What is it like to be a teacher as a magister?

Chapter 96 Matthew's First Job

Inside the study.

"In other words, can the fortress' grain and jerky reserves last for a year without any supplies?"

"This is the minimum required by the Duke. If it is lower than this level, you must purchase reserves from outside."

There were two people sitting at Colin's table: Jennifer, and the former chief magic advisor of the fortress, Ms. Madeleine.

Even though this lady in her 50s has advanced to a high level, she can hardly hide her old face, especially after the death of the Duke, she has become haggard visible to the naked eye.

Colin originally wanted to ask her some questions a few days ago. After all, Madeleine was responsible for the purchase of materials before the fortress.

However, when we met, I found that the other party's expression was extremely sluggish, and he was often lost in arranging the Duke's relics.Colin was almost certain that Madeleine had some special relationship with Duke Oliver. They were of the same age and had been together for so many years. It was not difficult to understand why the Duke never married again after he became widowed.

So he didn't continue to bother, until today Madeleine took the initiative to find her.

One year's grain storage is already remarkable for this kind of place that has no weather, no location, and is almost impoverished.

However, from Colin's point of view, this was not enough.

As a guy who traveled from a country with per capita hamster disease, his ideal food reserves should be far more than this amount.

When he got the map of the Winter Fortress, his first thought was, why are so many lands around it empty?

Even if he later learned that these places were not suitable for planting, his first reaction was not to give up, but to spend a long time studying his relatively weak magic biology.

For this reason, he even suspended the further improvement of the wind nuclear collider at that time, and turned to use the existing space technology to solve the problem of germ transformation.

In his mind, what does the deserted land mean, it must be planted.

"Ms. Madeleine, I think you're not in a good mood recently. If you don't mind, maybe you can ask Miss Jennifer to be your assistant to help manage the property of the fortress." Colin made a very cryptic request.

Of course Madeleine understood what that meant.

No lord will let go of the power of money and food. The Duke trusts her, but the new lord will obviously have his own confidantes, and he did not directly ask her to hand over management rights. On the one hand, it is out of respect. it works.

"I understand, I will let Miss Jennifer familiarize herself with the operation of the fortress as soon as possible."

Madeleine nodded, and continued: "However, my lord, you may be a little disappointed when you find out. The only source of income for the entire fortress is to go up the mountain to collect red winter grass and sell it to the surrounding area. countries and nobles, but the annual income is also very limited, after all, our manpower is not enough."

Red winter grass is a specialty of Twilight City. Its function is to heal wounds and stop bleeding, and it can also be made into magic potions to enhance the effect. It usually grows in the low-altitude areas of the Dragon's Back Mountains, and near the fortress, because of the small amount of warm air brought by the Dragon's Breath Canyon. , the quality of red winter grass will be better, and it can be sold at a better price.

"I know a little bit, but please rest assured that the life of the fortress will definitely get better and better." Colin said.

"I'm quite sure of that."

Madeleine said a few polite words and said some things about the fortress, then got up to leave, and Jennifer immediately followed.

……

……

After living in the castle for a few days, Matthew finally ushered in his first job.

After counting, since they entered the manor, they have not done anything for the master, and they are completely unilateral support. Now that the lord has an order, he naturally wants to do the first job beautifully.

Because of his prominence in mathematics, he was selected by Annie as the leader in counting the population of Twilight City.

Counting the population of a city can sound scary.

But after actually getting started, Matthew quickly calmed down.

A small city of 5 people, with a concentrated population, and he has 200 fortress defenders who are familiar with the local area and have considerable prestige.It doesn't seem too difficult.

After he got the sketch of Twilight City, he thought of dividing into districts.

After asking about the characteristics of the flow of people, he divided the entire Winter City into several areas, and each area was divided into several districts, and then asked the fortress defenders who were familiar with the streets to conduct inquiries and statistics.

When assigning tasks, Matthew was still nervous for a while.

I am an orphan who was still wandering on the streets a year ago, but now I have to command a group of elite soldiers to work, and I don't know if they will listen to him.

Fortunately, these soldiers are very polite and do what they say.

In fact, the magic apprentices in the castle have become the most popular crowd among the fortress defenders.

Because every time these young men in uniform gray robes climbed the walls, it meant that the soldiers had new and interesting arrows to use.

For those fortress defenders whose lives are boring and under great mental stress, this is undoubtedly the best adjustment and entertainment in life.

And obviously, for Matthew, it belongs to Aiwujiwu.

Knowing that this young man who had just turned 16 was still a young and promising blacksmith, several soldiers who were very familiar with the city strongly invited him to visit several blacksmith shops in the city.

After seeing it, Matthew couldn't believe that there are still people using such a primitive ironmaking process.

In fact, even Matthew himself may not know that the artisan education he received is not the same as that of a blacksmith in the traditional sense. In addition to making ironware by himself, they are more often smelted with various metals. theoretical knowledge.

Those precise and elegant formulas, those strange and interesting devices, finally formed a special science.If he has received basic magic education like his sister, he will know that this subject is called alchemy.

Alchemy is a branch of magical engineering.

Of course, as ordinary people who have never learned elements and magic, what Matthew and others learned is called alchemy engineering to be precise. They don't need to research and develop new materials, but after knowing the properties of materials, Learn how to use them better.

And blacksmithing is one of them.

……

……

Colin took the census of Twilight City sent by Annie, and after looking at it for a while, he nodded slightly in satisfaction.

In Twilight City with 5 people, most of them are children and young people, and there are less than 60 people over 1000 years old.

Sure enough, the world doesn't need to worry about the problem of aging, because most people don't live to be old at all.

In addition, due to the frighteningly high infant mortality rate, the common solution for civilians to solve this problem is to have more children.

It is common for a couple to have more than a dozen children in their lifetime, but perhaps not even half of them survive to adulthood.

"This data is very well organized." Colin was not stingy with praise, and expressed all the information that should be expressed clearly in the limited space. This person is not only good at mathematics, but also very clear about the intention of the lord.

"This was done by a student named Matthew. I hardly ever instructed him on this matter," Annie said.

"It's a talent." Colin made a decision.

"What's next?" Annie asked.

Colin thought for a moment and said, "It looks like our school should expand as soon as possible."

"You mean, recruiting children from the city into the school?"

"Yeah." Colin nodded.Basic education cannot be achieved overnight, so the sooner you start, the better.

"However..." Annie said: "I must remind you that even children who are only seven or eight years old have to work at home. I am afraid that their parents will not be willing. Of course, if the lord orders, they can only do it. , but it will definitely have an impact on the livelihood of the family."

"So, we will provide all students who come to school with rations for the day, which can basically offset the loss of their labor force at home."

"But, is there enough food in the castle?" Anne worried.

"I've already calculated that the fortress's food reserves, plus the land that is still being cultivated, as long as it recruits no more than 2000 people, there will be no problem within nine months." Colin said.

"What about nine months?" asked Annie.

"Nine months later." Ke Lin said with a smile, "We don't need to worry about food anymore."

(End of this chapter)