Novar Village was governed by a Village Chief, and it was said to take about eight hours to get there from here. Normally, you would stay a day and leave the next morning, but since I might be conscripted if discovered, and with no men in the village either, if another wild boar or even stray dogs came, there would hardly be anyone to stop them, so I decided to return immediately. And so…
I set out at dawn. I hitched a cart to the donkey and loaded the hides.
*The woman who came onto me yesterday is really persistent. I didn't sleep well, so I'm a bit tired too. Have I now been hit on by every woman in the village at least once?*
*Haha, it's funny. I was a lifelong bachelor in my previous life... Ah, I'm still alive, so it's not a past life. And I'm young, too.*
On the way, I tore open a hot pack and gave it to him, and put a tracksuit jacket on him.
"What is this?"
"It's called a hot pack. It'll get warm soon. When you hold the donkey's reins, you can warm your hands by taking turns with it. And this is my clothes—it'll be warmer than what you're wearing now."
"Hmm... marvelous. When I was a soldier, I think I saw the Count a few times, but even he didn't wear clothes this fine, and I've never seen or heard of anything like this. You are a curious man.
You have things like this, and you catch wild boars in one go. So tell me, where did you come from?"
"I don't really know either. When I woke up, I was inside that cave, but I can't quite remember. If I do remember, I'll tell you."
I just decided to go with not remembering. There was no point in talking about it anyway, since they wouldn't believe me.
"So what are you planning to buy if you take the hides there?"
"The boar hide is clean without a single puncture, so I think the Village Chief will look upon it favorably. I'm going to ask for some emergency medicine."
Though I found out later that the so-called emergency medicine was just dried fruit, dried herbs, and things like that.
"From what I see, there's something the village needs right now. Do you think we could get some?"
"What is it?"
"Salt. If there's any, we should buy it and add a little every time we boil stew. And once you've eaten, even if it feels wasteful to leave leftovers behind, you must wash everything clean."
"But you said you don't remember—how do you know such things?"
*Well, it's because I got an A in human nutrition class.*
"I just happen to remember things like this. What we need right now, and such."
"It's as if you've come to save us, hoho. If there's salt, I'll be sure to bring some back."
We walked and talked like this for who knows how long, and the village came into view in the distance. Gazing at the village, we rested for a moment and ate the dried boar jerky I'd brought.
Ah... so a gamey smell is just the fastidiousness of someone with a full belly...
When we got a bit closer and the village was in plain sight,
"You wait here. If you're discovered, you'll likely be conscripted. I'll be right back."
"Yes, then I'll wait here."
*Damn it, my feet are soaked. Ugh, my feet are cold.*
I went to the fallen tree I'd seen on the way, looked for dry parts, scraped some wood, cut a sturdy branch from beside it to make a fire bow, wove together braided fishing line and tried to start a fire. I'd done it once in the cave a few days ago, so I tried it with confidence, but
oh... smoke began to rise before long.
*Don't I have some talent for survival?*
After making the fire, I made a place to sit so my bottom wouldn't get wet, took off my socks and dried them. I also removed the insoles from my shoes and dried them.
*I expected it to be a big village since the Village Chief lives there, but it's not much different from where I'm living now. Then just what time and place is this?
Judging by how people live, it's the primitive era, but since they have iron pots, axes, and such, it's not quite that. Maybe early Iron Age? Not quite medieval. Just one last slap.*
Slap!
Even after slapping my cheek, as expected, it's still the same.
*Let's stop slapping myself for no reason from now on.*
At the same time, inside the Village Chief's house in Novar Village—
"Welcome. There should still be plenty of grain the Lord gave us—what brings you here?"
"I stopped by because there are things the village needs. We need some dried tree berries. Last time, Nina collapsed, and Rena nearly died going to get medicine, and there's still much winter left, so we don't know who might collapse next. And we need some salt, too. In exchange, not long ago we found a wild boar that had fallen from a cliff and died, so we ate the meat in the village and brought some hides. Ah, and these things might appear around the village—do you happen to have any spears with iron tips?"
"Oh! The hides are in excellent condition. Not a single wound. Are you sure this fell from a cliff?"
"Well, we had good luck. You know full well that with no young men in the village, even if a boar attacks, we can't catch it."
"Indeed. As you know, all the iron spears were taken during the last conscription, so we don't have any either. Please understand. Instead, I'll generously pack what you requested just now."
"Thank you. Since no one is in the village, I can't stay the night and intend to depart immediately, even if it's late."
"Understood, I'll prepare it right away. Be careful on the road at night."
"Yes, thank you."
While I was dozing off by the fire, Radek arrived leading the donkey. It seemed the trade had gone well, as the cart was loaded with something.
"You've worked hard. Warm yourself by the fire for a moment before we go."
"Indeed. I suppose luck was on my side—I got more than expected. More salt than I thought, too."
He showed me what he'd brought back, and it just looked like dried fruit. Seeing that he'd gotten this in exchange as medicine, it was clearly just a vitamin C deficiency.
Well, these people were lacking in more than just one or two things right now.
"Here, have some water. Try this."
With that, I cut in half the last remaining chocolate bar and gave it to him.
As expected, his expression changed from the first taste of sweetness he'd never experienced before.
"Is this the mysterious food that Rena ate?"
"Pardon?"
"You said you gave Rena some mysterious food in the cave. I'd been curious to ask about it, and now I get to taste it like this. Can you teach me how to make it?"
"No. That was the last one. The ingredients are impossible to obtain."
When I said that, he ate only half of that half and saved the rest.
"I'm going to bring it to my wife. You said it's the last one, so it feels wrong to eat it all alone."
Now we brushed ourselves off and set off for the village. I learned something while talking on the way: Radek had had children, but they died to a bear and to illness.
*This is a time when humans are weak...*
"Ah, what do you plan to do now?"
"For now, I don't think I can go anywhere in winter, and I don't know the roads, so I was thinking of staying in the village for a while. Is that alright?"
"We'd welcome a young man who can take down a wild boar in one blow."
"Then, if I'm going to stay here, we'll need food. I was thinking of teaching you how to farm, what do you think?"
"Farming?"
"Yes, I've been here for a few days and seen how you eat and your fields—you haven't prepared anything at all."
"But aren't you supposed to sow seeds in spring? What could you possibly do in winter?"
"No. Farming starts from winter. The moment you harvest, the next year's farming begins."
"I traveled here and there during my soldiering days, but this is the first I've heard of such a thing..."
"That's because no one knows yet. If you do things my way, we'll be able to eat our fill next winter."
"Truly?"
"What reason would I have to lie here? The more food there is, the more I get to eat."
"But you said you don't remember..."
"I don't remember my life, but I do remember what I'm good at."
"As expected, you really must be someone sent to save us. Could you be a god? No, are you a god, sir?"
"Why would you say that. What god? I'm just someone who's good at farming. Anyway, tell everyone when we get back to the village. This isn't something I can do alone, nor is it something just three men can accomplish."
Though the sun had set and night had come, the moon was bright enough to clearly light the road. Looking at the sky, countless stars were visible.
*Wow... you can't even see this many stars from the countryside back home.*
We were a bit late, but we arrived at the village without difficulty.
*Looks like everyone is asleep. I hope there won't be any women throwing themselves at me today.*
Perhaps tired from the trip back, I slept like a log even on this makeshift bed with its sagging frame.
The next morning, Radek gathered Marek and Milo to talk.
"Ri said he only remembers being good at farming and that he'll teach us. He said if we trust him and follow, we'll eat abundantly next winter. What do you think? He says we need more food to be able to leave when it warms up, and that he'll start by increasing this place's food production."
"We do what we're told. If we don't want to die. He's a man who catches wild boars with one thrust of a spear—what are we going to do, defy him? Just looking at his size, even if everyone in the village rushed him at once, if he holds just one spear, Ri could kill us all."
"Have you seen the knife he carries? I was butchering the boar, and I've never seen a blade that sharp in my life. He's definitely not someone we can talk back to. If someone like that gives an order, people like us just obey."
"Then let's just do as Ri says from now on. Ah, and tell the village maidens to try seducing Ri somehow. Who knows, if he fathers a child, he might stay here for good."
"I already hinted at it the day we caught the boar. But they all failed. They went in and took off their clothes first, approaching him like that, but he just dressed them and sent them out."
"A truly mysterious man. Anyway, let's do as Ri says."
I slept in for the first time in a while. Human adaptability is truly amazing—they sleep well despite sagging backs, foul smells, and fleas. So does that mean I'm an amazing person?
It seemed Radek had already told Marek and Milo everything, because before I could even bring it up, they asked what needed to be done. First, I took a big look around the village.
Where the houses were clustered, a wooden fence stood, and beyond it fields stretched out widely. They said it had originally been forest, cleared by slash-and-burn farming.
It was only white snow visible now because it was winter, but I could picture that when spring came and green leaves sprouted, it would look like the backdrop of the movie *The Sound of Music*.
At the end of the fields, there was a slight slope, and below that the fields spread out again. There were fields one more tier down as well.
*They're plenty wide for people who don't seem to know how to farm properly. What do they even plant here?*
On the opposite side from the village entrance was the lake I'd fetched water from before, surrounded by dense trees. Water flowed down through them.
The area beside the fields was just forest too. Fields or forest.
They mainly planted barley, oats, peas, and buckwheat. They said there was a hemp field past the forest—they cut the stalks to make cloth.
*No wheat, unexpectedly? It doesn't look like a rice-farming region no matter how I look at it. Well, if they planted wheat in a place with limited land like this, the soil would die.
Even if they rotated crops on flat land. I hope the seeds I bought at the 'Store-That-Has-Everything' in my bag sprout well. The sweet potatoes, too.
Now I need to tell everyone how to prepare for farming and what we'll be doing from now on.*
I cut some wood in a corner of the field beforehand, burned it to thaw the ground, then dug to a suitable depth. Since there weren't shovels for this either, I stabbed the ground with a spear to dig out the soil—thawing, stabbing, and digging.
*Hah... what kind of suffering is this. I miss excavators.*
In the end, I spent the entire day digging dirt, and it wasn't until the next day that I told the villagers what needed to be done going forward.
"Don't just toss the ashes from burning fires overnight inside your houses anywhere behind the village—throw them in the fields. You can't dump too much in one spot, so the men will throw them in the lower two tiers, deciding your own sections so they don't overlap. The women will throw them in these fields, and as you just heard, spreading too much isn't good either. Now, line up one by one.
Just toss a little ash in your own row every day. There's no need to rush."
"Will farming really go well like that?"
*Do you know what potassium is? Calcium? Just do as I say instead of asking questions... No, no. Get a grip, Lee Jae-geun. You can't do this alone; you're all doing it together. You have to survive here.*
"Because trees that grew from the earth were burned, that energy remains in the ashes. When you scatter them in the fields, the ground slowly absorbs that energy, and the crops we plant absorb that energy. It works in a cycle like this. Very good, Rena. If anyone else is curious, ask me as things come up."
"Now, next is fertilizer."