Chapter 86

Bernardo and Antonio set out on a journey to visit nearby villages to recruit employees for the breeding facility. Besides the two of them, Bernardo's servants, Karel and Piney, accompanied them.

This journey was to be made on foot. Some of the paths leading to the villages were not well-maintained, and traveling by carriage on bumpy roads would be a miserable experience.

"Ricardo must be disappointed."

"Yes, he wanted to see the villages in the royal domain, but it seems he was entrusted with a request from the Naspetti conglomerate."

The Naspetti conglomerate was established by a branch of the Naspetti family, the parents of General Samuele. They conducted a wide range of businesses, with a particular focus on the development and sale of magical tools.

It seems that the Naspetti conglomerate had commissioned the development of a new type of magic light to the Association of Magicians. Reuben, the director of the bureau, had assigned this task to Ricardo via Isarco.

"Hmm, a new type of magic light... What makes it different from the existing ones?"

"They want it to be brighter and consume less magic power."

"That's a tough challenge. Even Ricardo might struggle with it."

Antonio and his companions, who had set out early in the morning, arrived at the first village around noon.

They had already informed the village chief by letter about their recruitment plans, so he should have gathered young people looking for jobs. When they arrived at the chief's house, about ten young people were waiting.

Bernardo and Antonio conducted interviews one by one. Antonio hired two young people, and Bernardo hired three.

"Chief, we would like to take these five."

"Yes, thank you. We've been struggling this year because there are fewer job opportunities in the capital."

"Yes, the capital has faced many disasters this year, so it's understandable."

Bernardo explained the situation in the capital.

"I didn't know the damage was that severe."

Bernardo and Antonio gave the five young people some money for their preparations and instructed them to come to the eastern gate of the capital in ten days.

They stayed in the village for the night and set out for the next village the following morning.

When they had covered about half the distance to the next village, it started raining.

"This is not good."

Antonio and his companions searched for a place to take shelter but found none.

"Karel, please bring out the cloaks."

Bernardo thought of using the cloaks as rain protection and ordered Karel to bring them. Karel carried a storage amethyst, which contained the cloaks.

At that moment, Antonio stopped him.

"It's not necessary."

He took out a container house from the storage amethyst he had received from Ricardo and placed it on the grass by the roadside.

"Please come inside."

When Antonio opened the door of the container house, everyone went in.

"This is Ricardo's container house, isn't it?"

"Yes, my brother lent it to me. He said it would be useful in case we had to camp out."

Antonio turned on the magic light inside to brighten the room.

"It's small but a comfortable room."

Antonio took out towels from the closet and handed them to the others.

"Thank you."

They dried their wet clothes and bodies with the towels and sat down to wait for the rain to stop.

"This container house is a wonderful invention, as are the towels."

"Ricardo says it's nothing special, but I sometimes think he's a genius."

Bernardo nodded in agreement.

"Was Ricardo always intelligent?"

Antonio tilted his head.

"No, when we lived together in the Fabius territory, he was just an ordinary child. He liked to sit in the sun on sunny days and watch the clouds drift by."

"Hmm, then perhaps something happened when he was with Lord Alessandro that changed him?"

"Come to think of it, he mentioned being sent to hunt the demonic tree Elbir in place of Uncle Alessandro."

"Hmm, perhaps he developed his talents after facing danger."

"Perhaps."

While Bernardo and Antonio were talking, the rain stopped.

Antonio and his companions went outside, put the container house back into the storage amethyst, and resumed their journey. They found a side road leading to the next village a little further along. This village was located away from the main road, and the path was not well-maintained.

One method of road maintenance involved planting seeds of herbs that repelled magical beasts. The herbs were growing on both sides of the road they had been walking on, but on the side road, they were only found in some places.

"From here on, we might encounter magical beasts. Let's be careful."

"Sir, shouldn't we have hired guards?"

"The magical beasts that appear around here are mostly horned wolves or demonic trees Trill. With magic guns and magic color guns, we should be fine."

As Bernardo said, they encountered four horned wolves.

Antonio and Bernardo took out their wind magic color guns, while Karel and Piney took out their magic guns.

Aiming at the horned wolves that were approaching with growls, Antonio pulled the trigger. The shock wave hit the head of a horned wolf, and it fell down easily.

In a moment, all four horned wolves were defeated, and Antonio put their corpses into the storage amethyst.

"Three years ago, I, a merchant, would never have thought of defeating horned wolves. But with the development of new weapons, even weak people can defeat magical beasts. Perhaps this is a time of great change."

Bernardo put away his magic color gun and said.

They encountered magical beasts a few more times but arrived safely at the village. This village was known for producing tiles, a building material. They mined blue pigments from nearby mountains, mixed them with clay, shaped them, and sold them in the capital.

They went to the chief's house in this village, interviewed the gathered young people, and selected those they would hire.

After the interviews, the chief approached Bernardo with a request.

"Sir Bernardo, may I have a word with you?"

"What is it?"

"Some villagers caught a strange bird in the mountain where they mine the pigment. I was wondering if we could sell it."

"A strange bird... Can we see it?"

The chief brought a basket woven from vines and showed them a bird that looked like an owl chick.

"Stomach... Hungry"

"Food... Please"

"Mama, Mama"

A voice echoed in Antonio's head. Antonio could understand it, but Bernardo and the others could not make out the words, though they could tell it was saying something.

The ability to understand telepathy is said to depend on one's level of magic control. That's why only Antonio, who had received training from Ricardo, could understand it.

"It's the same as Monta."

"It's a Wise Owl. To catch three wise beasts... What happened to the parents of these chicks?"

The chief didn't know. When the villagers found them, there were only the chicks.

"I want one."

Antonio muttered. Bernardo started negotiating the price.

There was no fixed market price for wise beasts. Their value depended on how much they could speak and how intelligent they were. Additionally, young wise beasts were less valuable because they could easily die from minor issues.

After negotiating with the chief, Bernardo and his companions bought one for twelve gold coins. Whether this was the market price or not, no one, including Bernardo, knew. Bernardo had never dealt with wise beasts in his business.

They decided that Antonio would take one chick, and Bernardo would take the other two.

Antonio asked the village children to collect insects similar to grasshoppers and crickets, and gave them a few copper coins as a reward.

Antonio and Bernardo fed the chicks with the insects. The fluffy chicks, covered in down, opened their small mouths as wide as they could to swallow the food.

"They're so cute."

"Really, they are. I can understand why noble ladies would want them."

Wise beasts were popular among noble ladies, and most of the captured wise beasts were kept by them.

Antonio and his companions visited a total of four villages and decided on the necessary employees.

In the evening, they returned to the capital and went home with their chicks.

When they entered the house, Serge was the first to notice the chicks.

"What are those?"

"These are Wise Owl chicks."

Serge tilted his head.

"Wise Owls?"

"They're the same kind of wise beasts as Monta."

"Can I see them closer?"

Antonio brought the small basket with the chick to Serge. Serge looked at the chick with sparkling eyes.

"Have you named it?"

"It's called Mel."

"Wow, it's so cute."

Pamela and Monta appeared from the dining room.

"Aww, so cute."

"Monta wants to see too."

Antonio noticed that Ricardo was not there and asked Serge.

"Is Ricardo not here?"

"He's staying at the Association of Magicians today."

Ricardo seemed to be so busy that he had to stay overnight for research.

Julia, their mother, was preparing dinner in the kitchen. Dinner would be later than usual because she had to work at the store before coming home.

Ricardo and Antonio thought about letting others handle the store and focusing on household matters, but Julia wanted to continue running the store.

◆◆◇◇◆◆◇◇◆◆

Two days before Antonio and his companions set out to recruit employees,

a board meeting was held in the conference room of the Association of Magicians. The representative director, Jezualdo, and the bureau directors, Reuben and Isarco, were present.

"Today's agenda is about the development of a new type of magic light, as requested by the Naspetti conglomerate. Director Reuben, I heard you haven't decided on the researcher to handle this project. Why is that?"

Reuben's face tensed slightly.

"The reason is that our excellent researchers are starting important research and cannot immediately take on this request."

In reality, the researchers had given various reasons to avoid accepting the request.

The development of a new type of magic light had been a difficult challenge, with Naspetti's researchers failing to produce results after five years of research. Knowing this, the researchers at the Association of Magicians had refused to take on the project.

Jezualdo looked displeased.

"Do you mean Raymond or Gianpiero?"

"Those two are our top researchers."

As a member of the elder faction, Reuben did not want to acknowledge Raymond, who was from the royal faction, but in terms of achievements, they were the top researchers.

"Are there no other excellent researchers?"

"Who are you thinking of, Representative Director?"

"There was a young man from the General Affairs Bureau under Director Isarco... I believe his name was Ricardo."

Ricardo was not officially under Isarco, but due to his past, he was considered one of Isarco's disciples. So, when Ricardo published an excellent magic thesis, it raised Isarco's status.

When Reuben heard Jezualdo mention Ricardo's name, he thought it might be a good idea to push the Naspetti conglomerate's request onto Ricardo.

He believed that developing a new type of magic light would be difficult even for Ricardo, and if Ricardo failed, he could shift the responsibility to Isarco, who was considered Ricardo's mentor.

"I think this is too much for Ricardo, but if Director Isarco is willing to take responsibility, we can assign it to him."

Isarco panicked at Reuben's sudden mention of responsibility.

"Please wait. Ricardo has just finished the presentation and helped the extermination bureau defeat the double-horned armored bear. Let him rest a bit."

Reuben looked at Isarco.

"It's fine. He can take a few days off before starting the research. The new magic light project doesn't need results for about six months."

"Then, we should wait until Raymond or Gianpiero finish their current research and assign it to them."

Reuben shook his head.

"Even with a six-month research period, it's not enough. Ricardo, who can start after a few days of rest, is different."

In the end, Isarco, who could not argue with Reuben, agreed to assign the new magic light project to Ricardo.

Ricardo, feeling indebted to Isarco, accepted the project and started the research without taking a break.

When Antonio returned from his journey and dinner started at the Unius household, Ricardo was in the research lab of the Association of Magicians, holding his head in frustration.

"I've been given a troublesome request."

Given the contradictory requirements of making the magic light brighter while reducing the magic power consumption, Ricardo was struggling. For the past few days, he had been examining the magic light from various angles, trying to come up with a good idea.

The magic circuit used in the magic light was a highly sophisticated creation from long ago. Improving it would require some kind of innovative technology.

The magic light works on the simple principle of converting magic power into light.

As it was getting dark, Ricardo turned on the magic light he had made for experiments. A light ball, similar to sunlight, appeared above the magic light, illuminating the room. Ricardo stared at the light ball, deep in thought.

He knew that light was a type of electromagnetic wave.

"The wavelengths change from radio waves, infrared, visible light, ultraviolet, X-rays, to gamma rays. Which range of electromagnetic waves does the magic light convert magic power into?"

Considering that it should not harm the human body, ultraviolet, X-rays, and gamma rays were not included.

"What about infrared?"

Ricardo brought his hand close to the light ball. He felt heat on his palm, indicating that it contained some infrared.

"Let's try to modify it to convert magic power only into visible light."

Ricardo worked on modifying the magic circuit until late at night and eventually fell asleep on the lab table.

The next morning, Ricardo woke up and tested the modified magic light. He darkened the room and turned on the magic light.

A bright white light ball appeared above the magic light, illuminating the room. The brightness seemed about the same.

When he measured the magic power consumption, it was lower than before.

"The magic power consumption has improved a bit, but the brightness is still not good."

Ricardo sighed deeply.