Farming in the Magical World

It was early morning, just as dawn was breaking.

Frank woke up in bed on time.

He quickly got out of bed, drew water from the wooden tub to wash up, meticulously combed his hair back, put on his black butler's uniform, and walked out of the room. His workday had begun from that moment.

The first thing he does when he leaves home is to go to the kitchen to supervise the cook, Susan, in preparing meals for her master. Each master has different preferences and tastes, so the meals must be prepared separately, and there can be no perfunctory or careless work.

The lady prefers sweet foods and needs to have sugary foods added to her diet frequently. However, meat is also essential, though not in large quantities, and it must be prepared carefully, otherwise she will not be able to eat it.

Young Master Lanny used to prefer meat and strong flavors, and he also had very high standards for the refinement of food. But recently, for some reason, he suddenly changed his taste and now prefers milder flavors.

Most importantly, he suddenly developed a strange aversion to sugar, and he noticed several times that the young master would frown when he saw sweets.

As for why, he didn't know!

Of course, the reason is not important, and the housekeeper does not need to know the reason; all he needs to know is what to do.

A good butler must be able to carefully observe his master's preferences and adjust accordingly. He always paid close attention to changes in his masters' tastes.

He remembered clearly that this knowledge was taught to him by the old steward of the royal palace when he accompanied Lord Claudia to the capital.

Therefore, he had to explain everything clearly, one by one. Susan was a decent cook, but she lacked patience and was careless. He couldn't rest easy without her watching over him.

Fortunately, there are only two people who can be called the owners of the castle at present. As for Knight Tim, although he is August's close friend and a castle knight, he is not the owner after all, so there is no need to pay too much attention to him.

After breakfast, he would urge the maids, including Candy, to do a thorough cleaning of the castle. Every week, he would also need to prune the castle's plants. Although Wells Castle was not large, there were very few servants inside. Including himself, three maids, a cook, and a groom, there were only six people in total.

There weren't enough people, not because they didn't want to hire, but because no one in the Wells family, starting with Lord Claudia, had ever been good at making money. So he hadn't mentioned to the patriarch the matter of increasing the number of gardeners. He would do the gardening work himself, since it only needed to be done once a week, and he could manage.

The routine castle maintenance work finally came to an end in the afternoon.

Between sunset and dinnertime, he could rest for a while. As long as the young master didn't ring the call bell, he would comfortably lean against the window, enjoying the slanting sunlight and reading a book or something.

Of course, his collection of books was not as extensive as that in the master's study; he only had a few books, and most of them were travelogues and tales of the strange and supernatural.

Because of frequent use, the book is quite worn out, and he knows the stories and anecdotes recorded inside by heart. He can't quite explain why he still takes it out to look at it now—is he reading a book or reminiscing about his youth?

Come to think of it, it seems like he's been in this castle for over sixty years, hasn't he?

His surname is unknown. He was adopted by August's father, Baron Claudia, when he was a child, so he probably didn't have a surname. After all, there were no troublesome nobles near the place where he was adopted, only a lot of refugees.

I remember when he was very young, he followed Lord Claudia around and went to many places, and saw a lot of things.

Later, after the birth of young Master August, he was arranged by the master to stay in the castle and take care of young Master August, and from then on he rarely went out.

Later, after the master left, he never returned. It was only much later that news came that he had been assassinated in the southern border of the kingdom. The local duke couldn't even find the murderer, and the duke even sent someone to apologize.

After all, if a nobleman of a kingdom is killed in his own territory, the Grand Duke has an obligation to find the murderer. Since the murderer cannot be found, it is reasonable to send a steward to apologize.

Later, young Master Auguste succeeded to the title and became Lord Auguste, while he continued to work as the castle's steward.

August was a restless man in his youth, always either helping the weak and oppressed or upholding justice.

Fortunately, he had acquired knightly skills at a young age, and with the bloodline that the Wells family had always possessed, he wasn't too worried about his safety. However, seeing that his son-like August was almost 25 years old and still single, he felt a little anxious.

He knew that the Wells family had always had difficulty having children due to bloodline issues, and the later August married, the slimmer his hope of having children became!

Until one day, when August returned, he brought two friends with him: one was Knight Tim Miller, and the other was a girl named Carol.

I heard that the three of them met while traveling, and because they got along well, they quickly became friends.

Carol was beautiful, with blonde hair and a stunning figure. Her cheerful personality made her and August very compatible. Soon after, Carol became the mistress of the castle and became pregnant with August's child, relieving Frank's worries.

Although Carol has a good personality, and although she is pregnant with August's child and still respects him, Frank just can't bring himself to like her.

He learned by chance that, at Carole's urging, August had abandoned the Wells family's proud bloodline and traditions.

The reason is simply that she is worried that her child will have difficulty having offspring in the future!

The Wells family has a secret bloodline inheritance. Once adults reach adulthood, they can activate their bloodline through a special ceremony to gain a longer lifespan and a stronger physique. Although there are drawbacks such as needing to drink fresh blood every full moon and difficulty in having offspring, this is not a reason to abandon the inheritance. This bloodline is both the glory and the responsibility of the Wells family.

This secret was told to him by Lord Claudia.

He would never forget the solemn expression on Lord Claudia's face as he sat in the study under the dim candlelight, speaking of the family bloodline, as if the Wells family were continuing a sacred mission.

As for what the mission was, Claudia opened her mouth but did not elaborate. She only instructed him to protect the secret. In case the family's succession had problems in the future, he would need to assist the heir in completing the succession activation ceremony. As for the secret of the succession, it would naturally become clear after the ceremony.

The master gave him a small box, saying it was the family's heirloom box.

He didn't know what was inside; he wasn't present when August performed the inheritance ceremony.

Later, August decided to give up the bloodline inheritance and entrusted the box to him for safekeeping. August's intention was that if the family encountered a crisis, he would have a backup plan, which could be considered as insurance for the family.

He didn't dwell on what was inside the inheritance box; these were things he shouldn't know anyway. He only needed to fulfill his duty as steward.

Whether it was fortunate or unfortunate, Carol died in childbirth while giving birth to Lanny. Although he knew it shouldn't have happened, he couldn't help but feel a little happy.

Afterwards, he tried several times to persuade August to reactivate his bloodline, but the master refused him on the grounds that he had made a promise to Carol.

Now that Lord August has also died in battle, young master Lanny has once again inherited the title and become the head of the Wells family, but he does not want to change his address immediately and continues to call Lanny "young master".

Perhaps this can be considered a little bit of my own willfulness.

He only hoped that this would help him remember August for a few more years. He was worried that once he changed his way of addressing him, he would stop thinking about August often in a few years.

Although he respected all three barons of the Wells family very much, the most special one to him was Claudia, who was both his master and his "father".

But the one he loved most and who gave him the most headaches was this little guy, Lanny.

Of course, Lanny had given him no shortage of headaches since he was a child, but these past few days had been even more excessive.

That day, Lanny suddenly asked him to prepare half a pound of grouse feathers, specifically the tail feathers with stiff roots.

Doesn't the young master know that grouse are already rare and their feathers are light? Half a pound is a lot. Even if he bought up all the grouse raised in the villages in the territory, he still wouldn't be able to gather enough.

There was nothing he could do; since it was the young master's arrangement, he could only do his best to complete it.

All the castle servants were dispatched to the village to buy grouse, and they did not disappoint, bringing back several dozen. That should be enough.

However, the castle also became smelly from the grouse, reeking of chicken droppings.

Now even Mrs. Tiffany doesn't want to leave the bedroom, probably because she can't stand the smell. On the contrary, Lanny seems unaffected, which surprises him.

He was still thinking that this young master had really changed a lot and finally had the composure of a nobleman.

Unexpectedly, just two days later, Lanny started playing in the mud in the backyard with the hammer he had summoned.

The two of them got filthy every day. Looking at Lanny, who was like a mud monkey, where was the slightest bit of the aristocratic air he used to have?

"What? Lanny said this isn't playing around, it's research and experimentation."

In all his years of life, he had never heard of what "research" or "experiment" actually meant.

But he could see clearly that the mud was being placed on the ground, water was being added, and then it was being kneaded repeatedly. If they weren't playing with mud, what else could they be doing?

Sigh, I don't understand young people these days. The young master was so cheerful just a while ago, and he almost couldn't resist telling him the family secret and handing over what he was keeping to complete the task August had given him.

But unexpectedly, just a few days after it started to work, it started to re-emerge from its solid state.

Forget it, let's wait a few more years and see. He remembered that when Lord August gave these things to him, he repeatedly told him that they should only be handed over after young master Lanny was old enough to understand. It was said that the activation ceremony was not simple, and he was worried that Lanny might mess things up.

And sure enough, today, for some reason, Hammer and Jimmy were yelling and shouting in the backyard again.

One minute they're congratulating the young master on completing the stove renovation, and the next they're congratulating the young master on inventing the bellows and so on.

What nonsense! What's so great about modifying a furnace? Even if you modify it, it's still just for blacksmithing.

Are you suggesting that Lanny, as a baron, should be sent to work as a blacksmith?

As for the bellows, he simply couldn't understand it.

But there was that Wells Magic Bean they made a fuss about before... ...Ink line, um, yes, I think it was called Wells Ink Line.

Because of the family connection, he went to see it specifically, but was greatly disappointed.

It's just a wooden box with a string, what's the big deal?

The carpenter's apprentice was so excited that he cried on the spot, which was completely inexplicable.

Frank, having finished a day's work, lay on his small bed, his mind wandering to all sorts of random thoughts. He rolled over, covered his head, and drifted off to sleep...

Outside the window, the commotion among Lenny, Hammer, and Jimmy continued...