Sewage Treatment (3)
Mage Hicks doubted his own ears.
“Stop it all.”
To stop everything? How could words like that possibly come from the mouth of one of the department heads actually running the territory? Even if the soap business had brought in a fortune, this kind of attitude toward mages was outrageous.
“Elisa. You’ll have to take responsibility for this, won’t you?”
And the way he casually patted the shoulder of Elisa, the noble daughter of House Soryu, only made it worse. It was an unforgivable act of tyranny.
Just as the hot-blooded young Hicks opened his mouth to speak, his master grabbed his shoulder. Granted, said master was only a 2nd Circle mage whose greatest achievement was creating a single bowl of water.
“Hmm. Is that so? Excellent.”
“Master?”
“All right, everyone, let’s head back~!”
At his master’s incomprehensible command, the mages all broke into smiles and began filing out of the building one by one, obeying Alpha’s order.
“Master! We’re mages! How can we simply swallow this humiliation and leave?”
“My disciple. Remember our original objective.”
“…To stop working?”
“Exactly! We’ve already achieved our goal, so why raise our voices and stir up trouble now? Besides, mages are beings who naturally deserve special treatment. That’s because we are fundamentally different from ordinary people.”
Hicks pondered his master’s unfinished words for a moment before speaking.
“I see. So if we haggle with that Alpha fellow like common merchants at the market, we’d appear no different from ordinary people. That’s what you mean.”
“Precisely!”
To an outsider, the conversation between these 1st and 2nd Circle mages—who had barely stepped foot into the study of magic—might have sounded like an exchange between a grand archmage and his prized disciple.
“The humiliation we received can be repaid later. In the end, he’ll need us. He’ll come crawling back. That’s when we return the favor.”
“Of course!”
Hicks inwardly praised his master’s wisdom and renewed his conviction in the greatness of mages. They must never behave like ordinary folk. They pursued the mystical art of magic. Their way of settling grievances was different.
“Then let us depart.”
The mages returned to their homes with proud strides. Being driven out by Alpha did not mean expulsion from the territory. Even without working, they received a generous 20 silver daily under the pretext of “maintaining dignity.” This was the privilege of being a mage.
No matter how low their accomplishments or how little they worked, every territory treated them with respect. It was simply how things were. When high-ranking mages visited a domain, they always checked how well the lesser mages were treated. If the treatment seemed insufficient, those high mages would usually refuse to work there.
It was obvious. If those who studied the same noble art received poor treatment simply for having low achievements and not working, what would that say about how a high-ranking mage like themselves would be treated? The Magic Tower even encouraged this behavior as part of their welfare policy for lower mages who weren’t properly respected.
Thanks to all that, even though the mages had suddenly lost their jobs, they had no need to worry about money. They returned home fully convinced that Alpha would soon kneel before them, begging them to return with promises of better treatment and lighter workloads.
How much could a man like him possibly understand about magic—the true domain of geniuses?
*
“Clean.”
After driving out every last mage, I took their place and began casting spells myself.
Of all the things that caught my interest after crossing over to this world, magic fascinated me the most. After studying the local culture and customs, magic was the next thing I learned. Of course, without proper grimoires, my current level was only around 2nd Circle.
If I had enough time to truly research it, could I reach the 9th Circle through self-study—the realm only dragons had attained? I wasn’t sure. Magic was an incredibly profound discipline. Even as an Alpha Male, learning 3rd Circle magic without proper texts was difficult.
Well, it only made sense. Absorbing thousands of years of accumulated knowledge through self-study alone in a short time was impossible. Even Alpha Males had once denied the very existence of bacteria, after all. In the end, learning from someone was always faster than trying to figure everything out alone.
“Heave-ho!”
“Clean.”
With the incantation, I felt mana drain from my body. Dozens of water buckets stood before me. By my standards, a reasonable amount of mana flowed out, and the water began to purify.
They had forty people doing this and only made one gold per day?
After confirming exactly how much mana Clean magic consumed, I couldn’t help but frown.
“Magic stone.”
“Yes!”
Knowing she was at fault, Elisa quickly placed a magic stone in my hand. Magic stones were crystals containing mana harvested from monsters. Using one allowed me to cast spells with the stone’s mana instead of my own.
In other words, the mages had been relying on these stones rather than their own mana this entire time. From my little test, it was clear that without the stones, none of them could have purified even a single bucket.
They consumed expensive stones and worked at a snail’s pace. On top of that, they demanded wages befitting high-class personnel. The inefficiency was staggering.
“Elisa. You need to be punished, don’t you?”
“Ugh… Yes❤︎”
She definitely needed punishment. After all, it was Elisa who had demanded such outrageous treatment for the mages. She would have to take full responsibility for this mess.
“Clean.”
I tossed the magic stone into the corner and activated the spell with my own mana. At this rate of consumption, I could cast magic all day without worrying about running dry.
“Oh! Incredible! The mages who were here before could only finish one bucket each! The piles of water-filled buckets just kept growing every day!”
His name was Jean, I think? Every time I cast magic, he praised me with genuine amazement and eagerly carried several buckets at once. I liked his attitude. Despite being over two meters tall and probably underfed, his natural physique had packed on muscle everywhere, and he showed no signs of fatigue.
“Did you hear that? I treated them exactly as you ordered. Yet they were dragging their feet when they could have finished dozens of buckets in one go.”
“I-I’m sorry.”
Erika had gone upstairs with Ertia to check on the filtration of solid waste from the sewage, so she wasn’t here. That meant I could torment Elisa as much as I wanted without any problems.
A few workers were carrying buckets nearby, but who would believe anything they said? Elisa herself would deny that I was scolding her.
“What are you waiting for? Can’t you see the pile? Hurry up and cast the spell.”
In terms of pure mana reserves, Elisa had far more than I did. She could purify water all day without ever running dry.
“Yes!”
Together with Elisa, I cast Clean on the mountain of buckets, turning them into container after container of pure water. The purified water would be sold again.
If Bicken Territory had one major weakness, it was how difficult it was to obtain water—especially in Bicken City where the lord’s castle stood. The territory did have a river suitable for farming, but it was quite far from the city. Fetching water from there would exhaust anyone.
Because of that, merchants selling water had become the norm—so much so that people joked the city taxed water itself. Wells existed, but they were woefully insufficient for the population. Recently, as word spread that washing with soap helped prevent the Black Death, demand had only grown worse.
That was why I was casting magic here. The sewage treatment plant was a vital facility. The profits I generated now exceeded what the merchants made selling water after taxes. Citizens could buy clean water cheaply. It was a perfect solution.
If the treatment plant ever failed, water prices would skyrocket. No matter how much people valued money, surviving the deadly Black Death was far more important. Otherwise, people would start reusing already-washed water, and the plague might spread again.
To prevent that, I had no choice but to give it my all. Still, I couldn’t stay here forever. Modern chemical treatment wasn’t an option, so mages were ultimately necessary.
But I had no desire to rehire the parasites I had just thrown out.
I’ll create my own mages.
After the day’s work ended, I summoned Helen, Elisa, and Ertia. Helen and Elisa had already learned enough magic to be called proper mages. Ertia had a thick skull but could at least read and write. The basic plan was for Ertia to teach reading and writing while Helen and Elisa taught magic.
“Understood?”
“Yesss…❤︎”
Helen answered with an ecstatic expression, semen still dripping from her nose. I had given all three of them plenty of “rewards,” so they should perform well.