Back when the former king had ruled the country, Genia had developed arrowheads with seeds inside them with the hope that the sites of battles would be covered with greenery. With the effect of the light elemental magic the arrows were imbued with, the seeds grew at an alarming speed, and it’d been a massive failure that had resulted in half of her research building nearly being engulfed by plants. The result was that Genia had been transferred to the Forbidden Army, and her research suspended.
However, after the throne had changed hands, Souma had seen a practical use for her research and ordered Genia to resume it. He wasn’t so interested in the arrowhead part; but with plants that grew so fast that they could engulf a building, he could make the desert bloom, and he’d had hopes that it would lead to an increase in the food production rate. However, Genia the genius had already lost all interest in the subject, so Souma had ended up ordering the School of Agricultural Technology at Ginger’s Vocational School to do it instead of her.
But… Ginger explained that they hadn’t been able to produce results.
“We were certainly able to make fast-growing plants. Those plants had two special qualities: growth and proliferation. We were able to eliminate just the proliferation, which meant that the area would no longer be engulfed in green.”
“You were able to control them? Isn’t that a success, then?” Poncho asked, seemingly mystified: but Ginger shook his head with a wry smile.
“We were carrying out this research in the hopes of increasing food production and making the deserts bloom, but… from the results of our research, we learned this won’t be of any help with either of those things. Genia’s spell only speeds up the growth of plants. Sir Poncho, do you know what is needed for plants to grow?”
Poncho thought for a moment, then replied, “Fertile soil and water… as well as sunlight, yes.”
Ginger nodded. “Yes. Of those, the sun is no problem. With some work, the water issue can be managed well enough, too. The problem was fertile soil. Though we’ve accelerated the plants’ growth, the quantity of water and nutrients they require from the soil hasn’t changed. Madam Genia must have known that, too, because her spell included a function for sucking water and nutrients out of the soil.”
With that said, Ginger pointed to the dried and cracked field. “This is what the field looks like after we harvested our fast-growing wheat.”
“…It’s almost like a sandy desert, yes.”
“No matter how much we can accelerate the plants’ growth, fertilizing the soil takes a lot of time,” said Ginger. “As a result, the plants suck all the nutrients and water out of the soil, leaving it dry and cracked like this. Nothing will grow in soil that’s ended up like this.”
“Is there no way to provide a steady supply of nutrients to the soil?” Poncho asked.
“I doubt it. Water, maybe. But continuously supplying fertilizer at a rate that matches their growth just isn’t realistic. I mean, we have a limited supply of fertilizer, anyway. If we exhaust it to raise growth speed, we may not see any growth in productivity at all.”
“Well… That’s no good,” Poncho said.
If the plants that grew were allowed to rot, they would return their nutrients to the soil, but they couldn’t do that with crops that were meant to be eaten. They couldn’t possibly have people return all of the excrement from what they’d eaten to the field, after all.
“That’s why we determined it was a poor fit for growing food,” Ginger said. “Now, as for making the desert bloom, there isn’t the water there to begin with, so it’s impossible. Even if we were to install aqueducts, the speed at which the plants grow would present another bottleneck. They’re just as fast to rot, you see.”
“We can’t always get our way, I suppose, yes…” Poncho slumped his shoulders. With the high hopes he’d had for this research, he couldn’t help but be disappointed that there had been zero payoff for it.
But Ginger shook his head again. “No, it’s not like we have absolutely nothing to show for all our work. Look at the field next to it.”
“…I’m not seeing anything other than soil in it, though?”
“Yes. The only thing here is ordinary soil. We’ve made it into ordinary soil.” Ginger bent down and scooped up some of the soft soil in his hands. “This soil was brought from a dungeon inhabited by many undead monsters. Naturally, when we first brought it here, it was contaminated by the miasma that undead monsters release.”
“D-Did you say miasma?!” Poncho cried out despite himself, his voice unsteady.
Just by existing, undead monsters like skull dragons and zombies gave off a miasma that was harmful to living creatures. Miasma caused disease to spread and things to rot, making it impossible for living creatures to live in that area. What was more, it would get into the soil and stay there for a long time. Because of that, lands where a skull dragon had gone on a rampage or where a horde of zombies had appeared would become unproductive lands where crops wouldn’t grow for a long time.
However, Ginger had picked up a handful of that soil, which should have been dangerous, without any hesitation.
Poncho looked carefully at that soil. “Is this soil… safe?”
“Yes. The miasma is completely gone from it now.”
“How did you do it, yes?”
“It was an applied use of those fast-growing plants we were talking about earlier. There are flowers that bloom only in dungeons with a lot of undead-type monsters.”
Having said that much, Ginger had Sandria go and fetch a single flower. That flower was reddish-purple with greenish-black spots; colors that screamed it was poisonous. It wasn’t the sort of flower you’d want to receive on a celebratory occasion, not even by accident.
“The adventurers who go dungeon crawling call these miasma flowers. They say that if these flowers are growing somewhere, it’s proof that undead-type monsters are active there. That’s why, when they find these flowers in a dungeon, they know to take precautions against miasma.”
“Hm, so there are flowers like that out there,” Poncho said. “I never knew.”
Poncho knew a lot about edible plants. He also knew a lot about plants that were similar to edible ones, but that weren’t edible themselves. That was because Poncho’s knowledge was rooted in his appetite.
That was why, when it came to plants like this one, which was and looked blatantly inedible, he had no interest in them, and wasn’t that well informed about them.
Ginger chuckled. “These miasma flowers, like their name might suggest to you, are nourished by the miasma. That’s why they grow in clusters in dungeons where there are undead monsters. If we use Genia’s spell to accelerate plant growth on these miasma flowers and plant them in contaminated soil…”
“Oh?! I get it! They quickly suck all of the miasma out of the ground!” Poncho clapped his hands.
If the growth-accelerating spell was used on regular plants, they rapidly sucked the nutrients out of the soil. However, the miasma flowers only sucked out miasma.
Ginger nodded. “So we only have to harvest them when they finish growing and dispose of them in an incinerator. They’ve already used up the miasma for their growth, so when we burn them, all that’s left behind is ash. If we do two rounds of that, it goes back to being this sort of ordinary soil.”
“Th-That’s an incredible discovery! With this, we can curb the effect that undead monsters have on our fields and crops, yes!” Poncho reacted excitedly.
Not only had the research he’d had such high hopes for not been in vain, there was even a useful application for it! Then a thought occurred to Poncho.