Chapter 350: Expansion

When Fabienne arrives at the Heine Frontier Count’s family, the first thing she does is to go to the salon. There, she takes a break and talks about the day’s schedule.

“In the morning, I’ll have a lesson from the teacher. In the afternoon, let’s make magical potions together.”

“Understood. Is there any urgent magical potion you need?”

Fabienne tilts her head. She’s sharp.

“Apparently, the beginner’s stamina recovery potion is quite popular. I thought I’d increase the stock a bit.”

“I see. That potion is quite a good one, isn’t it? Both my father and mother really liked it.”

“It seems like there’s more demand than I expected. If that’s the case, we’ll need to expand the herb garden quickly.”

Perhaps it would be better if we divide the work. I understand, but I want to be with her. Ugh…

Right, I’ll use magic to speed things up. The herb garden needs to be prepared quickly since it takes time for the plants to grow before harvest.

Wait a minute. Maybe if I use a potion to accelerate growth, we can make it work.

“Julius, are you plotting something strange again?”

“Huh? Uh, well…”

“Say what you’re thinking.”

It seems that my mother is on edge because the number of people has decreased.

She probably thinks, “I can’t burden everyone any further. I’ll handle the troublesome matters myself.”

Indeed, I can’t burden father and older brother any more… But why does the conversation always assume that I’m the one causing the trouble? This is unreasonable.

To avoid being seen as a troublemaker, I talked about expanding the herb garden and accelerating its growth.

“Accelerating growth, you mean the magical potion that turned that tree sapling into a big tree, right?”

“Yes.”

“…Is that really okay?”

“…Probably.”

“Rejected. What would happen if the Heine Frontier Count family garden is filled with herbs?”

“That would be fine… Alright. I’ll adjust the effects of the plant nutrients to make the harvest faster without making it too extreme.”

This is truly what it means to be a frog stared down by a snake. It was a golden opportunity to get a lot of herbs, but I couldn’t push it through. Scary. Beautiful women are terrifying when they’re angry.

It can’t be helped. While teaching Fabienne how to make plant nutrients, I’ll work on improving them together. Depending on how you look at it, this might not be so bad.

“Fabienne-chan, keep a close eye on Julius. You’re the only one I can rely on.”

“Of course.”

Fabienne’s face twitches. It seems she’s also in a frog-stared-by-a-snake situation. Perhaps, as expected, the strongest person in this house is mother.

In the morning, the teacher is coming to the Heine Frontier Count family, so I can’t change the schedule. The only thing I can adjust is the afternoon time.

So, I spend the morning attending with Fabienne and Nero. And before I knew it, it was lunchtime.

“Outdoor lunch feels so nice with the breeze.”

“We couldn’t do that during the middle of winter.”

It’s still a little chilly, but as long as we put on some clothes, it’s manageable. More than that, the sunlight, which is gradually getting warmer, and the gentle breeze that has softened the cold made my heart flutter with excitement.

“I’ll send Fabienne to the Amber Baron family before dinner.”

“Please. Will you have dinner there as well?”

“Well… I was thinking of staying the night, but that might be too much of a burden, so I’ll refrain.”

For a moment, Fabienne looked surprised, then realized she had been teased and puffed her cheeks. I poked them to let the air out. Fabienne, with her little pout, was so cute.

“I hope we can live together soon, but it feels like such a long way off.”

“Yes, that’s true. We haven’t even gone to the academy yet.”

Being a child is tough. Especially for a noble child. You have to be mindful of public opinion, and to your parents, you’re an important political piece, so they can’t afford to neglect you.

Thinking about such things, I moved on to the tasks for the afternoon. First, I decided to create the herb garden. As long as I prepare the field, the gardener might be able to take care of the rest.

“Every time I see it, Julius-sama, your herb garden is truly wonderful.”

“Is that so? I thought it all looked pretty much the same.”

“That’s not true at all. For it to be so beautifully arranged, with not a single weed growing, that’s something not easily done.”

It was me who carefully arranged the plants that would be used for magical potions, but the fact that not a single weed grows is thanks to the knights who patrol it every day.

It seems that their knowledge of plants has grown quite a bit, and they’ve become able to perfectly distinguish between weeds and non-weeds. I think that’s an impressive skill.

While feeling grateful to the reliable knights who protect the herb garden, I expanded it further. Upon careful reflection, I realized that this would only increase the burden on the knights. I mustn’t forget to prepare the additional beginner’s stamina recovery potions.

“We’ll create the herb garden in this area.”

“Here? There are so many weeds, and there are rocks all over the place.”

Nero, upon confirming the spot I pointed out, expressed concern. He probably thinks it’ll take an enormous amount of time to clean this area up. However, I have my trump card: magic.

There’s some doubt about whether it’s okay to use such a trump card so easily, but it’s no big deal.

I placed my hand on the ground and quickly used magic. In just a few seconds, a soft, fluffy field was completed. Truly a cheat. As expected of my trump card. Fabienne and Nero were left gaping.

“Julius-sama, what was that just now…?”

Nero groaned as he asked. Fabienne was looking at me as well. I took it in stride with a calm face, as if nothing unusual had happened. I can’t show any signs of panic here. I need to look like this is something I do all the time.

“I used magic to crush the stones and flatten the land, and also to make the soil soft and fluffy.”

“Such convenient magic exists…?”

Fabienne was gazing off into the distance. Hmm, she probably doesn’t believe me, does she? But right in front of her, a magnificent field is completed. She wants to believe it, but she can’t. Something like that, I guess?

With a glance at the two of them, I used my “Transplant” skill to dig up some nice herbs from the neighboring herb garden and, using my “Dividing” skill, planted them in the new garden.

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