Chapter 6

After that, what happened to the huge pumpkins that filled the field?

I stored all of them in my storage and kept them.

I found out that I could use the time-stop function of the storage, which only high-level magicians can use.

When I tried storing a warm baked sweet potato, it remained warm even after several weeks.

This is a secret only my family knows.

Indeed, it’s a perfect skill for storing things you want to keep hidden.

Once, I wanted to test how much I could store, so I diligently stored the huge pumpkins, and they all fit.

Maybe I really do have the best storage in the world. There’s still plenty of room.

Occasionally, I take one out at a time, and my mother cooks it and distributes it to the neighbors.

We have enough pumpkins to last our family for about a year.

The unusual thing is that I started going with my father when he delivers vegetables to the market or neighboring villages.

Since it’s already known that I have the storage skill, my father thinks it’s better to be open about it rather than hide it.

However, I can only take out two boxes of vegetables in front of people.

When transporting large amounts, we still use a cart with other villagers.

So, my skill hasn’t been a major topic of conversation.

People just think it’s a rare and convenient skill.

Water magic was useful for watering the fields.

I practiced making it rain over a wide area like a shower, which made watering much easier.

I do it early in the morning or at night to avoid being seen.

Our house is on the outskirts of the village, so people rarely visit unless they have a reason.

For the water we use in the kitchen and bath, I always fill the water tank from the well, which makes my mother happy.

She says we can take baths without any hesitation.

I’m happy. Just using a little magic makes my family happy.

However, using earth magic to grow crops didn’t go well.

Even though I could use it, the crops would become gigantic.

So, I secretly made only the amount we needed to eat larger.

This saves a lot on food expenses.

I have a large amount of these oversized crops stored in my storage, so even if a food shortage were to occur, we could probably survive for a few years.

Wonderful. Thank you, God.

This peaceful life continued for a few years, but then a turning point came.

A war broke out between the border lord’s territory and a neighboring country.

It seems that all storage skill users in the country were gathered to transport war supplies.

However, I was safe.

That’s because I don’t attend the capital’s academy, so my existence isn’t even known.

Besides, I’m just a child who can transport two boxes of vegetables.

But I realized that what my father said was true.

It was a good decision to decide to hide my abilities when I was young.

So far, I haven’t been noticed by the nobles.

Meanwhile, a large amount of medicine and bandages were needed, and the country ordered the cultivation of medicinal herbs and cotton.

Farmers had to cultivate one of them, and the government would buy what they grew.

This village was no exception.

This was when I first realized that my vast magical power could be useful.

I had been holding back on growth magic because making crops gigantic would draw attention, but that didn’t apply to cotton and medicinal herbs.

Cotton and medicinal herbs are dried and crushed before being shipped.

If they were gigantic, no one would notice.

I wish I had realized this earlier.

If we reduced vegetable cultivation by half, this remote village would immediately face a food shortage.

My father consulted with the village chief and took on the task of shipping cotton and medicinal herbs.

He said this was because my mother and I have earth magic.

There was also some unused, poor land near our house.

Unlike vegetables, medicinal herbs can grow even in poor soil, just like weeds.

So, we made the cotton and medicinal herbs gigantic, crushed them, and shipped them.

Since this was an unnamed village, the amount ordered by the government was easily covered by what we shipped.

The village chief was happy, and the villagers were grateful.

At first.

But later, I learned that even a little bit of attention can make people envious.

◇

Even after the war ended, the border lord’s territory suffered significant damage.

The order to cultivate medicinal herbs and cotton from the government ended, but the quality of the medicinal herbs we shipped was so good that a messenger from the border lord’s territory came to us.

They wanted to buy them at a high price and asked us to sell directly to the border lord’s territory.

My father’s decision to take on the cultivation of medicinal herbs and cotton to help the village backfired.

The villagers criticized my father for making a direct deal with the border lord’s territory.

They said he had intended to take the easy profits for himself from the beginning.

I tried to persuade them to cultivate medicinal herbs and cotton and negotiate with the border lord’s territory to buy them, but it didn’t work.

The village chief opposed it, saying that it would immediately cause a food shortage.

This village is almost entirely made up of farmers, and they can only be self-sufficient because they grow crops.

There’s no room to cultivate medicinal herbs for shipment elsewhere.

When the villagers started to view us as enemies and threw stones at our house, my parents made a difficult decision.

"Let’s leave the village. We’re thinking of moving to the border lord’s territory."

I was 10 years old and didn’t go to school, so I didn’t know much about the country’s laws.

But it seems that commoners, unlike nobles, are free to move.

We can move as long as we have permission from the border lord’s territory.

In this small village, we can’t survive if the villagers view us as enemies.

We decided to move as a family and start over.

My mother was crying, but she didn’t oppose it.

It was probably for my sake.

I never imagined I would use it for this, but I stored all the household items in my storage.

Then, we quietly left the village before dawn as a family.