"Good morning! Brother! Wake up!!!"
A very familiar voice echoed in his head.
A voice so soothing he wouldn't dare not answer it.
Slowly opening his eyes, Jared found Ria sitting right on top of his lower stomach, both her hands pressing against his chest.
"Ah- you're awake." Ria smiled, "It's morning already. You told me to wake you up, remember?"
'Right. Today is the day we work on the farm. I didn't forget, I was just tired.'
Sighing out loud, he suddenly asked,
"Has Kiara been here?"
The question was immediately met with a teasing look from Ria-
"Ohhh? What is this? Is my brother already falling in love with a woman? No fair, I wanted to be your first love." She shook her body weirdly while still on him.
"If I didn't love you, I would have smacked you right now," Jared uttered calmly.
"I know...but you can't, because I'm your cute elder sister..."
"Answer the question I asked earlier..."
"Well, she didn't show up technically. All she did was stand in front of the door, and then she walked away."
"I see. Not what I was expecting, but I'll take it nonetheless."
True, he expected her to have probably stormed into the room and asked him why he kissed her the way he did.
He had a good reason for doing that.
Though for some reason, his former self acted dumb, trying to ignore the fact that Kiara always thought less of him and didn't expect to see him as an equal.
This led to a lot of unnecessary hatred and hardship between them.
That said, Kiara's ability would definitely play a huge role in the growth of the village. And for that, Jared needed her to be on his side, body and soul.
Hence why he was trying to get into her head; if he successfully did that, she would be devoted to him, or at the very least give him the respect he needed.
"I should get ready. I'm sure they are already waiting for me at the farm."
His words were like those of an office man who was reluctant to get up in the morning.
Ria stood up from the bed and stood at the side.
"Freshen up, you told me to supervise the food storage, so I'll go do that right now. Although, I should remind you that the meat won't last at this rate. We might need to throw it out and go hunt for another," she informed.
"Yes, the fridge, I forgot about that..." Jared pressed one hand on his forehead.
[The god of information laughs at your lack of memory retention.]
'The hell is this computer laughing at?'
"Well, now that you do, you should find something to do about that. My brother isn't one to go back on his words." Ria smiled, and then turned around before exiting the room.
Once she was gone, Jared fell back on the bed.
'Too much to do, being the leader of a village isn't as easy as I thought it would be. It was so much easier when I wrote it down as an author.'
Looking to the side, he found his resolve again and immediately sat upright.
'Open stats,' he commanded.
[Current Sp: 6800sp.
Skills: Power punch, wind projectile.
Additional ability: None.]
He stared at the stats for a while.
The two skills there were something he got when he woke up one morning. Apparently, one of either William or Lucy had gotten stronger, and it was a gift from that.
At the end of the day, it was pretty useful for whenever Jared felt he needed to defend himself.
'Open shop.'
[Shop.]
[Select product.]
The list was long.
Jared began to search for the items he needed.
Since he was going to work at the farm, he already had a clear idea of what he needed before he got started.
Thus, he began to purchase -
[Drainage pipe (45 sp): Ceramic tubes to channel excess water away, fixing waterlogged fields.]
[Shovel set (75 sp): Sturdy shovels for villagers to dig trenches for drainage.]
[Compost bags (20 sp): Nutrient-rich compost to restore dead soil's fertility.]
[Current Sp: 5775 sp.]
At the top of his head, this was the best he could do.
From what he could remember, one of the main issues on the farm was the waterlog. Anytime rain fell, rather than the water flowing out of the farmland, it stayed there, causing the soil to get moist and never dry.
While that might be good for planting rice and so on, too much water in a spot would do nothing but harm the crop in the process.
As he purchased the items, they appeared in front of him, in surplus numbers since he didn't only buy a single one.
With each item gotten, he was ready for the next step.
A few minutes later, Jared was already at the farm, ready to get to work.
The equipment he had bought had already been carried to the farm by some of the workers.
William wasn't with them since he was protecting the village with most of the men gone.
Lucy, Kiara, and Ria, on the other hand, were helping out on the farm.
The first thing Jared told them to do was to use buckets to scoop out the water from the corners where he was sure the pipe could not reach.
While some of them were busy doing that, others were using the shovels to dig the ground in such a way that the ground would slant and trenches would be dug at the same time.
It took them a couple of hours to finally get it down to perfection. The water flowed from one end all the way down; though it was slow, it was still something.
[The villagers are feeling proud.]
[You have gained 100 sp.]
Jared placed one hand on his waist, with another holding a shovel.
"Alright. We are good to go on that front. Now then, grab the pipes, let's flush out the water from this damn farm."
As he issued his instructions, the others were ready to obey without fail.