Farming in the Magical World

Fortunately, Melissa didn't seem to care about asking for everyone's opinion, and she didn't mind that most people didn't react.

He paused, glanced at Lanny again, and only after seeing him nod in confirmation did he begin to talk about the alpine algae.

"As for the other matter, it's the cultivation of the magical plant, alpine blue-green algae. Samples have already been planted in the castle's flowerbed, and the next period will require detailed recording and observation to familiarize ourselves with its growth conditions and environment..."

Cody, who had just been warned by Lanny not to divulge the secret, was initially quite curious, wondering what kind of secret he would hear next—could it be royal gossip? But as Melissa spoke, his curiosity gradually turned into shock, his eyes nearly bulging out of their sockets. "Magic?"

What did he hear? Magical plants? Could magic really exist in the world?

If Melissa had told him the secrets of the royal family, he might have been surprised, he might have been curious, but he wouldn't have been this shocked.

Melissa was a little annoyed at being interrupted, but considering that the young man was just an ordinary citizen and it wasn't surprising that he didn't know anything about magic, she could only nod helplessly and say, "Yes, magic, the kind of magic you're thinking of..." However, in the end, she still criticized Cody without hesitation, "Don't interrupt people so easily next time, it's very impolite!"

"Oh, oh, oh..." Cody stood up in a fluster, bowing repeatedly in apology. "I'm sorry, Miss Melissa..."

Seeing that Cody had apologized, Melissa didn't hold it against him, nodded, and turned to continue her introduction.

Compared to Cody's surprise and fear, Frank and the others, who already knew about the magic, were much calmer.

They not only knew that magic existed in the world, but they also knew that Melissa was not Lanny's cousin at all, so why was she living in the castle as Lanny's cousin?

But they never expected that Lanny and Melissa would bring back some magical plants just from a trip to Dragonfall Ridge.

Magical plants—they sounded like something related to magic, but what they actually did was a mystery to them. Many people looked at Lanny with puzzled expressions.

Tiffany, ignoring Melissa's continued speech, lowered her voice and turned to ask Lanny beside her, "Darling, what exactly is this magical plant, alpine blue algae?"

Even though she spoke very softly, Melissa still heard her words and couldn't help but glare at her angrily.

I just said Cody was being rude, how come you're still being rude, Tiffany?

However, Tiffany was, after all, the lady of the house, and she couldn't bring herself to scold Cody. She could only suppress her anger and, before Lanny could speak, preemptively explained, "This is a plant I discovered in Dragonfall Ridge..."

Hearing that this thing looks a lot like lichen and can absorb and release magical elements under the right conditions, everyone became very interested.

"Oh!" Even Tim's eyes lit up, and he chimed in, "When will it be absorbed, and when will it be released? Can it be cast directly...?" As he spoke, he gestured with his hands, mimicking the standard movements of mages casting fireballs.

Even Frank, who had been quiet all along, hesitated and said, "As far as I know, there doesn't seem to be such a plant, right? Are you sure?"

"How could that be!" Melissa rolled her eyes. "This is absorbing magical elements, not magic. You need to understand, what are magical elements and what is magic...?"

"Is that so... cough cough, I was just saying." Tim coughed a little embarrassedly. He didn't expect that Melissa, who was so gentle before, would become so aggressive when talking about these things.

"Cough cough..."

Seeing the situation spiraling out of control, Lanny slapped his forehead in frustration and could only cough lightly to interrupt everyone's questions, "This is a technical problem, a technical problem, let's not discuss it for now..."

It's not that he's unwilling to talk about magic; it's just that he doesn't have a clear plan for further development of alpine algae. He's just doing some preparatory work based on the idea of ​​creating a "magic battery."

Even if the "magic battery" is actually created, how to charge it, no, how to charge it with magic power, is also a problem.

Actually, he had wanted to ask Melissa about this for a long time: whether she knew about or had mastered the Spirit Gathering Array or a similar array.

According to his thinking, there should be such a way. Since the way mages improve their mage level is by constantly compressing and increasing the amount of magic power in their bodies, anyone with a bit of ideas could definitely think of a way to increase the concentration of magic elements in the external environment first.

As for the capacity issue, he didn't think it was that difficult. At worst, he could make a partition and turn this thing into a box. What's wrong with a larger volume? Sulfuric acid batteries were quite large, and the earliest battery stacks were even larger. Didn't they gradually evolve to the size of lithium batteries?

As for the uses of batteries, there are too many to list. They can replace magicians in casting spells, power arrays, and quickly replenish magic power for magicians. Just thinking about it gives me a lot of uses.

He even had the audacious thought that even if he was some kind of magic insulator, he could somehow increase the magical pressure and still feel it. Just like electric current, ordinary insulators are reduced to dust under high voltage. The only concern was not turning himself into dust before he could feel the magic.

Going a step further, maybe he can lead everyone who comes to this room into the world of magic and directly establish the Caster Magic Guild, haha!

But now is not the right time to talk about these things. Just let everyone know that this is happening, so that they don't accidentally kill the alpine algae in the flowerbed.

"Uncle Tim, please tell me!"

After putting an end to the topic of magical plants, Lanny turned to Tim and asked, "The guard has been expanded for two days now, is there a problem?"

Lanny was still resentful about the abrupt end to the topic of magic. His failure to learn magic as a child was almost a lifelong shame (in his own opinion). He wanted to hear about this magical plant, which he had never heard of before, and whether it could help him continue his wish.

But since Lanny had spoken, he couldn't hesitate any longer. He shrugged and waved his hand confidently, "You don't need to worry about the training. Everything is going smoothly so far. We're just waiting for the weapons and horses to arrive."

After a pause, he asked, "Have you made arrangements for weapons and horses? We can't afford to delay this. To quickly build up combat capability, actual combat training is much more effective."

“Yes, I know,” Lanny nodded. “I plan to have Iron Hammer and the others forge the shield bearers’ weapons. As for the other weapons and horses, I’ve already arranged with the Locke Merchant Guild. They’ll bring them along when they come to collect the goods next week.”

Seeing Tim looking at him, Cody nodded. "I've arranged everything, don't worry!"

Now that the weapons were no longer an issue, Tim nodded and continued, "I plan to spend a month completing basic training, and then begin practical combat and formation training!"

"Barring any unforeseen circumstances, this guard should be quite combat-ready in two months, at which point we will be free from some threats." Tim was very confident about this.

Lanny understood the threat Tim was referring to; it mainly concerned the ever-present threat from Angus. Whether it was driving them away, colluding with the Grummans to raid the castle, or disguising themselves as bandits to attack, the castle was currently struggling to cope, primarily due to a shortage of security personnel.

Two months later, when the available guards numbered around one hundred, there was indeed less concern about the threats mentioned above.

"Can this timeline be moved up?" Lanny frowned. "Two months is still too long..."

He was actually satisfied with Tim's training time, but he was worried that Angus would give him two months. Everyone knows that you have to strike while the iron is hot, and now is the time when the castle is weak. Can't Angus see that?

The only hope is that Angus is unaware of the true situation and has underestimated the situation, so perhaps he won't act so quickly.

“It’s too difficult to speed things up…” Tim had naturally considered Lanny’s concerns as well. He also admitted that there were too many variables in two months, but his solution was not to compress the training time, but to make some other arrangements.

"During this time, I will work hard to establish a sentry system for the territory. Don't worry, as long as a large force approaches the territory, we will know at least one or two days in advance!"

"Alright, hurry up!" Seeing that he already had a plan, Lanny naturally couldn't say anything more, so he could only nod in agreement and then turn his gaze to Frank.

"Frank, what about you? How much money do we have left in our castle?"

Currently, Frank is still in charge of the castle's gold coin income and expenditure. Although Lanny has taken over the task of making money, he is in charge of managing the money that is brought in and some miscellaneous expenses. He is essentially the castle's financial director.

"Young Master, the castle doesn't have many gold coins left..." As soon as Frank spoke, Lanny felt a sense of déjà vu. He remembered that when he first learned about the castle's economy, Frank said the same thing!

"A sum of money was paid to the guards, totaling..." Although he found the strange smile on Lanny's face odd, Frank still proceeded to describe the castle's financial situation in a serious manner.

To put it simply, since Lanny woke up, the castle's total revenue has consisted of only about 200G contributed by Mr. Gino. Part of this revenue came from the cash purchase of the four Dark-Patterned Swords, and the rest from deposits for subsequent orders.

Apart from that, the castle or the Wells family had almost no income; instead, they were constantly paying for various expenses, such as those for the guards, workers, servants, and materials.

Frank currently only has about a hundred gold coins left, which, even based on daily expenses, won't last a month. Moreover, the order from the Locke Merchant Guild will be delivered in a week, at which point the castle will actually owe the guild money.

Lanny was naturally aware of these circumstances long ago; otherwise, he wouldn't have been thinking about how to make money even while taking a bath.

But what the others didn't know was that the air suddenly became heavy when they heard that the castle was about to be in debt for hundreds of gold coins.

"Haha, it's alright." Seeing the atmosphere become a bit tense, Lanny laughed. "The Locke Merchant Guild has already agreed to postpone the first batch of payments. Besides, our tea is also due in a week, right? Actually, it's not that much owed."

"Furthermore," Lanny said in a deep voice, glancing at everyone present, "don't forget we still have the Dark Pattern Sword. Once the order with Ford is completed, we'll have plenty of money. Don't worry!"

His words had little effect; everyone still wore somber expressions, and even Tiffany seemed hesitant to speak, though she had never been involved in family affairs and couldn't find a suitable response.

Melissa, who had more experience in this area, said in a deep voice, "Lanny, your financial structure is wrong. Are you planning to rely on the Dark Pattern Sword to support the castle's operation indefinitely? Is it that...?"

Raising an eyebrow, Lenny added, "Single source of income?"

“Yes, the income stream is too singular.” Melissa was somewhat surprised that Lanny understood her meaning so quickly, but she quickly continued, trying to recall what she had heard and understood, as she slowly said, “You know, we… cough cough, are relatively wealthy in the surrounding area, and our family business is quite good. My father divided the family business into several categories… ”

Because Cody was an outsider, she spoke rather vaguely about her hometown, but almost everyone except Cody knew where she was talking about, and they all perked up and listened attentively.

In those days, transportation and communication were inconvenient, and many people had never even been to Elfen, who was also in the North. Naturally, it was difficult for them to know about the Bauhinia Kingdom, which was thousands of miles away. Since Melissa brought it up, how could they not be curious?

Melissa seemed to be thinking of her deceased family members, and her expression suddenly became somewhat sad. Her voice also became softer and softer. Everyone exchanged glances and knew why. They couldn't urge her and could only patiently wait for her to recover on her own.

Even Tiffany, who had been somewhat confrontational with her during the meeting, looked worried.

"I'm sorry..." Fortunately, Melissa didn't dwell on these emotions for long. She quickly realized everyone was watching her, suppressed her sadness, and forced a smile. "I was just thinking about my family. Let's continue..."

“I remember, Father divided the family business into several categories,” Melissa said slowly, holding up one finger. “The first category is the daily business. The output and taxes from the family territory all belong to this category!”

Seemingly worried that people wouldn't understand, she continued to explain, "For example, we have two plots of land that we planted with cotton. Every year there is a fixed output with very little fluctuation, which is mainly used to maintain the family's expenses."

“The second type, profit-driven,” she held up a second finger…