Back at the castle, Fred had met Johan and Matt at the doctor’s office. Johan wasn’t just the family doctor but also responsible for overseeing the health of the county, in case of a plague or epidemic, as well as overseer of the military clinic. The wood elves were a fan of using poisons, whether it was coating on their arrows or attempts to sabotage the food and water supply. So, it was up to the doctor to keep up with the wood elves development in bio and chemical warfare.

Due to a sudden outbreak at one of the forts, Fred hadn’t seen him since he came back from school.

“Hello, Doctor Johan,”

“Ah, Fred, it’s a pity I was occupied at the Fort otherwise I would have come over sooner.”

“Was it tough over there?”

“It seemed like the elves were testing another new poison on our troops, it didn’t have that much effect, but I believe, they will be able to refine a better version soon, however, this has given us an opportunity to prepare if they continue this style as we now have an idea of its purpose and can plan to mitigate its effects.”

“That’s good, but to test unknown chemicals on our soldiers.” Fred didn’t feel easy about listening to this, he didn’t know what the elves were capable of, but he has experience in being targeted with chemical warfare before and had lost a lot of comrades to such despicable and inhumane means.

The doctor could see Fred shake a little, “Unfortunately Fred, this is something we just get used to over time.”

“I know doctor, I know”

“Anyway Fred, how was school?”

“Alright, I passed my exams, wouldn’t be surprised if I got the first place, to be honest. I was ahead of my year in maths, so I spent the time in the library researching chemicals.”

“O yeah, what did you discover?”

“I found a way to stabilise Fire Spice and can now produce controlled explosives,”

“Ooo very nice, what are your plans for that?”

“Well, once we have our own mine, I was thinking of using blast mining, it should be able to increase mining efficiency by about 300%.”

“That’s amazing, I heard we were going after the mountain just north of the river in spring. And we have you to thank for that.”

“Yeah, unfortunately, I won’t be here to join them,”

“Come on Fred, you know your too young to go, even if you didn’t have school. There will be plenty of opportunities later for you to experience the battlefield of this world.”

Fred had spent close to two hundred years on the battlefield but due to his engineered body overproducing testosterone he never got tired of it, plus this world had such a simpler approach to warfare, that it was like a holiday in comparison.

Fred was milling over the matter when Matt caught his eye, “Matt, what’re your plans in the future?”

“Well… err…” Matt seemed to have been put on the spot, he had just been listening in on the conversation, to suddenly be asked such a question.

“Come on Matt don’t be shy,” the doctor chimed in.

“Well, I want to continue my study in medicine and possibly become a battlefield medic.” Matt was a shy character, but Fred knew he was a good kid.

“I was thinking of being a knight myself, maybe I’ll be relying on you in the future.”

“Yes… I’ll definitely do my best.”

At this Fred said his goodbyes for the day and left the room.

___

Fred walked into the lounge George was standing in the middle facing his mom and Kelly with two different coloured drapes, each draped over a separate arm.

“O George are you actually doing something productive this time or are you just playing fancy dress and calling it ‘work’.”

George did not look amused at this comment,

“Now now Fred, George is helping us pick a style for the decorations for the end of year celebration.” Isabella defended, albeit with suppression of a smirk. “What brings you over here anyway?”

Fred paused for a minute, then continued “What do you think of Matt, Johan’s Nephew?”

“He’s a hard worker and a bright young kid.”

“What about loyalty, have you had any issues, does he seem trustworthy?”

This time George answered, “He is trustworthy, he shows respect to the soldiers, and they sing praises of the kid, he said he wanted to be a combat medic to the other soldiers, no soldier hates a combat medic, and he hasn’t done anything to make me suspicious. I mean it would be hard for his profession if he didn’t seem trustworthy.”

“Yeah, he told me about becoming a combat medic. And all the times I’ve spent with him he’s been good company and very inquisitive when we were studying in the dungeon, and he made himself helpful as well.”

“Why the sudden interest in him?”

At this point they were conversing while looking at the drapes, “I Was thinking of offering him the chance to become an Astartes.” At that, they all stopped what they were doing. Fred had told them that he could grow Gene-seeds for other people using his own and that he had two, ready.

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, I was thinking that a medic would be quite useful, the other two I had in mind were Rudy and Delphine, but Matt is too close to puberty, and would need to start soon.”

“You were thinking of Rudy and Delphine as well?” George answered,

“We would first have to consult with his father and your father first about this. It would be a really delicate subject.” Isabella responded

“Well, we have a few years for my cousins, but Matt, and probably Jessica, would have to start soon if they are willing.”

“Your maid as well?”

“Well, the Astartes increases the life expectancy by a lot, and it would be nice to have Jessica stay with me and keep up with me.”

“Someone’s got a crush.” George decided to get his own back from Fred’s earlier remark.

At this Isabella and Kelly started giggling.

“I thought I was supposed to be the child in this room?” Fred said, shaking his head in disappointment. “Anyway, what’s your opinion?”

Yeah, we don’t have a problem with that, Kelly, what do you think about your daughter?”

“Daughter?”

“Yes, Jessica is Kelly and marks kid.”

Fred was shocked, ‘how come I’m only finding this out now. Wait, I thought… now I’m confused.’

“It’s not dangerous is it.”

“No, well, it’s been perfected enough at this stage and this version hadn’t had a failure. But as it’s an operation I could never claim it to be 100% safe. But she has been in a lot more statistically dangerous situations before, like travelling to school and back.”

“I’d like to discuss it with Mark if that’s ok with you?”

“Yeah, sure, it’s a big life-changing commitment, I wouldn’t want you to make a rushed decision.”

“Thank you.” She then turned to Isabella, “May I be excused to go see Mark?”

“Sure,” Isabella answered, even if she stayed, she wouldn’t be of much help now with such a proposal to think over.

“What about Matt, can Johan make the parental decision, or do we need to ask his parents?”

“I’ll speak to Johan about it,” Isabella responded.

“Ok.”

___

A week later Fred had got Mark to organise a large area of farmland to be sectioned off and for it to be split into 24 patches, Fred was ready to test his fertilizer experiments, each experiment would have 3 patches to check consistently.

The first group would not be modified to act as a control group. The second was a mix of 1 part horse manure and 5 parts water that was spread out over the patches. The 3rd group would be a mixture of 1 part nature spice, found pooling at the bottom of the natural mountain,

The 4th group would be a similar mix but with crushed nature mana crystals instead, the 5th group would be 1 part manure, 1 part Nature spice and 5 parts water, 6th group manure and crystal 7th group spice and crystal and the final group all 3.

Fred recorded which field would be under which group and for an overseer to make sure none of the farmers messed up the test. This would be carried out in the spring planting season when Fred was at school so he couldn’t oversee it himself.

___

It was a few days before the end of the year and Rudy, Delphine and Thomas, Fred’s uncle arrived at the castle, it was planned for them to come over for the week.

“Wow”, Rudy and Delphine were shocked by the decorations of the place, and Thomas was taken aback too. It had a warm and cosy feeling to it.

“Welcome Thomas,” Isabella Greeted with a peck on the cheek,

“Hi Isabella, thanks for having us over.” Thomas responded, and then turned to Fred, “You must be Fred,” He reached out for a handshake.

“Hello uncle Thomas,” Fred Greeted and took the offer.

“Why don’t you kids go off and play for a bit, Fred go and show them around?”

“Ok,” Fred took Rudy and Delphine off, “Hey, do you want to see my pet, Rattacus?”

“Sure,” Rudy was up for it.

“Is it a rat?” Delphine was a bit nervous.

“Come on it will be fine,”

They went off to Fred’s room “Hey, Rattacus, come out.” Fred called.

The kids just saw a cat-sized ball of metal wiz past, straight to Fred’s lap as he sat on the ground. Fred just handed it a bit of cheese,

On closer look, the two kids could get a better look while it stayed there eating cheese, it was an overgrown rat with what looks like, “Wow, is that rat wearing armour?”

Rattacus had only just noticed the presence of two foreign guests in the room, it got off Fred’s lap, stood on its hind legs while hunched over and drew its spear, getting ready in a defensive stance.

“Sit down guys, he’s just a bit nervous around strangers, Rattacus, move over to my left,” the rat moved back to where Fred had suggested, since the experiment and the rat had gone through his ascension, the rat had grown to 4 times a normal rat’s size, as well his intelligence has increased, allowing him to understand simple instructions.

The kids sat down, which saw the rat lowered its guard. “Why is it so big Fred?”

“Well, I was experimenting on a series of concoctions, that once accumulated in the body would give a permanent stat growth and body improvements.”

“Does it work for humans?” Rudy asked.

“Why, are you interested?”

“Yeah, look how big the rat is, I would be a giant on the battlefield, trampling over everyone.”

“You won’t grow to the same scale as the rat did, the rat’s body, is different from ours, they can handle a 4x growth. With us, it would probably put give an extra foot or maybe a bit less, but our stats would greatly improve if he’s anything to go by.”

“Well, that’s a bummer, but still, being tall is cool and you said stat growth right, I’d love to have whatever he’s having,” He pointed at Rattacus.

“What about you Delphine?”

“Will it affect how it looks; will I turn ugly.”

“Well, it increases all of your stats, including your Vitality and HP it would make us healthier, which gets translated into being more appealing to the eyes of others. So, you would probably become more beautiful, well for you specifically there probably won’t be anything to improve on.” Fred teased, which got a blush from her.

But she was tempted, especially if it made her more beautiful, who of the fairer sex didn’t like being seen as beautiful, heck even in Fred’s old world, some men liked to be called beautiful. “Yes, I would like to join,” Her face shone with determination, but for a kid, this just made her cuter and Fred just pinched her cheeks “Ow, you big meanie.” Which she pouted too.

Fred had always seen Delphine try and put on a mature act, but it was nice to see her still act like a kid.

“You only have one rat?” Rudy asked.

“He’s got some kids under my bed, but I suggest you don’t look Rats can be overprotective of their young, but these seemed to have inherited their father’s buffs,” unbeknownst to Fred, Rats reproduced a lot faster than what he saw under his bed, and Rattacus had a lot of offspring in the sewers.

___

3 days later and the two families sat down to eat, Isabella sat at one head of the table while Thomas sat at the other, each of their Knights and the 3 kids sat at the sides of the table. “I must say, this is a lovely Dinner Isabella, what made you start doing this every year?”

“Well it was Fred’s idea really, he pointed out how depressing winter gets and suggested this for something to look forward to in winter.”

Thomas looked at Fred “You’re quite the genius there boy,” raising his glass to cheer him.

“Thank you, Uncle Thomas,” Fred responded raising his glass in kind.

They were enjoying a meal with all sorts of fancy cuisine that they wouldn’t have during normal days. “I’d have to invite you next year, as thanks, maybe we can start a tradition.”

“We would love that Thomas,” Isabella smiled, if this grew on it would be her son, they trace it back to. How could she not be frilled?

At the end of their meals, they had all returned to the lounge to relax, “as we have done every year, we normally hand out presents to each other as well. So, I got you this Thomas,”

“Ah Isabella, you should have said something, now I feel awful for not bringing anything myself,” he took the wrapped item, but by the shape of it, he could tell what it is.

“Don’t be daft, Thomas. This is your first time, attending such a thing”, Isabella just laughed it off, to reduce Thomas’ awkwardness, “Besides you can just get me a bigger present next year.” She winked.

“Ok, can I open it now?”

“Of course,”

Thomas unwrapped the parchment and inside were two bottles of wine, it read “wild Silverberry wine?”

“Yes Fred worked on it with us, it is styled in the same fashion as red cherry wine, but for those who are metal attuned.” Isabella described, “these two are our first two bottles produced.”

Thomas was most intrigued. The news of the Red Cherry wine was quite popular, especially amongst the de Ansul family, so he had heard of its effects.

Meanwhile, Fred gave Rudy and Delphine their two presents, Rudy opened a ‘my first enchantments’ book, and Delphine had received ’my first potions’.

Fred had told them about how he progressed so fast with his copy of potions and delphine seemed eager to get a copy, but at the time they didn’t know if there was one for Rudy, however, the kids were so busy with school that they didn’t have time to look themselves, fortunately, Fred did. And he managed to find the enchantment version for Rudy.

“Wow, this is great,” Rudy cheered while holding the book up in the air,

“Thank you, Fred,” Delphine said with a blush, keeping the book close to her chest.

Then they both ran off to show their dad what they got. “Wow, that’s great,” He said to the two while rubbing their heads, then turned to Fred, “Thank you so much, Fred.”

“Ah don’t worry about it,” Fred said looking to the side and scratching the back of his head, he felt a bit shy with all the praises going round.

___

A few days later Rudy and Delphine left, and Fred finally got the agreement from Matt and Jessica’s parents, the only thing left was to ask the kids and then the operation can start.

When told about this, the kid’s eyes shone, Fred had told them what the improvements were after Fred went through with it, Jessica was a little creeped out about having a leach in her body, but Fred told her that the system changed it, it was no longer a leach.

Jessica still hesitated for a bit, reminiscing about watching Fred in his bed over the 2 weeks.

Fred could tell what was going through the girl’s mind, he walked over to her and held both her hands in his, “Jessica, I will wait by your bed the whole time and keep watch over you.”

Jessica turned bright red, and instantly agreed, although shyly,

His mother and Kelly were by the side watching this scene and couldn’t help plastering teasing grins on their faces. When Fred noticed, his face instantly turned dark, but he refused to acknowledge what he saw.