Farming in the Magical World

Early morning!

A noise came from outside and then fell silent. Karina slowly opened her eyes on the bed. Listening to Hammer's thunderous snoring beside her, she lost her sleepiness but felt lazy and didn't want to move.

She feels she's become increasingly lazy lately; she prefers to lie down rather than sit, and she'd rather sleep rather than sit!

Knowing that this was because she was pregnant, she wasn't too alarmed!

The pregnancy has been confirmed by several older women in the village, and she has basically accepted the fact. However, unlike what she imagined, she has no morning sickness at all; she has just become a little lazier and a little craving more.

There are old folks who have their own explanations for not having morning sickness. They mean that she is probably carrying a girl, so her morning sickness will be much milder. If it were a boy, she would probably have been vomiting uncontrollably by now.

Oh, I'm going to have a baby too!

I've seen firsthand how naughty the boys in the village are, and their parents have to worry about them a lot. In comparison, the girls are much better off; they're pretty and easy to take care of, which is great!

Karina stroked her barely noticeable belly, and the radiant maternal love on her face was clearly visible even in the dimly lit room!

Compared to her mother back then, Karina felt fortunate. Being pregnant meant she no longer had to work day and night in the fields and on the mountains. Moreover, whenever she was unhappy, she could even urge Hammer to cook, and all she had to do was wait for the meal to be served!

Of course, she knew that she was sometimes wrong, and that her husband worked hard every day for his father, but she just couldn't help but have a temper.

My husband is now a craftsman in the master's workshop, earning a good income every month. He speaks loudly and stands tall in the village. Even the village chief doesn't dare to scold Tiechui as often as he used to. Naturally, our family's situation has improved a lot.

Is it okay for me to slack off a little every now and then? ---- Looking at her husband snoring loudly beside her, Karina was filled with pride!

At first, Tiechui, the husband, was not too happy about the possibility that the baby might be a daughter. He had always hoped for a son to inherit his craft and carry on the family's blacksmithing skills!

He kept the thin little notebook that Mr. Lanny gave him very well, always saying that he would pass it down to his son as a family heirloom.

Now that he hears it might be a daughter, he's naturally very unhappy and, unusually, he had a few days of sulking with Karina.

I don't know when, but he suddenly changed his mind. His stern face turned cheerful again, and his attitude towards Karina and the unborn child in her belly changed drastically.

When asked how he came to this conclusion, he wouldn't say, just chuckled foolishly. Only when pressed did he finally stammer out a secret.

It turned out that Lord Lanny had scolded him, saying that he favored boys over girls. The lord also said that he liked daughters the most and hoped that the Baroness would give birth to several daughters for him so that he could play with them every day and not have to do homework or learn the piano!

Given Iron Hammer's subservient nature, where one word from the master could be worth three words from others, Karina wasn't too surprised by this outcome!

Rubbing her slightly uncomfortable stomach, Karina felt a headache coming on from her husband's snoring beside her. Thinking that this guy actually preferred to listen to the old man, she angrily raised her arm and punched her husband beside her.

In the end, however, he couldn't bring himself to use force. The gentle movement only made Iron Hammer turn over, and soon he resumed snoring.

Karina couldn't help but feel annoyed with herself for being so soft-hearted—why am I so weak-willed!

But soon she sighed again, thought about her current life, and felt that she was being a bit ungrateful.

Life is so much better now than it was a few years ago. Not only can we eat our fill every day, but Iron Hammer will also occasionally bring back some meat from the workshop canteen.

These were days that Karina could never have imagined before, so why should she be so demanding of this happy-go-lucky fool by her side?

Looking back on the life I led six months ago, it all seems like a lifetime ago.

Not to mention meat, they can't even eat coarse grains like green ferns every meal; most of the time they are actually hungry!

Summer is better, because there are many kinds of plants and animals on the mountain. Even if you can't catch a rabbit, you can still pick some wild vegetables to fill your stomach.

Winter is particularly tough, with almost no animals in the wild and even fewer plants. Desperate, villagers even dig up old, hard plant roots from the snow to mix with green husks and make bread, which they euphemistically call "sweet root bread"!

Even so, there were still people in every family who went hungry, and during the coldest period, we heard news of people starving or freezing to death from time to time!

Back then, as long as no one starved to death in the village during winter, the surrounding villages would think that this village was wealthy and desirable, and even young men in the village would find it much easier to get married!

Karina had experienced hunger before, and that feeling... was something she would never forget, and she never wanted to experience it again!

Recalling the hardships of the past, Karina felt even more guilty!

Karina patted her husband's arm apologetically, then got out of bed and began preparing breakfast for him.

Well, he does a lot of hard labor every day, so he needs to eat a good breakfast. After thinking for a moment, Karina added some more green glutinous rice to the pot to make the porridge thicker.

"What's for dinner today?" By the time Hammer groggily got out of bed, Karina's breakfast was almost ready. She slapped away the hand that was already reaching for the pot and gave her husband a disgruntled look. "Go wash up first!"

“We didn’t pay attention to these things before…” Hammer muttered a few words of dissatisfaction at Karina’s scolding, but still obediently went to the pool outside the room.

After Hammer finished breakfast and went to the workshop, Karina finished her chores at home, and the young man who came to help at the shop had already arrived at the door, looking at her with a happy smile!

Yes, a small shop.

Karina's house has now been transformed into a small shop in the village, becoming one of only two shops with a storefront in the village, besides the existing grocery stores that sell all kinds of daily necessities!

Iron Hammer went to work in the master's workshop, and the blacksmith's table at home was also demolished, so the blacksmith shop naturally disappeared, and the house became empty.

Later, Lady Tiffany, the lord's wife, felt that there were too many people coming from Black Mountain Village to deliver tea, making it inconvenient for them to come and go from the castle. So she used Karina's house as a base, where they would buy tea and then transport it to the castle in the afternoon for her to handle.

Now they've gone a step further, turning Karina's house into a shop selling castle goods!

Karina remembered that it was shortly after she was confirmed to be pregnant when the lady of the lord suddenly came to visit her and said that she wanted to open a small shop in her house to sell some things, and hoped that Karina would be the shopkeeper, which caught Karina off guard.

Karina didn't know if the other person was really going to open a shop to sell things, but she could clearly see the way the other person kept glancing at her belly and the envy in their eyes.

This made Karina think that the idea of ​​opening a shop was probably just an excuse for the lady to come and see her, the pregnant woman!

Madam's reaction is not surprising. After all, the master and madam got married half a year earlier than her, and there is still no sign of pregnancy in her belly. Any woman would be anxious, right?

Not to mention that Miss Melissa is also watching the master closely.

Don't even mention that Miss Melissa is the master's cousin; that's just wishful thinking. Putting aside whether she's really his cousin, the way Melissa looks at the master—is that the way a cousin looks at her younger cousin?

Besides, she'd heard plenty of stories about noblemen who married her cousins; old folks often gossip about such things.

Even if the lord were to suddenly marry Miss Melissa one day, Karina felt she wouldn't be surprised at all!

Sure enough, the lady didn't even care about her noble status anymore, and kept vaguely inquiring about the pregnancy during their conversation. This made Karina even more determined in her mind—the lady was really anxious!

But she was also quite helpless about this matter. Shouldn't the village aunties know this better? She herself got pregnant in a daze. What could she say to the lady?

Just when Karina thought the lady would leave disappointed, to her surprise, the lady actually began to seriously explain the matter of opening the shop.

As the lady intended, the shop would be managed by Karina, and the castle would pay Karina a salary.

So, by that logic, Karina has done something for the lord!

Of course, Karina herself was illiterate, and also considering that she was pregnant, Tiffany had the guards send a young man over every day to help her and do some record-keeping work!

At first, Karina didn't quite understand the purpose of this arrangement. She wasn't good at bookkeeping herself, but she could at least tell how much she sold each day. Was it really necessary to arrange for someone to help her record it?

Of course, she quickly understood why the lady had made such an arrangement!

"Black Deer, it's you again today? Did you make a mistake and get punished?" When Karina saw this burly young man, she thought of her cousin Zack.

They were all black, like wood and stone. I couldn't help but tease the little guy. I opened the door and made a joke!

"Hehe, it's because the villagers all said I chose a good name that Commander Tim let me continue!" Black Deer chuckled憨厚ly, deftly removing a few panels from the doorway to reveal the small shelves inside.

After doing all this, he took out a notebook and pen for registering information, sat properly at the door, and waited for potential customers.

Karina's little shop is different from another shop in the village. The other shop mainly sells daily necessities, such as firewood, rice, oil, and salt, while Karina's shop only sells a few things—small glass bottles, knight's swords, soap, and bark paper!

Oh, and I heard there will also be a storybook written by the master himself!

To be honest, Karina initially felt that these items were not suitable for sale in the village. She wondered what the lady was thinking. Was she just bored and looking for something to do?

Take that glass jar for example. It's only the size of a fist. It can't hold any green onions or cook porridge, and it's too big to hold any salt.

Although it wasn't expensive, it was useless. For the villagers, even a single copper coin was considered expensive if it was useless.

What's more, this stuff costs about ten copper coins, enough to buy three bags of green fumes or half a bag of coarse salt.

But when Karina heard that the lady said that there were restrictions on the eligibility to buy these things, that it wasn't that the citizens were not allowed to buy them, but that each citizen could only buy one per month, and that the restrictions were quite strict, Karina became even more pessimistic about the sales prospects of these things.

Not only that, but you also have to register your family information when you buy these things, such as how many people are in your family and what their names are. If a villager doesn't have a name, you even have to give them a name before registering them.

It was only then that Karina realized why they had sent someone to help; she really couldn't do this kind of thing herself.

She didn't understand knight's sword, but the soap was a good thing. The lady had given her one initially and told her that it could be used for bathing.

At first, she was skeptical, but after using it once, she completely fell in love with it. She felt like she had been reborn, and the refreshing feeling was simply irresistible.

Hearing that this thing was made by the madam, she gave up her plan to ask the madam for a few more pieces. She thought to herself that she would just buy one herself when she ran out of the ones she had.

Although she herself was willing to pay for it, she really didn't think her neighbors would be willing to use it!

The items are certainly good, but the price of 10 copper coins is... too expensive. Why spend money when you can just gather some herbal remedies in the wild? That's probably what the villagers would prefer to think.

Anyway, the little shop is finally open!

However, Karina also had a feeling that the lady's actions were probably not so simple!