The seasons are passing by busily. As the autumn harvest comes to a close, I think back to a year ago. Last year, right around this time, Mrs. Eureka gathered the children of the village and held a book reading session. The book was a heroic tale of a young man’s struggle to save the people of a region tormented by demons and bring peace to the region.
It was a moderately entertaining story with laughter, tears, and love. The incarnation of the three gods, the wolf, the monkey and the dragon, as his friends reminded me of fairy tales of the past while giving me a religious feeling. Thanks to that story, I am now prepared to survive this life, so you never know what life has in store for you.
I mean, wait a minute. Do I look like a child who yearns to be a hero, since I was so enthusiastic right after that reading session? Oh no, I’m so embarrassed. When I suddenly felt shame, something warm fled from my lap. I wondered what it was, and when I opened my eyes to check, a sleepy breath escaped.
“Mm-hmm…….?”
I had arrived early at the church after today’s field work and was taking a nap before the study session. Perhaps I was more tired than I thought, but as I struggled to lift my heavy eyelids, I saw Miss Maika in front of me.
I was startled. She seemed to be the same way, turning red and waddling away. I smiled at her cute gesture and greeted her anyway.
“Good morning.”
“Oh, good morning! I’m sorry I woke you up when you were sleeping!”
“No, no, I was just resting because I got here a little early.”
As I rubbed my eyes and bit back a sigh, Miss Tanya chuckled behind Miss Maika.
“I see, I see, you have to work hard too, Maika.”
“What are you talking about, Tanya?”
“No, nothing.”
It was a luxury to wake up to the glamorous antics of the ladies.
“I just! There was a cat on your lap, Ash, and I thought that was unusual!”
“Yeah. You had a cat.”
Apparently, the escaping warmth that triggered my awakening belonged to my new village friend, the cat. Our trusty rat hunter, Neko-dono, is so noble that not only does he not come close to people, but when people approach him, he moves away.
I have petted him a few times, but I should say that he let me pet him. I don’t want to stress him too much, so I try to keep my distance. It seems that the cat came to me and climbed into my lap, probably for the first time.
“It’s getting cold here. I’m sure you’ve used it as a heating source.”
I looked at my lap, and sure enough, there was hair from Neko-dono on it. Then Miss Tanya tilted her head meaningfully.
“Hmm? I don’t think so. Don’t you think the cat likes you too, Ash?”
“Is that so? That makes me happy.”
I like the touch of fluff. I’d be happy if she liked me. By the way, I wonder why Miss Tanya is smiling and Miss Maika is all red.
“No, that’s not it! Study! Let’s study today!”
Miss Maika exclaimed, holding both of her flaming cheeks.
“Well, that’s true, too.”
The women took their seats, and we got into our usual study group position.
“Well, I’ll get right to it…….I’m having trouble with this phrase, and I was wondering if you could explain it to me.”
Recently, Miss Tanya’s motivation has been visibly increasing. It’s not that she was unmotivated from the beginning, but her attitude was that she just needed to learn about beekeeping. Now she is trying to learn how to read, write and calculate.
I don’t think it’s sudden. If you look at Miss Tanya when she is with Mr. Van, you can understand without even thinking about it. She wants to be useful to Mr. Van, even if only a little and she wants to be dependent on him. In other words, she is trying her best to be a good wife. What a lovely person she is. I could not help but be enthusiastic in my support for her.
However, when Miss Tanya is training to walk in the forest, I feel a little uncomfortable accompanying her as a helper, although I don’t mind. Because Miss Tanya has the single-minded face of a maiden in love and Mr. Van gives off the air of wanting to walk hand in hand, or even carry her on his back, all the time.
That quiet, unsociable, uncommunicative hunter! I’m totally in the way. I think the hell of being sandwiched between a newlyweds couple is one of the highest of all hells. Well, it’s a stretch to say they’re newlyweds, since they’re not married yet and, surprisingly, they’re not officially dating. Sandwiched between these two sweet people, I think it would not be surprising if I looked as sour as if I had eaten a persimmon.
Incidentally, the best harvest of this autumn was finding some astringent persimmons growing wild in the forest. I planted them in a vacant lot in the village, experimenting with the possibility of making dried persimmons. I’ve heard that there are other ways to use astringent persimmons, such as dyeing and making vinegar.
However, it is curious that knowledge such as the use of astringent persimmons, which rural communities would have developed on their own during their developmental stages, is missing. I imagine that this is also due to the influence of ancient civilizations. Because of the development of agricultural methods, we are able to provide a minimum supply of food (albeit strained) with only the crops from the fields. As a result, there is no need to go into dangerous forests and mountains to cultivate new crops.
On the other hand, there are people who make use of astringent persimmons. When I told Mrs. Eureka about dried persimmons, she confirmed that they were being distributed in the cities. In other words, the knowledge and technology of how to use astringent persimmons is currently the monopoly of a few. Probably, it was used in ancient civilizations, and some regions either took it over or developed it on their own out of some necessity.
I think that knowledge and technology tends to be kept quite secret in this world because of the development of the monetary economy in comparison to the literacy rate. This is because it’s hard for secrets to be revealed and it’s good for money.
“Mr. Ash, you’re thinking too hard.”
I came back to myself when Miss Maika looked into my eyes.
“Excuse me. I’d like to talk to you about persimmons.”
“My mother was looking forward to it, so I’m looking forward to it too.”
Mrs. Eureka has been praying for me personally that the dried persimmons will turn out well. She is a fan of the simple sweetness unique to dried persimmons. I know how she feels. I can’t help but look forward to it too. Some vegetables and wild plants are dried to preserve them, so I’m hoping that it won’t be too difficult to use that technique.
“If it works, it will add sweetness to the village.”
“I wonder if it’s really going to be sweet.”
Miss Tanya giggles, a little uneasily. This can’t be helped. Miss Tanya has seen the devastation I went through when I found a persimmon and bit into it without thinking. I’ll never forget the first time I bit into a raw astringent persimmon. Even though it has “astringent” in its name, I didn’t expect it to be that bitter…….
“The plant catalog didn’t tell me how to dry it, so I just hope it works.”
I want to get rid of the bitterness, even a little. Miss Tanya looks at me sympathetically, but Miss Maika, who doesn’t know my agony, shifts her interest to another topic.
“Oh, by the way, Tanya, you’re in the forest too, aren’t you? How was it, is the forest really hard?”
“Yes, it’s very hard. The woods I’m going into are apparently still shallow and safe, but by the time I get back I’m exhausted.”
In spite of her words, Miss Tanya looked very happy. It’s no wonder that I couldn’t help but mutter to myself that I envied Miss Maika. However, I was worried about her because I was sure that she would be very tired.
“Walking in the forest is really tiring. If you have any concerns, please feel free to contact me, Mr. Van, Mrs. Eureka, or Miss Maika.”
“Yes, thank you.”
As I suspected, there was absolutely no way that I would be consulted with this group. If she wants to use the opposite sex, she can use Mr. Van, and if she needs someone of the same sex, there are two of them.
“It has nothing to do with the……forest walk. I have a few things to tell you, Ash.”
I was thinking about it, and then it came to me with pinpoint accuracy, I wondered what was going on.
“You’ve done so much for me; it’s hard for me to go on top of that……”
“No, no, don’t worry about it……I’m not sure if I can help you yet. If it’s okay with you, I’ll take a look at your concerns first.”
She is an important person to entrust with the beekeeping business. I want to help her if I can. I’m a little scared, though, because what I can do is very limited.
“It’s about my brother, Jekyll.”
“Jekyll, is it?”
Next to me, Miss Maika made a reluctant face. She was not as reluctant as I was when I ate a persimmon, but she seemed to have a certain amount of animosity towards Mr. Jekyll because of what happened before.
“He hasn’t been talking to me lately. He seems to be troubled, but when I try to ask him about it, he gets angry or runs away.”
I thought that was a rebellious period, but Miss Tanya seemed to know about rebellious periods, and muttered that it was inevitable because he was at that age.
“It’s just, you know, I’m acting as Jekyll’s parent, right? I think I can take Mom’s place a little bit, but it’s hard to take Dad’s place.”
“I see. Tanya said that there might be some things that you can’t look after on your own.”
I’ve heard that even when you’re raising a child normally, there is no end to the anxiety you can feel. But when you think that you’re raising a ten-year-old boy at the age of sixteen, you probably have all kinds of worries. Especially since Miss Tanya has been spending less and less time with Jekyll these days because of her beekeeping, I am worried about her.
“He has friends, so maybe I shouldn’t worry too much, but lately he doesn’t seem to be playing around. I’m worried that he’s been keeping things to himself.”
“I understand your concern.”
If anything should happen, Miss Tanya’s beekeeping business and the relationship between Miss Tanya and Mr. Van might get complicated.
“If that’s the case, we’ll just have to wait and see.”
“Hey, Ash, are you sure?”
I’m not sure what to do. I know it’s a pain in the ass, but there’s no one else who can help Miss Tanya right now, so it can’t be helped. Besides, he already hates me, so it won’t matter if he hates me even more.
“I’m just going to talk to him, that’s all.”
Then, Miss Maika lets out an exhale of admiration.