The Strongest Wizard Becomes a Countryside Guardsman After Taking an Arrow to the Knee

Chapter 43 – Old Wizard, Cuttin’ Trees

The next day.

We had decided to cultivate some new land. Of course, I have never done that before.

I’ve only been an adventurer.

My father didn’t farm either – he was a knight.

In order to get the cultivation done, Vi-Vi, Femm, Millet, and Collette joined me.

「Um, first we need to cut down the trees, right?」

「Al, you really know nothing about this.」

「Yeah, Sorry.」

「Whatever! Just leave it to me!」

Even so, Vi-Vi looked happy.

「Al. Cut down the trees, and take all the trees off the field.」

I took Vi-Vi’s advice. She knew what she was doing.

「I guess I’ll listen to you, Vi-Vi.」

「Heh heh, you should do so more often!」

Vi-Vi’s cheeks turned red in a blush.

「Okay, then, here comes the cuttin’!」

I used a magical blade to cut the tree in front of me.

It immediately began falling towards me.

「Whoa, Millet!」

「Watch out!」

「Rawf!」

I grabbed Millet and jumped, accidentally putting my weight on my bad knee. It hurt.

Vi-Vi was already a ways away from where it fell.

Femm had Collette on its back, and jumped away.

「Millet, are you okay?」

「Yeah, thanks…」

Millet’s cheeks were blushing.

「AL! You’ve GOT to think about where the tree is going to fall BEFORE YOU CUT!」

「Okay…sorry…」

「Rawf!」

Vi-Vi shouted at me.

Femm’s barking sounded angry too.

「Sorry, Femm.」

After that, I was careful with how I cut the trees.

I cut around 30 of them in the area I planned to cultivate.

All of them were massive trees.

I gave directions about the trees to Millet.

「All of these trees should be used for winter wood. Be careful with them, okay?」

「You got it! Leave all the cutting of the branches to me!」

Vi-Vi used magic to slice all the branches off of the fallen trees.

In under an hour we have 30 trees and countless branches from them as lumber.

「Maybe being a wizard-lumberjack is my calling.」

「You may be right…」

Both Vi-Vi and I were both surprised at how effectively we had cut up this wood.

「Please carry all the lumber to the commons.」

「Commons?」

「Yeah, well…」

Millet explained about the village commons.

It was a location that was managed by all in the village. Everyone would place any lumber or wood that had fallen there.

And the newly cultivated land was the village’s.

We had gotten permission for the cultivation, but all of the wood from the area should be the village’s too, it seems.

If we brought the wood there, then everyone would get to take whatever they need.

「Okay, I see.」

Didn’t seem a strange process to me.

「We’re going to need some oxen to carry this wood. Let me go borrow some.」

「Wait a second, Millet.」

Vi-Vi stopped Millet before she ran off.

「We have my Moofy.」

「Moofy’s too big! It can’t just carry the lumber there. 」

「I guess you’re right…」

Vi-Vi slumped from her formerly proud disposition.

If Moofy wasn’t so huge, we might have been able to use it for this work.

「I’ll just use magic to move it.」

「That gravity magic again?」

「Yeah, good in battle, good for chores.」

「You using high level magic that most of us devils can’t even use…you’re one scary guy.」

「Have to use what you can.」

I carried the 30 trees in three trips. That way I didn’t have to push myself carrying them all at once.

I was a little nervous about controlling all of the wood together, so I simply carried 10 at a time.

「Every time you do that, it’s amazing.」

Millet complimented me. I could feel myself blush a bit.

「There may be a day when a woodsman needs gravity magic to work.」

「No way! Then there’d only need to be five of them in the world.」

Femm and his back bit down on and carried many of the branches.

「Thanks.」

「Wuff!」

I rubbed their heads when I had a chance.

They all wagged their tails cutely.

「Okay…」

「Now, time for the hard work.」

Millet and I nodded at each other.

It was time to get rid of the stumps. We had to get all the roots out too, somehow.

「How do they usually get these things out?」

「Um… after they dig around the stump, they break the stump up with a saw or axes. Then they have an ox pull out the stump.」

「I see.」

I thought about it for a second.

Vi-Vi smiled at me and peered at my face.

「Al, you’re not thinking about shortening this by using magic, are you?」

「You bet I am.」

「Heh heh. Just leave it to me instead.」

Vi-Vi started scrawling a magic circle on top of a cut stump.

「What magic is that?」

「Heh heh, watch and find out.」

Since she said that, now I wanted to find out.

I analyzed the magic circle.

「Fire magic?」

「Geez, why are you analyzing my circle!?」

Vi-Vi puffed her cheeks out.

Millet heard that and looked troubled.

「But…I know that if you turn a tree to ash it helps fertilize the soil…but a tree can’t burn underground, right?」

「Heh heh heh.」

Vi-Vi puffed out her chest.

「This is what makes this magic circle awesome!」

Vi-Vi put the magic circle in motion.

The stump instantly lit up in fire.

「Listen. This magic circle of fire is intermingled with a strong wind magic.」

「So with the wind, it blows the fire down so it burns up all the roots?」

「Yup!」

It made sense to me. Even though you have to see what happens to know the result, if the roots weren’t burned all the way it was still fun to see the stump be burned.

「So I guess you should draw this on all 30 of the stumps here.」

「You can help me, Al!」

「Roger.」

It was difficult for me to copy the magic circle she had drawn though.

It was easier to write your own new circle with the magical logic and planning that you created yourself.

That’s what I did. And I worked hard not to make an embarrassingly weak one compared to Vi-Vi’s

「Okay, here mine goes.」

「Let’s see whose burns the strongest.」

「Sure.」

Vi-Vi was quickly ready to make a competition out of this.

We set both of our rings on fire, and they both burned strongly.

「Yours is burning quite well, Al!」

「Yours too, Vi-Vi.」

「Heh heh heh.」

The battle was already on.

It was pretty impressive that Vi-Vi knew how to make a circle that would specifically burn into a tree stump.

I just copied the idea she had. Her fire was much larger than mine as well.

「Yay! I won!」

「Yeah, you beat me.」

Vi-Vi laughed happily at being recognized the winner.

After the stumps burned all the way, Femm started talking to us.

『You need to check how much of the roots burned.』

「Right.」

『I’ll dig a hole and check the roots. Okay?』

「Please.」

「Ruff Wuff」

Femm started digging into the ground. It did it like a dog…or a wolf…enjoying it the whole time.

The other wolves saw this, and started digging nearby as well.

「Wuff Wuff」

All the wolves looked like they were having a blast.

They all were concentrating completely on their digging.

After a while, Femm said to us

『Almost all of the roots are burned up in the fire.』

Femm said with a serious look, its face and body covered in dirt.

Just like a puppy.

「Thanks, good work.」

「Wurf」

I rubbed Femm’s head and the other wolves around me.

After finishing all the stumps, the day was finished.

The first day of creating the field was over.