Magi Craft Meister 638
18 King Klein’s Treatment Arc
19-25 Another Problem
Jin and the others kept playing the word game for some time, but while they were in the middle of it, someone knocked at the door.
“Come in.”
Tia opened the door. And on the other side stood Minister of Industry Derait.
“Oh, if it isn’t Derait! I’m glad you’re feeling better.”
“Yes, Your Highness. Thanks to Miss Elsa, my life was saved. Is now a good time?”
“Sure, I don’t mind.”
Minister Derait still looked a little pale, but the numbness in his limbs seemed to have completely disappeared.
“Miss Elsa, thank you for yesterday. Lord Jin, I would like to ask you about the desiccant today, since we were unable to do so yesterday.”
“Okay.”
They had been playing that word game just to kill time anyway, so Jin agreed immediately. He also asked Tia to prepare some fresh fruit juice – no tea for them today – which Princess Lieschen had no complaints about.
The reason behind that choice was that there was no need to worry about fresh fruit juice being poisoned, since it’s made by squeezing fruit on the spot.
Just in case, Jin still used his “Analyze” to confirm that the juice hadn’t been tampered with before having it poured into everyone’s glasses.
Furthermore, Reiko made extra sure that Jin’s glass was safe by tasting the juice herself for any poisoning before Jin could even take a sip.
For the first time, everyone was able to enjoy a beverage with peace of mind.
“So, you wanted to know how to use the desiccant, right?”
“That’s right.”
“First of all, I’d like to make sure we’re on the same page regarding some considerations. You do know that it absolutely cannot be in contact with water, right?”
Jin was concerned about potential fires and burn injuries.
“Yes, I am already aware of that. Although a little bit of humidity isn’t much of a problem, pouring water on it will make the desiccant hot enough to cause burns.”
“Yes, that’s right. I might be able to use a small amount to make a bit of a demonstration.”
“I see, so you’re saying we shouldn’t just take that knowledge at face value, but to actually learn it by experience?”
“That’s exactly what I mean.”
“…By the way, do you know how to make this desiccant?”
Minister Derait suddenly asked about how to manufacture it, so naturally, the cautions Jin…
“…No, I don’t know that much…”
…dodged the topic with that answer.
While Minister Derait and Jin were having their discussion, Elsa and Princess Lieschen were having a conversation of their own.
“Lady Liese, this may come across as a bit rude, but I was wondering if you could tell me about your brothers…”
“Hmm? Oh, it’s fine. …My older brother, Edmund… he speaks bluntly, but I don’t think he has a two-faced personality.
Edmund had been quite hostile towards Elsa from time to time. But Princess Lieschen’s opinion of him wasn’t as bad as she thought.
“Arthur is…”
Princess Lieschen hesitated.
“…well, I don’t know him all that much, really…”
“Is that so?”
“…I’ll tell you this because it’s you, Elsa, but in the past, he used to be very mean to me…”
Their mother, who had birthed two princes and three princesses, died after giving birth to Lieschen. So he would say things like that their mother had died because of her, and that her brothers didn’t love her at all.
“Of course, now we have more people around us, and they’re not as aggressive towards me as they used to be…”
It seemed like he was worried about yesterday’s poisoned herbal tea.
“Well, no matter how your relationship was in the past, you’re still real siblings who share a bond of blood, so I’m sure they’re worried about you too.”
Elsa couldn’t help but feel a little sympathy for her cold tone of voice, which didn’t suit a 12-year-old.
“… However, Arthur seems to have an excellent private tutor, so perhaps his personality has really improved.”
“A private tutor?”
“Yes. Apparently, he’s a famous scholar brought over from the Celuroa Kingdom. Some say that he would be able to compete with all of our country’s scholars put together, but that has to be an exaggeration.”
The Celuroa Kingdom has a long history and a large population. It wouldn’t be strange if there were scholars who surpassed those from the Klein Kingdom.
“Do you know the name of that scholar?”
“Yes… If I remember correctly, he’s called Liones Ashford.”
Elsa decided to just keep that name in her memory for the time being.
Meanwhile, Jin had finished telling Minister Derait everything he needed to know.
“Thank you, Lord Jin. We can expect great results from this, together with the ‘dehumidifier’ we received the other day.”
Jin reacted to those words.
“A dehumidifier, huh? Judging from its name, it’s a tool to remove moisture, right?”
“That’s right. The Nostalgia Party seems to have been distributing them to each country.”
“Ooh…”
“The Automata that explained that to us was blonde, and very pretty. I wonder who built her…?”
Jin thought that he was referring to Elena. Apparently, she was working just fine.
After that, they transitioned to small talk.
“For now, we can focus on stockpiling enough food to last the year.”
For Jin, who was trying to find out about the food situation, this was an effective source of information, even if it was just at the level of small talk.
“With a simple calculation, if the kingdom has 100,000 people, we can see that we should have four more months worth of wheat, although that will not be enough.”
They had calculated that there would be no food during the period starting from February of the following year until their harvest in June.
“So you mean you are… 5,000 tons short?”
Assuming that each person eats 150 kilograms a year, that’s 50 kilograms each 4 months, or 12.5 kilograms per month. They only had to multiply that by 100,000.
There was no big difference from Eric’s calculations back in Kaina Village.
“That’s right. But now that we are aware of the food shortage, we can actively eat other crops, and try to economize on what we have left… we should cut that down to a shortage of 3,000 tons.”
“…”
Jin pondered.
Hourai Island’s stockpile was probably several dozen tons at most, so it wouldn’t be of much help. At best, it would serve as a temporary emergency distribution of rice.
“Do you have any idea how to procure food?”
“… It’s difficult. According to what I’ve heard, there’s a famine in the eastern part of the Celuroa Kingdom. I just pray that there won’t be a war.”
Whenever two countries wage war for food, all that results is in both countries wasting even more food. It’s an obvious contradiction, but it’s us humans who make that contradiction.
(Even the Shouro Empire can’t afford to send 3,000 tons here as food aid…)
“However, it doesn’t seem like there will be any riots by the end of the year. I’m hoping to have a solution in sight by the end of the year.”
Having said that, the outlook was bleak. Completely hopeless, even.
This is because the food self-sufficiency rate within the Small League of Countries is just over 100%.
“I can only advise you to grow crops that can be harvested in a short period of time.”
Minister Derait seemed to have decided to hang onto Jin’s words.
“What kind of crop would that be, Lord Jin?”
Jin, too, decided to speak about it openly, as the lives of many people depended on it.
“It’s a crop called buckwheat.”
“Buckwheat, huh? I’ve never heard of it before.”
“It’s a crop grown in the northern lands, and it can be harvested in about two and a half months.”
“What?!”
It was mid-November, so if they were to sow it now, they should be able to harvest it at the beginning of February. Just barely at that, but they should be able to get it done.
“Lord Jin! By all means, by all means, I would like to grow that buckwheat! Can I ask for your cooperation in the matter?!”
“Of course. But there are some problems.”
The first problem was that the necessary amount of seeds cannot be prepared immediately. Most of the autumn buckwheat on Hourai Island was made into flour.
It seems unlikely that the amount left for seeds will be enough to feed a kingdom.
The second problem is that some people are allergic to buckwheat.
Jin has never seen anyone in this world having anything similar to an allergy, but that alone wasn’t enough for him to be able to say with certainty that no one will be allergic to buckwheat.
“…It’s possible that the amount of seeds you’ll need won’t arrive in time. Also, there might be some people whose bodies can’t handle buckwheat very well…”
Jin can only give him a bland reply. But just like a drowning man will clutch at a straw, Minister Derait still bowed to Jin repeatedly.
“Lord Jin! Anything you can do will be good enough, so please help us procure that buckwheat!”
Since he had gone that far, not even Jin could refuse.
“Understood.”
He nodded with a slightly sour expression on his face.
＊ ＊ ＊
“Buckwheat seeds, huh?”
Having been following the conversation between Jin and Minister of Industry Derait through Reiko, Laojun pondered.
“Even if we were to give them all of the buckwheat seeds we have on Hourai Island, they wouldn’t even make up for a tenth of the amount they need…”
Their current stockpile is, so to speak, the harvest of their first cultivation. This is the amount that was harvested as a result of sowing what little buckwheat seeds Jin had been given in the land of the demons.
Though less than a ton, more than half of it was made into buckwheat flour, and the rest was set apart to prepare it for a second cultivation.
They would be able to get more seeds from that second harvest, but that wouldn’t happen any sooner than less than two months away.
“In that case, we’ll need to procure seed buckwheat from somewhere.”
That “somewhere” could only be the land of the demons, and the food situation of the demons was tight as well.
“We’ll have no choice but to try to trade with them and offer them some kind of alternative food source.”
To ask them for their buckwheat seeds, which are their main source of food, and give them something else to eat in exchange. Laojun deemed this to be the only way out of this predicament, and so he made the final decision.
“Wheat flour, huh…?”
Laojun calculated that it would be possible to exchange 1 ton of wheat flour harvested on Hourai Island for 1 ton of buckwheat harvested in the land of the demons.
But even this would not be enough.
The yield of buckwheat is lower than that of wheat. Sowing 1 ton of buckwheat seeds will yield about 20 tons of buckwheat.
It was a serious problem that not even Laojun could solve. The only advantage generated by this would be that it shortens the wait between sowing to harvest.
“What’s left is… that foreign race, huh?”
The “foreigners” who lived west of the Harihari Desert. Laojun didn’t know how much food they produced, nor how much they kept in stock.
It was quite a long shot.
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