Volume 1 – “Farm Diary” Streaming Begins
How many times has this happened now? I was sure I’d been working exactly as my boss instructed.
Yet, the phone never stopped ringing with complaints from producers.
As an employee of a food wholesaler, I was practically a corporate slave.
「Hey, Morita-kun, are you even listening?」
「Yes.」
Exhausted from lack of sleep, I realized I had started to drift off. Once again, my boss and I were being summoned by the president.
「So, it was Abo-kun who managed to fix things this time too, wasn’t it?」
「Well, cleaning up after subordinates is what being a boss is all about.」
Even when I tried to point out the mistakes, my boss never listened. In the end, I would always be the one left to deal with the fallout.
Just earlier, I had been bowing my head in apology to a producer. Now, I’d come straight to headquarters without a moment’s rest.
How many days had it been since I last slept?
I couldn’t even remember the last time I took a break.
Constant work had worn me down so much that I could no longer tell if the mistakes were mine or not.
「So, Morita-kun, when are you planning to take responsibility?」
The sudden question snapped me back to my senses.
Having left my rural hometown and finally secured a job here, I had nowhere else to go.
No qualifications, no notable education, no achievements to speak of.
I had no choice but to cling to this place.
「Please, give me another chance to prove myself!」
I quickly bowed my head.
I had long since abandoned my pride. After all, I had caused losses for the company.
「We’ve heard that excuse too many times. Your apologies are as meaningless as flushing the toilet after using it, aren’t they?」
「Wow, Mr. President, that’s such a clear and relatable analogy!」
My stomach churned at my boss’s shameless flattery. Why had I ever followed his orders so obediently?
Disgust welled up as I listened to the two of them laugh uproariously.
But still, I had no choice but to bow my head and beg to keep my job.
「Please, somehow—」
The room suddenly turned cold. The laughter from moments ago vanished.
Something struck me, and a jolt of pain ran through my head.
When I looked up, the president stood over me, holding a rolled-up stack of papers he had just used to hit me.
「That pain you feel? It’s what Abo-kun has endured while covering for your mistakes. These are his notes.」
It seemed to be a compilation of all my alleged errors.
Taking the papers, I was stunned by what I read.
Lapses in quality control, pricing errors.
As I read further, it detailed a litany of incidents.
But none of them were my mistakes. They were all errors from following my boss’s instructions. Yet the documents framed me as having disregarded his orders and acted on my own.
And, of course, it claimed my boss had handled all the fallout.
「Abo-kun must have a hard time dealing with such an incompetent subordinate.」
「Not at all! I chose him for the company I love, and I’ve been doing my best, believing he’ll eventually blossom into something great.」
It was only now that I finally realized.
The company couldn’t fire me outright, so they had been pushing me toward resigning of my own accord.
And I had existed merely as a stepping stone for my boss’s career.
My ability to think clearly must have deteriorated to the point where I could no longer see it.
「Thank you for everything until now.」
Using what little focus my sleep-deprived mind could muster, I decided to protect the last shred of pride I thought I’d already abandoned.
I was a fool for throwing away my pride for the sake of people like them.
♢
The next day, I began packing my things to leave the company dorm.
Now that I had resigned, I couldn’t even understand why I had clung to this job for so long.
My battered heart was longing for the peace of my grandparents’ home in the countryside.
I had been raised by my grandparents since I was a child.
Back then, there were no convenience stores or places to play—just the vastness of nature.
Tired of that empty countryside, I had left home.
My grandparents had accepted that decision without a word.
That’s why I believed they would accept me again, even if I suddenly showed up unannounced.
Once my packing was done, I picked up my phone to call my grandmother.
The ringing tone echoed in my ears.
It had been a long time since I last called.
But my grandmother, who would usually answer right away, didn’t pick up.
「Maybe she’s busy today.」
I hung up and waited for a while. Then, my phone rang in the quiet of the room.
「What’s wrong all of a sudden?」
The familiar voice on the other end made me sniffle.
Hearing her voice for the first time in so long, I struggled to hold back the tears welling up.
When I first started working, I had called her regularly, but as I got busier, the calls became fewer until they stopped entirely.
I told my grandmother everything that had happened to me.
「You’ve been working so hard, Naoki.」
Maybe this was the phrase I had wanted to hear all along. It hit me just how much my heart had been worn down.
「That’s why I thought I’d come back—」
「It’s better if you don’t come home right now. Stay where you are and keep living there.」
But the words she said next were not what I had hoped for. I had believed she would welcome me back.
「Is that Norika on the phone?」
「Dad, please be quiet for a moment.」
TN: the grandpa and grandma are calling each other with mom and dad.
I heard my grandpa’s voice in the background.
Norika was the name of my late mother. She couldn’t possibly be the one calling, so what was he talking about?
「I’m busy, so if something happens, just call me again, okay?」
「But I’m coming back—」
The only sound left in my ear was the disconnected tone of a hung-up call.
It was harvest season, so they must be incredibly busy with the vegetables.
Figuring I could help out if I got there early, I decided to return home the next day.
♢
I took several connecting trains to return to my family’s home deep in the mountains. With buses running only every few hours, missing one meant I wouldn’t know when I’d arrive.
「How many years has it been since I came back here?」
The familiar scenery felt nostalgic. As I waited for the bus under the warm sunlight, someone suddenly called out to me.
「Hey, are you Naoki by chance?」
A man in a small truck spoke to me. With a towel wrapped around his head and a wrinkled face smiling brightly, he looked familiar.
「Uh, from the poultry farm…」
「It’s Kojima! You’ve grown up, haven’t you?」
It was Gramps Kojima from the Kojima Poultry Farm, who lived a bit further away. I felt a pang of nostalgia for the days when the crowing of his roosters always woke me up early.
「Are you heading home now?」
「Yeah, I’m planning to stay at my parents’ place for a while.」
「Then I’ll give you a ride! The bus won’t be here for a while anyway.」
I tried to decline, but he’d already opened the passenger door and was waiting for me. I used to feel uneasy about this kind of closeness.
And yet, now, it made me happy.
Living in the city, I didn’t have any friends to rely on. There was no coworker to check on me when I got sick, no boss or subordinate to lend a hand.
What kind of life had I been chasing after?
As I climbed into the truck, Gramps Kojima immediately launched into conversation. He hadn’t changed—still as talkative as ever.
「By the way, how’s your grandpa doing?」
「Grandpa?」
「Yeah, I heard his dementia’s gotten worse. Your grandma seemed to be having a tough time. I bet that’s why you’re back, because you’re such a caring guy.」
I nodded along to his words, but my mind was spinning.
Grandpa has dementia?
The thought kept circling in my head. But no, this must be one of his jokes. He’s always liked teasing me.
Back in the day, he once left a chicken in my room just to startle me.
Besides, Grandma didn’t mention anything about it, and Grandpa, who’s still strong and hardworking, couldn’t possibly have dementia.
Before long, we arrived at my family’s home. I thanked Gramps Kojima and made my way to the house.
The sight of the old, familiar house made me feel like a child again. Worn down as it was, this place held countless memories for me.
I smiled, recalling the times Grandpa and I would go out with a butterfly net or fishing rod in hand.
Everything seemed fun back then, but as I grew older, that joy had faded.
Maybe I should ask Grandpa to go fishing with me again.
With those thoughts in mind, I opened the front door.
「I’m home!」
The moment I stepped inside, a foul odor hit me. It smelled like a public restroom in a park.
The entryway was littered with garbage. Grandma, who was always so neat, must have let her cleaning slide.
The house looked entirely different from the one I remembered, leaving me bewildered.
Hearing the sound of the door, someone’s footsteps came rushing from deeper inside.
「Norika!?」
It was Grandpa, and he wasn’t wearing pants.
Chasing after him was Grandma, clutching a pair of pants and looking flustered.
「Naoki…」
Grandma’s expression turned to confusion as she saw me.
I couldn’t close my gaping mouth at the sight of the two of them.
Grandpa seemed to be the only one unfazed.
「Huh? You’re not Norika. Naoki, where’s your mom?」
Those words made me realize that what Gramps Kojima had said wasn’t a joke.
My mother, an explorer, had died in a dungeon when I was a child.
She wasn’t coming back.
「Naoki, where’s your mother?」
Grandpa gripped my arm tightly. He must still think of me as a child. When I gave him a gentle smile, he slowly loosened his hold.
「Mom’s still working in the dungeon, so she won’t be coming back. But more importantly, if you don’t put on your pants, you’ll catch a cold.」
「A dungeon? What’s that?」
Ah, so this must be why Grandma had said it was better for me not to come back.
Grandpa’s face fell, a trace of sadness crossing his features as if he believed my words.
Grandma handed me the pants, and I helped Grandpa put them on.
I never imagined the day would come when I’d be helping him with something like this.
Reluctantly, Grandpa put on the pants and shuffled back to his room.
Grandma must have been silently taking care of him all this time, bearing the burden of his dementia alone.
—Elderly caregiving.
It’s a phrase that’s all too common in this era of declining birthrates, where children are few and far between.
「Naoki, I’m so sor—」
「Grandma, I’m home!」
I hugged her tightly, cutting her off. She felt smaller than I remembered, even though she’d always been shorter than me. Her once-straight back had hunched over with time.
She had been doing her best on her own.
And yet, I’d selfishly thought I was the only one struggling.
「Welcome home.」
Grandma’s trembling hands wrapped around me as she held me close.
Though only a few years had passed since I left home, our family had changed.
♢
Once I’d calmed down, I stepped outside and headed to a place I needed to see.
The farm.
My grandparents had been producers, cultivating a variety of vegetables.
Perhaps influenced by that, I had unconsciously ended up working for a food wholesaler.
But none of that mattered now.
From now on, I’d help out here while also taking care of Grandpa.
I wondered if Grandpa’s memories had regressed to the last time Mom went to the dungeon.
「What… This can’t be the same farm.」
The soil was barren, overrun with weeds.
Tools lay abandoned at the edges of the field, left to rust.
The vibrant farm I remembered was gone.
The farm was located a bit away from the house, on the opposite side of the road from Kojima Poultry Farm, who had driven me home earlier. That’s why I hadn’t noticed its pitiful state until now.
I had hoped to start again from whatever remained, but seeing the farm in such disrepair made even that seem daunting.
Amid the silence, a scream echoed through the air.
「Nooooo!」
Instinctively, I grabbed a nearby hoe, scanning my surroundings.
Living near the mountains, I knew wild animals occasionally wandered into the area.
I followed the sound of the scream and found a small girl, battered and bruised, being attacked by a dog.
Stray dogs were rare around here, but as long as it wasn’t a bear, I figured scaring it back into the forest wouldn’t be too hard.
Pushing through the tall grass tangling around my legs, I sprinted toward her.
「Hey! Get away from her!」
At the sound of my shout, the dog turned its head toward me.
No, that wasn’t a dog.
A dog should only have two eyes. But the creature in front of me had a third eye glaring from its forehead.
「A monster…」
I remembered something my mother had told me long ago.
In dungeons, there are monsters that look like dogs.
They appear no different from ordinary dogs at first glance, but when they’re about to devour their prey, a third eye opens on their forehead.
Back then, I’d laughed it off, saying, “If it looks like a dog, it must be cute.”
But seeing one in person was nothing like I’d imagined—it was grotesque and unnerving.
My legs froze.
The monster, however, seemed far more interested in the girl than me.
Drooling, it loomed over her, ready to strike.
I forced my frozen legs to move, rushing toward the girl, but I stumbled on something.
A fist-sized rock.
It shouldn’t have been there, not in a properly maintained field.
Another sign of how neglected the farm had become.
I grabbed the rock and hurled it at the monster.
『Kyann!』
The rock struck true, and the creature let out a sound eerily similar to a dog’s whine.
The girl remained unharmed, but now the monster’s attention turned fully to me.
With a furious snarl, it charged.
Its ferocious face drew closer with every second.
I braced myself, gripping the hoe tightly. Just as it lunged, it stumbled and fell.
Its legs had tangled in the overgrown grass.
Seeing my chance, I swung the hoe with all my might, aiming for its head.
Over and over, I struck.
Eventually, the creature stopped moving.
I had killed the monster.
I dropped the hoe and rushed to the girl’s side.
She had long, dark hair with a slight greenish tint and wore a floral hair ornament. Despite her tattered appearance, she smiled at me brightly.
Relief washed over me, and I collapsed onto the ground, exhausted.
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