Chapter 222
Chapter 222: Until It Works (1)
I returned from the capital with more than I had hoped for and even resolved Piote’s issue.
If only everything could go as smoothly as this all the time, but not everything aligns with Ghislaine’s plans.
“Still not working?”
“Yes, it seems it’s not that easy.”
Claude replied nonchalantly to Ghislaine’s inquiry.
The development of new materials entrusted to the dwarves and the construction of a large incubator assigned to the wizards took longer than expected.
I wasn’t too worried about the new materials development. I had provided all the necessary materials, so with time, it would surely succeed.
In my previous life, Galbarik found a way to succeed even when he knew nothing.
However, the humidity magic used in the large incubator was a problem Ghislaine couldn’t solve.
“So… we haven’t even properly started designing the incubator?”
“That’s right! We need to create a humidity control magic, but creating a magic isn’t easy! Unless you’re a dragon controlling magic, can humans even make original magic from scratch?”
“Hmm…”
Still, even the great mages of the 7th or 8th Circle can’t easily create new magic. Most of the time, they merely adapted and combined existing magic.
Claude cautiously suggested to the troubled Ghislaine, “How about we pause for now and assign them to something else? It would be a waste to let the dwarves and wizards idle around.”
Other retainers nodded in agreement with Claude’s words.
“That’s right. You value efficiency the most, my lord, don’t you?”
“If we put the dwarves and wizards on different tasks, the work speed will definitely increase.”
“Is it really necessary to focus on those things immediately when we’re making fast progress?”
Ghislaine shook his head. For the faster development, those two were essential.
With a serious expression, he tapped the table with his fingers and suddenly said something unexpected.
“The northern barbarians’ curses guarantee death for their targets.”
Claude was taken aback by that statement.
“Really? Is that for real? Do they have some incredible sorcerer or something?”
“They keep it up until they die.”
“……”
“They believe that even if you die of old age, the curse was still in effect. Some have been cursed for 30 years, apparently.”
“……”
“That mindset is definitely worth learning. Let’s have the same approach until it works. Focus on developing the humidity magic and ensure we succeed.”
Everyone shook their heads at the lord’s stubbornness. Once he got going like that, there was no stopping him.
Having had a record of succeeding through such obstinacy, the retainers resigned themselves to the belief that it would somehow work this time too.
The wizards were the ones truly suffering under Ghislaine’s fervor. They were studying every day, but how could a bunch of mediocre mages create new magic?
Eventually, Vanessa took charge of the research while Alfoy and the other mages busied themselves just watching.
“Uh… this is impossible… We can’t create magic.”
“Right, the lord has assigned an impossible task this time.”
“The Tower Lord can’t create magic either, so how can we?”
Even as the mages grumbled beside her, Vanessa remained focused on her research.
Alfoy and the mages secretly enjoyed this situation. They could use research as an excuse to laze around.
“Hehe, it’s like a vacation, a vacation.”
“Our Vanessa works so hard. You’re the best, Vanessa! I’ve got faith in you!”
“Oh, I just hope they keep making me do research.”
After days of lazing around, the wizards were completely exhausted.
But they overlooked one key point. When Vanessa researched, she naturally conducted experiments.
“Hmm, I have to try something.”
Surrounded by piles of books, Vanessa, who had been glued to her chair for days, suddenly stood up.
Curious about what was happening, Alfoy stretched his neck to look, startled as she quickly approached him.
“Why? Why? Did you discover something?”
“I’m going to try an experiment.”
“How?”
“Just a moment.”
With dark circles under her eyes, Vanessa suddenly grabbed Alfoy’s wrist. Taken aback by her sudden approach, he blushed slightly.
“W-wait… this is too sudden! We’ve been getting a bit close, but if you come on so strong… I’m not ready yet… Guhhh!”
As he babbled nonsense, Alfoy instantly lost consciousness as his mana was drained.
Vanessa and the wizards always wore ‘Mana Transfer’ bracelets inscribed with ‘Sharrel.’
They were always ready to absorb mana from Vanessa.
When Alfoy collapsed, the nearby wizards hurriedly stepped back, but Vanessa paid them no mind and cast the magic she had been planning.
Ziiiiing!
A magic circle was drawn in the air. After studying the slowly rotating magic circle for a while, Vanessa shook her head.
“Failure.”
Though she briefly showed signs of disappointment, she soon bit her lip and reignited her determination.
Even for a genius, creating new magic isn’t easy. It’s strange to succeed on the first try.
Vanessa revised several formulas in her mind and approached another wizard.
Predicting her future, the wizard begged with a trembling voice.
“W-wait! I haven’t mentioned this until now, but I have a fiancée! So don’t go grabbing my hand randomly!”
The wizard was drained of mana and collapsed beside Alfoy. It looked like two mummies lying next to each other.
Ziiing!
A new magic circle appeared in the air and began to turn. Again, Vanessa shook her head.
As her eyes turned dark, and her expression faded, the mages retreated.
There was no one who could be as crazy as her while looking that insane.
With an air of madness radiating from Vanessa, the mages either fled or tried to break their bracelets.
Unfortunately for them, Vanessa still had a bit of mana left after consuming two of them.
“Halt.”
With those words, all the wizards came to a standstill. With minimal mana, she bound dozens of them at once.
Even for the 6th Circle, this was no easy feat. Her mana control skills were something else.
“O-oh no! I’ve never held a woman’s hand before, except for my mom!”
“Keek! Don’t do this!”
“Save me!”
One by one, the mages were drained of mana and collapsed. Meanwhile, Vanessa continued to cast magic dozens of times, looking for problems to correct.
Yet the desired effects didn’t materialize. After a series of failures, the mages finally collapsed completely, drained of all their mana.
“Tch…”
Vanessa bit her lip and clenched her fist.
There were no more mages left to absorb mana from. It would take days for them to recover their mana again.
She felt frustrated. She wanted to succeed quickly and allow the territory residents to eat meat to their heart’s content.
But at the moment, her abilities were insufficient. It would take someone as powerful as a dragon to create magic.
‘What to do? I need more mana to continue my experiments.’
She wanted to conserve the runestones as much as possible. They were a vital resource for the development of the territory.
There were numerous facilities that required runestones, so it felt burdensome to use them for magic experiments. With every failure, massive amounts of runestones would disappear.
Still, creating a large incubator was an important project for the territory’s advancement.
As she pondered what to do, Ghislaine came to see her.
“Whoa, what’s with your appearance? Is the research not going well?”
“My lord…”
Seeing Ghislaine, Vanessa’s eyes sparkled as she staggered toward him.
Just looking at her disheveled hair and gaunt face showed how much mental effort she had put into her research and experiments.
Seeing her approach like a zombie, Ghislaine whispered to Gillian beside him.
“Did a necromancer visit while I was away, or something? Like, did a resurrection ceremony happen?”
“……”
Vanessa’s state was utterly terrible.
She reached out to Ghislaine, saying, “My lord, could you lend me some mana for a moment?”
Since the mana used by a wizard and that used by a knight is refined differently, their properties differ slightly. However, since they originated from the same source, it wouldn’t be entirely unusable.
While the efficiency would certainly drop compared to a wizard’s mana, Vanessa, skilled at mana manipulation, could at least use some of it.
Surprised by the look in her eyes, filled with obsessive madness, Ghislaine took a step back.
“Um… I can lend you some if you really need it, but I think you should take a break first?”
“No… I need it to go a little faster… If you’re struggling, then just call the knights.”
“No, those guys would drop dead right away if they used their mana too quickly. They’re poor souls.”
If they exhausted all their mana, they would start coughing up blood and collapse. Forcing them to drain mana quickly posed a high risk of death.
Yet Vanessa didn’t give up. At this rate, it felt like she might forcibly extract Ghislaine’s mana to continue her experiments.
Ghislaine patted Vanessa’s shoulder and said, “You don’t really have to create humidity control magic.”
“Huh?”
Vanessa, puzzled, questioned Ghislaine’s statement.
To get the much larger incubator functioning properly, both temperature control magic and humidity control magic were essential.
But Ghislaine shrugged and continued, “In the end, the goal is just to keep the humidity constant, right? Once we know the humidity levels, adjustments can be made by hand. For example, we could spread sawdust to absorb moisture to check the weight changes… Water evaporates, so we could keep it in a cup and monitor the weight… There are plenty of methods.”
Of course, Ghislaine didn’t know how to check the humidity in detail. He was merely recalling something he often heard during his mercenary days.
“Hey! It’s dry, so sprinkle some water on the ground!”
Due to the nature of mercenaries, they had to endure various climates in different regions. When staying in dry areas, they would sprinkle water all over the floor and keep large water jugs in their tents.
The same applied even now. Inside the soldiers’ barracks, they would hang laundry and sprinkle water on the floor.
Ghislaine himself couldn’t think of phenomena like water evaporating or materials absorbing moisture.
But he felt that if he shared this with clever wizards, they’d surely find a way to solve it.
Sure enough, upon hearing Ghislaine’s words, Vanessa’s eyes widened as if struck by lightning.
What Ghislaine mentioned was common sense that she naturally knew too. But until now, she had been trapped in the preconceived notion of magic, thinking she had to create magic to solve every issue.
Once she broke away from that idea, insights flooded her mind.
“Ah…”
Magic wasn’t a cure-all. There had been more instances in Penris Territory where technology resolved problems instead of magic.
They had excellent engineers known as dwarves. They only needed to fill in the gaps that were challenging to solve technically with magic.
The order had been reversed. What was needed now was to acquire knowledge about incubation, not magic.
“Oh, I think I’ve got it! We can solve this!”
With a beaming smile, she dashed out of the lab. Ghislaine, left behind, shrugged his shoulders at Gillian.
*
Vanessa immediately sought out the farmers. At first, everyone was shocked by her haggard appearance, but once they knew she was a mage from the territory, they gladly answered her questions.
“How do you check the internal state of the incubator? Of course, it’s by hand.”
“By hand?”
“Yeah, so you just put your hand in… um, it feels something like this? And that’s it.”
“……”
Vanessa facepalmed.
In this era, technology that didn’t rely on magic was pitifully abstract.
They were only passing down knowledge acquired through experience, with no precise figures or principles.
It was the same with the other farmers she consulted.
“Temperature? My dad told me roughly how warm it should feel when you put your hand in.”
“Make a small hole in the brick and sprinkle just this much water in there.”
“You need to keep it close to the furnace and check it often. Forgetting to do so leads to hatching failures.”
Everyone conducted things based on a feeling. So, naturally, every time they did it differently, leading to low hatching rates.
At least it was better than leaving it unattended.
“I need to clarify how much ‘this much’ is that they’re all talking about. I need a standard to establish.”
She spent several days with the farmers, tracking what amounted to the appropriate temperature and humidity for hatching.
Since each farmer had a slightly different method, initially, she struggled to get a grasp on it.
Continuously recording, she quantified the senses of the farmer with the highest hatching rates.
But it wasn’t sufficient. She had only chosen it because it was the best among the farmers.
Vanessa differed from the farmers. She meticulously recorded all the conditions she manipulated with precise figures and kept conducting experiments.
“Everyone, take note of what I say one by one.”
The mages that had regained their mana started the experiments under Vanessa’s orders.
The mages were each given a small incubator used by the farmers and began repeat experiments to find the proper temperature and humidity.
After several days of experiments, they identified the optimal data for the highest hatching rates.
Having figured out how much water to sprinkle and what temperature to maintain, the wizards started the final confirmation experiment.
“Please, please!”
Alfoy closed his eyes and prayed. Finding a wizard praying to a deity was arguably a funny sight, but no one dared to mock it. They were that tired.
Finding the optimal conditions had been tough. To verify and maintain the precise temperature and humidity required the mages to get hands-on.
Only wizards, who could constantly use consistent fire and water magic to maintain uniform environments, were capable of doing so.
‘So sleepy… I haven’t had a good sleep in days.’
‘Please let this succeed… I feel like I’m going to die.’
‘If all goes as expected, today should be when all the eggs hatch.’
The wizards were all gathered around an incubator filled with 30 eggs, their clothes and faces equally disheveled.
How much time had passed?
Crack.
An egg on the oil-soaked cloth shook slightly before the upper shell began to break, and a chick started to emerge.
“Whoa, whoa! It’s coming! It’s coming out!”
The wizards clung to their racing hearts and continued to watch eagerly.
A few more eggs cracked. As more chicks began to appear, the expressions of the wizards brightened.
The wizards stood by the incubator all day long.
And the following afternoon.
“W-we succeeded! We did it!”
Alfoy and the wizards raised their hands high and shouted. Though there was about a day’s difference, all 30 eggs hatched without missing a single one.
It was significantly more successful compared to the farmers’ methods, where more than half had failed.
Vanessa also couldn’t hide her joy. They had finally taken a step forward.
But this was not the end.
She addressed the servants helping beside her.
“Call the dwarves. Now that we’ve identified the optimal conditions, we’ll proceed to the next task.”
It was time to create a large incubator that would automatically regulate temperature and humidity.
