Fantasy Lord: I Have a Moving Castle

Looking at the small mound of potatoes on the clearing, the nominal mayor of Fireplace Town, Kane Firecast, couldn’t help but have his eyes, nearly hidden by his thick eyebrows, light up.

Aside from the dirt still clinging to them, indicating they were freshly dug up, there was also a basket of bird eggs and some fresh vegetables, all accumulated by Char over this period without being consumed.

As the chicken coop and vegetable garden gradually got on track, the daily yield also increased a lot; even Char and Freyja alone couldn’t consume it all, let alone adding Betty and Auson to the count.

Of course, if you included the Demon Beasts, this amount of food was definitely not enough.

However, the Demon Beasts were more accustomed to hunting for themselves, plus the Energy Essence and attribute food that Char fed them daily—things like bird eggs and vegetables didn’t suit their palate at all.

Beyond that, there were bags of mushrooms; compared to the vegetables from the garden and the daily harvested eggs from the chicken coop, the mushrooms produced daily from the Mushroom House were even more substantial.

The majority of these mushrooms had already been dried.

Of course, a small portion of them were obviously fresh mushrooms that had just been picked not long ago.

The people of Fireplace Town recognized these mushrooms at the scene; they were Green Head Mushrooms.

When the rainy season arrived, massive quantities of Green Head Mushrooms would sprout batch after batch in the mountains.

Before the outside had become so dangerous, the residents of Fireplace Town often went into the mountains to gather various types of mushrooms, with Green Head Mushrooms undoubtedly being one of the most favored.

Not only because Green Head Mushrooms were one of the most common types of mushrooms in the mountains, growing rapidly and sprouting every few days, but in the age of disaster, Green Head Mushrooms and several other common types of mushrooms had become a significant part of people’s diet—if it weren’t for these mushrooms, many more people in Fireplace Town might have starved over the years.

Moreover, the fact that Green Head Mushrooms were among the tastiest of these common mushrooms played a part.

Even in times of hunger, as long as it was edible, who cared if it was delicious? But the tongue doesn’t lie, nor does the sense of taste.

Even in a famine, how something tasted was quite apparent.

Green Head Mushrooms not only filled the stomach; they tasted good and were naturally loved by people.

Not only by races that normally considered mushrooms as food but even by those who didn’t, like the Dwarfs, had become very familiar with Green Head Mushrooms over the years.

However, as the situation outside grew increasingly unstable and the forests became more dangerous, coupled with overharvesting, such mushrooms, including the Green Head Mushrooms, became scarcer in the past two years.

Especially now that winter had arrived, occasionally bringing heavy snow, mushrooms became even scarcer.

It was unknown where this traveling merchant had gotten so many Green Head Mushrooms from.

"You... no, I mean, Mr. Char, can you come and sell potatoes every so often? And possibly even wheat and corn?" the bearded Dwarf Kane asked in amazement.

Besides being the mayor of Fireplace Town, he was also one of the three Advanced Professionals of Fireplace Town, a level-11 Chain Axe Warrior.

"Yes,"

Char nodded, replying.

Although no one literally gasped, Char still noticed from everyone’s expressions that they all seemed to take a breath.

"How do you do it?"

Kane promptly asked, his question a bit impolite.

But Dwarfs were straightforward by nature, and Kane, being a tribal leader and the mayor of Fireplace Town with a high status, rarely had the opportunity to use tact, having virtually no experience in such finesse.

The fact that he had managed to address Char as "Mr." earlier was already quite tactful of him.

As he spoke, all eyes in attendance turned to Char, waiting for his answer.

Everyone was curious.

They all saw the mud on the potatoes; these potatoes were obviously just dug up from the ground. After all, even though a Spatial Bag could expand space, it couldn’t keep food fresh—what needed to rot would still rot, and what needed to spoil would still spoil.

But in this weather, how did Char manage to grow so many potatoes?

Growing vegetables in winter wasn’t anything new; there were Spellcasters in Fireplace town who could achieve this.

But that was all thanks to Magic, and while it was worthwhile to use magic to cultivate rare Magic Potions, using it to cultivate regular vegetables was utterly unprofitable, definitely a loss-making business.

Aside from a few wealthy Spellcasters who wanted to eat fresh vegetables even in winter and would plant some in their Magic Plantations, most Spellcasters wouldn’t do this.

Because even for Spellcasters, it was considered a luxury.

It was hard for those present to imagine how Char managed to grow so many potatoes in the winter, and it seemed he had grown plenty of wheat and corn as well.

Char took in the expressions of the Fireplace Town residents around him, feeling somewhat sighful inside.

Although this world had Magic, it was lagging far behind in the path of scientific exploration; it was an issue that could be solved simply by building a few greenhouses, yet people had failed to realize it.

It could only be said that, once down the path of Magic, the path to science was blocked.

"I am a Natural Prophet,"

Char exchanged a glance with Freyja sitting beside him, playing the role of his assistant, and replied.

This was an answer they had discussed before; for the time being, he didn’t want to promote the existence of vegetable greenhouses—without sufficient strength to protect himself, it would attract unwanted attention prematurely.