The Life of The Rising Sun

I woke to the sun shining on my face. Because I didn’t have a curtain, the sunshine streamed steadily through the window to my bed.

In my original world, even if I didn’t have anything to do, I would stay up late watching TV. Here, there wasn’t that kind of entertainment, so it was likely I’d be able to live an early-to-bed, early-to-rise, healthy lifestyle.

It was completely the epitome of ‘the slow life, and it felt pretty good!

I washed my face with cold water and brushed my teeth. Then I took a peek in the barn and saw that the animals had already been awake for a while.

“Good morning! Here’s your water!”

I poured out the water I had drawn into the hollowed-out log that served as a watering trough. All the animals hurried to come closer and drink from the trough as if they had been impatiently waiting.

Soon all the water had been drunk up. I hurriedly refilled the trough.

Due to their huge size, the amount of water they drank was also sizable. But the watering trough had been empty when I first walked in.

Maybe they’d been thirsty since there was no water last night. Just thinking of it made me feel bad.

It must have been tough not having water to drink in this world that had a warm climate.

I breathed heavily as I brought over and poured more water into the watering trough. Having to do physically intense work with an empty stomach was tough!

I wasn’t strong so I could only fill up half of the bucket, and in the end, had to make five trips back and forth.

Though exhausted, I went to the nests to check for eggs while the chickens were drinking water. I found five of them. That meant one of them was a rooster.

“Wow, these eggs are huge!”

They were twice the size of my fist. And they were pretty heavy. I laboriously carried them into the house. I wanted to drink some cow’s milk too, but then I realized something important.

How did you milk a cow?

I should’ve asked Norn about it yesterday.

“Right. I’ll give up for now.”

After they finished drinking, I left the barn doors open so the animals could go and graze freely. Then I got ready to make my own breakfast.

The shells of the chicken eggs were hard. I tried cracking them against the edge of a wooden bowl, but it didn’t do anything. So I took a hammer from the shed and whacked the egg with it. Finally, there was a hole.

The elasticity of the yolk of a fresh egg was really different. I wanted to try picking up the yolk with chopsticks the way I’d seen in a commercial once, but unfortunately I didn’t have any chopsticks.

Maybe I should try making a pair from some twigs.

I put some salt and sugar and beat the egg with a fork. Then I heated up a frying pan and poured the eggs in. Soon, the fragrant smell of cooking filled the room.

I usually loved eating my tamagoyaki sweet, but for today I felt like eating them salty so I didn’t put in much sugar.

The moment I saw the cookware, I’d wondered why there weren’t any smaller-sized pots and pans, but thinking of the size of the ingredients, I realized that the size of them were just right. Otherwise it’d be hard to cook with them.

“Hmmm, it smells good.”

As I was rolling up the egg, I heard a pitiful-sounding whine and the sound of scratching from the front door.

“Oh right, I haven’t fed the dog yet. I wonder if he can eat eggs?”

I opened the door, and there the dog was, with drool dribbling out of his mouth and nose twitching. He looked really hungry.

But, maybe because he had been scolded for it before, he didn’t enter the house.

“Good boy, good boy. Can you eat tamagoyaki?”

I put some on a plate and placed it on the floor. The dog devoured it in the blink of an eye.

He licked his lips and sniffed at the floor as if looking for more food. Then with a wagging tail, he licked my hand.

“Oh, it wasn’t enough? You want more?”

“Woof!”

I smiled at his timely bark, as if he were really answering my question. I head back to the kitchen to cook some more. This time I tried frying a sunny-side up egg.

I glanced at the dog. He was pacing as if he couldn’t wait.

I served up the finished fried egg. The dog ate the runny yolk in one bite. It seemed even dogs found egg yolks more delicious.

Afterwards, he ate the white of the egg slowly as if his hunger had already been pacified.

From behind the dog, a chicken poked its head out.

Is it mad that its egg had been eaten? I watched it nervously, but I was surprised when it pecked at the remains of the egg.

“Hey, don’t you get it? That might’ve been an egg you laid, y’know?”

The chicken was unconcerned and just continued pecking. They say that chickens forget things within three steps, so it might have already forgotten it had laid an egg in the first place.

“I should eat, too.”

The tamagoyaki was too much for me to finish by myself, so I gave the rest to the dog, and he ate the leftovers with relish.

Yup, you shouldn’t waste food.

After breakfast I cleaned up the barn. It was noon before I knew it. I was still full from breakfast, so I skipped lunch and took the sickle from the shed and headed to the field. I drew myself up in front of the overgrown weeds.

“Alright, let’s do it!”

My goal was to weed a part of the field the size of three tatami mats.

Because right now even if I planted seeds they’d be choked out by the weeds and wouldn’t be able to grow.

I wielded the sickle in one hand and slashed at the weeds with a battle cry. The blade cut through so shockingly easy that the excess force I exerted had me falling to my butt.

“What’s with this blade’s sharpness! Scary!!”

If I messed up I might end up cuting off my foot.

Looking at the edge of the blade stuck in the earth, I felt cold sweat dripping down my spine.

“I wonder what the state of medical care in this world is.”

I didn’t think it was more advanced than in my previous world. I’d have to take care not to get injured or sick or it might cost me my life.

Did they even have bandaids?

This time I cautiously put the blade to the weeds. It still cut through so easily. Like a hot knife through butter.

“This is kinda fun!”

I crouched and enthusiastically started cutting weeds, but soon my legs grew tired. I tried stretching one leg while crouched with the other, switching legs once in a while, like some calisthenics exercise I did back in PE class. It worked, but then it was my waist that started hurting.

“Ouch. Farming sure is hard.”

I stood up and gently pounded at my back. I turned around to look at the weeds I had cut, only to see the horse and cows digging up the roots of the weeds with their front hooves and eating them up.

The chickens then pecked at the insects exposed in the overturned earth.

“Are you guys helping me?”

Maybe they just wanted to eat the roots, but their actions were really a big help to me. Now I didn’t have to dig up the roots myself.

“Thanks.”

I patted the horse’s and cows’ muzzles in turn. Then the dog who had been sleeping on the ground stood up. “Woof!”

He barked as if to say, ‘Watch me!’ Then he started digging at the spot where the horse had overturned the earth.

This act of barking then digging, it reminded me of a story. Was it Grandpa Hanasaka?

In that story, the dog dug up treasure, but this dog aerated the soil.

“You’re amazing! Now I won’t have to till the soil! Alright, I’ll name you Pochi. Pochi, if you want to eat delicious vegetables you better do your best and keep tilling.”

I couldn’t lose to Pochi. I had to do my best too. The goal was three tatami mats!

“Behind the fields, Pochi barks~”

I didn’t know the rest of the lyrics, so I just repeated the same line over and over as I weeded.

The cows, chickens, horse and Pochi were all following behind me in a row. It made me think of the Town Musicians of Bremen. I laughed at the thought, all the while weeding an area the size of one tatami mat.

By the way, the sheep and the rabbit were all taking a nap under the shade.

“Oiii, the kid over there!”

“Hm?”

Just as I was taking a water break, I heard someone calling for me from the road leading to the house. A bearded old man was waving his arm.

Calling me ‘kid’… So I really did look like a child.

“Sorry, but can you give my horse a drink?”

I looked over, and the horse pulling his wagon was drooping with exhaustion. How pitiful. The heat must’ve gotten to it.

“Sure! You should get some rest too, uncle.”

“Thank you.”

Just as the old man was about to go in so he could park the wagon, Pochi, who had been busy digging at the earth, suddenly whipped his head up, bared his teeth and started growling at the old man.

“Grrrrrrr…”

“Pochi! What’s wrong with you all of a sudden?”

He was baring his teeth so much his gums were showing. What intensity. He was really showing his animal side.

He lowered his stance as if ready to pounce. I quickly grabbed him by the ruff and pulled him back. Geez, this wasn’t the time to be admiring how scary he looked.

I heard back in my previous world that dogs who’d bitten other people were sent to the pound. I didn’t want that to happen, so I tried hard to stop Pochi.

“Hey, stop it. Geez, what’s wrong? You were so happy digging just a while ago.”

Pochi was already a part of my family. As Pochi’s owner, I’d be responsible for everything he did.

If one of my animals was about to do something bad, as the owner, I had to stop them even at the cost of my body.

“Oh, what a good dog. You’re protecting your owner, huh? Don’t worry, I’m not going to hurt your owner. Look, I just want to let this one have some water.”

The man patted his horse’s behind. The horse neighed, sounding quite pitiful.

Hearing the horse, Pochi’s growling gradually quietened. He was still tense, but he stopped baring his teeth too.

“Pochi, you’re really smart. Did you understand uncle’s words just now? Or did you understand the horse?”

Though he’d stopped baring his teeth, his nose was still all wrinkled. I placed my hands on his muzzle and rubbed.

I kinda felt bad. I’d actually been doubtful if he’d be a proper guard dog when we first met.

But now I see that he was a proper guardian of the house. He was so protective I bet he wouldn’t lose to a professional security firm.

“What a good boy. Thank you.”

It looked like my feelings had gotten through to him. Though he was still a bit stiff with tension, his tail started wagging a little.

“Uncle, it’s alright now. Looks like Pochi understands.”

I patted the horse’s behind to get it moving and led it to the watering trough.

“Here, uncle, have some water too,” I said as I poured some freshly drawn spring water into a glass and gave it to him. “I’m sorry, I would serve you some tea if I had some, but I only have water.”

“No, no, this is fine. Thank you.” The old man took a sip. His eyes widened. “Haaa, this water is delicious.”

“Right? I thought so too.”

Drinking cold water during a hot day was the best.

“In our house, we get water from a river, but it definitely doesn’t taste like this.”

“Is that so? I thought that everyone in this world could drink water this delicious.”

“This world?”

“Yes. I moved here from another world.”

I was pretty lucky getting a house with a pond of delicious spring water behind it.

Norn really did a great job.

If I made barley tea with this water, it would be delicious. Next time, I’ll ask Norn if they had something similar to barley tea.

“Ahh, now that you mention it, I think I’ve heard about you. You came from a pretty long way away. Did you move here with your parents?”

So this uncle still thought I was a child, huh. I thought he would realize I wasn’t after speaking with me, but it looked like that didn’t happen.

“I moved here on my own. So I live in this house by myself.”

“You’re still so small but you moved here alone? How admirable! But you shouldn’t tell people that you live here alone. Though everyone treats children well because there’s not a lot of you, there are still some bad people out there.”

Hmm, so even in this world, the birthrate was declining?

I felt bad for making him seriously worry for me, but even though I looked like this, I was already an adult. I wondered what kind of face he would make if he knew.

“Uncle, even though I look like this, I’ll be 19 this year. In my previous world, we’re considered adults at 20, but in this world it’s 17, right? So now that I’m a resident of this world, I’m already a full-fledged adult.”

Uncle, your jaw, your jaw! If you kept your mouth gaping like that, your jaw’s gonna fall off!

“Well now, that blew my mind. The world is really a big place. Are you that? Like a dwarf or some other race?”

A small person = dwarf, huh. That’s… I felt like it was loads better to be mistaken as a child.

“No, this height is normal in my world. I’ve never heard of dwarves before.”

People really couldn’t live without making small, white lies like this.

What little was left of my pride wouldn’t allow me to confess that, ‘even in my previous world, I was often mistaken for a middle schooler’.

Though I didn’t think people here would understand what a middle schooler was.

Even this little lie would probably be blown soon. Once a lot of people from that world come over here as tourists, it would be pretty obvious that I wasn’t exactly of average height.