「Well then, we’ll be back again in two months」
「Take care」
「You’ll definitely come back again won’t you Eric?」
「Yeah, and I’ll bring back another souvenir for you」
Two days later, Roland & Eric were leaving Kaina Village. Eric and Barbara were dejected from having to part.
Jin began thinking while absentmindedly watching the carriage fade away into the distance.
（It takes 2 days to travel to the next village by wagon, another 2 days to get to a town, and a further 3 days to get to the Cline Kingdom’s capital. The speed of a wagon seems to be from about 4km to 6km per hour. Assuming I travel 8 hours a day and the capital is about 200km to 300km away, it would be quite a considerable distance. But if I go to the capital, I’ll be able to obtain a map of this continent. That way I might be able to figure out the location of the laboratory）
While thinking about that, something grasped his cuff. What he saw was Hanna.
「What is it Hanna?」
Recently he has stopped using honorifics.
「Jin-oniichan… are you leaving the village?」
Tears started falling from her eyes. Small girls sure do have a sharp insight, Jin strangely admired while saying,
「Hmm, I wonder. At the very least, I won’t be leaving before the end of the year」
Hearing that Hanna,
「I… I’ll become Onii-chan’s bride so don’t leave me!」
says that. Jin,
「Ahh… thank you. Well once Hanna becomes an adult, if you still have that thought, then at that time I’ll accept」
answers. Actually, this isn’t the first time he’s been told those kind of words.
The first time was when Jin was in his 3rd year of junior high school. He was suddenly told those words when he was taking care of a girl that just came to the orphanage. At that time she was 6 years old.
But around the time she was 9 years old, she told one of the boys from the same orphanage that she would be his future bride.
The next time was when Jin was in his 1st year of high school doing part-time. A girl 4 years his junior confessed. But he worked at his part-time job during the day and did part-time school at night and before Jin noticed it, the girl was dating another guy.
With those experiences, they went back on their confession which happened twice, well they were after all only temporary words. Jin could no longer trust in those words from a small girl.
Now let’s return to the main story… While recalling about the orphanage he was picked up and raised at, Jin decided that he would repay the favour to Martha and the village for picking him up and stay in this village for one year.
It was getting close to summer, the village’s wheat fields were ripe. The harvesting of the village’s wheat fields was a joint effort which continued day after day. Jin also helped out, but he soon got a sore back and dropped out.
「Damn, I have no physical strength do I…」
This was because most of Jin’s body was supplemented with magic power, so no matter how much training he had done, he did not gain any muscles. Conversely, if he strengthened himself with magic power he would have an unthinkable amount of strength, but it would still be a long time before Jin noticed that.
「There must be something I can help with…」
The wheelbarrow Jin made was useful with transporting the harvested wheat, but Jin thought there was still something else he could help with.
「Come to think of it, there were times I used the wheat at the orphanage… at that time how did I mill it?」
Trying to dig up his memories,
「That’s right! It was a sieve!」
The flour being eaten in this village was wheat flour, but not the whole wheat flour, a wheat that was completed milled. It was not the common modern household pure white flour, but a brown powder of mixed flour and bran.
「I’ll immediately start making a sieve then」
Jin excused himself from Martha and went home to quickly make a sieve. He made the frame, then the net and combined them together to complete it. There were two kinds of nets, a detailed one and a little coarse one..
「With this I’m done! But a hand sieve will be tiring to use」
Therefore, he hanged the sieve from a height, making a frame so there wasn’t a need to use both hands. He recalled seeing a drain-board hung from the ceiling in the paper before. ⚑
「This looks pretty good」
The frame hanged the sieve which is shaken using your hand, and it would accumulate in the tub below. All that was left was the wheat bran to feed into it.
「Alright, it’s complete!」
Right on time, Martha and Hanna returned carrying the wheat and saw the sieve.
「What is this!? You’ve made another peculiar thing」
「Onii-chan, what is this?」
They were surprised as expected. Jin then explained.
「Fuu-n, this can sort out the flour right?」
「That’s right. It will sort out the higher quality flour, even Roland-san would evaluate it highly.」
「Will it become delicious?」
「I see. A portion for eating, a portion for selling, it is worth trying it in various ways.」
Then without delay, he milled the last year’s harvest of wheat, resulting in flour, and places it in the sieve. （Because the wheat that was just harvested was not dried yet, it could not be milled）
「Funfun, this is how you do it, put it in, then shake」
「This looks interesting! I want to try it too!」
Seeing that, Hanna reached her hand out to it so Hanna did the sieving, Martha milled the wheat, and Jin took care of splitting the sieved flour.
「Waaa, it looks pretty!」
The light brownish wheat flour had turned into pretty white flour. With this amount now done, Jin was satisfied.
「It’s turned out really pretty. Okay then I’ll use this flour to bake some bread today」
That night.
「This is delicious, Oba-chan!」
Hanna was delighted.
「It really is delicious…」
「After all, white bread is definitely delicious」
He was raised to not be picky about what he likes and dislikes, and he was fine with eating bad food, however the breads up until now were completely different in taste to the one he was eating now.
「I need to tell everyone」
The next day the villagers were delighted to know how delicious sieved flour was, and once again, it was decided that Jin would make a sieve for every house.
「It would be great if we could make this flour into Kaina Village’s specialty」
After the sieves were given out, the village chief made that proposal, and he agreed with the village chief.
「That will be good. With this we’ll be able to acquire a little bit of foreign money.」
Was what Jin was pleased about.
Roland came after February and was pleasantly surprised when he saw the flour.
「This white flour, even in the capital there is very little! The pure white flour aristocrats eat are made by their servants who peel the exterior and mill it with their hands. Such a thing a commoner wouldn’t even eat without a reason. And so close, there’s tons of it!」
Although it was not pure white, the colour was pretty close to white, furthermore the price for it was reasonable. The merchant jumped at the chance.
And though he did not have money prepared this time, he had promised that he would purchase it at a high price on his next visit.
「Still, each and every time Jin-san sure does surprises me」
Roland muttered while eating white bread.
「I’d also like to be able to see Jin-san’s home town. When you come to the capital and need a helping hand, by all means I’ll gladly cooperate」
「At that time, please do so」
Although his home was Japan, he would never again return home. For now he decided to politely accept.