Magi Craft Meister - Volume 10 - Chapter 17

Chapter 17

10-17 Side Story- Hourai Island’s secret and Topaz’s job

Topaz, Hourai Island’s golem maid was in charge of the soil development .

Amethyst and Ruby, who were created at the same time, were in charge of the defence . Peridot was in charge of the house work and Aqua was in charge of the flood control .

They had subordinates, who were given numbers from 1 to 100, and they all worked diligently everyday .

Soil development is kinda plain but it is important .

The reason being that it connects to providing their master, Jin, with necessary food .

The leader of all the Topaz, ‘Topaz leader’, was given all the necessary knowledge from Jin and Laojun (which is ultimately Jin’s knowledge anyway) to do the work .

Most of the unclear points were solved by asking Laojun, so they mostly don’t face any hindrance while carrying out everyday work .

“Done with the first stage of the orchards and the field’s maintenance is also complete . ”

The Topaz says to herself . It was a habit she got from Jin . One tends to talk to themselves more when they live alone for so long .

In front of Topaz’s eyes, the field and orchard spread into the horizon .

In the field, there were wheat and barley . Fruit trees grow depending on the four seasons, so she tried planting wheat and they kept growing steadily and would soon be ripe enough to be harvested .

There were pelshka, apple and citran . And also maron (chestnut) and ornatt (walnut) . It also had lamons (lemon) .

“Pelshka seems like it would be the most useful . ”

What is called ‘peach’ in modern Earth era, that fruit, which resembles it so much, also blooms in spring and bears fruit in the summer . But here, in Hourai island, they can be harvested all year round .

After looking into it with Laojun, they found out that it was due to the particular geographical aspects of the Hourai island .

[Seems like Hourai island has ‘Earth pulses’ passing through it . ] Laojun had said . It was still being investigated so Jin was not yet informed .

Laojun’s travel terminal, Laozi, and Topazs from 11 to 30 were investigating it so they would probably come to a conclusion in a few days . They can report to Jin after that .

The reason why the previous Magi Craft Meistar, Adriana, set base here was because of the abundance of ore underground .

[The fact that it has such an abundance of ore hints that there’s a high possibility Hourai island has an ether route . ] Laojun had speculated as such and begun investigation based on that .

And in reality, Hourai island’s crop growth rate was high as well .

They were able to confirm that the higher the plant has affinity with magic, the faster it grows .

“And the fastest among all them is pelshka, after all . ”

Peach, apple and citran, the fruits which had been probably growing naturally since long ago, grow during the four seasons without exception .

[I tried comparing the apple I bought at Blue Land the other day with Hourai island’s apples . ]

Topaz remembered the conversation she had with Laojun the day before yesterday .

“How was it?”

Topaz had asked but in her mind, she could already guess the answer . And then,

[The ether in the Hourai island apple was more . To be specific, it was 10 times more . ]

And Laojun replied with the answer she had guessed .

According to Jin’s theory, ether’s size is even smaller than particles and can easily go through materials .

To stop ether, one must use magic .

“But, ether does stop in pelshka’s seeds, do they… . ?”

[Humans who are called mages, are able to take in the ether in the air and turn that into mana inside of their body .

The mana inside of them get used up if they use magic but can be refilled by taking in the ether in the air once again .

This mana can be used to take form of various different energy forms by the human’s will and imagination and can be controlled . That is magic . ]

That is Jin’s interpretation of the theory the previous Magi Craft Meistar had constructed .

Humans who do not have magical power can’t even take in the ether so naturally, they are not able to use it either .

“But, ether stops inside of the pelshka seed . Which means, the seed itself has magical power, right?”

If the seed possesses magical power, so would the tree .

The magical power is more in areas where the density of ether is high .

“And because of this, in Hourai island, magical plants’ (temporary name} development is faster, right?”

This is what Laojun and Topaz came up with .

What’s left is to discover the ‘ether pulse’ (temporary name) inside the ground .

Although, this has been proven to a certain extent .

It can be understood by looking at the grand spiders and grand caterpillars, which live off of ether, living and prospering underground .

All that’s left is to wait till the investigation result supports that .

Incidentally, the discovery that pelshka seed holds magical power became the indicator which lead to a ground-breaking preservation method .

[The peach, apple and citran inserted into the ‘ether stocker’ do not deteriorate . ]

It was completed on 11th of April but Laojun had already experimentally stored fruits at that time .

According to that, the fruits which would normally drop in quality inside a normal refrigerator, do not deteriorate at all inside an ‘ether stocker’ .

After finding out that things which do not have magical power are not harmed at all when put inside an ether stocker, all the refrigerators/freezers at the research institute were remodelled .

“We can stop the fruits, which master does not eat, from rotting with this . ”

And that was right – the fruits they diligently stocked up for Jin always rot after being in the refrigerator for about a month .

It would be a waste so they had been dehydrating the rotten fruits and putting it to use as fish food at the Tatsumi bay .

However, after the ether stocker was completed, they were able to store it without it rotting .

This extremely small portion was being used by the Quinta scattered about at different places .

“Ooh, it is really rare for pelshka to be available in this season! It would make tons of money!”

There are plenty of nobles who say that . By gifting such nobles these pelshkas, they create a connection and are able to gather various information .

[Maybe, it is also possible to replenish the magical power . ]

Having speculated as such, Laojun used the Quinta and was also performing experiments on a living person in secret .

Even though I say experiments on a living person, they only measured the magical power amount on a person before and after eating the pelshka .

Using a device Jin had planned after experiencing the magical power affinity measurement of the Egelia kingdom’s guild .

The principle was simple . By making use of the phenomenon of magical power resonance, it would measure the amount of magical power the subject possesses .

Most of the nobles who have eaten the pelshka also have magical power . And therefore, it was possible to secretly measure and gather the data .

And according to that data, as Laojun had speculated, the effect of magical power recovery from intaking the pelshka was certainly high .

At that time, Laojun had contacted Topaz informing that some interesting information had been reported to Jin by the SP .

[It seems that pelshka had reached the dining tables in Krain kingdom . ]

Thinking about it logically, there was no way for the fruit to have travelled that far so quick . It was quite unlikely that pelshka would appear in Krain kingdom, which was further north of the Hourai island . Thinking it to be strange, Topaz asked,

“Where was that pelshka harvested?”

[I am making the Quinta do follow-up survey on it . ]

Laojun answered immediately .

Spika-7 and Regrus-2 had been dispatched to the vicinity of Krain kingdom’s capital, Alban . He added that the adult among the two, Regrus-2, was doing the investigation .

The result was brought about the following day .

Krain kingdom was undeveloped in terms of magical techniques but inversely, they were quite ahead other countries in agriculture .

In fact, there was even a greenhouse there .

By using the fire magi stone inside to keep it warm even at night, they were able to harvest it even in Spring .

“After exposing it to the cold in November, they start the heating process in December . The flowers bloom by January and the fruit is ready to be harvested by April . ”

[But, the amount would not be much, right?]

“Yes, at most, it would be around a hundred . And the majority of that is supplied to the royal castle . ”

Regrus-2 ended the report .

“If they are being treated with such precious food, master and the others are really being warmly welcomed, aren’t they?”

Topaz asked to Laojun .

[That is true . For the time being, Hourai island won’t be needing a greenhouse but preparing one wouldn’t be bad, I suppose . ]

And just like this, for the betterment of Jin’s eating habits, Topaz and Laojun were cooperating day and night with all their energy .