The picturesque rice cakes are delicious today

It's all spring. Mornings and evenings cool down, but the sun is much warmer during the day. Especially by the windows where the sunlight plunges in, it feels nice and gloomy. I only take a nap in such a place when I take a nap.

... yeah. Take a nap. I'm taking a nap now.

Previously, I didn't sleep at night instead of napping to draw pictures, but lately... because of my lack of energy, I have to take a nap.

I started helping out with my field work.

After all, the fields were to be built outside the forest. Somehow... Lyla wants to keep the environment in the woods intact, and above all, there are many trees in the woods, making it difficult to cultivate them. That's why I make fields and crops on a flatland about a minute's walk from the edge of the forest.

From the middle of the forest, it takes about 40 minutes by horse. It takes quite a while, but it can't be helped. I think it's like going to school, well.

"Hey, don't push me, okay?

"I didn't."

Lyla doesn't have much time to plow the field alone, so I decided to help her with the boulders. Laocles will do what he needs, and Lila and Lian will do the rest.

Crowe and Ange have been waiting for us for lunch, and when we get back from the field, we'll have lunch... and each one of us will be at home this afternoon.

Me and Lyla draw pictures, Lian takes care of horses and plays with Ange, and Laocles encourages training whenever he has time... and sometimes he picks me up and takes Lyla. Mm-hmm.

However... unfortunately, I don't have much physical strength, so I got tired and sleepy before painting, and started napping. Especially if the maintenance of the forest boundary overlaps. I fall asleep. It's not that I'm out of magic, it's really just that I'm slow.

... somehow, I'm ashamed of my lack of health, but I can't help it. I guess you'll be taking a nap every day for a while, until you get your strength back.

... and the field next to Lyla's house, where the seeds of the example were sown, is covered with brilliantly grown grass.

"... I wonder what kind of plant this is. I wonder if it's food."

Lyla leans her neck with her fingertips on one leaf.

The plants that grew were quite strange.

Growth is very fast. Let's sow it for a month, it's tough.... I wonder what kind of plant this really is.

"Maybe if you grow in this forest, the plants will grow faster?

"Eh, no, I don't know..."

... it's not unlikely, but I don't know that, so nothing. Well, I've never grown a normal plant in this forest in the first place.

"Well, that's fine... but I've never seen this plant before. It may be medicinal herbs, but...."

"Want to try it?

"... you have to check in the drawings first."

Right. Yeah, well, yeah. I ran first.

Then I went to Faye's house with a leaf and saw the botanical atlas. Lyla hasn't come. It seems a little awkward to go to Faye's house.... I see. I won't hesitate to go, but... should I? Hmm...

"Heh. Is that grass grown already? It's early."

But Fei doesn't care about anything, even if I don't hesitate. I'm more interested in leaves than I am. [M]

"Yeah, I'm surprised. Lyla said," Maybe it's the woods that grow faster. "

"Ah, well done. Yeah, it looks like it's in your woods..."

I was really surprised. It's growing like a bamboo shoot.... ah, by the way, the main house bamboo shoot is still being dug up today by the vibrant horses and turned into a soup set, and the bamboo is actually a snack of phoenix and sardines.

"Still, I wonder what this is all about. Do you have any idea?

"Um, from the growth rate, bamboo...?

"No, that's not true...."

If you just look at the growth rate, it's bamboo. Bamboo. But Lyla's grass doesn't look like bamboo at all. More grass. A little thin leaves on a red stem. The leaves are soft and, well, they feel delicious when boiled. I haven't eaten it yet.

"Well, no. You can use our drawings as you like!

"Yes, thank you."

"Just don't get dirty. Come on, Corn, your hands are dirty."

Eh?

When Faye told me to look at my hand, it was true. My hands were colored. I wonder what this is.

"Blue paint?

"Hmm...?

The colour on my hands is light and blue. Somehow, it's similar when I touch the blue ink.

... when the teacher was writing, he preferred blue black and blue ink ballpoint pens to black, but after it got on the teacher's hand, it rubbed and became thinner.

"I haven't touched the paint yet."

But today, of course, I didn't even touch the paint. I got up in the morning, ate dinner, worked on the farm, then looked at the leaves, and came to Faye's house. That's why I don't think it was the right time for my hands to get blue and dirty...

"... ah"

I wonder, look at the leaves.

I picked a leaf from Lyla's field to look into the atlas.

If you look at the stem incision of the leaves...

I knew it.

Blue juice seeped through the leaf incision.

"So, I think this is an indigo."

"... Ah?

"Yeah."

Go home and explain it to Lyla. Show me the book I borrowed from Faye.

"Indigo ingredients. I dye my hair with it."

I'll crush the picked leaves a little and slip my fingers onto the paper.... and the paper is dyed green.

"... green."

"Yeah, hold on a second."

When you shake the paper and let it touch the air, the green color gradually changes to blue.

"... wow"

Lyla looks at the blue that appears and opens her eyes.

"It's so beautiful....."

"Yeah."

Lyla looked at the paper for a while, but immediately raised her face as if she had returned to me.

"This can be used for cloth too!? Do I dye my hair with raw leaves!?

"No, I'm not familiar with it either...."

I wonder. Indigo dyeing, but it certainly made leaves ferment. Mm-hmm.

The chart I borrowed contained only a little indication of how to use the indigo, but it seemed difficult to dry or ferment it, so I decided to try to do it just by using raw leaves.

Cut the leaves slightly and divide them into stems and leaves. Then, put the leaves in a bag of cloth and rub them in water. Rub it even.

"... that's quite a bit of color coming out."

"Yeah."

I just rubbed the raw leaves, but the water turned green.... but not indigo.

"Um, um... I'll let you in for now. Yeah."

Then Lyla puts the white handkerchief in the water with Pochan. And just keep stirring it around...

"... I wonder if it's a green light blue."

It's light shallots.

The handkerchiefs that were removed were brilliantly dyed in shade.

Then there were several sheets, and Lyla was dyeing the cloth.... it seems that the colour will change gradually when the dyed cloth is dried. The cloth that was light green at first also changed to light indigo. That's funny.

"... it wasn't the color I thought it would be, but this is beautiful."

"Yeah."

It's a very beautiful color. A color like the sky at dawn. Light blue, slightly cooler color. I feel a little happy when I look at it.

"In my mother's figure clothes, are there indigo clothes? It's a much darker color... but certainly a handkerchief or something like that was there."

Lyla looked a little happy holding her dyed handkerchief.

"... my father was dyeing and my mother told me about it. I've never seen my father before....."

Lyla looked up at the sky and murmured.

"Dad was dyeing this plant, too. I'm sure."

Lyla's expression was so clear. Like when I found a new treasure... like a traveler on an adventure.

"Still... you've found something like this all the time. It's not in the corner of the book."

Then Lyla shows me the atlas. [M]

Yeah. It was pretty tough looking at the indigo from the atlas. I saw a few books, and I finally found them.

"Ah... because I was very familiar with indigo. That's why I knew who I was before the atlas...."

Eh?

... but when I say so, Lyla looks surprised.

"Where was your house?

"Eh? Um...."

Well, I don't know what I explained. I suppose you can say "different world," and I already told Faye, and I don't have to hide it... um... Um...

"... no, I don't care about your house."

But when I was lost, Lyla approached me. And then...

"Now, do you know how to make darker colors with this plant?

... that's what I heard.

... and for a while, Lyla became an indigo dyer. It seems that he has started researching indigo, and he has tried and mistakenly said that it is neither the case nor the case.

The only advice I could give was, "Yes, it was fermented," and, "It's about redox."

When I was in elementary school, I went to do indigo dyeing in school. [M]

The memory of that time... it was so bad.

In response to the question, "Why does it smell?", the craftsman said, "It's fermenting! I feel like you taught me." No, the indigo leaves themselves smell quite strange.

... and maybe something. When I dyed it with raw leaves, the colour changed after leaving it for a while. I think that's probably because it's oxidized.

I think that the indigo pigment will probably become that color if it is not oxidized. However, it seems that the liquid of raw leaves that has been put aside for a certain amount of time didn't dye well... well, if it oxidizes, it develops color, but it won't stain the cloth.

That means that we need to do something like reduce the oxidized dye once and oxidize it again. After fermentation, it will probably oxidize, so it will become a reducing agent... well, I feel like I should put ash in it, but I don't really know. I only took chemistry up to I. My grades weren't better than my national language...

... it seems that there aren't many chemistries in this world, so even if I told Lyla this story, it was pompous.

At the end, they said, "You seem smart, you have something to say...".

... you know... Um... I don't know what to say, like this. Not much!

However, I'm sure Lyla worked very hard afterwards.

I flew to King's Landing with my horse, did some research in the library of King's Landing, asked the dyestuff shop in King's Landing, and found out a few ways like that.

Among them, it seems that I decided to try a method that matched my saying, "It was fermented" and "I feel like I should put ash in it".

No, it would definitely take time to ferment, and I thought it would take six months or a few years...

"Yes, I'll give you this."

It's been a little over a month since Lyla started her research. The season was full of spring... and all Lyla gave me was paint.

"... wow"

Placed in a small container, it's an indigo paste. But it's paint. As soon as I look at it, I can tell.

After Lyla turned me down, I tried drawing a little bit... and a wonderful, vivid indigo line was drawn on the paper. This is... this is amazing!

"This will take about a week from the leaves. Maybe it'll be faster if it's warm."

"... awesome"

Lyla's behavior and research results are amazing. Anyway, it's amazing.

"I've thought about dyeing clothes and stuff, but it's not working yet. Besides, I thought you'd be happier than clothes."

Exactly! Lyla knows me so well! If I were you, I'd be happier with paint than clothes! I'm so happy!

"... I'm glad. Looks like you like it."

"Of course! I'm so happy!

I'm so happy to tell you that, but the words don't come out well. I wonder what to say other than, "I'm so happy."

... but when Lyla looked at me like that, she smiled and said, "I don't have to tell you."

"I owe this indigo to you. Thanks to the seeds you sowed."

I didn't do anything.

"Yeah, thanks to you. You may think it's not a big deal, but it was a big deal to me."

Lyla said so happily... and then she searched her pockets... and took out a small container of paint from inside. It's the same as what I gave you. [M] Inside, of course, is an indigo paint.

"... so... Why don't you draw it now?

Lyla said that in her hand with an indigo paint and smiled.

"I want to draw!

Seeing that, I wanted to draw a lot with this paint right now.

So I drew an indigo painting. [M]

The sky is blue. The dark shadows that fall on the grasslands are also indigo.

The indigo sky is more of a dawn than a sunset. Color before the sun rises, just before the end of the night. Even though you anticipate a morning that hasn't started yet, the air is still cold, and you may feel the chills in the weeds wet in the night dew.

A composition that looks out into the woods. In the distance you can see the town of Redgard, but it's just a wide expanse of land.

Indigo suits such a quiet view with no one around.

... the shadows are all indigo, and the sky has a gradient of dimly melted indigo and darkly melted indigo. Anyway, when the indigo painting was finished, it sort of worked out surprisingly well for me.

Maybe because this blue color is beautiful.

The view of indigo before dawn makes me feel like what I'm going to do.

... I feel kind of strange when I draw it up.

I still want to draw. I want to draw a lot. I want to paint various things... and I want to make them.

Oh, that's kind of weird. I feel like I want to try a lot of things. I want to try not only painting, but also farming and crafts. Then I want to go to various places. I want to go and paint there and meet various creatures.

What should I do? There's so much I want to do. How did this happen suddenly?... but I don't know why, but I'm not worried about that. I feel so calm. [M] Calm down, I mean, it's kind of, like, stable... but I want to do a lot of things for that. Hmm...

... what the hell is this?