Volu 2, Snippet 2.1
Translator: Larkin
Editor: Weasalopes
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1 A Day In Li’s Life..
「Li! Let’s go harvesting! 」
「O—kay! 」
On one early morning when the late spring sun had finally shone its rays, Fum’s younger sister, Li, had just completed a task when Fum called out to her.
Li was a five-year-old girl who had been practically raised in a workshop, but despite being a child, playing was by no ans the only thing she did. Her small stature and stamina did not allow her to compound materials nor perform other manufacturing tasks but she was able to conduct asurents, collect materials, and other simple tasks.
It goes without saying but Fum and Li, two children who were not even 10 years old, lived in a world where it wasn’t unusual for children to work. A life with no work and only play was a luxury reserved for children of rchants and nobility. Even within the elves of Ortem, once a child turns five they were expected to babysit and help with the farm work. Contemporary Japanese society would probably find this lifestyle harsh, but actually, the days before Japanese children could live a life without being expected to work wasn’t even that long ago.
「Fum, Li, while you’re out, buy so spices from market.」
「M’kay! 」
「Got it.」
「Knowing you two I think you’ll be fine but still be careful okay? 」
Before departing the two of them said their usual goodbyes and made their way towards the east gate.
「Fum-chan, Li-chan, good morning! 」
「Good morning, Lumina.」
「Good mor—ning! 」
Lumina, daughter of rizza, was a mber of their harvesting group. They exchanged good mornings, rged with a group of adventurers and headed toward the harvesting spot, which was an hour on foot if you were a kid.
「One—chan, Lumina-chan, over here! 」
「Ah, Li, wait! 」
「Don’t go off on your own! 」
But Li didn’t listen to the two older girls, instead she ran off toward what seed like a promising harvesting spot. As they looked on the rest of the harvesting group’s shoulders fell in dismay. There was a silent agreent within the group; if all mbers remained together in one area they could ensure the safety of everyone.
If one were to break this rule there wasn’t an imdiate punishnt, and if one were to unconsciously break the rule the offender would be let off the hook, however, if one were to deliberately ignore the rule they would receive a social punishnt. Because of this even soone foolish wouldn’t dare to make the sa mistake.
「Wow, to think that there’s this many ripe timberries……. 」
「My little sister always seems to effortlessly find these things……」
Li flashed a triumphant smile and puffed up her chest with pride at hearing the girls’ astonished admiration. She had a talent for seeking out rare types of plants.
Incidentally, timberry is a type of perennial plant whose berries take all of sumr to ripen; it is also a relative of the strawberry. Usually, one isn’t able to pick berries in March, only on a very rare occasion would anyone be lucky enough to find them. These off-season timberries also possess a powerful magic, they are prized for their dicinal value, as well as acting as a catalyst for enchanting and alchemy. It’s no wonder that they’re such expensive items found only in a select number of levels.
「Well we’ve actually found them so we might as well pick them.」
As they assiduously picked the berries the amount quickly filled their baskets so they transferred the berries to their satchels. While Fum and Lumina worked diligently, Li climbed a tree and began collecting Dolk leaves to collect the berries in. Dolk leaves were at their finest just as they’re about to fall off the branch. However, a single Dolk leaf wouldn’t be able to withstand their harvest so Li leaped rapidly from branch to branch collecting the best leaves in earnest. It seed that als from the workshop were giving her proper nutrition; it was surprising that a child at her age had this much physical ability.
「Li! Stop that, it’s dangerous! 」
「O—kay! 」
At Fum’s scolding, Li obediently got down from the tree. She was mischievously appropriate for a child her age, but she was also reasonable.
「One—chan, over here! 」
「And now you’ve gone and found a splendid Aslin.」
「Digging out roots is hard work isn’t it~?」
Li was pointing at an Aslin stalk, that was twice its usual size, blooming with lovely white flowers.
Of course, its roots were also double its usual size and could be used as raw material. With their ability and if luck was on their side they could perhaps make a dicine that would level them up by one rank.
In the end they continued to find more rare materials that would allow them to make class seven or class eight potions. Teres was the best at gathering materials, but Li was by far the best at finding rare materials. Today Li was on a roll and thanks to her the Azuma workshop had acquired far more and far better material than expected.
「Fum-chan, Li-chan, let’s play—! 」
It was past lunchti and they were now faced with a sense of ennui.
「Fum and and I will be back soon! 」
「Wait, can we? 」
「You’ve finished today’s quota, besides playing with your friends is important too, you know.」
「Okay. Li, let’s go.」
「Yeah! 」
After receiving permission Fum and Li went down the stairs to et their friends. The surrounding elderly watched over the children with softened gazes. Despite being raised in the slums by a single parent, the two of them had a sound upbringing. The two of them both studied and worked with all their might. One could even say that they had much more scholarly promise than the third son of a noble family who despised study.
「Sorry, did you wait long? 」
「Not at all.」
They bowed their heads while apologizing to Lumina and the other children, but the children smiled and rrily reassured them that everything was fine. The group was a mix of girls and boys but girls seed to make up the majority of the group. They all knew that Fum was a major force at the workshop and that she always had her hands full, so there was no reason for them to hold a grudge against her for the tis when she’d turned down their invitations. Besides, because every one of them had chores of their own the opportunity for them to et as a group was very rare.
「So, what should we play? Tag? Hide-and-seek? 」
「We could also cultivate Pomies~」
Everyone ignored Li as she smiled and proposed a dangerous ga. In the end they agreed to play red light green light, a ga they had learned from the workshop. Incidentally, Poy cultivating is a thrilling ga that’s played by using hot spring water and piling up pomies. To put it simply, the ga is just like playing with firecrackers. Afterwards, the Pomies would beco delicious food.
「Fum-chan will be “it”. 」
「O—kay.」
The children agreed and began the ga. However, none of them actually knew what a traffic signal was. The reason they learned this ga was because of a certain person from Kansai who had first tried teaching them a ga called Mr. Monk breaks wind, but luckily Makoto and Tatsuya had quickly intervened.
「Red light! 」
「Kane, you’re out! 」
「Tch.」
A boy nad Kane had been fooled by Fum’s feint and moved to the out corner with a vexed look on his face.
「One—chan, I got you! 」
「Ah man、 I lost—. 」
「Ehehe.」
Fum had planned to beat Li but in the end she had been swiftly defeated by her simple cleverness. A showdown between these two could go either way.
「Li-chan, I got you—. 」
「Ah, now I’ve lost—. 」
However, Li was still a child and her opponents were children too, so it wasn’t like she could outsmart them that easily.
「Um, is anybody there? 」
Li restlessly looked around making sure that there was no one in sight, and then she quietly stepped into the garden.
「Good evening—」
She let out a startled voice and called out to what lay before her. The area was very dim but if you looked closely you could see a faint sparkling and a sprout with a pair of small leaves planted in the center.
「I brought you fertilizer~」
At Li’s words, the soil sparkled again. Li deciphered the soil’s reaction and began to scatter fertilizer. The fertilizer was a quality product made by Hiroshi called Ocean Life (It actually was made from the fluids that had been extracted from a chrysalis of a giant hornworm). It was the ultimate fertilizer but Li was generously scattering it everywhere. Although it had been a leftover product using so much of it was a tad audacious.
There actually wasn’t anything wrong with what Li was doing. That’s because in the past, as the result of so mischief, she had buried a nearly rotten Sol issen, which had miraculously germinated while also keeping her act a secret.
Normally, Li wouldn’t take part in such mischief, but that day the plates overflowing with Sol issen had piqued her interest and she couldn’t resist poking it with her finger. As a result, the Sol issen imdiately withered and a panicked Li saw no other choice but to bury it in a sunlit corner of the garden.
Li was plagued by guilt and considered confessing what she had done but while she struggled to muster up the courage to do so Hiroshi and the others had embarked on a journey and the evidence eventually erased itself.
However, Hiroshi was actually aware of what Li had done and he had taken notice of Li’s guilt and regret so he had decided not to dig any further into the matter. Besides he too was at fault for leaving behind the Sol issen; it made sense to go easy on Li.
「Is this water okay? 」
Li watered the plants with an elephant-shaped watering can (made by Hiroshi), and in response, the ground sparkled in happiness. After five minutes the ground glittered in satisfaction and seed to say 「I’m fine now」 so, Li put away the watering can.
「Alright then, I’ll be back tomorrow and bring you so more water.」
The ground glittered happily once more and then remained still. Actually, the reason why Li was able to sneak into the garden was because everyone was aware of what she was doing, they just weren’t interfering. They assud that she wanted to secretly care for the plants so they unanimously agreed to allow her to do so while watching over her from afar.
「Ugh, I’m tired.」
It wasn’t close to midnight at all, but for a five year old it was certainly late. She, of course, could not fight off the sleepiness so as quiet as she could she tiptoed back to her room and fell sound asleep.
That was a perfectly normal day in Li’s life.
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