A Single Mother's Farm of the Gods
Chapter 114: An Environment for Norturing the Lotus Flowers

Chapter 114: An Environment for Norturing the Lotus Flowers

Elaina loves the lotus due to how versatile it is as a plant and how many uses it has aside from just being a normal flower. They can use it as a plant to make the farm pretty due to its beautiful flowers, they can use its parts to be used as vegetables and even the flowers themselves can be dried up and used as tea in itself.

And now, it is even the flower that is used by the fairies to give birth to new fairies, something that even Elaina was not expecting to know as well. That is worth knowing and she now has some excuse for growing a few lotus on her farm.

With the discussion with the little fairy done, Elaina recommended the little fairy have a good rest for a while so that once she begins the process of completing the Life Seed, she is fully healed. As for Elaina, she will have to also begin prepping an entire area dedicated to growing lotus.

Elaina at first thought that the stream was the first candidate for growing the lotus but she immediately stopped that as Lotus can spread quickly if not controlled and she doubted the Harvest Goddess would also like her stream to be littered with the lotus floating on the water. A controlled environment for the lotus is ideal. And because the farm lacks that, Elaina has a good idea of what to do next.

It didn’t take long for both Julia and Princess Margaux to return from the festival. Since it finally ended, they didn’t have to stay there for long now that the only thing that was present there was cleaning the beach and dismantling all of the props and equipment that were used during the festival. Since only the officials are the ones who are going to be doing those tasks, everyone including Julia and Princess Margaux is left with nothing to do unless they want to go back to the sea and swim to their heart’s content now that the beach will remain open for swimming while summer is on the roll.

When they arrived, Elaina was already calculating the size of the controlled habitat that the Lotus would be planted in. Elaina initially thought of using muddy soil to use for planting the lotus but she decided against it since it has limited uses and she doesn’t like to maintain the muddiness of the place and it will dry really fast, especially during summer when the heat is currently rising to the maximum.

Instead, she will make a pond: a place where she can raise the lotus, and the possibility to raise fish as well if the pond is well made and sustainable for fish to live in.

Because no one is doing a job like making a fish pond, Elaina will have to make one herself using the resources she has. And one person is capable of achieving that.

"Julia, can you come here for a second?" Elaina beckons Julia who immediately approaches her with a confused look on her face.

"Something wrong, Sis?" Julia asked.

"Do you know how to use Earth Magic? Like manipulation of the soil and similar things?"

"Yeah. Remember the time I used one spell back in the quarry? I have other spell variations other than that and they are categorized as Earth Magic," Julia answered.

"Great. Come back here later once you are finished changing clothes, I have some work for you to do."

"Oh, nice. If my magic gets to be used then I will gladly offer my help!"

Julia entered the house quickly and returned like she just ripped off her old clothes before slapping a new one to her body.

"What are you planning on doing, Miss Elaina?" Princess Margaux asked.

"I plan to make our pond. Since there is a big patch of land in here that is not currently used, we might as well convert it into something that we can use."

"A pond? But we are near the stream? Why do you need a pond?"

"This is not for catching fish, this is for cultivating some Lotus plants but we can raise some ornamental fish on the side as well."

Princess Margaux looked excited when Elaina said that they could raise ornamental fish once the pond was built. Elaina planned to raise fish she caught from the stream but she also found it a bit pointless since she could just throw them back to the stream and they could live there normally. That’s when she remembered that having some ornamental fish might be a better one as they can also act as pesticides that will hunt down pests that will potentially harm the lotus growing in the future.

Before Julia began her task, Elaina measured the size of the future pond and made it a rectangular fish pond. She made sure the size was not so big but not so small either, enough to house around 1000 fish possible. That way, the number of lotus that she can grow later would also increase in number as well since that is enough for a size.

Once she calculated the possible size of the pond, Elaina handed the task to Julia immediately who put her palm to the ground where Elaina marked the area that needed to be manipulated. The area nearby shakes as Julia starts to move the ground. The area that Elaina marked started to deepen and soon it started to create a hole that was not too deep yet not too shallow either. Enough for water to be filled and enough for a fish to swim freely.

Julia didn’t stop there. As soon as the foundation was built, she then manipulated the soil to solidify a bit to stop erosion from happening around the walls of the pond, creating it for stabilization. She then let various rocks emerge out of the ground and let it become the "floor" of the fish pond. It’s not entirely rocks and some gaps of it show the soil still, but it is a good build for the pond. She manipulated more rocks and created various designs around the pond, decorating it like the nearby mountain they can see in the distance, creating an illusion of it looking like a small mountain with a lake in the center which is the actual pond.

Once everything was done, Julia snapped her fingers and water started to fill up on the pond in just a few seconds, the pond that Elaina had just envisioned earlier became a gorgeous looking pond that looked like it had been made for rich people and was made by some kind of artist. Even Princess Margaux was surprised and in awe after the spectacle that Julia performed.

"A-amazing...Julia. I didn’t know you have reached this kind of mastery in your magic already This is beyond earth magic!" Elaina exclaimed seeing the result.

"Surprised? That was just a normal Earth Magic Manipulation, Sis. So anyone who practices Earth Magic can also do what I was doing as well."

If any Earth Magic practitioners heard that, they might have started collapsing since even for them, this task is hard and Julia singlehandedly did it without any problem. But since no one from the three knew those things, they can assume it was the main case.

"Anyways, this is a well-made pond, Julia. I was just expecting it to look like a normal pool of water but adding this miniature mountain to the mix just makes this pond look nice and presentable to anyone. I like it," Elaina nodded seeing how well done it was. To her, it even beats the fountain that is currently being praised in the Luminiera Kingdom as a work of art due to how it presents the Emperor there as a warrior, standing gallantly with his sword in the air.

For Elaina, comparing both would make the fountain of Luminiera Kingdom look boring in comparison to the pond.

"So Miss Elaina? Where are you going to get those lotus you wanted to plant?" Princess Margaux asked. "As far as I know, no one is currently selling that kind of seeds in the market."

"No worries. I already have an idea where they are and I can get a few of them for free myself."

Elaina smiled as she looked at the Almanac. With the help of the book, Elaina can see the ecosystem of the forest and what kind of plants may grow and show up. After she filtered all of the plants detected, one of the plants that were detected was the "Sacred Lotus" which is also known normally as lotus.

It’s not far from the farm so they can just go and forage as well to obtain the item in question. Elaina only needed the seed since it was going to be converted to the Life Seed later so it wouldn’t be a big task for Elaina.

"So, how about we go and visit the forest again today? Since we will be fetching some seeds, we might as well look for a game to hunt as well, what do you guys say?"