For the next few days, she assisted Blair in cultivating coffee beans, tea leaves, a variety of floral flowers, and wheat. It was difficult to explain genetic engineering to alter wheat, rice, and soy, so Robin opted to explain about Mendel’s pea experiment.
This became Robin's own way to take small but steady steps before integrating into a full-blown plan. For now, the experiment she had in mind, was a solid foundation in fulfilling the supply source of everything she needed to tread more smoothly onto the next step of her plan. She was slowly cultivating a nice little parasite, hoping to it would be resistant to the future antibiotics.
They set up coordinated pea plants with the parent generation being pure breed purple flowers and white flowers. It came to a surprise pea plant existed in the storage located in the fridge, but it was something the chef used apparently. Robin gave Blair a quick lecture about phenotype and genotype and was surprised to see she was able to absorb such theory without any other form of knowledge and able to regurgitate it effortlessly.
During their first test, Blair used her magic to advance the germination process into the flowering cycle within an hour. If Mendel were to see such an amazing event like this, he’d soil his pants or Blair would be burned to death.
During the one-hour period, Robin gave a brief improper lecture on the genetic inheritance knowledge from her ap biology class and taught her the Punnett square, only because it may be one of the last things she recalled, besides 'the mitochondria being the powerhouse of the cell'.
Blair’s eyes continuously gleamed in exhilaration at the new knowledge passed to her by her Master. It allowed all sorts of ideas to manifest in her mind and apply it towards the other crops.
Robin carefully explained how pea plants have both male and female reproductive organs so it meant cutting the male organ from the female would basically make the plant completely female. It left the ovaries and the stigma intact and Robin moved to collect pollen from the developed male pea plants. She scooped the pollen out from the male plant and made proceeded to pollinate the female plant.
“Now we just have to label it and wait for the seed to develop fully. After the seed is fully developed, we can plant the first generation of crossed-breed pea plants.”
Blair thought for a bit. According to the Punnett square her Master showed her, the dominant purple colored alleles, would make the pea plant display a purple phenotype after the first-generation seeds germinate.
“Master, this process‒could further study allow other plants to significantly alter favorable traits?”
That is a good question.
Robin knew only the basics of biology and couldn’t really provide many in-depth answers within her realm of expertise. However, she did recall famous companies like Mons*nto genetically altering plants to resist diseases, produce higher yield, and tolerate harsh conditions. The pea plant experiment was to introduce Blair about genetic inheritance and eventually genetics itself. As for explaining DNA and the other microscopic concepts, it was harder without the necessary tools. Even with the tools, it would deem too difficult for Robin to dive in and required too much time.
“The pea plant experiment I just explained to you is by Mendel, the father of genetics. If I recall correctly there are three laws governing hereditary: Law of Segregation, Law of Independent Assortment, and Law of Dominance,” recall Robin, surprising even herself in retaining such old knowledge but she did intensively study in her Ap biology class in high school. As for what each law included, that required time digging deep into her memories.
“You don’t have to worry about those details for now, but just know I’ll provide more solid answers at a later date. I can’t really recall most aspects as of now. However, what you are able to do is target a specific trait deemed favorable and eliminate the unfavorable traits.” This was natural selection to an extent, but Robin didn’t want to introduce another lengthy topic.
“Eliminate unfavorable traits?” Blair tilted her head a bit confused.
Robin pointed at the group of roses. “Which color do you like best?” she asked.
“White roses, but what does that have to do with elimination...oh.” Something clicked in her head. Did removing of the other colored roses have to do something about trait elimination?
“Flowers transfer their traits through pollen which are usually carried by bees, butterflies, and other insects that feed on nectar. It’s the same as cross-breeding with peas, except we control which traits we want. However, white flowers are recessive traits, meaning the probability of the first-generation offspring to have a white flower is zero. However the second generation there is a 25 percent possibility for a white flower. You can eliminate all other colored roses from contaminating the white roses, but there also other colored roses with recessive traits, and it's not limited to their color but yield, scent, and survivability.” She reminded.
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“Master, do you mean continuously breeding the same kind of plants besides the desired color until the most favorable traits pop up. Then take that trait and breed it with the same kinds of traits? That’s almost incestuous!” she blurted, clasping her hand over her mouth.
Partially that sounded correct. “Basically.” Robin paused, was that incestuous? But most flowers had both male and female parts and reproduce asexually. She quickly shook the lagging thoughts away redirecting her attention back.
“Furthermore, plants are more flexible than breeding animals, so you can breed two of the different species as long as they are compatible.” She continued. This isn't guaranteed to work since they had no way of separating genetic traits from the DNA.
Actually, it seemed nearly impossible from a scientific standpoint without the necessary tools, but if Robin’s ancestors were able to properly domesticate corn and bananas, it provided hope to isolate favorable traits for her crops.
“Try applying magic to aid in your research,” Robin suggested wondering what it would result in.
She took off the white coat and exited the greenhouse. The servants were quite efficient in their work and saw the acre-wide field neatly plowed and ready to be used. A few low leveled monsters oversee by fairy sprites of the earth attribute instructing the continuation of another acre.
As she approached the dainty fairy half her size, it fluttered to where she was and gave a cheery greeting. Its wings were pale green, with matching her wide green eyes.
“Could you please set up a barrier for each acre to prevent any trespassers and any pollutants in? I don’t want pollen to contaminate the next acre, but the barrier should allow only sunlight and water to enter,” she instructed.
The fairy nodded and left to do its thing.
Dorian accompanied her back into the castle where she met up with Cain. She arrived just in time for the class’s thirty minute lunch break. Today was the advanced class, composed of ex-slaves who were more academically advance compared to the others given some of their pedigree but unlucky circumstances. From what the notebook recalled, many of these slaves were well educated during their childhood but fell into tragic and unfortunate events that led them to the situation they were in now.
“How’s the class going?”
He gave a light smile, pushing up the round thin wire framed spectacles up his slender nose bridge. It gave off a scholarly look partnered with the white collared dress shirt and plaid slacks. “There are no problems, though a few students in the advanced courses have a bit of trouble staying away and paying attention.”
Were the subjects too easy for them? She frowned. Something must be wrong with the supplements. “How are their test scores?” she questioned, thinking of ways to make the class more engaging.
He went ahead and took out the stack of paper from the locked drawers and handed it to Robin.
85, 88, 91, 79, 90, 85….
It was quite impressive, but the materials too easy only consisted of 6th-grade English vocabs, sentence structures, and grammar. The math ranged around basic algebra and had a bit of a better score than English for some. However, Ena scored the highest with 98 in the math section and 95 in the English section.
Impressive.
“I think we should start adding in more subjects, such as history, basic science, higher math, and English.” Robin planned to put off science since this world was governed by the laws of magic, however it didn’t mean there was no science involved. As long as it was the basic fundamentals, it could enrich the scope of learning and knowledge.
“As a matter of fact, I was just discussing Mendel’s Hereditary laws with Blair for creating or at least attempting to modify a few crops. Hmm, maybe I should introduce a few kiddy science experiments to make the classroom environment more interactive and introduce art classes,” Robin suggested and half laughed.
“That sounds splendid, Master. I will enact our your suggestions in the next rotation.”
“Brother, what do you think they are talking about?” Ena asked. Her face was stuffed with the white bread filled with leafy greens and thin pieces of lean meat. The food in this place was so different compared to the nuts, fruits, and deer meat she often ate at the temple. As a moon priest, her life could be considered as a luxury from the outside world, but now it was hard to be compared to the life in the beautiful castle owned by the mysterious woman.
Eladis shrugged. He heard them clearly with his sensitive ears, but could not digest the topic of their discussion except making the classroom environment more engaging. He questioned why the master of the castle did not put the slaves at work and instead fed, clothed, and even educated them. His heart itched to understand the motives of the human, and yet she always found ways to surprise him in an irritating way.
Robin almost forgot to ask about the counseling session that Cain was in charge of.
He sighed and chuckled in amusement. “They went absolutely well.” He paused a bit before continuing, “Though, a few ladies are developing a bit of a fancy towards me,” he finished a casual smile formed on his face. It seemed to Robin Cain was a bit flattered at all the attention he was receiving; leaning towards a cunning wolf in sheep's clothing playing at its food.
She gave a sigh. “Well, as long as your professional about it. Though you are a vampire, so it's expected to garner a few admirers,” she replied. That would come in handy.
Manipulation at its easiest. Easier to gain trust royalties.
Robin scanned the room and noticed the same dark elf from before.
Well, that’s surprising. I underestimated his intellect and mistook his brash personality as having a bit of an intellectual defect.
It was a very mean thought, and inexcusable habit formed by fixing incompetent intern’s mishaps back in her workplace. The marketers were also stupid, along with the investors sometimes, but the unruliest people in her opinion were the ones who sought refuge away from their problems in religion or any sort of otherworldly force. Robin did not hate religion, nor did she want to promote it. It just never occurred to her how it helped in most of her situation and instead opted for self-reliance and a person’s own hard work instead of waiting for something miraculous to drop from the sky.
For a moment, Robin looked out into the window deep in thought.
Life’s not fair, so you have to make it fair.