Steel and Mana

Chapter 41 – Solutions, Problems, Solutions

"This is the best I could do, Master!"

"It's more than enough, thank you!" I answered after a yawn, sitting at a table in the dining room, wearing nothing but a loose robe, enjoying the breakfast of bread, ham, and some boiled eggs. Luna was already ready with the food by the time I slipped out of our bedroom while Sasha was still sleeping with a satisfied smile hanging on her lips.

"I made some tea from what I found, but the kitchen is sorely lacking the components I am used to. The tea leaves were sub-par, only worthy to be served in some inn at the docks."

"We are a bit poorer, but that will change. Write down what you need now, and I will order it through my uncle. I still need to get myself some coffee beans anyway. Still, I think this place has its charms! How was your first night? Exciting?" Even though my question was asked leisurely, I saw her face go pink as she turned around, acting as if she was doing something else.

"Y-yes, it was... adequate! I need time to get used to it, but... khm! Everything will be fine, don't worry, Master!"

"That's good to hear! Today, I will mostly stay in; I have a ton of writing to do! You can spend the day with Sasha; she will continue showing you around, and you can start picking people out to train as your helpers."

"Thank you, Master!"

After I was finished with breakfast, I headed to my 'office,' which was, in fact, my personal library. Sitting down at my desk, enjoying the warm autumn sun shining through the open window, I began copying the pages in my memories related to the magic formation I wanted to work on. While a mage may need intense concentration in drawing one up, it was like tracing lines for me.

My mind's eyes 'projected' it onto the paper, and I just had to follow the lines, drawing them from memory easily. I couldn't be happier as this, even in my previous life, immensely helped me, especially on the front lines. Combat engineers had to make repairs on the battlefield, and with an enhanced brain, I didn't need to look up schematics as I remembered them all. My mind quickly transformed the knowledge into images I could use to complete repairs during an engagement. I just hoped I wouldn't manifest any symptoms that could accompany such an ability, like beginning to conjure people up and talking with them when they don't really exist. I saw some colleagues of mine fall into it, breaking under pressure and seeing things that didn't exist.

"At least I'm in no danger..." I murmured, stretching and massaging my wrists after finishing the tenth page. "This is going to be extra tiring. I will have to invent the typewriter, huh? The moment our industry is ready to produce fine metalworks, I will build one! Which means I will need to invent paper-making as I guess my region can't do that... ugh... damn it, more work! When will I get to just sit back and enjoy a martini with Sasha? SHIT! We don't even have martinis!"

"What is a typewriter? Or who is this 'martini' guy?" Asked a curious voice, and when I looked behind me, Luna was there, looking at my works with a curious yet amazed expression. I could see my reflection in her mismatched eyes, making me smile.

"It is a machine that helps writing. Also, it speeds up the process and eliminates the need to read my awful handwriting! And martini is a drink, not a person."

"I see... and Master, your writing isn't that bad!" She chuckled but turned a bit troubled again, "Is this... magic? Why are you drawing magic circles? You can't understand it if you are not a mage!"

"Who told you that? I can understand it just fine!" I harrumphed, making her flinch, watching me doubtfully. "First things first, the outer circle in this formation is borrowed from a water-based spell, while the second circle forms a purifying spell! I say purifying, but it is nothing more than a filtration system."

"You are just trying to sound cool!" She challenged me, not believing my words at all. "Everyone knows that only mages can understand it, and if you were a mage, you wouldn't be here!"

"I am not a mage, yes. But the first part is utter bullshit! This formation is pure logic! First, it initiates a water spell, then the second round takes the sample and applies its structure as its base, down to the molecular level."

"Huh?"

"I'm not finished! The second circle analyzes it; while it is active, any other water going through it will be forced to match the sample! Do you see what I am getting at?"

"I am not a mage... I don't understand any of it!" She moaned, her hands on her hips, shaking his head as if I was some kind of lost lunatic.

"It has nothing to do with being a mage or not! It's pure logic! If the formation is ordered to match the new input with the first one, it will do just that! Eliminating everything else until what remains is clean water! Of course, I am not saying it will be perfect. I will need live testing and modifications according to how it goes! The problem is that the formations could only be active indefinitely if a witch is there... And I can't make Sasha stay there... I will need to get myself CC once again..." I continued, murmuring to myself, biting on the end of my quill, missing the fact that Luna turned white, her mouth hanging open, and her eyes doubling in size.

"M-m-m-m-master... w-w-w-what do you m-mean?" She stuttered, poking me with her fingers after I didn't speak anymore.

"Huh? She didn't tell you? Sasha is a witch. Also, my Prime Minister, Merlin, is a wizard. Duh."

"Hold me..."

"Huh?" I flinched and grabbed her at the last moment as she fainted right into my arms. "Are you always this dramatic? These shouldn't be that big of a news..."

...
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......

The first testing happened a few days later. Besides Luna, Merlin also came along, excited about watching it happen. I told him over and over again to control his emotions and not let his magic interfere with the experiment.

"It will be simple!" While preparing a linen cloth and painting the formation onto it, I explained what I was expecting to happen, "I will seal the opening of the tube where we have nasty, brown water and flip it! If this works as expected, what will come out won't be brown but perfectly clear and safe to drink!"

"Let's see, let's see!" Merlin clapped, barely blinking his eyes, while Luna was still flabbergasted, hardly believing I had a wizard and a witch helping me.

"Okay! Sasha, your turn!" I nodded at her, and when she focused, I saw the cloth flash once, but then it went dormant.

Did I make a mistake, or was this how it was supposed to be? Holding the meter-long tube, I slowly turned it around, keeping it above a mug, and to my relief, it functioned as expected. What came out of it was crystal-clear water.

"It works!" Merlin shouted, jumping high while laughing, and I couldn't help but share his joy. It really did.

After taking off the cloth, only stinky, slimy sludge remained behind, while in the mug, the water was clear, odorless, and tasteless after taking a cautious sip. It was, by my guess, perfectly distilled water. Not that I could be sure of it without any modern measuring tools or a microscope, but my gut was telling me I was right.

"Let me see!" Merlin rushed close, copying me and dipping his tongue into the cup while I refilled the tube with another round of dirty water and repeated the experiment. Even with the sludge being kept inside of it, the end result was the same. Clean water. After the third attempt, it finally broke as the fabric or, more precisely, the formation on it got damaged and no longer functioned.

"I don't get it." Luna spoke up, watching Merlin take off the now-ruined textile, studying it.

"With this," Sasha explained instead of me, "The sewage won't be simply flooded onto an empty field!"

"And?" Luna questioned, still not seeing its importance.

"It is half a solution." I interjected, thinking, scratching my chin, "For one, I can collect the sewage and reuse it. The clean water won't go back into the system as drinking water, but it could give us an extra source of it for our industry. Be it metal works or anything that later on comes up, we don't need to draw water away from people's homes. We can have them use the recycled one; I just need to build new castellas to store it and connect it into special systems."

"What is the second half?" Luna asked, tilting her head as her eyes traveled to the nasty sludge at the same time as Sasha's.

"Yep." I nodded, watching the two, "Well... what it will mostly be is, well, shit. I have two ideas about that. On the one hand, we can compost it and use it to revitalize the fields when they are being rotated and help keep them healthy. That is the more complex part, as I will need people collecting it and supervising the composting procedure."

"If you can teach me, I can select people and establish a department to deal with it, Your Majesty!" Merlin reacted immediately, bowing, making Luna twitch her eyebrows.

"Is he really a kid...?"

"No." The answer came from Sasha and me, while Merlin just laughed with a cheeky grin on his face. "The second option," I continued, looking at my wife, "is to collect the sludge and then incinerate it. But that makes it so I need to develop another filter for the smoke and deal with that, which will result in more waste that needs to be disposed of and... Ahhhh! I feel like Ouroboros!"

"Who?" They asked me, but I just waved a hand. "I will write up a lesson about composting, Merlin! You can study it and then determine how to proceed, okay?"

"Yes, and thank you, Your Majesty!"

"Don't thank me yet! First, I must develop a method for installing this formation at the end of our sewer system. I need it to be sturdy, resist erosion, and function independently and indefinitely. The biggest problem is how am I going to make it work without making any of you live next to it!"

"Ugh..."

"Yeah! Ugh..." I murmured, furrowing my brows, "I need CC. Without it, I won't be able to progress!"

"Did you learn where it's coming from?" Sasha asked, curious, and Merlin was already leaning in, waiting for my answer, not wanting to be left out.

"It is a natural resource, just like anything else, and it is being mined in the eastern part of the Empire. That is why we annexed a big chunk of our neighbors there; they found a new vein in one of the mountains." I murmured, turning towards the endless mountain ranges dominating our horizon. "I wonder if we have any here, hidden somewhere."

"Wouldn't they have exploited it already?" Luna asked, bringing up a good point, "If they are willing to wage war for it, you would think they would have scoured the mountains already!"

"Do you know how wide this mountain range is?" I asked her a different question.

"No..." She pouted, thinking I was making fun of her.

"11,000 kilometers long."

"I don't know what kilometers is! Never heard that word before! You just made that up!" Her sudden outburst made her flinch, holding her mouth in fear before surprise washed over her as I wasn't angry. I wasn't even berating her.

"Well... yes, I did make that up, but it is what we use here; I will have to teach how it works!" I cringed because she wasn't wrong. I did make it up, and I tend to forget the Empire had a different system in place. "What I want to demonstrate to you is that this is a vast natural border, running along next to multiple empires and countries, not just ours! Searching for CC in this place requires tons of resources and manpower, which is then brought away from elsewhere. Why would they do that when they have already established mines, producing enough and also able to take it by force from others? The Empire acts according to nature's laws as it follows the path of least resistance. When their current sources run dry one day, sure, they will start digging up the mountains, but until then? It will be our job to find a vein, exploit it, and leave nothing for them!"