Chapter 46 The talk 2

2 weeks have passed since Nicholas said that they will revise their schedule in the following weeks due to impending business work by reducing the dungeon exploration and practice time.

He was currently handling the paperwork for the construction of the new fertilizer plant for his new project to make nitrogen-based fertilizer. The new factory is planned to be located on the outskirts of the city because of several reasons. First, the new plant will need a large site to produce products in large quantity. Second, the process is very sensitive because the plant would be processing corpses, which might lead to diseases, and the resulting gas that would be produced by it is highly flammable. Lastly, it might be too loud or smelly, which might be stressful to the resident if it is located nearby.

And since they will be needing a lot of useless monster parts, he needed to have a collection/trading facility near the outskirts of the city before transferring the monster parts to the plant.

Extracting biogas from dead carcasses is simple; it's hard to properly manage the corpses to avoid the spread of diseases by containing the fumes of the rotten corpse in a controlled environment. The solution is to store the corpses in a sealed and temperature-regulated container to kill all the disease-causing bacteria.

This sealed container would accumulate the natural gas, not letting it escape. After letting the gas accumulate and compress in the sealed container, it would be time to isolate the useful stuff. When a decaying object releases gas, it often releases a mixture of methane, carbon dioxide, and a little bit of other chemicals.

The only needed gas would be the methane, so you needed to let the gas from the container to a membrane with a mixture of water and lime react with the other gas while ignoring the methane to create a mostly pure methane gas on the extraction chamber.

Methane is a very useful compound and is often used as a fuel and energy source. But this time, methane will be used to create a crude nitric fertilizer. For that to happen, nitrogen is also needed, which is also the most abundant gas in the world, like in his previous life.

And with the theory he had and experimented with Maria, Nicholas had proven that nitrogen is also the most abundant gas in this world. Now he just needed to condensate both the ambient air and the methane gas to create a nitric fertilizer using ice magic.

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Maria: "Master, I have brought the documents for the site of the project. I already checked the site; the space and terrain are suitable for construction. Please double check and approve the document so I can deliver it to Madame Iris."

Nicholas: "Thank you, Maria."

The planning of the construction of the site is currently under way, and he is currently looking at the documents for the new site for the monster parts. Anyways, Nicholas part was only to double check the document since Maria already done the most of the work in checking and securing the site.

Nicholas: "Actually, please wait a minute; I have some questions that needed to be answered." He changed his answer since there might be some minute problem on the site.

Maria: "Very well, Master." She went to sit on the couch to wait while Nicholas was reading the document.

After Nicholas read the document, he did have some concern about the site, which Maria answered honestly. In which they discussed the possible concerns—would it be alarming or Nicholas was just being paranoid. Their discussion of these concerns was mostly resolved by lunchtime, and he approved the site of the plant. As for the remaining concerns, he just noted it inside the document and will be letting her mother deal with such things.

Maria: "Master, where should we have our lunch?"

Nicholas: "Hmmm, maybe let's return home. I heard the chef will be cooking Salpicão." since he smelled the delicious aroma from the kitchen earlier.

Maria: "Okay, Master, let me call the carriage." she said to Nicholas as she walked out of his office.

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Nicholas had his lunch in the Curtana mansion and went back immediately to his office right after.

The next concern of the day is the list of applicants for his new office assistants, subordinates, and some preliminary scouting for the plant employees. He skimmed through the documents slowly, studied each of the applicants, and picked the best academically inclined individuals to pass for the second screening, which is the individual personal interviews.

The review took some time, so when Nicholas decided to check the time, it was already mid afternoon. He then checked his schedule if still had any, and it turns out only his daily quests from the system are not done, so he decided to check out the softness of the sofa located near him, to which he lied down and relaxed for a bit.

Nicholas: "This is the life. Relaxing after doing my duties, maybe even take a siesta for an hour." He said it as he stretched his arms out while laying down.

And that's what he did; he slept for a bit until the afternoon. At which a knock was heard on the door of the office of Nicholas

Maria: "Master, I brought some snack for you."

*knock* *knock* *knock*

Maria: "Master? are you there?" She asked again.

Nicholas: "Ughh, Maria, is that you? Come on in." He was woken up by the knock on the door.

Maria entered the room and brought in a tray with snacks and an ice cold drink.

Maria: "Oh, pardon me, Master. I didn't think you were sleeping."

Nicholas lazily looked at Maria as she entered the room and gently placed the tray on the table. He slowly rose up from his lying position to eat up the meal Maria served her.

As he ate while he conversed with Maria, who was sitting on the side of his desk in his office; it has a separate table and a chair specifically for Maria. There were also a bunch of documents he finished a while ago, so Maria can pick them up and arrange them.

Maria: "Master, is this all the candidate for the employment?"

Nicholas: "Yes, but we will still whittle it down after the interviews."

Nicholas: "How was your day, Maria?"

Maria: "It was fine, young master. I did some light training with Clarice in the morning. Then proceeded to check the site of construction afterwards. Before coming to your office before noon. After we ate, I headed to the office of the Madame to give the document and help her. After that, I returned here."

Nicholas: "By the way, how is Clarice doing?"

Maria: "She was still a bit sulking, but she said he will do your orders. Do you want to hear more?"

Nicholas: "No need, I'll find her later and comfort her. It's fine."

Nicholas: "I'm sorry for forcing things like this on you guys; it just there will be investment for our future."

Maria: "Don't worry, Master, we trust you and your judgment; don't even think otherwise."

Nicholas: "Yes, thank you, Maria. And also, Clarice, for trusting me; I won't let you guys down."

Maria: "I'll be going now, Master. I'll be right back before we head home."

Nicholas: "Yes, thank you for the meal. Can you call Clarice in the office later?"

Maria: "Yes, I will."

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After Maria left Nicholas's office, he also went to his desk to plan for his future. To be honest, the plan of Nicholas slowly changed from his initial getting stronger early on to expanding his influence after that. But a lot of things have been changing from what he initially planned.

Well, it was to cope with the turning tides brewing underneath the surface. It all began after Nicholas returned to Marchelle town. He found out the cause of those dungeon breaks was not from a natural cause or irregularity but caused by an organization when he asked her mother for some information. Ever since then, Nicholas has kept an eye on things—news, weird accidents, and such—with the help of his mother.

And from the trend of bad things that have been happening in the dark. It is now slowly beginning to surface. From what he has heard from his mother, a new radical organization has been surging to cause chaos.

The group claimed that they were able to cause a dungeon break by using some special method, just like what happened when Nicholas was on his travels to Marchelle. That was just a small-scale event; the subsequent dungeon break has been bigger and more vicious than ever.

His father also left the county with some of his senior knights for an important meeting. It is to learn more about the problem while simultaneously trying to propose his project.

In other words, the situation is slowly getting worse, and a conflict will be inevitable. However, for Nicholas, it will be a great opportunity to gain wealth and status not by fighting head-on but by abusing the market.

This was the primary reason why Nicholas has been quickly expanding his business, since it will be futile to train and gain power quickly even if he does. There are many things mysterious in this world, so he needed to be careful. Contemplating a bit, he began to resume his planning and checked the papers pertaining to the beauty products after he got bored of planning.

The sun was already setting right before Nicholas completed all his tasks. He called in for the day, stretched his hands, and decided to wait on the sofa for Clarice to come since he asked Maria to call her to the office since she needed to talk to her. But before he could even go to the sofa, a gentle knock was heard from his door.

*knock* *knock* *knock*

Clarice: "Young master? It's Clarice; I came since Maria told me you wanted to talk to me." She talked between the doors in a sweet, low voice.

Nicholas, who heard Clarice, began to change his direction from the couch to the door to his office and opened it.

Nicholas: "Hi, I'm glad you arrived just on time; lets talk while walking outside." He pointed outside, pointing out he didn't want to stay inside his office. Simultaneously, he reached out his hands to Clarice's and grabbed it. Feeling a warm touch to her hand, Clarice blushed for a bit, but she still gripped his hands tightly and nodded, indicating they should go.