Magicraft Meister

19 - 01-06 Barley Harvest

I'll see you in two months.

Take care.

"I'm sure you'll come back, Eric."

"Yes, I'll bring you something else."

The next day, Roland and his group left the village of Kaina. Eric was sad to say goodbye to Barbara.

Jin was thinking about something as he watched the carriage going away.

(Two days by carriage to the village of Toka, two more days to the town of Charles, and three more days to the capital of the Kingdom of Klein. The speed of the wagon was 4 to 6 kilometers per hour. If we run 8 hours a day, it's 200 to 300 kilometers to the capital. That's quite a distance. But if we go to the capital, we might be able to get a map of this continent. Then we might be able to find the location of the institute.)

While I was thinking like that, I felt a pinch on my hem. I looked and saw that it was Hannah.

"Hannah, what's wrong?"

I call her "Hannah" these days.

"Jin-chan, are you leaving this village?"

She was teary-eyed. Jin was impressed by the fact that girls have a good intuition even though they are small,

"Well, I don't know. At least I won't leave this year.

Hannah said, "I'm not going to leave this year at least,

"I'll be your daughter's wife, so please don't leave me.

She said, "I'll be your wife. Jin said,

"Oh, thanks. When Hannah grows up, if you still feel the same way about me, I'll ask you to do the same for me.

Jin replies. Actually, I have heard such a line from him before.

The first time was when Jin was in the third grade of junior high school. He was taking care of a girl who just came to the orphanage. She was 6 years old at the time.

But when she was 9 years old, she told a boy who was one year older than her from the same orphanage that she would be his wife in the future.

Next, when Jin was in his first year of high school, a girl four years younger than him confessed her love to him. But when Jin, who worked part-time during the day and went to a regular high school at night, found out that the girl was dating another boy.

In the end, however, it was just a temporary confession, and Jin stopped believing in such lines of the little girl.

He remembered the orphanage that had found him as an orphan and raised him, and decided to stay in the village for a year to repay the favor for having found him, and to do what he could do for Martha and the village.

It was almost summer and the fields in the village were full of wheat. The fields in this village are managed jointly, so everyone works together to reap the harvest. Jin helped, but his back soon began to ache and he dropped out.

"d*mn, I'm not strong enough, am I?

This is because most of Jin's body is supplemented with magical elements, so no matter how much he trains, he cannot build muscles. On the other hand, if he were to strengthen his body with magical powers, it would be a great thing, but it will be a long time before Jin realizes this.

"There must be something I can help you with. ......"

The wheelbarrow that Jin made was useful for transporting the harvested wheat, but he is still thinking about what he can do to help.

"Oh, I remember when we used to grow wheat at the orphanage, how did we mill the wheat at that time?

He dug up his memory,

"Oh yeah! A sieve!"

The flour we eat in this village is a whole ground wheat flour, which is called whole wheat flour. It is not the pure white flour that is available in modern households, but a brownish flour with bran in it.

"Let's make a sieve right away!"

Jin says no to Martha, goes home, and hurries to make the sifter. He made a frame, a mesh, and combined them to make a sieve. There are two kinds of nets: a fine one and a slightly coarser one.

The next day, the sifter was made, and he said to himself, "That's all right, but it's very hard to sift by hand.

So, I made a frame to hang the sifter from the top to save the time and effort of holding it by hand. This reminded him of the sifting frames he had seen in the past, which were hung from the ceiling like this.

"This looks good."

The sifter hung from the frame is shaken by hand and collected in a tub placed below. The remaining bran is used to feed the livestock.

"Okay, it's done!"

Martha and Hannah had just returned from bringing in the wheat, so I showed them the sifter.

"What's this? You have made something new!"

"What's this, honey?"

They were surprised, as I knew they would be. Jin explains.

"Really, it can sort flour?"

"Yes. And if the flour is of better quality, I'm sure Mr. Roland will appreciate it.

Will it taste good?

"I see. It's worth trying different ways to eat it and sell it.

So I immediately grind the wheat from last year's harvest on a millstone, grind it into flour, and sift it through a sieve. (Freshly harvested wheat cannot be ground because it is not yet dry.)

"Hmmm, put it in like this, and shake it..."

"Sounds fun! I'll do it too!"

Hannah, who had been watching, started to help, leaving the sifting to Hannah, while Martha ground the wheat and Jin separated the sifted flour and stored it.

"Wow, it's beautiful!

The brown whole wheat flour has turned into a fairly white flour. Jin is satisfied that this is good enough for now.

It really turns out beautiful, doesn't it? I think I will bake bread with this flour today.

That night.

"It's delicious, auntie!

Hannah is delighted.

"It's really delicious. ......

White bread is delicious after all."

Even Jin, who was raised in a family where he had no likes or dislikes and could even eat bad food without a problem, was struck by how different it tasted from the bread he had eaten before.

I must tell everyone about this."

The next day, the villagers were delighted to see how delicious the sifted flour tasted, and once again Jin had to build a sifter for each house.

I wish I could make this flour a specialty of the village of Kaina.

After the sifters had been distributed, he suggested this to the village headman, who agreed.

"Good, now we will be able to earn a little foreign currency.

Jin was pleased.

When Roland arrived two months later, he was surprised to see the flour.

"White flour like this is hard to find even in King's Landing! The pure white flour that the nobles eat is made by servants who grind shelled wheat by hand. It's impossible for ordinary people to eat that kind of flour. There are so many things that come close to that!

Not pure white, but very close to white, and at a reasonable price. As a merchant, I am tempted to jump on the bandwagon.

And although he has no gold ready this time, he promises to fetch a higher price on his next visit.

"But you always surprise me, Mr. Jin," he said.

Roland mutters as he eats a loaf of white bread.

"I'd like to visit Mr. Jin's hometown, too. If you ever come out to King's Landing to look for clues, please let me help you.

I would appreciate it.

Jin, who would never be able to return to his true hometown in Japan again, decided to accept the offer.