Farming in the Magical World

"This... this is your tool?"

Lanny twitched his lips, looking at the axe and drill on the ground with a slight toothache.

It was already the morning of the second day. Jimmy was very eager and arrived at the castle early, while Lanny was still eating breakfast.

He was initially quite pleased with Jimmy's positive attitude. Having grown accustomed to seeing workers who slack off, seeing someone so proactive and self-motivated must have felt different.

But when he saw Jimmy's tools, he wondered if it was too late to replace him.

The tools were simple enough, but the axe was covered in rust, making one worry that it might fly off the wooden handle during a chopping motion.

He finally understood why Frank had that expression when he heard that he was going to hire Jimmy!

Seeing Lanny's disdainful look, Jimmy felt helpless; what could he do?

Since leaving Elfen City, no one has even asked him to make a chair. He can only make a living by repairing furniture, and he often goes hungry.

When he first left Elfen, he still had some tools, but later he couldn't make ends meet, so he sold the scrap metal to the villagers, who took it to a sledgehammer to be turned into farm tools.

Although it was always voluntary on his part, he was still quite annoyed by the hammer that had transformed his beloved tool into a farm implement several times.

That's why Lanny found him now; if it had been any longer, he probably wouldn't have been able to keep the axe.

His family is short of food again, and he is considering whether to sell this axe to buy some more grain.

Therefore, he desperately needs this job. If he can work for seven or eight days, no, just three or four days, he can at least buy a large bag of green fumarate. If he's frugal, he can at least make it until August or September.

Upon seeing Lanny's expression, he immediately became anxious and grabbed Lanny's sleeve!

"Sir, no problem, no problem at all. I can definitely make what you need, I guarantee it."

After saying that, Jimmy seemed to want to show Lanny his skills, so he picked up the axe and looked around for something suitable.

Before Lenny could react, a loud shout came from behind him: "Jimmy, what are you doing? Put down the axe!"

Frank suddenly appeared out of nowhere, slammed Jimmy to the ground with a thud, and kicked the axe out of his hand.

"Frank, what are you doing?" Lenny looked at him, somewhat confused and not quite understanding.

“Young master, is this lowly commoner trying to take advantage of you? You should step back a bit, or you'll get hurt! Behave yourself…” Frank pressed Jimmy’s head to the ground again, reminding Lenny to move further away.

Upon hearing this, Lenny couldn't help but chuckle, thinking to himself, "Frank, aren't you overreacting a bit?"

"Alright, alright, you've misunderstood. Let him go!"

Unexpectedly, this old man, who is usually so calm and unassuming, actually has such agile skills. I never would have guessed.

Seeing Lenny's calm expression and looking at Jimmy's bewildered face, Frank remained skeptical until Lenny nodded again to confirm. Only then did he slowly release Jimmy from the ground.

Before releasing him, he didn't forget to give a warning: "Don't brandish weapons in front of the master, do you hear me?"

Jimmy, now free, rubbed his wrist and bowed apologetically to Lenny and Frank with a pained expression, saying, "Okay, okay, I'll remember."

He was in such a hurry that he forgot about that.

Normally, they wouldn't even dare to breathe loudly in front of noble lords, let alone do anything else.

Frank's interruption made Lenny too lazy to argue about the tools anymore.

At worst, I can have a set of woodworking tools made by Iron Hammer. I just don't know how many tools I'll need. If there are too many, I'll have to buy iron, and it takes quite a long time to make a trip to Elfen. It's a hassle.

However, after asking Jimmy what woodworking tools he needed, he was somewhat disappointed.

He couldn't recall any chisels, pushers, planes, or Lu Ban dies; he'd never even heard of them.

His master's main tools were various axes, several types of drills, and something similar to a handsaw.

Perhaps because the world is not lacking in timber, a completely different style has emerged, focusing more on the processing of various large trees, with the main method being splitting and chopping, naturally lacking in fine processing.

Alright, we still have to get the hammer to forge tools, otherwise, can you believe it if you chop out a bellows with an axe?

But looking at it this way, it seems there's no difference between hiring Jimmy or hiring Jimmy's mentor.

With a sigh, Lanny spread out the bellows blueprints again...

In the following days, Lanny also brought Iron Hammer into the castle and arranged for the two of them to set up a blacksmith's table in the small square in the backyard, where they would conduct various experiments from now on.

Speaking of which, the Wells family is quite interesting. Their castle is very small, not very large, and only two stories high, making it seem rather cramped. This is probably because the family is not very large, resulting in a lack of demand for housing.

On the contrary, because August liked martial arts, he built a fairly large backyard behind the castle.

The backyard is located at the back of the castle, where several training dummies stand. It is surrounded by a low slope and a wall about one person high, so there is no worry that someone might break in from this place.

This used to be the training ground of Lanny's father, August. He would usually bring his knights here to practice swordsmanship and horsemanship, so you can imagine how big this place is.

After August died in the Battle of Falling Dragon Ridge, the remaining knights either left or scattered, leaving only Tim Miller who would come to train every day.

When Lanny brought Jimmy and Hammer to the backyard, they saw Tim dressed in knight's casual clothes, sweating profusely as he brandished his longsword in front of the wooden stake.

Tim is tall with a full beard, a square face, short hair, and an ugly scar on his face. Combined with his sharp eyes, he looks more like a ruthless killer than an elegant knight riding a tall horse.

Despite his rugged appearance, Tim has a gentle and kind heart.

Otherwise, he wouldn't have left his hometown to travel the continent with August, fighting the strong and helping the weak.

During Lenny's recovery period, he would visit Lenny in the study every day, sit next to the narrow little bed in the study, and speak gently to Lenny.

Occasionally, he would talk about his youth, recounting how he and Carol traveled the continent with August, fighting for justice and helping the needy.

However, Lanny mentally summarized these stories as roughly "The Adventures of Augustus and His Squire".

Although Lanny never talked to him much and was rather indifferent, he didn't mind.

In truth, every time he saw Lenny, he felt terrible, regretting why he hadn't saved August and why he hadn't protected Lenny, causing him to be seriously injured.

Whenever I think about these things, I feel a sharp pain in my heart, and I wake up from nightmares every night, unable to fall asleep for a long time.

In his view, Lanny's refusal to speak to him was a way of blaming him for not saving his father.

The situation was extremely critical. Enemies were rushing up from both the front and back, howling incessantly. The collapsing servants scattered the knights' ranks, and some knights had already lost their will to resist and were preparing to turn and retreat.

He and August, along with several knights, fought their way back in the direction they had come from, but were relentlessly pursued by the enemy behind them.

With their warhorses already wounded, it was impossible for them, clad in heavy armor, to shake off their pursuers on foot.

Even when faced with a desperate situation, he did not give up. He stood firmly beside August, just as before. Even if they could not escape the encirclement, at least they could die together.

But August told him that he had to escape, taking Lanny with him.

Lenny is still young; he can't die here. In the end, he even threatened to sever their nearly twenty-year friendship.

Finally, Tim gave in and agreed to his old friend's request, promising to take Lanny back to his territory.

August smiled with satisfaction when he saw him nod in agreement. He then entrusted Lanny to him, telling him that from now on Lanny would be his child and that he must take care of Lanny as if he were his own.

After saying this, August turned around without hesitation and rushed towards the surging Grummans, buying Tim time to escape.

Tim, suppressing his grief and anger, summoned several knights from the surrounding area and escorted the heavily wounded Lanny back.

The scars on his face were from that time; they run diagonally from his brow, cheek, down to his lips, across his entire face.

Fortunately, the wound did not damage his eyeball; it only grazed his eyelid. Otherwise, he would have become "One-Eyed Tim."

He himself didn't feel anything about the scar and didn't mind it, since he had never been a pretty boy who relied on his looks.

Thinking of all this, he once again fiercely swung his longsword at the wooden stake in front of him, as if it were those despicable Grummans.

Good morning, Uncle Tim.

Lenny's voice interrupted Tim's reverie, and he realized that two people were walking behind him.

He composed himself and focused on completing the last two movements before putting down his longsword, grabbing a towel to wipe the sweat from his brow, nodding to Lenny, and glancing at Hammer and Jimmy standing beside him.

“Uncle Tim, I need these two to help me with something. I’ll be doing some experiments here for a while, and I might be building some things. You don’t mind, do you?” Although it wasn’t the first time he’d seen Tim’s face, Lanny was still a little hesitant to look directly at him, his gaze drifting towards the wooden stake beside him.

An experiment? Tim didn't know what that was, but he figured it was just that Lenny had remembered some new and interesting thing.

He frowned, but didn't say much, only nodded. He was already used to his young master's mischievousness.

I wonder what kind of weird stuff Lanny is planning to do today.