Tondemo Fanfiction - 025 - Employees

Mukouda’s Employees

Alban

He never had it so good in life and he knew it.

Not only did he know it, Alban thanked the gods and goddesses every morning he woke up in the morning and the moment he went to sleep on a full stomach and a warm bed.

Sometimes, he would wake up in the morning and look through his increasingly thick pile of notes on the plants he had grown and the seeds he had planted and had to stop and marvel at the fact that he could actually look at these notes and understand the words on them.

That he had personally written these notes down, with the help of Costi, who was the best at reading and writing, was an even greater marvel. Before he was sent to slavery, the best thing he could have hoped for was a better life for his children and for Lotte to marry a decent person.

Now…

Now he could plant anything at his leisure. He could plant seeds just because it was ‘interesting’ or ‘just to see what happens’. Back in the day, he would never be so casual. A farmer lives and dies by their crops, after all. One had to balance cash crops vs edible crops, growing conditions and even then, if the weather doesn’t favour you…

Well, that was how he had gotten into debt after all.

When his entire family had been bought together by a kindly Adventurer, he had been beyond grateful. Their employee, Mukouda-san, was certainly an odd duck, but a kindly one. Much too kind and generous for his own good!

There was really no need for him to gift them so many privileges…

Alban had never really interacted with nobles before, but Tabasa and her brothers had. From the way they talk, Mukouda-san certainly was nothing like those people at all. To think that the great man would even have them all be educated!

Not to be great scholars who could one day benefit his household, but for their own benefit! Alban had certainly benefited greatly. Although he had trouble understanding the words written on the packets given to him by Mukouda. Some were familiar to his eyes (thank goodness for the pictures on the package), and he just used the local name for them, like the cabbages.

Still, instead of bothering Mukouda-san about the names and growing conditions of the seeds, he had instead, shown his work and listened carefully to the names that came out of Mukouda-san’s lips. Later, he would just write the sounds down.

That was how he learned the name of things like ‘greps’ and ‘korn’ as well as those deliciously refreshing ‘kiukambers’.

”Dad! Dad! Are we planting more greps later?” Lotte chirped as she danced into the house shared by the Alban family.

Lotte

Lotte loves living here.

It’s fun! There’s always lots to eat and things to do. People were all really nice too.

Mom and Dad smile a lot, too!

Oliver and Erik still tease her a bit, but that’s ok. She gives back good too! Tabasa had been teaching her ‘sheff defens’. A special skill against bad people. It was a skill that everyone learned a bit, but Lotte is the best at it!

Tabasa says so!

She loves days when Brother Mukouda is around, because Mister Fluffy will be there too! And delicious food!

Mom’s bread is always yummy, but ever since the oven was built, there have been more and yummier things!

Once, the Brother Twins brought home this really huuuuge boar and begged mom’s permission to use the oven and, oh boy, was the meat really juicy and yummy~~~

Meat and bread is not the only thing that’s delicious.

Dad’s fruits and vegetables are suuuper yummy too~!

Especially the melons! And the greps! And- and-

“Yes, dear, once the trellis is built, we can grow the greps. It was too bad the last batch was almost ruined because the vines were on the ground. Luckily, some grew on the trees and along the walls… but we can’t just make use of the walls and trees like that all the time.”

“Yay! Trellis! Trellis!” Lotte danced and twirled in place. “Um, what’s a trellis?”

“A trellis is a special fence made for vines to climb on,” said a calm voice.

“Costi!”

Costi

Naturally, as the son of an orchard farmer, Costi was familiar with trellises. He had even built some with his father before they came to this place. It was interesting to try and build those again.

Since the plants did not seem to need a lot of time to grow, they didn’t even have to build tall trellises. Instead of height, they aimed for trellises that were only about waist high and could be re-purposed to grow tomatoes on later.

It was interesting to make the calculations needed for the sticks and twines, as well as the distances between the trellises for optimal growth. He had not realised until now just how useful mathematics could be for a lot of things. Not just for counting money, but for growing things efficiently, cleaning, as well as travelling.

He had learned the math for growing things from his father and Alban, the math for travelling from Tabasa and the math for building things from Bartel. He had made friends with merchant boys in town and learned that there was even math for packing things efficiently and for buying things.

It was all very fascinating.

Some of the merchant boys sneered at him for being a farmer’s boy, but he had Mr. Lambert backing him, so no one tried anything really bad. He knew that a lot of the stuff Mr. Lambert was selling came from their place, but Mukouda-san never liked it when people talked about him. So, Costi ever only invoked Mr. Lambert’s name as authority whenever anyone tried to make things difficult for him.

He learned how to haggle from the twins, though.

Man, those two really knew how to bring prices down.

“Oi, whatcha thinking about?”

A voice broke into Costi’s thoughts. It was Luke. He knew this because it was Irvine’s turn to stand guard at the gate.

“Stuff,” said Costi.

“Heh, gotta work on your body too, ya know!” then, he attacked.

Luke

Luke had never been the type to use his head much.

When something needs doing, just do it until it gets done. Thinking too much hurt his head, and Irvine agreed with him.

That was the great thing about having a twin. You always got someone on your back against, well, pretty much everything. Being a twin is great. That’s a partner in crime and best friend all rolled up in one.

Yeah.

Life is sweet.

He had no idea how he was going to go back to regular Adventuring after this. Would Mukouda-san like to hire them permanently? The food’s great, the job pays well, and while he had to suffer the sight of his sister making eyes at Bartel, that was okay, too.

Bartel is a good guy.

Yes.

Life is good.

[Gumihou: A little glimpse of what the slaves how the slaves are doing]

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