CHAPTER 76: WHEN THERE IS A PROBLEM, THERE IS A WAY

’If I’m not ready to give it up, then...’

I breathed out a long sigh.

’Then what should I do?’

As simple of a question as this appeared to be, I really didn’t have any smart answer to it.

Risk it all, ignoring the potential of dangerous consequences? Or was there anything I could do to actually alleviate those risks?

Or maybe...

Or maybe it wasn’t something that I should bother with right now, when my foundation of power in this town was still only in the stage of making its first baby steps?

’Oh, just how much easier it would be if all I had to do was oversee the construction of the charcoal kilns...’

This, sadly, was but a fool’s idea. Because what I shared with Greg weren’t only the blueprints for the kiln I’ve used, but the general principle of how charcoal came to be.

Sure, it was the first time he heard of how burning things without giving it any air could change the way stuff burned... Or, to be more precise, reacted under immense heat without the presence of the oxidizer from the air.

But he wasn’t stupid.

He would never reach his current position nor build his business to where it was today if he was. Which is why, by the time we finally got to leave his smithy, he had long since discarded my original designs and already moved on to blueprint much better, more precise, and advanced ones that utilized all sorts of tools and techniques he either learned or directly employed in his smithy.

’I bet that by now, they already have a few of the kilns going...’ I thought, only to close my eyes and imagine the whole scenario.

A set of tiny kilns, each built precisely the same way, the same size and then stuffed with the same amount of equally dry wood, only for an array of workers to then sit down and control the flames in the exact same manner, only to then kill the process at different intervals.

Through this method, by something as simple as trial and error, they could figure out what color the flame should be when they sealed the kiln, cutting off the supply of the air to start the cooking part of the process.

Then, once they would figure that out, they were likely going to repeat the whole thing... This time, with different timings for when they would break the kilns open or, alternatively, open them up if they built them to be reusable.

In this way, they could nail down the right timing and conditions for when the charcoal within the kiln would be ready, so that they could apply this knowledge for the actual manufacturing process.

All in all, now that they had the concept at hand and years’ worth of expertise of working with flames behind their belts, it was only a matter of a day, two, maybe three, before there would be a whole new department to Greg’s smithy, one focused on nothing but turning all the wood they could find on the market into charcoal.

"It won’t be that long before people will no longer use wood to heat their homes or to cook their food, but Greg’s stuff instead," I muttered, not even realizing when I started to vocalize my thoughts.

"And what does that have to do with coffee?" Selia asked, causing me to shake my head and all of my mental weariness with it, only for me to realize she brought me right back to the inn.

"Ah, sorry for that," I shook my head, "I got lost in my thoughts and I wasn’t really thinking about it. But that doesn’t mean I cannot apply the lessons from what I thought about to coffee."

I wasn’t trying to weasel my way out or exaggerate.

Greg could progress through the process of perfecting the procedure of charcoal making by something as simple as extensive trial and error. A method he could use because he had no shortage of time, manpower, and money.

With the combination of those three, he could compensate for the lengthy process of making charcoal by having it done in parallel many times over, all of the attempts in slightly different ways, giving him a huge number of results to learn from all in one go.

I, on the other hand, couldn’t use this method.

Not without risking the results I couldn’t bear to take responsibility for.

Or maybe...

"Hey, now that I’m thinking about it, that disaster Vivil spoke about," I squinted my eyes as a seed of an idea appeared in my head. Then, I stopped right in the middle of the inn’s stairs, tugging at Selia’s sleeve to stop her and make her look back at me. "If needed, could you deal with a monster of that kind?"

Selia’s eyebrows moved up, her face twisting slightly as she took a second to think.

"I..." she hesitated for a moment...

I shook my head before moving my arm up and grabbing her, pulling her up the stairs towards our room.

There was no need for her to answer. Just the fact that she hesitated was enough of an answer.

’If she isn’t sure, then it’s something we cannot risk,’ I thought, scrapping the whole idea and tossing it aside...

Only to then stop again, just a few steps away from our room.

’Wait, what if...?’

Before, I thought that we could maybe try to cultivate the coffee anyway, with Selia’s presence as the compensation for the potential dangers.

After all, if she was perfectly able to deal with whatever monster that could be born out of the coffee plant seed, then there would be no reason to worry about anything. In this way, we could obtain just enough of the fresh coffee plant seeds to replicate what Greg was doing and try all sorts of different ways to have coffee grown in a peaceful, stable manner.

But seeing Selia’s hesitation was enough to tell me this plan wasn’t feasible.

Instead, it was the momentary look of shock and doubt that appeared on her face, that was so different from her confident self from back when she tried to cheer me up, that made my thoughts wander off back to what she said.

About me not giving up. About her not letting me give up.

And, most importantly of all, about my ability to change my fate.

’If she wouldn’t be able to deal with a monster potentially born out of a coffee seed, then all I have to do is ensure no monster will ever be born out of it, right?’

As stupid as this could sound for pretty much everyone else in this world, wasn’t I in quite the peculiar situation that allowed me to achieve even the most ridiculous and improbable feats?

Especially if at their very core, they weren’t all that mana-hungry to begin with?

"You figured something out, didn’t you?" Selia pointed out the moment we entered the room, her eyes brimming with excitement.

"Oh yeah, I did," I nodded my head only to then start pacing around the empty space of the room, my hand gently brushing my chin as I tried to sort all of my ideas in my head. "For starters, though, I might need to abuse my ability to change fate a bit, so I would like to borrow your lap for a bit and..."

Suddenly, I hesitated.

As eager as I was to solve all the problems related to cultivating coffee, now that I was about to say something quite damn bold, I felt the wave of embarrassment suddenly stopping me from doing so.

It was one thing to imagine doing something. It was something else to actually do it. But to announce my desire to do it?!

That had to be the most embarrassing out of all three of those things!

"What is it?" Selia asked while sitting down on the edge of the bed and dropping her head over her shoulder, allowing her long, slightly curly hair to cascade down her back.

"What sort of activity should I set for my quest?"

Despite my hesitation, this was a topic important enough for me to gather all of my wits and just push through with the answer.

For Selia, it was an unknown delicacy and a possibly strong stimulant given her lack of developed tolerance for caffeine.

For me, it was a taste of home, home I couldn’t tell whether I would ever get the chance to return to.

And in the face of those two things, how could I stop myself from speaking out just because of a tiny bit of embarrassment?

"Oh?" hearing my question, Selia didn’t retreat on the bed but... smiled?

"And what kind of quest would you like to complete?" she asked, before slowly bringing her hand up and then touching her lips with just the tip of her fingers. "I mean, you’ve already claimed my lips and all, so according to your theory..."

"I know," I closed my eyes and then solemnly bowed my head down. "There’s a chance it won’t work anymore. Which is exactly why I’m asking. And in all honesty," I then quickly added before Selia would have a shot at replying, "when it comes to kissing, I would rather leave it to be the natural part of a relationship, not something we do just to let me manipulate fate."

"That’s..."

Selia blushed.

Apparently, what I said did resonate with something deep in her soul. Yet, while I was happy to feel that, it didn’t bring us any closer to the answer to my inquiry.

What should I set for my quest to change my coffee-related fate?

We held hands. I’ve slept on her lap. I’ve gone ahead and touched her shoulder and then I’ve kissed her.

On one hand, there were still a whole lot of things we haven’t done yet. For example, I could set the quest to something as simple as touching Selia’s knee.

But if that empty shell of a system only accepted stuff that went beyond the stuff that already had happened, then...

"I guess I can only leave that to your imagination," Selia said with a smirk dancing in the corner of her mouth. "As long as it will help you get that coffee, I’m more than happy to help!"