By this point, the barons had largely abandoned their private ambitions of marrying their daughters into the ducal family and had shifted their focus to business matters. Their primary reason for coming was to discuss insecticide, but once they arrived at the central castle, another topic piqued their interest—fire dung.

The barons had observed the lands surrounding the central castle and noted that there were no signs of pests and that the crops were thriving. The wheat planted last year was already being harvested, maturing faster than the crops in their territories, and it seemed that the yields were also quite impressive.

While they attributed the lack of pests to...