Chapter 96: Plant Nutrients

We returned to the landowner’s house earlier in the day to talk to him. I asked Several of the knights to continue their investigation of the Bald Mountain. As we sat down at a table in the house, Lionel, with a deep crease between his brows and a higher-than-usual eyebrow. , stared at the landowner. The landowner shrunk.

“What does it mean?”

“Well, well, it’s just that, about five years ago, the supply couldn’t keep up with the demand for firewood. ……”

“if that happened, you should have contacted us immediately.”

The landowner shrinks further. Of course, this is my family’s fault. They took the other party’s report to heart and did not check the actual situation . If they had checked the firewood sales carefully, this situation would not have happened.

But, however, I can only assume that there was malice in hiding it from the Margrave Heine  family. At the very least, they should not have even tried to hide it.

“I thought that if this was discovered, they would take the mountain away from us. ……”

“I don’t think we’ll take the mountain away for something of that magnitude. We’ll just have to think of countermeasures. But this time, it is so malicious. I have no choice but to take severe measures.”

“Oh no, not that ……”

The landowner hangs his head. Lionel is also nodding his head, as if he thinks it’s a natural thing to do. The landowner will be dealt with later, but right now the question is what to do about the bald mountain. If we don’t do something about it, the ecosystem will collapse and the place will become barren.  That alone must be somehow prevented.

We will have to temporarily buy firewood from other sources. In the meantime, we will have to plant trees and reforest the mountain.

“The knights who went to investigate will be back soon. Let’s think about it after we hear their report.”

“I agree.”

After that, we discussed the disposition of the landowner. Naturally, the mountain was to be managed directly by the Heine family for the time being. The landowner’s family and the workers would be hired as is. It is a lenient disposition, but we still need the manpower to manage the mountain. Besides, the official disposition of the property was to be done by my father. It was indeed impossible for me to replace all the workers on my own.

The knights returned. Upon receiving the report, it turned out that the situation was quite severe.

The mountain had been planted with saplings, but they were planted too late. However, perhaps they were not growing well enough, even though winter would soon be here. At this rate, most of the trees may die during the winter. This is bad.

“Hey, why is this happening?”

“Well, the saplings didn’t grow well, so we couldn’t plant them until this time of year.”

“If that’s the case, wouldn’t it have been better to put it off until next spring?”

“……”

This is no good. I decided to advise father to change the landowner.

I forbade any logging in the future, and we headed home. I had a lot of work to do after we got back. First, we had to buy firewood from the other territories before the winter set in. At this time of year, the other territories must be busy securing firewood. Will we be able to get it?　Just thinking about it gives me a headache.

And there is another problem that bothers me. Saplings. Fortunately, we have a little more time before winter is in full swing. I have to do something in the meantime.

“Okay, let’s make some plant nutrients.”

“Plant nutrient?　What’s that?”

Lionel picked up on my mumbling and asked. From the name, you’re probably aware that it’s a magic potion.

“It’s a potion that helps plants grow. It should accelerate the growth of the saplings. If they grow a little bigger, we should have more saplings that can withstand the winter.”

“That may be true, but is there such a magic potion?”

“There is, Lionel. It was written in a book of magic potions that I inherited from my grandmother.”

Of course, it is a lie. There is no mention of it at all. But if I write down how to make it in the book, then voila! It was as if there was already a magic potion called plant nutrients in the world.

Wonderful, truly wonderful, a book on magic potions. Perfect for a cover-up.

“Oh, my!　As expected of Margaret-sama. Did she expect this to happen?”

“Ha, Maybe.”

Stop it, Lionel. Don’t look at me with those sparkling eyes. It’s coming to my mind.

We have all the ingredients we need for the potion. Herbs, Chigo, and distilled water. I quickly instructed the knights to pick up as many thorny berries as they could find.

“Brother, welcome back!”

“Kyu!”

When I arrived at the mansion, Rosalia and Mira jumped on me. We had only been apart for about half a day, but did they miss me already?　After patting them both, I took a break and immediately started arranging firewood. I also wrote a letter to my father in the Royal Capital. Now I can concentrate on making magic potions the rest of the day.

Around three o’clock, the knights brought a large quantity of Chigo nuts. This should be enough to make a sufficient amount. I’ll use the leftovers to make a magic recovery potion.

“Rosalia, I’m going to be holed up in the Potions Compounding Room now, what are you going to do?”

“I’ll be making magic tools here.”

Rosalia seems to have been making various prototypes while I was gone. The blueprints are almost complete, so all that’s left is a lot of trial and error. Good luck, Rosalia. I’ll concentrate on making magic potions.

“What about Mira?”

“Kyu”

It seems she is with Rosalia. Rosalia, you didn’t tell Mira anything strange, did you? like something about the potion smelling really bad when it’s being made, or that it would hurt her eyes. Oh well. I’m glad there will be no distractions. But I feel like I’m going to cry. Do you hate it that much?

As soon as I entered the preparation room, I started preparing distilled water. First of all, I had to make a lot of it. The apparatus in Grandma’s mixing room was a state-of-the-art one. However, the distillation equipment was not equipped with a cooling system.

“Why doesn’t it have a cooling system? It’s not efficient! Oh, come to think of it, they were making magic potions using just well water, not distilled water, right? Then how could they ever develop a cooling system?”

What am I going to do?　I have to build my own cooling system?　It looks like I’ll have no choice but to do that. I hurriedly brought the materials for the appropriate magical tools and made a cooling device.

The structure itself is simple. All I had to do was to pour water cooled in a box into a thin tube and wrap it around a glass tube through which water vapor would pass.

The thin tube is made of glass, a bogus item created using the “Laboratory” and “Craft” skills. I can only hope that the inhabitants of this world can reproduce it. This is not the way this cooling system is meant to be shown to others.

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