After the hunt ended, the Knights excitedly gathered around the enormous bull carcasses, whispering as they stared at the hulking bodies lying in pools of blood.
"My lord, how... should we handle these?" one Knight finally asked.
Louis surveyed the scattered remains of the massive beasts, folded his arms, and considered for a moment.
In truth, these Snowvale Mad Bulls were tough-skinned brutes, neither rare Magical Beasts nor valuable for medicine or alchemy...
Their only noteworthy quality was probably that their meat tasted quite good.
His gaze swept over the crowd, and he smiled. "Since we worked hard to bring them down, drag them all back. We'll hold a spring feast to celebrate the harvest."
"Hooray!" The Knights cheered, praising Louis's generosity as their morale soared.
But Louis's thoughts had already turned to his real objective.
The bulls were hardly the point. The Frostleaf Vines were the reason he had put so much effort into this carefully laid plan.
Naturally, he could not simply uproot every vine and take them back. That would exhaust the resource completely. The true long-term solution was to domesticate and cultivate them properly.
"Go fetch Mick," he ordered.
Before long, Mick, the Red Tide Fief's Agricultural Officer, hurried over with several veterans experienced in transplanting medicinal plants, his face still betraying a little excitement.
"My lord, what are your orders?"
Louis raised a hand and pointed at the flourishing patch of Frostleaf Vines, his tone calm. "Prepare to transplant these plants."
He glanced over them and spoke at an unhurried pace:
"Remember to choose seedlings one to two years old. Their roots should be bluish-white, and their leaf veins must not be yellow. Those have the best survival rate.
"When you dig them up, keep the root systems intact, along with their soil balls. Don't