Chapter 31

With the arrival of April, the snow that had covered Rasmoor Village had completely melted, and the spring-like yellow-green colors had returned.

The wind was still somewhat cold, but the sunlight had begun to feel warm.

In the village's farmland, the winter-sown wheat had started to grow, and the fields were covered with a green carpet.

My life remained largely unchanged, filled with sword and magic training, play, and the formulation and verification of reform plans.

What I had decided to do in the spring was beekeeping and maple syrup production.

For beekeeping, I had asked the carpenter Craig to make hives and frames. I had previously done business with a large beekeeping farm in the Chugoku region regarding the sterilization of hives, so I knew the structure of the hives. However, I hadn't researched how to get the bees into the hives. I left the hives near the forest around mid-March, hoping the bees would enter on their own as they started their activities.

For the maple syrup, there were quite a few maple trees on the east side of the mansion, so I had the blacksmith Bertram make metal tubes about one cm thick and used ceramic bottles, which were originally for storing alcohol, to collect the sap. I started this in late March, but the amount of sap collected was small, and it had only recently reached the stage where it could be boiled down. I don't remember where I saw it, but I knew that to make syrup, the sap needed to be concentrated twenty to thirty times. When I had about two to three liters, I put it in a pot and started boiling it.

This time, I had Tricia, Walt's daughter who loves sweet things, help me. I felt a bit uneasy about having her help because she is clumsy, but she seemed the most enthusiastic, so I chose her.

"Try not to burn it. Keep stirring until it thickens to the point where it starts to collect at the bottom of the pot."

At first, Tricia was skeptical, but as the syrup thickened, she was captivated by the sweet aroma of the maple syrup, and her usual carefree expression turned serious. We boiled it down for about three days, and Tricia told me, "I think it's probably done, but I'm not sure."

When I looked into the pot, I saw about 200 cc of amber liquid at the bottom.

I tasted it with a spoon. It felt a bit lacking in thickness, but the sweet taste and aroma of maple syrup spread in my mouth.

I praised her, saying, "Good job."

"It might be better to boil it a bit more, but this should work. It's probably good enough."

She nodded, looking relieved and satisfied.

"The sap is still coming, so I'll ask you to help again."

Seeing her nod, I added, "By the way, you can use this batch as you like."

Her face brightened at my words.

"Thank you! I'll work hard to make more."

She carefully held the syrup and skipped back inside.

(This village is hungry for sweet things. Once we have a stable income, I might buy some sugar.)

By mid-April, the village was colored in the hues of spring. Daisies, yellow flowers whose names I didn't know, and violets bloomed along the pastures and roads, making me feel cheerful.

Regarding my mother's pregnancy, she seemed to be doing well without any significant health issues. I heard this from the maids Molly and Nicholas's wife Kate, so I wasn't sure if it was really true, as I had no knowledge or experience. However, since I was the least experienced in the mansion and was most concerned about my mother's condition, there was a possibility that they were trying to avoid worrying me if things weren't going well.

Still, from what I could see, she seemed fine, and since this was her third pregnancy, it was probably going well. Sharon's mother Claire and Mel's mother Polly, who were also due to give birth around the same time, seemed to be doing well, and as my grandfather said, the village would likely be filled with the cries of newborns by summer.

Regarding hygiene management for the newborns, at least in the Rockhart household and the vassals' homes, the use of soap had become standard, creating a fairly clean environment. The increased handwashing had led to higher water consumption, and since this mansion didn't have a pump, Walt's burden of fetching water had increased. However, from what I could see, he didn't seem to mind.

Still, I was considering ways to reduce the workload. One option was to use windmills for power, but I couldn't come up with a good method.

Regarding soap, its use had started in the village and had been ongoing for over four months. I didn't know what explanation Nicholas had given, but the villagers seemed to be using soap as instructed. Especially for children's hygiene, Ridi had confirmed during her rounds that the number of unclean children had significantly decreased.

Regarding my training status, I was concerned about the slow level progression in swordsmanship. The gap with Mel hadn't changed, so it might be that the higher the level, the slower the progression. Despite increasing my training time, I had only gained one level in four months since reaching level four in January.

When I told my grandfather, he said, "I understand your impatience, but reaching level five at your age is exceptional. Both Mel and Dan are leveling up abnormally fast."

My older brother Rod reached level five two years after starting training. He is currently level ten at nine years old. Normally, a child who trains seriously would reach level five by ten, so this was still considered fast.

While I wasn't satisfied, I had to accept that worrying wouldn't help.

Regarding magic, things were going smoothly. My wind attribute was at level six, and my light, wood, and water attributes were at level five.

What made me particularly happy was being able to use healing magic. Healing magic works well with light, wood, and water attributes. Wood is good for external injuries like fractures and cuts, water is good for internal injuries like poisoning and organ damage, and light can be used for both.

I learned the spell from Ridi, practiced the basics, and then inflicted a small wound on my hand to use the magic. I endured the pain and cast the wood attribute spell.

"Great tree of the forest, by the power of the spirits that nurture life, heal the wound on my hand. I offer my life force as a sacrifice. Power of healing."

I then visualized the cells becoming active and transmitted this image to the spirits.

The blood stopped flowing, and the wound closed quickly. The process was so fast that it felt almost eerie, like a slow-motion video.

Since I had a clear image of how the body works, external injuries were relatively easy to heal.

Even when I succeeded on the first try, Ridi wasn't surprised anymore. This time, she even asked, "It's healing so cleanly. How do you do it?"

I could treat minor injuries, but I couldn't test other healing spells, so I was trying to solidify my mental images. For detoxification, I imagined filtering the blood, similar to a dialysis machine. For internal injuries, which would be more challenging, I thought a combination of water and wood magic would work best. Water for purification and wood for regeneration. This image felt less strange to me.

Knowing I could heal myself made me feel a bit more at ease. We often got injured, as our play was also part of our training. We frequently fell from trees or balance beams and got scrapes from ropes. We often had to call Ridi to heal us, but she was busy with her rounds and wasn't always available. When we got serious injuries, someone had to fetch her. She would rush over with a worried look, and I always felt bad about it.

Since learning healing magic, the levels of my light, wood, and water attributes had increased faster. Interestingly, my healing magic consumed less magic power. According to Ridi, healing magic usually consumes more magic power than other types of magic. In my case, I barely used any MP for minor scrapes. I thought it might be because I had a clear image of the human body's structure, but I wasn't sure.

By May, the cold had disappeared, and on sunny days, it felt warm. One of the things I was grateful for after being reincarnated in this world was that I no longer suffered from hay fever. While there were birch and grasses that could cause hay fever, I hadn't experienced any symptoms last year or this year. I was enjoying the spring season, which used to make me wear a mask every day, like heaven.

Regarding beekeeping, bees were reportedly entering one of the hives. I didn't know how long it would take, but I asked Guy to introduce me to a man who collected honey in the forest and appointed him as the beekeeper. I provided him with information through Nicholas, but this would be a trial-and-error process.

The first reform I tackled was the toilet. I realized that human waste wasn't suitable for composting. The high water content seemed to be the issue, and I couldn't think of a way to address it with the facilities available. I then thought of mixing it with the abundant horse and cow manure in the mansion.

I initially thought that the waste of herbivores could easily be composted. However, it took a lot of trial and error to succeed. I thought mixing it with forest humus would work, but it didn't. The worms didn't enter the horse manure, so I had to keep experimenting. I suspected that the water content was the issue, so I tried mixing it with wheat straw.

This started the fermentation process, and the temperature began to rise. However, it stopped after a few days. I reconsidered and thought that fermentation required microorganisms, which needed nutrients and oxygen. Digging the compost pile periodically to introduce air might help. I instructed the staff to do this every few days, and after two months, the compost was ready.

I then tried mixing human waste with the compost. The mansion had about ten horses and five to six cows, while there were five Rockharts, fifteen vassals and their families, and Ridi, totaling twenty-one people. The manure from the horses and cows was about fifty to a hundred times the amount of human waste by weight.

However, the manure from the grazing horses and cows remained in the pastures, so the ratio wasn't ideal. Still, collecting the manure from the stables and mixing it with human waste worked. Mixing small amounts was successful, but increasing the amount of human waste led to problems. The ratio of people to animals in the mansion was manageable, but it would be challenging to implement this in the entire village, where there were about a hundred cows and twenty horses. There were also about two hundred pigs, but I hadn't tested their manure.

If pig manure worked, composting would be possible, but I needed to test it. I thought this could be considered after the villagers started the process.

The biggest issue was composting during the winter. The winters in Rasmoor Village were very cold, with frequent snowfall from mid-December to February, and temperatures often near zero. Microorganisms need a suitable temperature to decompose waste, and higher temperatures are generally better. Therefore, I needed to find a way to maintain the temperature.

I tried making larger compost piles to reduce the surface area and used wheat straw as insulation. Despite these efforts, the fermentation process was slower during the winter, and it took longer to complete. After four months, the compost I started in December was finally ready by April.

There were two main issues with composting. First, it required more effort than I expected. I had assumed that adding microorganisms to the waste would make it compost on its own, but fermentation required regular maintenance, such as turning the compost pile every few days, which was labor-intensive.

Second, the method for handling human waste. The original goal was to improve hygiene by managing waste. I had started composting to utilize it, but the number of horses and cows in the village wasn't enough to handle the waste of all the villagers. If pig manure worked, it would be a solution, but I hadn't verified this. If it didn't work and the waste couldn't be managed, I considered disposing of it in the forest. The forest was large, and there were many fallen leaves, so spreading the waste thinly would likely have minimal impact. However, this felt like a defeat, so I might consider other methods.

The toilet reform had some setbacks, but I had a plan. The main issue was confusing the goal with the means. The original goal was to solve hygiene problems caused by unmanaged waste. To achieve this, I set a goal of popularizing toilets and used composting as a means to motivate the villagers. Initially, I thought it would be easy, but I focused too much on composting. While composting could increase crop yields, it wasn't necessary for hygiene management.

Another option was to build drainage systems to dispose of waste into the river. This would be bad for downstream residents, but considering the village's population and the river's size, it wouldn't cause significant pollution. The Black River, which flows out of the village, has no residents downstream, and the Fathus River is a large river, so the impact would be minimal.

While I didn't like the idea of untreated waste, if the impact was minimal, it could have been an option. In pre-modern times, untreated water was often discharged into rivers, and the saying "three feet downstream" reflects this.

Other methods, such as drying and disposing of the waste, could have been considered. Focusing too much on composting delayed the introduction of toilets. While no cholera or other infectious diseases had occurred, if they had, it would have been regrettable.

I reported the results to my father, who, after confirming the effectiveness of the compost, allowed its introduction in the village.