Chapter 71 Jackpot.
She had been expecting a reasonable harvest when her brother said four fields of oats had been planted by the old man but what he did not mention was the impressive size of the grains. The harvest from one field was double that of two field planted with normal oats.
She had crystal water and purifying water to explain any changes in the size of plants that she planted but what excuse did the old mysterious man have? Was he a scientist or someone with a cheat of some kind?
She looked around and tugged at Adler's hand, urging him to bend down so that she could whisper to him.
"Brother who exactly was this man?" she asked.
Adler shrugged as response. "Why?" he asked.
"Because these are vey good grains, they are so fat and healthy. These are good quality oats which can only be grown from extraordinary grains. As a matter of fact, if the people had known that this was food it would have been harvested a long time ago."
Adler took one grain and put it in his mouth and tried to chew it but then he spat it out with a disgusted look on his face. He always carried around a bottle of juice and he took one large sip to erase the weird taste in his mouth.
"I don't think so, that is not tasty at all." he said.
She looked at him as if she was eyeing a daft younger sibling. "You tried to eat something with a husk on, of course it will be hard and weird. The oats are inside the husks, we have to separate them. And then we have to turn the oats into flour or process them so that they can be cooked as porridge or be used in baking bread."
"I still think it will taste weird." Adler insisted. "Sweet things should be sweet right from the get go like the sugar canes. They look like sticks but they taste amazing."
"Just add sugar to the oat porridge or whatever is being baked and you have a sweet taste. Oats are heathy, I for one am glad that this old man has given us a surprise. I am going to look around his house and see what else I can find."
"Wait for me." Adler called out as she walking away.
She turned around and held her hands out, "No brother," she said, "You need to go and come with a machine that helps us harvest the oats while separating the husks from the useful oats. I think that rice harvester I asked you to make can do the same job. Go to the factory and see if even one machine has been finished."
When she was worrying about how to harvest the oats it crossed her mind that the rice harvesters she had asked her brother to have manufactured in the tiny fracture could work after all oats and rice were all grains. They could not be so different.
Her brother looked extremely hesitant and unwilling to leave. "But I don't want to leave you here alone, what if something happens."
She spun around slowly once. "Look around brother, it's just me and the oats for miles. My husband already encompassed sixty percent of our planet in a barrier and he added a shield, we don't have to worry about mutant beasts or space pirates attacking suddenly. But if you are so worried then send someone to come after you leave. Our biggest emergency right now is the oats, they are already ripe and if we do not harvest they will go to waste. You know as well as I do that we cannot afford to waste any food."
"I am sending someone." Adler told her.
"Do as you wish." she told him.
She went into the old man's house which she knew before hand was empty. Her brother had told her about how he and their father buried the old man behind the house.
She thought that by looking around she could get an insight into the former occupant of the house.
It was basic however, solid metal and four walls. There was nothing at all in this house which was quite surprising since the old man had lived here for years. Her father and brother had not taken anything out so what happened to the old man's properties?
She decided to use her grim reaper vision to find what was hiding and alas!! she saw a small beam of white smoke up above behind an arch like structure on the roof of the house. Right on cue, her soul gourd started rattling.
'So there is a soul in this house.' she thought. 'Probably the old man's soul.'
But if soul eaters emitted black smoke then what emitted white?
Using her soul binding rope, she aimed at the white smoke and pulled down the soul. Unlike the usually silent souls, this one was one talking, just like a human. An angry soul that was extremely visible that she could almost touch it was glaring at her. It was a man, an old angry man.
"What the heck?" she said as she was surprised. "Severus, if you can hear me, wake up. I have a bit of a soul emergency."
Severus was quiet, she had nothing back from him.
"Get out of my house." the man yelled at her.
He was tall and standing straight despite the sharp white beard and wrinkles. On his head was a thick mane of white hair . If he was jolly, with a round stomach, thicker beard and dressed in red, he would have made a good Santa Claus.
Scarlet knew that she could not just rely on Severus for everything, a grim reaper should be able to face any type of soul. "I am afraid I can't do that." she told him politely.
She was quickly perusing the underworld forum for talking souls and souls with white smoke. The most common answer she found was 'strong soul' and the words 'jackpot' and 'congratulations.'
She had just blindly stumbled upon a strong soul and she was officially going to join the ranks of the few wealthy reapers in the underworld. One strong soul was equal to ten million ordinary souls and one thousand soul eaters.
She could not let go of him, he had to be delivered to the underworld so that she could be rewarded handsomely and he could either become a grim reaper in another world or be reincarnated. Whatever choice he made was up to him but either way, she was going to be rewarded.