Chapter 152

Once I received permission from Lark, I decided to start developing crops .

Rinoa took me to her lab in the basement of her home .

In order to avoid being harassed by Icarus, she was given an empty house with a basement by Lark .

The walls of the basement are made of stone, and the shelves on the walls are filled with bottles of medicines and magic catalysts that are stored there .

She had been secretly collecting them under the watchful eye of Icarus, but she was often forced to do unreasonable things, so she had little time to actually use this place to develop them .

“Please leave it to me . I also develop something similar back home, so I’m not without experience . ”

He sat on top of Ortem and explained that to them .

They even seemed somewhat enthralled, perhaps because they had just witnessed the success of the Cloud Gathering magic .

“Ortem carving is a training that serves as a groundwork for all kinds of magic . By coming into contact with nature, which harbors magical power, it leads to the improvement of one’s own magical power . Furthermore, it improves your ability to grasp space, your ability to concentrate, your accuracy in magic, and your understanding of magic . If you keep carving Ortem for as long as I have, you’ll reach this level in no time at all! Maybe!”

I’ll take the opportunity to sell the usefulness of Ortem to them .

They, sorcerers, couldn’t be uninterested in improving their own magic, and some of them even gulped their own spit .

“In a manner of speaking, it’s the secret arts of my hometown…… so I can’t say everything, but when I have time, I’m thinking of spreading at least part of it to this land . ”

Oh, and a shout of joy from the sorcerers .

It’s okay to grab them .

It’s not that they were hiding it in any way, they simply didn’t have much interaction with the rest of the place, but well, it’s not a lie .

This should have helped fuel the scarcity bargain a bit .

After undermining the status of Icarus, I would use Ortem to bring in the magician of Icarus .

The foundation for this must be laid within the Rinoa faction .

“By the day after tomorrow, we must settle with Icarus . By the end of tomorrow, let’s develop a new crop at all costs . ”

Many of the sorcerers seem to be trapped by the words “day after morning”, but seeing my confidence and the fact that I’ve just made an achievement, they didn’t speak up to interfere with me .

Rinoa pulls out a few sheets of paper from her pocket .

“What’s that?”

“…… A copy of the research report on crop development that Icarus is making . If we can come up with a proposal to improve on this and somehow prepare tangible results, we should be able to undermine Icarus’ ability to speak out . ”

So you already have those things in place, huh .

If you also know their hand, you can move with a lot of advantages .

I take the research report from Rinoa and run my eyes over it .

“…… Is this a report?”

“…… just in case . ”

The report was rather cursory in its omissions in places .

There are many parts that seem to have been written in a daringly blurred manner .

I also wrote some parts that were a bit convoluted to mislead Lark, but I’m confident that that kept the appearance of the report intact .

She didn’t keep this one .

There were many unique symbols and omissions, and it was more of a private note than a report .

“I and the others weren’t allowed to touch the development, so I don’t know the details . But I’ve read through it a few times and tried to understand it, so I should be able to explain parts of it……”

“No, that’s not a problem . ”

“Hmm?”

Rinoa tilts her head .

“I understand most of it, so it’s fine . It doesn’t look like it’s that big of a deal to me……”

“Oh, I see……”

Rinoa’s shoulders slumped as if a little disappointed .

In Icarus’ report seemed to be aimed at developing an Icarus potato that was an improvement on the Razu potatoes originally grown in the Fage territory, which was resistant to drought and magic plants, and grew larger and faster than the conventional species .

I wondered about the name, but there would be no simpler and more powerful way to show off my achievements once the development was successful .

This is the kind of thing that is really shrewd .

The strengths of the Icarus potatoes – drought and magic grass protection – are tailored to this territory .

As far as the report is concerned, the fact that it grows bigger and faster than the conventional species seems to have been added at random in order to cover up the dissatisfaction of the territorial residents caused by the stagnant development process .

It’s not as if they’ve made any concrete progress in that direction, but they exaggerate and frequently refer to it .

The magic circle to be incorporated into the seed potatoes is already a messed up mess .

I can’t look at it .

It’s just a bunch of alchemy-related magic circles connected in parts and halfway through the book .

If you had an intention to do this, please tell me .

It’s obvious that if we bothered to create, plant, and grow this kind of thing and waited for the results, we wouldn’t be able to develop a decent crop even if it took 10,000 years .

It would take a huge amount of time .

“Wow, there’s a break in the process over here…… Mea, look at this . He submitted it openly, and then he said those things in public . ”

“Me-, Mea have no idea even if you show this…… sorry……”

When I show off the copy of the report to Mea, she shrugs apologetically .

It’s a little awkward, so I hurry back to deciphering the report .

After looking through it all, I returned the copy of the report to Rinoa .

“…… Was it helpful?”

Rinoa asks me anxiously .

It’s hard to say that it wasn’t helpful, so I spoke as I searched for the words .

“…… I don’t want to wear it and be causally linked to it, so let’s make it something completely different . Now that the drought has been resolved, we just need to grow crops that are resistant to demon grass . ”

“…………”

Rinoa seemed to have guessed my true intentions and didn’t say anything else .

“Fortunately, I have a crop I used to think about in my spare time . I have the records in my head, so let’s go with that as a base for our ideas . I want to gather what I might need, so please tell me what magic beasts and plants live in this territory . ”

The first priority in this crop development is to quickly produce tangible results .

If the growth rate is remarkable, the types we can make are quite limited .

We could mend the situation for the day after tomorrow to get over the hump, but it would give Icarus an opening to rise up in the future .

If possible, I would like to finish off Icarus completely here, take full-scale measures against the people who were attacking Fage territory, drive them out……, and then focus on developing our territory .