Chapter 27: Crop Cycles and New Recipes

The growth cycles of the crops were as follows:

• Jewel Berry: Still growing, harvest time TBD.
• Silver Vine: Flowers bloom 3 days after planting, then bloom on different stalks for another 3 days before setting seeds. Harvest window is 3 days from flowering.
• Cloud Milk Fruit: Seedlings form 3 days after planting, mature into trees after 6 more days. By day 12, they become flowering trees, bearing unripe fruit by day 15. Fully ripe fruit is harvestable on day 18. After harvesting, trees remain bare but bloom again after 6 days, making the fruit cycle 12 days post-maturity.

Unlike in the thunderbird’s dimension, where cloud milk trees fruit once yearly, they’re perennial here—thankfully.

Silver vine was piling up. “Catsy and the thunderbird consume it steadily, but… I’ll start saving seeds instead.”

Cloud milk fruit, with its long growth cycle, was used for drinks and pig-bird feed, so I urgently needed an orchard.
Trees planted too closely wouldn’t sprout, and they took up more space than silver vine. Each tree required 1 cheok of Causality to prepare the land.
Currently, I had 3 cloud milk trees.

• Manager: Kong I-yun (Causality: 8 cheok)
• Affiliation: Baby Bird Café
• Presence Rank: 2 (2 cheok to next rank)

Between Nekomata childcare fees and drink sales, I’d amassed 8 cheok.
Just 4 more would cover upgrading my latte art or Bernell’s abilities, but…

Taming Nekomatas with cloud milk ice cream was depleting my fruit stock. Plus, the pig-bird seemed to eat more as it grew—maybe my imagination.
Thankfully, Bernell didn’t need food like the pig-bird, or we’d have run out of fruit long ago.

“The hardest-to-get ingredient is always the most needed,” I muttered.

Whoosh.
I spent 2 cheok to expand the land twice.

Boom!
The ground rumbled as new earth formed, drawing everyone outside to watch.
As I planted two more cloud milk seeds, the kids lost interest and returned to the kids’ zone.

“You’re industrious,” Bernell said. “Not just making drinks but farming too. Who’d have thought Abelgart’s precious youngest would live like this?”
“It’s fun and rewarding in its own way.”
I’d stopped correcting him about not being Aileen.

From planting to harvesting to crafting, everything went through my hands. I had no intention of delegating to Bernell.
Not only was he too noble-born for such tasks, but I felt pride and responsibility in doing it myself. To return home, I had to give my all.

“Done.”
Using 2 cheok for land brought my total Causality spent here to 12, raising the café’s presence rank.

I’d been wary of increasing presence due to weak defenses and evil god threats, but now I saw the benefits.
Like a game where leveling up unlocks content.
Raising presence was also key to reading the Young Blue Sage’s warding recipe.

• Presence Rank: 3 (12 cheok to next rank)
• Staff: Pig-bird, Bernell Abelgart (2/3 slots)
• Latte Art: Pending (1/2 slots)

Look at that—leveling up increased staff capacity and unlocked a new latte art skill.

• Target: Bernell Abelgart
• Presence Rank: 3 (synced with café)
• Abilities (2/3):
  • Last Knight (Rank 1/3)
  • Dreamcatcher (Rank 0/3)

Even Bernell’s ability cap rose with the synced presence rank.

Brushing dirt off my hands from planting, I wondered: Is there a max level for presence, like in games?
Since Bernell, a demigod, was affected, did other gods have presence ranks? If his rank matched dimension-managing gods, could he become a full god?

Three days later, the jewel berry grew into a bush, and by day 6, it bore unripe fruit, skipping flowering entirely.
“Unripe ones sink in water, right?”

The berries, even unripe, were deep reddish-black. I picked one; it felt no different in weight from ripe ones.
“Yes,” Bernell said. “Want to test it?”
“I’m curious if people really mistook them for gems. They sparkle, but not that much.”

Leaving the rest to ripen, I tossed one into the pond.
It sank, but in the water, it glowed a vivid, high-saturation red, unlike its dark hue.
“Wow… it really looks like a gem now.”
No wonder people were fooled.

By day 9, the jewel berries were fully ripe and harvestable.
Ruby-like fruits studded the turquoise bush, perfect for both culinary and ornamental use. The bush differed starkly from the one at Abelgart’s lake—almost a different species.

I grabbed a basket and harvested them, filling it halfway.
A few experiments would deplete it quickly.
Berries offered endless possibilities—jam, smoothies, juice. I’d be busy.

“Like cloud milk, I’ll need to mass-produce these.”
I planted 7 more jewel berries around the pond.
I’d develop recipes and maybe expand the pond later.

A stray berry floated on the pond’s surface.
Pressing it, the shell cracked like sugar candy.
“Oh, that’s why it floats.”
The thin shell and flesh had a hollow air pocket, formed during ripening, letting it float like a ball.

Wondering if the shell was inedible, I tasted a piece—sweet, like candy.
Not as sweet as sugar, but a natural sweetener for drinks. My heart raced imagining new menu possibilities.
I couldn’t wait for the next harvest.

Basket in hand, I headed to the kitchen, rinsing the berries gently. Bernell sat at the bar, watching.
If he had nothing to do, he followed me like the pig-bird, observing curiously without any intent to learn.

“How are jewel berries usually eaten?”
A perfect cheat sheet was right here—why experiment blindly?

“Your late mother loved them. Jewel berry juice is sweet, favored by noblewomen. It’s also made into wine.”
“Juice, as expected.”
“They’re used in pies or cookies too. Every harvest season, jewel berries are a staple at royal tea parties.”

Baking was beyond me for now.
I knew two juice-making methods: squeezing through cloth or chopping finely instead of blending.
But it was time to move past old-fashioned ways.

“Let’s make a juicer and blender.”
While the berries ripened, my Causality grew steadily. Catsy didn’t bring the Nekomatas daily, but her visits helped immensely.
With drink sales, I had 21 cheok.

Since hitting 12, I’d agonized over upgrading my latte art or Bernell’s abilities but held off, unsure of priorities.
Latte art saved me from the nightmare, but Bernell would face evil gods directly, so his abilities might need the boost first.
These leisurely dilemmas were possible only because no evil god had invaded yet.

“For now, focus on new recipes.”
I spent 2 cheok on a café juicer and blender.
Placed on the kitchen shelf, they made the place feel more like a proper café.

Some berries went into the freezer for smoothies; the rest were for juice.
I separated shells and flesh for juicing, planning to add crushed shells later.
The red shells in a glass jar looked like a candy bottle.

Whirrr.
The blender and juicer roared to life.
The pig-bird, startled, buried its head in its nest, trembling.

“It’s quick. No need to panic.”
Its tiny eyes peeked over the cushion.
It’d get used to the noise.

No Nekomatas today, thankfully—otherwise, their curiosity would’ve caused a ruckus. They were as noise-sensitive as the pig-bird, always darting over to investigate.

“Curious devices,” Bernell said, unimpressed.
“They’re for making juice in my dimension.”
He frowned whenever I mentioned my world, displeased by anything un-Aileen-like.

Too bad—I’m Kong I-yun, not Aileen.
“Jewel berries were loved by society ladies, so that cat goddess might like them too,” he said, meaning Catsy.

“Not necessarily. Gods have picky tastes.”
Like how Nekomatas loved cloud milk ice cream but not warm milk.
Each god had distinct preferences.

What guests would this drink attract?
I stopped the blender when the texture was just chewy enough and turned off the juicer once the cup filled with pure juice.

A new recipe, at last.