Isekai Nonbiri Nouka-Novel

Chapter 212 – Dungeon Potato

Dungeon potato.

An excellent crop that can be raised indoors.

It grows fast and its yield is not bad either.

The problem is the taste.

Its only weakness is not being delicious.

And you are planting something because you want to eat it.

At least it is not an unpalatable food.

For the time being, the first improvement plan for the dungeon potato is to raise it under the sun.

If the environment changes, the taste may also change.

That’s what I’m thinking when I was planting the dungeon potato in the field of the sun castle.

By the way, the second improvement plan is still under consideration.

The dungeon potato.

It’s growing up explosively.

After it fills a field, I started crawling in another field.

I, who came to the sun castle after receiving a report from Bell, has deforested that field a bit.

I also made a fence but….

The ivy quickly entangled it and got over it.

What a willful plant.

However, if things go on like this, the sun castle will be ruled by dungeon potato.

What should I do……

「Village chief, the fast-growing dungeon potato has no potato.」

The devils that are in charge of farming said those words as if they are punished.

Sorry.

「No way, to think that I’ll have the chance of seeing this once again….」

The demon king seems to know something about dungeon potato.

It looks like the dungeon potato will grow violently under sunlight and it will use all nourishment to grow so it won’t produce potato.

It seems to be called a disaster plant.

「Even if it is called disaster, it will wither in one month. If you want to dispose of it soon, do it at night. It only responds to sunlight but not to torches or light magic.」

I see.

「However, the potato that it will bear if you raise it indoors will not be delicious.」

You’re right.

In other words, this is a useless crop?

「Not really. It tastes bad but its yield is good. The old lords even plant them as both anti-monster measure and anti-famine measure.」

「Anti-monster measure?」

「Monsters like it. It was used as a lure for a trap or even for buying time during an attack.」

However, 200 years ago, a plague that affected dungeon potato pops up.

Dungeon potato was then believed to be extinct.

The sun castle was isolated so it was not affected by the plague.

「The monsters, who lost their food, went wild in all places. It was a dark time. The damage in human countries are especially severe and can be said to be really cruel. They even put the blame on us by saying we are manipulating the monsters….just recalling it makes my blood boil.」

By the way, during that time, the demon king was still a local noble.

After the extinction of the dungeon potato, the demon king country decided to raise fairy wheat.

It can be grown indoors like dungeon potato but it can be raised normally under the sunlight.

It can even be raised on barren land and it is really popular since it tastes good.

However, the drawback is that the yield is small.

This fairy wheat.

It was more prevalent in human countries compared to the demon king’s kingdom.

It is easy to raise and the taste is also good.

Those are mainly the reason for its popularity.

Large land was needed to cover for its yield but human countries can afford to do that.

In the end, there’s no place that it was not raised.

It was difficult for the demon king’s kingdom to secure a large amount of land so it was only raised on the places where the dungeon potatoes were previously raised.

Everything would have been good.

Until 15 years ago. The fire nation attacked

A plague that affected fairy wheat pops out during that time which made the human countries in a state of famine.

The demon king’s kingdom is experiencing food shortage too but not as great as the human countries.

Therefore, a war breaks out with the humans saying “The cause is the demon king’s kingdom.”.

And it’s still ongoing…..

「They could have just farm more instead of waging war.」

「Exactly. However, there are fields where other crops don’t grow so the only choice is to raise fairy wheat.」

「Eh?」

「In human countries, most fields are useless. They have no choice but to wage war.」

「Then, how is it that humans still have food?」

「In newly created fields, it is safe to raise anything. They also purchase food from the country of elves and country of dwarves. Though I can’t make this in public, they are also buying food from demon king’s kingdom.」

「They buy food from their war opponent?」

「I have already put a ban notice but it is really difficult to check everything.」

It is said that there are powers who are trying to curb the battle power of the demon king’s kingdom by trading food.

If you crack them down, those power will lose their power and in the worst case, it will develop into a battle of annihilation.

「One of the reasons why the demon king’s kingdom’s food is not abundant.」

Is that so?

However, all I can do is raise the production of my own village.

I’m powerless in that issue.

…..

「In the demon king’s kingdom, is the fairy wheat only raised indoors?」

「No, we also raise them on normal fields.」

「And on those fields, only fairy wheat grows?」

「Yes, they are mostly barren land.」

「Do you want to raise dungeon potato there?」

「What do you mean?」

「If the dungeon potato is exposed to sunlight, I think it will grow up fast in those fields.」

「That might be the case but dungeon potato will no bear potato if it is grown under sunlight.」

「The purpose is not the potato.」

「?」

Though I don’t really know what the cause is, why is it that other crops find it difficult to grow but fairy wheat was able to?

Then, how about not planting fairy wheat on those fields?

「Ah」

「Though I’m not sure if it will work, do you mind experimenting?」

「R-right. It might be good to try.」

The continuous crop failure might be caused by the lack of a specific nutrient.

Once the dungeon potato withers, it will become fertilizer.

Even if it fails, the field is still there.

「It might be also good to raise them on the shade too, right?」

「Of course.」

I pray for the success of the demon king as I hand him dungeon potatoes.

Dungeon potato.

It is said that monsters like it but in the village…..

The kuros don’t like it.

The spiders are eating it with pleasure.

The slimes ignore it.

…….

As for the lion family staying in the hot spring area, they are reluctantly eating it.

No, you don’t have to if you don’t like it.

How about the ghost knights?

They did not meet my eyes.

They don’t like it too.

As for the lamias and the titans, they told me that my village’s potato is better.

Thank you.

However, both races raise them.

For the lamias, it seems like their snake pets like it.

For the titans, they’ll use it as bait for bloody vipers.

The fuller their bellies are with potatoes, the safer the titans are.

After giving them dungeon potatoes, I told them to pay attention to monsters and to make sure to not raise it under the sun.

Experiment.

I put a lot of dungeon potatoes in a net bag and left them in the forest.

Of course, that place is quite far from the village.

A few hours later, it was clustered by some sort of bug type monsters.

I thought of subjugating them but there are too many of them.

But why is it that dungeon potatoes are not flocked by monsters when raised in dungeons?

Next, I put a lot of dungeon potatoes in a net bag and tried to bury it in the ground.

It was safe although I already left it for a number of days.

It has not been dug up.

I see.

Dungeon potato will not be targeted by monsters while in the ground.

……

In the dungeons, do they have monsters that have a duty of digging dungeon potatoes?

This is a mystery.

An experiment on making alcohol from dungeon potato.

With the help of the AFT, I managed to make it into alcohol fast but the taste is not good enough.

The dwarves are disappointed since it can’t compete with the alcohol made from sweet potato.

Let’s distill this thing repeatedly to extract alcohol*.

TN: The not safe to drink type alcohol.

An experiment on cooking dungeon potato.

An oni maid powdered it then steam it turning it to konjac. The texture and taste is indistinguishable from normal konjac.

It can be eaten as it is and it is more delicious when boiled.

The taste is good….it is surprisingly delicious.

Is the dungeon potato a type of konnyaku potato?

No, konnyaku potato has a bigger bulb.

…….

Let’s not worry about details.

I’m already satisfied to find a way to eat it deliciously.

I gave the oni maid a reward medal.