Chapter 87. Experiments Of The Past

“So, what exactly are we trying to do?” Miller asked, kneeling down on the cool stone floor of the dim storage room. He dragged out a heavy, sealed wooden box from beneath a lower shelf and popped the lid open to scoop out a handful of dried seeds.

Francesca tapped her cane against the ground thoughtfully. “In my past life as Hannah, my mother used to keep a small garden out on our balcony.”

Walking up to him, she took one of the small, dark seeds from his palm. “I just remembered that she once planted the dried seeds we had originally bought for cooking, and they actually grew. That means seeds dried for preservation can still sprout.”

Miller stood up next to her and nodded. “Well, of course. Everyone knows that. In fact, whatever seeds are left over in the castle stores by next spring are usually given right back to the Moringa farmers to plant for the new harvest.”

He reached out, giving her a playful flick on the nose, and chuckled. “Your high noble upbringing is really showing here, My Lady. Did you seriously have to dig all the way back into a previous life just to remember how basic farming works?”

Francesca shot him a slight glare, rubbing her nose. “Hmph... whatever. Anyway, I was thinking... why don’t we use the same heat retention method the Julian Coop uses, and try to sprout them now? In the middle of the Winter Freeze.”

Miller raised an eyebrow, his playful demeanor shifting into mild surprise. “You want to try and grow Moringa in the dead of winter? Like building a greenhouse? That doesn’t work.”

He shook his head with a heavy sigh. “Past generations already understood the concept of temperature control and tried to do exactly that. In fact, the Julian Coop was originally invented by Julian trying to grow plants in the cold winter. When the crops failed, they just repurposed the insulated design for the chickens instead.”

“What?” Francesca blinked in surprise. “What exactly did they try? Why did it fail?”

“I don’t know the exact details,” Miller admitted. “But there must be some old architectural and agricultural documents detailing those past experiments stored away in my office. Taking a look at them might be a good idea.”

Francesca nodded firmly, a spark of determination in her golden eyes. “That’s a start.”

With that, Miller carefully placed the seeds back into the wooden box and sealed the lid. Offering his arm to give her support, the two of them walked out of the storage room and headed straight for his office to dig into the past.

The Viscount’s Office, Ironwood Castle

“Here, I found them. You can read through these while I draft the letter to His Highness the Third Prince. We need to officially invite him before the war breaks out, right?” Miller said, pulling a stack of dusty files from a bottom drawer. He handed the aged documents over to Francesca, who was sitting in the plush chair next to his desk.

“Oh, nice,” she nodded, accepting the papers. Then, a thought struck her. “Ah, that’s right. I made a few document revisions while going over the territory ledgers yesterday. You might want to check those out as well.”

“Sure,” Miller smiled, nodding as he pulled out a fresh sheet of premium paper to begin drafting his letter.

For the next few hours, a comfortable, productive silence settled over the office. The only sounds in the room were the rhythmic scratching of Miller's pen against paper, the soft rustling of old, yellowed pages as Francesca carefully flipped through the agricultural records, and the occasional crackle of the hearth keeping the biting winter chill at bay. Outside the arched windows, the clouded, snowy sky slowly darkened as the morning faded into afternoon.

“Mmm...” Miller groaned softly, stretching his arms high above his head as he finally finished reviewing the last of her revised ledgers.

“I think I understand now why they failed,” Francesca suddenly declared, breaking the quiet.

“Just as I suspected, it must be possible to grow Moringa with a proper greenhouse setup,” Francesca nodded to herself, her golden eyes scanning the old notes.

Miller leaned over, looking at the documents in her hands with raised eyebrows. “I don’t get it. How? Moringa only grows in this specific region and strictly only during the summer. Even the Imperial Palace’s grand greenhouses haven't been able to grow them using magic artifacts.”

“The reason is hidden right here in these failed experiments,” Francesca said, tapping a specific paragraph on the aged paper. “Attempting to grow it by simply trapping heat was a great start, but they lacked a fundamental understanding of photoperiodism, which is exactly why it failed.”

“What is that? Photoperiodism...?” Miller inquired, thoroughly intrigued.

“Think about it. What does a plant need to grow?” Francesca asked.

Miller thought for a moment before answering, “Nutritious soil, warmth, and water?”

“Pretty much, but there is one crucial missing factor,” Francesca pointed her finger up. “Plants are living beings. They naturally know when it is winter. That phenomenon is called photoperiodism... plants actually base their growth cycles on the length of daylight, alongside the temperature conditions.”

It was taught in my basic biology class back in high school... Francesca thought inwardly, grateful once again for the mundane knowledge she retained from her past lives thanks to perfect recall.

Miller fell into deep thought, his sharp mind quickly grasping the concept. “So, following that logic... even if past generations successfully heated a greenhouse, the naturally short winter days would signal to the plants that it was still winter. Thus, they would simply go dormant and fail?”

“That’s right. Plus, looking at these records, the old greenhouse experiments used massive amounts of firewood just to keep the air warm enough, which made it a huge economic burden,” Francesca shook her head with a sigh.

“So it really is impossible, isn't it?” Miller replied, understanding the insurmountable hurdles of sunlight and expensive fuel.

But Francesca looked up at him, a fierce, determined smirk spreading across her face.“No! It should be possible... if we trick the plants into thinking it’s summer!”