The Abandoned Duchess Seems to Want a Peaceful Life - Chapter 116

Chapter 116: Pest Control and Sprayer

The carriage stopped after passing through Melto Village and advancing along the farm road that extended to the fields. Serleine gracefully alighted from the carriage, and after smiling at the hand offered to him, he allowed himself to be escorted down onto the path. He could see Nid and the others, who had been working, approaching them.

“Lady Melfina, thank you for taking the trouble to come here.”

“Thank you, everyone, for your hard work. Melto Village seems to have become more vibrant with all the new buildings going up.”

“Yes, the lodging for laborers will soon be completed. Recently, there has been someone opening a shop at the market every day.”

“I’d love to hear more about that later. For now, could you tell me about the pest situation?”

According to Nid’s explanation, the outbreak began in the field near the forest where they had planted beans and has been gradually spreading to the surrounding fields. The pest is a small insect called a “grain bug”, and once it appears, it multiplies explosively. In the field where the outbreak started the earliest, brown spots have begun to appear on the beans. So, anyone who is available, including children, is taking turns to kill them by hand.

“We’re truly sorry for what has happened in the fields entrusted to us by Lady Melfina…”

“No, pests aren’t anyone’s fault. I’m grateful you reported it quickly. Could you show me the fields that are currently affected?”

The sound of Marie taking notes with a soft scratching noise came to a stop.

“Marie, if you’re uncomfortable with insects, you can stay here.”

“…No, I will accompany you.”

Marie didn’t change her expression, but there was a slight pause before she replied.

“Then, I’ll share my observations and possible countermeasures verbally, so could you keep taking notes? I might think of additional measures later.”

“Leave it to me.”

Melfina smiled as Marie nodded firmly and called out to Serleine, who was crouching a little distance away.

“Sister, what is that ditch over there?”

“They’re digging an irrigation channel. Eventually, water will flow through it, and small fish from the river might even swim upstream.”

Once the water starts flowing, they’ll need to take precautions to prevent accidents. In poor visibility due to rain or fog, a carriage slipping into the ditch could be catastrophic.

If the irrigation system becomes operational, it will reduce the burden on the farmers, allowing them to focus on other tasks.

Guided by Nid, they headed to the problematic field, where it was immediately apparent that the leaves were browning more than in other plots, and overall growth was poor.

When she turned over a bean leaf, she found clusters of green, grain-sized insects clinging tightly to it. She involuntarily held her breath for a moment.

Having grown up in the capital, Melfina wasn’t very familiar with insects. In her past life, “I” was relatively unbothered by pests that appeared indoors, but it was still not a pleasant sight.

Not wanting to touch them, she gingerly touched the mass of insects to perform an Appraisal.

As she suspected, they were a type of aphid, similar to those from her previous life. As soon as she finished the Appraisal, she quickly withdrew her finger. She wanted to wash her hands, but there was no water source around here yet.

“Lady Melfina, please use this.”

“…Thank you, Marie. Should I wash and return it?”

“No, don’t worry about it.”

Gratefully accepting the offered handkerchief, she carefully wiped her fingertips.

“First, I’d like you to spray this area with a solution of milk diluted with water at a ratio of five to ten times. Do that every four days, three times, and monitor the situation.”

“By ‘milk’, do you mean cow’s milk?”

“Yes, that milk. You know how milk hardens and becomes brittle when it dries? When sprayed with milk, it clogs the spiracles—the small openings that insects use to breathe—causing them to suffocate.”

Aphids multiply explosively once they appear. It takes only a few days to ten days for the newly born insects to mature, so regular spraying is necessary to eradicate them.

“I’ll contact the farm under my name to have the milk delivered promptly. We’ll adjust the concentration for each field to determine the most effective one, and I’ll also have them start making sprayers right away… Oh, but is the smithy busy right now?”

Although a sprayer isn’t a particularly complicated device, it would still take some effort to make one from scratch. She turned around, thinking to consult with Julius, but couldn’t find the alchemist anywhere.

“Cedric, do you know where Julius is?”

“It seems he found something interesting and wandered off somewhere… Nid, could you send someone to look for him? He’s a tall man with blue hair.”

“Y-yes! Right away.”

“If we could generate a strong wind in one direction, we could easily spray a large area…”

Melfina did have wind magic, but her magic power was weak, so she couldn’t activate it as a proper spell. It would have been convenient if she had strong magic power in times like these.

“In that case, why not hire a wind mage? If you send word to the guild in the domain capital or the duke’s house, I believe they could dispatch someone immediately.”

“Would they really be available that quickly?”

“Unlike earth and water mages, wind mages aren’t in high demand. At most, they’re occasionally hired to blow wind to power windmills when there’s no breeze.”

“So they can generate enough power to turn a windmill…”

Thinking about it, every time she saw the moat at the lord’s mansion, it had been further excavated. Since earth mages have that much power, it’s possible that a wind mage with comparable magic could do something similar.

“Julius has the wind attribute too, but…”

“But Lord Julius is here as an alchemist, so we should consult him on the technical aspects. If we can get the sprayers made, there are various other applications we could use them for, so let’s proceed with that.”

Hearing this, Cedric looked somewhat relieved. Despite his great magic power and multiple attributes, Melfina didn’t want to ask Julius, who spends most of his daily life sleeping, to use magic for this task.

“Marie, please request the guild to dispatch a wind mage, if possible, on a contract lasting until the end of summer or fall.”

“I’ll send word as soon as we return to the lord’s manor.”

“Nid, could you send someone to the smithy and ask Roy and Carl to come to the manor tomorrow around noon?”

“I’ll have a young one go right away.”

“Oh, I’ll run there myself!”

Nid’s son, Rod, raised his hand and dashed off before she could even thank him, his figure quickly disappearing into the distance, leaving Melfina surprised.

“Rod is incredibly fast, isn’t he?”

“During winter, he ate plenty, played during breaks from work, and slept warmly at night. He’s grown quite a bit, too.”

“Has he? That’s really good to hear.”

“If only I had the wind attribute, I could have been of help.”

Serleine muttered sulkily, to which Melfina smiled wryly and gave him a gentle pat on the back.

“I have the wind attribute, but I still can’t use magic, Serleine.”

“But even without magic, you can still come up with solutions, Sister.”

“That’s right. Most things that can be done with magic can also be done by anyone, with enough time and effort. The power of knowledge doesn’t discriminate between nobles, commoners, or serfs. That’s why I believe that knowing how to do things is far more important.”

“I’ll remember that, Sister!”

Melfina smiled softly at Serleine’s determined response and turned back to Nid.

“For now, until we get the sprayers or the wind mage, let’s try applying the milk with brushes as an experiment to see if it’s effective.”

“Yes, I’ll gather the people right away.”

“As for today’s batch, we should be able to get enough milk from the village.”

“Then, I’ll purchase that milk. Please send me the bill for what’s used later.”

“No, Lady Melfina, I couldn’t possibly…”

Nid looked flustered, but Melfina gave him a gentle smile.

“This is the field I entrusted to you, isn’t it?”

If a field they were entrusted with had pests or diseases and they delayed reporting due to fear of reprimand or hesitated to take action because of increased costs, the overall damage would be far worse.

In that sense, being able to perform the first pest control on the lord’s own field could be considered fortunate.

If the method proves effective here, it will significantly lower the barrier for them to try it when the same issue arises in their own fields.

“It’s always better to have an open flow of information. It keeps misfortune at bay.”