395 395 Struck Oil?
While they were chatting, it slowly dawned on the Mayor that there was a chance to make a good deal far beyond trading for information and a wind deer carcass today. They had a powerful Demon and a Rank Two witch here in front of them, and they were both friendly and open about their home in the Frozen Wastes.
If they could live there and grow so powerful, then they could certainly do something to help the villages in the swamps with their goals. It might cost them more than she had planned to spend today, but if she could make a deal, she would be a hero to the local citizens.
The question was how much were the visiting Witch and Demon willing to do for the villages when they had just rebelled against the Coven, and while the Mayor knew that it wasn’t entirely clear to outsiders where their loyalties lay or what they would and wouldn’t do to fulfil the demands of Gormana’s government.
Since the two of them lived in the Frozen Wastes, there was a good chance that they wouldn’t be too bothered about the whole ‘not part of the coven’ thing, but the actions of the lead Rebels were both disgusting and widely targeted. In short, she needed more information.
“So, how did you two end up living in the Frozen Wastes, if you don’t mind me asking? It’s hard to tell a Demon’s age, but Miss Ella doesn’t look much older than an Academy Student, and that is being generous with the years.” The Mayor asked carefully.
Ella smiled at her. “If I were still at the Academy, I would have been in the First Year. We were drafted as part of the defence effort against the Monster Tide, but I’m not sure how much you know about that.”
The Mayor shrugged her shoulders. “I know the same as every other year. They pulled a lot of people from the city and then came around to the villages looking for the ones who would willingly join. Then they came back and took more.”
Ella shook her head at the limited description that the Mayor gave.
“They drafted every half-blooded Witch that they could find in the city, and most of them out of the Academy, then sent them to the front lines, where the Rebels did their best to ensure that they didn’t survive the first day.
We got lucky because they dropped us off at a camp that had already been overrun, and we were found by the Sylvan Coven forces. Technically, I am a Sylvan Coven citizen now, with my military service finished, but we got comfortable in the Frozen Wastes with our unit, and we all decided to stay once the war against the mundane armies ended.”
The Mayor’s eyes went very large at that bit of news. “Does the Sylvan Coven know that they have a Rank Two Witch among their citizens? I’m surprised that they’re not trying to draw you into their political intrigue. They did take a lot of losses after all, and they need all the skilled Witches that they can get.”
Ella smirked at the Mayor while Christa gave Wolfe a questioning look. She hadn’t known any of this either, and she had a lot of questions.
“We might have forgotten to mention it to them. Just like we didn’t mention to just everyone that we can repair the damage done by the nerve gas, so feel free to report to the higher-ups that it’s no use using it against forces in the Frozen Wastes next year.” Wolfe explained.
The Colonel raised his hands as if surrendering to Wolfe’s veiled accusation. “That’s all on the Grand Dutchies. They also claim that they have a cure that will allow the Witches to begin regrowing their aura once they are treated, but I haven’t seen it in action.”
“Well, that’s a small kindness anyhow. At least they will be able to start recovering eventually. But I believe that the matter of the Grand Dutchies battle tactics is not the most pressing matter that we have to discuss today.”
The Mayor nodded and scribbled a crude map on a piece of paper from her pocket.
“This is the layout of the farms we have built to supply the Army with food and oil crops. Food is a minor issue. Lots of places are growing excess food. But the oil crops, which can be refined to keep all sorts of technological production lines running, are in very short supply as the natural oil is running out in the East.
The more that we can produce and refine, the more we can make, and the less serious the issue will become. I know one village’s worth of crops is a laughable matter for the needs of a country with a population of millions, but we have magic on our side. A lot of it if you will agree to help.”
The Mayor paused there to let the Nomads take in the proposition.
Ella decided that a little help would be worth the effort, so she smiled back at the Mayor and nodded. “I don’t think that we will be shipping enough crops to make a difference, but we can certainly help you get a processing plant and some enchanted fields set up. We have an oil press at home that our cooks use for fresh supplies, so I know the basics of how it’s made.
You won’t be able to grow the same plants that we do, but we can set you up with either coconut or Palm Tree fields, with other crops growing in their shade, and you can press Oil in large quantities if you have the Witches on duty to keep up the spells that will renew the nutrients and water in the soil.”
ραndαsΝοvεl ƈοm The Colonel’s expression was a marvel to behold. He was clearly confused about the scale of the proposition, but he knew enough about Witches to know that something good was about to happen.
“I suggest that we place a comprehensive Garden Charm on these fields, the ones that aren’t dedicated to your own food production, and then you can feed them all the mana you can spare. If you want Palm Oil Trees for the highest yield, it will take a fair bit of time before they’re grown enough to be active, but magic should shorten that to a few months at the most.
The men will do the planting and harvesting, and the Witches can do the maintenance. By my calculations, if you put five decent Witches on it, you should be able to harvest every three to five days and get about four tonnes of oil per hectare. Will that be fine?”
The Colonel took out his phone and opened the calculator app to see what sort of total that would come to. They had a hundred hectares set aside for their oil sales, and while Palm Oil might be too expensive to normally use in the production of plastics and such, they were becoming desperate as time wore on and no new oil sources were found.
“Four hundred tonnes of oil a week? That’s pure Palm Oil you’re talking about. It will make us more than enough to keep everyone living well, even if they only buy it for food production. In fact, that’s ten times what we can safely load in the container that they dropped off for us. We would have to move two of them a day just to ship out the oil.”
Wolfe smiled at the eager look in the two local officials’ eyes.
“It looks like you’ve got some logistics to plan. Assuming that you can come to an agreement with Ella, that is.” He agreed.