Elpis started to explain, "Alright, if your highness thinks about it, what I have found is that the village's soil has deteriorated. To plant something in this soil will be difficult; the outside village's soil is the same."
"And what is the most planted plant in this village?"
"What I heard from the people is that they only plant potatoes in that soil every year."
I had heard from my friend that every time we passed a peanut farm, he said, You know, peanuts can improve the soil. Maybe I can use nuts…But peanuts or groundnuts were not available in mediaeval times. Maybe in this world, they are. "Do you know about peanuts or groundnut?" I asked Elpis.
"I have no idea; is your highness talking about peas?"
Peas, I think it is related to groundnuts. "Do you have the seeds?"
"I have some of it in my bags…"
"Great…Tell the people to plant it, and don't plant potatoes for a year right now."
"Why??"
"The main reason is that the soil has deteriorated because there are no more nutrients in it. These things are caused by the potato; potatoes should not be planted in the same place twice. They will take all the nutrients from the soil without giving them back to it. Peas are different; peas can give nutrients to the soil, so the soil will go back to normal, but after we harvest the peas, we will not immediately plant the potato. We will plant cabbages or radishes if you have the seeds; after that, we will plant carrots or celery. After all of these have been planted in that soil, we will plant the potato again..and the rotation continues; it is called crop rotation."
"~My~ I don't know if your highness knew something about this…even I don't know what your highness is talking about, this crop rotation is something new for me…but your highness, peas can't fulfil the hunger of the people."
"We trade them for something else; I think Cail can handle that...and I saw this village lack information. I want the people of this village to know the information about everything in here, like a board, I don't see a single board, so we need to make an information board or announcement board at certain points…are there any craftsmen in this village?"
"I will find it out.." Louis said.
"Great…let's see…is there anything that needs to be done for this village?"
I saw Eplis and Darryl look at each other and nod to each other.
Darryl, the one who said first "Your highness, I have something to say.."
"What is that?"
"When we checked the soil outside the village, for some reason…I heard something singing from the woods outside the village…"
"Singing in the middle of the woods?"
"Yes. At first, I thought it was just my imagination…but Elpis could hear it too…"
"So what do we need to do about that?"
"I thought your highness and your pet could check it…"
"WHY YOU ASKED HER HIGHNESS TO CHECK IT! YOU TWO NEED TO CHECK IT, NOT HER HIGHNESS."
"We are afraid if it was something like her highness pet."
"Where's your adventurous soul? Where's your gallantry? Where's your knight spirit for her highness?"
"We know you have a more adventurous soul than anyone in here, but are you not afraid if it is a mythical beast like her highness had?"
And they exchanged some heated arguments about it in front of me.
"ENOUGH!" I said to them, "I will check it with Geri tomorrow... and for tomorrow, I want Elpis to give the seeds of peas to the villagers, so they can plant it, and explain what I had explained to you, to them…If there are some potatoes that have been planted, I want them to be replaced immediately with the peas…And for Cail, you can start to seek any opportunity to trade these harvest, and I want you to find another seeds; carrot, celery, cabbage or radish… The rests can help the villagers plant the seeds."
"What about your highness?"
"I will check the sound from Darryl's report with Geri."
"Without anyone beside you?"
"I think Geri is enough.." It's great if no one is around me beside Geri; what would have happened if the sounds were from the spirits?
"I object to it, your highness; I will stay by your side."
"NO, you will help the villagers, not me for tomorrow.."
"But.."
"No, but…that's an order from me..I think you can carry it out, right?"
"Yes, I can, your highness.."
"Great, for now there is nothing else to do, so all of you can do whatever you want…I will excuse myself; I want to meet Geri.."
I stood up from my seat, and went to the back of the tavern.
I saw Geri laying down, when I approached her, she immediately pulled her head up. I went to Geri's belly and lay down there.
"What are you doing here? There is no way; you come here just laying down in my belly." she said.
"Come on, I just want to be comfortable before I speak to you.."
"*sigh* So what do you want to speak about?"
"There is a report that there was singing inside the woods, just outside this village."
"Singing?"
"Yes, perhaps you have any idea; what is it before checking it out?"
"Who will be checking it out?
"Of course, you and me.."
"Me and You? Why do I need to bother doing that? Why not with your people?"
"What will happen if it's one of you?"
"One of me? You mean spirits?"
"No, it's not; it's just some freaks who love singing in the woods…Of course, it's a spirit."
She immediately pulled out her body, making me fall to the ground, and I immediately laid down again at some distance.
I stood up and walked in front of her. "So what's your answer?"
"Alright, I will accompany you tomorrow, but now leave from here *hush hush hush*" Even she moved her paws to signal me to leave.
"Okay, I am leaving here.."
I walked out of her, and went to the Inn..
Inside the inn, I went upstairs and immediately to my room to see Aalis and Ame. In my room, I saw Aalis and Ame just sitting around on their beds. I walked to them and sat beside them. I tried to console them about what Aalis had said, but they were still not open about it. Because I couldn't console them right at the moment, I left the room. I went back to the tavern.
There, I saw only Aldea, Darryl, and Louis. They were sort of playing something on a board. I looked at it, and they were playing chess, but with weird shapes on the chess pieces. They are made from stones, and the shapes are more detailed, like there were human faces except for the pawns, than modern chess pieces.
Aldea looked at me and asked, "Your highness, how about you join us too?"
Louis said, "You dare to ask her highness to join; even you don't know how to play it properly.."
"HEI! I know how to play the game.."
"You know every movement of the pieces, but you don't know how to play them properly..."
I sat on the table and said, "So, tell me about this game!"
Aldea was surprised "You don't know about this game.."
"Yes…" The truth is, I know the game, but let's pretend that I don't. "How about you, Aldea, introduce me to the game and tell me how the game works?"
"Let me tell you about the game, beside this Dullard." Louis said.
"HEI HEI HEI! Your highness asked me first, so it is my obligation to tell her, and stop calling me that.."
She started to explain the chess game to me, but sometimes I found some flaws about her, not the explanation, for example..
I asked, "So how many squares are on the board, Aldea?"
And she started counting the squares one by one while touching every square with her finger.
"Aldea, you don't know basic arithmetic?" I asked her.
"What is that?"
"Let me teach you that, as you can see, in this row there are 8 squares, and on this column there are 8 squares because it is a rectangle. Rather than counting every square one by one, you can just multiply this row and this column. So what is the answer?"
"I don't know, and what is this multiply?"
I was surprised. Louis leaned her mouth to my ear and whispered, "Aldea doesn't have any basic education; she loves to read, but she read an adventurous book or something like that, so she lacks some command knowledge."
"And if you know about it, why not try to encourage her to read something else?"
"Because she doesn't want to…"
Aldea said, "What are you two whispering? So your highness tells me this multiply…"
"Ah yes! Multiply means the repeated addition of groups of equal sizes; for example, two multiplied by three means the two has three twos, and it will be like two plus two plus two equal 6. So in this board, the eight has eight; it will be eight plus eight plus eight for eight times, equal ...."
"Eight plus eight will be…." She stuck out her fingers and started to count it, even though she was struggling with the addition of eight plus eight…After a few moments, she said "Sixteen.."
"Next, sixteen plus eight equal…"
And again, she was struggling more than eight plus eight…
"I think it's enough, Aldea…you can ask someone to teach you about this, maybe Elpis or maybe Cail, I think they know more about this… Now you explain to me the game.."
Aldea seemed embarrassed and continued to explain the game.
After her explanation was finished, I pretended I understood what she had explained.
"So, your highness, how about a test game? You can play with Aldea to test your knowledge about the game.." Louis offered.
"I don't mind it; how about Aldea…"
She just nodded..
We started to arrange all the chess pieces in order.