NOVEL NEXT Chapter 6: I Learn
It had been almost a year ever since Naru reincarnated at the deer forest. She still had no clue what kind of world she lived in or why she reincarnated here in the first place but she didn’t mind. Frankly, she had barely noticed the time passing. The forest always had the same weather regardless of the day of the year. Time seemed to pass ephemerally.
Naru had spent over 25 years of her past life desperately working. Once the responsibility was shed from her it was strangely… freeing. She had forgotten what it was like to live without deadlines. Initially, she had a great amount of anxiety but the carefree nature of the deer quickly melted away such thoughts.
Frolicking with the other deer and eating delicious wild fruits and vegetables was great. Naru was considering a bit of a chef among the other deer. She had been experimenting with making food from her past world. Growing them with life magic and them making them in her human form.
She was currently struggling with making wine. The other deer saw her efforts to crush grapes and ferment them and looked at her with baffled looks. The deer couldn’t understand why she was taking fresh food and ruining it. Naru herself wanted something else to drink besides the water from the crystal pond. Despite only 1 year old, Naru really wanted to taste alcohol again. It was one of the few things she enjoyed in her past life.
It had already been two times now that a deer saw her half-filled barrel of crushed grapes and ate them.
Both times the deer couldn’t understand the concept of fermenting food. It frustrated Naru greatly. Why couldn’t they understand the greatness of fermented foods and beverages? The delicate flavors of Kimchi, Natto, and Paocai.
“Naru are ya’ sure this is going to taste good?” Her father asking looking at the bubbling mixture in the makeshift barrel Naru had made.
“Of course! You better not eat it this time!” Naru said pouting
Out of the two deer who had accidentally eaten her barrel of grapes, one of them was her father. He had apologized profusely after Naru harshly scolded him. All of the deer were slightly ditzy airheads and it was probably their most endearing and annoying trait.
Her father seemed to grimace. Obviously, remembering the scolding he got that day.
“Don’ worry, I definitely won’t be doing that again,” He said.
He looked at the barrel again
“So, when’s this going to be done?” He asked still giving the barrel a suspicious look. Evidently, it didn’t seem like he had high hopes for Naru’s brew.
Naru herself had never made wine before so she likely had to experiment a bit before hitting the right formula.
She was currently making it based on her own knowledge which admittedly wasn’t much.
At least life magic allowed her to speed up the process for around a year. To a little over a week per batch.
“By the way, Naru do ya’ mind following me?” Her father said suddenly
“Hmm? What’s up” She responded
“I need help filling the crystal.”
“Oh I see”
Recently, Naru’s father had been asking her to help fill the mana crystal. It was odd considering the deer didn’t really have any responsibilities, but this seemed like the only one they had to do.
She walked with her father to the pong where the glowing bloat crystal was gently floating, bobbing slightly up and down while spinning slowly. There were already several other deer giving mana to the crystal.
She began channeling magic from the gem in her chest to the crystal. A thin line of light appeared, connecting the two.
While doing this she chatted with her father
“So why are we doing this?” Naru asked. From her perspective, this didn’t seem like a particularly efficient process. When the magic the deer outputted was not equivalent to the magic the cystal emitted.
“Oh, well, it’s for the festival,” Her father said
“Festival?” Naru asked. It was the first time she had heard of such a thing.
“Well yeah, the descent festival, I reckon this is going to be your first since you were born right after our last one. It’s when the goddess Celestine descends and refills the crystal for us and gives up advice for the coming year. We fill the crystal to let ‘er know we’re running out of mana in it”
[Goddess?] Naru thought She wasn’t a particularly religious person but Naru had a hard time imagining a celestial being like a goddess even existing.
[Are they responsible for my reincarnation?]
“So what do we do at this festival,” Naru said
Her father smiled,
“Oh, it’s lot’sa fun, we have a bunch of competitions to compete and see who sits the closest the cystal when she descends” Her father explained
Frankly, Naru would’ve liked to speak to this goddess, but it seemed like this was a mostly one sided affair.
“What’s the goddess-like?” She asked her father
In response to Naru’s question her father gave a difficult expression palming his stubbled chin.
“Well… Don’t tell yer mother this but she’s prettier than her, she usually speaks in pretty complicated ways that kinda goes over our heads sometimes.”
Naru laughed. Her father was a person who absolutely doted on her mother so hearing him say that the goddess was prettier than she was a surprise.
Her father looked nervous.
“Please don’t tell yer mother I said that,” He said
Naru knew what he meant. Naru’s mother was a domineering personality. She always had a way of getting what she wanted. It wasn’t as if she would force you to do something, but she had a way of inextricably making you do what she wanted.
Once when Naru asked Whitehorn why he chose Fern to be his partner he couldn’t even answer.
“I don’t know she just kinda made me do it?” He said smiling.
[That’s not an answer at all!] Naru thought. The point still stood. Her mother was a terrifying person that was not to be trifled with. If Naru wasn’t careful she could be made to do something she without her own will.
