Plowing with Heavy Plows

Gevra possessed the power of misfortune.

A strange, otherworldly force surrounded her. Though intangible and elusive, it could silently affect the environment around her.

After she awakened, the Nova Family suffered many bouts of bad luck that should never have happened.

Just about every misfortune imaginable befell them, nearly destroying the family entirely.

Only after Gevra left did the Nova Family's situation gradually improve.

In Romain's view, Gevra possessed not only the power of misfortune, but likely the power of luck as well. Otherwise, anyone else would have died in the mountains long ago.

Both disease and food were major obstacles to survival.

The fact that this girl had not been carried off by wild beasts over nearly two years was extraordinarily lucky in itself.

After learning of Gevra's ability, Aaron and Green were somewhat surprised, but neither had any particular opinion on it.

The power to govern luck and misfortune was mysterious, but mysterious did not necessarily mean powerful.

No matter how mysterious you were, I could still kill you with one slash.

The most common way to deal with a Witch was to throw salt on her.

Gevra was different, because she had no way to control this power—she could not even tell which misfortunes had been caused by her.

Romain understood why Gevra's parents had driven her out.

Forget a medieval peasant family—even a modern family would not have been able to bear it.

Poor people were extremely sensitive to misfortune. Once they encountered any setback in life, they would blame heaven and curse fate. That was perfectly normal.

A rope always snapped at its weakest point; calamity always found the wretched.

Poor families had extremely little ability to withstand risks and could not endure any hardship.

Sometimes, one stroke of bad luck would make an already unfortunate family's situation even worse, plunging them into a vicious cycle.

As a Transcendent, Romain had strong resistance to misfortune.

Even misfortune had to follow the basic laws of physics.

Gevra's influence was limited as well. It was not active at all times. At most, it could cause things like broken legs or collapsed houses, and even that required the right conditions.

Though there was no clear pattern to it, Romain felt that it might be related to her own condition.

For example, the arrival of that pack of wolves had been rather suspicious.

At the time, he and Shasta had been at each other's throats, on the verge of fighting, yet they had been abruptly interrupted.

Romain felt that Gevra had been responsible, but he had no proof.

Of course, Romain did not avoid Gevra. If his Origin Farm could go bankrupt because of her, he might as well slit his own throat.

Romain arrived at the Blacksmith Shop.

Eight or nine people inside were hammering Iron Ingots with great enthusiasm.

It was not that Mol was stingy with manpower. The Blacksmith Shop simply could not accommodate more people than this, and even now it was already overcrowded.

This made Laxus's Blacksmith Shop rather unpleasant to Romain's eyes.

Their efficiency was low, but they worked very hard.

Following Romain's orders, these helpers received two pounds of wheat as payment each day.

So far, they had forged four Heavy Plows.

As their proficiency increased, their efficiency was improving as well.

Romain watched for a while. The clanging of hammer on iron filled his ears, stirring his blood until he wanted to tear off his clothes, join them, and fiercely forge his way to Forging Experience +1.

But he had other things to do at the moment.

Romain called Laxus over and told him, "This isn't enough. Forge more Heavy Plows as quickly as possible."

Laxus looked haggard. Hearing this, he recalled the Silver Coins Romain had promised him, nodded, and prepared to keep the furnace burning through the night.

Romain patted his shoulder, then called over the Steward responsible for Heavy Plow production.

"Add another pound of wild boar meat to every blacksmith worker's lunch and dinner each day. If there isn't enough pork, substitute it with other meat."

Shasta had killed the wild boar. The hunters had found its carcass last night and carried out some preliminary processing—but it belonged to the Lord, so they did not dare keep it for themselves. They sent it down the mountain this morning.

After giving these instructions, Romain took all the finished Heavy Plows and led away six Draft Cattle.

Romain rode at the front on a tall horse, constantly looking around in search of a suitable spot. Aaron and Green drove the Draft Cattle pulling the Ox Cart, while Gevra sat in the cart with the Heavy Plows, following Romain as he aimlessly searched the surrounding farmland for something.

Green whispered to Aaron, "Want to make a bet?"

Aaron nodded. "I bet we're going to plow the fields in a while."

Green was speechless. "That takes all the fun out of it."

"Not betting, then?" Aaron asked.

Green rolled his eyes.

After a while, not far from Sigg Town, Romain found a suitable target.

Vast farmland stretched as far as the eye could see.

Sigg Town lay at the southeastern corner of the basin. The docks by Silver Dragon Canyon and the Bro River were also in that direction. To the west rose continuous rolling mountains; slightly to the east was Origin Manor; to the north lay broad fields, and farther north was a vast stretch of wilderness.

Because it had not yet been cultivated, it was filled with primitive terrain such as swamps, dense forests, and streams.

Romain swung down from his horse. Compared to the other weed-choked land he had seen, this field looked somewhat more presentable. There did not seem to be many weeds, tree roots, or stones, and even the green grass sprouting from the ground was sparser than elsewhere.

Perhaps it had been farmed more often over the years, and left fallow more often as well, so the land here was quite flat—one could see everything at a glance.

Romain used his fingers to brush aside the surface clods, grabbed some deeper soil, and crushed it in his hand as he looked at the slightly yellowed, faintly black earth.

He nodded. This field was indeed very fertile.

Romain fitted the yoke around the necks of the two Draft Cattle and tied the rope to the Heavy Plow.

The Heavy Plow was a large farming implement. Its drawback was that it required at least two cattle to pull it.

Everything was ready.

Time to plow!

After adjusting the direction, Romain held the Heavy Plow steady and drove it into the deepest layer of soil.

The two experienced Draft Cattle instinctively moved their limbs and began pulling the plow. The wooden wheels turned as they moved forward.

Just as Romain expected, the Heavy Plow's plowshare was sharp and vertical. It easily split open the wet, heavy ground, turning up the sticky, compacted soil and severing the grass roots along the way. It would work even against Frozen Soil.

Romain was very satisfied with the result.

After guiding the Heavy Plow forward for over a hundred meters, he had the Draft Cattle stop.

Leaving the Draft Cattle and plow there, Romain turned back alone and said to Aaron and Green, "You two, plow one thousand meters east from here, then plow straight north for another thirteen hundred meters."

Although Green had anticipated it, when the moment came, he still pointed at himself blankly. "Huh? Me?"

It was one thing for you to do farm work yourself. No one dared stop you.

But I'm a dignified War Knight. Is it really appropriate for you to make me do this?

Could I even bear this humiliation?

What would the other knights think if they found out?

Aaron had also expected something like this. Romain had brought three Heavy Plows and six Draft Cattle.

He had thought each person would be assigned one Heavy Plow.

That had indeed been Romain's original plan, but he belatedly realized that neither of them had any experience plowing fields, so for the time being, he had the two work together.