Chapter 18

Now that they have all nine pieces of the Jewel of Truth, they rush over to Saibara to hire him to put the jewel back together. It takes him several days, but Saibara successfully combines the jewel shards into one radiant gem. Using orichalcum, he makes the gem into a beautiful necklace. Once they get it back, they gasp as the Jewel of Truth radiates strongly with the energy of the goddess. It shimmers with all the colors of the rainbow as the sunlight hits it.

Now that they have the completed jewel, they now need to track down the Harvest Sprites. They try to find clues in the library, but they find nothing after spending the day reading. So the next day, they decide to manually look around.

They start their search in the mountain area of Mineral Town. As they look around, they find nothing but trees and animals. They then check around the farm, but still nothing. They also find nothing at the beach. As they explore the town, Jennifer notices that the jewel begins to glow when they are near the church. They nod at one another before heading inside.

The jewel loses it’s glow when they go in the church. They know that they are close, but the sprites are definitely not inside the church. The jewel shines once again when they go outside, it is reacting to a path that leads behind the church. So they head into the woods behind the church where the jewel glows more radiant slowly. They know that they are on the right path.

In the woods, they find a large tree with a small door attached to it. The jewel glows brighter as they get close to it. They can see the door thanks to the Jewel of Truth. They get goosebumps as their journey to find the Harvest Sprites will finally come to an end.

The door may be small, but it’s just big enough to allow Yuto and Jennifer to pass through. Inside the huge tree trunk, they find the seven small sprites having a tea party. They all look back at Yuto and Jennifer, then cheer as they discover they have guests.

“Humans came to visit us!” cheered the blue sprite filled with excitement.

“It’s been a long time since we had visitors!” yelled the red sprite.

“Come on, play with us! Play with us!” cried the yellow sprite.

The tree becomes very noisy as the sprite crowds around Yuto and Jennifer like a bunch of small children. Yuto wants to talk to them, but the sprites are too excited like a group of kids seeing Santa for the first time. After some time of the sprite’s constant cheering and screaming, it finally becomes quiet enough for Yuto to speak.

Yuto clears his throat before he explains, “everyone, we need your help! We don’t have a lot of time, and I need you all to help me on my farm!”

“Awwwww,” whined the Harvest Sprites in unison.

“But we don’t want to work just yet!” cried the green sprite.

“Yeah, we want to play and have tea parties!” cheered the orange sprite.

“Won’t you play with us? Please?” begged the purple sprite.

Once again, the tree fills with the noise of the sprites begging and whining about working before they get a chance to play. Yuto tries his best to calm the sprites and explain himself, but they crowd around him to continue to beg and plead with him. Seeing how overwhelmed Yuto is, Jennifer decides to step in and help. She claps her hands to silence the room and allow her to speak.

“I understand that you all wish to be entertained, there is nothing more that I would love to do with all of you. Please understand that we all are in trouble. Mineral Town will be destroyed soon, and the Harvest Goddess asked us to find all of you.”

The Harvest Sprites gasp at the news. They all huddle into a circle to discuss the situation. “Is the Harvest Goddess in trouble?” asked the cyan sprite.

“I don’t know, it’s been ages since we left this tree,” answered the red sprite.

Panic fills the room as the Harvest Sprites assume the worst. After some time, Jennifer claps her hands again to gain their attention. “I know this is very sudden; but if we are to save this town and everything around it, we’ll need to work together! You all will have my word, we will come and play with you when time allows it. But for now, this town and the Harvest Goddess needs your help. Will you lend us your strength?”

All the sprites cheer loudly as they agree to help her and Yuto. He looks at Jennifer shocked that she easily got everyone’s cooperation. Jennifer just smiles at him, knowing that everything worked out so well.

The next morning, the sprites march in single file as they prepare to work in the farm. In the field, the red sprite begins to dictate what each sprite will do to help Yuto and Jennifer. They split up into two teams. One team composed with four sprites will help Yuto in the field and the greenhouse, while the other will help Jennifer in the stables and coop. They cheer before moving in formation to get started around the farm.

Yuto lead the field team. Each morning, Yuto rushes through the field to find any ripe crops to be shipped. The sprites then picks all the crops, then deposits them in the shipping bin. As Yuto waters the crops, the sprites uses their tiny little watering cans to help him work faster and more efficient. Their cans may be tiny, but they hold an unlimited amount of water, so they don’t need to rush back to refill them. They then move to the greenhouse to harvest and water the pineapple crops.

Inside the coop and barn, Jennifer leads the animal team to care for the cows, sheep, and chickens. Each sprite takes turns boosting each other up to brush and care for the cows and sheep. They then milk the cows and sheer the sheep to place in the shipping bins. Jennifer spends her time feeding and bonding with the animals to get better quality byproducts. They then move to the coop to let the chickens out and collect the eggs.

All the work is done in the farm by 5:00 pm. This gives Yuto and Jennifer plenty of time to fish and forage for more things to sell each day. They thank the sprites and say good night each day. Despite all the help they get, they still work all the way to 9:00 pm.

By the end of Spring when all the crops are beginning to wilt, Yuto decides to invest in having maker machines built for the farm. It is a risky investment, but Yuto feels that this will help them meet their goal by the end of the year. The last maker is installed in the coop by the last day of Spring. In Summer, they will begin to sell cheese, mayonnaise, and yarn to help them get over the edge.

Summer comes in with the warm winds and wilted crops. Yuto spends the day clearing out the wilted crops to prepare the soil for the summer seeds. He uses his mithril hoe to plow the field quickly to till every last square inch of the field, something he could not do until now. As he plows, the sprites rush in to plant and water the seeds behind him. He uses up all his stamina to the point of collapsing, but the entire field is tilled, seeded, and watered.

As the crops mature over the course of summer, he watches his bank account fills up quickly with every harvest. Each day that the sprites march in, Yuto rewards them with flour from the store. He has no idea why they love flour so much, he assumes it’s for the biscuits they eat with their tea. The flour is an added unexpected cost, but the help he gets in the farm makes it well worth it.

As time passes through Mineral Town, all the residents begin to take notice of the farm and how well it’s doing. Zack reports that the shipping bin is getting full past the point of overflowing, and the town’s economy is growing rapidly. Jeff’s store shelves are stocked up with delicious crops for people to buy, Dudley’s inn now has an expanded menu, and the town is getting a lot more visitors than normal. The town is also getting a good reputation, which encourages even more tourists to visit the town. Because of this, the town’s morale is recovering quickly.

The fall air arrives soon, and the busiest season is upon the farm. The old crops are cut down and replaced with fall crop seeds. Yuto, Jennifer, and the Harvest Sprites work extra hard knowing that this is the last season to plant crops before they stop growing until Spring. Even though the sprites work hard, they do get plenty of time off to rest. On rainy days, the sprites stay at their tree with Yuto and Jennifer. They would spend the day with their little friends playing all types of games and having tea parties. The sprites behave like a bunch of children as they tell jokes and play games. They do play rough at times, but Yuto and Jennifer finds them charming when it happens.

Winter arrives, but they still didn’t earn the ten million they need. They are very close, so they can’t give up yet. Yuto spends his days at the lake mine, taking the field team with him. He uses the elevator to go up and down the mine excavating precious gemstones like rubies, sapphires, emeralds, and diamonds. Occasionally, he will find some extra fancy gems like pink diamonds and alexandrites. These gems sells for several thousands by themselves. The other team stay at the farm helping Jennifer with the farm animals.

By the end of winter, Yuto checks his bank account. He is proud to announce to Jennifer and the sprites that they’ve successfully made the ten million they need. He also reminds everyone that this may only be a temporary save since Joja has more than enough money to buy them out again. But even if they do, the clock will reset to give them another three years. They can keep doing it until they just give up and leave Mineral Town alone. But knowing that they can at least stop Joja temporarily makes everyone happy and cheer for a new year.