Gordon, unable to contain his frustration, shouted in protest.

“This doesn’t make any sense! Why are you putting wheat seeds in there before people?”

“And does it make sense for you to be the first to go in?”

Indeed, with veterans like Gillian and Kaor around, there was no way Gordon would be the first to enter.

Having nothing more to say, Gordon scratched the back of his neck awkwardly.

Ghislain laughed at the dumbfounded mercenaries.

“You’ll all get your turn later. For now, go finish what you were working on.”

The bigger the expectation, the bigger the disappointment. Gordon, still clinging to his hopes, began pleading.

“Come on, can’t I just go in for a little while? I’ve always wanted to try it.”

The mana condensation circle was something only knights with exceptional talent could experience in the entire kingdom. Now that it was within arm's reach, it was torture for Gordon to hear that it would be used for seeds and not people.

“Later. Without proper mana cultivation techniques, stepping into that circle will make your body explode.”

“Please! I know a little. I learned some mana techniques before.”

In truth, the technique he learned barely allowed him to circulate any mana at all, only providing a slight improvement to his health.

Even if he did enter the condensation circle, it was uncertain whether he would survive. But the human desire to seize a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity was strong, even if it meant risking everything.

Gillian grabbed the back of Gordon’s neck and scowled, but Gordon kept whining. He was still riding the high of bringing back Anna and hadn’t fully returned to his usual disciplined self.

The other mercenaries, thinking he’d just get scolded, didn’t bother stopping him. Deep down, they also hoped Ghislain might change his mind and let Gordon in.

Seeing Ghislain rubbing his chin and looking conflicted, Gordon doubled down on his pleas.

“Ah, I see everyone’s got too much energy these days. Gillian,” Ghislain said with a smirk.

“Yes?”

“Make them run 200 laps around the training field and drill them in shock tactics until bedtime.”

“Understood.”

At that, the mercenaries turned pale and began backing away.

But it was too late.

Once Ghislain gave a command, he never rescinded it, unless something truly urgent came up.

And Gillian, being the loyal executor of Ghislain’s orders, wouldn’t hesitate to enforce them. Even if it meant beating sense into disobedient subordinates.

The mercenaries began to regret their actions, glaring at Gordon and hitting him as they looked around frantically.

“Where’s Kaor?” they muttered in panic.

They couldn’t avoid the grueling training, but if they could find Kaor, he might pick a fight with Gillian, providing an opportunity to reduce the intensity.

“Where did he go?”

But Kaor was nowhere to be found.

He had probably snuck off to avoid being caught and forced into training, planning to feign ignorance later, claiming he hadn’t heard the order.

Gillian cast a pitiful glance at the mercenaries before speaking in a low, menacing voice.

“Training begins now. Start running from here. Go.”

The mercenaries left with grim faces, regretting their actions, as Ghislain smirked and resumed inspecting the magic circles.

Alpoie, who had been watching blankly, suddenly burst out laughing.

“Hahaha! So when you said you were going to make them stronger, you meant the wheat, not the mercenaries? Did you seriously think that putting wheat seeds in there would make them grow stronger just like people do with mana?”

If a person could enter the mana condensation circle and quickly grow stronger by accumulating mana, did Ghislain think the wheat would do the same—absorb mana and survive in barren soil?

It was a thought so ignorant of magic that only someone completely uneducated would think of it.

“If a person without mana cultivation enters, their body explodes! How do you expect the wheat to survive? Even if by some miracle the wheat doesn’t burst, how is it supposed to use mana without a cultivation technique? Puhaha!”

Alpoie, still cackling, grabbed onto Vanessa for support.

“Vanessa, please keep an eye out for my belly button. I think it’s going to fall off from laughing so hard. Puhahaha!”

Vanessa, unsure of what to say, stood there awkwardly, but Alpoie didn’t care. He was too busy laughing.

He couldn’t believe Ghislain was wasting precious runestones on such a futile experiment. He thought it would’ve been better to sell those runestones to the Magic Tower, where they would’ve been put to better use.

‘What a waste. This fool has no idea how to handle treasure.’

As much as Alpoie was laughing outwardly, inside, he was lamenting the loss of those valuable runestones.

Ghislain, noticing the look on Alpoie’s face, smirked.

“Want to make a bet?”

“What?”

“If I win, you’ll work for me for 10 years, unpaid, and without a single complaint. If I lose, I’ll give you 5,000 gold coins and let you return to the Magic Tower.”

‘This is my chance!’

Alpoie, afraid Ghislain might back out, quickly nodded with flared nostrils.

“Deal!”

The other mages nearby raised their hands eagerly as well.

“We’ll join in too!”

Ghislain nodded with satisfaction, and the mages happily went off, shouting in celebration.

“We’re free!”

Vanessa, who had been pacing anxiously, suddenly rushed forward.

“L-Lord, you can’t! We need the mages for the large-scale construction projects!”

If the Magic Tower were to establish a branch here, more mages would arrive to help manage it, but without the current mages, those plans would fall apart.

“Don’t worry. Don’t you trust me?”

“It’s not that...”

This wasn’t about trust—it was about common sense!

Vanessa screamed internally but couldn’t bring herself to argue further with Ghislain. Instead, she hurried off to inform Belinda.

With the area now quiet, Ghislain clicked his tongue.

“Finally, some peace and quiet. They’ve got way too much energy.”

Claude, looking like a walking corpse from overwork, chuckled weakly.

“Are you really planning to use wheat seeds in this?”

“Yup. I’m going to create the ultimate strain through selective breeding.”

“Hah...”

Claude let out a long sigh, staring at Ghislain with pity.

Selective breeding took generations of picking the best seeds and cultivating them. Even with the help of mages, success wasn’t guaranteed after years of research.

If it were that easy, the royal family would have already funded the creation of new crops.

‘Even Vanessa looked baffled.’

Claude couldn’t shake the feeling that Ghislain’s plan was a fool’s errand, especially given how even Vanessa, the most knowledgeable mage on the estate, had reacted.

“Lord, I appreciate your enthusiasm for new ideas, but there’s only about a month and a half left until the bet’s deadline. Can you really produce results in that time?”

Claude wasn’t genuinely worried—he was confident he’d win the bet. But Ghislain’s odd behavior was starting to make him uneasy.

“No problem. That’s plenty of time.”

“How long do you plan to grow the wheat for?”

“A month, give or take.”

Claude struggled to suppress his laughter, his face twisting into an awkward expression.

As Alpoie had predicted, the wheat would be lucky if it didn’t explode from the mana. Even if, by some miracle, Ghislain managed to cultivate the seeds, there would only be two weeks left until the deadline. What could he possibly achieve in that time?

“Ahem, don’t you think it’s time to admit defeat? If word gets out that you wasted all these runestones, it’ll be even more humiliating than just losing the bet. What a waste...”

Claude sighed again. He didn’t want Ghislain, who had saved Anna, to face such public disgrace.

“Well, if you ask me now, I can still call it a draw.”

Claude emphasized the word “draw,” but Ghislain looked at him with pity.

“Wait, are you already scared? What’s this talk of a draw? Once we start something, we finish it! Besides, I’m about to get a bunch of high-quality slaves.”

“Haha, well, I was only offering to spare you out of consideration, but if that’s your attitude, so be it. I’ll stick around to see if the wheat explodes.”

“I’ll put on quite a show for you.”

With a grin, Ghislain began carefully placing the wheat seeds into the magic circle.

As he activated the runestones by infusing them with mana, the magic circle began to glow, and the mana started gathering.

The wheat seeds scattered within the circle began to tremble.

Contrary to Alpoie’s earlier boasts, not a single seed exploded.

After thoroughly checking all the magic circles, Ghislain smiled.

“Success.”

These wheat seeds would soon possess extraordinary vitality.

In his previous life, this method had become widely known, but now, only Ghislain knew about it.

After the continent was devastated and people began dying en masse, countless mages and scholars had gathered to find solutions.

One of those solutions had been the method of using mana to enhance seeds. Although Ghislain’s mastery of it now seemed simple, it had been the result of hundreds, even thousands, of failures in the future.

Claude, sensing something wasn’t quite right, spoke up with a twinge of doubt.

“Well, at least they didn’t explode. Did you really know that would happen?”

“Of course. You think I’d try this without knowing?”

Still feeling uneasy, Claude shook his head.

‘It must be a fluke. Or maybe that magic circle has a specific effect I don’t know about. Maybe Vanessa secretly helped.’

None of the scholars at the Academy knew of a method to inject mana into wheat to increase crop yields. Neither did the mages from the Magic Tower.

‘Even if such a method exists, there’s no way only the lord would know about it.’

Claude was convinced.

In gambling, there were always people like this. They’d bluff, even with bad cards, hoping to force their opponent into surrendering.

‘Haha, that bluff won’t work on me. Even if the wheat absorbs mana, the soil is too poor to support it. What’s he going to do about that?’

No matter how Claude looked at it, Ghislain had no chance of winning.

Satisfied with his conclusion, Claude relaxed and muttered casually.

“Well, I’ll look forward to the results then.”

Claude quickly left, not wanting to linger and risk being assigned more tasks by Ghislain.

With everyone gone, Ghislain was left alone, deep in thought.

He had taken care of everything that needed immediate attention. For the first time in a while, he had a brief moment of peace.

‘Time to deal with my body’s issue.’

Despite training his body and diligently practicing mana cultivation, Ghislain still didn’t know why the nature of his mana had changed or why his recovery abilities had improved.

‘It has to be related to that.’

The strange changes had started after his near-death experience fighting the Blood Python in the Beast Forest. It must have something to do with the Blood Python’s venom.

“That damned creature. It couldn’t just let me die peacefully.”

Ghislain sighed in frustration.

“I’ll have to check.”

He hated the idea of harboring an unknown force within his body. However, there was only one way to verify it, and he had been putting it off.

‘Can’t afford to collapse while I’m busy...’

Up until now, he had used his work as an excuse to avoid dealing with it. But soon, things would get even busier.

Once the farmland expansion was complete and the seed enhancement finished, he’d be swamped with new tasks.

This brief respite was the perfect opportunity to finally conduct the test he had been dreading.

After a long moment of contemplation, Ghislain made up his mind.

He was going to perform the experiment. Even if it meant putting his life on the line.