The Diary of a Middle-Aged Sage's Carefree Life in Another World: Volume 3 [Parts 1 to 4] by Kotobuki Yasukiyo

Author:Kotobuki Yasukiyo
Language: eng
Format: epub

Chapter 4: The Old Guy Goes to His Part-Time Job

The middle-aged mage was troubled.

Ever since he’d gotten back from his mining trip, he’d been spending all of his time making tools.

He’d recently installed metal cylinders underground—each something like an oil drum, but three times bigger. Three of them were fitted side by side, forming the rice silo and dryer that Zelos had been striving to create.

Using magic formulas he already had, Zelos could control the temperature of this setup with ease, ensuring that the rice inside was always kept at the ideal temperature.

Zelos had used similar technology to make a refrigerator, as well as a pedal-based threshing machine and a portable ashtray. The whole process had left him euphoric. But it was here that he noticed a fairly significant oversight:

“I don’t have any rice!”

Indeed: while the rice here did grow very quickly and could be harvested seven times in a year, that didn’t mean it grew instantly. The rice plants in his field had still only grown to about ankle height; it was going to be another few weeks before Zelos could harvest any rice. It was all well and good that he’d hurried so much to make his tools, but seeing as it was still going to be a while yet until he could properly use those tools, it had ultimately been utterly pointless for him to have been in so much of a rush.

The joy of discovering rice had caused Zelos to get rather ahead of himself.

“Well, I guess there’s only so much I can do. Maybe I should go and look for some koji for now.”

Koji was a type of mold used in fermentation, and it was essential in making things like miso or soy sauce. It could be used to create a fermentation starter. The trick was to then keep cultivating that fermentation starter, keeping it close by hand without letting it die.

By the way, Zelos had already started testing his hand at getting yeast, another organism used for fermentation, through the laomian sourdough method. This had been fairly easy, since they were already baking bread at the orphanage; but still, Zelos would need the all-important koji if he wanted to move on to making sake and miso.

Zelos resolved to go and find some koji, and opened the front door.

“So what’s got you so busy?”

“Wha—?!”

Or at least, he’d intended to go and find some koji. But as he opened the door, there stood the carpenter, Nagri.

No, he was more than a carpenter. To be precise, he was a professional engaged in all aspects of the building trade.

“Don’t you wha me! I’m pretty sure we’d asked you to do some work for us starting today, eh?”

“Ah... That thing about laying the foundations for the bridge, yes? Was that today?”

“Yes, we’re starting this week! I told you that last time we met!”

“Give me a more specific date for that kind of thing, please. How am I meant to know when you want me if all you tell me is a vague ‘next week’?”

“O-Oh.

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