Chapter 13: Love Around the Corner

***

Life in the village was quite leisurely and carefree.

So comfortable that I almost believed I was just an ordinary human girl.

Every day, I would fertilize and water the farm on schedule, feed the cows. At mealtimes, I would help Grandma Claire in the kitchen, occasionally go to the forest to gather vegetables, fruits, or herbs, or help in the wheat fields with Elia and Barry.

Country life is monotonous, especially in such a remote small village, where people often have nothing to do most of the time, gathering in small groups to chat about trivial matters. I rarely participate unless Elia drags me along; otherwise, I prefer to space out alone or find a secluded place to practice my “lessons.”

Although the people here live in poverty, they don’t have much life pressure. No need to worry about unmet monthly quotas, no fear of being left behind if you walk a bit slower, no need to concern yourself with owning a house or car.

Everyone is the same here, no one looks down on anyone else.

I think this is what life should be.

If days could continue like this… it wouldn’t be so bad.

A few days ago, a merchant came to the village, a loud-voiced man with a full beard. He and his wife regularly travel through the surrounding villages along the forest, buying herbs from villagers at reasonable prices and selling them in distant towns, a very primitive way of doing business.

If it were me doing this business, taking advantage of the special nature of Woodward Forest, I would first find a master craftsman of healing medicines as a partner, develop our own products, and create a new brand.

Then negotiate with nobles or lords to seek their investment for shop deployment and promotion, while simultaneously investing substantial time and money in developing new technologies to replace existing medicinal formulas in the market. This would provide a better chance for larger success, rather than being quickly replaced and buried after a brief flourishing.

The practical implementation would certainly not be easy, but following this approach would give quite good odds of success.

A merchant’s principle is to never let others earn money that you could earn yourself. With so many opportunities right before their eyes, merely selling raw materials is truly inadequate.

However, these things are just thoughts I have when I’m idle, I won’t try to implement them.

I really don’t want to enter that circle again, just quietly being a village girl is fine enough.

…………

Time passed quietly, and before we knew it, harvest time had arrived.

Before the eastern sky showed any hint of dawn, I was already up early, heading to the wheat fields with Elia and Barry, even grandmother came along, the four of us pulling a cart of tools.

“Good morning, Grandma Claire!”

Not far away, there was a family of villagers also pushing their cart out, loudly greeting grandmother.

“Good morning, Mr. Doug, may the Bountiful Mother Goddess bless us.”

“Bountiful Mother Goddess bless us, this year will definitely be a bumper harvest, haha!”

Grandma Claire smiled and exchanged pleasantries, I instinctively looked over and saw that the kid leader Leyn was also there.

Leyn also saw me, splitting into a big grin and showing his yellow teeth.

I rolled my eyes at him.

Barry saw my expression and thought Leyn was bullying me again, immediately shouting out loud.

“Uncle Doug, can you talk to Leyn? He’s always bullying our sister Sylvia!”

“What! Leyn, what are you doing bullying others?” Uncle Doug seemed hot-tempered and immediately bristled up.

“I didn’t bully her!” Leyn protested defiantly, shouting loudly while glaring fiercely at Barry.

Barry glared back just as fiercely.

The rivalry between young boys was interesting.

“If you didn’t bully anyone, why is little Barry complaining about you!” Doug gave Leyn’s bottom a hard kick, “I know you too well! You must be teasing the pretty girl. Hmph, go apologize to the young lady.”

“No way! I didn’t bully her, Barry is slandering me! I won’t go!”

Doug angrily kicked Leyn again.

“You stupid boy, telling you to apologize is giving you a chance to talk to the girl, look at how useless you are. If you like someone, pursue them with your own abilities, stop embarrassing me all day!”

“Alright, alright Doug, stop hitting Leyn, he’s still young, still young.” Grandma Claire mediated.

“Almost 19 and still young? Your Barry is much more sensible than him…”

Hearing this, Barry proudly glanced at me, unable to hold back his smile.

I smiled back at him, and his face turned red, his eyes somewhat avoiding mine.

Hehe. How interesting.

The journey didn’t take much time, and we soon arrived at our destination.

About 1 kilometer northeast of the village, fields of wheat stretched out in golden waves as far as the eye could see. Plump ears of wheat hung heavy on thick stalks, the mature grains full and round.

The Claire family’s land was closest to the village entrance, probably about 0.3-0.4 hectares.

“Little Syl, do you know how to harvest wheat?”

After bringing the tools into the field, Grandma Claire smiled and asked me.

“No.”

I shook my head in response.

“Come, grandma will teach you.” Grandma Claire bent down to pick up a farming sickle and demonstrated for me, “This tool is called a sickle, you first need to hook the wheat stalks with it. Then like this, take a small step to steady yourself, bend down, left hand grabs, right hand sweeps… put the cut wheat aside, don’t mess it up. Did you see clearly? Try it yourself.”

Grandma picked up another short sickle and handed it to me. I clumsily tried to copy her movements but couldn’t quite get the hang of it.

“…No, be careful, the sickle should cut at an angle, apply force quickly, and keep the blade steady.”

Following grandma’s instructions, I grabbed a handful of wheat with my left hand and swept hard with my right hand… I used too much force, and the blade dangerously grazed my calf, giving me a cold sweat.

“Be careful, my little darling… that’s very dangerous, you silly girl. Come, let grandma show you how…” grandma came over to teach me hands-on, “Plant your feet, bend down, left hand grabs, right hand sweeps… that’s right, just like that.”

Elia and Barry had already harvested quite a large area by now, and were secretly smiling at me from the side.

I felt a bit frustrated and made a face at them. However, grandma’s teaching was very careful, and soon I mastered the technique, my harvesting speed getting faster and faster.

The sun came out, and the air gradually became stuffy with heat.

I straightened up and wiped the sweat from my forehead, when I suddenly noticed a large scythe lying not far from my feet.

“Grandma. That, what is it?”

“That’s a scythe, you… can’t use it.” Grandma was getting on in years and was already quite out of breath after not harvesting much.

“I want to, try it. Grandma, take a rest.”

The scythe was nearly 2 meters long, its blade polished bright, I walked over and stood it on the ground. The scythe was much taller than my 1.6-meter height, but it felt very balanced, I tried swinging it a couple of times, it felt very natural in my hands.

This thing… if used to cut something else, would surely be terrifying.

“My dear child, put it down quickly! This is too dangerous.” Grandma snatched the scythe from my hands, “Just use the sickle to harvest, if you play around anymore grandma will get angry.”

“Okay. Grandma, don’t, be angry.”

I saw that Grandma Claire seemed to be genuinely angry, so I suppressed my stirring curiosity and honestly went back to harvesting with the sickle.

“Grandma, give me the scythe!” Barry suddenly called out.

Grandma Claire handed the scythe and a mesh-like object to Barry.

“I’ll rest for a while, don’t let Little Syl play with the scythe!”

Barry responded, then attached the mesh object to the blade, swung the large scythe across the wheat field before him, and large swaths of wheat fell down.

“Sister Sylvia, this scythe can only be used by someone with great strength, and it requires a lot of skill, you definitely wouldn’t be able to swing it after two tries. In this household, only I can use it, even my sister can’t.”

Barry spoke with a hint of pride in his voice, tilting his head to look at me, like a child showing off candy.

“Barry, so amazing.”

I satisfied his vanity, but my mind was on something else.

Do I need a weapon now?

If one day, I have to face those strong Holy Church knights again, with my small frame, if I use a sword like them, my arms and legs being shorter than theirs would definitely put me at a disadvantage.

If there was some weapon that could both stab and slash, long enough to make up for my physical “deficiencies”… I looked again at the scythe in Barry’s hands.

Then I saw Barry stealing a glance at me from the corner of his eye, swinging his scythe with even more vigor…

…………

With four people working, the speed wasn’t slow, and with the scythe helping, the 0.3-0.4 hectares were quickly harvested. Looking at the large bundles of wheat lying in the field, thinking about having to manually cart it all back, I felt a headache coming on.

However, the sky was already turning yellowish, and night would fall soon, so no matter how much work remained, it would have to wait until tomorrow.

“Little Syl, you’re so amazing, you’ve harvested more than me since the afternoon started.”

On the way back, Elia stretched lazily, looking at me with some surprise in her eyes.

“I didn’t expect you to be so strong, last night I even made a bet with Barry about whether you could last an hour, I praise you!”

“Grandma, taught well.”

Hmph, there’s a lot more you don’t know about me.

“Don’t you ever feel tired? I feel so exhausted… Grandma, what are we eating when we get back?”

Elia looked at grandma with some anticipation.

“Always thinking about food…” Barry slightly pouted.

“Barry! Have you been looking down on me lately? You counter everything I say! Do you want to fight?” Elia immediately rolled up her sleeves in anger, looking ready to have three hundred rounds with Barry right there and then.

“Sister, you’re about to get married, how come you don’t have any grace… I don’t know what Brother Allen sees in you.”

“None of your business!”

“Stop fighting, the wheat is going to fall out.”

“I want to eat meat when we get back!”

“Giggle.”

I looked at the one elder and two younger people before me, the corners of my mouth curving into a beautiful arc, feeling that this was my otherworld journey.

Life is nothing more than these trivial matters, plain but warm.

Thinking this, yet in the next moment as I turned my head, my face turned pale, as if plunged into an ice cave.

By the roadside, a familiar silver figure was crouching there, patting a child’s head, smiling and saying something to them, then standing up.

The white cloak behind them lifted up, in the style I was most familiar with.

He turned his head towards me, narrowing his eyes.

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