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Translator: Kazumi
Editor: Kabur & Silavin
“Breeding slime, right?”
Royce, Kennelsen’s Six Marquises, tilted his head as he looked at Kousuke.
Royce’s mind was suddenly filled with wonder.
Kousuke, accompanied by Schmidt, suddenly came to Royce.
Kennelsen had just recently decided to join Amamiya Tower, and things were still very busy.
Since Kousuke and Schmidt came at such a time, Royce thought it was about the new company.
Then, out of the blue, they asked if it was possible to breed slime.
It was natural for anyone including Royce to be confused.
However, Royce was one of the Six Marquises.
He immediately thought about what was being asked.
Kousuke and his group visited him because Royce was one of the Six Marquises with a strong background in livestock farming.
The questions they were asking could be considered as a good indication of this.
However, even Royce had never heard of breeding monsters.
“I’m sorry, but I’ve heard of keeping stray monsters, but I’ve never heard of breeding them.”
He said honestly, and Schmidt nodded.
“I see. I was wondering if it was possible…”
“I’m afraid I can’t be of any help in that regard…”
“No, no, that’s okay, I expected that from the beginning.”
Kousuke waved his hand at Royce, who looked disappointed, before continuing.
“My main question is whether it is possible to breed slime.”
Hearing this, Royce wondered what the joke was.
He wondered what the point was in breeding the monsters in the first place.
But when he saw the expressions on Kousuke and Schmidt’s faces, he knew they were serious.
Immediately, he considered in his mind whether what Kousuke was saying was possible or not.
“…To be honest, I guess that’s where I have to try it to find out, isn’t it?”
Royce said, and Kousuke looked impressed.
For Kousuke, he was afraid he would be told that it was impossible.
“Assuming breeding does work, how much would it cost?”
It was Schmidt who asked that realistic question.
“I guess it depends on what you are going to use them for in the first place?”
Royce had not even asked what the slime would be used for, since he had been asked out of the blue if it could be bred.
Since the cost would naturally vary depending on that, it was only natural that he couldn’t answer immediately.
“That is indeed something to consider, isn’t it?”
Schmidt nodded in agreement and then brought an item out in front of Royce.
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“Is this…lighting?”
That was the first impression Royce expressed when he saw what was presented to him.
Lighting fixtures were expensive magical tools used in the residences of aristocrats and wealthy merchants.
The reason they were expensive was because of the advanced technology used in the devices to maintain the light with magic, and the time and effort required to put in the magic power to make the magic work.
If they had a magician in their employ, there would be no problem, but it would be the two types of people who could afford to have such a person in their employ.
Of course, the magic tools themselves were very expensive.
Royce wondered, not making the connection between the lighting fixtures and the slime.
“Yes, that’s right. Actually, that light fixture is designed to use slime as fuel.”
Kousuke, who developed the product, cut in.
Kousuke did not just copy the original magical tool.
After much trial and error, he came up with the prototype that Schmidt provided.
Kousuke had no intention of showing it to the public, but Schmidt couldn’t help overhearing what was said.
Kousuke was reluctant but showed it to Schmidt, who begged to see it.
Kousuke was not satisfied with the cost of the fuel, which would have been a detriment to his original goal of providing the service at a reasonable price.
Schmidt looked into it and decided to contact Royce.
Royce nodded in agreement when he heard the story.
“I see, so that’s where the slime comes into play.”
To begin with, slimes were famous monsters that could be found anywhere.
Considering that, one could understand that they came here assuming that it would be easy to breed them.
Besides, the slimes needed for the magical tool Kousuke made have been oil Slimes, a species famous for being a monster that could be defeated by anyone.
It was also famous as a slime that, while anyone could defeat it, it had no use at all.
Other slimes, though inexpensive, had their uses, so they provided a small income for adventurers who were at the bottom of the ladder.
However, oil slimes were the only slime that no one had ever paid any attention to because they had no value.
“But if this starts to spread to ordinary households, there is a possibility that we will inevitably run out of the wild ones to hunt.”
Schmidt added, to which Royce agreed with.
No matter how common these monsters may be, it was obvious that if adventurers would over hunt them, there would not be enough to sustain their numbers.
There was no telling how much they would need for lighting, but there was no guarantee that they would be able to capture enough to supply all average households.
As a result, the fuel itself would become more expensive, and that would make no sense.
“…I’ve never dabbled in this field at all, so I can’t answer just now.”
“I see.”
At Schmidt’s disappointed expression, Royce motioned with his right hand to wait a moment.
“Just now means I can’t give you an immediate answer. Can you give me some time? I’m going to experiment and see if I can breed slime.”
Hearing this, Schmidt also brightened up.
“Oh! Then…!”
“I will consider it as soon as I find something that works. If we do that, it has to be as inexpensive as possible, otherwise there is no point.”
Royce replied emphatically, and the unprecedented project of breeding monsters was about to start.
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In the world of Earthgard, there existed a reasonable number of monster tamers and monster users.
However, there were no so-called “breeders” of monsters in the world.
Kousuke thought that since horses and other animals were commonly bred, it would not be surprising if there were monster breeders, but he was mistaken.
Both of the above two professions were based on capturing and training monsters that normally exist in the wild.
In a world where monsters were to be killed when found, it was only natural that the idea of breeding them did not occur to them.
The slime breeding project began in such a situation, but it turned out to be more successful than Royce had initially anticipated.
Perhaps it was a good thing that slimes were chosen as the target of the project.
The slimes were not picky about the food they ate, so it took less time and effort than other creatures.
As a result, they quickly found it profitable and began to breed slime on a large scale.
Once Royce’s slime breeding was underway, Schmidt also began selling Kousuke’s magical tools to the public.
Since they were intended to be inexpensive to make in the first place, they could be made by ordinary magic tool craftsmen, which made mass production possible.
The inexpensive lighting thus created was soon accepted by the public.
Initial fears that the oil slime would be hunted down were unfounded.
The slime was hunted down, but the number of adventurers hunting slime was never enough to keep up with the demand from the public.
The main reason was that the price of a single slime was so insignificant that it was shunned by all but rookie adventurers.
Still, by then Royce’s slime breeding was beginning to take root, so there wasn’t too much confusion.
Eventually, the inexpensive lighting fixtures invented by Kousuke would spread to most households.
