A Single Mother's Farm of the Gods
Chapter 241: Growing Winter Cold

Chapter 241: Growing Winter Cold

As Elaina started to do her various tasks to prevent the Ice Lord, the whole Darcero Kingdom was now suffering from the increasing cold temperature. The stores that sell heaters started to run out of them for sale as people started to buy multiple heaters to ensure that their houses remained warm.

This also caused severe aspects of activities to be affected as these changes became a hindrance in day-to-day life. Many people already asked the King of Darcero for help but even he has no idea how to stop dealing with it as the castle is also having trouble with this.

Although many businesses suffered from the increasing cold temperatures, the ones that are most affected by it are those who are doing business related to animal husbandry and agriculture as they are now unable to deal with most of the things happening. They can’t even let the cows, chickens, and other animals out of their barns and coops due to the increasing cold as most would just shiver and die from the cold while those who handle crops are dealt with their plants dying midway even if they are meant to grow during winter.

Magicians are already looking through the situation to see if something is happening over in the surrounding area of Darcero Kingdom as it turned out to be something that is happening exclusively in Darcero Kingdom and nowhere else.

As for the Adventurers Guild, their work is much more hectic due to the new appearance of the Snow Men monsters. Due to their sudden arrival, they are now being hunted by the adventurers as there is a reward for killing them. Bringing their broken core or their tattered frozen clothes will award the rewards that make adventurers love dealing with them.

As for Elaina, she has three primary works being handled while an extra one is being handled by Curaj himself as this was his only work during winter time. Her first and primary work is gathering the mana stones. She hasn’t delivered any at the moment as she wanted to do it in one go. The gods also agree to do it at once as well as that would also allow the trees to remain undetectable until the time it will become active. With how the Snow Men are wandering all around, having a weird tree become active would be spelling big trouble.

The second work is taking care of the trees themselves. She either had to ask Zaza or Shardu to help with this task at times but since it was an easy task, it wasn’t much of a problem for Elaina. The trees have grown progressively fast and Elaina is happy to see them grow from saplings to actual trees. Their trunks are also getting thicker and harder as well and they slowly turn from stems to wood as days pass by.

As for her last main work, the cultivation of the three weird seeds that Elaina found at the mines. She planted them on the farm plot with some protection to ensure that they would grow without problems. She planted two of each type in separate areas to record their speed with and without the fertilizer of the Harvest Goddess. So far, the fertilized seeds have already sprouted two of them. One has shown promises but it hasn’t grown just yet.

During the night, Elaina’s attention is shifted to taking care of her kids and making sure they are happy and bonded with her. The two babies are showing significant changes as well which is Elaina very happy to see. With Julia’s reports on what happened in the morning, Elaina can say that the two are safe and sound despite the looming danger on the horizon. For someone like her who is just a single mother, she has to do everything to ensure her kids will continue to grow as proper happy children without the need of looking for their bastard of a father or even showing signs that they will be coming back to Luminiera Kingdom.

Right now, Elaina has taken a break from all of the work. It is currently snowing outside and even she who is usually not bothered by the cold refuses to go out. So far, only Curaj has done the work under the cold but he gives up halfway and finishes his work as soon as he can and stays in the living room currently sipping some coffee to warm himself.

"This cold is getting unbearable..." Julia sighed as she glanced outside the window’s clear glass.

"Indeed. As someone connected to nature, this is just pure torture. I refuse to leave the front of the chimney," the Harvest Goddess said as she remained near the chimney with a blanket covering her body. She even borrowed a few clothes to wear as her regular clothes were just clear "bikini-type" clothes. She just abandoned it just to ensure she was warm in this weather.

Princess Margaux glanced at Elaina but she didn’t say anything. She knows the situation after all but she can’t afford to tell everyone about it. After all, Elaina specifically said to keep it a secret from everyone to not incite panic. She is effectively an accomplice at this point.

Elaina is currently looking at the lotus seed that is actively growing from the basin she put the seed from, However, she cannot transfer it just yet even in this current weather. She didn’t want the seed to suddenly die due to the weather. Even Pixie agrees with Elaina’s decision as she has seen plenty of plants die during winter and she didn’t want that to also happen to the last hope she had for her race.

As Elaina continued to check on the lotus seed’s health, the God of Farming started talking to her.

"[Elaina, it seems we have a situation in hand that we aren’t expecting to know. After learning about this situation, we decided to quickly inform you about this. This is something that would need your attention.]"

"Something wrong? What is it?" Elaina frowned.

"[We decided to reveal the situation to the other gods and it seems that they are also aware of the current abnormal weather of Darcero Kingdom. However, when we decided to tell them that the situation must be the work of the Ice Lord, the other gods quickly denied the Ice Lord’s involvement in this problem."

"Eh? Isn’t that impossible to happen without the Ice Lord’s intervention?"

"[We also thought that as well at first but one of the gods who was one of the gods who originally sealed the Ice Lord has a way to identify if the Ice Lord has been released from his seal or not. And he told everyone that the Ice Lord remained to be sealed.]"

"That is impossible, right? Duke Darcy himself said the sealing chamber in which the Ice Lord should be present is currently missing the sealed Ice Lord. Which means the Ice Lord should have been free and recovering his strength," Elaina argued.

"[I also agree with that sentiment. However, he is certain that the Ice Lord will not be able to do anything even if he is unsealed. It was one of the secrets he has shared with us that we didn’t expect to know.]"

"A secret?"

"[Yes. It involves the Ice Lord being sealed. And as for why he will not be able to do anything even if he is unsealed is because of his lifespan.]"

"What?"

"[We originally thought that the Ice Lord had a similar lifespan to us because he was originally a candidate to ascend as a god as well but after he was sealed, his ascendance was stopped and he couldn’t become a god as a result. However, he soon revealed that the Ice Lord wasn’t capable of living that long.]"

"Then...does it mean..." Elaina was shocked.

"[Yes. The Ice Lord is dead. Even if he is unsealed, he will be dead without any way to achieve his lifelong dream.]"