01.27 - The Daily Life of a Young Farmer in Another World

We had all gathered in the big log house, when Tia grabbed Kentaro and dragged him along, then stood next to him and simply announced: “It’s a dragon.”

The others were visibly confused.

So was I till it clicked.

“That’s supposed to be ‘It’s a boy,’ or ‘It’s a girl,’” I said.

“But it’s a dragon,” Tia said. “How should I know the…”

“That’s why ultrasoun…” I interrupted her. “Nevermind.”

“Oh,” the group said almost in unison. “Oh! Congratulations!”

The room erupted in questions:

“Since when do you know?”

…

“Don’t dragons lay eggs?”

…

“Do you hope it’s a boy, or a girl?”

…

“Do you already have names in mind?”

…

After the initial excitement had faded, Akane spoke up. “Actually, I’ve missed my last cycle too, it's been a month already.”

“A bit more than two weeks for me now,” Koharu said.

“Eight days,” Isabella said. “But it could be nothing…”

Those three came out of left field.

I mean… I should have known this would happen. But so soon? And three at once? I had to sit down for a long, long minute.

It took a couple of days for it to really sink in.

Actually, probably more than that.

Loreley and Reiko followed suit a few months later.

I more or less focused on other things.

There was a lot of work to do.

It was mid Spring when Kentaro and I finished a larger cabin closer to the river that had a bigger wooden bath on one side and a kitchen area on the other.

Geber and Alfred had assisted in the production of the required Copper pipes for inside, but we didn’t have enough, so we added a wooden construction to the miniature aqueduct that led the water to the house.

Actually, it wasn’t quite like modern day plumbing.

The water was led to fill a separate tank, with an overflow mechanism leading back out.

Water could either be drawn directly from this reservoir, or diverted to another, smaller metal barrel, with a furnace below. This temporary hot water source was usually used to fill the adjacent bath. The volume of the wooden tab was large enough to allow four to six people in at a time.

The furnace was originally supposed to be used with firewood, but Tia, Dawn, or I usually heated the whole tank using Pyromancy. The other girls had not yet advanced to a Level that would allow them to repeat this feat effortlessly, but they were making fast progress on their own and had a little additional help by ‘For the Good of The Many’.

The reception was stellar.

After the accumulated sweat from the last months. The only option before was to wash yourself with a cloth and a bit of cold, or ideally heated water.

Having a real bath was a godsent.

Apparently most regular houses didn’t feature anything of the kind.

Seems I was a bit spoiled by my upbringing.

As for the fields, we now had three large ones, sown with barley, rye, and oats, as well as a medium sized vegetable garden.

The local fauna was also back in full force, ensuring that the small shag to smoke meat was filled to capacity, despite Tia and Reiko retiring from the hunts for the time being.

We had some troubles with the barley field, but nothing a few points spent on the ‘Pest Identification’ Skill of the Farmer Class, and some liberal amount of vinegar couldn’t solve.

Then the time for the harvest came around, first for the barley in what would have been late June back on earth. The reaping of the oats and rye came later, around the end of summer.

I was playing with the idea of constructing a small watermill, but it was easier to transport parts of the harvest to a mill in the nearby towns and bring back the processed goods, or directly exchange them for other flour.

What couldn’t wait were two other projects.

One used the ‘Botanist’ Class Skill ‘Horticultural Grafting’ to prepare a number of plants for future fruit production. Mainly apple and pear trees to begin with. Some cherry trees too. But that was about it for this year. I was mainly thinking about the fruits, but there was a high demand for apple cider too.

In tandem with the fruit trees came our future source of both sugar and mead: Honey.

The ‘Beekeeper’ Classes Skills ‘Hive Construction & Repair’, ‘Apiary Site Selection’, ‘Swarm Catching & Management’, and ‘Winterizing Hives’ were invaluable parts of the overarching plan.

We started with 3 hives. Getting the required future inhabitants to the location proved to be a stingy undertaking. I would not recommend it to the average layman, which I kinda was, except for a little help from the system.

As Summer came and went, the change in the expecting mother’s physiques got blatantly obvious to everyone.

When Autumn took hold of the land, Tia was the first one to go into labour.

Akane, Koharu, and Loreley were on standby, preparing towels, hot water, and additional support.

Having Alfred around was also very reassuring. He had already assisted with my and Dawn’s delivery back home.

Kentaro and I stood next to Tia, switching in and out as emotional support. She almost crushed his hand on several occasions, going by the pain visible on his face. Mine was mostly fine due to my current Stats.

When the time finally came, Alfred looked up to me and confirmed the bad news we could already see: “It’s a breech birth.”