I Somehow Got Tasked With Managing A Realm

"This might be a bit more work than I thought..."

My subconscious thoughts leaked from my mouth as I looked at the screen in front of me. 

I originally wanted to quickly dump my new lifeform all over my realm in a similar manner to when I first placed my cherry trees, but there was something preventing me from doing so this time.

As much as I love corn, it does suck how it can't really reproduce on its own.

Modern corn needed to be planted manually to grow successfully, so if I acted haphazardly, it would all disappear in a single generation.

I guess I'll have to explain it to them myself.

Left with no other choice, I zoomed into the plateau in search of someone to turn into my priest and quickly changed the view to that of the inside of my temple. 

The priest should be of Rathok's lineage instead of Angru's assuming that my orders were followed.

In a stroke of luck, the temple was empty aside from one woman who seemed to be in her forties. Although I had no definitive way of affirming whether or not she was the heir to the priest's title, the fact that she was alone in the temple and had the same dark, black hair as my previous Oracle gave me enough confidence in my guess.

It will be a bit awkward if I'm wrong though...

I couldn't help but notice a drop of cold sweat dripping down my back as I followed the usual prompts to confirm my selection.

I just woke up from a 200-year long nap from their perspective... they could excuse a bit of grogginess after I just woke up, right?

As I prepared my excuses, a golden blast shot out of my statue's finger and hit the stunned woman's chest, thus turning the unofficial priest into an official one.

The woman seemed to quickly recover from the shock and dropped to the temple floor in a kneeling posture.

"You have returned, creator of the world," she spoke while clasping her hands together and looking up at my statue. 

Oi!? What is this!?

"Y-yes... I have returned. May I ask why you are kneeling though?" I managed to croak out.

The woman tilted her head at my question, "This is the official way to greet the creator of the world. It is knowledge passed down from Priest Angru IV to Priest Rathok."

"R-right... Of course."

A wry smile formed on my lips at her explanation.

I left baby Angru in charge of teaching Rathok, but it looks like he made up some odd things.

It seemed to be some sort of petty revenge for switching the title's lineage, yet since it wasn't exactly harmful, I decided to just roll with it.

He must've stolen the idea from some sarcastic comments I made back when he first became my priest.

Although I was fairly certain of where the idea came from, I couldn't help but sink back into my chair as I looked at the prayer-like posture.

It's something that started after Uunga's rein, but they really are starting to treat me more and more like a god. I know I've been acting like one for the sake of divinity, but I'm really just a normal guy!

Sure, I couldn't remember anything from before I got hit by a green beam while smuggling myself to Antarctica, but that's something that happens to normal guys!

The feeling was a bit uncomfortable, yet it was the path I had chosen long ago. Baby Angru's pettiness could only serve to strengthen my resolve.

If pretending to be their god could get me more power to protect them, I can deal with this... probably!

Pushing the discomfort aside, I couldn't help but ask about the woman's lineage which was now somewhat confirmed based on her knowledge of Angru's teachings.

"Before I get to the reason behind my early return, would you mind filling me in on the life of my Oracle following his victory?"

"Gladly!"

With sparkling eyes, she began explaining everything I missed since I disappeared from my realm.

To summarize, celebrations erupted across my realm following our victory at the mountain passage. As part of this, a group of soldiers paraded the ogre Oracle's corpse around my realm before ultimately burning it at the foot of the Tree of Victory, the apparent new nickname for the torch tree in front of the temple. 

Rynn was meanwhile celebrated as a hero; such feelings were emphasized by those who saw the frighteningly massive figure of the Oracle he defeated. The corpse seemed to still be bursting with power even after its death.

Despite this, Rynn's life was a bit bittersweet; he was never able to fully recover from his injuries, leaving him unable to exert much more strength than that of an ordinary human. If it weren't for his divinity, even this much strength would have been impossible. His life was peaceful, and although he long outlived even his grandson, he always had more family there to support him through hard times.

"... I am glad he lived long enough for me to meet him. He was always very quiet, but equally kind," the priestess finished, "I was much younger than I am now, but I remember when he left the plateau to return to his old village. He said he felt it was his time to join his family, and sure enough, he was buried next to the graves of his wife and his brother soon after." 

Wow...

While it was a heartwarming story, I couldn't help but feel a tinge of guilt for not checking in on Rynn one more time before his time came to an end.

I knew he would be fine, but he risked his life and saved my realm... I should have at least came back to say goodbye.

A dull pain hummed in my chest as I thought of my now-deceased Oracle whom I watched over since he was a kid.

After spending so much time in my domain, I was always so eager to leave and dreaded coming back. That's not enough of an excuse for not paying proper respects, though.

It hasn't even been a day and I'm already feeling this much regret...

Smack!

"Squawk!?"

I lightly smacked the sides of my face to get myself focused, startling the tiny penguin still in my lap.

"Rynn was a great Oracle; I am glad he had a good life," I pushed aside my thoughts and spoke while patting Mr. Flippers, "It is thanks to his efforts that I am able to give this gift to you all."

"A gift?"

"Yes, a gift. Your triumph over the invaders gave me great power, which I fully used to create a new food for you all to enjoy."

Since I couldn't really tell her about the prize system of the Academy, I was forced to distort the explanation behind the sudden creation.

"You created a new food!?"

I could see the woman's eyes light up at my announcement, oblivious to my distortion. Such a prospect was understandably exciting given the relatively limited menu of food currently available in my realm. 

"Yes. I am very proud of it myself; I'm sure you will all enjoy it," I paused, "But before I can give this food to the world, I must introduce some of its traits."

I couldn't help but smile as my priestess eagerly nodded her head with an energy unbefitting of her age.

"The new food is a plant, vaguely similar to the cherry trees you all are familiar with, but it has a few major differences. First of all, the plant is a lot smaller and produces hundreds of small, yellow cherries instead of singular large, red cherries. It also only produces these yellow cherries one time before it needs to grow again. If you bury a few of these yellow cherries in the ground, it will likely grow back again in the next season."

My priestess's excitement seemed to understandably die down at my admittedly terrible explanation, but it was the best I could do while both keeping it within the bounds of what my humans were familiar with and making it vague enough to not get in trouble with the Academy.

"I am sure we will treasure the gift you have given us, creator of the world. Thank you," my priestess said with a forced smile.

If you're gonna thank me, at least don't look so disappointed! You look like a kid who unwrapped a massive present only to find out it was just a pair of socks!

"... You'll see what I'm talking about soon," I sighed while withholding my retort, "I'm going to place some in the western forested sector near the temple soon, so feel free to try some."

The priestess nodded, "I will gather those nearby and let them know of your return and your gift."

With those words, the priestess finally stood and ventured out of the temple.

.

..

...

It looks like it's finally time for them to try it!

After placing a few dozen cornstalks in the aforementioned clearing, I saved myself some waiting by fast-forwarding the time until a massive crowd formed around the new plants.

Just like when I placed my other lifeforms, it seemed the corn was nearly mature, which allowed the first daring humans to begin curiously poking and examining the new lifeform.

"Cagnis sudin?"

"Sudin wuda capro..."

"Su alton pogu sun pena~"

It's fun watching them see it for the first time... but some of those comments were a bit questionable.

Eventually, one of the humans inspecting the plant finally pulled open the plant's husk, revealing the unfamiliar yellow cob hiding inside it.

"Oooo! Sun serud su! Su en loc!"

The man excitedly shouted his discovery as he pulled out the cob- immediately taking a bite with bright eyes.

*Chomp!

"Mmm!"

Success!

I couldn't help but smile as I watched the other humans similarly find and bite into the yummy corn.

Man, if they're loving it raw, I can't wait to see their reactions when they find out they can cook it~

"I should probably remind them that they need to save some," I smiled as I zoomed in on my priestess who was enthusiastically munching on the new food, "I see you're enjoying my gift."

The priestess nodded her head vigorously, "Yes- it is very tasty! It is a taste unlike *munch* anything I have had before! Thank you for the gift, creator of the world!"

"I'm glad you are enjoying it, but I have an experiment I would like for you to do for me."

My priest hesitantly put down the corn and tilted her head, "An experiment?"

"Correct. I'll place down some more corn near the temple, but you need to make sure that nobody eats it. Starting tomorrow, I would like for you to bury a few of the yellow kernels from one plant into the ground. I want you to do this with one plant every day until we find a point where the ones you plant begin to grow. Since you'll only need to plant a few kernels from every plant, you can feel free to eat the rest."

The priestess hesitantly nodded at first, but then readily agreed after my final sentence.

I'm not too sure about when the kernels are ripe enough to be planted again, so I'll have to have my humans figure it out on their own. Luckily, I have plenty I can place down for some trial and error~

Although I figured this experiment alone would be enough to teach them, I decided to play it safe and fast-forward to the next season before I placed down more of my stockpile. Sure enough, as the spring transitioned to summer, a few rows of fresh stalks could be seen growing in front of the temple.

It looks like they got the hang of it!

My heart filled with pride at the sight.

They managed to get the hang of farming so fast... I know they've planted cherries before, but I'm still impressed!

My experiment and vague guidance surely helped them, yet that didn't make me any less proud.

I assumed it was a similar feeling to how a parent felt watching their kid successfully ride a bike without training wheels for the first time. Sure, they had some help before, but now they were on their own and still zooming by happily.

They copied how I placed the corn down in rows. I didn't really mean for them to do that, but that'll definitely make things more efficient for them!

Given the relatively warm climate year-round on the plateau, they could likely plant corn for seed purposes 3 times a year and harvest corn for consumption a whopping four times a year! What was currently a small garden had the potential to grow exponentially.

The food crisis on the plateau can definitely be saved once they get the hang of this.

I could feel my heart beat as I pictured how much the plateau could grow with this new lifeform. There was no way that I was going to keep such a monumental food source as a plateau exclusive, though.

Now that I was confident my lifeforms had the process of planting down, I requested my priestess to send messengers carrying pouches of mature kernels to some of the biggest villages to introduce them to corn and to help teach them how to grow it. Of course, I made sure to have them mention that it was a gift from me as a reward for the successful victory against the invaders.

I placed down more corn to help speed up the process as I fast-forwarded the time and it was not long before nearly all of the major villages in the eastern half of the continent had small gardens of corn of their very own.

Yes, just the eastern continent.

"What a pain..."

A sigh unintentionally escaped my lips as I zoomed in on the portion of the river that previously had a log pathway dotted across it.

"I knew it wouldn't last long, but man it still sucks to see it gone..."

Since Rynn's strength had been downgraded to that of an average human following his injuries incurred against Ferguson's Oracle, repairing the pathway had become a nearly impossible feat. The logs held up for a while, but years of weathering by the high river current eventually led to the pathway linking the two halves of my continent washing away, plunging both sides into isolation.

I don't really want to just place corn randomly and just hope my humans figure out how to use it. Maybe a few really good swimmers would be able to cross it to deliver some kernels and explain everything, but that's not something I can reasonably request.

While I could have used a few of my remaining resource points to make a temporary or even a semi-permanent path across, I hesitated to do so. My stockpile of Resource Points was starting to run low, after all.

It might be a bit dangerous, but I guess I could just move someone across the river like how I moved some lifeforms to my islands. Yeah, that's probably the best scenario.

Just as I was about to ask my priestess to find a volunteer, however, a thought popped into my head.

"...Maybe I shouldn't give corn to the western continent yet."

"Squawk!?"

I looked down at the penguin who let out a confused squawk at my mutter, "Huh? What's wrong?"

"Squawk squawk!"

"I know it goes against what I was saying, but hear me out!"

Despite how much I had been gushing over the benefits of having corn ever since I chose it as my new lifeform, it wasn't really needed yet in the western continent. With the western continent's population still scarce even after some migration over the path across the river, the villagers there had not yet reached the point where farming would be needed. Sticking with their primitive hunting and gathering strategy was still a viable method thanks to the abundance of food in the region.

"Besides, most of the biggest villages are set up in the north near the mountain passage thanks to those who stayed behind after the battle phase. If corn allowed them to grow into cities, they would be at a huge risk if an invasion managed to get through the passage," I added, "Besides, they'd probably only get one harvest a year with how cold it is up there, so let's just leave them be for now; we can give them corn when they actually have a need for it."

"Squawk..."

With a look of reluctance, it seemed the tiny penguin agreed with my opinion. I couldn't help but smile as I looked at his expression.

This penguin... he really does care a lot about our humans, doesn't he?

It was understandable for him to be judging my decision; preventing the whole western continent from getting corn simply because cities in the north might develop was a pretty weak reason, but there was more that went into my choice than just that.

I know I said I'd slow down on my gambles, but who could pass up on something so low-risk with such a high reward?

Although I didn't explain this to the penguin, I expected the presence of corn to be a major source of interest for those on the western continent.

Someone will get across the river eventually, and once the others learn about something so valuable on the other side, there is bound to be a revolution to get across it~

Desire has inspired some of the most important discoveries throughout history. I expected corn to serve as this desire in my realm.

Despite me calling it a gamble, there was practically no risk from my decision.

My humans will need to make some huge advancements to find a reliable way to cross the river. Whether it's boats or building techniques, what they come up with could be extremely useful in the future. Even if they can't figure out how to get across, they will still be able to thrive for a few more battle phases until food becomes a problem, so there's no risk! Well, an Oracle would likely get corn to them before then, anyway.

A cunning smile crept onto my face.

Of course, this penguin will be none-the-wiser to my evil scheme! There's no gambling here, little penguin~

"Since we don't have to worry about getting corn into the west continent, it looks like our work is done for now!" I said while stretching back in my chair and hiding my smile behind my hands.

"Squawk! Squawk?"

"Yes, Julia should be done by now~," I smirked as I altered the time of my domain to match heavenly time, "Let's just watch over for a few seasons to make sure they have the hang of everything and then we can head out."

"Squawk!"

After saying goodbye to my priestess and watching my humans achieve stellar results as a few more seasons flew by, I picked up Mr. Flippers and prepared to meet someone who I was anxious to see.

"Alright- it's time to go back! Transport to the Academy!"