Round 203

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Milling rice wasn’t an easy task.

To explain it simply, it was the process of removing the husk from the rice, but there was another layer inside the husk.

Depending on how much of this layer was removed, the rice would be classified as either white rice or brown rice.

These days, machines take care of all of that, but I didn’t have such a machine.

It seemed like I would need to take it somewhere and have it processed.

“But I really want to taste it.”

Even just a little bit—just a taste.

First, I had to shake off each grain from the bundle of rice stalks I’d gathered.

Since it looked too much for just me and Ara, we decided to ask for help.

“Do you think this is enough to get a taste?”

“Yes!”

We loaded a bundle onto Bokkeum and thought about who we could ask for help.

After some consideration, we figured it might be worth asking the fairies for assistance.

“They’re good with their hands and there are plenty of them.”

Plus, they weren’t doing much lately.

Our slimes had been handling all the farming, so the fairies in Alfheim had nothing to do and had been idling around.

Even their once-diligent patrols had slacked off since they realized I was the master of this dungeon, and there was no longer anything dangerous.

Since both Woofy and Purr were away, I sprinted over for the first time in a while.

Thanks to my upgraded physical abilities, I was much faster than before.

While I still couldn’t compete with Woofy or Purr, I managed to reach the fairy village quickly.

-(~^0^~)

-(,,><,,)!

The fairies waved cheerfully.

I could only see them after reaching the entrance to the village.

Some of them seemed to have just come back from a bath, awkwardly covering their wet bodies with oversized leaves.

“You guys are living the good life.”

Maybe being reborn as a fairy wouldn’t be so bad.

But now, it was time for them to work.

Fortunately, Frey was away, and Ara learned through conversation that the fairies were all gathered in Gnoll Village.

It seemed Soo and Gomgom were there too.

“Well, time for us to do what we need to do.”

“We must do what must be done!”

We gathered the fairies who had been lounging around and asked them to help separate the grains.

It had been a while since they’d had work to do, so they eagerly joined us, showing enthusiasm from all directions.

-9(‘7’)”

-(2′ o ‘)2!

-( > ̄‹)/

-1(^o^)/

“Great, great!”

I also sat down and began separating the grains.

But within five minutes, I realized just how inefficient this method was.

“Should we just shake them off?”

While it might increase the chances of losing or damaging some grains, it seemed like shaking them off would be much faster.

We stopped everyone who was separating the grains by hand and moved the rice bundles inside the World Tree.

If we were going to shake them off, it was better to be indoors, surrounded by walls.

The inside of the World Tree was perfect—not too big, not too small.

Shooosh!

For an ordinary person, it would have been impossible, but with the strength of an awakened one, just a strong shake was enough to loosen some of the grains.

It was definitely faster than before, but still, about half of the grains stubbornly refused to come off.

—”(w)”—

The fairies ran around collecting the fallen grains, and their movements were absolutely adorable.

I just wanted to kiss them.

“Ara.”

“Yes!”

“Since I don’t have enough strength, Ara, do you want to try shaking it off?”

“Ooh! Leave it to me!”

Ara rolled up her sleeves, flexing her arm to show off her nonexistent biceps, revealing only soft, chubby arms.

“Be sure to control your strength!”

“Hmph! Watch and learn. Kyu-seong, Kyu-seong!”

Ara grabbed the bundle of rice stalks and swung it.

With a swoosh, the grains flew off like bullets.

“Oooooh! As expected of Ara!”

“Heh! Heh! Heh!”

The perfect balance of strength! She had just the right amount of control to separate the grains from the stalk without damaging them.

Ara really could do anything!

Thanks to her, the fairies suddenly became very busy.

As grains showered down from all directions, the fairies scurried around, quickly gathering the scattered rice.

I couldn’t just sit idly by, so I joined the fairies in gathering the rice.

Swoosh!

-…(` = ‘)/

-\(‘ ‘)…

As we diligently gathered the grains, the pile grew taller and taller.

Seeing the pile of rice steadily increase filled me with satisfaction.

‘This much from just a small bundle, huh?’

Was it one-hundredth? Or maybe one-thousandth?

Even though we’d only gathered enough for a small taste, the amount was enormous. Of course, it might shrink once we cooked it, but for now, it looked like a lot.

At the end, we finished shaking off all the rice bundles, forming a small hill of grains.

“Whew! Good job, Ara. Good job, everyone.”

“”

“Is it rice time now?”

“Not quite. Now we have to…”

If it was this hard just to separate the grains from the stalk, when were we going to hull the rice?

It was a different story from Goso-Goso (millet).

With Goso-Goso, after soaking it, a quick boil would naturally separate the husk, but rice required milling.

“Hmm…”

Maybe we could just soak it briefly and try to peel the husk by hand? Even if we managed to remove the husk, we’d still need to scrape off the inner layer to get the rice we’re used to.

I picked up a single grain.

Using my fingernail, I scratched at the husk, or chaff, but it was tightly stuck to the grain and didn’t peel off easily.

Still, it wasn’t completely impossible, so I forced one grain into a yellowish rice grain shape.

“This is how we have to peel the husk.”

“…We have to peel all of them like this?”

“Hahaha.”

It had been a while since I saw Ara looking so flustered.

She looked so serious, as if she’d encountered the greatest enemy of her life, and I couldn’t help but laugh.

As much as I wanted to keep teasing her, I soon told her the truth.

“Once we put this into a machine, it’ll peel the husk for us. But since we don’t have one, we’ll have to take it somewhere to get it done.”

“Oh, thank goodness! We can take it somewhere?”

“Of course.”

Ara wiped the cold sweat from her brow in relief, as if she’d been imagining having to peel all those grains by hand.

“Well, I’m going to chew on some raw brown rice for now.”

“I’m going to eat it too.”

I offered the hardworking fairies a taste as well.

To them, a grain of rice was just the right size for a fairy-sized snack.

“Ara, you can just eat it raw, right?”

“Yep!”

“I’m so jealous.”

“I’ll still peel it and eat it.”

Ara joined me, diligently peeling the husks just like I was.

As expected, with her great strength, Ara quickly peeled the rice.

After watching Ara and the fairies for a bit, I tried chewing on some of the raw rice… 

‘It’s just rice, isn’t it?’

I couldn’t really tell the difference. 

Had I expected too much? I felt a little disappointed.

“Ooh! It’s delicious!” 

“R-Really?”

“Yes! It’s tastier than regular rice!” 

I couldn’t tell at all, but Ara was excitedly grabbing handfuls of rice. She didn’t even bother peeling the husks before popping them into her mouth. 

Chewing and chewing. 

Although the raw rice was hard, for Ara, who could chew through stones, it probably felt rather soft. 

Soon, Ara, with her mouth full of raw, husked rice, beamed with a big smile.

“It’s delicious. Hehe.”

“I’m glad you think so.”

“I bet it’ll taste even better as cooked rice.”

“Now that you’ve said that, I’m looking forward to it too!”

Anyway, I had to head back to Ara Hongryeon tomorrow.

The Awakening Headquarters had mentioned sending someone due to the Austria situation, so things could get busy.

‘I should ask Seon-ah for help.’

Since we’d be leaving together anyway, I decided I would ask Seon-ah to take the rice to the mill. 

I probably wouldn’t be able to leave at all tomorrow, being tied up the entire day… 

Maybe I should ask her to take Ara as well? 

She’d be bored staying with me anyway. 

I decided to talk to Seon-ah when she arrived, and after leaving some strawberries and rice as snacks for the hardworking fairies, I returned to Slime Village.

“Where have you been?” 

Just as I returned, Seon-ah was back, so it seemed I could head straight to Gnoll Village on Woofy.

“Oh, the rice cultivation is done, so I went to take care of a few things.”

“Rice?! It’s finally ready?”

“Yeah. Actually, I was going to ask you for a favor.”

“What is it?”

“I think I’ll have to go to the guild tomorrow to catch up on the work I’ve been putting off. If you have some time, could you stop by the mill with Bokkeum and Ara?”

“The mill? Oh, yeah, we probably can’t do the… uh, the processing ourselves, right?”

“Milling?”

“Yeah, that.”

Seon-ah nodded, then coolly agreed.

“So tomorrow, Ara gets to go on a date with me?”

“A date! That’s great!”

Ara suddenly looked up at me.

“Is Kyu-seong  Kyu-seong not coming?”

“I’d like to, but I think I’ll be stuck dealing with things.”

Ara flinched!

She immediately understood from the way I said it that I was going to be tied up with something unpleasant.

She subtly distanced herself from me.

“D-Do your best. I, I will go with Seon-ah and turn the rice into cooked rice.”

“Ugh.”

Ara had also been through some grilling during the early stages of the investigation, so she was visibly dreading it.

But still, Ara, you don’t have to act so coldly toward me, do you~?

With that, we quickly settled the plan for tomorrow, and I showed Seon-ah the rice grains we had husked.

“They shine like gold. You could sell them as is, and they’d still sell.”

Soon enough, Seon-ah, like me, scratched the husk off the rice with her fingernail and bit into the raw grain.

“Ugh, it’s bitter.”

“Just peeling the husk isn’t enough. That’s why we need to take it to be processed.”

Now that we had checked the rice, it was time to go meet our new companions. 

I hadn’t been able to take care of them properly this past week, so I was curious about how they were doing. 

‘It seems like they’re adjusting well with him.’

Ever since Gwaa came to greet us, he had been sleeping the whole time. It seemed that once his belly was full, he was naturally inclined to sleep a lot.

I should probably gather some information about snake ecology. Although he’s a monster, there might be some similarities.

“Woofy, let’s go!”

Woofy enlarged his body so that all three of us could ride comfortably at once.

Then, with the wind rushing past, Woofy ran swiftly.

Seon-ah, who seemed to have gotten used to this speed, appeared calm and stable now.

‘This is definitely better than running myself.’

Before long, we passed by the fairy village and headed toward the village of goblins and Gnolls.

Soon, the well-organized village came into view.

It looked like a beautiful medieval town straight out of a fairytale.

“Wow, it’s really coming together!”

In just a few days, the village had made incredible progress. Before I left for Austria, it was mostly just the framework in place—optimistically speaking, it had a lot of potential, but now it was transformed.

What on earth happened while I was gone?

I saw children gathered in the clearing by the fountain in the middle of the village. 

Seon-ah, who had already spotted the Gnolls, exclaimed in surprise.

“Gnoll?! They’re so cute!!”

Of course, Seon-ah couldn’t resist anything cute. I wondered how she’d react when she saw the cutest of all, Ras.

And just then, I spotted Ras as well—the only Gnoll wearing boots. Adorable.

-Oh? It’s the Grand Lord!

-The Grand Lord has arrived!

Mammon and Frey, who had noticed me, waved their hands. Gomgom and Soo were with them as well.

-Mm! You have arrived!

Ras greeted me cheerfully.

Seeing Ras, Seon-ah froze in place.

“Huh? Huhh?”

She was so flustered that she couldn’t even form proper words.

“So, what do you think of your brother’s talent?”

There are always cute kids gathered around me. Hehe.

You should be thankful, dear sister.

But paying me no mind, Seon-ah hurriedly got off Woofy and approached Ras.

Ras looked at her with a blank expression.

-Who might you be?

“Oh my gosh, listen to how he talks! So cute…”

Once again, it seemed like Seon-ah’s preferences had been perfectly hit.

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