A Single Mother's Farm of the Gods
Chapter 201: The Harvest Festival and the Impending Arrival of Winter

Chapter 201: The Harvest Festival and the Impending Arrival of Winter

How many years has it been?

20?

40?

No, I think it’s more than that. Perhaps even a hundred years have already passed by. But I am not yet done. Until humans know my pain, they will not learn anything.

Ah, yes. That’s right. I will make sure that those humans will know it. I know just the very thing that will allow me to do so.

Yes, wait for me, I will come back and exact my vengeance.

...

...

...

"Woah, what the... this is a big one! Urgh!"

Elaina stood up from her chair as soon as she realized that the one caught on the other side of the line was big. She struggled a bit due to how strong her opponent is and it is trying its best to tug the fishing rod away from Elaina’s hands. But Elaina did not let her grip get lost from a fish. She tightly held the rod and pulled the rod harder than ever.

"Don’t you dare...underestimate...me! RAAAAAAA!"

However, before she can even pull the mysterious catch, the line of the fishing rod snaps, and before Elaina can balance herself, she falls to the ground and the fish that she was trying to catch immediately swims away and leaves Elaina groaning in pain.

"UGH! I was that close!" Elaina grumbled as she took a look at her fishing rod’s fishing line. The line can still be salvaged but the fishing rod itself has finally met its end, not only did the line snap, but the rod itself has snapped into two as well, reducing the fishing rod into a pile of scrap.

"[It seems that you needed to buy a new and improved fishing rod from our old fisherman friend.]" the God of Fishing suggested.

"Well, what else can I do? Ever since the autumn season arrived, the fishes that are easy to catch are nowhere to be seen here in the stream and most of the fishes that are possible to be caught with are either too strong for my rod to even handle or they are just too hard to catch with my skills," Elaina snaps her fingers and looked at her Fishing Mastery and so far, she only progressed to level 2 so far. Ever since the Masteries were introduced to Elaina, she has been trying to increase it with little to no luck so far. Most of the increase that she has seen so far is only during the success of doing some actions related to that mastery.

"[If you are frustrated about that, then don’t. It is designed to be done passively. You are not required to max it as soon as possible. The benefits are tempting but that is only rewarded for those who are diligent with their work.]" The God of Farming starts to scold Elaina.

"[Yes, indeed, Dear Elaina. Patience is a virtue, you know? You won’t become a better hunter and tamer if you have no patience whatsoever.]" The Goddess of Taming nodded.

"Alright, alright. I was impatient. I know my limits so please, stop."

Elaina scratches her head. She was indeed a bit impulsive on this one. After all, seeing the level 2 mastery of fishing is just too good to have which would be getting a 25 percent chance to catch two fishes in one hook. Having that alone is enough for Elaina to want the benefits to be already applied. And since compared to the other masteries, only fishing has a good chance to be leveled in a single day.

Her thoughts were stopped when she heard one of her babies start crying and she immediately bolted back home.

"Julia? What is going on?" Elaina opened the door huffing on why one of her kids was crying but the moment she saw Troy holding Adelaide cradling and playing with her with an idiot face impression, she immediately scratched her head.

"Hey, brother, perhaps you should clean up your face first before playing with Adelaide. Instead of making her happy and smile, she would be afraid of your face. She gets freaked out by your appearance with that black soot currently plastered on your face, have some decency at least."

Hearing that, Troy passed Adelaide to Elaina’s hands and hurriedly wiped off the soot on his face. It took some time since some of the soot was actually grease and if not for Julia splashing him with some water magic, the soot and grease wouldn’t even come off completely with just a few wipes of a cloth.

"Sorry about that, Elaina. I came here after we finished one part of the Tractor and came in to report it to you. We will be taking a break for a while to celebrate the upcoming festivals and at least have fun before we come back to work on it again. But seeing you busy with your fishing sessions, I decided to wait here until you are done and decided to play with my niece and nephews. Since only Adelaide is awake at the moment, I tried playing with her, and forgot about the soot on my face."

Elaina shook her head. "It’s fine." Then she looked at Julia who was laughing. "Why you didn’t say to my brother he has some soot on his face?"

"Haha, it was a bit funny to look at, maybe Adelaide might get amused at him instead."

"Well, from the looks of it, only Arthur would be amused by that notion as we saw Adelaide crying instead. Next time, you can try that on Arthur if you want to amuse him but not on Adelaide, alright?"

"Both my niece and nephew have different quirks huh? Ever since their eyes have slowly opened, it seems Arthur and Adelaide have different tastes in humor," Troy nodded.

"More like Adelaide is disgusted by you not cleaning on your face," Elaina commented.

Since Adelaide stopped crying, Elaina sat down and asked Troy about the festivals that he just said.

"By the way, what did you say? Two festivals? I didn’t know there were upcoming two festivals this month."

"Not exactly this month, you know that next month would also be the time when winter arrives? That’s also the day the next festival will occur. Many call it the long holiday as this will become the time when many farmers will stop their work on the farm aside from the work related to animals as winter sets in. I just heard of this from my coworkers as well and I didn’t expect to know such a tradition here in Darcero Kingdom," Troy explained.

"Well, with how winter is not so prevalent in the Luminiera Kingdom, it makes sense that they do not celebrate the upcoming winter and besides, the church there would rather have some sort of festival for their patron rather than have this kind of festival instead," Elaina shrugged her shoulders. "As for the second festival, it should be the upcoming harvest festival, yes?"

"Yes. Since it is the final sprint for winter, the festival will be a gathering of all farmers to bring their produce and put them in the huge pot that will be brought to make a hotpot. I heard that this festival happens individually in each town while in the capital, the kind and queen will be the one who will organize the feast."

"A feast huh? That is indeed a good way to celebrate the final days of autumn for the upcoming winter. Considering that winter has scarce resources, Darcero Kingdom has quite a positive look at winter huh?" Julia chimed in.

"Yes. Many consider it as a long break from work since this will also be the day when most of the work done by the populace will freeze out and the only work that will continue to move will be the work related to food processing, machinery work, and a few more work that would help the city and towns continue to function."

"So that means for this upcoming Harvest Festival, I will have to bring them some harvests on my own, then?" Elaina asked.

"It’s not mandatory but it is welcomed and you can say that they will like it if you do it. And besides, isn’t this a good chance to advertise the farm’s goods? I know you did advertise it last spring but having more publicity does not do harm and you are not in hiding anymore since your ex-husband has already divorced you, this is a good opportunity to spread the name of the farm and its goods."

"I agree with that Sis. You also said before that you might take this chance to sell goods to various stores. Remember the time when Douglas offered to buy some goods from you not too long ago?" Julia suggested and let Elaina remember the offer that Douglas had asked not too long ago.

"Hmm, that’s fair. So when will it begin so that I can prepare what I need to bring."

"Two days from now, perhaps tomorrow the notification will arrive in your mailbox."

Elaina nodded. As they continue talking, the cold air starts to blow and even Elaina can feel the cold air permeating her skin. Based on the Almanac’s weather forecasts, the winter will be a week from now. She might not have experienced a very cold winter so far, but Elaina has to prepare as according to the locals, it gets really cold so fast if no one is prepared so they have to ensure that everything is prepared for winter and wait for spring to arrive.

Preparations have already started and Elaina has already stored a few stuff ready for winter, firewood, clothing, feed for the livestock for the whole winter, and food supplies stored for winter.

"Looks like the winter season will be a very cold one."