บท 21: Rain Watcher
The sudden downpour caused the two to scamper back inside the house as rain fell.
"This is the first rain we have here on this farm. I guess we can't do much until the rain stops," Elaina wipes off the water on her hair using a towel before passing it to Julia.
"You don't have any raincoats yet, Sis?" Julia asked.
"Sadly, no. I don't have the money to buy one last time since my coin reserves run out after buying some tools and resources for starting the farm. Next time, once we go to the market, we should buy a pair."
"That's the plan then. I can even add some of my severance pay to the pool of money as well since we both live together now."
"No, no. That's yours, you should use that for yourself."
"Sis, money is not an issue and besides, we will both be benefiting from it, it's just that you are now the one in charge of the expenses. Think of it as a payment for letting me live here."
"No, no, no...ugh...you know what? I will just hold on to your money but I will not spend it. I will just use it if you want to buy something," Elaina sighed as she didn't want to argue any further as the pouch of gold was handed to her hands. Seeing the amount of money in her hands, it seems Alfred generously gave her lots of money for quitting the job.
"Then, since the rain is pouring down outside, let me cook breakfast for you, Sis. I doubt you have eaten anything just yet."
"Now that you mention it, I am kinda hungry. I was getting caught up in work I forgot to eat breakfast."
"That's no good, Sis. You should eat food especially now that there are three of you eating now. Eating less or skipping is not good for both babies! Alright, sit down and relax there. I will see what I can make here," Julia heads to the kitchen and checks the resources that were stored there by Elaina.
"Just use the cooking station for now. Since we can't afford to make a proper kitchen, that should do for now."
Julia gave a thumbs up as she gathered the items she needed and put them on the table. As for Elaina, she opened the Almanac and checked the weather for the day. It seems that she didn't see the rain warning there when she checked it after waking up. Thankfully, it seems the rain will be gone later in the afternoon. But until then, they will not be able to go and work with the rain pouring hard.
Seeing that it would be their free time until the afternoon, Elaina decided that she would do some layout planning inside and arrange a few stuff that she didn't have time to do. It is also a good time to check on any leakage or any sort of defects that she didn't notice before as well. It is also a good way for her to plan out for the future once she starts to expand the house or upgrade its interior as well.
While Elaina was fixated on what to do after breakfast, the god started to speak again to her like what it usually does.
"[The update for the Almanac is done. Now, you can see the effects of normal fertilizers and the Fertilizers given to you by that goddess on the stream. I also added a few details if these crops are from the normal store or bought from the ledger. That way, you can see the immediate effects of those fertilizers immediately.]"
"So you also added those options as well? That is nice. After all, I won't be able to keep using the seeds the ledger has as I needed to rack up a lot of points just to get more of them."
"[Exactly. This is why normal crops are also present in the selection as well. We presented you an almanac after all so making it a complete Almanac that updates over time also helps in the long run. So don't forget to use it from time to time.]"
Opening the Almanac and checking it out, the god was indeed correct. With the Almanac's new update, it now gives a proper estimation of the time crops need to grow, allowing Elaina to see how long a crop can grow with or without the fertilizer and how Elaina can take advantage of this knowledge to plan her crop rotations.
As Elaina was busy with checking out the new update, Julia who was busy cooking the food she was making frowned as she looked outside the window. Elaina noticed this as she usually doesn't do anything like this unless something is bothering her.
"Something wrong, Julia?" Elaina stood up and approached Julia but the latter gestured her to keep quiet as she looked outside.
Elaina nodded and crouched to check as well what Julia seemed to be looking at. Outside, she saw a big brown figure walking around the farm. It was too round to be a human. Besides that, it is also full of fur which solidifies her guess that it wasn't a human.
"A bear?" Elaina frowned.
"No. That's a Rain Watcher. I have seen it before in some books back in the library of the castle. They are mystical creatures who only appear around areas filled with nature and positive energy that would make plants thrive. Although they are said to be harmless, this is the first time I have seen one in person so I am very much on guard of them. Not only that but it also managed to enter the field even with the little barrier that stops monsters from entering the farm."
Elaina observes the creatures closely. Her previous guess was off since it was very tall compared to the bears that she had seen. It looks like a brown bear but much bigger than them. But the round body it has and the strange marking around its body solidifies that this creature is not a bear. What is interesting is that the creature's head cannot be seen due to the big umbrella covering its head. It was like the head had been replaced by a big umbrella. However, she can see the mouth under the umbrella which means its head wasn't an umbrella but was just actually covered underneath it.
"Is that why you immediately detected it entering here?" Elaina was surprised since she didn't know that Julia had already set up a barrier around the area without her knowledge.
"It was a normal barrier to stop any troublesome monsters from entering the place. Of course, it wasn't perfect as it can still be breached but leveled monsters that wander nearby will be repelled. As for those higher leveled enemies, if they enter the premises, then I can detect them entering the area, which will allow us to at least get time to prepare if they are dangerous."
"Should we chase it away?" Elaina asked, ready to go into action.
"No need, Sis. They are harmless. In fact, they should be helpful to the farm. I heard that if they appear on farms, they randomly bless any of your growing crops before leaving which will cause some of your crops to be much higher quality than previous harvests or they might grow faster depending on what the Rain Watcher does. Of course, this guy will not leave until the rain stops so we can just wait it out until he leaves or wait until the rain stops since that is a surefire way for the Rain Watcher to leave."
"Do they keep coming back every time it rains?"
"I am not sure about it Sis but according to the records, they are rarely seen and even if they are seen by someone, only a few have seen them multiple times during rainy days so they are not exactly going to appear every time it rains."
Elaina felt relieved that the creature seemed to be not that dangerous and whenever it visited, there was a benefit. Perhaps she will have to take note of that matter in case it visits again in the future.
The rain continued to pour that morning and the Rain Watcher remained walking around the farm all day. Like what Julia had said to Elaina, the creature didn't do anything aside from wandering around the place. She is worried that it might crush the crops on the field especially with its size being big but it didn't do anything.
Around the afternoon when the rain finally stopped pouring down, the creature also left by itself. Ensuring that the creature had finally left, Elaina went to the plants she planted and was genuinely surprised to see some of her crops especially the normal radishes that she was growing seems to have grown faster seeing that it is now bigger compared to how she saw them earlier.
Knowing how the Rain Watcher accelerated the growth of the crops she had, Elaina silently thanked the Rain Watcher for the unexpected benefit it did for her. She mentally took note on what it does do so that she can look at her crops and see what it will do in the future.
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