Leave Them All Here to Work

Frederick first saw a magical beast when he was three, while vacationing with his family at their estate by Lake Brombach.

At the time, an injured rabbit ran to the lakeshore to drink, and the smell of blood drew a group of fist-sized Yellow Slimes.

Seeing the Slimes' ill intentions, the rabbit violently kicked at the fastest one with its hind leg.

However, these Yellow Slimes had a kind of yellow grease both on their surface and inside their bodies. It was especially slippery; if they were mashed up and boiled in water, the oil could be extracted and used as lubricant.

The Slimes looked crystal-clear, but they felt as elastic as rubber. Combined with the oil on their bodies, the rabbit's kick simply slipped away.

Frederick had been thinking that the rabbit looked rather plump and ought to taste good.

Who knew the rabbit would turn around, open its mouth, and spit out a glass-marble-sized fireball, setting that Slime ablaze.

Three years later, Frederick conducted an experiment. He boiled meat broth for an hour, poured it into a porcelain bottle freshly taken from the stove fire, then sealed it with wax. When he opened it three days later at room temperature, he found that the broth had already spoiled.

The bacteria in wound pus were the same. He extracted pus from a wound, boiled it in water for an hour, and once the water cooled, poured it over a wound on the rabbit's leg. That wound festered faster than the control wound on its other leg.

Because of this, his mother lectured him on the grounds that he must not abuse animals.

That was when Frederick understood that in this world of magic, it was not merely animals that could turn into magical beasts. Microorganisms had likely become Magically Enhanced as well, so the problem had to be solved through magical means.

But this place had been plagued by war year after year, and magical development had always leaned toward military applications. No one had the time to think about how to convert military technology for civilian use.

Friedrich pondered for a long while. He had never considered something like deworming medicine before. His patrons had funded him for decades to research how to kill people; being asked to save them was a first.

Faced with such a challenging task, he finally said, "I think I can give it a try."

Frederick smiled faintly, raised his wineglass, and toasted him with fruit juice in place of wine. Then he said to Manuel, "You are a necromancer, so you should be quite familiar with the spell Life Decay."

Manuel answered solemnly, "Life Decay is an introductory spell for necromancers. It kills enemies by destroying their vitality."

"This spell is easy to learn but difficult to master. Ordinary apprentices can only kill flowers, grass, and insects, and if they are careless, they may even harm themselves."

Magic such as Life Decay often appeared in stories as the favored magic of villains, where killing with a wave of the hand was commonplace. But as Manuel had said, it was easy to learn and difficult to master.

He was worried that Frederick wanted to learn the spell from him, so he gave him a warning in advance.

Frederick smiled slightly, took a teapot, poured out all the tea inside, then had a servant bring over a bowl of vegetable chicken soup and pour it in. Finally, he had Ah Fu bring a candle and seal the spout and lid with beeswax.

As he worked, he said, "I once met a Wandering Scholar who had a microscope that could magnify objects."

"He showed me many things under magnification. Among them, there were tiny, tiny bugs moving about in spoiled soup."

"He said such bugs were everywhere, but when they multiplied, they caused food to spoil."

"Unfortunately, I did not have enough pocket money at the time to buy that microscope."

"I would like to ask you to cast Life Decay on this teapot and the meat broth inside, killing every tiny bug while preventing any bugs outside from getting in."

"If what that scholar said was true, then meat broth without those tiny bugs should not spoil even if it were kept for a long time."

Manuel was utterly bewildered. There were all kinds of theories about why food spoiled, but he had never heard this one before.

"Is that really so?" he asked incredulously. Everyone else was thinking the same thing.

Frederick replied, "I cannot say for sure either. We will only know after trying."

"I have tried it several times. Meat broth that is brought to a boil every half day does not spoil, so I have a guess. The tiny bugs in the broth are easy to kill, but their eggs are hard to kill."

"I think that if Life Decay can kill both the tiny bugs and their eggs in the broth, it will prove that part of my guess is correct."

Manuel seemed quite interested in the experiment and nodded. "Then let us try it."

He had Frederick place the teapot on the table. Without chanting or using a wand, he directly extended his right hand toward it. His five fingers nimbly traced different patterns, and purple-black light appeared at his fingertips.

The teapot did not appear to change. It sat quietly, as though nothing had happened.

Manuel's expression suddenly grew solemn. He closed his eyes, seeming to sense something intently.

"Your guess makes sense," he told Frederick gravely. "I can sense extremely faint life force dissipating under the spell within the teapot. It should be those tiny bugs and their eggs. Without paying close attention, one would never notice."

"Mm, this deserves careful study."

A smile returned to Frederick's face. He had managed to reel in the most influential one, so the others would not be difficult.

His little scheme was quickly seen through. Diesel raised his glass in salute, then asked, "I wonder what new insights you have regarding Explosion Magic?"

"If it is a worthwhile direction for research, I will remain here to study it."

At that moment, Ah Fu suddenly said with a perfectly serious expression, "Our Master is planning to dig a canal, so you can conveniently blast the earth apart for him."

Diesel's mouth twitched slightly, but he said nothing.

Frederick curiously asked Ah Fu, "Did the two of you have some... unpleasantness between you?"

Before Ah Fu could answer, Diesel immediately said, "Is it not just blasting dirt? No problem, no problem!"

"There are professors and students of architecture among those traveling with us. They can handle the preliminary planning."

Frederick smiled and nodded, then said, "I have a question I would like to ask."

"I have an idea. Find a length of pipe and seal one end. Place some explosion-type magic there, then put a small ball or something similar inside the pipe. Once the Explosion Magic activates, it will rapidly propel the ball and send it flying at high speed."

"I want to use this weapon in place of bows and arrows. Do you think that can be done?"

He wanted to use magic in place of gunpowder as a propellant. He felt it should be possible in theory, but he did not know how effective it would be in practice.

Under Diesel's resentful gaze, Ah Fu said, "Master, this is what he is best at."

Frederick froze for a moment and asked, "Why?"

Ah Fu calmly said, "Let me tell you a story, Master."

"A long time ago, several people went into the mountains together to gather herbs. They planned to rest in a cave once it got dark."

"Just as everyone was preparing to eat dinner, one idiot discovered a snake crawling out from deep inside the cave, so he cast a Detonation Spell."

Frederick blinked. At first, he wanted to ask whether the cave had collapsed, but then another possibility occurred to him.

He asked, "How far did you fly?"

Ah Fu fell silent for a moment before answering, "That is not the important part. The important part is that none of the food could be found afterward."

Frederick instantly understood what had happened. He did not pursue the matter, instead asking Diesel, "Can my idea from earlier be realized?"

Diesel considered it for a while before replying, "If it is to replace bows and arrows, then the Magic Array cannot be too large. This will require further research."

He already had a preliminary plan in mind, but only a fool would reveal it now. He would need to make money from it later.

Frederick naturally agreed, then asked Matthias, "Would you be able to cultivate crops with higher yields?"

Matthias said seriously, "Plants need to eat in order to grow as well, and their food comes from the soil."

"The larger crops grow, the more they eat, and the more barren the land becomes. It then needs a long fallow period to restore its fertility."

"Others have tried your idea, but it depleted the soil too severely. Once the fallow periods were factored in, the total harvest actually became smaller."

"I imagine you will also ask Monoflo to breed hardier livestock, but the land's output is limited, so there will not be enough fodder to feed the animals."

Monoflo nodded in agreement from the side.

Frederick pondered for a moment after hearing this, then said, "I understand that principle. I have learned some things about soil fertility, and we can discuss them when we have time later."

In this era, understanding of fertilizer remained rooted in accumulated experience. The use of plant ash, manure, and green manure had developed to some extent, and people had some awareness that legumes with Rhizobia could enrich the soil, but they had not realized that it was Rhizobia at work.

Frederick decided to first set up several farms as trial sites and plant crops there for a few years. If the results were good, he would promote the method more widely.

By now, everyone had found a new direction, except Aumert, who felt somewhat disappointed. Frederick had not sought him out, and he thought that this patron was not interested in Golem Puppets.

None of them were alone. Their families were counted among the teachers and students, and they were also academic leaders. The scholars, professors, and students under their command all depended on them to secure work and support them.

Then Frederick said, "Aumert, would you be willing to stay?"

"Once you are settled in, I would like to discuss matters with you in detail. I want to seek your advice regarding Golem Puppets. Perhaps I will need several specially customized ones."

Aumert's eyes lit up, and he immediately replied, "As you wish!"