Fairy Tale Chronicles

Volume 2, Snippet 2.1

Translator: Larkin

Editor: Weasalopes

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1 A Day In Lime’s Life..

「Lime! Let’s go harvesting! 」

「O—kay! 」

On one early morning when the late spring sun had finally shone its rays, Fum’s younger sister, Lime, had just completed a task when Fum called out to her.

Lime was a five-year-old girl who had been practically raised in a workshop, but despite being a child, playing was by no means the only thing she did. Her small stature and stamina did not allow her to compound materials nor perform other manufacturing tasks but she was able to conduct measurements, collect materials, and other simple tasks.

It goes without saying but Fum and Lime, two children who were not even 10 years old, lived in a world where it wasn’t unusual for children to work. A life with no work and only play was a luxury reserved for children of merchants and nobility. Even within the elves of Ortem, once a child turns five they were expected to babysit and help with the farm work. Contemporary Japanese society would probably find this lifestyle harsh, but actually, the days before Japanese children could live a life without being expected to work wasn’t even that long ago.

「Fum, Lime, while you’re out, buy some spices from market.」

「M’kay! 」

「Got it.」

「Knowing you two I think you’ll be fine but still be careful okay? 」

Before departing the two of them said their usual goodbyes and made their way towards the east gate.

「Fum-chan, Lime-chan, good morning! 」

「Good morning, Lumina.」

「Good mor—ning! 」

Lumina, daughter of Merizza, was a member of their harvesting group. They exchanged good mornings, merged with a group of adventurers and headed toward the harvesting spot, which was an hour on foot if you were a kid.

「One—chan, Lumina-chan, over here! 」

「Ah, Lime, wait! 」

「Don’t go off on your own! 」

But Lime didn’t listen to the two older girls, instead she ran off toward what seemed like a promising harvesting spot. As they looked on the rest of the harvesting group’s shoulders fell in dismay. There was a silent agreement within the group; if all members remained together in one area they could ensure the safety of everyone.

If one were to break this rule there wasn’t an immediate punishment, and if one were to unconsciously break the rule the offender would be let off the hook, however, if one were to deliberately ignore the rule they would receive a social punishment. Because of this even someone foolish wouldn’t dare to make the same mistake.

「Wow, to think that there’s this many ripe timberries……. 」

「My little sister always seems to effortlessly find these things……」

Lime flashed a triumphant smile and puffed up her chest with pride at hearing the girls’ astonished admiration. She had a talent for seeking out rare types of plants.

Incidentally, timberry is a type of perennial plant whose berries take all of summer to ripen; it is also a relative of the strawberry. Usually, one isn’t able to pick berries in March, only on a very rare occasion would anyone be lucky enough to find them. These off-season timberries also possess a powerful magic, they are prized for their medicinal value, as well as acting as a catalyst for enchanting and alchemy. It’s no wonder that they’re such expensive items found only in a select number of levels.

「Well we’ve actually found them so we might as well pick them.」

As they assiduously picked the berries the amount quickly filled their baskets so they transferred the berries to their satchels. While Fum and Lumina worked diligently, Lime climbed a tree and began collecting Dolk leaves to collect the berries in. Dolk leaves were at their finest just as they’re about to fall off the branch. However, a single Dolk leaf wouldn’t be able to withstand their harvest so Lime leaped rapidly from branch to branch collecting the best leaves in earnest. It seemed that meals from the workshop were giving her proper nutrition; it was surprising that a child at her age had this much physical ability.

「Lime! Stop that, it’s dangerous! 」

「O—kay! 」

At Fum’s scolding, Lime obediently got down from the tree. She was mischievously appropriate for a child her age, but she was also reasonable.

「One—chan, over here! 」

「And now you’ve gone and found a splendid Aslin.」

「Digging out roots is hard work isn’t it~?」

Lime was pointing at an Aslin stalk, that was twice its usual size, blooming with lovely white flowers.

Of course, its roots were also double its usual size and could be used as raw material. With their ability and if luck was on their side they could perhaps make a medicine that would level them up by one rank.

In the end they continued to find more rare materials that would allow them to make class seven or class eight potions. Teres was the best at gathering materials, but Lime was by far the best at finding rare materials. Today Lime was on a roll and thanks to her the Azuma workshop had acquired far more and far better material than expected.

「Fum-chan, Lime-chan, let’s play—! 」

It was past lunchtime and they were now faced with a sense of ennui.

「Fum and and I will be back soon! 」

「Wait, can we? 」

「You’ve finished today’s quota, besides playing with your friends is important too, you know.」

「Okay. Lime, let’s go.」

「Yeah! 」

After receiving permission Fum and Lime went down the stairs to meet their friends. The surrounding elderly watched over the children with softened gazes. Despite being raised in the slums by a single parent, the two of them had a sound upbringing. The two of them both studied and worked with all their might. One could even say that they had much more scholarly promise than the third son of a noble family who despised study.

「Sorry, did you wait long? 」

「Not at all.」

They bowed their heads while apologizing to Lumina and the other children, but the children smiled and merrily reassured them that everything was fine. The group was a mix of girls and boys but girls seemed to make up the majority of the group. They all knew that Fum was a major force at the workshop and that she always had her hands full, so there was no reason for them to hold a grudge against her for the times when she’d turned down their invitations. Besides, because every one of them had chores of their own the opportunity for them to meet as a group was very rare.

「So, what should we play? Tag? Hide-and-seek? 」

「We could also cultivate Pomies~」

Everyone ignored Lime as she smiled and proposed a dangerous game. In the end they agreed to play red light green light, a game they had learned from the workshop. Incidentally, Pomey cultivating is a thrilling game that’s played by using hot spring water and piling up pomies. To put it simply, the game is just like playing with firecrackers. Afterwards, the Pomies would become delicious food.

「Fum-chan will be “it”. 」

「O—kay.」

The children agreed and began the game. However, none of them actually knew what a traffic signal was. The reason they learned this game was because of a certain person from Kansai who had first tried teaching them a game called Mr. Monk breaks wind, but luckily Makoto and Tatsuya had quickly intervened.

「Red light! 」

「Kane, you’re out! 」

「Tch.」

A boy named Kane had been fooled by Fum’s feint and moved to the out corner with a vexed look on his face.

「One—chan, I got you! 」

「Ah man、 I lost—. 」

「Ehehe.」

Fum had planned to beat Lime but in the end she had been swiftly defeated by her simple cleverness. A showdown between these two could go either way.

「Lime-chan, I got you—. 」

「Ah, now I’ve lost—. 」

However, Lime was still a child and her opponents were children too, so it wasn’t like she could outsmart them that easily.

「Um, is anybody there? 」

Lime restlessly looked around making sure that there was no one in sight, and then she quietly stepped into the garden.

「Good evening—」

She let out a startled voice and called out to what lay before her. The area was very dim but if you looked closely you could see a faint sparkling and a sprout with a pair of small leaves planted in the center.

「I brought you fertilizer~」

At Lime’s words, the soil sparkled again. Lime deciphered the soil’s reaction and began to scatter fertilizer. The fertilizer was a quality product made by Hiroshi called Ocean Life (It actually was made from the fluids that had been extracted from a chrysalis of a giant hornworm). It was the ultimate fertilizer but Lime was generously scattering it everywhere. Although it had been a leftover product using so much of it was a tad audacious.

There actually wasn’t anything wrong with what Lime was doing. That’s because in the past, as the result of some mischief, she had buried a nearly rotten Sol Meissen, which had miraculously germinated while also keeping her act a secret.

Normally, Lime wouldn’t take part in such mischief, but that day the plates overflowing with Sol Meissen had piqued her interest and she couldn’t resist poking it with her finger. As a result, the Sol Meissen immediately withered and a panicked Lime saw no other choice but to bury it in a sunlit corner of the garden.

Lime was plagued by guilt and considered confessing what she had done but while she struggled to muster up the courage to do so Hiroshi and the others had embarked on a journey and the evidence eventually erased itself.

However, Hiroshi was actually aware of what Lime had done and he had taken notice of Lime’s guilt and regret so he had decided not to dig any further into the matter. Besides he too was at fault for leaving behind the Sol Meissen; it made sense to go easy on Lime.

「Is this water okay? 」

Lime watered the plants with an elephant-shaped watering can (made by Hiroshi), and in response, the ground sparkled in happiness. After five minutes the ground glittered in satisfaction and seemed to say 「I’m fine now」 so, Lime put away the watering can.

「Alright then, I’ll be back tomorrow and bring you some more water.」

The ground glittered happily once more and then remained still. Actually, the reason why Lime was able to sneak into the garden was because everyone was aware of what she was doing, they just weren’t interfering. They assumed that she wanted to secretly care for the plants so they unanimously agreed to allow her to do so while watching over her from afar.

「Ugh, I’m tired.」

It wasn’t close to midnight at all, but for a five year old it was certainly late. She, of course, could not fight off the sleepiness so as quiet as she could she tiptoed back to her room and fell sound asleep.

That was a perfectly normal day in Lime’s life.