Hotaru's POV:
Farming magic beans isn't so hard, after all. Really, it's all in the wrist action: how you sort of corkscrew the stalk out of the soil, pluck the ripe beans, and chuck the rest into a bag to be ground into flour. From what I'm told, each beanstalk can only produce a single magic bean in its lifetime, so the whole crop has to be replaced when it's harvested.
So, it's definitely a lot of work, but nowhere near as agonizing as I expected it to be.
The weather is nice, with hardly a cloud in the sky. Mud seeps between the toes of my sandals, sticking under my toenails. If I work hard, focusing on only the task at hand, I can forget about my troubles.
The other ladies like to tease me a bit, but it sure beats lying in bed moping all day…
"Your friend was a real prodigy," one of them tells me while I'm sitting in the shade, eating the sandwich Mina had made me for lunch. Adding, with a wink, "but you're not so bad either."
