The Regressed Mercenary’s Machinations

Chapter 222: Keep Going Until It Works (1)

I had achieved more than expected in the capital and resolved the issue with Piote.

It would be great if everything always progressed this smoothly, but not everything unfolded according to my plans.

“Still not done?”

“Yes, it seems it’s not an easy task,” Claude replied indifferently to my question.

The development of the new material, entrusted to the dwarves, and the creation of the large incubator, assigned to the mages, were taking longer than anticipated.

I wasn’t overly concerned about the development of the new material. I had already provided all the necessary ingredients, so as long as they put in the time, they would undoubtedly succeed.

After all, in my previous life, Galbarik had managed to succeed by finding a method on his own, even without any prior knowledge.

However, the humidity magic required for the large incubator was a problem I couldn’t solve.

“So… they haven’t even properly started designing the incubator?”

“Exactly. They’ll need to create humidity control magic, but crafting new magic isn’t exactly a simple task. Unless they’re some dragon, the controller of magic itself, is it even possible for humans to invent magic entirely from scratch?”

“Hmm…”

Indeed, even 7th- or 8th-circle archmages couldn’t easily create entirely new magic. Most of their creations were merely adaptations or combinations of existing spells.

As I mulled over this, Claude cautiously suggested, “Why not have them pause for now and focus on something else? It seems like a waste to keep the dwarves and mages idle.”

The other retainers also lent their support to Claude’s proposal.

“That’s right. My lord, you always prioritize efficiency, do you not?”

“If the dwarves and mages were reassigned to other tasks, the overall pace of progress would likely improve dramatically.”

“We’re advancing rapidly as it is; there’s no immediate need for those projects, is there?”

I shook my head. To accelerate progress even further, those two developments were essential.

With a serious expression, I tapped the table lightly with my fingers and suddenly brought up an unrelated topic.

“You know, when the barbarians of the North curse someone, their target always dies.”

Claude’s eyes widened in surprise.

“Wait, what? Really? How is that possible? Do they have some kind of extraordinary shaman?”

“They just keep at it until the person dies.”

“….”

“Even if the person dies of old age, they believe the curse worked. Apparently, some guy cursed someone for 30 years.”

“….”

“That kind of determination is worth learning from. We’ll keep at it too. Focus on developing the humidity magic and make sure it succeeds.”

Everyone shook their heads at my stubbornness. Once I got fixated on something, there was no stopping me.

Since I had achieved success through sheer obstinacy in the past, there was no real way to argue. The retainers resigned themselves, thinking it would somehow work out this time as well.

The relentless demands of Ghislain drove the mages to exhaustion. Despite their daily research efforts, how could a group of mediocre magicians create an entirely new spell?

In the end, the research was solely handled by Vanessa, while Alfoi and the other mages spent their time idly watching from the sidelines.

“It’s… impossible. We can’t create magic.”

“Right. This time, the lord has given us an impossible task.”

“Even the Tower Master can’t create spells. How are we supposed to manage it?”

Even as the mages muttered these demoralizing words from the sidelines, Vanessa silently dedicated herself to the research.

In truth, Alfoi and the others didn’t entirely mind the situation. They saw it as an opportunity to slack off under the guise of research.

‘Hehehe, this is like a vacation!’

‘Vanessa is working so hard. She’s the best! We’re counting on you!’

‘Man, I hope they keep us on research duty forever.’

After lounging around for several days, the mages became completely lax.

However, there was one critical detail they had overlooked—Vanessa always conducted experiments during her research.

“Hmm, I’ll need to test this,” Vanessa muttered.

She had spent days sitting as though glued to her chair, surrounded by a mountain of books, but now she suddenly rose to her feet. Alfoi, who had been casually observing her, straightened up, alarmed by her abrupt movement.

“Why? Did you figure something out?”

“I need to run an experiment.”

“How?”

“Just wait.”

Her eyes shadowed with fatigue, Vanessa suddenly grabbed Alfoi’s wrist. Flustered by her unexpected closeness, Alfoi stammered, his face flushing.

“W-Wait a second… This is so sudden! Sure, we’ve grown closer recently, but coming on this strong is… I’m not emotionally prepared for this—urk!”

Alfoi’s nonsensical rambling was cut short as his mana was swiftly drained, leaving him unconscious.

Vanessa and the mages always wore bracelets engraved with the word “Shar’nel,” allowing for mana transfer. They were, at all times, ready to provide mana for Vanessa’s experiments.

As Alfoi collapsed, the other mages hastily retreated, but Vanessa paid them no mind. Without hesitation, she began casting the spell she had conceptualized.

Ziiiing!

A magic circle shimmered into existence midair. Vanessa studied the slowly rotating circle intently before shaking her head.

“It failed.”

Though disappointment flickered across her face, she bit her lip and reignited her determination.

Even for a genius, creating new magic wasn’t easy. Success on the first attempt would have been a miracle.

Vanessa adjusted several formulas in her mind and then turned toward another mage.

Sensing his imminent fate, the mage trembled and pleaded in a shaky voice.

“W-Wait! There’s something I haven’t told you—I’m engaged to be married! So, please don’t grab my hand without asking—aaaaah!”

The mage had their mana drained and collapsed right next to Alfoi. It looked as though two mummies were lying side by side.

Ziiing!

A new magic circle materialized in midair, spinning rapidly. Vanessa shook her head again.

Her eyes had darkened with shadows beneath them, and her expression had vanished entirely. As she approached, the other mages recoiled.

Judging by her gaze alone, no one could appear more insane than she did.

The madness emanating from Vanessa was enough to make the mages either flee or try to shatter their bracelets.

But unfortunately, Vanessa, who had already consumed two mages, still had some mana left.

“Hold.”

With that single word, all the mages froze in place. She had bound dozens of them at once with minimal mana.

Even for a 6th-circle mage, it was no easy feat. Her mana control was nothing short of extraordinary.

“No, don’t come near me! I’ve never held a woman’s hand except for my mother’s!”

“Ke-eeeeek! Stop it!”

“Please, spare me!”

One by one, the mages had their mana drained and collapsed. In the meantime, Vanessa kept casting magic repeatedly, analyzing the flaws and making adjustments.

However, the desired effect eluded her. Despite her repeated failures, the mages were left entirely drained of mana, crumpling to the ground.

“Tch….”

Vanessa bit her lip and clenched her fist.

There were no more mages to drain mana from. She would have to wait several days to replenish her mana.

It was frustrating. She wanted to succeed quickly so that the people of the estate could eat their fill of meat.

But her current abilities weren’t enough. She would need the power of a dragon to truly create the magic she envisioned.

What should I do? To continue the experiments, I’ll need much more mana.

She tried to conserve the runestones as much as possible. They were vital resources for the estate’s development.

With so many facilities requiring runestones, using them for magical experiments was a heavy burden. Each failure would consume a staggering amount of runestones.

Still, creating a large incubator was an essential project for the estate’s growth.

As Vanessa pondered what to do next, Ghislain came to see her.

“Whoa, what happened to you? Is the research not going well?”

“My… my lord….”

The moment Vanessa saw Ghislain, her eyes lit up as she staggered toward him.

Her disheveled hair and gaunt face made it painfully clear how much energy she had poured into her research and experiments.

Seeing her approach like a zombie, Ghislain leaned toward Gillian, who stood beside him, and whispered.

“Are you sure no dark mages have shown up while I was away? No resurrection rituals or anything?”

“…”

Vanessa’s appearance was truly indescribable.

Standing in front of Ghislain, she extended her hand and spoke.

“My lord, please lend me some mana… just for a moment.”

The mana used by mages and the mana used by knights differ in their refinement processes, making their properties slightly distinct. However, since their origins are the same, it wasn’t entirely unusable.

Though less efficient than a mage’s mana, someone as adept at mana manipulation as Vanessa could likely harness and use it to some extent.

The obsessive madness in her gaze startled Ghislain, causing him to instinctively step back.

“Uh… if you really need it, I suppose I could lend you some. But honestly, I think it’d be better if you took a break right now.”

“No… even just a little sooner… If it’s too much for you, my lord, please summon the knights instead.”

“No, no. If I drained their mana, they’d die instantly. Poor guys.”

The knights were the type to cough up blood and collapse after exhausting their mana. Forcing it out of them would very likely kill them.

Still, Vanessa didn’t give up. At this rate, she seemed ready to forcibly extract Ghislain’s mana to continue her experiments.

Ghislain placed a reassuring hand on Vanessa’s shoulder and said:

“You don’t necessarily need to create a humidity-control spell.”

“What?”

Vanessa, confused by his words, asked back.

To make the much larger incubator function properly compared to the current one, temperature and humidity-control magic were absolutely essential.

But Ghislain shrugged and elaborated.

“Ultimately, the goal is to maintain consistent humidity, right? If you can measure the humidity, adjustments can be made manually. For example, wood absorbs moisture, so you could lay down sawdust and monitor its weight changes. Water evaporates, so you could put some in a cup and track its weight too. There are plenty of ways.”

Of course, Ghislain wasn’t aware of detailed methods for measuring humidity. He simply recalled things he had often heard during his mercenary days.

“Hey! It’s too dry, splash some water on the floor!”

Due to the nature of mercenary work, they had to endure various climates while traveling across different regions. In dry areas, they would soak the ground with water and place large barrels of water inside their tents.

Even now, it was no different. Inside the soldiers’ tents, laundry would be hung to dry, and water was often splashed on the ground.

Ghislain himself had little knowledge of evaporation or moisture-absorbing materials, but he figured the clever mages could figure out a way if given the idea.

As expected, Vanessa’s eyes widened as though struck by lightning after hearing Ghislain’s suggestion.

What Ghislain had mentioned was, of course, common sense to Vanessa as well. However, she had been so trapped by the preconceived notion that magic was the only solution that she believed she had to create a magical answer at all costs.

Once she broke free from that mindset, a flood of inspiration filled her mind.

“Ah….”

Magic wasn’t omnipotent. In fact, the Fenris Estate had solved more problems with technology than with magic.

The estate even had skilled craftsmen, including the dwarves. Magic was only needed to address challenges that were technically insurmountable or absolutely necessary.

Her priorities had been misplaced. The first step wasn’t to create magic—it was to gather the knowledge required for incubation.

“I think I’ve got it! I think I can solve it!”

With a bright smile, Vanessa rushed out of the lab. Left behind, Ghislain glanced at Gillian and shrugged.

* * *

Vanessa immediately began meeting with the farmers. Though they were initially startled by her haggard appearance, they recognized her as the estate’s mage and willingly answered her questions.

“How do we check the inside conditions of the incubator? Oh, we just use our hands, of course.”

“Your hands?”

“Yeah, just stick your hand in and… hmm, about like this, you know? That’s all there is to it.”

“….”

Vanessa pressed her palm to her forehead.

In this era, non-magical technology was appallingly primitive.

There were no precise measurements or scientific principles. All the knowledge was based on experience and passed down verbally.

She encountered the same story from other farmers.

“Temperature? My father told me, ‘Just stick your hand in and if it feels about this warm, it’s good.’”

“We’d make small holes in the bricks and sprinkle a bit of water inside—about this much.”

“You have to keep it near the hearth and check on it regularly. If you forget, the incubation will fail.”

Everything relied on vague, intuitive processes. Naturally, the conditions varied slightly every time, leading to low hatch rates.

Still, it was better than neglecting the eggs entirely, so they stuck to these methods.

“I need to figure out exactly what these farmers mean by ‘about this much.’ Only then can I establish proper standards.”

Vanessa spent several days among the farmers, observing and analyzing the optimal temperature and humidity for incubation.

Since each farmer used slightly different methods, it was difficult to establish a baseline at first.

She tirelessly documented everything, quantifying the instincts of the farmer with the highest hatch rate.

But it wasn’t enough. Even the best-performing farmer’s techniques were used only as a rough guideline.

Vanessa was different from the farmers. She meticulously recorded every variable she controlled, translating them into precise data as she continued her experiments.

“Please, everyone, take the tasks I mentioned and record them one by one,” she instructed.

The mages who had regained their mana began experiments under Vanessa’s command.

Each mage was assigned one of the small incubators used by the farmers and started repeated trials to determine the optimal temperature and humidity, just as Vanessa had done.

After days of experiments, they finally identified the conditions that yielded the highest hatch rates.

With the ideal temperature and precise amount of water to be sprinkled determined, the mages moved on to the final verification experiment.

“Please, please!”

Alfoi closed his eyes and prayed. It was a comical sight—a mage appealing to a deity—but none of the other mages laughed. That’s how exhausted they all were.

Finding the optimal conditions had been grueling. The mages had to physically intervene to verify and maintain the precise temperature and humidity levels.

Creating and sustaining a stable environment was a task only the mages, with their ability to uniformly apply fire and water magic, could manage.

I’m so sleepy… I haven’t had a proper night’s sleep in days.

Please succeed… I feel like I’m going to die.

If everything goes as expected, all the eggs should hatch today.

The mages huddled together, anxiously watching an incubator containing thirty eggs.

Their clothes were disheveled, and their faces looked as haggard as ever.

How long had they waited?

Crack.

One of the eggs wobbled on the cloth oiled for smoothness. Soon, the top of the shell broke apart, and a chick began to crawl out.

“Oh, ohhh! It’s happening! It’s coming out!”

The mages clutched their chests, hearts pounding, as they continued watching.

More eggs cracked open, one after another. As the number of chicks steadily increased, the mages’ expressions grew brighter.

They spent the entire day keeping vigil over the incubator.

By the afternoon of the following day…

“It… it’s a success! A complete success!”

Alfoi and the mages raised their hands high, shouting in triumph. While there had been a slight time lag, all thirty eggs had hatched without exception.

The results were incomparable to the farmers’ methods, which often had less than half the eggs hatch successfully.

Vanessa couldn’t hide her joy. Finally, they had taken a step forward.

But this wasn’t the end.

Turning to the assistants who had been helping her, she said:

“Call the dwarves. Now that we’ve found the optimal conditions, it’s time to move on to the next step.”

It was now time to construct a large incubator that could automatically regulate temperature and humidity.

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