The Death Mage that doesn't want a fourth time

15 The half-vampire solving the problem of declining birth rates

「As well as taking lessons, I am thinking of making an effort to solve the problem of the Ghouls' declining birth rates.」

As Vandalieu told Zadiris this, her eyes opened wide.

「That is... well, a happy thing for us, but... I hope you are not going to propose that we kidnap women of other races and use a ceremony to turn them into Ghouls?」

「Is something like that really possible?」

According to the information circulating in human society that Darcia had heard, Ghouls were capable of doing this, but Vandalieu had dismissed it as a superstition.

「Yes, it is, though we have never done it in this village. The only females of other races we can abduct from this Devil's Nest are probably female adventurers, so the risk is quite high. And even if we succeed, that might cause other adventurers to come and exterminate us and we would have more important things to worry about than increasing our population by one female.」

Ghouls apparently possessed a way of transforming members of other races into members of their own race like Vampires, though it was less effective as it only worked on females. It was likely something that had been designed to balance the race's low pregnancy and birth rates.

But in this village, the Ghouls had not done this before as they had no way to get their hands on females other than adventurers, and they weren't desperate enough to increase their female count as to take that risk.

「But it is true that no children have been born here in ten years. We cannot ask you to make all of the older members of the village young again to maintain the village, boy, so we would be very grateful if you were to resolve this problem. The other villagers and I will be glad to assist you in any way that we can. And since you were able to use【Youth Transformation】, a spell that even masters of life-attribute magic cannot perform, I am sure you will be able to do it.」

It is a task that one would normally think to be impossible, but it was possible that this boy who only turned two years old just recently could do something about this problem. It was now natural for Zadiris to believe this.

「I will try and do whatever I can.」

Vandalieu meant exactly what he said, but nothing more. There was nothing to suggest that he would be able to do it for certain, and his medical knowledge was limited to medical dramas and school lessons from his time on Earth, and whatever he had managed to absorb from the scientists and researchers in Origin.

In other words, his knowledge applied to humans and worked under the assumption that things like ultrasound machines and microscopes from earth and life-attribute magic from Origin were available.

He wasn't even particularly knowledgeable about the field of maternity and gynecology in the first place. In all honesty, he didn't have any confidence.

However, Vandalieu's death-attribute magic had advanced Origin's medical standards so much that even Rodcorte himself had taken notice of it. With that being the case, doing something to treat the Ghouls' infertility wasn't impossible.

「But I have to keep it a secret from Mom.」

Darcia wouldn't approve of her two-year-old son getting involved in such work. Vandalieu experienced for the first time the feeling of a child keeping a secret from a parent.

A month after Vandalieu had decided to do something about the Ghouls' declining birth rates, he was using the blue flames of【Demon Light】to deal with the heat of summer. Vandalieu quickly identified the cause of the Ghouls' low probability of becoming pregnant.