WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Got a Gallery in the Wild ◈
Chapter 196: Breed (3)
──────
What annoys farmers the most?
Living creatures that get in the way of farming.
Droughts, floods, typhoons, and other natural disasters were different. They could call them the will of the gods and weep together.
But things that interfered with farming could appear at any time, and there were ways to prepare for them. That was why farmers considered them a particularly shitty kind of nuisance.
And this was a fantasy world, a place where all kinds of monsters appeared.
It was not uncommon for monsters that moved in groups, like goblins, orcs, and gnolls, to raid farmland.
They were also known for their intelligence, which earned them the undivided hatred of farmers.
[Post title] Title) Look What My Uncle Caught Yesterday
[Post] (Photo of a farmer smiling while holding up a hobgoblin head)
[Post] It's a hobgoblin, no less.
[Post] He was supposed to hire adventurers, but said screw it and caught it himself.
[Post] Are hobgoblins normally that easy to catch? He says he killed it with a sickle.
└ Absolutely not. Hobgoblins are supposed to be taken down by knights;;
└ What did your uncle do before?
└ I heard he was training to become a knight, got pissed off, and walked out. He's been a farmer ever since.
└ Okay, that makes sense then yeah
└ What makes sense? Lmao, that's still insane.
└ Throughout history, when rebellions broke out, it was farmers, not knights, who led the fighting.
└ Don't underestimate farmers. Their endurance is fucking crazy;;
[Post title] Title) At Least You Can Subjugate Goblins.
[Post] Those fucking locusts and sparrows are hopeless. You just have to watch them rob you blind, fuck.
└ Locusts, sure, but can't you use a scarecrow against sparrows?
└ Locusts are the real disaster. Even the holy scriptures describe them as a plague.
└ Why else would the Demon God who fought Goddess Aris be so closely connected to locusts? Lmao
└ The problem is that you can't wipe them out……
A locust swarm, the plague of all plagues, was one thing. Sparrows, at least, could be dealt with.
Putting up scarecrows was the most common method. Of course, that alone could not stop them completely.
Did that mean they could not be eradicated entirely? Not necessarily.
It was possible if you hunted them indiscriminately. Someone had actually done it before.
The person who uttered the historically immortal line, “This bird is a harmful bird.”
‘And the result was tens of millions starving to death.’
Ecosystems were frightening because you never knew how they would change when disturbed.
No amount of caution was too much.
Even so……
Looking at the wheat that was nothing but bare stalks left me feeling hollow.
I kept thinking, ‘Since this is the Forest of Four Seasons, should I try it too?’
It had been stripped clean. Nothing remained but stalks.
Crunch. Crunch.
Let me correct that. Largo was chewing up the stalks too.
The grains had already been eaten, and I had not planned to use the stalks for anything, so I decided to leave it alone.
‘So that’s why people call them harmful birds.’
Watching all our wheat get stolen right in front of us was crushing enough.
There was another problem. I had no idea where that many sparrows had even come from.
Normally, all I heard was chirping, but they had flooded in all at once.
‘No wonder there aren't that many bugs.’
Other than when the bug swarm had erupted before, I had always thought there were strangely few bugs around.
After seeing those birds, I roughly understood why.
What if they all disappeared? Then the insect swarms would attack.
The fact that insect swarms still erupted every summer despite there being that many birds was even more horrifying.
“$%%%#”
“What should we do? I don't know either.”
That was that, and farming was farming.
I gave Ludwig a thoroughly irresponsible answer when he asked what I planned to do.
This was my first time seeing something like this too. Even setting up scarecrows would be pointless.
They had devoured everything as though we were not standing right beside them.
It had happened so quickly that we did not even have time to confront them.
‘Seriously, what am I supposed to do?’
Not even a farmer with thirty years of experience could solve this.
If they had been locusts, we could have driven them off with repellent.
I had been regularly receiving repellent from the merchant group lately, after all.
But those were birds. Birds that ate grain and bugs.
‘It's amazing that they came charging in the instant the wheat grew, too.’
The Forest of Four Seasons really was full of things beyond expectation.
Ludwig and I could not solve this alone. We needed the Gallery's help.
First, though, I should film a video. There was something I wanted to check.
“Sir. Let's try this.”
“#%#”
My plan was simple. We would try harvesting the wheat the instant it grew.
If they charged in, I would show them my big, beautiful aura and sweep every last one of them away.
Flapflapflapflap!
“Gahhhh!”
“Uuuurgh!”
It failed miserably.
I had expected the wheat to grow and the birds to swarm us.
The problem came after that.
The instant I swung my aura-infused sword, the birds scattered in perfect formation.
It looked like a school of fish avoiding a predator in the sea.
Except this was not the sea. It was land, and they were doing it in the air. It was enough to drive me insane.
What happened next?
The birds swarmed Ludwig and me.
Thankfully, they did not peck us with their beaks. They just shoved us around.
No, “dragged us down” would be a more accurate way to put it.
In the end, we could not harvest anything, let alone catch even one bird.
“……”
“……”
Ludwig and I were a mess.
Bird feathers were stuck all over us, and we had some minor cuts too.
I just hoped those birds had not given us some kind of disease.
“Kyuu?”
“...Yeah. Thanks.”
Nothing soothed a troubled heart like Wonmo.
I let out a sigh as I looked at the wheat, stripped bare once again.
I had thought things were going unusually smoothly, but apparently not.
True to the Forest of Four Seasons, even tending a vegetable garden was incredibly difficult.
[Post title] Title) Know What's Scarier Than a Locust Swarm?
[Author] Wild Grylls
[Post] (Video of birds stripping the wheat clean)
[Post] (Video of birds swarming Grylls, followed by screams)
[Post] (Photo of the wheat left as bare stalks)
[Post] (Photo of Ludwig sitting there with a devastated expression)
[Post] A Forest of Four Seasons sparrow swarm.
[Post] These bastards are even more fucked because repellent does nothing to them.
[Post] So I tried to catch them, but they grabbed Ludwig and me, then threw us away;;
[Post] In the end, we got robbed blind. Does anyone know how to deal with this?
└ [Heavenly Demon]: What a remarkable sight. They really do look like a locust swarm.
└ [SwordTasteMaster]: They're not migratory birds, so do birds normally gather in groups like that? I've never seen it before.
└ They do gather, but not in a swarm that huge. That's basically a locust swarm;;
└ Of all things, even birds have evolved in a weird direction now;;
└ What kind of birds are those? They look like sparrows?
└ [Allfather]: They are sparrows. However, they do not usually form flocks like that.
└ [Wild Grylls]: It's been a while. You said you were busy.
└ [Allfather]: I've sorted out my urgent work to some extent. If I fail, though, I'll be busy again.
└ [Wild Grylls]: Is there any way to drive those birds away?
└ [Allfather]: Usually, something like that can be resolved when there is a predator…… Do you have one?
└ [Wild Grylls]: (Photo of cute Wonmo) Would he work?
└ [Allfather]: Some things can be solved by cuteness, and some cannot.
└ [Wild Grylls]: What a shame.
└ "What a shame" my ass lmao
└ Maybe if Wonmo were bigger, but he's way too small right now lol
└ [GrowGrow]: Normal sparrows are not numerous enough to be a serious issue, so people tend to let them be, but those…… I'm not sure. Catching birds would not be good either.
└ [Wild Grylls]: Because the bugs will increase?
└ [GrowGrow]: You know your stuff. How about putting up a scarecrow?
└ [Wild Grylls]: Want to watch the video one more time?
└ [GrowGrow]: Not just a scarecrow. Pour the blood of a carnivorous animal on it. Wouldn't they avoid it because of the smell?
“Oh?”
That made a lot of sense.
Those birds were ultimately just sparrows moving in a flock.
If they recognized predators were nearby, there was a good chance they would back off.
‘The problem is where I'm supposed to get that blood……’
Was there anything here I could call a predator?
There was only cute, adorable Wonmo. But Wonmo was still too young.
Maybe if he grew two or three times larger than he was now, but this was the time when he needed to be cared for.
└ [Wild Grylls]: What are sparrows' natural predators?
└ [GrowGrow]: Snakes are the most obvious. Raptors such as eagles and hawks are their natural predators as well.
└ Sparrows are near the bottom of the food chain, so any big animal can eat them.
└ They tremble at the sight of a snake. What else is there to say?
Hissss.
Speak of the devil.
As I scrolled through the Gallery, I saw a snake climbing a tree.
True to something that lived in the Forest of Four Seasons, it was huge.
It looked to be around three meters long.
Sliiither.
The snake slowly crept toward a bird perched on a branch.
The bird noticed it too late and tried to flee, but the snake was too fast.
“Shaaah!”
Crunch!
Just as the bird tried to flap away, the snake shot its head out like a bullet.
The bird struggled desperately not to be eaten, but it was already too late.
In the end, it became the snake's meal and disappeared into its stomach.
‘...But why aren't they running away?’
There was one strange thing.
Even with their greatest predator, a snake, appearing before them, the birds did not flee.
Instead, every bird watched the snake sharply. The atmosphere was strange.
“...#%#”
“...Yeah.”
It seemed Ludwig had gotten the same feeling I did.
You might ask whether I understood what he said. I did not, but it probably meant something like, “This feels dangerous.”
In the meantime, the snake began targeting other birds. One bird apparently was not enough for something its size.
Flap!
But the birds moved first.
Without anyone taking the lead, the birds all took flight.
And as expected, they headed straight for the snake.
No matter how large their flock was, they should not have stood a chance against a predator, especially a snake so much larger than them.
“Shaaah!”
“Chirp! Chirp!”
“Chirp chirp!”
In fact, the instant the snake opened its mouth and charged, several birds flew straight into its jaws.
But the birds did not give up, clinging to the snake.
Before long, they covered the snake's entire body just as they had covered us.
For a moment, I wondered whether they would peck it to death.
Riiiip!
The sound of something being violently pulled reached my ears.
At the same time, the birds covering the snake sprang away as though they were magnets with matching poles.
The moment I saw that, I could roughly guess what was about to happen.
Rip! Riiip! Tear! Tear!
The snake was literally torn to shreds.
The pieces fell to the ground with soft thuds.
Being a snake, its body still wriggled even after being torn apart, which only made it more grotesque.
“……”
“……”
Neither Ludwig nor I could say a word.
Who could speak after watching a snake become s/n/a/k/e in an instant?
If we had killed those birds, I could have been that snake instead.
“Kyuuuu~”
Wonmo took that as his cue and ran over to the snake pieces.
Maybe he knew the head was dangerous, because he started eating from the tail.
There were dead birds here and there too, but thankfully, he did not even look at them.
“Chirp chirp.”
“Chirp. Chirp.”
As though nothing had happened, the birds peacefully returned to the branches.
I watched them, then silently scattered wheat seeds across the field.
Flapflapflapflap!
“Chirp! Chirp! Chirp!”
“Chirp chirp!”
The birds rushed in as though it were only natural the moment the wheat grew. I did not stop them.
Instead, once I thought they had eaten their fill, I scattered more seeds.
Flapflapflap!
Maybe they had some conscience, or maybe they decided they had eaten enough.
After eating a certain amount of grain, they began leaving one by one.
Thanks to that, the number of birds gradually started to decrease.
Ludwig quickly caught on and helped me.
‘Fine. I'll fill your bellies first. Just don't hurt me.’
There was something I had learned over my month in the Forest of Four Seasons.
Unless they harmed me first, I should take a friendly stance toward them.
Then at least I would not lose my life for no reason.
“#$%#”
“I know. Me too.”
Once again, I did not understand what he said. But I understood the nuance.
Something like, “Is this how you've survived until now?”
‘I really hope those sparrows are migratory birds.’
I did not know whether sparrows were migratory birds. All I could do was pray.
No matter how hard humans struggled, it was meaningless before the power of nature.
Only after the birds had their fill could we finally harvest the wheat.
There were plenty of seeds, and the amount of wheat itself was not bad, so the harvest turned out fairly well.
“Munch munch.”
I gave the remaining wheat stalks to Largo. It enjoyed them immensely.
It felt like I was raising a cow instead of a giraffe.
“What should we plant next?”
“#%%^^”
Ludwig showed me with a drawing. He wanted to plant sweet potatoes.
It looked like he wanted to switch to famine-relief crops since birds kept taking the rice and wheat.
I felt the same way, so I asked GrowGrow.
[GrowGrow]: I have seeds, but potato starts would be better. Is that okay?
[Wild Grylls]: They'll grow fine if we just scatter the seeds.
[GrowGrow]: Understood. Could you give me a little more soil in return?
[Wild Grylls]: Of course.
As expected of a farmer, GrowGrow had a wide variety of seeds.
Apparently, sweet potatoes were normally planted as slips, but…… they would probably grow fine on their own.
This time, they would grow underground, so I did not have to worry about birds stripping them clean.
Swoooosh!
“Oh!”
“Oh.”
Plants rapidly grew not long after we planted the seeds.
Now all we had to do was dig up the sweet potatoes underneath……
Swoooosh!
“?”
“?”
The vines that had been growing so well suddenly began sinking into the ground.
It was not just one. The others were doing the same thing.
I wondered whether this was part of the growing process and kept watching.
“……”
“……”
Instead of sweet potatoes, only empty holes greeted us.
That was when I realized it.
Moles had stolen them.
I had only heard about it before. I never imagined I would experience it myself.
‘There are so many thieves in this world.’
It seemed like we would need to modify the field itself too.
Footnotes:
Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried
