"... And you can see from the screen here we can monitor the acidity of the water being filtered into the piping system."

I pointed at the number on the screen, "Is this number good?"

Lea nodded, "It is very good, Mistress."

Right now, it was Lea's turn to have a day with me and we were back on the ship where she was showing me what she had done with the hydroponics farm.

Amber and Ries were going out on their own to explore the rest of the station and I told them to call me if any problems came up.

So right now, it was just Lea and I in my ship and she had been showing me the progress of the farm so far with great enthusiasm.

Also… She's naked, of course…

Not gonna lie, I was expecting the potatoes that she was growing to still be barely growing shoots or something but when I went into her room to check on the farm, the leaves sprouting out of the pipes already look pretty mature.

It hasn't even been a month yet and they look like they are almost ready for harvesting.

"Is it normal for them to grow so quickly? Last I remembered they were not even sprouting shoots yet…" I asked.

She turned to me and showed me a rare smile before she placed an index finger on her lips, "I may have used something to speed up their growth, Mistress."

I raised an eyebrow, "What did you use?"

Instead of answering, she went over to the plants to stand beside them before turning to me.

"Mistress. Do you know why us Alvs are so good at maintaining hydroponic farms? To the point that humanity actually agreed to let us have the full rights of the technology instead of fighting us for it?"

I shrugged, "Because you guys have the better tech for it?"

"Fufufu~ I suppose that isn't too far from the truth. But that isn't the case, Mistress."

"Then is it because you are able to make some kind of drug that enhances the growth speed of the plants?"

"Fufu~ That is quite close. Please watch, Mistress."

She turned towards the plants before she stretched out her hand towards the plants in front of her.

Her eyes were shut and I was wondering what she was trying to do when I noticed that the plants seem to be swaying slightly.

At first, I thought it was merely just the air current blowing at the leaves that caused them to sway until I realised that all the plants were swaying at exactly the same rhythm and that they seemed to be getting bigger and bigger.

The last part made me wonder if I was just hallucinating until the plants really started to get bigger visibly, growing until it looked like it was spilling out of the pipes itself.

My eyes widened and I turned to look at the one who was undoubtedly responsible for this, only to see that the Alv seemed to have an ethereal glow around her and I definitely wasn't hallucinating that because the light was casting shadows on the objects around her.

When the glow subsided, she lowered her hand and turned to smile at me.

"Was that… Magic?" I asked, remembering what Amber had told me just a day before.

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She giggled, "Ufufufu~ I can see why you would think that. And long ago, that was what we used to describe something like that as well. It's not really magic but a sort of skill in our race."

"Where you can just control plants and make them grow at will?"

Lea smiled at me, "Would Mistress like to hear the real, scientific reason… Or the reason that was believed to be true before that?"

I'm kind of interested in the history of this so I told her that I would like to know both.

She gestured for me to sit on the bed so I did so, only for her to sit on the floor at my feet before she took my hand in hers.

I wondered why she would adopt such a position but held my tongue as she began to speak.

"In the past, there were several Alvs who have discovered an odd ability where they are able to sort of communicate with plants. Most of them would only be able to tell how they feel and their needs. Then there are those who are able to control plants through their will and even influence their growth by sharing their own lifeforce with them."

Yeah… That definitely sounds like a fantasy setting right there.

"So what's the scientific reason?" I asked.

"Some Alvs are born with an extra sensory organ inside our brain which functions quite similarly to the humans who possess psionic capabilities. The only difference is that for Alvs, we are limited on only being able to influence living things like helping a plant grow faster and healing people by transferring life force."

"Ok… This is a little much to take in but does that mean life force is real?"

"Mmm… That's just the general term used to describe the energy within living things."

"And you are able to… Make the plants grow faster by transferring life force into them?"

"That's right, Mistress."

"Where is the life force you used on the plants coming from?"

She tilted her head, "From myself, of course."

I gasped, "ISn't that bad?! Doesn't that mean you shortened your lifespan or something?!"

She giggled, "Ufufufu~ It's not like that, Mistress. I am not transferring my life into them, just my energy. I would just feel tired and hungry afterwards. Even if I tried to transfer all my life force into someone, I would pass out instead of dying."

Ah… So it's like a skill that uses the stamina bar, not the health bar, got it.

That brought another question, "Then… Are you hungry?"

"Mmm… Not yet, but I probably will be later. Incidentally, your food actually expands my energy by quite a bit, Tera. Back then, something like that would have made me so tired that I would have to lay down to rest for at least an hour before I could move, now I could do it and only feel a little tired."

"You're not going to say something like my cooking has magical properties, are you?"

"Ufufufu~ I wouldn't be surprised if it actually does, Mistress. It certainly feels and taste magical~"

I decided not to address that and changed the topic, "So… Is there any problem with you telling me all this?"

She hugged my shin and rested her chin on my thigh, "Mmm… Truth be told, my kind are really rare and there's people out there who would quite literally kidnap me and sell, study or kill me just for this ability of mine. So I suppose it's better if Mistress does not share it."

"Wait, then why would you tell me?"

"Because you told me your secret, Mistress."

I shook my head, "I really don't even think that could be counted… It's really just nothing much anyway…"

"But you still trusted me with a secret like that, Mistress. I also feel that you should know about this ability of mine and I would not mind if you made use of it, Mistress."

I shrugged, "I mean… At most I would just ask you to help me maintain the farm, that's all. It's not like I need anything more than that. I was expecting these potatoes to take longer before they're fully grown and we can harvest them for ourselves."

Lea gave me a look, "Mistress… Did you forget how expensive organic food is in our universe?"

I raised an eyebrow at her, "Err… So?"

"So you would be able to tell me to speed up any organic food that you might want to grow and I can grow them really, really quickly so that we might just sell them for huge amounts of money."

"I… Didn't think of that… Wait… If Alvs can do this… Why are vegetables still so expensive? Can the Alvs grow all the plants really quickly anyway? This should lower the cost right?"

"Mistress… Under normal circumstances, no one would be able to speed up the plant growth like I did. Most would already be struggling to speed up the growth of just one plant, let alone a few dozen of them all at once. Most colony ships would have my kind of Alvs tagging along just to maintain the farm's health instead of speeding up their growth. Only in emergencies would any Alv resort to doing that."

I turned back to the potatoes, "And… You have been practising doing that for quite some time already… Haven't you?"

She nodded, "After eating your cooking, I realised that I was pumped with life force energy so I started experimenting on it before I eventually tried to do it on the potatoes. The results are… As you can see, Mistress."

Yeah… Not gonna lie, this is really, really cool.

Good thing Amber already told me about the existence of magic so I didn't react crazily.