“Yes! Before I became a knight, I had helped my father to manage the farm, so I know everything about the wheat planting.” Sirius paused. “But when His Highness asked me if I had any other expertise, I did not say it… because I feared that he would send me to the farmland, to work with the serfs.
Barov liked what he heard, he had both requirements, the education and knowledge of farm work, even if the civilian population joined the Ministry of Agriculture, he still have a candidate that could take over the lead position. For now, Sirius was loyal to him, so after he became the head, it would be the same as having the influence of the Ministry of Agriculture.
“Well,” Barov began, forming his words into a profitable promise, “Do a good job, and maybe you can climb to an even higher position than before.”
When Sirius had left his office, Barov leaned against his chair while humming a light tone.
Since he now knew that His Highness was possessed by the Devil, he had to seize as much power as possible. The Devil was always full of appreciation for ambitious people, this was commonly known and recorded in the legends. And for himself, whether his rights were conferred by the King or granted by the Devil, both privileges were equally as sweet.
Shortly after the assistant minister had left Roland’s office, the Prince received some good news.
The guard whose mission it was to travel to the Port of Clearwater and buy a few crops had just come back.
Directly after having received the message Roland went into the back garden, where he saw Sean already busy unloading several sacks from the horseback.
It was almost a month since the day of his departure, and now as Roland looked at Sean’s present appearance he discovered that the man’s skin had become a lot tanner while his body became somewhat thinner.
When he saw that the Prince had appeared in the garden, Sean immediately stood up straight and greeted him with a salute. Roland then trotted forward to his side and patted his shoulder, “Well done, have these sacks all been filled with seeds?”
Sean squatted down and unlocked the sacks on the ground, “Pearl Rice, Earth Eggs, Sugar Sticks… those plants are exactly as you have described them. All of them I could only buy in the Port of Clearwater and they were indeed mostly produced in the Fjords. There they have a lot of farmlands where they are cultivating these crops.”
“Did you ask the businessmen about the what the right planting method are?”
“I asked, but they couldn’t tell me any specific methods to use, they could only tell me that after these plants leave the South it will become difficult to plant them.” Sean grasped a handful of yellow seeds from one of the packages, then showing it to Roland said, “Your Royal Highness, this is pearl rice. The trader said that if I bought them together with the pearl rod, I could get them for a little cheaper. But taking all the pearl bars would be too heavy and inconvenient to carry, so I only bought a sack full of pearl rice and the rest are all only normal seeds.”
There was no doubt that the pearl rice was the corn he was most familiar with. So, Roland excitedly picked up some corn grains and took a closer look at them. Some of them seemed to be dried fruits apparently they had been stored as winter rations. The yield of corn production was much higher than that of the natural wheat and it had a much lower soil quality requirements, coupled with Leaves’ transformation ability, he might be able to replace the wheat with corn as the new main ration.
Afterwards Sean opened another package, within it Roland could see a mass of round and leather-like brown crop, “These were the earth eggs, I was able to eat them during my stay in an inn in the Port of Clearwater, they were peeled and cut into small pieces and then thrown into bubbling water. When chewing, it is very crisp, and has a light sweet taste.”
Seeing this familiar shape, Roland heart was full of emotions. This was clearly a potato! He dug his fingers into the potato and peeled it open, revealing the deep yellow potato meat. The next potato’s size wasn’t as big and its color also wasn’t to the darker side, not one earth egg looked like the other. He also noticed that there were some potatoes which had the same lengthily form similar to carrots.
“If this stuff get crushed first and then later steamed until it turned into a paste, the potatoes will become even more delicious.”
“Uh … you have already eaten them, Your Highness?”
“Well, it was during one of the feasts in the palace,” Roland decided to sprinkle a little lie, after all always hearing the name earth egg was just too confusing, “In the royal kitchen they didn’t call them earth eggs, but instead they called them potatoes and this delicious steamed snack is called mashed potatoes.”
