"Rain, huh...?"
Duke Niestol Kirilo Jagus (Niestol II) stood by his office window, gazing out at the rainfall spreading across the Jagus Principality.
"A sustained summer downpour is quite rare."
Thinking he might have a chat with the magi-brain after so long, Duke Niestol II rose from his seat.
He wobbled slightly the moment he stood, but he brushed it off and headed toward the basement.
Opening a hidden door inside his office, he began descending the stairs, gripping the handrail tightly as his knees shook with every step.
At the bottom of the landing, he used a special key—a spherical magi-crystal—to unlock the door.
Stepping inside the subterranean chamber, Niestol II came face-to-face with the colossal magi-brain.
Shinobi 1, the leader of the Shinobi Squad, was present in the very same basement, listening intently to the Duke's questions.
Naturally, his form remained completely concealed under Invisible.
"It is raining. Why is this happening?"
That was the Duke's opening question.
"Water vapor in the atmosphere condenses into water or ice droplets at high altitudes and falls to the ground. That is what rain is."
It was an obvious, factual answer, but hardly what Niestol II had been looking for.
"...It is summer right now. Heavy rain during the summer is unusual. Yet, here it is falling. Why is that?"
"Because the conditions required to produce rainfall were met."
"Why were they met?"
"Because the prerequisites necessary for those conditions were fulfilled."
"Mmm..."
As usual, this Duke has no idea how to frame a question, Shinobi 1 thought.
(The proper question would be, "Is there a possibility this rain was artificially induced?")
Even so, since this magi-brain, Brain, lacked external terminals to gather outside intelligence, asking such a thing would likely only produce a canned response along the lines of "Cannot determine due to insufficient data."
"Are there demerits to this rain?"
"There are."
"Are there merits to this rain?"
"There are."
Brain is working with such limited data that even these answers carry little credibility, Shinobi 1 thought with a wry inward smile.
"What are the merits?"
"Crop growth will improve. Water for daily living will become abundant."
"I see... And the demerits?"
"There is a possibility of flood damage occurring."
Listening to the exchange, Shinobi 1 could tell that Brain remained quite immature. At the same time, it was clear that it possessed sophisticated processing capabilities.
The primary reason he considered it immature was that someone like Laojun would have demanded the missing parameters instead, asking, "What is the recorded precipitation amount?"
Brain had done no such thing.
Yet, being able to reach a conclusion based on incomplete data was itself proof of advanced analytical power.
Still, having such latitude at this stage was not necessarily a good thing.
With such a severe lack of data, the chances of arriving at an erroneous conclusion were exceedingly high.
"Is there anything that ought to be done regarding this rain?"
"Store water."
"Anything else?"
"Prepare for flood damage."
"..."
If this is how their consultations go, state policy is bound to become disjointed, Shinobi 1 noted.
Then again, it did not appear as though every single policy strictly mirrored Brain's counsel anyway.
Ultimately, after thirty minutes of what Shinobi 1 viewed as a largely unproductive dialogue, Duke Niestol II departed the basement.
(It would probably be wise to see how this translates into actual policy.)
With that in mind, Shinobi 1 relayed a proposal to Laojun.
"I had considered that as well. Previously, doing so was meaningless without knowing Brain's answers, but the situation has changed. Let us make the arrangements at once."
Laojun was in full agreement with Shinobi 1.
Shinobi 3 of the Shinobi Squad was assigned to track how Brain's advice would affect the Principality's administration.
The results came swiftly.
Concealed by Invisible, Shinobi 3 hung from the ceiling of the Duke's office, positioned perfectly to read the paperwork spread across the desk below.
Having returned from the basement, the Duke was drafting an order to construct a reservoir pond.
(I see. That addresses both water storage and flood prevention.)
Viewed from that angle, the Duke seemed reasonably competent in matters of governance.
However, the officials tasked with executing those orders were another story entirely. Redundant efforts, reckless planning, and severe project delays would inevitably follow... though that reality would not become apparent until a bit later.
Meanwhile, on Hourai Island, Jin was contemplating how to utilize the takemodoki pipes he had gone through the trouble of buying.
"Takemodoki pipes would be better suited for local supply lines rather than main water conduits."
In the Four Principalities, water and sewage infrastructure was practically nonexistent.
From what Jin had gathered, water was so precious that households collected their daily wastewater in containers, sprinkling the clear supernatant liquid over their fields and incinerating the settled sludge and sediment.
Of course, not every household followed that exact method.
Some treated their wastewater using magi-devices, while others simply let lightly soiled graywater seep into the ground.
"As for wastewater purification, if we have the 'Master' issue instructions, the magi-stones in the soil should activate and handle the cleanup."
Jin could not help but admire the Origin Clan's foresight in engineering the soil to such an extent.
With that in mind, he set a new engineering objective.
"With rain falling, we can increase the intake pumped from underground water veins. We should be able to set up a simple water supply system."
Though he called it "simple," it would utilize magi-devices designed and crafted by Jin himself, meaning the water quality was practically guaranteed.
"Building one simple water facility per settlement... say, for every unit of one hundred households, should do the trick."
He decided that takemodoki pipes would serve well for the plumbing leading into individual homes.
Jin then began compiling a checklist of the required equipment—suction pumps, water tanks, water-purifying magi-devices, and more.
"First, I should probably establish a model district..."
Currently, the territory Jin was overseeing was the Norha Principality.
The regions surrounding Lake Yato and Lake Kotsushi—both massive freshwater bodies—were relatively well-supplied with water.
"Somewhere around Hamususu near the royal capital might work well."
Checking the maps, he found a settlement of roughly ninety households in that exact vicinity. Its name was Saichi Village.
"All right, let's go with that."
With his target set, Jin took the first steps toward turning Saichi Village into his model district.