It's- Leon wrote about it. That your father was working on something to keep Sara's people from going hungry, before they were called off to war and it all went to shit. Except he never fucking finished it, so- most of this is a guess.

He had the place heated with alchemy bullshit, so that he could trick plants into thinking it was summer all the time. And I thought that raising the beds off the ground would at least keep them from dying to frost, but I'm not certain now that it's finished, and I can't exactly light a fire in here to keep it warm because it's made of wood and cloth and oil and-

[ This is so fucking awkward, and he's not even looked up to see Alucard's face. He's not good with the 'giving' part of gifts. Or even the 'talking about giving' part of them, in this case. He likes working on this shit, he likes people having the shit he's worked on, and he hates the step in the middle. Because it involves admitting that he cares. And it doesn't help that this is him asking Alucard to fix his own mistakes. ]

-and also fuck, Pliny the Elder has a lot to fucking say about emperors who are far, far too fond of cucumbers.

[ YOUR DAD REFERENCES SO MANY STUPID FUCKING TEXTS IN HIS WORK. HE HAD TO READ SO MUCH TO FIGURE THIS OUT. ]