Fred spent the term at school, he returned during the Christmas holiday. He could tell it was getting harder to level up now.

Harold and Holly returned to the mainland with the other children. Rudy and Delphine spent a week with Fred before returning home, during that time Fred had asked the enchanter to allow Rudy to intern next summer, but the enchanter said Rudy needed to learn some basics with smithing and metallurgy first.

At this, Fred and Rudy visited the new steel complex, well, it would be a steels complex, but for now, only the Copper mill and the foundry for copper was operational. Fred could also see works in the river for a water wheel.

“Good afternoon, Foreman,”

“Ah, good afternoon Young Master.”

“This is my cousin Rudy, from the county just south, Rudy this is the Foreman who is overseeing our metals operation.”

“Good afternoon Young Master Rudy.”

“Good afternoon, Foreman.”

“Are you having troubles with any of the plans, Foreman?”

“Well, we are ahead of the schedule, but we’ve only completed the easiest parts. The water wheel will determine if there will be delays. The river is quite fast and it’s affecting the barges.”

“I see, right, my cousin is heading for an enchanter class, but he needs experience in metallurgy and smithing first, can we sort out an internship or something for him for next summer?”

“O, an enchanter ay, sure we shouldn’t have a problem with that. Hopefully, we can get the first steel production here up and running for that.”

At the moment Fred didn’t know how he could help Delphine in her endeavour when he got back to the castle with the two, he asked the butler “do you know of a crop called potato, it’s like a round brown vegetable…” he went into more detail, and Mark said he would look into it.

“What do you need a… po…tat…o for?” Delphine asked,

“To make vodka,”

“Vodka?”

“You wanted to make perfume, right?”

“Yes, but they never use this… ‘vod…ka’ to make perfume.”

“Yes, but it’s shit, and you’ll just be competing at the same level with everybody else, don’t you want to be the best?”

“Yes, of course, I do.”

“I’ll teach you how to make a more vivid and stronger perfume.”

“Really?” her eyes lit up from this proclamation from Fred.

“Of course, we just got to find this crop first, if not I’ll have to think of another way. Plus, we would be able to make crisps”

“Crisps?”

“You’ll love them, they are a type of savoury snack.”

Other than visiting Rudy and Delphine’s for the end of year celebration, not much happened over the winter break, and Fred was soon heading back to school.

___

When he came back for the summer, he noticed that the purchase of iron had been steadily going down over the last few months.

“George, do you know why our sales are going down, I thought everyone was gearing up for war?”

“Yeah, we were, but the duchies are slowly reducing the preparations.”

“Why the king hasn’t gone into hiding yet, wait, wasn’t there rumour he was going into hiding about 2 years ago?”

“That’s the problem, it is now believed that was an intentional rumour spread by the king.”

“Why?”

“To cause us to prepare, preparing our troops and maintaining them is a costly endeavour, it is believed the king gave that rumour out early to make us waste resources. So now, the duchies are slowing down preparations, trying to feint an economic struggle to bait the king.”

“O, what about our iron?”

“The families have asked us to build up a supply for a bulk purchase should tensions start up again.”

“Ok,” Fred rubbed his chin, “how long do you think it would take to bait the king.”

“Could be another year or two now.”

___

Fred and Rudy spent most of the summer at the foundry, they both wanted to try and get some practical skills and experience in smithing. Fred also wanted to try and fix any issues with the cannons.

“Foreman, how’s it looking with this cannon?”

“I must say, young master, this milling machine is quite wonderous. We could do so much with it.”

“I’m glad you like it, but we need to make sure the cannons are functional and won’t crack easily.”

“Right, Right, we have managed to forge 2 more cannons, and at a faster speed too, it went from 2 months per canon to 6 weeks. The first one has been in testing for 4 months now, we haven’t had any issues with cracking, however, constant use is causing the metal to warp near the ends.”

“That should be fixable by military doctrines, I’ll write the methods to use these doctrines, so they are not in constant use, and the soldiers know methods to keep them cooled.”

“That would be easier.”

“Also, I want to set up a research and development team for these cannons, right now they are only suitable for fixed emplacements meaning that they can only be used to defend or attack cities. They are too cumbersome for usage in field battles.”

“Yes, I can imagine, ok I can set that up, but it would take a while for results, this is new technology.”

“I can supply some knowledge and ideas to kick start this research.”

“That would be much appreciated.”

“Also, I want research done for a variant suitable for ships, I have a few ideas, but they would need fleshing out.”

“O, you plan on equipping ships with these. I’m not going to lie, the ships we have don’t look strong enough to survive the recoil of the cannons, you may be able to put 2 or 3 on there but they might not be efficient for use.”

“I have some plans for that,”

“Where do you get your plans for all these, I’ve met too many strange inventions from you?”

“I’d tell you, but then I’d have to kill you.”

The foreman visibly gulped at this.

“Relax, I’m joking, although I can’t tell you, pretend I came into contact with a book from a very far place if it makes you feel better, well, it’s very close to the truth.”

___

Fred went off to the house, while Rudy stayed for the day.

Delphine was chatting with holly in the lounge, Holly had a few months left before it became too late for the procedure.

Mark, the butler had managed to procure some potatoes early spring, luckily, just before planting season and Fred had given instructions on how to plant them. The farmers planted a half-acre of potatoes in the spring, and as they only needed 80-100 days they were now harvested and ready.

Fred walked into the lounge.

Delphine and Holly could see a couple of baskets the servants had placed in the hall just outside.

“Hello Ladies”

The girls giggled at this; this way of speaking was not something they were used to from Fred.

“Hello, Fred.” They greeted

“What are those baskets outside?” Holly asked.

“Potatoes.” He commented

Delphine’s eyes lit up.

“Potatoes? What are potatoes?” Holly asked.

“Vegetables, you can eat them after they are baked.” Fred said, “So, what were you two talking about? Any boys you took a fancy to at school?”

Both their faces went bright red. Isabella had just walked in to overhear this and burst into a fit of giggles. “NO! we were talking about… about…. About the…” this had caused Delphine to forget what they were talking about.

“The Astartes thing.” Holly came in for the save.

“Hi mom,” Fred greeted Isabella and then turned to the girls, they also greeted her as well.

“Are you having any doubts, are you worried about anything?”

“Well, I’m just scared, I don’t know what will happen to me, and what happened to delphine and Rudy in the two weeks after was scary.”

“Holly, Relax, I was in a dream for the most of it and I didn’t feel pain all that much. Rudy said he had the best night sleep he’s had for ages.”

“But it’s also Harold, he has become worse since a year ago, he’s hit me a few times and is always throwing his temper around. But mom and dad say it’s just us being kids.”

“Think of it like this, he will always be a few years ahead of you without this, but with it, you will be able to catch up in no time, and then he won’t be able to intimidate you.”, “He’s intimidating you because at the moment he still can, and once he starts, he won’t stop until he is no longer able to.”

“Your parents are probably just frustrated, Harold has just learned that he is going to fall behind his younger siblings, even if he puts in the effort.

And your parents can see this and probably don’t know how to comfort him,” Isabella chimed in at this, “If they told Harold off for his antics, Harold might take it as a betrayal, and he might feel isolated.

This situation isn’t fair for him, that’s not to say you shouldn’t go through with it, but his parents still want him to feel like he has a place with them, with the family.”

Holly dipped her head, as to reflect on this matter.

___

Fred had taken Delphine, Rudy, and Holly to the dungeon with the potatoes, it was getting quite fleshed out into a laboratory. Fred had given designs to steven for the tools they would need.

“Right then, the first step is to make vodka, this requires us to boil the potatoes,” Fred said while walking down the steps.

Fred had turned one of the cells into an oven room, it had 2 ovens and he managed to convert a bunch of Bunsen burners into stove hobs, they had a clay brick chimney on the back wall and sides, leading out to the barred window as an outlet.

The sides were workstations with Bunsen burners and glassware for concocting chemicals and potions.

At first, the three were sceptical about walking into a filthy dungeon, but when they came down, they were amazed. “O, Delphine, if you’re going into herblore, you might want a setup like this.”

Some of the servants had brought down buckets of water and some of the potatoes and some malted barley.

Once they had a pot of potatoes to boil, Fred went to the study and fetched parchment and pens. It was in the first cell of the dungeon.

When he came back, he pulled them all over to the island table to sit on the stalls and then handed the paper and pens out.

“What’s this for?” Rudy asked.

“I’m going to teach you the scientific method. This is a written record of your experiments and is a useful reference to look back at if you fail to meet expectations, or if future tries are not making the same results.”

“Right so at the start, we are going to give the title, the processing of making ethanol. Underline that.”

“Wait, I thought we were going to make vodka?” Delphine queried.

“If we add water we get Vodka, but for your purpose, we don’t need to add water.”

“O, right.”

“And the next part is to make an observation that describes a problem, so put a subheading, Observation”

“What problem?” Rudy asked,

“We don’t have ethanol.”

“O yeah.”

“This is a summary, and we don’t need to put too much.”, “Next the hypothesis, this is where we describe the process, we are going to use to get ethanol. So, copy me:

Make a mash

Boil potatoes for an hour. Add one part crushed, malted barley or wheat to ten parts potatoes, then strain.

Ferment

Add the yeast to the mash in the ratio (see figure 1) and leave the mixture somewhere warm (around 29°C) for three to five days. Fermentation turns the potatoes into ethanol.

Distil

Transfer to a sanitised still with a pipe leading to another still. Heat to above 80°C. Ethanol will condense in the pipe. Collect it in the second still. Discard the first 50ml and last 50ml.

Purify

Repeat if you want purity.

“Right, any questions on this?”

“Why are we leaving the ratio as ‘see figure on table’?” Holly asked.

“That’s a good question, we are going to do a bunch of experiments, all following the same method with this one part that is going to change.”

“What is figure 1?”

“We are going to create that next.”

“What is 80°C and 29°C?”

Fred got off his stool and walked over to the glassware’s, he picked up a small stick with something red in it and brought it over. “Have you heard of mercury?”

“Yes, isn’t that, that watery metal,” Rudy responded.

Fred passed the glass to Rudy, “Inside that is a drop of mercury. The numbers I am referring to are on the side of that glass.

All three gathered around it to have a look.

“Now, take note of where the top of the mercury reaches. And now hold the stick tightly for a few minutes.”

Rudy held the stick just underneath where the mercury was showing. “It’s rising!” he exclaimed.

“Right now go put it in that saucepan with the boiling potatoes for a few minutes.”

“It’s rising faster.”

“This stick is what you would call a thermometer, it measures the temperature of an object or area.” Rudy came back with it in hand.

“What are these 50ml”

“That’s a volume of liquid, it just means to scrape off the top and leave the bottom dregs when we pour it out.” Fred handed them a glass jug with similar markings to the thermometer, except in ml’s and not °C.

“Ooo”

“Right, new subheading, called figure one,” Fred drew a table on his parchment and showed it to the others to copy. “Right, in the first row,” this box had no columns and went across the whole table. “write Yeast ratio guide.”

“Then column one, row two, put Yeast ratio, and then column one, row three, put alcohol percentage,”

“How do we determine the alcohol percentage?”

“We use an instrument that can partially float on water,” he picked up another glassware.

“We put it in and record where the water line is on the first day. Then on the last day, we do it again, and this will give us what we need to calculate the alcohol percentage.”

“Right then the potatoes are done, now it’s time to test our hypothesis. This is where the fun begins.”

As they were mashing the potatoes, Rudy asked “That ther…moter where do those numbers come from?”

“Ah right, so, I needed a common substance that can morph into 3 states.

“Morph into 3 states?”

“Yes, water for example, and that is what I used. Water is normally in one state called the liquid state.”

“Yeah, I understand that.”

“What happens if it gets too cold?”

“It turns to ice,”

“Yes, the second state, the solid-state, and if you heat it as we did with the pot of potatoes?”

“We get steam, the steam-state.”

“Well, we call it the gas-state. As it includes things like what we breathe in, not just water vapour.”

“Right,”

“So, with the thermometer, before I writ numbers on it, I measured the temperature, when water was just turning to ice and wrote 0 at that point, and then when the water is just starting to turn to steam I wrote 100. Then I can just fill in the scale with even pacing.”

“O Cool. It’s amazing how you think of all of this new stuff.”

Fred went quiet for a minute as if thinking. “There is something I need to tell you, I am not who you think I am, or, well not quite… I am still the boy, Fred, son of Isabella… but I have another soul in me.”

“What, Like a demon possession?” Delphine asked with shock.

“No, trust me it would be a lot easier if it was.” Fred paused for a minute. “They are the same souls but from two different worlds.”

“What do you mean?” Rudy asked.

“There is this theory, called the multiverse, and well, it’s very complicated and full of speculation, and well, I am the only proof of this theory, technically.” Fred paused again. “Every time a person makes a choice, do you want fried eggs or scrambled eggs for breakfast? A copy of the world is created where you in that world, choose the option you didn’t pick in this world.”

“What, there must be infinite worlds if that is the case.”

“In theory, yes but I am only proof of one other world existing, and we don’t have any other proof yet.”

“So, what does that make you.”

“My soul from that world travelled to this world and merged in this body. It is currently combined with the soul from this body. And would probably become indistinguishable by the time I am 10.”

“So, your knowledge, does this come from that world?” Rudy asked.

“Yes.”

“Cool!” Rudy cheered.

“Is that world different to ours?” Delphine asked.

“Did you have a family in the other world?” Holly asked.

None of them seemed angry that Fred had been lying to them this whole time. “Are you guys not angry?”

“Angry? About what?” Rudy asked in confusion.

“About me lying who I am.”

“But you told us,” Delphine exclaimed

“Yeah, you obviously had hesitations telling anyone, now we’re part of the super-secret club.” Rudy was hyped.

“So, all this knowledge came from that world. No wonder I haven’t seen anything like it here. Is your world ahead of us.” Delphine asked.

“Technology-wise, way ahead. But we had no magic in that world or things like status.”

“Really?” Holly and the others couldn’t picture it, the status was the status, how could you grow without the status?