Grace placed a keg of water out in the back garden of the manor for Audius, whenever he decided he would return. 

Since she wasn’t interested in waiting forever, she strolled through the manor and found Tiya’s room. 

Entering, she saw the small girl who had recently been regaining her health at breakneck pace. 

She hadn’t been horribly malnourished in the dungeon before her execution, but she never ate as people like Grace might have. Having full meals at least twice a day wasn’t normal. Normal people would eat two small meals a day, and that’s if they lived with decent income. Even wheat farmers wouldn’t be able to make flour and indulge in bread. After all, there was only so much yield a single farmer could harvest, requiring them to be frugal. 

Tiya was gaining a supple layer of skin over her bones, making her seem less like a little girl and more like a woman. It was generally agreed upon that sorcerers had an average level of beauty high above normal women. And Tiya, like Grace, was shaping out to be a gorgeous young lady. 

Grace enjoyed buying clothes for this girl, but recently, Tiya had nothing of the sort on her mind. 

Perhaps Audius had told Tiya to practice her powers like he did Grace, because recently Tiya wanted to do nothing but test her magical abilities. 

Thankfully they had worked out a system. Grace brought items to work with to Tiya’s room, and together the two would play around and try to classify their abilities. 

And they had discovered interesting things. Particularly about Tiya’s ability. 

*Knock Knock*

Grace tapped on the door while entering, prompting Tiya to lift her head from her task. 

It seemed she was testing her abilities, as expected. 

“Hi Grace.”

“Good afternoon, Tiya. I see you’re hard at work again.”

Using abilities came at the cost of energy, though not necessarily bodily energy. It was unknown where a sorcerer’s powers came from, but a sorcerer could clearly feel when they were tired from using their powers. 

Yet, Tiya was working whenever she could. 

And right now in particular, she looked to be deep in thought. 

Grace walked over to the table she was sitting at. In front of Tiya was a pile of black dust. 

“...Lord Audius said something about my power being corrosion?”

“Hm? I think so… But that was just a guess.”

“Right…”

Tiya scratched her black head of hair. 

“Whenever I use my power on items like fruits or paper, I always get this black dust. And I looked at what comes out from the black dust, and it’s usually a liquid or colorful dust. Still, I feel like my power turns things into this black dust. It’s really messy too.”

“I’m not sure what it could be…”

Grace pondered while looking at the pile of black dust. It was a fine powder that Tiya had placed on top of a piece of paper. 

“Can you do anything with the dust?”

“Not really. I can only move it around.”

Tiya waved her hand, and a portion of the black dust rose. 

It floated above her palm after forming into a smooth black ball. But as soon as she lowered it back down to the pile, it returned to its powdery form. 

“Hmm…”

Grace wondered even more. Was her ability simply to control this black powder? It seemed like extracting it from an object was only a byproduct of the main ability, if that was the case. 

But what was the black powder?

Both of them were asking this question in their minds. 

“How fast can you move it around?”

“Kind of fast, but not far.”

Tiya captured another ball of the powder, and pushing it out, the ball hovered away from her body. 

It moved halfway across the room, which was about 3 meters away, before stopping and faltering. It seemed that was her limit. 

Then, bringing it back to her body, Tiya made the ball spin around her person. It wasn’t incredibly fast, but that seemed to be because of her own ability to keep up with it instead of her power’s limits. 

So in the end, Tiya’s power was simple. 

She could control the black powder, whatever it was. That included turning objects into it, perhaps by burning them in some way. After all, burning things often produced black residue. 

“Maybe Audius might know what this is.”

……

“Is there something wrong?”

I asked Grace and Tiya who came to me in my study. 

I had finished my workout for the day, and evening was dawning. 

The two girls approached me with a small wooden container. After placing it on my desk and opening it, I saw a pile of black powder.

I looked at it before nodding. 

“That’s a wonderful pile of powder. I’m so glad you’ve shown this to me.”

“Pfft.”

Tiya held back a giggle while Grace rolled her eyes. 

“We’re wondering what this is. Do you know?”

“Well, not many things can form a pure black powder such as this. It looks like someone ground up some coal. In which case, this is carbon.”

I touched my finger to the powder, and sure enough, it returned a thin black film over my fingerprint. I then rubbed my index finger and thumb together and felt the smooth texture. 

Graphite, and by extension carbon, was a great lubricant, so it could be identified simply by feeling the way it reduced the friction between one’s fingers. 

But knowing that, I was a bit confused. 

Simply grinding up coal wouldn’t produce a powder as deep black as this. It would have to be graphite, as coal had several other elements within it that diluted its color. But where would these two girls find graphite? Did this city have another mine that I didn’t know about?

I looked at them with a questioning gaze. 

“Where’d you get this?”

“This is the product of Tiya’s ability.”

Grace motioned toward Tiya, who was scratching her hair with a smile. 

And hearing Grace, something clicked in my mind. 

Tiya’s demonstration a few days ago, where she corroded a fruit and produced a black smoke. 

Or, at least I thought it was corrosion. If this pure carbon was the product, then her ability could be even more extraordinary. 

“You mean, her ability to corrode items produced this?”

“Yes. That pile of black powder is the result of her corroding several items like foods or paper. We didn’t know what it was.”

“...I don’t believe it…”

I looked between the black powder and Tiya several times, wrapping my head around the implications. 

In that time, Grace motioned to Tiya, who waved her hand. I then saw a small ball rise from the powder and float around her. 

Tiya’s ability…

“Carbon manipulation… Hehe…”

I chuckled before catching myself. Still, it was obvious that I was happy. 

I approached Tiya and pat her head. 

“Tiya, you have no idea how amazing your power is.”

“R-really?”

Her lips twisted as she smiled cutely. 

“Yes really. And I’d like to teach you about it, but unfortunately there’s a lot of knowledge that isn’t so common in this city that you would need to learn. I guess that means I need to start my new job as a scribe.”

“Scribe?”

Grace wondered as I sat back down and closed the container full of carbon powder. 

“That just means that I should start writing some books that can be used for education here. Knowledge is man’s most valuable resource. The more we learn, the greater we prosper. Besides, if it might help Tiya understand her ability, then that’s all the more reason.”

I handed the container back to them. 

“Keep working on your ability, Tiya. If you can, try and see if you can turn this powder that you produce into something more solid, like a rock. And when I start writing the books I want, I’ll make sure that you get them.”

“Of course, Lord Audius. I’ll work hard. And thank you.”

“Mm. And what about you, Grace? Any progress?”

I looked at my sister, who smiled wryly.

“Sorry, Audius. I’m still working on it.”

“No problem. Take your time.”

I waved at her concern. 

Then, the two took their leave. I sat back for a little bit while thinking of Tiya’s ability. 

Carbon was an extremely valuable resource. It was needed to make steel, and coal was important for generating heat that could be used as a way to power industrial machines, like steam engines that operated machinery. 

Tiya’s powdered carbon could be used for many things, and I wasn’t sure if it was possible, but if she could learn to synthesize materials out of that carbon…

The possibilities were endless. 

But right now, there was something I needed to devote time toward. 

Education would be the foundation of my future prosperity. I needed a population of knowledgable people if I wanted to go far. Now, teaching adults was limited since their worldview was already constrained by their experience. But children were still malleable, and they had the free time. 

Children were always the future, and they were my targets, as bad as that sounded. 

But surely there were some adults who were open to learning new things, especially the industrialists and entrepreneurs. They would be the ones who actually applied my knowledge. 

But before any of that happened, I needed to write the books that would serve as the source material for all this education. 

“I need to find the Baron. Maybe there’s a print shop in this city. Otherwise I’m going to have to buy material from another city…”

*Knock Knock*

I heard a tap on the door, and lo and behold, the Baron walked in. 

“Lord Audius.”

“Baron, so good to see you. And Sir Campbell.”

I waited as Sir Campbell took a seat in front of my desk. I also stopped the Baron before he could walk out. 

“Baron, I have something for you to do.”

“Yes?”

I raised a sheet of paper. 

“I need more of this, and empty books. I would say that a thousand pieces of paper and 50 empty book bindings should suffice for now. Do you know where you can find a place that can supply me with this?”

“...That’s a large order, but it shouldn’t be difficult to fulfill. We have a library and printer store that I’ve ordered books from in the past.”

“Good. Go to them and place this order. I don’t care if they have to buy things from another city. I just want those two things. And bring me any sheets of paper we already have.”

“Yes sir.”

The Baron left with his new task, and I focused my attention on Sir Campbell. 

The accountant placed a small stack of paper on my desk, which I picked up. 

It had descriptions of all the equipment that Kork, the owner of the mine outpost, owned. It also detailed the infrastructure already in place there, as well as a list of all the employees. 

It was basically everything I needed to know, and at the end, there was a value estimation made by Sir Campbell. 

“The outpost is worth no more than 4 thousand coin, even after considering all the salaries of the workers throughout its lifetime. And it isn’t very developed. All mining operations thus far have been shallow, and there is a single processing facility that can make iron. The only valuable part of the outpost are the few buildings and paved road, as well as a small bridge across the river.”

“...”

I was silent as I pondered. It didn’t surprise me that Kork’s outpost was small. Even if he had been working at it for a few years, his growth rate was likely that of a snail. Without capital, it would be impossible for him to go anywhere. 

So it was obvious why he was so eager to work with me. I was his golden ticket. 

I quickly made my decision. 

“I will buy his outpost for 6 thousand coin, which you will pay Kork. What did you think of his administrative ability?”

“...Sufficient.”

Sir Campbell thought about my decree before spitting out that answer. 

“In that case, he has the option to sign a contract. He can work for me as the on site manager of mining operations. His yearly salary as the manager will be 8 thousand coin. Also, I will pay bonuses based on how much he produces. As soon as you write up the contract and have him sign it, we will move forward with establishing a proper facility.”

“8 thousand… I understand.”

Sir Campbell nodded simply before standing and leaving. 

I had no doubt that Kork would sign the contract, so it was only a matter of time before we began operations. 

I would also need to draft up plans and start allocating funds from my father’s investment. 

Then we would need to hire people, buy tools, set up the processing facilities…

A lot of work that might take a month or so with my help, but it wasn’t like I was pressed for time. 

I just sat back and waited for things to develop. 

“Your paper, Lord Audius.”

And a maid brought me a batch of blank paper. 

So with my many priorities laid out, I did what work I could.