I have ten children in front of me.
　Four of them are about four years old and the other six are about eight.

　In short, they are abandoned children.......but why the timing?

　Why not be patient for another month or two?
　If it's too serious to endure, shouldn't you abandon your child as soon as winter sets in?

　"There are two good times to throw away a child. The first time is during the wheat harvest. If there is a poor harvest, the village head will choose by authority. The second time is after the New Year. If he miscalculates and has to throw out additional children. This slows down because we finally find out later in the winter that it's not going to make it through the winter. Also, the parents want to send them off after the New Year's celebrations at least.

　Okay. Thanks for the explanation.

　I'll ask for their names and assign them housing.
　I will save as many lives as I can.

　The griffon's support will last until we finish harvesting the wheat, so we'll be fine.
　And next year, if we have a good harvest, we can give it back.

　"Hey, Alms.
　What?
　Do we have enough wheat?　Next year, if it's a bad crop, you'd better be prepared for fifty or so.

　Tetra says that if it lasts two years in a row, our reserves will definitely run out.
　Will the wheat we're growing now be enough?　That's Tetra's question.

　We'll be fine. We're growing wheat with extra fertilizer. We'll get more than we usually do. And we have a bigger field. And we also grow barley.
　Two-field farming is the norm in this region.
　In short, once the wheat is harvested, the field is left to rest for a year.
　Food production efficiency is very low.

　On the other hand, we are a rotational farming system. The production efficiency is totally different.
　The worry about the tetras was unnecessary.

　But it's impossible to do two years in a row, isn't it?
　''I don't know. But the group that's casting this curse has a large number of pretty good quality spellcasters, and also people with enough money to prepare a sacrifice. So there might be a second year. It's just........
　"Just?
　Except maybe in King Losey's country.

　

　'How can you say that King Rosais' country is safe and sound and not some other great nation?
　I'm here with Julia.

　Julia is from King Rosais' country?　I've never heard of it.
　Tetra looked at me and replied.

　'She's pretty famous.'
　But the other kids look like they've never met each other before?
　'....among people of higher status. This is the story. She is twelve years old this New Year. She will be working as a sorceress for Rosais.

　Julia is twelve years old...

　Can I change the setting to say I'm twelve instead of eleven?
　You're on your own.

　Good. I'm twelve years old from now on.
　I don't know my exact age anyway. There's not much difference between the ages of 11 and 12.

　I'm actually over 20 years old.

　"Just think of it as an increase in the labor force. You'll get a better harvest. But I'm more worried about the old man. Putting old people to work...
　It's not very efficient.
　In effect, it's just a meal.

　The old man can't get rid of much.
　Why?
　I'm one of about eight children, but I only have one mother and one father.

　I'm convinced.

　'In the first place, they usually die before they reach fifty years of age. Old people who live long enough are hard to kill because they're like a sign of health.

　So it's a bad omen.
　If you live a long time, it seems to be more important to those around you if you live a long time.

　You're more resistant to it than abandoning your children.

　'You don't ask?'
　What?
　"How I knew about Julia.

　Oh, that 'famous among people of higher status' comment you made earlier.

　'I'm curious, but I won't ask. Talk to me when you're ready.
　So....

　Tetra looked relieved, but turned over a little sadly.

________.


　'Great!　I didn't know you could produce so much wheat. What kind of spell did you use?
　I didn't do anything great.

　In front of me was a golden ear of wheat.
　A great harvest, you might say.

　'Where's yours?'
　'Humph!　You'll be fine, thanks to me. It's not a bumper crop, but we won't have to worry about people starving to death this year. Your father is happy.

　Well, good. Well, that's good.

　What's that, by the way?
　Barley.

　Julia asks in a curious voice.

　'Shouldn't we give the field a break?'
　It's okay. I've got a little secret.

　When I answered, Julia looked at the barley intently.
　But she doesn't seem to be that interested, so she quickly shifts her gaze to the wheat.

　''Then we'll do the ritual as soon as possible, if that's okay?
　I will. I look forward to working with you.

　Julia steps forward.
　In front of Julia there is a table with wine, venison, grapes and olives on it.

　The wine, olives and grapes are what I got in exchange for the soufflower.

　Then I'll go.

　Julia said and began to dance leisurely.

　It's still beautiful.
　My heart naturally races.
　I want to watch it forever. But the dance is soon over.

　''What do you think?
　'Yeah. It was beautiful.

　When I complimented her honestly, Julia laughed a little embarrassed.

　''Then I'll take it.''
　Yeah. I'll walk you home.

　I walk Julia to the lake.

　'Yes. "When the bread is ready, I'll give it to Julia. As a thank you.
　Hmm. I'm looking forward to it.

_______________________________________________________________.


　Of course, you can't eat wheat as it is.

　It must be threshed.

　The wheat must be removed from the ears and separated from the husks.

　If this was all done by hand, it would be a lot of hard work.

　So I asked for the wisdom of our predecessors.

　'This is so easy!
　Seo-yeon talks to me as she threshes wheat with a thousand-toothed handpiece.
　I'm happy to be complimented on something I made myself, too.
　I'm just copying people's work.

　The original comb was made of bamboo or metal, but since bamboo doesn't grow naturally and I didn't have the blacksmithing skills, it was made of wood.
　That's why it's very fragile. Handle it with care.

　'Hmm the structure is simple. But to be this efficient it's an amazing idea.
　Tetra is mumbling to herself as she looks at the Thousand Tooth Handler.

　'Wouldn't it be great if this spread?'
　Ron said excitedly.

　'Well, it's going to make the work more efficient.
　But it would also take away the work of threshing, which is essentially a widow's job, so that's not the only good thing about it.

　If we're going to spread the word, we have to consider the widow's work as well...

　I'm not worried about that, am I? I'm just the leader of the kids. When the time is right, this group will be disbanded.

_______________________________________________.


　Now, the next step is to remove the husk.

　Before the introduction of machines on earth, all regions of the world used stone mortars for threshing.

　There are two types of millstones: one is a method in which a round stone is rubbed against a stone slab.
　The other is a method in which two disk-shaped stone slabs are stacked on top of each other and one of them is rotated.

　At least in this area, the former type of mortar seems to be used.

　This method can also be used for threshing, though. I have to sit for a long time while doing the same work, which is a source of back pain.
　I don't want to suffer from back pain at my age.

　So I made a disk-shaped stone mortar.

　It was very difficult to make it.
　I had to rub the stones together to make it round and flat.　
　I can't tell you how many times the devil in my heart whispered to me that I should just give up and do it the traditional way.

　But it would be much easier to work with when it was done. I believed it.

　Blessing?　I guess it's a blessing that it wasn't hard to scrape the stones together thanks to
　I can't help but be useful in such a delicate place.

　By the way, I got a backache because I was making it sitting all the time.
　That's stupid.

　'But this is so much easier!
　Let me have a go at it!

　Rosward and Gram are dry.　

　....as long as they're happy.
　I've got a backache, and it was worth it.

　You can take turns making it with everyone else. I mean, why did you make this by yourself?
　Because I want to surprise you.

　When I said that, Tetra was taken aback.

　'I was surprised enough with the thousand tooth treatment,'
　Huh. I've got one more surprise for you!
　What's wrong with him?
　Don't be so rude to be weird. It's a winch.

　I touch the winnower in the corner.
　It's my best work.

　Of course, I'm not a farm tool fanatic or anything, so I only know what it looks like from a history textbook.
　But I know that the mechanism of sorting by wind power.

　If you know the principle, you can make something like that through trial and error.
　It's not perfect, but we can improve it little by little.

　After all, when I was in elementary school, I got "A" in arts and crafts.
　It's only natural that I should be able to do this.

　You know what? You put the barley in here with the chaff, right?　And turn here.
　I move the winnowing vessel, trying to practice it to explain (and show off) to everyone.

　Snap!

　.........
　.........

　It looks like it still needs some improvements.

　In the end, we all did our best to sort it out.