Gender-swapped Saintess: A Survival Diary on Hell Difficulty

Office on the third floor of the church on Xinya Street.

Roland reached out and took the newspaper from Jenny, then began to browse the news.

Jenny stood beside him and explained the situation.

"Miss Roland, since our partners collectively terminated their contracts last time, we have been forced to purchase rye flour directly from the market."

"Now that this has happened, merchants are hoarding goods and speculating, and no one is willing to ship in large quantities."

After reading the news, Roland put down the newspaper.

"It's not that they're unwilling, but rather that they believe future grain prices will be even higher, and they're thinking of ripping us off."

Jenny nodded repeatedly.

"Yes, that's what they think."

"Miss Roland, what should we do next?"

"The group doesn't have much rye flour stored internally, which can't sustain the Krabby Patty factory's production for very long."

Roland shrugged nonchalantly.

"It's no big deal. Don't forget that Miss Tree lives upstairs. At worst, I'll have her induce a crop growth so the greenhouse can harvest ahead of schedule."

She pulled her two black-stockinged feet back from the desk, stood up, and patted her skirt.

"I can tell from the bottom of my head that this whole grain price mess is the work of that tiger Bizan."

"But he would never have guessed that we used new breeding techniques in our greenhouse, and that Miss Tree was also there to oversee things."

"Speaking of which, my hometown has a real knack for dealing with those who inflate grain prices."

Jenny became curious about the "hometown" that Roland mentioned.

"Miss Roland, your hometown is...?"

Roland didn't answer, but instead smiled and changed the subject.

"Let's talk about that another time."

"I'll go talk to Miss Tree about the greenhouse. Don't move around here; I'll be right back."

……

The rooftop garden of the church.

Roland walked briskly to the center of the garden.

Beneath the lush, bountiful tree, a brand-new vine-covered desk stands on the lawn.

Ms. Shu was sitting behind a table, handling administrative matters for the residential area.

The group's current territory is not large, so the workload is not high for the tree spirits who have many eyes and ears.

But Roland was still somewhat embarrassed.

There's a sense that while she enjoys a peaceful life, Ms. Shu is carrying the burden for her.

Thinking that she would have to ask Ms. Tree to help the greenhouse crops ripen faster later, Roland took out two bottles of "Roland Brand Milk" from her spatial ring.

She walked to the vine-covered desk and placed the baby bottle on it with a grin.

"Miss Tree, you must be tired from work. Let me treat you to something nice to drink~"

Ms. Tree had already noticed Roland's arrival, and she was curious as to why Roland had approached so stealthily.

As a result, Roland immediately brought over two bottles of milk.

She looked at Roland with amusement.

"Miss Roland, if there's anything you need my help with, just say so."

"Our relationship is so close, there's no need to be so formal."

Ms. Shu may have been talking, but her hands were moving quickly.

She put the quill pen aside and reached out to accept the two bottles of "Roland Brand Milk" that Roland had given her.

I touched it once.

Wow, that's something!

It's still warm.

Ms. Tree couldn't help but steal a glance at Roland's chest with her emerald green eyes.

At this moment, Roland was leaning against the edge of the vine-covered desk.

This vine desk was originally designed for Ms. Tree's height of 2.2 meters, but it's too tall for Roland.

Leaning against the table, the two rabbits lazily sprawled out on the surface.

It looks like a lop-eared rabbit taking a rest, or a Siamese cat showing its belly, inviting its owner to join in.

"Gurgle."

Ms. Shu swallowed hard and asked with a dry smile.

"Miss Roland, are these two bottles of good stuff just produced by your familiar?"

Roland was stunned.

What kind of familiar produced it?

It took her a while to realize that the so-called familiar was just an excuse she used to appease the women in the church.

She could only nod, trying to appear calm.

"Yes, yes, I brought you the freshest one."

"How about it? I'm good to you, right? Call me Dad now."

Roland rattled off a string of internet slang, leaving Ms. Tree completely bewildered.

Ms. Tree looked at Roland's pretty face and then at her graceful figure, and hesitated for a moment.

"Um...can I call you Mom?"

Roland: "..."

Seeing that Roland was speechless, Ms. Tree chuckled and waved her hand.

"Okay, okay, that's enough joking around."

"Let's get down to business, Miss Roland. What brings you here?"

Roland straightened her expression.

"It's nothing serious, it's just like this... and that..."

She recounted to Ms. Shu how Bizan had been driving up grain prices and obstructing grain imports.

The purpose of our visit today is to ask Ms. Shu to accelerate the growth of the greenhouse crops so that they can officially enter the harvest period within half a month.

At that time, she can instantly drive down grain prices, and those merchants who hoard grain can then perform aerial acrobatics.

Ms. Tree simply poured a bucket of cold water on her.

"My dear Miss Roland, did you learn your magical knowledge from a martial arts teacher?"

"The fire wheat in the greenhouse has only been planted for a short time. It will take at least a month and a half to harvest, and that's assuming there's already a bumper harvest."

"Now you want me to come a month in advance? You can squeeze me dry and it still won't work."

Roland was bewildered, looking at the Tree Lady's slightly flushed face, and asked in confusion.

"But you seemed to be having a lot of fun selecting wheat?"

The Tree Lady laughed in exasperation, her hair curling and twisting behind her, transforming into a vine tentacle that gently tapped Roland's head.

"Did you drink before work? Why are you talking nonsense?"

"There's no problem at all in accelerating the growth of a small experimental field near my main body."

"But what you want now is a whole greenhouse, where high-yield barley is grown, which consumes an extreme amount of nutrients."

As Ms. Shu spoke, she gestured a large circle with her arms.

"This is a field with a population of tens of thousands. If I were to try to accelerate its ripening, even at my peak, I would collapse and die."

Roland understood now, and sweat began to bead on her forehead.

She remembered.

It seems the nightingale also said something similar.

Even the elven druids living in the dark depths of the earth could not possibly satisfy the food needs of a town with magic alone.

She swallowed hard, looked at Ms. Tree, and stammered.

"I thought superhumans could accelerate the growth of crops so easily."

Ms. Tree looked at Roland with increasingly strange eyes, as if she were looking at an uncultured, dim-witted goose.

"How can you think that? Most superhumans just make crops grow well and fast."

"The energy and nutrients for crops still need to be drawn from nature. We can't rely on superhumans to provide the energy, or how many mages would be exhausted?"

Ms. Shu spread her hands and continued.

"Furthermore, if superhumans could easily ripen wheat, where would all these hungry poor people come from?"

Roland looked at Lady Tree.

Her expression went from confusion to realization, and then to a jumbled mess.

Wow, this magic is so scientific!

broken!

This time, the tiger-headed man really got his foot in the door.

Where will she find food to make up for the food shortage that will last for more than a month or two?

We can't exactly beg Elizabeth for help.

I'm afraid that little brat will make him crawl all over the place.

Thinking of this, Roland bit her lip and looked at Ms. Tree with a burning gaze.

"Um, my dear Miss Tree."

"If you were to exhaust all your magic, what is the maximum number of crops you could ripen?"