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Chapter 213: There’s Something I Want to Make (1)

The reason there hadn’t been any issues until now was due to training focused on discipline for control.

However, once we started serious training, the soldiers’ limits became glaringly evident.

The issue was their “bodies” built from living in the harsh North until now.

“It’s no wonder they look like that; they haven’t eaten properly. Ugh, look at those scrawny things.”

People from the North were mostly small and weak, having struggled to get enough food.

Although they’ve recently arrived in Penris and started eating better, that was mostly limited to wheat.

Meat wasn’t something just anyone could enjoy. The nobles and knights feasted first, leaving soldiers with only scraps in their stew.

Most ended up just boiling grass roots instead.

‘Everyone has been raised in a situation where they hardly ate meat, so how can they have good stamina and endurance?’

That’s why even a little intense training left their bodies unable to keep up.

Stamina doesn’t just improve with training. Eating well and resting adequately is just as important.

It was also crucial to increase body size by eating meat better than this. Growing grotesquely large like Gordon is inefficient, but maintaining a reasonable physique helps combat ability.

‘Meat… meat… It’s a resource that isn’t easy to obtain. But we definitely need more.’

Even with plenty of money, some things were impossible to acquire. Resources from livestock were just that.

Meat, milk, and leather were extremely hard to come by.

Animals died in droves due to the drought damage.

The situation was no better in other territories.

‘Living on bread alone is insufficient. Somehow, we must increase meat production beyond where it is now.’

This had been a long-standing concern for Ghislaine.

Living in a wheat-centric era, he resolved food shortages first through the monster wheat. But that was just the bare minimum; it wasn’t satisfactory.

Both soldiers and territory residents needed an environment that allowed them to easily eat meat to become stronger. Especially for the future of the territory, children needed to eat well.

It wouldn’t matter even if they made laws prohibiting child labor and encouraging education if the kids were weak from hunger.

‘In my previous life, I also bought meat whenever I had money to grow stronger and larger.’

While I’ve now reached a level of understanding where that’s unnecessary, ordinary people couldn’t afford to think that way.

“I heard those crazy elves scream for meat every day.”

Elves, having always been treated well, had quite the refined palate.

They wouldn’t touch grass; they demanded all sorts of alcohol and meat – very unreasonable indeed.

Yet, somewhat understandable. Adequate meat consumption is crucial for building strength.

It wouldn’t be acceptable for Ghislaine’s pride to train for stamina without proper nourishment.

“Looks like we should focus on that first.”

Ghislaine had various plans. Although priorities changed slightly depending on the situation, the big picture remained.

And acquiring meat and leather fit squarely within that picture.

“Shall we start increasing our meat supply soon?”

Ghislaine immediately called for Gillian.

“Lower the training intensity a bit. The soldiers seem unable to keep up.”

“I apologize. It’s my inadequacy…”

“No, it’s just that we seem to set the bar too high right now. Everyone’s only been eating bread so their stomachs will empty soon. For now, let’s keep them in formation training to avoid losing discipline.”

“Understood.”

On returning to the castle, Ghislaine immediately summoned his retainers. The summoned retainers wore visibly anxious faces.

‘What is he planning now?’

‘Please don’t add more work here.’

‘Is he saying we should take a break?’

Though there were slightly fewer issues after increasing the administrative staff, workloads were still heavy. As the population grew, so did the needs.

More tasks arising here wouldn’t bring any benefit.

Reading the thoughts of his retainers, Ghislaine smiled in a way that suggested not to worry.

“There’s something I want to make.”

Of course, it was a new task. The retainers slumped their shoulders with gloomy expressions.

Seeing their reaction, Ghislaine continued in a reassuring tone.

“It’s nothing big. We won’t need many people immediately. We just need wizards involved.”

The others sighed in relief, but only Alfoy replied, startled.

“Why the wizards again? There’s so much work right now. I feel like I’m going to die!”

“I’ll cut back on other tasks for now.”

“What is it?”

The promise of lightening their workload piqued Alfoy’s interest. To be honest, the construction site work was so exhausting and tedious he felt he might die.

“I want to increase meat production.”

“M-meat?”

Alfoy’s mouth momentarily watered. Not just him, but the others felt the same.

They were filled with food, but that was just wheat bread – hardly meat.

Despite Penris having suffered less from the drought, it was still tough to eat meat because the livestock they had was few.

Knowing this, Claude stepped up to ask.

“How do you intend to increase meat supply? The number of livestock is already so low that there are limits to increasing them.”

“The difficulty comes from how long it takes to rear cows and sheep, right?”

“Exactly. With so few, it’s slow growth. Thankfully, pigs and chickens can be raised relatively quickly, but it’s still far from sufficient for the territory residents to eat good meals.”

“What’s the fastest-growing of them all?”

“Well… chickens are probably the best. They lay many eggs, grow quickly, and cost the least to raise.”

Ghislaine nodded, agreeing.

“Exactly. From now on, we’re going to massively increase the number of chickens. Soldiers and territory residents need to eat meat to be healthy. My goal is for every resident to eat chicken at least once a week.”

“Pfft.”

Claude couldn’t help but chuckle at Ghislaine’s ambitious expression.

Raising living beings was different from any technology created thus far. It wasn’t something that could just be increased by desire.

“I understand you want to hold the titles of Food King of the North and Meat King, but… you can’t just suddenly increase chickens. It’s hard to source them in bulk from other areas as well.”

“That’s why we need to grow them ourselves. I’ll share several methods with you. First, we’ll change the breeding method.”

“The breeding method?”

“Don’t leave them to grow like before. Reduce their roaming space and feed them as much as possible. Then, their weight increases, and they’ll produce more meat.”

‘Do you sit idly and just eat? Must be nice! Chickens!’

Claude and the others nodded, realizing it made sense.

It was tough to provide enough food for them, which had previously hindered thoughts of bulking up chickens. Increasing meat production this way might be feasible.

“That’s not difficult. We’d just need to adjust the chicken-raising facilities a bit. But even so, it would only yield a little more meat. The overall number of chickens is still lacking.”

“That’s why I said there’s something I want to make. How do we hatch eggs?”

“Well… it’s rare for chickens to sit on the eggs, so most use an incubator.”

Chickens can brood for about 45 days and lay over ten eggs at a time.

However, over half typically don’t hatch properly due to environmental effects.

That’s why incubators play a critical role in hatching eggs. They minimize changes in the external environment.

Naturally, they had to be small due to technical constraints. Even so, they were more productive than letting the chickens brood, so usage was maintained.

Ghislaine pointed exactly at that.

“Can’t we just make a much larger one? If we can hatch them all reliably, we could rapidly increase the number of chickens! If successful, we could churn out thousands upon tens of thousands each month!”

“…….”

Upon hearing Ghislaine, Claude rubbed his forehead.

‘Ah, here we go again.’

It frustrated him to figure out where to start explaining.

After gathering his thoughts, Claude took a deep breath before opening his mouth.

“May I explain something?”

“Uh, sure.”

“It’s not that we don’t want to make a big incubator; it’s that we can’t make it that size.”

“So now we just need to make it larger, right? Shouldn’t we be able to do that?”

‘Why do you always have such a hard time understanding? Why won’t you listen to reason?’

Claude simmered his boiling frustration and continued.

“Even the incubators we currently use aren’t much better than leaving them unattended; they don’t have a high hatching rate. Maintaining a consistent temperature and humidity is difficult. The larger it is, the harder it is to maintain uniformity. And then someone has to check on it regularly…”

Incubators used in this era differed in shape and material based on location and creator. Some were made of wood, while others used stone.

The commonality was using fire to warm the interior and spraying water to maintain temperature and humidity.

In short, they required quite a bit of labor and were difficult to manage.

Claude diligently explained this, but Ghislaine hardly paid attention. The issues with existing methods weren’t that relevant to him.

What mattered was actually making it.

Technical limitations? He didn’t care. He had seen such things in his previous life. If he’d seen it in the future, it had to be possible.

“Ah, now that I understand the issues with the current method, let’s start improving it. Wizards will focus on making a new type of incubator for a while. Make it as large as possible and minimize the manual effort involved. Got it?”

In his previous life, cities turned into fortresses due to calamities.

In limited spaces, they couldn’t raise large quantities of cows and sheep. It was more practical to rear horses for combat instead.

But even so, they couldn’t go without meat, so they settled for the easiest option: chickens. Hence, large incubators had been established in every city.

Having witnessed that scene himself, Ghislaine naturally believed they could create one now, but the wizards disagreed.

After a prolonged stare into space, Alfoy suddenly asked,

“So, you want to make a large incubator…?”

“Yep.”

“How can we make it when we don’t know how?”

“Just make the small incubator large and ensure the temperature and humidity are automatically consistent. We’ll determine what’s suitable after a few experiments. It’s not hard, right?”

Ghislaine answered as if it were obvious.

To wizards pursuing enlightenment, things like chicken rearing or incubators were beneath them, so it was understandable they were struggling to grasp it.

But he believed that with interest and research, they’d quickly reach a solution.

However, contrasting Ghislaine’s thinking, Alfoy appeared utterly baffled.

“There’s no such thing as humidity control magic in the world.”

“What? Why not? There’s temperature control magic; why isn’t there humidity control? Doesn’t that make sense?”

“Just saying it’s non-existent… Who would create such magic…?”

At Alfoy’s words, Ghislaine crossed his arms and frowned.

Even among wizards, there were many unknown magics depending on their school of thought. So Ghislaine, not being a wizard, couldn’t possibly know every detail of the vast world of magic.

But there had definitely been such magic in his previous life. That was how they could build large incubators.

To maintain temperature and humidity in such a sizable space, there was no way but to resort to magic.

‘Wait… did I create new magic back then?’

Back then, clever wizards and scholars had all gathered to create whatever was necessary for survival.

There was a strong possibility that humidity-related magic was also developed during that time.

There was no choice. He had to begin research now to find a method.

“Use any and all magic you know and find a way to create it. I’ll provide ample runestones for experimentation.”

However, instead of responding, everyone began to gaze at Ghislaine as if they desired something.

Feeling a bit pressured, Ghislaine pulled his head back slightly and asked,

“Why?”

“How do we create humidity control magic…?”

At Alfoy’s question, Ghislaine responded with a look of disbelief.

“Why are you asking me?”

“You know everything. You’ve made cosmetics, agriculture, cured illnesses, and even created hot air balloons… So you should tell us more. Not just magic, but also about incubator structure and techniques.”

At Alfoy’s words, the others nodded in agreement. Even if the lord hadn’t personally made them, he had shared almost all core theories till now.

The new materials entrusted to dwarves for development, the necessary components had all been communicated too. That was already enough to research extensively.

But now they were being told to create magic that didn’t exist, so they had no choice but to ask.

“…”

Ghislaine immediately found himself at a loss for words.

Was this a side effect? Given he’d pushed through everything else successfully, it would make sense such reactions would result.

But this situation was different from the past.

Cosmetics were created to finance future gains by conquering the capital.

Agriculture was also for self-sufficiency at the mercenary stronghold.

‘I fundamentally lack knowledge of magic. I don’t even know the intricacies of the technology for incubators.’

How could a rank-seven being on the continent be interrogated about raising chickens?

‘That’s… Claude knew.’

Watching Claude blink innocently, Ghislaine clicked his tongue.

‘If only that guy had reincarnated with me. Otherwise, I should have asked him more back then.’

Be that as it may, creating it itself was reportedly not that hard. If it were, they wouldn’t have been spread throughout all cities.

While it might lack magic, he had provided the concepts. Surely they’d find a way through careful contemplation.

So, he firmly replied.

“I don’t know about that magic.”

Alfoy’s face promptly contorted.

 

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