Oh Great! I was Reincarnated as a Farmer

by Benjamin Kerei

  There were no easy answers.

  Hours later, near sunset, I was still lying there thinking when Salem showed up. He padded through the grass and sat by me, purring softly.

  “Ranic thought you might need some company,” he said.

  “He’s probably right.”

  “He’s an astute individual, which is why I find it odd that he is so upset with you. Now that I am here, I can see the feeling is mutual. What are you trying to achieve from glaring at the sky?”

  “I’m trying to find where I fit in this world.”

  Salem’s purr changed tone. “Ah, I see your confusion. You’ve made an incorrect assumption you believe is the truth and are trying to validate it.”

  “Huh?”

  “People don’t fit anywhere, Arnold. You aren’t building materials that are made to fit a perfect purpose. There is no place set aside where you perfectly slot into. No place which exists in adulthood, anyway. If you go around expecting to find that place, you will only find frustration and disappointment.”

  “So, if I can’t find where I fit in this world, what can I do?”

  “You get to know yourself, your skills, your limitations, your hopes and fears, you understand your shape and substance, and then make a place in the world that fits you.”

  That made a surprising amount of sense. And it was as if I had been waiting to hear it because thoughts and feelings that had been rolling around inside of me finally slid into place.

  I knew what I had to do.

  Half an hour later, I was sitting in Emily’s parlour with Jeric and Ranic. An open bottle of wine sat on the table and we were each sipping from a glass. The others waited for me to speak. I had enough charisma to make an impromptu speech, but that didn’t seem to come into effect with a serious conversation. Or maybe it did and the conversation I was about to have was simply that difficult that it wouldn’t happen.

  I took another sip to stall for time and finally began. “I need your help. I’ve said it again and again that I’m not interested in being a farmer. However, it wasn’t until today that I realised that it’s been frustrating me that I’m building a farm. Don’t get me wrong, I’m smart enough to do the work and could probably thrive at it if I forced my mind to it, but I don’t have any personal interest in doing so. It isn’t in my nature. It actually aggravates me to do it. If I have to be in charge of developing the farm, I’m going to be miserable.”

  Jeric looked like he was going to reply. I held up my hand, stalling him.

  I met Ranic’s gaze and saw only a little of our earlier frustration there. “I realised that between you and Jeric, you have all the skills you need to make my farm grow. I don’t. That is clear to me. So I want to step back. I know I’ve already done that, for the most part, leaving the two of you to organise everything, but I want to make it official. I want the two of you to be in charge. However, I have one condition that I can’t concede. I need to know what’s going on. I need to know the direction you are taking this farm. As much as I don’t want to be involved, it annoys me that I’m out of the loop.”

  Ranic opened his mouth to speak, but Jeric waved him down. “We should start this conversation by catching Arnold up on our progress before we ask any questions.”

  Ranic frowned but nodded.

  Jeric turned to me. “What do you want to know?”

  “Let’s start with the plan. What are you going to grow, where are you going to grow it, and why? Then we can move on to the fact that most of the villagers are leaving and how you are going to fix that.”

  Ranic cleared his throat, checked if Jeric was going to speak, and then dove in. “I know this isn’t what you want to hear, but I need to say this for context before I talk about what I want to grow and why. I’ve laid out a longterm plan to grow this village into a town using your farm to do so. The end goal is to have a farm with 50,000 fields.”

  Okay, that explained why I felt like Ranic was keeping things from me—because he was. I took a deep breath, forcing myself not to become angry. “Continue.”

  “Now, if we ignore the end goal and focus on what you currently have at your disposal, the plan is quite simple. We will cultivate 5,000 fields on the village's southern side into five apple orchards grown from tough apple heritage trees. And before you ask, yes, I did know when you planted the heritage seed that it would develop into a tough apple. Of the 42 varieties of apple trees that can spontaneously appear when you plant a heritage seed, there are a dozen that you can choose based upon your planting method. The reason I chose tough apples is simple. They are robust. They make it much easier to produce a perfect crop. They also have a storage life that is three times longer than a regular apple, though that is the limit of what makes them special. However, having considered the location of the village, a longer-lasting apple is preferable over something that must rush to market.”

  “Okay, I can follow that.”

  “To the north of the village, in the lower lands, I plan to cultivate 5,000 fields of rice into five rice paddies. Rice has an exceptionally long storage life which will make it hard for the regent to manipulate the market against us. If she is somehow successful, we will always have the option of selling to the dwarves, though they won’t take anything lower than exceptional quality, and you will lose some of the profit to transportation costs. Also, with the reservoir, there is ample water to flood the fields which will remove many weed and pest issues. The 3,000 fields on the western side of the village will be devoted to supplying the village’s needs, providing various foods and independence from outside necessity, with any excess sold off for profit. This, of course, does not include the farms you were unable to purchase. The 2,000 fields on the eastern side of the village will be devoted to animal feed, so there won’t be much longterm financial damage if a troll gets past your barn and starts destroying fields.”

  That was all reasonable. “What about the forests and quarry?”

  Ranic frowned. “They aren’t my area of expertise. Jeric?”

  Jeric shrugged. “The forests have never been profitable. Even your crown’s mark hasn’t changed that. They were only ever developed out of necessity to service the needs of the village. That will change if they reach level five. But by the time that happens, the jewels and random minerals from the quarry will have made their profits insignificant.”

  “It’s really that bad?”

  Jeric nodded. “Yes, it’s partly to do with how far goods will have to travel to reach the market and partly to do with the fact that wood is an abundant resource in the kingdom. That being said, once the giant is dealt with, I was going to suggest you use one of the magical buildings the crown owes you to build a lumber mill instead of constructing the basic versions Ranic planned. It would significantly increase both the quality and quantity of what the forest can produce and increase its profitability.”

  Ranic scowled.

  “You don’t agree?” I asked.

  He shook his head. “It’s wasteful. Magical buildings are a precious commodity. They should be used to develop people, not resources.”

  Now Jeric was scowling. “What would you suggest instead?”

  “A schoolhouse for the children or a second house of scholars so I don’t have to deal with that insufferable woman,” Ranic replied dryly. “Built sooner rather than later, of course.”

  “Arnold’s not building a second house of scholars just because you and Adoya don’t get along,” Jeric said.

  “Then let him build it for the advantages it could give him. During the siege of Dolster two hundred years ago, the traps on the wall made the trapsmith’s house of scholars grow from level one to three, causing those traps to gain stronger camouflage abilities and do more damage. It’s the only reason they held out for as long as they did.”

  Jeric lost some of his scowl.

  “I’ll consider it,” I said.

  Ranic nodded.

  I looked between the two of them. “Okay, those are the basics of your plans for
the village. So what are you going to do about the villagers leaving once the project’s finished?”

  “Nothing,” Ranic said. “We need them out of the village to deal with the giant.”

  “What about after the giant?”

  “Jeric’s organising that.”

  Jeric sighed. “I was planning to bring this up at another time, but do you remember your suggestion before the ascension ball? The one where you suggested I go to other nobles and offer to take those individuals they had no interest in?”

  That wasn’t exactly what I’d said, but Jeric was clearly going somewhere with this, so I didn’t point it out. “Yeah, we thought you might be able to use it to leverage the extra experience Emily needed.”

  He nodded. “Well, even though we didn’t use that idea, I still made a few inquiries, and I happened to learn how extensive the problem is. Here in the north, we are insulated from most of the fighting with the orcs, but down in the south, it is bad—terrible, actually. Whole cities have been displaced in the last three decades. There are tens of thousands of people who can’t work in their class profession because they don't have the resources they need in the cities where they are staying. There are thousands of orphaned farmers’ children whose parents couldn’t give them the starting experience they needed, so they either have to sign up for the militia or become servants. I want to give them a place here in Blackwood, a place on your farm. You were ready to consider helping a hundred children. I want to do more.”

  “The plan would have been to help them become farmers over a decade. And we need workers now. How do you plan to do that? Where is all the experience going to come from…?”

  Damn it.

  Jeric nodded, seeing my comprehension. “Killing that giant will create enough experience for hundreds of those farmers to reach level ten. From there, they will be able to work the rice fields and gain their own experience. Once the assistant scholars arrive from the capital to help Ranic man the house of scholars, we will have the people we need to train them, and since they will only need to know how to grow the one crop, they can be trained quickly and effectively.”

  I tried to keep my tone calm. “You want me to give away thousands of crowns worth of experience?”

  Jeric waved away my statement. “No. I want you to loan it to them. Between your experience buffs and the buff from the house of scholars, they will be able to pay you back within a decade. I know that’s a long time, but please consider this request. You will change their lives for the better.”

  A decade. Holy crap. That was a long time. And it put things in perspective for me. I’d gone from level 1 to 24 in the space of just a few months by killing monsters on my farm. The idea that it would take these people a decade just to get enough experience to pay back their debt for getting to level 10 upset me more than the idea of giving away or loaning away all my hard-earned experience.

  The fact that this was considered changing their lives for the better made me feel even worse.

  After a minute of silent thought, I sighed. “I want to say yes, Jeric, but I need to know if we can afford to pay back the loan to the bank without the gold from selling that extra experience before I do. Because, as far as I can tell, there is no way I can afford to pay back that loan without it.”

  Ranic coughed, half smiling. “Oh, that’s my fault. I must not have made it clear. It’s impossible to pay the loan back in three years. The bank actually doesn’t want you to do so either. In three years, they will just issue another loan that you are allowed to use to pay back the first.”

  “I know that. I remember from the meetings.”

  The two of them stared at me, confused.

  I swallowed the uneasy feeling that was beginning to stir in my gut. “Did neither of you consider that the regent would go to the bank and stop them from issuing that second loan? I mean, the method we created for inflating the value of land here is now semi-public knowledge, so I’m surprised the bank hasn’t accused us of fraud already. I don’t expect we will receive that second instalment even though we have a contract.”

  They both went pale.

  The feeling in my gut grew worse.

  The two men’s eyes fell and they stared at the table, lost for words. I could see the thoughts going through their heads as they worked through the ramifications.

  After a minute, Ranic looked at me, face expressionless, but eyes lost. “We can’t pay back the loan. It’s not possible. It can’t be done. Not with basic crops. Not even if you add the experience from the giant.” His voice came out hollow.

  For some weird reason, I found Ranic’s morose shock liberating. It was a confirmation that I was on a sinking ship. The feeling of unease was still there, but the paranoia was suddenly gone.

  I’d been wondering how they planned to pay everything back for weeks. It was one of the reasons why I’d been getting so upset with their extra spending and their lack of answers. But I hadn’t wanted to look into it because that involved too much thinking about farming. Maybe if I had spoken up sooner, we would be in a better position. However, it probably wouldn’t have mattered. With the regent against us, an ordinary farm was never going to work.

  My farm was doomed to fail.

  Several minutes passed in silence as we all tried to come to terms with that fact. I wasn’t nearly as disheartened as the others. For me, the farm was only ever a means to an end. I wanted out of the farming class and it was the vessel to take me there. That was all I had wanted from it. A chance to choose my future instead of being stuck in a system I hated…just like the poor bastards that didn’t have the basic experience to farm properly.

  Crap.

  Being stuck in a situation you didn’t want or like with no control over your future was horrible. Having a system actively work against you to keep you there was worse. The people Jeric wanted to help were me without my trap method. They were people stuck at the lowest level with no way to pull themselves out. Traditional farming certainly wasn’t going to get them anywhere. I mean, holy fuck, I had to fight trolls to get out of my situation. I almost died. The only reason I wasn’t like them was I had a lifetime’s worth of experience and ideas that they didn’t have access to. If I were just some regular guy born in this world, I wouldn’t have had a chance. They didn’t have a chance.

  And because they didn’t have a chance, if I did nothing when I could do something, then I’d be no different from the system keeping them locked at the lowest level. I’d be a complete asshole.

  “Let’s do it,” I said quietly.

  I’d learnt I wasn’t as good a man as I’d thought I was before coming to this world, but I was good enough to do this.

  “Do what?” Ranic replied.

  “Let’s loan the experience to those farmers. Let’s loan it all to them. If we can’t pay back the bank’s loan, then this farm is doomed. So until it is, let’s do the most good. Let’s train these people up and help them.”

  The two of them looked at me with a new level of shock.

  Jeric recovered first. “You can’t ignore the loan. That’s people’s savings. The economic ramifications are far-reaching.”

  “I’m not. Well, not entirely. Ranic, how much will the farm be worth once everything is up and running?”

  Ranic thought about it for a few seconds. “If we didn’t expand past 15,000 fields, it will be worth between 30,000 and 40,000 crowns. That would include all the additional property you bought with the loan and the quarry. Most of the extra value comes from having a lord who has passed through her first threshold and the fact that there is a house of scholars with a master farming scholar.”

  “How much gold can we earn in that time?”

  “Ten thousand,” he said hesitantly.

  “So if they sold up the assets I put up as collateral, worse case, they would only lose a fifth of their investment, right?” The two men nodded. “Well, that’s not so bad. I mean, people won’t lose everything and the bank isn’t going to go bankrupt. And we can put t
he experience that we loan to these people up as further collateral, so in a way, they might not lose much in the long-run, just the potential profits that could be made from investing elsewhere.”

  The two men began nodding their heads. Slowly they began to smile, and the sense of impending doom left the room.

  “We’re going to help people and damn the consequences,” Jeric said happily.

  “Well, there will be consequences for me,” I said.

  Ranic snorted. “You mean us. My manor is still next door to Beldose’s, remember.” He huffed out a breath. “If we go through with your plan, I will have a little more than two years to get you through three thresholds. It is going to be a challenge, but I’ll succeed.”

  I blinked. “You can still manage to get me through in that timeframe?”

  Ranic made a so-so motion with his hand. “I’ll have to take all sorts of shortcuts. The boons you receive would be significantly less valuable than the ones you would obtain if done properly, but it is still possible.”

  I grinned. “Thank you.”

  Ranic shrugged, clearly unhappy with the idea of less-than-perfect results.

  “So that’s the new plan then,” Jeric said.

  “Seems like it,” Ranic said. “Though I preferred the old one. Now, are you happy to let me be in charge of this, Arnold?”

  “That depends. Are you happy to give me daily updates on progress and days of warning before unexpected expansion?”

  Ranic frowned. “What sort of progress do you want to know about and what sort of warning do you expect?”

  “Well, knowing about things like a second reservoir would be nice, and the fact that Arnold’s Hill is going to be twice its current height. And maybe ask for my input before you put my name on something.”

  Jeric cleared his throat. “How about I start giving you daily briefings? I’ll fill them with every detail we can think of at first and you decide whether or not you needed to know those particular details. It will take a few months, but we should be able to discover what sort of information you want to know.”