The Battle for Leyta

A New Idea

With the Great Empire's win in the last war, the combined strength of the Great Empire and Lerna Sovereignty was now known to the world as an impossibility to ever overpower.

Three months have passed since the latest war. Many people still grieve over those lost in it. A new country was recently created by people who had unprecedented knowledge about technology, magic and how to combine both. The country was known as Tech Tremor.

'This new country... I'll go on a recon mission and try to learn some of the ways they make technology and magic compatible... Or maybe try to make them an ally to us, just in case...'

With that, Dromer called Reorth, told him the plan, and set off on his journey. Tech Tremor was located on the other side of a huge mountain range, that separated the rest of the continent from them.

In a week, Dromer was approaching a village that's right next to the border between Lerna Sovereignty and Trenice. There, Dromer rented a free room from a small family living there.

"Lord Dorian, there's something I'd like to ask of you," a man named Erman spoke to Dromer.

"No need for the formalities, Erman. Right now, I'm but an adventurer who's passing through, and you and your family are the nice people who let me rent out a room from you."

"O-Okay, Dorian. So, my question to you is, where are you travelling to?"

"Ah, to a newly formed country, far to the Southeast of Trenice. It is said that they have technology the entire world has yet to even think of creating, and that they have knowledge of magic so vast, that they're using ancient magic like it's an everyday thing."

Erman was left speechless.

"Ancient magic?! But, that magic has immense power! Are they nuts?!"

Dromer just shook his head and replied:

"I have no idea... That's why I'm going there to find out, who or what made such a country. It is beyond powerful and possibly dangerous."

Ten minutes, of talking with Erman's children, later, Dromer spoke to Erman once again.

"Erman... I have a question for you. How's life here, in the border village?"

Erman reluctantly answered:

"W-Well, it isn't always this good, to be perfectly honest... We were barely able to pay off the taxes to the village elder."

"Are the taxes too high?" Dromer immediately asked.

"N-No. It's not that. It's just that the crop yield was much, much worse than other years... And I can't understand why. I'm a farmer and I should know these things, but I just have no idea... I used just enough fertilizer, I even used cigarette ashes to keep bugs from eating the crops, but nothing has worked. All crops are weak and are in such bad shape, that they don't fetch a high enough price from the merchants."

After hearing the story, Dromer stood up and asked:

"Erman, would you be so kind as to lead me to the fields? I want to check something..."

Erman accepted and lead Dromer to an empty field.

"This is the field where I grow my crops."

Dromer knelt and picked up some soil and examined it with magic.

"Hmm... The soil isn't fertile anymore, even if you fertilized it. It doesn't have the needed nutrients to keep growing the same crop every year... I'll restore the fertility to all soil used for farming, but it's not a permanent solution. You should cut your field into four different sections and grow different crops in three of the four sections, but leave one section so it overgrows with grass and weeds. You have livestock here, like pigs and cows, right?"

"U-Uhhh, yeah, I do."

"Excellent. In one of the sections, I suggest growing turnips. Pigs love them. Send cows into the overgrown section and let them go to town. That way, you'll always have fresh fertilizer and nutrients. And in the two other sections, grow whatever you want. Wheat, rice, cotton, whatever."

With that, Dromer cast a healing spell, which people thought only worked on live beings, not dirt.

"Alright, that should take care of the infertility problem. Everything else is in your, capable hands, my friend. Relay this information to the rest of the villagers."

"I'll do that," Erman happily accepted the task.

After that, Dromer spent the night in the village and then continued on his journey to Tech Tremor.