Dyes.
They were substances used primarily to add color to things like thread and fabric.
Currently, the majority of the clothing in the village was dyed using plants and fruits that Zabuton's Children gathered from the forest. Because of that, I didn't have much interest in them. After all, you couldn't eat dye.
Then, a shipment of dyes arrived from Michael. Red, blue, yellow, green, black, brown, white, pink, and orange. They were all beautiful colors, but that was about the extent of my impression. I was the one paying for them, but the dyes went straight to Zabuton anyway.
The catalyst that finally sparked my interest in dyes was one of Zabuton's Children.
Zabuton's Children came in various shapes and sizes, but their base color was usually black. Yet, there was one child among them whose body was an unnatural shade of red across half its surface. At first, I thought it was covered in blood, but that wasn't the case. It had accidentally fallen into a jar of dye Michael had brought, staining part of its body.
There were no issues with its health. As for the part covering its eyes... a protective layer, something like a contact lens, had simply come off. Its body would shed its outer skin in about ten days anyway, so I was told not to worry about it.
Still, the dyes that hadn't been handed over to Zabuton yet were sitting right in front of me. Using the dye like paint, I finished the job and painted the half-stained child entirely red. There was no unevenness in the coat; it was quite a good job, if I do say so myself. The spiderling seemed to like it too, which was a relief.
It certainly moved well. It was fast.
The only problem was that the rest of Zabuton's Children were now staring intently at me.
Red, blue, yellow, green, black, brown, white, pink, orange, polka dots, stripes, checkered, tricolour, camouflage...
For a while after that, colorful children of Zabuton could be seen wandering all over the village. Incidentally, Zabuton was so inspired by the jungle camouflage I had applied that she started producing camouflage-patterned clothes. The High Elves took a liking to them and could be seen wearing them from time to time.
Hakuren’s belly had begun to grow prominent. Raimeiren and the others had mentioned that dragons could become short-tempered during pregnancy, but there were no signs of that. She was quite tranquil. Since I had cautioned her before, she made sure to get plenty of sleep at night despite her daytime naps, and she seemed healthy. She was getting a moderate amount of exercise as well.
Everything was going smoothly. It could all be summarized in that one phrase.
"Hakuren, is there anything you want?"
"In that case, I'd like some sweet snacks."
"Sweet? I thought pregnant women usually craved sour things."
"That hasn't really been the case for me. I did find myself wanting meat for a while, though."
"And now it’s snacks?"
"Sweet snacks."
"Yes, yes."
I went to the kitchen to whip something up. Was I spoiling her too much? Well, I had done the same for Lu and Tia, so it was only fair.
An experiment to treat the attacks using the horns of Kuro and his pack like fireworks was held on the south side of the village. That said, it mostly consisted of the entire Angel Race performing the diving drops that Kudel had been practicing.
"Their accuracy is impressive, isn't it?"
So far, they maintained a hit rate of over ninety percent against a one-meter square target. To be precise, Tia and Kudel were at a perfect one hundred percent. Granmaria and Corone had missed a few times, but even their misses were only slightly off; there were no major blunders.
Up until now, they had been throwing ordinary spears to test their accuracy. Perhaps that was why Kudel eventually spoke up.
"Um, Village Head. I can’t quite get the right feel for it with these training spears..."
She requested to be allowed to throw the real thing.
"I’ll give each of you one real spear at the very end. Don’t miss."
"Understood!"
Come to think of it, the first time we tried this, it had been extremely dangerous. I really should have been more careful.
Since we were moving on to live weapons, I notified the village in advance. I didn't want to get scolded by Ann again. I also confirmed that the children were not naping, and naturally, I gave strict instructions for everyone to stay away from the south side of the village where the experiment was taking place.
Despite my instructions, spectators began to appear here and there. Some even had sake in hand. This experiment was meant to prevent injuries during the real thing, but it seemed people were treating it like a show. Even Kuro’s pack and Zabuton’s group had come to watch.
Sigh.
I made sure they all stayed behind the established safety perimeter. Then, I waved a flag to signal Tia and the others in the sky. I thought they would go one by one, but the four of them took off in a tight formation.
Wait, what?
The four angels performed a beautiful formation flight before going into a steep dive. There were four targets on the ground, and they were all blown away almost simultaneously.
Cheers erupted from the spectators. However, because the targets were placed too close together, the explosive flames interfered with each other, and it wasn't particularly pretty as a display.
"We should widen the interval by ten meters each," Kudel said, busily resetting the targets.
Resetting them was fine, but I was fairly certain I had said that last one was the end.
"To ensure everything is perfect, we would like to conduct the drop experiment again."
They were already holding more spears. They were already back in the air. Their smiles were actually a bit terrifying.
The drop experiment by the four Angels—or rather, the fireworks display—continued for quite a long time. It went on long enough that Ann eventually came out to scold me.
It wasn't entirely my fault, but I apologized anyway. It was my responsibility as the supervisor, after all. As it turned out, she wasn't angry because of the noise, but because she felt the rest of the staff should have been invited if we were going to have a celebration.
I felt terrible.
The twenty spears we had prepared were all consumed. Well, I suppose it served as a good way for the girls to relieve some stress. The four Angels and the spectators were all smiles. Even Urza was grinning, her eyes sparkling with excitement.
I had doubted it for a moment, but I didn't think even Urza would take the horns without permission. Regardless, I decided to tighten the security and management of the horns from now on.
A few days later, I noticed that the way Kudel looked at Kuro and his pack was a little scary. I really wished she would stop staring so intensely at their horns.
Truffles.
I was growing them because everyone had been so happy with them before, but personally, I wasn't a big fan. I preferred matsutake.
Because of that, I decided to try my hand at growing matsutake. Since I had to grow them alongside red pines, it took a considerable amount of time. However, I was delighted to find that the matsutake grew exactly as I had planned. It was a bumper crop. Truly, I owed it all to the Universal Farming Tool.
However, I didn't let myself get carried away during the harvest. Based on the reactions I'd seen so far, I expected the popularity of matsutake to be mediocre at best. I wanted to share the flavors I enjoyed, but I wouldn't force them on anyone.
For the sake of the others, I made sure to grow plenty of truffles as well. I maintained a ratio of fifty truffles for every one matsutake. With this much, there shouldn't be any fighting over them.
Kuro’s offspring who accompanied me during the harvest were wagging their tails quite vigorously. Last time, there hadn't been enough for everyone to have a taste. With a haul this big, I figured even they could have a piece.
I returned to the Village Head's Mansion and helped with the cooking. As expected, the truffles were a massive hit.
Surprisingly, the matsutake were even more popular than I had anticipated.
"These are delicious! Why didn't you grow more of them?"
I suppose it wasn't good to make assumptions. As I listened to their praise, I sat in my room, agonizing slightly over whether or not I should bring out the extra matsutake I had tucked away for myself.