Chapter 112
Chapter 112: What are you making again? (3)
Alfoy participated in the large-scale construction happening in the territory every day.
His mana was always running low, and he had no time to replenish it, causing dark circles under his eyes from fatigue.
But no matter how tough it got, he couldn’t stop.
If he got caught slacking off, he had no idea what would happen to him.
“No, what the hell is this? You should keep the work reasonable! This is too much!”
“To make a mage from the proud Tower of the Bloody Flame do this sort of work! I didn’t come here to do such trivial tasks!”
The newly assigned mages shot angry glares at Alfoy every day.
But no matter how much they protested, Alfoy just shook his head with a face that seemed to be on the verge of death.
“I have to do it because my master… no, because the Lord ordered me to…”
“That’s a cowardly excuse!”
The newly arrived mages couldn’t understand this at all.
As the heir of the Mage Tower Lord, why had Alfoy changed so much?
It wasn’t just Alfoy who seemed strange. The other mages had also sealed their lips and focused only on their work.
What on earth had happened here?
“Please, speak up! Why are you willingly doing such menial tasks!”
“Well… because it’s fun…”
“It’s fun, and yet you’re crying!”
“It’s so fun that I’m on the verge of tears…”
“Stop spouting nonsense!”
Unable to hold back any longer, the new mages stood up in protest.
They had been advised by the Tower Lord to follow the Lord’s commands and had endured for several days as the Branch Leader worked alongside them, but…
They couldn’t let themselves be used like this indefinitely.
It wasn’t just a matter of pride.
The more they looked at the older mages, the more ominous feelings crept in.
All of them had dark circles under their eyes, and they looked shabby as if they had been stuck at the construction site for too long.
It was a sight that one could never associate with the typically neat and elegant mages.
“Let’s go together!”
“To where?”
“To confront the Lord and tell him we won’t do this anymore! If he refuses, we can return to the Tower! Branch Leader, you should come with us too! Let’s speak firmly!”
“I don’t know… What’s that… I’m scared…”
“Hey!”
The mages gritted their teeth as they watched Alfoy respond so passively.
At this rate, it was embarrassing to even say he was the heir to the Tower.
“How pathetic. We won’t recognize you as the Tower Lord’s heir any longer!”
“I will definitely tell the Tower Lord about this!”
“Let’s go confront the Lord!”
The mages stomped off in anger.
It seemed they intended to either threaten the Lord or leave this place.
Even while receiving severe insults from the mages, Alfoy could only watch them blankly.
However, as the mages disappeared from view, the expressions of Alfoy and the remaining mages changed.
“Heh heh heh, stupid fools.”
They stifled their laughter, worried that those who left might hear them.
They feared their charade might go to waste.
“I can’t be the only one to die.”
“Let’s see what they do.”
With the mindset that they couldn’t be the only ones enslaved, they had been enduring various humiliations.
“Ha ha ha, do they have any idea how terrifying the Lord is? Those fools are in for it now.”
“Those arrogant ones, do they even know where they are raising their voices like that?”
“Whew, it was making me anxious. Once we settle the contract, let’s dump all the work on them.”
“Right, they should know just how we end up suffering.”
“Anyway, they need to get a beating to come to their senses.”
The last glimmer of hope, the Elder, had also left.
Since there was no way to escape anyway, it was better to increase their numbers a bit. That way, they might get a little more rest.
The mages’ schemes were only accelerating.
As they expected, Ghislaine was looking down at the protesting mages with a sullen expression.
“We can’t do these kinds of tasks anymore!”
“Treat us properly! Otherwise, we’ll go back to the Tower!”
Ghislaine stroked his chin thoughtfully and squinted at them.
“I distinctly told Alfoy to manage things well… Didn’t Alfoy stop you?”
“Stop us? He outright refused to even come here! He’s completely turned into an idiot. He just sits there drooling like a moron! He’s become pathetic from doing nothing but construction every day!”
At this, Ghislaine clutched his forehead and chuckled.
“Ha, look at this guy pretending not to be a mage. Just look at how he’s scheming. What a funny fellow.”
“Hey! Lord! Doesn’t what we say make sense?”
The mages, not understanding why Ghislaine was laughing, grew even angrier as they felt he was mocking them.
“Oh, don’t get too worked up. So, if you’re going to continue being forced into this construction, you’re saying you’ll just go home, right?”
“That’s right!”
“Didn’t you hear from the Tower Lord? He’s instructed you to cooperate unconditionally with our territory’s matters. He must have talked about the construction too, right?”
“Who in the world actually pushes mages into construction? No noble would dare do that!”
“Didn’t the Tower Lord and I discuss this thoroughly before signing the contract? This is a contract violation. I’ve been supplying you with Runestones in heaps. You’re benefiting from that.”
“That’s true! But no matter how you look at it, isn’t this too much? Even the Lord cannot force us to work like this! From now on, we’ll only focus on territory defense and research.”
With twenty stiff-necked mages glaring at him, Ghislaine pondered for a moment.
It seemed they were unaware of the importance of the contract.
If he simply sent them away, they would inevitably face severe punishment from the Tower Lord. That would be because they had violated the contract.
“Ah, did the Tower Lord explain this too carelessly? The pride of mages can be quite difficult, you know.”
If they were sent back to be retrained at the Tower, they would certainly come to their senses, but it would be such a waste of time.
With so much to do already, the plan would only be further delayed if a mage was missing.
“Hmmm, what to do?”
It was clear what Alfoy intended when he sent the mages to Ghislaine, but forcibly making them slaves didn’t tempt him much.
As a non-violent pacifist, it wasn’t his style.
But neither was it the time to place bets like before.
“Sigh. It hurts my heart, but I have no choice due to the time constraints.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“Oh, just wait a moment.”
Ghislaine waved his hand to calm the mages and shouted toward the door.
“Hey, whoever has a club out there, bring me one.”
Soon, the door opened, and a soldier entered carrying a beautifully carved club.
You could feel the breath of a craftsman in every grain of the wood.
Seeing Ghislaine turn the club around while admiring it, the mages cringed.
“What are you doing right now? Isn’t this rather rude?”
“Rude? I don’t even know who’s being rude here. Anyway, what’s important right now isn’t that. How about a little wager?”
“What?”
“Let’s all come at me at once. If you can land even a scratch on me, I’ll grant you whatever you desire. But if you lose, you’ll have to sign a contract.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Oh, it’ll take too long to explain, so let’s hurry. If you can even manage a tiny scratch, I’ll let you live comfortably from now on. I’ll give you as many Runestones as you want, and those who want can go back to the Tower right away.”
At that, the mages’ eyes lit up.
They were all no higher than level three-circle mages, but there were twenty of them.
No matter how low the circles, this many would be enough to easily flatten even a knight.
“You’ll regret those words.”
All the mages simultaneously summoned their mana.
Ghislaine had a lot to answer for lately, and he wouldn’t turn down such a chance.
As the twenty mages raised their mana, the surrounding items began to tremble.
But Ghislaine just smiled at the sight.
“Oh, I wasn’t trying to add to my slave count. I really want to live a good life, but the world just won’t help me.”
As Ghislaine elegantly maneuvered his club through the flow of the mages’ unleashed mana, that day, the number of slaves in the territory increased by twenty.
*
It had been several days since a total of twenty-six mages had been weeping while focusing on construction.
Claude came to report to Ghislaine.
“The materials you requested have all arrived. The tools are also ready.”
“Good, let’s get started right away.”
“What on earth are you making? What is this specialty… Is it an herb that absorbs mana like wheat?”
Claude genuinely asked, curious.
He had taken a look at the blueprint Ghislaine handed over, but it seemed like a bizarre combination only alchemists would use, involving boiling, breaking down, mixing, and melting something.
“It’ll be something the nobles will love. If I tell you now, it won’t be fun, so just look forward to it.”
‘Ugh… Should I believe this or not?’
Claude was itching to throw out a sarcastic comment but held it back.
It hadn’t been long since he had been thoroughly defeated by Ghislaine. Now was not the time to act recklessly and just watch his patterns.
‘Statistically, a person can’t succeed every time. I need to keep an eye on the progression before I take another gamble.’
It was a common delusion among gambling addicts.
They believed that since they succeeded last time, the odds were higher for failure this time.
Even someone who graduated at the top of the Academy could fall into that error.
Claude was lost in thought about betting again to free himself from the slave contract, smiling to himself.
Ghislaine, who was throwing him pitying glances, clicked his tongue and moved to another spot.
The area that was grandly named ‘Herb Development Room’ was nothing special at all.
One side was stacked with herbs, while the other side had tools designed by Ghislaine.
“This really looks like an alchemist’s workshop, doesn’t it?”
Ghislaine marveled while looking around the development room.
What he was about to create was indeed a product that would be developed in the future through collaboration between mages and alchemists, so it wasn’t wrong to call it an alchemist’s workshop.
“Call in the mages.”
The mages dragged in unexpectedly began sketching magic circles on the tools as per Ghislaine’s orders.
Alfoy, with a pale complexion, tightly clenched his mouth as he drew the magic circles.
He could tell that several of the magic circles were meant to extract the herb’s properties or remove impurities but couldn’t gather any more insight than that.
‘Anyway, if I ask, they’ll just mumble some nonsense again.’
He was curious to know what use the engraved instruments had but held back his curiosity.
‘I’ll never ask what it is. Just wait and see, I absolutely won’t ask. Asking will just be a loss for me.’
It was relatively easy magic circles, and the work finished in just one day.
Curiosity is a mage’s instinct.
As they exhausted their mana and were ready to head back with fatigue setting in…
Alfoy ultimately couldn’t contain his curiosity and blurted out a question.
“What’s this? What are you making?”
“An incredibly profitable item. Want to guess? If you guess correctly, you get your freedom; if you’re wrong, I’ll add ten years…”
“Forget it! I won’t do that!”
Alfoy puffed in frustration and left while muttering curses to himself.
“Looks like the shock from losing the first bet hit hard. He’s rejecting so firmly.”
Ghislaine clicked his tongue, half impressed and half regretful, while calling the laborers to assign them tasks.
Some sorted the herbs, some boiled water, and others managed the fire.
The laborers repeated their assigned tasks without even knowing what they were doing.
“What’s the Lord making this time?”
“Maybe some kind of potion.”
“What do we know? We just do as we’re told. It has to be something good for the body, right?”
Several days passed, and from the last device, a thick black liquid began to seep out.
Ghislaine dipped his finger into the liquid to smell it, then frowned.
“This isn’t the right color. There must be something wrong. The smell’s off too.”
It wasn’t uncommon to not get the desired results in one go.
Trying to implement a complex process with only the knowledge acquired in his past life had its flaws.
However, Ghislaine wasn’t particularly worried.
Creating something new from nothing was undoubtedly harder.
As he had a clear grasp of the overall framework, adjusting the finer details wasn’t too difficult.
For several days, Ghislaine reflected on his memories and gradually adjusted the herb’s ratios and reaction times while fine-tuning the magic circles.
After several experiments, he finally achieved the desired result.
“Whoa, perfect. Yes, this is it.”
Looking at the pure white extract, Ghislaine smiled contentedly.
It wasn’t just the satisfaction of completing the product; there was something even more significant.
In his previous life, this product had been the main source of income for Duke Delphine’s family.
Recalling those who were likely working hard to develop this product somewhere, Ghislaine smirked.
“Let’s see how well you do, you little brats. It’s already too late.”
