Saving 80,000 Gold in Another World for my Retirement Vol. 2

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All the key players of the Yamano County were gathered in the viscountess’ meeting room. It goes without saying that one of them was Viscountess Yamano herself. Then there was the butler, Anton, the management committee, and the five leaders of the army. This group consisted of everyone who served Mitsuha directly.

Besides them, there were representatives of the common citizens—the heads of the three farming villages, two mountain villages, and the sole fishing village. They appeared to be on edge. While it would be natural for them to feel nervous in the presence of their lord, Mitsuha had exercised a sort of “Hey, I’m your friendly neighborhood ruler” campaign when she had first arrived, making her presence seem less intimidating. Rather, the main source of their anxiety was the information about Mitsuha that had finally reached their county.

They had found her unusual from the start. It was unthinkable for a young girl to start a noble lineage. After all, what could a child accomplish to earn such high status?

Furthermore, she was often visited by a young lord of the neighboring county—a new noble himself. It wasn’t strange for two new, young viscounts to be on good terms with or consult one another, but it was certainly unusual for the viscount himself to stop by every few days. From what they had heard, he was also the eldest child of Count Bozes—ruler of the county on the opposite side.

Finally, there was the visit from the entire Bozes family. It was understandable for a new viscount to go and greet the neighboring counts, but they couldn’t comprehend why the opposite had occurred. They also wondered why he had brought his entire family. Was he planning to annex the county? The family’s attitude towards Mitsuha made that unlikely. They treated her like a daughter or sister, and the villagers couldn’t help but notice the way the two sons behaved around the viscountess. In the end, they had come to understand that there was something unique about these circumstances.

That was when various details about the happenings in the capital began to seep through their borders. The townspeople had heard rumors slip from the lips of passengers and coachmen on shopping trips to the Bozes’ county. Inflated gossip oozed from major merchants, officer hopefuls, and noble messengers from the capital and beyond who had traveled to this county on a whim. It didn’t take long for them to realize that Mitsuha was the one and only Lightning Archpriestess, and that she had chosen this county as her territory despite having better prospects as a viscount.

This was a poor, dead-end, backwater land at the edge of the country that had lost its previous ruler when he committed the equivalent of rebellion. It was barely sustained by mediocre agriculture, forestry, and fishing industries. Most of their products were used locally, and they had to buy other necessities from the Bozes’ county for a relatively high price.

It didn’t take someone like Platidus to see that this land had no chance to see a bright future or even a good ruler. Many had believed that at worst, the next person in charge would have been someone who received it as a punishment or joke, and at best, it would have been someone with no other choice. The county didn’t operate at a net loss, but it also didn’t make enough profit for the local lord to maintain a capital mansion or have a place in high society.

The citizens had cared little about who would rule them next, believing nothing would truly change. Someone like Count Bozes, who was said to be a man of good and honest character, was nothing but a dream.

You could only imagine their surprise when the new ruler was a viscountess who had willingly chosen their land. She was a young, powerful, and talented foreign princess. There were also rumors that she had fought off wolves until she was gravely injured just to save a single village girl in the Bozes’ county, and that tale alone spoke volumes about her nature.

Up until now, the citizens were never given explanations or opportunities to ask about anything regarding the county—they had always been given orders. But now, they had been called to a meeting regarding the future of this land. Perhaps, they dared to think, this could make all their lives better. Their new leader was a star of hope. Disappointing her was unacceptable, and they wouldn’t tolerate anyone who did so. They clenched their fists as resolve filled their hearts.

Yes, the representatives gathered here were tense... and no one could fault them for that.

“Thank you very much for coming here, everyone,” Mitsuha said softly.

Her way of speaking was incredibly dynamic. She was capable of having polite conversations with those above her, speaking like a normal high school girl would with her friends, and spouting any number of bizarre things with her inner voice. Mitsuha also had a tendency to talk coldly when angered, and “borrow” lines or grow increasingly theatrical when she got on a roll.

Then again, altering one’s way of speaking based on the situation and the conversational partner was common. For instance, it could be considered crass and even foolish to speak to a work superior as though he were a close friend. There were some mediocre employees who treated their superiors as equals—or worse—simply because they were the same age, but age only mattered when all other conditions were equal for the involved parties. Perhaps it was for the best, as fools who prioritized age over the workplace hierarchy tended to slip up early on and were fired as a result.

Regardless, Mitsuha was always changing her style of speech. As both a noble and their lord, she could have chosen to emphasize that she was above them. However, this meeting wasn’t about dominance, but about listening and encouraging harmony, so she chose a gentle, polite tone for the occasion. The servants were already used to her quirks and found it to be a good way of discerning whether she was in her normal, angry, or dispassionate work mode.

“I have summoned you all here so that every single one of you understands what I will do to develop Yamano County. I will also hear you out if you have any suggestions. Status holds no weight here, so please be as honest with your opinions as possible. If you stay silent and end up unhappy with what we decide, I must say it will be no one’s fault but your own.”

The citizens’ representatives nodded seriously. It was hard to ignore status in such a situation, but they intended to try.

“First of all, since it is already being put into practice, comes our current defense structure. Are there any objections?”

A hand made its way upward. It belonged to one of the three heads of farming villages. He cleared his throat before speaking.

“Things are much better than they used to be, when our boys would be taken away and almost never returned; I also hear they are well-fed during lunch. But now we have a number of second, third, and younger sons asking if they can become permanent soldiers.”

“Oh, I see,” Mitsuha replied. “Well, after everyone has been conscripted at least once, I intend to hire a few promising volunteers. But since it’s impossible to keep many standing soldiers in such a small area, most will have to stay in rotation. Please tell the youths to do their best.”

He nodded in understanding. The others seemed to share his opinion on military affairs.

“Next, allow me to explain the changes in our agriculture,” said Mitsuha.

The heads of the three farming villages lost a bit of their composure. “Heads” might have given the impression of importance, but the men were merely representing small, clustered settlements. The farming villages were made up of twenty to thirty buildings each, while the mountain and fishing villages had somewhere between ten and twenty.

She began explaining such factors as repeated cultivation damage and nutrient deficiency. Dumbfounded at first, they soon leaned in to listen intently. This wasn’t merely some little girl chattering away. She was their ruler, and the foreign sage known as the Lightning Archpriestess. No one undervalued her words.

Mitsuha wanted to experiment on a few select farmlands before bringing up crop rotation. She couldn’t just force these people to adopt a new farming method right away—she had to gradually introduce it. After all, a single mistake here could be fatal to the entire county. Of course, Mitsuha could always use her own money to buy food from Japan and save everyone, but that wasn’t the point.

Instead, she began with simple, foolproof ideas, like spreading decaying leaves or ash to create a compost layer. Besides that, she told them to mix poultry manure and straw and let it ferment for a few months. She gave a hard pass to the idea of using human excrement instead. It took years to ferment, and the potential hygiene issues from such an operation were far too frightening to consider.

Mitsuha also decided to try a tiny bit of fertilizer she had brought from Japan. She wanted to explore all her options, and she knew that their interest wouldn’t budge unless at least one experiment yielded more crops.

In the end, the farming village heads agreed to devote areas of farmland to each of the different methods. They would also begin crop rotation, as unlike spreading compost, it was pretty much an infallible approach. It was also decided they would all simultaneously grow four types of vegetables, as well as increase the amount of cattle in the fields. Animal husbandry and crop rotation went hand-in-hand, after all.

Apart from that, Mitsuha asked them to dedicate a small portion of farmland to rice cultivation. Success wasn’t guaranteed, but Mitsuha said she would buy the plants regardless of quality, so they gladly agreed. She felt it was a pleasant example of contracted cultivation.

The next item on her agenda was forestry. Her main goal here was to make wood profitable. Mitsuha was troubled, as she didn’t really have a specific plan in mind. There were forests all over the kingdom, so one county’s lumber didn’t have any particular value; it was an extremely common local product. The same applied to woodworking. Anything that could be crafted in these villages could be made anywhere else.

She told the heads of the mountain villages to start planting new trees to replace the ones they cut down, but this wasn’t something that could lead to profit in the near future. Having heard her elaborate farming plans, the mountain village heads had been hoping for something revolutionary for their own industry; her minimal response left them feeling disappointed. Seeing their crestfallen faces, Mitsuha panicked a little.

I’ve got nothing else? Really? Oh! What about shiitake mushroom cultivation?

She asked if anyone knew what shiitake mushrooms were, and everyone shook their heads. Naturally, they couldn’t cultivate the mushrooms if they didn’t have any to begin with.

Mitsuha had no solutions for hunting, either. Fresh game decayed quickly, but even if they had some way to preserve it, hunting down enough game to make large amounts of smoked meat or jerky would reduce the wildlife population until it was no longer a viable source of food.

To make the situation less awkward, Mitsuha promised to examine the possibility of charcoal mining and bellows-based furnaces. She also ordered them to inform her right away should they find any potential ore veins, handing out enough documents with photographic examples for every villager.

The smelting method she had in mind involved a tatara. The tatara was a traditional Japanese furnace similar to other primitive bellows-based furnaces all over the world. It used iron sand to produce a high-quality steel called “tamahagane”, which was used to craft katana blades. It generally made up a third or less of all smelted iron, and the other two thirds, which were of lower quality, were used either for other parts of the katana or for daily necessities.

Maybe I can create something brand-worthy with that, Mitsuha thought. That’s what I’ll do if someone finds valuable ore veins in my area.

Lastly, she covered marine production. The head of the fishing village was hopeful. Due to the village’s small size, and because fresh seafood rotted too quickly to be sold or stored, it hadn’t been a very profitable place. The previous local lord hadn’t cared for it one bit. But Mitsuha, the new ruler, visited the village regularly—more often than the other towns, in fact—asked many questions, and gladly ate the fish cooked by the fishermen’s wives. She even had an interest in things such as boats and fishing tools.

Not only that, but for the first time ever, a person from the fishing village—Ninette—had been hired to work in the ruler’s residence. Suffice to say, the head of the fishing village was justified in his expectations... and of course, he got just what he wanted.

“First, we will intensify salt production and start selling dried seaweed in large quantities,” Mitsuha declared. “We will increase the amount of fish we catch, and either smoke or dry them in multiple ways to slow down the rot.”

“Ohh!” The fishing village head had a sparkle in his eyes.

Mitsuha was far more talkative than she had been during the forestry discussion. The two mountain village heads slumped dejectedly.

“As I said, to sell dried fish in large quantities, we will need to increase the amount of fish we catch. For that, I’m thinking of improving the nets we use and creating new fishing ships.”

“Ohhhhh!” Now the fishing representative was elated. Mitsuha’s decree was everything he had hoped for and then some. At this rate, the fishing industry would become lucrative in no time, and even Mitsuha herself would be reaping the benefits.

They could use any number of nets, including casting nets, gill nets, and even seines. The water was free of pollution, so seines could catch migratory fish at a steady rate. As the fishing industry had been heretofore underdeveloped, allowing the fish to populate as they pleased, they could anticipate major net hauls a short distance away from the shoreline. With a marine gold mine like this, even simple angling could bring in serious catches.

Mitsuha thought it acceptable to bring the first nets and other fishing equipment from Japan. Even if she didn’t, net preparation wouldn’t take too long. Once the people saw the effectiveness of the nets, they could examine them in detail in order to create something similar. The same applied to angling equipment.

As for the boats, Mitsuha decided to have them made locally. A small, secondhand boat would only cost her about two to three hundred thousand yen in Japan, but Mitsuha wasn’t sure she felt comfortable bringing something made of fiber-reinforced plastic to this world. While they would need boats to start seine fishing, the ones they currently had were at risk of capsizing under the strain of the net, multiple weights, and the people aboard.

In order to increase salt production, Mitsuha devised the plan of setting up vertical salt farms. There weren’t many people in the fishing village, nor did it have a great deal of space, so this was the most practical solution. They also required fewer people to oversee them than flood-based salt ponds.

Mitsuha would recruit people from the farming villages to help construct the vertical farms. The mountain villagers would prepare the timber needed for the finishing touches. Upon hearing that she would need a lot of wood for fuel, the heads of the mountain villages finally smiled.

For her next order of business, Mitsuha turned to address the local shopkeeper. Yamano County was a dead-end territory with only the sea beyond it, and so no travelers passed through. Anyone who had business in the area would simply go to the Bozes’ county instead. Nearly every imported product sold in this town had been brought from the Bozes’ county, so their prices were inflated. Because of this, the only ones who would buy anything in Yamano County were locals.

“Can you close your store?” she asked.

“CLOSE IT?!” the audience exclaimed.

And who could blame them? Without the only shop in the county, most of its 676 citizens—170 households—would be at a loss. It was the only place where they could purchase imported items, and even local goods would then have to be bought directly from the producers themselves. Would they have to walk all over the county just to do their daily shopping? They were firmly opposed to the idea.

“Oh, that doesn’t mean we won’t have a store anymore. We’ll simply have a bigger one with a better selection. We’ll stock it with goods from Petz, a traveling merchant, unique items from my home country, and the new products we’ll soon be making here in Yamano County. I can’t leave all that to a private store, so I’m thinking of opening one myself.”

“And if I refuse?” the shopkeeper asked.

“I won’t mind, but I still intend to open a new store, which will probably buy and sell at better prices than yours.”

The storekeeper gulped. “But then I’d go bankrupt...”

“That’s why I suggested you close up shop. You won’t be out of a job, of course. The new store will need someone to go around each village and stock up. Plus, I’m even considering direct trades with the Bozes’ county and beyond. I’ll need someone who’s used to these kinds of things.”

After thinking about it long and hard, the storekeeper nodded. To be fair, he hadn’t had much of a choice to begin with.

Much like her store in the capital, Mitsuha wanted to sell Japanese products—at cheaper prices, even. That way, people would flow in from the Bozes’ county and their other neighbors, which would stimulate the economy. Once she had reached this level of patronage, Mitsuha planned to improve the local inn and eatery. The inn would be open at all times, and the eatery would grow larger and become a proper diner with cooks who could prepare Yamano Cuisine.

I want to make it so the county can get by with what they have, but I won’t feel bad about cheating a bit to get a jump-start on it.

Mitsuha then directed her attention to the village heads once more. She explained in greater detail her plans for the store, workshop, and salt farms, asking them to send people to help with construction. They initially thought it would be mandatory, unpaid work, but were surprised to find out she would be paying each worker a daily allowance. It was a rare chance to earn some quick money, and the villagers were sure to jump on it.

She inquired as to whether they knew any good cooks, and she was told that the owners of the eatery had a son working as one in the Bozes’ county. Mitsuha would decide whether or not to summon him after talking to his parents.

Finally, Mitsuha brought up children’s education. She felt it was absolutely necessary for their county to prosper. Without at least minimal reading comprehension and math skills, a person could only hope to work by way of physical labor. They were also at risk of being deceived, as there were a multitude of malicious merchants on the lookout for fools who would sign their unfair contracts.

Children were already part of the workforce, so her people were hesitant to agree, but they did once Mitsuha assured them it would only be every other morning and they would be fed lunch before leaving.

With that, she had covered every single topic on her agenda. When she opened the floor to questions, however, she was asked if the tax rate would stay the same. The highest tax rate that could be implemented here was seventy percent. This was beyond the limit at which the populace could make ends meet and would only be used in emergencies. If it stayed this high for too long, people were bound to flee, or the ruling family would be targeted.

The highest sustainable tax rate was sixty percent, the lowest in the kingdom was forty percent—found in well-ruled territories—and the local standard was fifty percent.

Percentages didn’t always mean the same thing, however. After all, there were counties that earned ten thousand gold coins as well as those raking in a hundred thousand. The tax rate in the Bozes’ county, for example, was fifty percent—not because of greed, but because a rural, agricultural territory such as theirs couldn’t expect much revenue from traveling merchants.

Yamano County’s tax rate was at sixty percent—again not because of greed, but because it had been set by the previous lord, and she simply hadn’t changed it yet.

“Oh, sorry, I forgot,” she said. “Our tax rate is now thirty percent.”

“D-Did she say thirty percent?!” Neither the citizens nor her own subordinates could believe their ears.

Mitsuha wasn’t the type to pour money into lavish meals or fancy clothing, nor did she host parties. She didn’t bribe the capital’s high nobles or clergymen, nor did she buy any jewels. She could get by with just the money she earned from opening her capital store every now and then. Because of this, the taxes would only be split between the king, the payments for servants and other officials, upkeep of her residence, public works, education, and welfare. She hoped to make an independent profit via trading, salt farming, and other operations.

Mitsuha couldn’t set the taxes too low because she had to consider the balance with the other counties, and she needed at least some semblance of a budget, so she figured thirty percent was a decent sweet spot.

To the citizens, however, this was life-changing. They were no longer entitled to just forty percent of their wealth, but a whopping seventy. This didn’t mean they were merely seventy-five percent wealthier. Assuming that thirty-five percent of their wealth was used on food, fuel, clothes, and other bare necessities, they would only have five percent left to pamper themselves with.

If that forty became seventy, the people of Yamano County could now spend thirty-five percent of their wealth on personal luxuries, so they would be seven times wealthier. The local purchasing power would skyrocket. This would increase spending, which would increase profits from purchased products. In turn, this would improve the producers’ own financial circumstances, which would increase their spending, which would again increase profits from purchased products.

Until now, money in this rural county had only flowed one way. But soon, their economy would flourish.

◇ ◇ ◇

A month had passed since the first meeting. During this time, Yamano County citizens built the store and the workshop. Almost none among them had any experience,and Mitsuha hadn’t hired any professionals from the capital, so they had gone with the safest option of constructing one-story buildings. The plots were spacious, however, so the builders had made them wide enough to fulfill their functions.

The metalworker, Randy, had already brought the bare essentials he needed for metalworking, so he took to setting up the furnace and everything else he had. There were still some things he required, and Mitsuha would have to order them.

That’s how it is officially, anyway. I’m actually just gonna transfer them over here with my power. Heavy loads take way too long to transport.

“Randy, I brought some materials. I hope these will work for you.” Mitsuha asked as she barged into the workshop with a package. Randy was a bit baffled by her sudden appearance.

Well, I’m the one in charge here. Nobody would expect someone as important as me to come to a place like this all by herself, let alone carrying something heavy.

Though Randy wasn’t the sharpest crayon in the box, he had enough common sense and decency to jump up and help her.

“Uh, I’ll hold it! Please, allow me!” He pulled the load in Mitsuha’s hands away from her. It was heavier than he had expected, however. His knees buckled under the weight. While it seemed to put some real strain on his back, he was managing.

“Those are materials from my country,” Mitsuha explained. “Let me know if you want anything. You can ask for something harder or softer; these aren’t the only ones I can get for you.”

Randy opened the package and found various metal ingots inside. They were just for reference, so they weren’t very large, and each was inscribed with a code for differentiation. He took a few out and examined them closely. Engrossed by the metal, he didn’t even realize he had left Mitsuha to stand there and wait for him.

“Huh? That’s odd. What’s this? These ingots look similar, but they’re completely different. From how they feel when struck, they have their own degrees of toughness, but they’re all pretty hard. And then there’s this unusually light metal. It is metal, right? Wait, I need more time to examine them and...”

Randy was lost in his own world.

It didn’t seem as though he would be done anytime soon, so Mitsuha walked out. She had hoped he could make something for her right away, but she decided to come back later. Having once shared a house with her father and brother, she knew that if men got into that state, it would take a while for them to snap out of it. Randy would surely panic once he did, but that much was his own fault.

The salt farm was still a work in progress. It would be a vertical farm that used supports, so it would require little labor to run, take up a small amount of space compared to other methods, and be mostly unaffected by changing seasons or inclement weather—there was simply no downside to the structure. Mitsuha wanted to enter the salt industry as a competitor to rock salt producers, but first, she would focus on spreading it among her people and kickstarting the local pickled food industry. That alone would have a strong effect on the county’s economy, as this territory had never seen one thrive.

As for the school, it was already in operation. As the local population was small so was the number of children, so one room in Mitsuha’s residence was more than enough to teach them all. Plus, it made it easy to handle their lunches. The location also proved beneficial because Colette and the other children weren’t the only ones learning—there were servants and other adults who had joined willingly. The illiterate servants had been quite embarrassed about their inability to read and write, and everyone was dedicated to fixing it.

The classes were taught by Miriam, Rachel, other people who could read and write, and Mitsuha herself. She taught well-received lectures on money-making and ways to thoroughly crush your enemies. One of her lessons, which incorporated a science experiment kit she had bought at a popular Japanese department store, was particularly popular. Even her butler came to watch.

Maybe some of the things I teach aren’t good for children, but whatever!

None of the children minded going to school. Quite the opposite, in fact. They loved being able to have fun with other children their age while learning things they felt they would need in life. Plus, they were able to eat delicious food at the end of every school day. Many even complained that “once every two days” wasn’t enough.

Then there was the store. Its total area was several times larger than Mitsuha’s General Store back in the capital. It was stocked with the same types of things as the previous local store—wild game, foraged plants, seafood, vegetables, grain, cloth, metal farming tools, and other daily necessities.

Besides selling all of these products, however, it also bought fish. This hadn’t been the case until the new store was built. Fish rotted quickly, so the previous shopkeeper, who had wanted to avoid wasting money, only made deferred payments for fish he ended up selling while returning all those he didn’t.

If he hadn’t done that, his only way to avoid severe losses would have been buying only miniscule amounts of fish, so no one could really blame him. Consignment had allowed him to stock up on as much fish as possible, and if luck was on his side, he would’ve been able to sell a lot. If not, the fishermen would get meager payments, and they would bring the fish back to eat it before it went bad. The storekeeper had never even discounted fish, even toward the very end of its shelf life. If he had, no one would have purchased fish until the last minute.

The new store, however, bought any and all fish. So, unlike the previous store, they were able to sell it for cheap. Staff at the store also cooked fish in-house, increasing both its market value and their profit ratio by aiming for bachelors who couldn’t be bothered to cook for themselves. Boiling and frying also postponed the fish’s expiry date, essentially making it into a new product.

Any fresh fish that wasn’t sold would be dried or pickled right after the store closed. That was all that was needed to make buying the fish viable, and the fishermen were highly motivated by the fact that every fish caught meant more money in their pockets.

The store also sold Japanese fishing nets and angling tools, and Mitsuha had already showed everyone just how effective they were. She had even traveled to a Japanese fishing village and asked a random elder how to properly throw a net.

I sure drew a lot of old people’s attention. Ugh, I threw that thing so many times, I thought my arms were gonna fall off.

Mitsuha had also prepared a place to dry seaweed and shellfish. Besides the standard kelp, they also gathered sea lettuce and other local varieties of edible algae. Women and children also took part in the process, even doing some fishing around the rocky areas, contributing to the local income just as much as the men.

Everyone in the fishing village was more enthusiastic than ever before. Meanwhile, the people of the farming villages knew full well that agriculture was a more time-consuming process than fishing, but upon seeing the effects their new lord’s work had on the fishing village, they couldn’t help but be excited for the results of their experiments and the harvests that would follow. And Mitsuha, unable to look at the gloomy faces of the mountain village people, gifted them a whole bunch of Japanese axes.

Besides selling much of the same stock as the previous store, the new one also sold things Mitsuha bought from Petz or brought over from Japan. This included goods she had sold in the capital, like two-in-one shampoo, disposable lighters, CalorieMates, or bagged ramen, but there were also ultra-cheap canned foods, long-lasting snacks, iron farm equipment, tableware, LED flashlights, writing supplies, and other useful items.

The locals now had enough purchasing power to afford such things, but Mitsuha’s eyes were set on customers from the neighboring counties. Her goal wasn’t just to sell things, but to also create an influx of people coming to Yamano County, which would create a steady flow of products and money. The products aimed at these travelers wouldn’t sell for a while, but none of it expired quickly, so there was nothing to worry about.

◇ ◇ ◇

Rumors soon began to spread throughout the neighboring areas.

“Ya hear ’bout that store in Yamano County?”

“The Lightning Archpriestess herself is selling stuff from her country.”

“It ’as more things than ’er store in the cap’tal, an’ they’re cheaper, too!”

“If you’re lucky, you can even meet the Archpriestess herself.”

“There’s even a guy who bought somethin’ from the Archpriestess ’erself an’ he even, uhh, touched ’er finger!”

Yamano County was a seaside territory, so it wasn’t strange for products “brought from her homeland by ship” to be cheaper there than in the inland capital.

Mitsuha prepared for the gradually increasing guests by remodeling the inn and eatery. She changed the hours so that it was always open, staffing it with enough employees to support that change. To top it all off, she even installed a bath.

The son of the eatery owners had been called back from the Bozes’ county. Mitsuha had taught him how to make Yamano Cuisine and created a moderately expensive menu.

My county’s development is going great... if you ignore the mountain villages, anyway.

Not having many options, Mitsuha brought some shiitake mycelium from Japan. She ordered the villagers to create numerous small holes in unprocessed logs, mix the mycelium with wet sawdust, and stuff it inside. She then melted some wax onto a sponge and used it to seal the holes. That would keep the mycelium-sawdust mix from drying up and prevent insects from going inside. All that was left was to line them up in a dark, damp place.

The folk wisdom of mushroom farming!

Shiitake could be fried, boiled, used for soup stock, and more—they were as useful as mushrooms could be. If dried, they would even weigh less and last longer. Mitsuha intended to let the new visitors try them out, after which they would inevitably spread the word. Shiitake would be Yamano County’s specialty product, and they would have a total monopoly on it.

Maybe I should get bamboo shoots too? They last a long time. Wait, no... there’s small bamboo groves in every county. Same with yams, nuts, and fruit. I guess I don’t have much else besides charcoal and metal production. I’ll get started on gathering the iron sand, then. Wait, you need magnets for that, don’t you? I’ll have to pick up some of those neodymium ones. I wanna see how strong the “apex of permanent magnets” really is!

Mitsuha then had to decide whether to look for placer deposits on the coast, in the river, or seek out iron sand veins in the mountain. She figured it could be a good way for children to earn some extra money, though it would likely go to their families. The villagers still had it rough, as the blessings of the tax cut would only become apparent after the next harvest.

For now, I’ll just get those magnets.