Chapter 156: Irrigation system (1/2)
”We should still be a day away,” Layn muttered under his nose as the rest of the group busied themselves with setting up the camp. As much as he wanted to reach the camp already, with just four mounts for the entire group, there was no way to speed up their march any further.
”What are you thinking about?” Sitra asked as she approached the archmage. Layn looked back, only to see her impressive figure with her already prepared tent serving as the background to her march.
'To think that not only Al but Irea would also be slower than her,' he thought, taking note of this small detail of the girl.
”Nothing much.” Layn shrugged the question away. ”Just some early planning for what we should do once we get back,” he said, looking down at the ground.
In just the last few moments, the lazy and monotone moves of his hand-carved out quite a complex picture directly in the ground.
”Yeah, yeah, tell me more,” Sitra chuckled at Layn's explanation before brushing away a stray strand of hair that got on her eyes. She then leaned over Layn's arm, curious about the drawings of his making. ”Is this some sort… of an irrigation system?” she asked, moving her eyes – filled with surprise – on Layn's face.
”More or less,” he admitted his doings before pulling the stick he was using to draw away. Layn then took a long look at the complicated net of lines and rows that spread away from a circle that served as a base of the entire picture. ”I'm not sure if I'm right with this, but I'm quite puzzled by the difference between the energy the Overlord I defeated had and the one I'm receiving right now,” he revealed his little secret without the slightest care in the world.
'Or rather, that's what I would love for her to think I just did,' Layn thought as he scanned the self-made picture below his feet.
”And what kind of great conclusions did you came up with?” Sitra pushed, uncaring for the potential trouble she was causing to the archmage.
At first, Layn simply sent the girl a long, meaningful glance before shaking his head and ultimately averting his eyes. 'Well, she is kind of a deputy of Slavians, so I need to feed her some information,' he realized before raising his eyes at the girl again. ”If it's not going to me, it has to go somewhere,” Layn shook his shoulders. ”And what's the better place for the energy to gather than in soil? Although only slight, its crystalic structure makes it easy for mana to store up,” Layn explained the very basics of the magicmateriology, one of the founding subjects every student at his academy had to pass.
”So you think that those arid lands can actually be a bomb of fertility?” Sitra asked before blinking her eyes a few times as if she wanted to make sure the sight in front of her eyes wasn't just an illusion.
But no matter how much she blinked, Layn's body still remained on top of a small hill he picked to waste his time away while everyone was busy setting the camp. As such, his words couldn't be an illusion either.
”Even if that's the case, we will need to iron that energy out of the ground for it to be truly fertile,” Layn corrected Sitra's slight misconception with just a passing notion. ”As for the irrigation system itself,” he started.
”What are you guys talking about?” Irea approached the two of them as soon as she finished her own tent. With no surprise, Al followed closely behind Layn's girlfriend, proving that he wasn't slow at work either.
”The irrigation system. Suppose a single guess of mine is right. In that case, this might be the most important project for us for the nearest future,” Layn answered honestly before pointing his small stick at the picture below his feet.
”System of canals?” Al asked, unsure about the meaning of the word.
”That's right,” Layn nodded, pointing his stick at one of the three points starting in the founding circle. One of the three points symbolized the opening of one of the three main waterways Layn planned. ”We will frame the entire project on those three canals,” he pointed at the widest ditches in the picture.