Chapter 574

The forest trembles.

A breeze sneaks past the plains, arriving at the forest, splitting and merging as it weaves its way through the trees. It breaks apart further, racing between leaves, tickling the leaves and shaking the grass as it moves forward, forward.

Bugs hanging beneath the leaves tense their legs to not fall, while startled butterflies spread their wings and take flight. Birds flap their wings and dive to catch the exposed bugs, some even hop to snatch the wriggling bugs with their beaks.

And then, something else spreads its wings.

It flutters thin wings like a dragonfly. The translucent wings that are so thin they seem to glow are fully extended, and the slightly larger bug-sized body floats in the air thanks to its transparent wings. It flaps its arms, looking vaguely human, and moves its peculiar face that seems both insect-like and human in all directions, scanning its surroundings before flapping its wings and drifting towards a broad leaf.

It then perches its child-sized body on that leaf.

That figure was undoubtedly a fairy.

Not a bizarre and alien-like fairy resembling something from a fairy mimicry, but a truly pretty, cute, and charming fairy, like one you’d see in a child’s cartoon.

A cute and adorable fairy that helps the protagonist from a fairy tale book. Sparkling dust falls from its transparent wings, and every little action exudes sweetness.

Moreover, the faint glow emanating from its body—ah, that’s something else.

The blue glow softly illuminated the forest, and it was so beautiful that one might wonder if cutting a glacier that shines with a blue light would yield such a brilliance.

And below that fairy, there were soldiers.

Nearby the fairy.

No, there were countless soldiers filling the entire clearing where the fairy was.

The group had two distinct appearances.

One group sported passionate, bright red hair. Their spiky hair spread like flames, and at the center, a sunny yellow hue shone, as if it had stolen the sun’s light. Adorned with a golden beard that reminded one of a lumberjack, they stood tall. Though their bodies were slender, they stood stiffly like a tree, fists clenched tightly as if wearing green gloves.

The other group had a more blended approach with green hair that melded into the surroundings. Although the hair was the same color, each individual had a different look, distinguished solely by pointed variations in their heads. However, what they held in their hands were fairly sharp objects, guaranteed to spill blood if cut.

Both groups occupied half of the clearing as they stared at the fairy, who sat cross-legged on the leaf, moving its legs around and gazing into the air. Then, after waiting for the sun to travel to a desired spot—

It suddenly stood up, stretched its arms into the air, and shouted.

[ Charge! Charge! ]

Charge! Charge! Charge!

Hearing the fairy’s command, the soldiers raised their hands in cheer. They lifted their weapon-wielding hands high, silently cheering in response.

Then, in perfect unison, they stomped their feet and marched forward.

Eventually, when they reached the border between the forest and the field—

[ Operation Start! ]

They headed toward their assigned areas.

*

Farming is tough work.

In fact, it’s hellishly tough work.

First off, the farm is incredibly vast.

That damn tractor breaks down at the slightest opportunity, and I’ve had to do self-repairs so many times that I know it inside out. Sometimes, I wonder if I could just find a job at the tractor factory if this farm fails.

The crop-spraying drone we bought to act as a substitute for the traditional, oil-consuming pesticide-spraying helicopter has programs so complicated that I never studied anything like it even during my student days, giving me a headache.

The warehouse, built back during the Civil War, is ragged to the extent I have to repair it myself. And those enormous rats, the size of my head, seem to be infested in the warehouse like a damn family reunion.

I tried raising a cat to deal with those damn rats, but it got bitten and died, so they’re truly the bastard rats from hell.

And the bugs, oh god, there are just too many.

I see them in the house, I see them on the farm, I see them in the warehouse.

And even the types are countless.

My child used to have seizures every time he saw one of those damn bugs. He seems a bit used to them now, but his instinctive dislike of bugs has made him reluctant to come home….

Ugh.

There’s nothing good here.

It’s so tiresome.

Every year, I’m breaking my back repairing machines, growing crops, chasing away or killing gigantic animals with a rifle, harvesting the crops I barely nurtured, and attending to the tourist plants….

In the old days, all I had to do was raise them.

But now I have to bother with trends and whatnot.

Sometimes I feel resentful for not having studied in my school days.

No, given that we’ve farmed for generations, I might just be genetically inclined to be dimwitted. But considering that my child is quite sharp compared to me, it’s probably accurate to say that I just didn’t study hard in school.

Yeah.

So.

Farm work sucks.

I know I’m not the brightest bulb,

and I know there are many things in the world I don’t understand.

However.

『 Ensure proper living conditions! 』

『 We didn’t come here to be neglected! 』

But….

No matter how much I think about it—

Truly, after thinking repeatedly—

This situation before my eyes can’t be due to my poor intellect or lack of common sense—

Hmm.

No matter how I think about it, it seems to fall under the category of abnormal situations.

“Shit….”

I can see it.

Clearly, before my eyes, I see it.

Honestly, there’s a part of me that wishes I couldn’t see it, but unfortunately, it is painfully clear.

The plants.

The plants are protesting….

“What am I looking at right now?”

It’s not an illusion.

Wait, it seems like an illusion….

Is this real?

The farm owner rubbed his eyes.

Repeatedly, time and time again.

Ugh!

Yet, struggling to believe it, he even swung his fist at a stone.

Why didn’t he swing it at his face, you ask?

Because then both his fist and face would suffer, right?

He’s not stupid, he just didn’t study hard in school.

“…It’s real.”

The pain in his fist.

Of course.

It makes sense that hitting a solid stone would hurt.

It’s normal to be in pain if you’re not a capable person.

And this pain, paradoxically,

was telling him that what he was seeing was reality and that he should no longer avoid it.

Hmm. Is “paradoxical” the right term?

But wouldn’t it be better if this situation were a dream? Either way, something surely feels wrong.

『 Guarantee eco-friendly agriculture! 』

『 We don’t want pesticides! 』

…He accepted it.

He accepted that this situation was not a dream.

Instead, he thought of the next most plausible explanation.

“So my wife has become a drug addict. With how intense this hallucination is, it must be LSD, right? She clearly put LSD in the food instead of salt….”

There’s a chance he’s hallucinating because of some damn drug.

“Or maybe… someone’s trying to turn me into a drug addict? Damn it. Who the hell did she get involved with?”

…Right.

There’s no doubt that must be it.

The farm owner thought so and went back inside his house.

He felt like he had something important to do today, but… does it really matter?

The plants are protesting in this hallucination, right?

First, he needs to sleep.

Sleep….

Maybe then the drug effects will wear off, and this damn illusion will disappear.

He murmured this to himself as he lay down on the bed.

…

…

…

“Oh damn. It’s still here.”

Ah.

Oh, God.

Time passed, and the sweet deep sleep ended.

But the plants didn’t disappear.

In fact, they seemed even more incensed, coming closer to him as if furious at being ignored.

『 The farm owner must awaken! 』

『 We demand guano instead of chemical fertilizers! 』

『 Use manpower to remove weeds instead of herbicides! 』

『 Put up a fence to block human access! 』

『 Seedlings being crushed! Flower petals being trampled! 』

『 The farm owner has a duty to protect us! 』

Even the slogans condemning him seemed to have multiplied.

Words scribbled on boards made from papers whose origins were unknown….

Ugh.

“What kind of crazy situation is this?”

Plants silently raising absurdly bizarre signs.

It’s like something you’d see in a cartoon movie!

“What the hell is going on here?”