What Kousuke decided to grow in the field he made was chosen by Tin, who was in charge of the production department.
More precisely, Tin selected items from what Kousuke expressed a desire to grow that seemed relatively easy.
Half of the cultivated land was to be used by Kousuke, and the other half was planted with things Silvia had prepared herself.
When Kousuke asked Silvia what she planned to plant, Silvia replied,
“I plan to grow medicinal herbs for half of it. The other half will be for aromatic herbs, and the remaining part will be used for research.”
“For research?”
To Kousuke, who tilted his head wondering what kind of research she meant, Silvia continued with a nod.
“Yes. Many of the naturally growing medicinal herbs cannot be produced by us. I’m thinking about whether we can make it possible to cultivate such herbs by human hands.”
“…Ah, I see. That’s what you meant.”
Kousuke had assumed that plant research meant breeding new varieties, so he nodded in understanding, realizing that was another avenue.
Silvia grows medicinal herbs because she makes medicines herself.
The temple also stocks such medicines, so it is one of Silvia’s specialized fields.
There was nothing Kousuke could advise her on at this point, so that aspect was left entirely to Silvia.
On the other hand, Kousuke received only a little advice from Tin and would proceed by trial and error.
However, it wasn’t completely left to nature’s course; he was given something resembling a plan.
He also intended to ask Tin whenever a problem arose according to that plan.
And so, the field work began. Two days after planting the seeds given by Tin, Kousuke found himself stunned once again.
“…Uh? Why is it like this?”
“Hmm. I can only think that Kousuke did something, can’t I?”
Beside a bewildered Kousuke, Floria interjected calmly.
Before their eyes, plant sprouts, appearing healthy even to an amateur’s eye, had emerged.
“No, no. It’s been two days since I planted the seeds, so this is normal, normal.”
Certainly, depending on the seeds, sprouts can emerge in two days.
However, it would be considered extremely rare for all the seeds to sprout uniformly at the same time.
“No, I don’t think that’s normal at all, no matter how you look at it? …Well, if Kousuke insists, that’s fine too.”
Floria, closely examining the sprouts, replied with a look of exasperation.
However, while Floria was teasing Kousuke in her usual way, she also had a somewhat unusual tone.
The reason for this was the slimes bustling around before Kousuke and Floria.
“…Is this, by any chance, because of them?”
“…What do you think? Isn’t it too early to conclude?”
Kousuke and Floria looked at each other and then tilted their heads.
Certainly, for all seeds to sprout in two days is rare, but it’s not entirely impossible.
As Floria said, it would be too hasty to conclude based on that alone.
Furthermore, Kousuke, while observing the field, noticed something strange.
“They’ve meticulously removed only the weeds, and the sprouts haven’t been touched.”
Yesterday, Kousuke had cleared the weeds from the part of the field he could manage.
Today, he had intended to continue enthusiastically removing weeds, but they had mysteriously disappeared.
“Where did you put the weeds I pulled yesterday?”
“I put them all in one place to discard them later.”
“And they’ve completely vanished, is that right?”
“That’s right.”
Hearing Kousuke’s words, Floria’s gaze shifted towards the slimes.
As if in response, Kousuke also looked at the slimes.
“I don’t think we should blame everything on the slimes, but judging by the results, it can only be the slimes, you know.”
Floria nodded at Kousuke’s words, but another question arose.
“The problem is how the slimes recognized which sprouts were necessary.”
“That’s right.”
Kousuke and Floria nodded in unison, their gazes directed towards the neatly emerging sprouts.
Even if the slimes had only cleaned up the weeds Kousuke had pulled yesterday overnight, they didn’t understand how they distinguished the sprouts that had emerged as the ones Kousuke needed.
In such situations, it was frustrating that there was no way to directly ask the slimes what they were thinking.
“…There’s no point in thinking about it forever.”
Since there were too few clues to make a clear judgment, they couldn’t reach a definitive answer.
Kousuke said as if concluding this, and Floria nodded.
“That’s right. …As for the slimes, I feel like this happens often.”
Since Sura had started living with the management layer, Floria said with a wry smile, as similar things had been repeated.
“That’s true. Well, I suppose we can just consider it the mysterious ecology of slimes, can’t we?”
Kousuke, who believed there was no need to force an understanding of the slimes’ mysteries, replied.
Floria, who entirely agreed with Kousuke, simply nodded at his words and changed the topic.
“By the way, what about the work after this?”
After all, Floria was with Kousuke to help with the work.
However, Kousuke looked around with a troubled expression at Floria’s question.
“Well, I intended to clear weeds, but in this situation, it’s no longer necessary.”
As far as Kousuke could see, all the fields where seeds had been planted were free of weeds.
It seemed that the work planned for today had been taken care of by the slimes, entirely.
As Kousuke looked around, wondering what to do next, he saw Silvia approaching with a perplexed expression.
Then, as she looked at the field Kousuke was supposed to manage, she nodded as if she understood.
“Indeed, is it the same here?”
“Ah~. If Silvia says so, it means the situation is the same over there too.”
Kousuke, understanding the situation from Silvia’s remark, wore a “so that’s how it is” expression.
At this point, they had no choice but to believe the slimes were the culprits.
“It’s like, whenever Kousuke gets involved in something, something unexpected always happens in conjunction with it.”
As Floria said this with deep emotion, Kousuke’s expression turned grim.
He judged that he couldn’t refute it at this point.
Moreover, this time, it wasn’t so much that Kousuke had directly done something, but rather it concerned his familiars, the slimes, so there was no room for denial.
“Isn’t it fine? If you’re going to do it anyway, I think it would be interesting to investigate to what extent we can rely on the slimes.”
To Silvia, who was now completely relying on the slimes, Kousuke reluctantly nodded.
“That might be true. However, I feel like it’s diverging from the agricultural work I originally envisioned.”
Kousuke wanted to experience the joy of harvesting something edible after working hard for it, but he felt that with this pace, he might not have to do much at all.
He wasn’t complaining, but it was certain that he felt a sense of loneliness.
Perhaps sensing Kousuke’s feelings, Floria looked at him and laughed.
“If you really want to, I think you could give instructions to not touch a specific, limited area.”
“That’s right. And the slimes seem to be following Mr. Kousuke’s instructions diligently.”
Considering that the slimes had not touched anything outside the areas being cultivated as fields, it was likely that Silvia’s words were correct.
Kousuke decided to do so from now on. This day, he created another field and instructed the slimes not to touch it.
The difference between them would become conspicuously apparent later, but Kousuke and the others would not know that for some time.
The title “Omnipresent” refers to the field work in this context.
And so, this series of slime stories is concluded for now.
Although there might be occasional reports of results in the future, those can be considered as they are.
