A Single Mother's Farm of the Gods
Chapter 56: Distress Call

Chapter 56: Distress Call

Time passed by so quickly and before Elaina knew it, it had been a month and a half since she started living with Julia on this farm. With how peaceful things are and how both she and Julia are enjoying the new life, Elaina couldn’t ask for more.

Currently, Elaina is saving up money to be able to afford the materials and labor fees needed for Jacob to repair and upgrade the house. Because the house is old, she will need a hefty amount of money to get the project started. She needed it to be done as soon as possible as she needed to prepare for her pregnancy and also to prepare for the rooms of her kids in the future. Even if they are not yet born, she will have to make some preemptive plans for her kids to ensure that she will have no difficulty in the future.

Because she is a single mother, she will have to do all of the work by herself without any reliance or need on her partner, Emperor Alfred. She knows it will be hard but she also knows that nothing is impossible. With Julia helping her, she doesn’t need to rely upon asking the cheating guy for some help. She is fine without his help.

Still, Elaina couldn’t help but be disappointed with Alfred. Seeing how even though it has been a month since her disappearance, the guy hasn’t even found any sort of traces that would indicate her trail. Even Julia and her brother found her so easily, just how incompetent was Alfred for him to fail it? He has the beck and call of many people and yet, he failed to even locate her. She is even wondering what she has seen in Alfred and why she loved him before. She still has lingering feelings for him, but it is fading as time passes by.

But that is not the concern Elaina has right now. Her concerns are about the future of her kids. She has to plan for them and ensure that they grow healthy and safe from danger, especially with how some people view twins as the harbingers of misfortune or even some kind of bad omen.

She will have to ensure that no harm will fall on her kids and she will do whatever it takes to keep them safe. But to do that, she will need a lot of funds. For now, she is still not earning much. The strawberries and cucumbers are helping a lot since she doesn’t need to keep on planting new seeds to plant on the field while the others are something she needs to buy.

She can’t always rely on the ledger to buy seeds there. Not only some of them are expensive, but Elaina wanted to save up her FP points to buy blueprints for tools that can make farming much easier. Although the God of Farming is a bit disappointed with Elaina’s strategy since he wanted her to at least buy the fast-growing seeds, he also understands how hard it will be for Elaina to earn more FP. He can’t do anything about that just yet, not until Elaina finally gives birth.

As for the Hencluckle, Elaina has also been enjoying taking care of the Hencluckle as well. They are surprisingly easy to take care of and their eggs are quite pricey whenever she ships them. It’s not much money, but it is a significant increase for her.

Right now, Elaina is checking on her plants alongside Julia who is bored from studying magic all day.

"Sis, how about we go and forage in the forest this afternoon? We haven’t been doing that for quite some time."

Elaina claps her hands a few times to knock off the dirt on her gloves. "Good idea. We should stock up on some meat as well since the meat reserves we have left are running low and meat prices in the market are pretty expensive just for a single slab."

"Yeah, perhaps we can even chance on some herbs or wild veggies as well. That would be a great find for sure," Julia is excited.

"It would have been great if the problem of the Kobolds had been reduced but I guess there are still a few of them lurking in the forest, huh? I heard from the adventurers the other day that they have been able to hunt down a few groups of Kobold that seem to be planning to do a raid," Elaina plucks a few ripe strawberries and puts them in her rucksack.

"These monsters seem to have gotten bolder lately. Something must have stirred them for they are now doing raids. I rarely hear that happen back in the Luminiera Kingdom," Julia stood up after finishing the final check-ups on the plants on her side.

"Well, there’s nothing we can do about that. We are not adventurers, so we can only just have to wait for the actions of the guild and focus on keeping the farm safe," Elaina shook her head.

After Elaina checked on Julia’s work, the two went ahead and started to prepare for their trip to the forest to start their foraging and hunting trip.

It took them a bit before they came back out, now prepared to deal with the harsh forest and also prepare for the enemies that are lurking there. While they are about to leave, Elaina and Julia notice Shardu outside of the doghouse and seem to have understood that the two are about to leave.

"Oh? It’s rare for Shardu to come out from the doghouse unless it’s mealtime!" Julia observed Shardu who seemed to be waiting for them to leave as it was just staring at them.

"Did it know that we are going to leave?"

"Perhaps, Sis! Look at him, he seems to be waiting for us to leave. Are you going to take over the house while we are gone, Shardu?" Julia asked Shardu.

Shardu just looked at Julia before ignoring her by grooming itself.

"If that is the case, please take care of the house, Shardu. We won’t force you, but if you do, then we will give you a big slab of meat for dinner, what do you say?" Elaina made an offer that Shardu might like.

Hearing what Elaina said, it seemed to have understood what her words meant and its ears perked up. It didn’t make any noise but it is clear that is now eager to do the task. It stood up and went to the front door and loaf itself, blocking anyone in its path.

"Haha, well then, we will be back later, Shardu."

The two left knowing the farm will be in good hands.

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Elaina and Julia started to forage around the forest’s shrubs, trees, and ground. It is indeed a while since they did this task as both of them are finding lots of forageables and they are slowly filling the rucksack a lot faster.

It didn’t take long for Elaina to spot a few tracks in the area.

"This is...bear tracks!" Elaina frowned as she traced her hands over the claw marks over one of the big trees. "It’s also pretty recent as well."

"Bear? There are bears around here?" Julia was surprised.

"I just know it now. And from the size of the claw marks, it is an average-sized bear. Which means we can hunt it down and use it for its meat. It’s dangerous to keep the bear near our farm. It could thrash the plants if it went into the farm and with its thick fur, fat, and meat, we would have a big haul if we hunt it down."

"Sis, looks like it’s not just that. Look over there, bloodstains."

Elaina frowned and looked over the bloodstains that were on the ground and leaves. The owner of the bloodstains left a trail, as it leads deeper into the forest.

"Let’s follow the trail. Perhaps it was the work of the Kobolds that caused these bloodstains. Maybe we are too late for our prey," Elaina stood back up once again.

"Alright. I will cast a cloaking magic on both of us so that no one will detect us. A wounded animal might be agitated."

Elaina nodded and Julia created a cloaking boundary around them that masks their presence from outside’s perception.

The two followed the blood trail and as they got deeper, they soon spotted a few footprints. There are a lot but there are notable big prints on the ground which are presumably from the bear. However, it seems Elaina’s assumption is right, a few more footprints are stepping over the footprints of the bear, and it seems to be following it.

Just as Elaina is investigating the footprints, they hear a shrill scream coming not too far from their direction.

"That scream!" Elaina held her sword tight.

"This way, Sis!" Julia started running ahead and Elaina followed through.

As they reach the location, what they see is not what Elaina was expecting.

Before them is a bear that is not that big but not that small either currently fighting against a lot of Kobolds. It is wounded and a few parts of its body is still bleeding. But what made Elaina and Julia surprised was that, behind the bear, was a girl, wearing a frilly blue dress, crying as she stared in fear at the menacing kobolds before her. She is now hugging herself, vulnerable to the horrors of whatever she is currently experiencing right now.

"Julia, back me up. Let’s hunt these Kobolds down," Elaina assumed a combat stance and readied her sword, ready to save someone in distress.