Topaz, Hourai Island’s golem maid was in charge of the land 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.
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Ether’s route’s, namely ‘Magic pulses’, existence would come to be known 2 days after this — just about when Jin would return.