebook.
We weren't doing it today, only starting tomorrow, so it was better to keep a record.
└ [GrowGrow]: Once you've prepared the field, you'll need to sow seeds. Do you have any?
└ [Wild Grylls]: No. Doesn't the Auction House have any?
└ [GrowGrow]: Most of the seeds there are terrible varieties. I can give you some wheat seeds.
└ [Wild Grylls]: Oh... Thank you. Is there anything you need?
└ [GrowGrow]: Could you give me some soil from there? Since it comes from the Forest of Four Seasons, I think I could use it in place of fertilizer.
That made perfect sense.
The Forest of Four Seasons was a place where even Mandrakes grew into adults.
Its soil might go beyond simply being fertile.
I bought a bucket from the Auction House and filled it with dirt.
Then all I had to do was receive the wheat from GrowGrow in exchange.
[GrowGrow]: Just so you know, wheat has trouble growing when it rains a lot, so be careful. If it rains, you'd be better off planting rice.
[Wild Grylls]: Thank you.
GrowGrow kept giving me advice even during the trade. They were a really good person.
I checked the wheat seeds I'd received.
They came in a bundle the size of my fist, but there were quite a lot of them.
We weren't planning to farm on a serious scale, so this was enough.
“Sir, here's the wheat...”
“Kyu~”
“Hahahaha.”
He was having a great time playing with Wonmo. I should just let him keep at it.
Only one day had passed, so his emotions must still be all over the place. He needed time to heal.
Besides, we had a mountain of work piled up. We'd be especially busy starting tomorrow.
‘It's really been a month.’
A whole month had passed since I began living in the Forest of Four Seasons.
Time had crawled painfully slowly until the two-week mark, but somehow it had flown by after that.
It was probably because my life had settled into a routine.
Which meant that, starting tomorrow, time would probably crawl again.
Ludwig had arrived, and there would be plenty of changes in every way.
‘I'll have to show him everywhere I've been, too.’
Someone might say I could just show him a map, but the map was only a rough estimate. It didn't reflect the actual distances, so it didn't mean much.
There was no choice but to learn this place firsthand. Even the sun rose in a different direction every day.
‘I didn't know the sun rising in a different direction every day would be such a fucking pain.’
If the sun had kept rising from one direction, I could have roughly figured out where I was going.
But today it rose to the right of the cave, while yesterday it rose to the left.
Just as the land across the river changed in real time, this place was constantly shifting as well.
‘Let's get ready for bed.’
I made a mat for Ludwig too.
Thanks to the thorough bath he'd taken, he didn't smell anymore.
The only problem was his clothes. I had given him some, but...
‘That deer is about to die.’
Maybe it was because he was a soldier, but they didn't fit.
The deer pattern on the shirt was stretched so wide on both sides that it looked like it was screaming for someone to save it.
So I asked PrincessChaenggu for some larger clothes.
PrincessChaenggu gladly agreed and said the clothes would be sent soon.
[PrincessChaenggu]: You know what you'll owe me, right? Hehe.
[Wild Grylls]: I wish Chames United continued success.
[PrincessChaenggu]: Nope! Ludwig has to say it! I'll be waiting!
[Wild Grylls]: ;;;
It looked like Chaeyu was about to gain another fan today.
After receiving the jersey from PrincessChaenggu, I gave it to Ludwig.
Ludwig accepted the jersey with his usual stony expression...
“Kyu?”
“No, man. That's for a person to wear. Don't put it on Wonmo.”
“#%%^$”
He put the new jersey on Wonmo.
Wonmo already had his own clothes, yet Ludwig was doing that. He was already becoming an overenthusiastic parent.
The night passed, much noisier than usual, and morning came.
The first thing I did that morning was prepare breakfast.
‘...I feel like I've become the one who cooks for everyone.’
I put aside the strange feeling and decided to get to work right away.
Today's task was to head downstream and collect sand.
It would be a good chance to show Ludwig the way too.
‘He really treats a giraffe like a horse.’
Right before we headed downstream, Ludwig naturally climbed onto Largo's back.
It was a truly bizarre sight. Still, I was glad Largo listened so well.
“Let's go.”
“Mm.”
The day began.
* * *
The true dawn of human civilization began with farming.
Humanity had originally lived as nomads, gathering and hunting, but farming made communal life possible.
Yet farming unintentionally produced a side effect.
Class.
Farming left surplus products behind, and surplus products led to trade.
In a world where people had to eat to survive, products meant survival and power.
Land, the foundation of those products, became power as well...
And so there came to be those who farmed and those who controlled the farmers.
Naturally, classes emerged.
That was why some scholars called agriculture humanity's greatest achievement and greatest mistake.
└ So you're not going to farm?
└ Historically, countries that oppressed farmers fell apart.
└ Without farmers, the whole country starves to death lmao
Farmers were important enough to form the foundation of a nation.
Even the strongest country usually went down the national-collapse route the moment famine struck.
An empire that fell to foreign invasion could be rebuilt, but an empire that crumbled from within was doomed to perish.
That was why wise rulers didn't oppress farmers. They gave them countless benefits instead.
A good example of this was Robert, the former emperor of the Messiah Empire.
Robert gave farmers tax reductions and various benefits, raising their sense of accomplishment.
Quite a few nobles protested, but as bumper harvests continued year after year, they had no choice but to keep quiet.
In that sense, the farmers of the Messiah Empire should have been farming every day with smiles on their faces...
“Ah, fuck. This is fucking hard.”
“I really hate farming.”
“What good is an ox? You still have to bend over in the end.”
...But they weren't.
No matter how many benefits they received, farming was a primary industry.
It required a tremendous amount of labor. There was no way it wouldn't be exhausting.
Even with oxen, people still had to plant seeds themselves.
Still, the rewards were certain, so they sowed their seeds despite their complaints.
“Hey, Roy.”
“Yes?”
“What have you been sprinkling since earlier? Fertilizer?”
A middle-aged farmer frowned as they asked.
Roy, a dependable-looking young man, smiled awkwardly.
“Um... Something like that. It doesn't really matter, does it?”
“As long as it's not poison, I suppose. Still, be careful.”
“Yes. Got it...”
Just as Roy was about to answer,
Whoooosh!!!
Stalks suddenly shot up where Roy had scattered the dirt.
The same happened elsewhere. Stalks sprang up everywhere Roy had scattered dirt.
“W-What the hell is that?!”
“What the heck is going on?!”
Everyone watched in shock, and before long, the stalks stopped growing.
The crops stood far taller than a person.
Roy stared blankly at them.
They looked like wheat.
Yes. They looked like wheat, at least.
“Hey! Roy! What the hell did you scatter?!”
At the elder's shout, Roy answered uneasily.
“Um... Soil.”
More precisely, soil from the Forest of Four Seasons.
Footnotes:
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