Chapter 45

On that day, Riccardo and Antonio went to the forest upstream of the Crem River, so Monta was left to stay at home. Monta had said he wanted to go with them, but they left him behind, saying it was dangerous, which made him a bit sulky.

The wise beast, pouting, stuck to the wooden bench in the garden, swaying his flat, long tail.

"Monta, let's play."

Serge approached and picked up Monta.

"Kyu, Kyuka Kyu Kyue" (Serge, don't hug me too tight)

Serge didn't understand what Monta was saying, but from the tone of his voice, he knew Monta was upset, so he loosened his grip and held him gently.

"Sorry. Did it hurt?"

"Kyaku" (It's okay)

As Serge and the wise beast were playing, Pamela came walking over.

"Pamela wants to play with Monta too."

Pamela, smiling, started stroking Monta's head.

Serge sensed someone behind him.

"Oh, it's Monta."

Suddenly, a high-pitched voice rang out, and a young girl about Serge's age came running from the entrance.

It was Laura from the neighborhood. A few more children gathered, and finally, a twelve-year-old girl named Annabella came and started looking after the children.

These children were brought by the neighborhood housewives. The reason they gathered at Riccardo's house was that Julia had distributed Chinese buns to the neighborhood.

The next day, the housewives who gathered at the well surrounded Julia. These housewives were the wives of people who worked at nearby workshops and stores.

"Julia, the Chinese buns you gave us yesterday were all delicious. My husband and children fought over them."

"Mine too."

"I almost didn't have any left for myself."

It seemed that Julia's Chinese buns were well-received. Julia was delighted and said that even the important people at the castle had praised them, which impressed the housewives.

One of the housewives who had eaten the Chinese buns suggested that they could be sold. This led to a proposal to start a business, and the area around the Unius family became lively.

"This will definitely sell."

Beata, Laura's mother, said firmly, but Julia, looking worried, replied,

"But will it really sell?"

"It's fine. The important people at the castle said they were delicious, right?"

"Yes, I didn't hear it myself, but Antonio said so."

"If someone used to eating delicious things says it's good, then the Chinese buns are truly delicious."

"That's true."

The housewives gathered, discussed various things, and decided to start selling the Chinese buns. Of course, they had obtained Riccardo's approval.

When doing business in the capital, it was necessary to file with the capital's office, but since it was a small-scale business like a food cart, the procedures were simple.

The Chinese buns would be made in the Unius family's kitchen, and sales would take place in a corner of the woodworking shop run by Laura's father. The counter and steamer for keeping the buns warm would be made by Laura's father, and the small iron stove would be provided by Riccardo.

This Chinese bun business was started by the housewives as a small side job, so on the first day of sales, they prepared forty meat buns, thirty sweet potato buns, and thirty pumpkin buns, totaling one hundred buns.

When sales began, people started to appear here and there, perhaps out of curiosity.

A man who looked like a craftsman approached with a curious look on his face.

"Strange name for food. Is it good?"

"Yes, it's delicious."

"Then give me one for breakfast."

The customer chose a meat bun and bit into it right there.

"Wow, this is delicious. It's really good."

His voice acted as a catalyst, and the Chinese buns started to sell. The housewives had hoped to sell one hundred buns in a day, but by mid-morning, it looked like they would sell out.

Beata counted the Chinese buns she was keeping warm in the steamer and noticed that the remaining number was decreasing.

"Hey... the number is getting low."

Julia looked puzzled.

"Why are they selling so well... Chinese buns are supposed to be unknown here."

The residents of the capital were tired of their unchanging daily lives and were hungry for something new.

"Since we're amateurs in business, it's a waste of time to think about it. What should we do?"

In response to Beata's question, Julia and the other housewives furrowed their brows. After discussing whether to end sales or not, they decided to replenish the stock.

The housewives hurriedly made an additional one hundred buns, and they sold two hundred buns in one day.

The residents of the capital seemed to enjoy the new taste of Chinese buns. As the business became a huge success, the housewives started to focus more on the production and sales of Chinese buns.

They began to let the children play at the Unius house early in the morning and divided into two groups for production and sales. Although they were housewives and could only work for a short time, they took turns working and started to earn more than just pocket money.

Despite the hard work, the faces of the working housewives were lively.

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On the other hand, Riccardo and Antonio, heading upstream of the Crem River, were accompanied by the servants Eriq and Fred. They needed extra hands to gather branches and leaves.

"Sir Riccardo, is it okay not to bring a cart?"

One of the servants, Fred, asked, seemingly worried about how they would transport the branches and leaves they cut.

"Yes, it's fine because I brought a magical tool."

"Huh, you have such a tool?"

The other servant, Eriq, with a prominent eagle nose, said with a smug look.

"What, you didn't know about this? There's a convenient thing called a storage aquamarine."

Eriq seemed surprisingly knowledgeable and knew about the storage aquamarine.

"It must be expensive. When you defeated the Underworld Wolf, I thought it was amazing, but magicians are really impressive."

Riccardo chuckled at Fred's odd admiration.

After walking for about two hours, Riccardo and the others arrived at the logging site and found numerous stumps and freshly cut branches and leaves on the hillside.

Before starting to gather the branches and leaves, they called out to the loggers working nearby.

"Hey, we heard from Master Romano. Be careful, there are monster trees around."

"Thank you, we will be careful."

Antonio responded on behalf of the group.

The loggers were all burly men who seemed capable of cutting down even a Trill, a type of monster tree. When asked about the monster trees, it turned out that the ones appearing here were Trills and Damils.

They would cut down Trills but run away if they encountered Damils. The long, lightning-fast whips of the Damil monster trees were a threat to the loggers and sometimes caused fatalities.

Riccardo and the others started gathering the branches and leaves using the hatchets and ropes they brought. The work on the hillside was quite labor-intensive.

"Haa haa... This is several times harder than mowing grass."

"I'm starting to envy Dario, who's staying at home."

Eriq and Fred, unaccustomed to working in the mountains, started complaining.

"Just a little more, so please keep going."

Antonio encouraged them, but he himself seemed tired.

They continued working with occasional breaks and finished gathering a month's worth of feed for the monster trees at the breeding ground about three hours after lunch.

Just as they were about to store the branches and leaves in the storage aquamarine and head back, a group of Trill monster trees appeared.

There were five of them, and one of them had small fruits on its branches, which looked like acorns but were longer and thinner.

"Damn, they're back again."

The loggers gathered, holding their axes, ready to fight.

"I'll help too."

Riccardo took out the magic rod he had just made. It was a regular magic rod, not a Death Prod.

As a preemptive attack, he cast the "Storm Fang Array" spell. Dozens of wind blades flew towards the Trills, hitting three of them and killing two. One of the killed Trills had the fruits.

The loggers charged with Viking-like battle cries and quickly defeated the Trills. It seemed that their help was not needed.

Riccardo collected the branches and fruits from the killed Trills and gave the remaining trunks and roots to the loggers. The Trills served as catalysts and were a source of income for the loggers, so they were happy to receive them.

Riccardo and the others' feet felt heavy as they left the mountain. The work in the mountains had drained more energy than they had expected.

At least, they had secured enough feed for the winter, so Riccardo decided to focus on his thesis.

First, he needed to develop a composite spell involving "Earth" and "Water." Without this, he couldn't prove that "Amusnarl" was a system word.

The only hint was the "Drying" spell, but he had a feeling it could work.

The "Drying" spell, as a "Water" spell, only worked on water that had seeped into fabric, trying to remove the water from the fabric.

"This seems inefficient."

The first idea that came to mind was a rotational movement, inspired by the spin cycle of a washing machine.

He tried using magic to rotate a wet piece of fabric to separate the water. As expected, water droplets flew everywhere, and Riccardo got wet.

"Rotating makes it dry faster, but we need to do something about the flying water droplets."

Next, he tried applying pressure.

He tried to separate the water from the wet fabric by pressing it, similar to a press machine. This method also dried the fabric faster, but it required more magic power.

Suddenly, he remembered how a wet dog shakes its body to shake off water.

"No, the dog's shaking is just using centrifugal force to fling off water... But maybe if I vibrate the wet fabric, it will repel water."

Riccardo found a suitable magic word, constructed a spell, and prepared a wet piece of fabric. He visualized the spell's activation in his mind, released magic from his right hand, and sprinkled the catalyst.

He confirmed that the magic power had changed to a color mixed with brown and blue and began to chant the spell.

"Amusnarl, Bergardeo, Ristalio"

The wet fabric made a faint sound, and the next moment, water floated out of the fabric and fell to the ground with a splash. When he checked the fabric, it was completely dry. The principle was unclear, but it seemed to make it easier to separate water from the fabric.

"Success. It also seems to reduce the consumption of magic power."

This time, he used the same amount of magic power as a mid-level spell, but from the feel of it, it was excessive. He found that the "Drying" spell could be used with the same amount of magic power as an upper-level beginner spell.

After that, he used the composite spells "Molten Flame Bullet" and "Drying" to conduct the experiments needed for his thesis.

The main point of the thesis was to prove that "Amusnarl" and "Fasnal" were system words and that composite spells using them existed.

In the thesis, he reported that changing the system word from "Fana" to "Fasnal" increased the power of the "Molten Flame Bullet" by about fifty percent, proving that "Fasnal" was a system word for composite spells.

He also described the experimental results showing that the new "Drying" spell only performed optimally when using "Amusnarl" as the system word, proving that "Amusnarl" was a system word.

It took about a month to write the thesis, and it was completed as winter ended and spring approached.

Riccardo went to the Magician's Guild and visited Isarco's room. Isarco was doing some research inside.

"Riccardo, what brings you here?"

Isarco looked up and called out.

"I've brought the thesis."

Isarco's face lit up, and he eagerly asked to see it. Riccardo handed over the thesis, and Isarco put aside his research and started reading.

While waiting for him to finish, Riccardo glanced at the documents Isarco was researching. They seemed to be theses written by researchers from the Alchemy Bureau.

"Excellent!"

Isarco suddenly exclaimed loudly after reading the thesis.

"This thesis only proves that two magic words are system words."

Riccardo modestly replied, but Isarco said,

"No, no, this is a discovery that hasn't been made in recent years."

When Isarco published the thesis under the name of the magician Arslan Matou, who lived in a remote area, it caused a greater shock among magicians than the composite spell thesis published by Massimo.

The Magician's Guild summarized the groundbreaking thesis on a single sheet of paper and posted it on the guild's bulletin board or delivered it to famous magicians.

The magicians who read the summary rushed to the Magician's Guild to obtain the original thesis.

Isarco ordered the clerical staff to make twenty copies of Riccardo's thesis titled "Proof of Composite Spell System Words." Riccardo himself also participated in the copying, feeling a mix of emotions.

However, the number of magicians who visited the Magician's Guild to read the thesis exceeded Isarco's expectations, leading to a scramble for the thesis.

The loan of the thesis was handled at the Alchemy Bureau's thesis storage, and magicians gathered in front of the storage. Among them was the court magician chief, Vittorio.

"Director Ryuben, is that thesis genuine?"

Vittorio, spotting the director of the Alchemy Bureau, Ryuben, called out.

"Oh, Vittorio, you're here too?"

"Yes, but what about the thesis?"

"It's genuine. It has been verified by Director Isarco."

Hearing this, the surrounding magicians started to murmur.

"I was surprised by the 'Molten Flame Bullet' before, but this thesis is even more shocking."

As Ryuben explained the content of the thesis, Vittorio focused on the author.

"Who is this Arslan Matou?"

"According to Director Isarco, he is a magician living in seclusion in a remote area."

"Wow, it's surprising that such a person is hiding in a remote area."

Vittorio looked at the magicians sitting at the tables and benches set up in front of the thesis storage, reading the thesis and taking notes while making strange grunting sounds.

"Mmm... Oh... Oh..."

At that moment, a magician who had finished reading the thesis stood up and ran towards the library.

"What's going on with him?"

"Probably to borrow the 'Great Series of Magic' by the sage Manuel from the library. He must have thought there might be other system words and couldn't resist checking."

Ryuben, who had read the 'Great Series of Magic' immediately after reading the thesis, explained.

2017/8/6 Revised