Chapter 207: Pulling Weeds With Magic
Chapter 207: Pulling Weeds With Magic
It’s now a great time after breakfast. Elna-kaasan and I were not doing anything, just drinking tea after our meal and relaxing on the sofa.
「……fuwaa」
Sitting on the sofa as if being buried on it I yawned, probably because of the drowsiness due to the feeling of having a full stomach after my meal.
Elna-kaasan who is sitting opposite me, and Sara - who is standing by at the corner of the room also yawned, I wonder if it’s because they saw me yawning?
They yawned while modestly covering their mouth with their hand.
I wonder if we will eventually become so sleepy after having our meal just like this?
If it were a student or a working adult, they would probably fight against this looming drowsiness after having a full stomach so they can continue their study or work, right?
I think it’s wrong for a person to forcefully hold down that feeling, despite their body asking them to sleep. Since your body says that it wants to sleep, then you should obediently sleep following your body's wishes.
Therefore, I decide to sleep following my body’s wish.
Putting my tea on the table, I grab the slime pillow placed on the side.
I don’t have any responsibilities or things to do now. So I can boldly sleep from daytime.
You can have a deeper sleep while thinking about that and sleep in a more comfortable environment, while everyone else is working and dripping with sweat.
「……Al, you have a promise to play with Torr-kun and Asmo-kun in the afternoon, didn’t you?」
Elna-kaasan said to me as I lie down and closed my eyes.
「It’s fine, it’s fine. I’m going to play after helping at Torr and Asmo’s house, so it would be a waste of time even if I immediately head there after lunch. I still have some time to take a nap, and it’s fine if I show up late」
「You will not wake up until the evening if you take a nap now, right?」
「So Elna-kaasan should wake me up so that doesn’t happenー」
After I asked her like that and finish our conversation, I turned toward the back of the sofa, then Elna-kaasan sighed.
「Mou, sleeping from daytime like that, you’re so sloppy」
Elna-kaasan also has nothing to do today. Rather, Elna-kaasan is also going to take a nap, right?
My consciousness sank as I fell asleep even as I think about that in my mind.
◆
「………Alfried-sama……Alfried-sama」
I wake up suddenly since my body is being shaken by someone.
And I saw the maid’s - Sara - beautiful face when I opened my eyes.
「………what is it? Sara?」
「I’m waking Alfried-sama for your appointment time in the afternoon」
I guess it’s because I’m still in a daze that it took me around five seconds to let me understand what is Sara was saying.
Aah, is that so. I took a nap before going to play with Torr and Asmo, and I ask someone to wake me up, right?
「Eh? I feel like I asked Elna-kaasan to wake me up…… Did Elna-kaasan had something to do, Sara?」
「No, Elna-sama is over there」
Sara answers me so when I muttered while I was trying to remember what happened.
……huh? That mother of mine, has she already fallen to the point that even waking up her son in front of her is a hassle?
So I raise my body and looked toward the sofa opposite of me while thinking about that in my mind.
「……suー……suー……」
Thereupon, I saw the figure of Elna-kaasan lying down on the sofa just like me before, making a quiet sound as she sleeps. A slime cushion was carefully laid down under her head.
「It appeared that Elna-sama became sleepy after seeing Alfried-sama’s sleeping face, so she fell asleep about five minutes after Alfried-sama went sleeping」
Despite asking to wake me up, you also went sleeping instead!
「And she was saying something like ‘Sleeping during the daytime, so sloppy’ー」
I poke on Elna-kaasan’s cheek with my finger while protesting a bit.
Elna-kaasan’s cheeks felt softer and feel more elastic compared to Eleonora-neesan’.
I put the blanket back to cover the happily sleeping Elna-kaasan.
「Sara, thank you for waking me up. And for the blanket」
「Not at all, it’s naturally my job as a maid」
Sara replied with a gentle expression on her face as I turn around and tell her that.
That unassuming smile is beautiful. If I’m going to marry in the future, it’d be nice if I can marry a beautiful woman with such an unassuming smile like Sara.
I stretch myself to loosen up my stiff muscles while thinking about that kind of thing.
Then I exhale, loosened up my muscles, and roused myself.
「Now then, I’m going out since I made a promise. As for Elna-kaasan, as long as Nord-tousan doesn’t come, you can just let her sleep as usual」
「Understood」
Right, that’s often the case.
Fulfilling my desire to sleep, I went out of the mansion with more than 20% of liveliness than usual.
◆
I headed toward Torr’s house thinking that the work of Torr and the other families work are already done, but it turned out that Torr is still working in the field.
Torr’s body was covered in mud and sweat, but his eyes shines as soon as he saw me.
「Ohh! Al! You’re late, aren’t ya! I’ve been waiting!」
「But I’m not waiting for this. Instead, I wanted to go home now」
Seeing Torr’s shining eyes only gives me a bad feeling.
「Don’t say that Al. I’m almost done with my work!」
「Then I’m going to wait at Torr’s house, okay. So you should finish your work soon」
Just when I turned around and tried to head toward his house from the field, Torr quickly grab my arm.
「Don’t be stupid. It will be done quicker if it were done by two people rather than doing it alone, right? Recently, I’ve been forced to do a lot of work alone because of the matter of the Royal Feed and slimes hunt, y’know! Come on, please!」
Shaking the other person with the theory, feelings, and the guilt……don’t do that Torr.
「Tha, that’s Torr’s job anyway, and the matter with the Royal Feed was your own fault」
I asked them to hunt for slimes with me, but Torr was able to skip his work that day so I shouldn’t be owing him anything…… Though it stings a little.
「Yeahhー. I also played with the irresponsible Al」
As expected, my heart will shake if you said such genuine words.
Well, in the end, I feel guilty because Torr’s action had been exposed, and it’s been some time since then. I guess it’s fine for me to help him a little here.
And recently, I have not been able to play with Torr and the others because of the practice with Eleonora-neesan.
Our feeling of wanting to play together is the same somehow.
「……can’t be helped. But I will only help in simple things」
「Ooh! I thought Al would say something like that! Then, please pull out the weeds in the field!」
Torr’s attitude made a complete change as he deftly pass me some gloves when I said that while sighing.
This guy. He’s saying some shady things with ulterior motives at the start, then he negotiated with genuine remarks at the end.
On top of that if he bring up our friendship on the table at the start, then he thought that I will accept it and help him.
While having an indescribable feeling in my mind, I reluctantly put on the gloves.
Torr triumphantly started to plow the field with a hoe, maybe he was feeling happy he can force his chores on me.
While giving him a sidelong glance, I start to carefully pull out the weeds growing all around the field.
Those with long grasses were easy to pull out, but it’s hard to pull out the weeds with short and thin grasses.
It might be better to just leave the short ones as they are, right?
「Pull out the short ones properly will ya’」
「Okay okay」
Even though he’s Torr, how sharp.
So I start to properly pull out the short weeds one by one as Torr’s said.
Still, it’s troublesome since there are a lot of them.
I’ll dig the soil in a small area with Earth magic to raise the weeds from under the ground.
Starting from the weeds around me, I cast the Earth magic.
Immediately after that, the short weeds emerge like earthworms, shooting up from the soil one after another. They’re properly been dug up and since the roots of the weeds are short, the range for the weeds to dig is not that wide. And since it doesn’t affect the fields it’s gonna be fine if I continue doing this, right?
Judging to be so, I pull out the long weeds with my hands, while continuing to dig out the short weeds using Earth magic.
「……oi, you’re strangely fast, aren’t you? You’re faster than my kaachan……? Are you pulling them out properly?」
「Un, I’m pulling them」
「Liar. You’re a noble young master who doesn’t usually do gardening, there’s no way you can pull them out one after another like that!」
Perhaps he can’t accept the speed of my rough weeding since Torr is coming toward me.
And as Torr observes the place where I was working,
「……they are certainly pulled out neatly huh. There are no weeds or roots left…… Oi, Al. Try pulling the weeds over here」
「Sure」
So I start pulling weeds following what Torr said, since I felt that I haven’t done anything to feel guilty in particular.
I pull out the long weeds with my hands like before and use magic to dig out the short weeds……
「What the!? What the heck is that!? The weeds are coming out from the soil one after another like earthworms!? It’s gross!」
I wonder? I would say it does look like a cute creature when you get used to it though……
「Oii! How did it turn out to be like this!? Are you using magic again!?」
「Un, I use Earth magic to dig up the short weeds from their roots. And the soil shouldn’t be dug up that extremely since only the weeds are being dug out」
So I cast the weed-pulling magic again so that Torr can check on the magic’s effect.
The green weeds are emerging as if being pushed out from the soil.
「Whaa!? What the, what the heck is this!? It’s a foul! If you have this, you’ll be able to pull out the weeds quickly with this, wouldn’t you!?」
「Hey Torr? Why are you being so noisy since earlier? It’s your job to plow the whole field today you know? I won’t let you have dinner if you skip it you hear?」
As Torr raised his voice in surprise at the emerging weeds, Torr’s mother - Myula-san - came out from their house.
「Myula-san, good afternoon」
「Eh? Aah, Alfried-sama good afternoon」
When I got up and greet her, Myula-san also greet me while looking flustered.
It seems like she didn’t think that I will be here with Torr.
Then Myula-san approaches Torr and say,
「Hey Torr. Though you are friends with him, Alfried-sama is still a noble-sama you know? For you to ask him to help you in farming………」
「It doesn’t matter whether you are a noble or a commoner in regards to farming, Myula-san」
There, my remark just now. It makes me appear to be quite a good boy right?
「I, is that so?」
「You heard him saying it himself kaachan, don’t worry about it!」
Myula-san dropped her fist on Torr’s thoughtless head.
「You should remember to be a bit more thoughtful! This job is a punishment for you!」
「Ouch! You’re too stingy, we only drank a little of that tea!? And it’s already a long time ago since that time isn’t it!」
「Those were the high-quality tea leaf given to me by Elna-sama! Despite putting them aside for me to look forward to after work, you drank them all! And also, about Alfried-sama! You’ve been using his name as a reason to skip work didn’t you!」
Oーohhー, I’ve been completely pulled into a parent and their son’s exchange. I had guessed it before, but Torr and Myula-san’s would probably always like this, huh.
It was kinda heartwarming scene that it unintentionally makes me feel at ease.
Then Myula-san - who is scolding Torr - suddenly come to her senses, perhaps she notices me looking at them like that.
「*cough*……in any case, do your job by yourself if at all possible. You’ll be free today after you plowed this field 」
「Fiーnee」
Myula-san frowned when Torr crudely replied but she decided to satisfy herself by letting him off, for now, perhaps she thought that it will just be a repeat of the previous interaction between them.
After that, she turned toward me while smiling brightly and say,
「Alfried-sama, please don’t keep this stupid kid company, would you like to take a break at our house? We………still have Royal Feed, so please make yourself at home」
Was that an expression of regret after telling me, I wonder? From her brightly smiling face, it changes into that of regret and despair. And her words had also ended weakly.
If she entertains me at her house, then her few remaining Royal Feed will be consumed further.
I can drink Royal Feed as much as I want back in the mansion, and I’m not a brute who will choose to take a rest at their house and impose on them.
「N, no, please don’t bother. It’s also fun to stay here and talk with Torr」
「I, is that so! I’m currently at home so do come to visit and take a break anytime you wish!」
Hearing what I said, Myula-san then smile from the bottom of her heart.
After that, Myula-san returns to her house with light footsteps.
Amazing. Despite her wonderful smile, it now does come from her heart, huh? I feel like I heard a threatening voice saying , ‘I will take your words for it’.
While I’m sending Myula-san off, approaches me with a dark smile on his face and say,
「Hey Al, why don’t you go back to my house to take a break now. My kaachan will be pretty depressed then」
「I know how you feel but you’d better stop it」
「Just kidding. It won’t be funny if my work increases any further than what I currently have 」
And so, Torr carried the hoe on his shoulder and started to plow the field after I rebuked him.