Rising from the Slum City of Reincarnation in Another World ~ Gathering, Hunting, and Living a Slow Life by Eating

Chapter 69 The Lania Family Move

A while ago, we finished the third harvest of strawberries just in time for the end of the season.

Our new house has a built-in magical stove that cannot be moved. We also used our regular two-burner magical stove to make jam, so the process was half as long as usual.

The strawberry and cherry jam we made had already been delivered and sold out quickly, allowing us to recover the costs.

“Here, Ed, the payment for the jam sales. Thanks as always.”

“Thank you very much.”

We received gold coins as payment. Since we started using quarters to make change, it has become easier to handle payments with silver coins and such.

During settlements, it’s common to give small units of coins as bonuses or extras, especially when dealing with amounts smaller than copper coins. This is a practice you can find in most shops.

There are people called money changers who can exchange currencies, but they charge a fee for their services because it’s their business. It’s actually cheaper to give bonuses than to provide exact change in small coins. It may sound silly, but that’s how it works.

In the first place, no one bothers to settle transactions down to the last cent.

Speaking of which, Lania-chan had a mischievous look on her face during the move.

I couldn’t help but notice that subtle smile, and guess what?

She moved right next to my house.

Now, she is truly my childhood friend, both in name and reality.

I could have sworn that until recently, a beastman family lived there, but it must not have been my imagination.

It seems Lania-chan managed to convince the neighboring family to move and claimed that house through some sort of “crying threat.”

“And so, Lania has moved in next door. Nice to meet you, Ed-kun. We’ve been childhood friends, right?”

“Uh, yeah, that’s right, Lania.”

“Mwah!”

Lania kissed my cheek.

I was surprised.

She’s usually a bit mischievous, but she doesn’t usually do such bold things.

It seems like she’s seriously targeting me. It’s unfathomable.

And so, we head to school together every day.

Lania-chan can actually read both letters and numbers, but she kept it a secret until now.

And even now, she attends school silently. It’s mysterious.

Her daily routine includes eating tasteless ilk beans right in front of me.

“Ed-kun, your food tastes better. Teach me how to make it.”

“It’s too much trouble.”

“Mumble, mumble.”

And so, that’s how our daily life goes.

Indeed, I want to eat something other than beans.

I need to think about how to level up without spending much money.

One option is to turn this vacant land into a vegetable garden.

While it doesn’t belong to anyone specifically, it’s technically the lord’s land and lending it to slum dwellers for free is tolerated.

So, I can turn it into a tomato field or something similar.

Since it’s summer now, with some effort, I can expect a harvest soon.

Another option is not cultivation, but gathering, like what I’m currently doing.

Dandelions and sunflower lettuce can be managed somehow.

Ginger could work too.

Mushrooms require identification, but I can handle that myself.

Now, what should I do?

“What if we come up with a plan?”

“A vegetable garden sounds like a great idea. Just sow the seeds and let them grow, right?”

“Yeah.”

“If that’s the case, you can just buy the seeds.”

“Sounds good. It’s cheaper than buying vegetables, and they have a longer shelf life.”

Speaking of shelf life, I wonder if seeds have expiration dates.

Anyway, I should consult with Dridon-san for now.

I discussed it with Dridon-san.

I bought the seeds.

As for root vegetables, I bought seed potatoes.

They didn’t have a specific product called “seed potatoes,” just regular potatoes.

Taro, potatoes, sweet potatoes.

Green onions, onions, bell peppers, tomatoes, eggplants, pumpkins, cucumbers.

That’s what I could get at the moment.

I excluded leafy vegetables like lettuce since they’re already growing.

With the help of the students, I asked those who were available after lunch to sow the seeds.

Alright, I’m finally going to turn the open field into a tomato field as I’ve always wanted.

“Hey ya, here we go, sowing the seeds~♪ Hoi-sa, sassasa!”

There were some people singing what seemed like a traditional song of farmers, even though I didn’t quite understand it.

At first, there was one person singing alone and attracting attention, but before I knew it, everyone found it amusing and joined in.

“Hey ya, here we go, sowing the seeds~♪ Hoi-sa, sassasa!”

What’s up with all of you?

Well, as long as everyone is enjoying themselves, it’s fine.

We successfully finished sowing the seeds.

I’m well aware that it would be better to separate the fields and create rows for each type of vegetable.

But I didn’t want to spend too much on it.

As long as we can have a decent amount of food with minimal costs, it’s good enough.

Not everything requires giving it our all.

So, I came to the conclusion that this is fine, yeah.

“Meow.”

Ciel, also known as the knowledgeable one in agriculture, seems a bit dissatisfied.

“We should have created a more proper field, meow.”

“With this setup, it’s hard to predict the harvest, meow.”

“Meow, meow, it’s not like this at all.”

Well, I understand what she wants to say, but this time we’re also conducting an experiment, so this should be fine.

I’m sorry I couldn’t take everyone’s opinions into account.

Now, if things go well, we should have a harvest by the end of summer.

We can sow seeds of other vegetable varieties at different times as well.

That way, we can have harvests in autumn and winter too.

Only the tubers are planted in a corner separately.

These are a bit different from seeds, so they have their designated spot.

When autumn comes, it would be nice to gather fallen leaves and roast sweet potatoes.

Roasted sweet potatoes in autumn are one of my dreams.

In my previous life, it feels like everyone used to do it in the neighborhood when I was young, but somehow no one does it anymore.

One of the reasons could be the discussions about dioxins and small-scale incinerator issues.

In this different world, it’s unclear how much impact those things have, but I don’t think people would complain about lighting fires for cooking in a world where they’re used to it.

In addition, we planted cherry trees all around the school.

We can have a cherry blossom festival in spring and enjoy freshly-picked cherries at the end of spring.

Twice the deliciousness in one year.

I’m looking forward to a few years from now.

I wonder where we’ll be and what we’ll be doing.

I wonder how everyone else will be doing.

Oh, by the way, the story isn’t over yet.

I was just thinking a bit further into the future.

Our lives continue.