The guild members are on guard on the Hencluckle currently resting on Elaina's hands. Despite showing no signs of hostility or signs of causing a stir that would attract monsters, everyone is still on guard and is ready to pull out their weapons.
But time passed and nothing happened. Even the Hencluckle fell asleep in Elaina's arms.
"No need to be so alarmed. This is a tamed Hencluckle and it will remain docile like a normal chicken just fine. See? It is now even sleeping in my arms."
The one with the eyepatch is the first one to stop being on guard to the Hencluckle and slowly approach.
"A-are you sure this monster will not do anything else?" he asked.
"Yes. You can even hold it yourself. Here, just make sure to hold it like a normal chicken and you shouldn't try to hurt it or we don't know what will happen," Elaina then tried to hand the Hencluckle to him.
"Guild Master!" the other people tried to stop the man. Hearing that, Elaina finally knew who is the Guild Master and it was none other than the guy before her. Still, she didn't retract her hands and handed the Hencluckle to the hesitant guy.
The Hencluckle woke up when it was transferred to the arms of the Guild Master but it didn't do anything at all, it just remained still like a round ball.
"Indeed, you are right. This little guy is docile."
Although he still wanted to try and touch it, he didn't want to trigger it despite being docile. It is still a monster after all. He handed the Hencluckle back to Elaina. Elaina grabbed the Hencluckle again and put it back to the Chicken Coop.
"Just...how did you do that? That is something that we would never expect to know and it was just in theory in practice."
Elaina is not sure what to answer on this one. After all, she only managed to tame it due to the Taming Gloves that are part of the items that were given to me by the gods, particularly, the Goddess of Taming. There is no way she will tell these people that she did it using the gloves and it magically happens.
'Gods, help me! What the heck am I supposed to answer?!'
The Goddess of Taming answered immediately, seemingly prepared for what to say next and a good alibi as well. She only has to read it as her answer.
"Actually, it was simple. Show the monster some care and love."
"Care and Love?" everyone chimed together after they heard Elaina.
"Yes. Most of the time when taming monsters, you all will try to put them in a cage or something, yes? And the monster will remain agitated until freed?"
"Indeed. That is correct. It was a way to ensure that they would not exhibit their wild powers and harm people since most of them are dangerous," the guild master nodded.
"No. This is a wrong method and also one of the reasons your taming fails. If you show the monster you care for it without hurting it, giving it food it likes, and giving it something while making sure not to have any ulterior methods like capturing it. It is one of the reasons they will be aggressive and attack. Although this method I am sharing is effective on smaller monsters and not so-hostile ones, it is a different story for a carnivore or any predator monsters that are actively hostile to humans. So for now, I can guarantee that this will ease a lot of ways on how to tame a monster. Once it is ready to be tamed, make sure to feed it and make sure to let it imprint on you to keep it docile. Make sure to not put the newly tamed monster in any cages and places that would keep them isolated. Make them capable of moving around freely somewhere you can monitor and control their behavior."
"So, in short, monsters that are small are the ones that can only be tamed and the bigger ones are close to impossible?" the secretary asked.
"I am not saying it is impossible. But they are hard to do. And not all big monsters apply to this. Bullcows are one that I can think of as a monster that can be tamed. Unless provoked, Bullcows don't attack people so they can be tamed as well in this method."
"Understandable. However, do you think they are safe to be an alternative to regular eggs? After all, regular chickens are still on the market. This way, we can gauge the selling prices of the Hencluckle eggs and introduce them to consumers.
"I tested the eggs from the Hencluckle and honestly, they are the same as the chicken eggs, just a bit tad bigger than usual but not that different. It is less greasy though and it is a bit tastier than normal even without adding salt or any seasoning so I can say that they do taste differently than normal, but not much differences from normal eggs."
"I see. If that is the case, then we will hold off the payment for the eggs at a later date. Due to how different the eggs are compared to normal eggs, we needed further testing to ensure what is the right price for it. As for your other shipped items, we are going to deliver them the same way as normal. We will send a letter in the future to inform you once we finalize the price for the eggs. We are sorry for the intrusion and wasting your time," the secretary said and bowed down apologetically.
"Don't be. However, will this incident happen again if I deliver something else that is from the monster's produce like the milk for the Bullcows?" Elaina asked.
"Yes. We will be conducting tests on it as well in case you do ship them. We are just doing this to ensure that they are safe to be consumed so don't be mad that we are delaying the payment like that. This is standard protocol for the guild to ensure that all the products that are shipped out are not harmful and will cause problems for consumers who buy the products," the Guild Master explained.
"No worries. I do understand that this is basic protocol. But thanks for informing me about this. So that means that I am free to tame monsters like this?" Elaina asked.
"Just make sure that these tamed monsters will not cause any problems. We don't want them to suddenly go berserk and come running to the town and cause havoc to the citizens. We will not reprimand you for doing this this is something that should be celebrated as we can finally get some alternatives to these products in case we run out of them. Your efforts will be recorded and it might even be popularized taming professions in the future if this proves to be successful."
Elaina nodded in response. Hearing this matter is something that would benefit Elaina the most. Not only that, but it also made her spread the word of taming monsters to a few people. She might have not spread it far, but this is a start already and that is what matters.
The guild members and the guild master left after finishing what they were doing and apologized to Elaina for the disturbance. As for Elaina, she will now start to plan on getting more Hencluckles and perhaps a Bullcow once she starts building the Barn.
Once the members of the guild left, the gods started to talk to Elaina.
"[It seems you finally caught their attention Elaina and I am happy with that. A first step to spread the word about the ways to improve farm life and to take advantage of monsters as well.]" The goddess of taming is quite happy with the result.
"[It would have been great if they also noticed the vegetable quality as well but it seems that they have yet to catch up on it.]" the unknown god seems to be a bit disappointed.
"[Duh, of course they wouldn't notice that much. Compared to monster produce, crops with higher quality are nothing new for them. But be patient. No one will learn the quality of them just yet with just that simple vegetable alone but once the consumers understand the difference between the vegetables normally grown and Elaina's vegetables, then they will soon know the difference are night and day.]"
"Yeah. I agree. And besides, I am only shipping a few vegetables and not by stacks of sacks so far so it is understandable they won't notice it just yet. But knowing them, we can assume that we will receive the same attention in the future once I start shipping a bunch of them in one go."
Elaina is now sure that things are going in her favor. If things go well a little bit more, then that means that she will have a fulfilling life as a farmer in the future, and that will be a good thing now that she will be expecting two kids in the future. Perhaps a much better life than when she was still with the Emperor.
A week has passed since the incident with the guild. During that week, Elaina has tamed two more Hencluckle in the process. A few days after the guild master stopped by with his employees, they promptly sent a letter to Elaina about approving the egg's inclusion in the market and appointing it as a new variety of eggs from the Hencluckle.
According to the letter, the price might increase depending on the demand by the people but right now, it will be sold for 5 gold coins per egg and 50 gold for a dozen. Elaina agreed to it since she didn't lose anything from the price. She earned money that is more than she spent from paying for feeds which were milled corn for chicken feed. Since milled corn wasn't so expensive for Elaina's budget and the Hencluckle's egg is much more expensive if sold, she has earned money for a single shipping of a dozen eggs.
Since then, it somehow gained traction and although Elaina can't keep on supplying a dozen eggs for a single day since the Hencluckle only lays one egg in a single day, the demand is starting to increase. This made Elaina prompt herself to tame more Hencluckle in the process.
It was not hard anymore now that Elaina and Julia have done it before, just the problem of dispatching all the monsters the Hencluckle calls is the problem. Still, it made the task successful and now, Elaina has 3 Hencluckles that will lay three eggs a day. Although not enough for a dozen a day, she can deliver a dozen immediately every 4 days now.
The farm is also slowly shaping up as well. Although Elaina sometimes cannot do work when the Morning Sickness she experiences is bad, during the times when it immediately halts, she made great progress on keeping the farm functional and big. Not big enough that would cause Julia to struggle to work once she cannot do any physical labor, but big enough that would generate income for them for some time.
As for Elaina's crops, thanks to the fertilizers that the Harvest Goddess gave to her, the plants are growing properly and are slowly maturing. Regular maintenance and check-ups are what Elaina does every morning. Getting rid of pests, watering daily, checking if the plants had some diseases or not, and making sure that they were growing smoothly while the crows and other birds were not there to destroy the crops she painstakingly cared for.
The scarecrow is coming along nicely but it will take a while as neither she nor Julia knows how to create a functional scarecrow that can scare the birds consistently.
As for the sprinklers, Elaina has been steadily saving up her Farm Points to ensure she can purchase them. It won't be purchased now, but it will be in the future.
Today is another sunny day for Elaina. She feels great so far and the morning sickness is mild and disappeared after a while. After breakfast with Julia, she started to do the work once more. Cucumbers are slowly growing properly and the strawberries are already blooming their flowers. It won't take long before the fruits of her labor will soon appear before her eyes soon enough. She can't wait to make some harvests and see if she did a good job with it.
With the usual tasks slowly being done, Elaina decided to take a break from work. Since Julia is still busy finishing the Scarecrow, she is stuck inside, doing all the work. While Elaina is currently taking a break, a mail bird flies over by her house, circling for a few seconds before it lands nearby, and pulls out a letter from its little sling bag full of letters. It looked around and saw the mailbox before dropping the mail inside it and flying away.
There are two mailboxes for Elaina, one is meant for the humans to put mail and it was situated outside the gate, and of course, the Mail Birds that carry their mail around coming from different areas. Since it was a Mail Bird that was delivering the mail this time, it wasn't from the guild since a guild member would be the one responsible for sending it if it ever came there.
Elaina stood up and headed to the mailbox, retrieving the mail in question. It was a formal letter of invitation and it seemed to be some kind of event in which many people participated.
-----
"To all the farmers of the city and nearby town,
We are organizing a Harvest Festival Bazaar this coming Rabon(Saturday). It will be a three-day activity that will be happening to showcase the crops of the farmers and to celebrate the climax of the spring season. Farmers who receive this mail can join the Harvest Festival Bazaar competition and compete with whoever carries the most high-quality ingredients they can sell to the people. Although we won't force you to join, your participation is a welcome one and we will be waiting for you to register in either your Mayor's office or perhaps in the city hall itself.
WE HOPE TO SEE YOU THERE!"
----
Before Elaina can even react to the letter in her hands nor she can decide whether she will join or not, the unknown god suddenly starts talking which makes Elaina surprised, since the chat box suddenly appears without warning, surprising her slightly.
"[Elaina! This is a good opportunity for you to increase the fame of your farm, and the fame of the products and to bring glory to your name in farming!]"
"Eh? Wait...don't tell me..."
"[Yes! This is a good opportunity to not only give the farm a massive boost of popularity, but the farm's reputation as one who gives quality vegetables would be a great way to let people know about the specialty of our products.]"
"Uh...I know that is the case...but there is no way I would participate with only a bit of vegetables at my disposal and some are not yet even ready for harvest. I don't want to call the Harvest Goddess for another blessing to enhance the growth of my crops artificially and my crops are not even that high a quality just yet," Elaina protested. She agreed to what the unknown god was saying but it was still too early for her to participate and the battle for the top-tier farm would be still a few more works away from happening."
"[You don't have to win. You just needed to participate and try to win. Winning gives quite a lot for the winners but since you are skeptical about this, we will be giving a limited mission while the event is going to happen. It will expire once the event is over but it will reappear at a later date once the event happens once again.]"
For Elaina, something like that is something enticing for Elaina, and she suddenly showed interest after hearing the words..."Rewards".
"I see. Then, tell me what I should do for this matter then."
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