The Regressed Mercenary’s Machinations

Chapter 213: There’s Something I Want to Create (1)

The reason no issues had arisen until now was because training had primarily focused on drills designed for control.

However, as full-scale training began, the soldiers’ limitations became glaringly apparent.

The problem lay with the ‘bodies’ forged by surviving in the barren North until now.

“Of course they look like that—barely any meat on their bones. Ugh, look at those weaklings.”

Northern folk tended to be smaller and lighter, having grown up without proper nutrition.

While things had improved recently with the plentiful food in Fenris, that improvement was limited to grains.

Meat wasn’t something just anyone could eat. It first went to the nobles and knights, while the soldiers’ stews contained only scraps at best.

Most of the time, there wasn’t even that, and they survived by boiling and eating roots or whatever vegetation they could find.

‘If they’ve grown up without proper access to meat, it’s no wonder their stamina and endurance are poor.’

Thus, their bodies couldn’t keep up with even moderately intense training.

Physical fitness wasn’t something that improved through training alone. Proper nutrition and rest were just as critical.

Eating well—especially consuming meat—and building a stronger physique were essential. While growing as excessively large as Gordon was inefficient, maintaining a balanced build would greatly aid in combat performance.

‘Meat… meat, huh… It’s not a resource you can easily come by. But I need more.’

No matter how much money one had, some things were simply unobtainable—livestock-derived resources, for example.

Meat, milk, leather—these resources were extremely difficult to procure.

The drought had devastated livestock populations, killing off countless animals.

The situation wasn’t much different in other territories.

‘Surviving on just bread isn’t enough. I need to find a way to increase meat production significantly.’

This was an issue Ghislain had been grappling with for some time.

In an era where wheat was the staple, he had first solved the food shortage using mutant wheat. But that was merely the minimum requirement, not a satisfactory solution.

For the soldiers and the common folk of the territory to grow stronger, an environment where everyone could easily access meat was essential. Especially for the territory’s future, it was crucial that children ate well.

Even though new laws prohibited child labor and emphasized education, it was meaningless if the children were too malnourished to thrive.

‘In my past life, I used to buy and eat meat whenever I had money, trying to grow stronger and build my physique.’

Now, having reached the pinnacle of enlightenment, such efforts were unnecessary for him. But ordinary people didn’t have that luxury.

“I hear even those crazy elves keep demanding meat every day.”

The elves, having always lived in luxury, had developed quite the refined palate.

Grass and such were deemed tasteless and dismissed outright. Their demands for alcohol and meat were downright excessive.

Still, Ghislain could somewhat understand. Proper meat consumption was essential for building strength.

Trying to enforce physical training without providing adequate food went against Ghislain’s principles.

“Looks like it’s best to start with that first.”

Ghislain had many plans. While priorities occasionally shifted depending on circumstances, the broader vision remained unchanged.

Naturally, securing a stable supply of meat and leather was part of that vision.

“Time to start increasing the meat supply.”

Ghislain immediately summoned Gillian and gave his orders.

“Reduce the intensity of the training. It seems the soldiers can’t keep up.”

“My apologies. It’s because of my shortcomings—”

“It’s not your fault. I think we set the bar too high. Since all they eat is bread, their energy must be drained quickly. For now, stick to formation drills to maintain discipline.”

“Understood.”

After returning to the castle, Ghislain summoned his retainers. Their faces were marked with unease at the sudden call.

‘What’s he planning this time?’
‘Please, don’t add more work.’
‘Could it be that he’s finally suggesting we take a break?’

Though the influx of new administrative staff had somewhat alleviated their workload, there was still plenty to manage. The growing population meant ever-increasing demands. No one would welcome additional responsibilities.

Reading their thoughts, Ghislain chuckled lightly and said,

“There’s something I want to create.”

As expected, it was more work. The retainers slumped their shoulders, looking glum.

Noticing their reaction, Ghislain quickly reassured them.

“It’s nothing major. For now, it won’t require a lot of manpower—just some mages.”

At this, the group exhaled a collective sigh of relief. Only Alfoi, looking horrified, voiced his dissent.

“Why mages again? We’re drowning in work already. I’m going to die at this rate!”

“I’ll take some of the current work off your plate for now.”

“What is it?”

Alfoi’s curiosity was piqued at the prospect of less work. Truthfully, the endless construction projects were physically and mentally exhausting.

“I want to increase meat production.”

“Meat… production?”

Alfoi’s mouth instantly watered. In fact, he wasn’t alone—several others shared the sentiment.

Though they weren’t starving, their diet still revolved around bread made from wheat, not meat.

Even though Fenris territory had avoided the worst effects of the drought, the lack of livestock meant meat remained a rare luxury.

Claude, understanding the topic, spoke up with a question.

“How do you plan to increase the meat supply? With the number of livestock we currently have, there are clear limits.”

“The difficulty lies in the fact that animals like cows and sheep take a long time to raise, right?”

“That’s correct. With so few to begin with and such long growth periods, it’s a challenge. Pigs and chickens are relatively quicker to raise, but we still don’t have nearly enough to feed the territory’s population sufficiently.”

“What’s the fastest option among them?”

“Well… chickens are probably the best choice. They lay a lot of eggs, grow the fastest, and cost the least to raise.”

Nodding as if this was the expected answer, Ghislain replied,

“Exactly. That’s the key. From now on, we’ll be significantly increasing the number of chickens. Eating meat is essential for the health of both our soldiers and the people. My goal is for every resident of the territory to eat chicken at least once a week.”

“Pfft.”

Claude unintentionally let out a dry laugh, his expression subtly bitter.

Living creatures were fundamentally different from the technologies Ghislain had introduced thus far. It wasn’t as simple as deciding to increase their numbers and making it happen.

“I understand your ambition to add ‘Meat King’ to your title alongside ‘King of Northern Grain,’ but… chickens can’t just appear out of nowhere. Even acquiring them in bulk from other regions is extremely difficult.”

“That’s why we’ll increase their numbers ourselves. I’ll share a few ideas on how to start. First, we’ll need to change the way we raise them.”

“The way we raise them?”

“Stop leaving them to roam around freely. Shrink their activity range and feed them as much as possible. That way, they’ll gain weight, and we can produce more meat.”

‘Just sitting around eating and getting fat? Lucky chickens!’

Claude and the others nodded, finding the suggestion surprisingly logical.

Until now, they had been too preoccupied with their own survival to consider fattening up the chickens. However, it wasn’t hard to imagine that such methods could increase meat yields elsewhere.

“That’s not a particularly difficult task. It just requires modifying the facilities for raising chickens a bit. But even then, it’ll only slightly increase the amount of meat. The real issue is that we simply don’t have enough chickens.”

“And that’s where what I want to create comes in. How are eggs currently hatched?”

“Well… it’s rare for us to leave it to hens. Most of the time, we use incubators.”

Chickens could hatch over ten eggs at a time if left to sit on them for about a month and a half.

However, due to environmental factors, more than half of the eggs often failed to hatch successfully.

This was why incubators were crucial. By minimizing environmental fluctuations, they played an essential role in ensuring successful hatching.

Of course, due to technical limitations, it had to be made small. Still, it was more productive than leaving the eggs to be incubated by the hens, so we continued using it.

Ghislain pointed out exactly that issue.

“Why not just make it much bigger? If we can stabilize the process, the number of chickens will increase rapidly! If it succeeds, we could be producing thousands, even tens of thousands, every month!”

“……”

Hearing Ghislain’s suggestion, Claude rubbed his forehead.

‘Ah, here he goes again.’

He felt exasperated, unsure where to even begin explaining.

After organizing his thoughts, Claude took a deep breath and began speaking.

“May I explain something?”

“Sure, go ahead.”

“We’re not keeping it small because we want to. We’re making it small because we have to.”

“That’s why I’m saying—make it bigger! Just make it bigger, and the problem’s solved!”

‘Why is it that you never make sense? Why can’t you just listen to what people are saying?’

Claude suppressed the frustration boiling inside him and continued.

“…The incubator we’re using now is better than just leaving the eggs alone, but the hatching rate isn’t that high. Maintaining consistent temperature and humidity isn’t easy. The larger it is, the harder it becomes to regulate these conditions evenly. And on top of that, it requires constant monitoring by people….”

Incubators in this era varied widely depending on the region and their creators. Some were made of wood, while others were crafted from stone.

What they had in common was that they used fire to warm the interior and relied on frequent manual intervention, such as sprinkling water, to maintain temperature and humidity.

In short, they were labor-intensive and difficult to manage.

Despite Claude’s detailed explanation, Ghislain only half-listened. The flaws of the current method didn’t concern him much.

What mattered was making it happen.

Technical limitations? He didn’t care. He had seen something like this in his past life. Since it worked in the future, it must work now.

“Ah, now I get what’s wrong with the current system. Let’s start improving it. Assign the mages to developing a new type of incubator for now. Make it as large as possible and as automated as possible. Got it?”

In his past life, cities had been fortified due to the calamities.

In limited spaces, raising cattle and sheep in large numbers wasn’t feasible. It was better to use that land to raise warhorses for battle.

But people couldn’t stop eating meat, so they turned to the easiest option: chickens. Eventually, every city had its own large-scale hatcheries.

Ghislain, who had witnessed such scenes in his past life, naturally assumed that it could be replicated even now. But the mages thought differently.

After blinking silently for a while, Alfoi finally spoke.

“So… you’re telling us to make a large incubator?”

“Yes.”

“How are we supposed to make it when we don’t know how?”

“Just scale up the small incubator we’re currently using and ensure the temperature and humidity are automatically and evenly controlled. You can figure out the optimal settings through a few experiments. It’s not that hard, is it?”

Ghislain replied with a matter-of-fact tone.

For mages, whose focus was on the pursuit of enlightenment, things like chicken coops or incubators were trivial, mundane matters. It was understandable that they couldn’t immediately grasp the concept.

Still, Ghislain believed they could resolve it quickly if they showed genuine interest and started researching.

However, contrary to Ghislain’s expectations, Alfoi responded with a bewildered expression.

“Uh… there’s no such thing as a humidity-control spell.”

“What? Why not? There’s a spell for controlling temperature, so why wouldn’t there be one for humidity? That doesn’t make sense.”

“If it doesn’t exist, it doesn’t exist… Who would bother inventing something like that?”

At this, Ghislain crossed his arms and frowned.

Even among mages, knowledge of spells varied greatly depending on their school of magic. Thus, it was impossible for someone like Ghislain, who wasn’t even a mage, to know the vast world of magic in detail.

Still, he was certain such spells had existed in his previous life. Otherwise, large-scale hatcheries wouldn’t have been possible. Maintaining temperature and humidity within such massive incubators would have been impossible without magic.

‘Damn… so they must have developed a new spell back then.’

At the time, mages and scholars had pooled their collective intellects to rapidly create whatever was necessary for survival.

It was highly likely that humidity-control magic had been developed during that period.

There was no other choice. If the spell didn’t exist now, it would have to be researched and invented from scratch.

“Use every method and resource at your disposal to create it by adapting whatever magic you already know. I’ll provide plenty of runestones for your experiments.”

But instead of responding, everyone just stared at Ghislain, their gazes expectant. Their eyes seemed to say they were waiting for something more.

Feeling slightly uncomfortable under their collective gaze, Ghislain tilted his head back slightly and asked,

“What?”

“How do we create a humidity-control spell?” Alfoi asked with an incredulous look.

Ghislain’s face twisted in disbelief.

“Why are you asking me?”

“You know everything, my lord. You’ve created cosmetics, improved farming, treated diseases, and even made hot air balloons… So you need to give us more detailed instructions for this as well. Not just about the magic but also the incubator’s structure and technology.”

Alfoi’s words drew nods from the others. Up to now, even if Ghislain hadn’t directly made something himself, he had always provided the core theoretical concepts needed for their projects.

For example, the dwarves who had been tasked with developing a new material had been given precise information about the necessary ingredients. That alone had been enough for meaningful progress.

But now, Ghislain was asking them to create a magic spell that didn’t even exist yet, so it was only natural for them to have questions.

“…….”

Ghislain was momentarily at a loss for words.

Was this a side effect? Since he had pushed forward and succeeded at everything so far, such reactions were perhaps inevitable.

However, this task was different from the ones before.

Cosmetics had been a calculated effort to prepare for future profit after taking over the capital.

Farming improvements had been learned for the sake of self-sufficiency at the mercenary base.

‘But I don’t know anything about magic. And I’m not even well-versed in the details of incubator construction.’

Could the continent’s Seven Strongest truly be expected to explain in detail how to raise chickens?

‘That knowledge… was all Claude’s.’

Looking at Claude, who was innocently blinking back at him, Ghislain clicked his tongue.

‘If only that guy had regressed too. Or if I had just asked him more thoroughly back then.’

In any case, he remembered hearing that building incubators wasn’t particularly difficult. If it had been, they wouldn’t have been distributed to every city.

Even without magic, he had given them the basic concept. With enough thought, they’d surely find a solution.

So, Ghislain firmly replied.

“I don’t know that spell.”

Alfoi’s face immediately contorted in frustration.

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