Chapter 40

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**Developing the Forest**

Ultimately, my main job became cutting down trees, clearing the land to make it usable, and hatching Valkyries from the eggs of servile beasts that were newly delivered.

I decided to entrust all the tree management to Mr. Maddock. Honestly, I couldn't handle it, and he was far more knowledgeable about trees than I was.

I would cut off the branches from fallen trees, cut them to a suitable length, and store them as logs. I also asked him to prepare some of these logs for cultivating magic mushrooms.

All I had to do was use [Magic Infusion] to make the logs suitable for growing magic mushrooms, which made my job much easier.

Incidentally, Mr. Maddock knew someone skilled in woodworking, and I decided to hire that person as well. I needed doors, shelves, tables, and chairs to match the brick structures I had built.

The cultivated land included fields for growing Hatsuca, which I entrusted to the part-time worker.

Surprisingly, despite being a few years older than me and not yet an adult, the part-time worker was quite good at managing people. He was deeply infatuated with the hornless Valkyrie I had given him when I hired him and wanted to ride her like I did, running around with her on his back. However, this required considerable skill and physical strength. To ensure he had time to practice, he gathered a group of people to help with the work.

There were also people who, having lost their parents in war and struggling to make ends meet with village jobs alone, he recruited to help with the farm work. The part-time worker himself had no money, but he managed to hire people by giving them a portion of the harvested crops. I often thought that if I had to hire people, I would need to prepare cash, but for those in poverty, physical goods were sufficient. Seeing older men happily helping the part-time worker, it seemed his character also played a role.

This is how my life gradually centered around the development of the new land.

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"Is the field being vandalized? Part-time brother, do you know who the culprit is?"

"Yeah, we found footprints. But it wasn't humans. The culprit is a large boar."

"Did Mr. Maddock confirm the footprints?"

"Aye, no doubt about it. Moreover, the tracks indicate multiple boars."

"Multiple? That's bad."

"Aye. The tracks included those of two adult boars and several young ones."

"Young ones... Could they have developed a taste for it?"

"Likely. This could become a serious problem."

"What are you saying so casually? It's already a big problem. Some people are so scared of the boars that they're refusing to work."

This happened when I was eight years old. One day, I returned home to find the part-time worker and Mr. Maddock waiting for me. The issue was animal damage to the fields.

Being vandalized is a significant problem. I remember in my previous life, wild boar damage was often in the news. Wild boars are quite intelligent. To prevent them from entering fields, electric traps are sometimes set up. Wires that deliver an electric shock are strung around the field. If a boar touches the wire, it gets shocked and runs away. However, this trap quickly became ineffective. The boars learned that touching the wire was painful, but the vegetables in the field were tempting. So, they started pushing logs into the wire to knock it down and enter the field. Eventually, there was no definitive trap, and it became a continuous game of cat and mouse between the boars and the traps.

In this world, large boar damage also occurs, but it hasn't been a problem recently. The reason is simple: the forest was rich in food for the boars. As omnivores, they thrived in the vast forest and rarely needed to seek food in fields where wheat was often grown.

However, why is the boar damage increasing in my development area now? It's probably because of my development. While I leave some areas as protected forests, I have also cleared many areas completely. Moreover, the land is magically leveled, reducing the rich ecosystem that once existed in the forest. It's likely that the boars are facing food shortages or losing their territory to other animals.

The problem lies in the characteristics of the large boars. While it's not clear, the village says that large boars develop a lifelong preference for the food they eat as juveniles, and this preference is passed down from parent to offspring. My fields are planted with Hatsuca, which serves as food for the Valkyries. If the boars develop a taste for it, they could continue targeting my fields for generations. This is a serious issue.

Thus, I was forced to deal with the large boars.

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