Another World Where I Can’t Even Collapse and Die

CHAPTER 36 – WORK AT DAWN (6)

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Well, with that said and done, the problem at hand had yet to be resolved.

That’s to say, ‘the problem of Tussa-san pestering me because she wants Fikar for herself.’

Tarina-san told her off sometimes, but Tussa-san was basically the leader of the girls in town and, so long as we were working face-to-face, I couldn’t ignore her too much.
How I wished that I, too, had the strength to say a one-sided “I refuse” in my relationships with others…

“Sumire, Fikar, thanks for your hard work.
As I said yesterday, the man-eating melon harvest is over, so you should go to the orchard in the west for your next task.
Just go straight that way and you’ll find it.”

After finishing our morning work of weaving steel ivy, the supervisor from the Carcathian guild branch who was present told us that.
It was already our eighth day of work here.
I’d endured early risings and Asura, and I felt like a veteran soldier.

The eastern man-eating melons had almost all of their fruits harvested, leaving hoses that appeared to gently caress the trees.
It seemed to be the kind of plant that could bear fruit so long as the temperature and humidity were right, so it was reaped three times a year, once for each season excluding winter.
Thanks to Su, the harvesting process went well enough that I was personally thanked.
I stroked her with all my might, and she looked proud of herself.

It was my first time working in the western orchard.
As we approached the meet-up spot, I saw that it was made up of trees that were, at best, a little over 2 meters tall.
The trunks had large spaces between them, but the branches stretched so far out that the trees looked like unfolded umbrellas standing in lines with no gaps.
Their dark green, glossy leaves had grown in densely, squeezing the bright red fruits between them.
Looking closer, I realized they were just like small apples.
Rather than the size you’d see in Japan, they were the tennis ball-sized ones that were mainstream in America.1

“Welcome! Here, carry this basket! Keep picking the reddest ones!”

A big-glasses-oneesan, who was hurriedly giving instructions to the workers, thrust a big basket over my shoulders and pushed me in the direction of the orchard.
Every single tree was covered in bright red fruits.

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All of these…

The crops were called akarinotanae2, and I knew them well.
They contained lots of oil, were about the size of an avocado pit, and were the seeds of trickster apples3.
Trickster apples were a strong variety that grew all over the country, and although they bore plentiful fruit shining with mouth-watering redness, they tasted like dirt and were overall a disappointing apple with mostly seeds inside.
Those seeds burned for a very long time when lit, though, so these apples were sold for cheap and their seeds could be seen every day.

I shook a branch with a pair of tight-fit cotton gloves the onee-san had lent me, but it barely moved.
Trickster apple trees were short yet stiff with sturdy branches.
It was easy to clamber through its branches to gather the fruit at the top, but in return, the smallest twig against your skin could end in scratches.

With a basket on your back, it was both harder to climb and harder to maneuver through the tree’s branches, meaning they would have to be picked up later.
As I struggled with the hard branches and shaky scaffolding, my eyes met Fikar’s.

Let’s cooperate.

Fikar, who was very light, climbed the branches and collected the top-most fruits.
Waiting underneath, I felt like the crab from The Battle of the Monkey and the Crab4.
Fikar threw down as many fruits as he could reach, I caught them with the basket on my back, and Su was given the role of carrying the full baskets away.
On a side note, I lifted one of the trickster apples to Su’s nose, but she sniffled it and turned her head.
Dragons are gourmets.

“Be careful not to get hurt, okay?”

Fikar nodded, ascending with ease and extending his long arms to grab a number of trickster apples.
When I began hearing sharp-sounding noises, I moved beneath his feet and had him drop his catch into my basket.
If Fikar were the monkey, the crab would’ve been happy.

I continued walking around the tree, catching the fruits Fikar sent downward, and as soon as we were finished, he returned to the ground.
Even with just one tree, the basket on my back was quite heavy.
We were told to harvest the apples without worrying about bruising since its flesh wasn’t going to be used anyway, so the only challenge with filling a basket was its weight.
If Su were a bit smaller, I could’ve asked her to carry me and the basket around the tree instead.

The trickster apples slowly piled up and, when the basket became so heavy that I began to stagger, we got a fresh one.
Once I told Su where to bring the full one, she was able to skillfully carry its strap in her jaws like the genius she was.
The other workers were scared of her size at first, but they praised her a lot after seeing how hardworking she was.
She refused to take trickster apples as a thank-you gift, though.

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About halfway through our straight row of apple trees, the sun had placed itself directly above us and voices announcing breaktime rang through the orchard.
We found a good point to leave off, then returned to the orchard’s entrance gates, where a sandwich-like lunch was being served.
This place was particularly far from the inns, so it seemed like lunch was included with the job.

 “Well then, Fikar-san will stay here, and Sumire-san, you can go to the shed after you eat.”

“A– Ah… the harvest isn’t finished yet, so why not keep working here like this?”

I’d completely forgotten that I had to go to the biting wine shed in the afternoon.
When I cut her off, unable to hide my gloom, the glasses-oneesan cocked her head.

“I don’t mind, but… are you sure? It’s easier in the shed – you’ll get food and other stuff from the boys.”

“Trickster apples are better.”

“Strange of you to turn down a girl’s floral arrangement, but I’ll let them know.”

The onee-san shrugged and walked away.

Certainly, making biting wine wasn’t that tasking.
The work was divided into small parts, and even hard work like pouring finished wine into barrels wasn’t too painful since the barrels were decently small and there were frequent breaks for stomping or for tea and sweets.
I hadn’t known about this part of the deal, but it was so common for young men to approach you on your way home from the shed that one girl I talked to said that she never spent anything on dinner while working here.

Most of the people harvesting trickster apples were men, whose baskets got heavier and heavier to carry.
However, because the trees were pretty far apart, I didn’t have to talk to them as much and I was relieved to be able to work with Fikar like this.
I also no longer had any trouble with refusing invitations from young men because Fikar started picking me up every evening after the first, but the other girls’ resentful gazes made me feel somewhat awkward.

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The sandwiches, filled with a thick mince-meat sauce and plenty of vegetables, were made with semi-circular bread that made them easy to eat and hard to spill.
It was delicious and the strong seasoning did wonders for my tired body.

In the meantime, Su was being taught by someone from the orchard about moles.
They were pests that bit at the roots of trickster apple trees and, apparently, about to be on the menu.
She listened carefully to their burrows, using her stomps and fire breaths to weed out and devour the moles one after another.
The old man in charge of our project was so impressed by her diligence that he joined in, pointing out burrows here and there.
Such hard workers~

The weather was nice and it was warm and inviting when sitting on a stump.
I gave my third sandwich to Fikar and was taking a break when he finished his meal and stood up.
We walked for a bit and reached a plant growing at the edge of the orchard.
I bit into one of its ping-pong ball-sized fruits at Fikar’s recommendation, its fresh sweetness and slight sourness spreading in my mouth.

“Delicious! Though, the color’s weird.”

They looked like rough marble, completely unappetizing when you looked at them.
But, they had a small seed inside them with such sweetness that, even if it was tiny, it was very satisfying.

“Ah! This, it’s mountain-something… mountain’s present, or like that… the one with that name?”

Fikar nodded.
By the looks of it, this was one of the plants we’d learned about for our 3-star promotion test.
Growing in the mountains, they were colorful, nutritious, and full of water — all good for relieving fatigue during a long hike.

The higher your rank, the more you learned.
You learned about dangerous magic beasts, how to deal with them, how to identify poisonous plants, and how to counter and treat their toxins.

Fikar had traveled a lot and had a high rank, so he was familiar with these plants.
However, since he was promoted from 4-star to 10-star in one go, he had a lot to catch up on.
The usual way of going about things was to learn from a senior adventurer in a room at the local guild branch.
Gartis-san, Tortea’s branch manager, was by far the strongest in town, but he was too busy with work, so either a teacher would be dispatched by the guild from the royal capital or Fikar would have to go there himself.
I had a lot of sympathy for him because of how many lectures even my 3-star promotion required.

“It’s a mountain’s parting gift!5 RIght?”

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‘Correct,’ Fikar nodded, patting my head.
It felt strange seeing him on the opposite end of this treatment.

Then, we turned into apple pickers for the rest of the afternoon.
As we got used to it, our speed increased, and I think we were able to harvest quite a lot.
Su looked happy as she carried the full baskets, her stomach bursting with moles.
Those moles had been a serious problem the past few years, so I was told, and Su won various much-appreciated treats.

The next day, too, passed peacefully.

On the evening of the following day, our last day of working in Carcathia, that all fell apart.

 

TL Notes:

1: “Standard apples grown overseas weigh around 150 – 200 grams, while Japanese apples often weigh over 300 grams [and have a] ‘special occasion’ or ‘only-at-home’ feel to them.” (JapanLivingGuide.net)

2: Confusing yet mildly irrelevant name here – it never shows up again, even if I “correct” what I think might be a typo.
It’s written アカリノタネ (a-ka-ri-no-ta-ne), but I’m assuming it should’ve been アカリンゴタネ (a-ka-ri-n-go-ta-ne), from 赤 (aka) meaning red, 林檎 (rin-go) meaning apple, and 種 (tane) meaning seed.
I added an e to the former version so that it makes sense with English pronunciations.

3: Written ダマシリンゴ (da-ma-shi-ri-n-go) from 騙す (dama-shi) meaning to trick/cheat/deceive and 林檎 (rin-go).

4: A Japanese folk tale where “[t]he monkey agrees to climb the tree to pick the fruit for the crab, but gorges himself on the fruit rather than sharing it with the crab.” Also, the monkey ends up killing the crab, whose children then assassinate the monkey.
(Wikipedia)

5: Written ヤマノハナムケ (ya-ma-no-ha-na-mu-ke) from 山の鼻向け (yama-no-hana-mu-ke), meaning parting gift (hanamuke) of the mountain.
Both names are pretty long tho…