Long Story Short, I'm Living in the Mountains: Volume 2 (eBook)

Asagi (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2025 | 1. Auflage
250 Seiten
J-Novel Club (Verlag)
978-1-7183-4026-8 (ISBN)

Infos

It is now July, and twenty-five year old bachelor Shohei Sano has adapted to life in the mountains. (Well, kind of.) It's not quite the reclusive existence he'd hoped for, but his new daily routine keeps him busy and offers a much-needed respite from the woes he ran away from. Plus, his chickens-Pochi, Tama, and Yuma-are just so adorable! As the summer gets into full swing, Shohei and his giant talking chickens are tasked with a new challenge: dealing with illegal dumping! Thankfully, the villagers are eager to help, especially if it means being able to work alongside the village's newfound feathery heroes. And that's not all-from organizing festivals to attending BBQs to dealing with uninvited visitors, Shohei's summer season will be jam-packed with adventure!

Textauszug

1. My Chickens Need to Get Vaccinated

It was a rainy morning in July. When it came to the fickle mountain weather, you couldn’t rely on the forecast at all.

I’m glad I got a lot done yesterday. I wish they’d give us the weather forecast for the mountains too. Preferably for my mountain. (Yeah, as if.)

There’re these stories about how swallows fly low and cats lick their faces when it’s about to rain, and there does seem to be some truth to them, but well...there aren’t any swallows flying up here, and I don’t have a cat. Though that might be nice, now that I think of it—sitting on the veranda basking in the sun with a cat, or watching them cozy up in the kotatsu... But I don’t think a regular house cat would make it up here in the mountains. They’d need the vitality of a wildcat, I think. A cat probably wouldn’t hunt my chickens. More likely, they would hunt it.

“This rain sucks...”

I prepared myself a quick breakfast and washed the inedible parts of the vegetables I’d received from Yumoto-san yesterday (or rather, the chickens had received them as a reward for their work). I planned to feed these scraps to the chickens. I’ll just throw out the leftovers near the fields anyway. Not that I make that much food. Usually the excess goes into the fridge.

“Vaccines...”

I remembered Yumoto-san had told me back in June that I should get them vaccinated if I wanted them to lay eggs. I’d had the vet who goes to the chicken farm regularly check up on them as well. Not Pochi, though—he ran away. The vet had given me a detailed explanation about chicken vaccines, and I’d said I would get in touch with him at a later date.

Today, Tama and Yuma were out somewhere patrolling the mountain. Pochi stayed home.

Still, that was quite the ordeal with Tama last night.

Two days ago, I’d had her stay the night by herself while we’d been out. That in and of itself was not a problem. However, when we’d come back yesterday after the gathering at the Yumotos to celebrate the end of the chickens’ work term, we’d found her completely filthy. I’d asked her if she’d spent the whole night running around, and she’d turned away. Then a bunch had happened, and she’d run away from me.

“Running away means you’ve got a heavy conscience! You do, don’t you? Wanna apologize?” I’d scolded her when she’d come back, but she’d just kept turning away. “I’m thankful that you stayed behind and looked after the mountain, but there’s such a thing as too much. I’m worried about you, Tama.” I’d explained this, making sure to express both my gratitude and my concern.

I mean, I’m helpless on my own against a wild boar, after all. Not that encountering one should happen that often, but Yumoto-san mentioned that there were more of them recently.

That time, Tama hadn’t run away—she’d pecked me. Whyyyyyyy?!

***

At the bare minimum, I always had to check around the house and the fields, no matter how tired I was or how bad the weather was. Well, I mean, unless it’s pouring outside. At least I had Pochi’s company today, which was very reassuring. Next year, I might try planting more kinds of vegetables.

It wasn’t long before Pochi caught a viper. This one was a bit unusual—it looked somewhat swollen and bloated. Oh yeah, their spawning season is supposed to be pretty soon, I think. If I’m not mistaken, it happens around August, or maybe a little later. I guess some might spawn earlier than that.

“Pochi, gimme a sec.” I told him to keep hold of it for now and gave Old Man Yumoto a call.

“Yo, Shohei. What’s up?”

“Pochi caught another viper, but it looks kind of swollen around its belly.”

“It’s still a bit early, but I reckon it might be pregnant. Can you bring it to me? Viper eggs are pretty nutritious, y’know!”

Huh. Guess that means this one’s becoming food, not alcohol. I asked Pochi to let me have the viper, then went inside to get a bottle. And...done. Because the belly was too swollen to go through the mouth of the bottle, I cut the top off and carefully sealed it with tape. I gotta remember to restock on plastic bottles. It’s a pretty bizarre feeling buying plastic bottles for catching snakes—normally, you’d be more concerned with drinking out of them. I work outside every day, so I definitely do need to stay hydrated, but still.

I’ll give it to Yumoto-san tomorrow. I also gave the vet a call before I forgot, and I mentioned that we’d met previously at Matsuyama-san’s farm.

“Oh, right, those feathered dinosaurs!” the vet exclaimed.

Are they really not chickens after all? Not that I’d mind if they turned out to be feathered dinosaurs. Still, it just doesn’t sit quite right with me. Dinosaurs are cool and all, but the chickens aren’t that reptilian. (I may be in slight denial here.) Wait, dinosaurs are reptiles, right? They’re the ancestors of birds. Agh, my head’s spinning.

“I would like to get them vaccinated,” I told the vet. “When would be a good time for you?”

Rather reluctantly, the vet replied, “I don’t mind doing it, but I feel like it’d be a good idea to avoid being seen by the neighbors. Wouldn’t want anyone to take pictures and post them on the internet, right?”

“Ah, you make a good point...” What about their portrait rights? Or does that even apply to chickens? We could try going at night, but that wouldn’t be one hundred percent safe either. “In that case—”

The vet interjected. “Actually, I’m supposed to go to Matsuyama-san’s place on Thursday to take care of a different matter. If he’s all right with it, and you’re not busy, I could vaccinate the chickens while I’m there.”

“Yes! Thank you! I’ll see you on Thursday, then!” I accepted without a second thought. And since I was the one asking for a favor, I took the initiative to contact Matsuyama-san and ask for his permission.

“Oh, you decided to get them vaccinated, huh? That’s good to hear. You wanna do it here? Sure, no problem.” He graciously accepted. I owe him another one. “Oh yeah, by the way, remember that chicken you ate the other day? I changed the recipe a bit, and I’d like you to give it a try when you stop by.”

“Ah, thank you.”

“Bring your friend too.”

Looks like he’s treating us to some samgye-tang. I gotta make sure to find a good gift for him by Thursday. I relayed this to Aikawa-san, and he said he’d be glad to go. I also took the opportunity to ask if he had any good suggestions for presents.

“I recall you mentioning that the Matsuyamas like fruit,” said Aikawa-san. “How about picking out some seasonal selections and then asking whether they have any favorite foods?”

Nice! I knew I could count on him.

“By the way...” Aikawa-san continued. “I remember you talking about how Pochi-san ran away last time you tried bringing up the subject of vaccines. Will he be all right?”

“Ah...” Yeah, I still have to do something about that. I doubt I can catch Pochi myself through normal means. Suddenly, I had another problem to deal with.

After some consideration, I decided I had to come up with a plan to catch him off guard. I also needed to make sure Tama and Yuma wouldn’t be scared away by the word “injection,” since I would need their cooperation. If that happened, I would be left with no other choice but to use the drinking-water vaccination. This is pretty complicated.

I lectured Tama and Yuma on the importance of vaccines, though I’m not quite sure they were able to follow everything. Yuma’s head was tilted the whole time. That’s adorable, but I’m pretty sure it means she didn’t understand what I said. I decided to try a different approach and explain as plainly as I could.

“You’re getting vaccines. If you don’t, you won’t be able to move anymore, and food will taste bad.” This should be good enough.

My chickens didn’t really understand the concept of illness or death. I explained that if they got sick, they could lose mobility and have trouble breathing, and they might even die, so they had to get vaccinated to remain strong and healthy. I’ll drill this into their heads every day, and hopefully, that’ll help with dragging Pochi along. If it doesn’t, well, I guess I’ll have to give up. I can’t do anything about Pochi on my own.

***

The following day, I went over to Yumoto-san’s place to hand him the viper.

“Whoa... It really is pregnant. Thanks, Shohei,” he said with a smile. He headed inside with the snake in hand.

“Another viper? Eeeh? Eggs? I don’t want anything to do with that...”

I could hear Machiko-san, his wife, complaining. Well, yeah, I wouldn’t want to butcher a snake either. Who butchered that yamakagashi from the other day, I wonder?

“I know, I know, I’ll take care of it. Sheesh...” Yumoto-san said as he came back outside.

He can butcher snakes. Impressive.

“Wanna come in for...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 29.7.2025
• Reihe/Serie: Long Story Short, I’m Living in the Mountains
• Illustrationen: Asagi
• Übersetzer: Asagi
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur
• Schlagworte: adult protagonist • Chickens • farming • monster taming • Slice of Life • Slow life • talking animals
• ISBN-10: 1-7183-4026-5 / 1718340265
• ISBN-13: 978-1-7183-4026-8 / 9781718340268