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“Anyway, the break is over. Time to get to digging.”
“Kaaay.”

At my order, not just the three, even Cloud responded languidly. It was because Finia’s meal that we ate after the massage was too good.

She used the greens and rooted vegetables, and fruits, that we picked up along the way, as well as dried jerky, to make a filling soup. It was a simple food that would satisfy even people aside from Cloud.

She also followed up with a toasted bread that had melted cheese on top, so it made you feel like continuing for an after-meal nap. Having said that, we couldn’t abandon this commission either.

I picked up my foldable shovel and started slowly digging at the ivy roots. But Sebastian and the other two were different.

“Okay, let’s do this!”

They stabbed their shovels down forcefully and tried to dig with brute force.

“You utter idiots!”

If they do it so forcibly, the potatoes will just break. If they get damaged, so will the commission payment get reduced. So to teach them about that, I used the usual punishing pole to smack their heads.

“Oouch! Big sis, what was that for!”
“What do you mean what! You’ll damage the potatoes!”
“Ah, it slipped my mind.”
“Remember it!”

After all this time I started to have the full picture.

These guys forgot everything you told them the moment an enemy appeared. And they started violently shoveling their way to dig up the potatoes. Both of those things came from the same single flaw. In other words…

“Lack of imagination and controlling one’s emotions. In other words, you can’t restrain yourselves.”
“Come again?”
“You act without thinking about what your actions would lead to. Being driven by impulses also stems from that.”
“Big sis, I don’t understand that difficult explanation.”
“In short, you completely lack the concept of thinking before you act!”
“Are you saying we don’t think?”
“Haha, you have a point!”
“Stop bragging about it!”

I smacked them once more to shut them up. These types of people won’t reflect until they see some pain. Or well, they are reflecting but they aren’t learning from it. To correct that, they have to experience the danger, but it’s hard to adjust the balance of it.

They have to learn the risk of death, but if we overdo it, they might actually die.

“What do we do about this I wonder?”

I racked my brains about their teaching methods, while Michelle and Cloud seemed to be having fun. They were supposed to be in charge of giving instructions, but before I knew it I started thinking about it instead.

This meddlesome part of me has always led to blunders in my past life.

“What’s wrong, Nicole?”
“You seem to be having fun, Michelle.”
“Yup. It feels fresh to adventure with different people.”
“You went Pyaa! at first though.”
“N-Now that I got to know them, they aren’t that scary!”
“So they were scary before that.”
“Yup.”

Seeing her nod with a straight face seemed to have dealt quite a big blow to the trio. You guys, did you really think you weren’t scary dressed like that?

“Anyway, they are wasting too much time digging Ligus potatoes without knowing how, so let’s finish this up fast.”
“Kaay.”

We continued harvesting the potatoes for about an hour after that. We made pairs with the three, and got to digging the roots from two sides.

After an hour, the plant that Finia’s pair was digging finally revealed the potatoes. Since we went in pairs, one person was an extra. During this time, I asked Michelle to stand by and watch the surroundings.

As for why she was removed from the grouping, it was because she was too much for the eyes. Every time she put her hands in front and moved the shovel rhythmically, something that was caught in between also bounced along with it. I would never allow a man to watch that from the opposite side.

Following it, Cloud’s side and then my side also got to the potatoes. It was just three plants in total, so it felt a little lacking. Ideally, I wanted three more.

“Let’s take a break and dig up one more plant each. With that much, the client should have no complaints either.”
“The commission just says to bring it, so wouldn’t just a single one be fine?”
“That’s the minimum condition. If you plan to live on as an Adventurer, you have to satisfy your clients so they remember you by bringing an extra.”
“Is that how it works?”
“It is.”

Still, doing delicate digging for an hour tired you out quite a bit. We had to take a little break, or else we’ll get too fatigued. We weren’t potato digging experts after all.

“Michelle, sorry but can you make tea? Finia, create some water so we can wash our hands.”
“Understood.”
“Gotcha!”

Michelle was on guard duty, so her hands weren’t dirty. She was still an Adventurer, so she knew how to make tea in the wild at least. And Finia’s elemental magic could be useful for this too.

“Hm…?”
“What is the matter?”
“Finia, you can use the Tunnel spell, right?”
“Yes, I can.”
“Then wouldn’t it be quicker if you dig around the potato with that spell and we start scraping off the remaining ground from the side?”
“Oh, you are right. Let me try.”
“Ah, wait, we’re resting now. Let’s do it later.”
“Alright.”

Honestly, those three were no magicians so they couldn’t reproduce this method. So it may not teach them much, but at least it will teach them to “use everything at one’s disposal.”

You have to use your head to make it easier for you. Like this, we took a little break and then resumed our digging. And Finia’s magic turned out to be a huge deal even in this matter.

In the end, we upped our pace and ended up digging ten whole potatoes.

We then used twigs as supports so they wouldn’t get damaged and put them into the knapsack. But then, something showed up in the scope of my detection ability.