An angel on the mushroom? (Please keep reading)

Castle Back Hill.

After learning that Kroya intended to plant magic plants here, Ate had sent people overnight to inspect the already prepared land once again.

Every loose stone and weed had been cleared away, leaving Kroya a stretch of bare earth, though it had clearly already been tilled.

The soil felt soft underfoot.

"You've cleaned it up nicely."

He offered the casual compliment as he walked forward, his gaze sweeping around.

Bare ground was exactly what he wanted. That way, nothing would encroach on the magic plants' growing space.

"It's my duty, my lord!"

Ate chuckled and told the farmhands behind him to follow.

As for the hard work of taking the farmhands out to till the land late at night, he would not bring it up himself-his father had told him there was no need to deliberately seek credit, so long as the lord knew.

Since he was just starting out, Kroya planned to use only one mu of land for his experiment, then gradually expand outward. Castle Back Hill had sixteen or seventeen mu in total, certainly enough for him to grow plenty of magic plants.

When it came to magic plants, some high-tier varieties were extremely demanding and would only grow in specially prepared environments.

Low-tier magic plants, however, really only needed sufficient mana.

In other words, even if you planted ten thousand of them in a single mu, they generally would not cause trouble as long as you supplied enough mana and fertilizer-provided they were all the same species. Otherwise, conflicting mana would kill them outright.

The Sacred Spring Trade Guild's instructions recommended planting densities of four hundred soothing lilies and six hundred thicksoil potatoes per mu, respectively.

He had one hundred and forty soothing lilies and two hundred and eighty thicksoil potatoes, so half a mu for each would be enough.

Neither of these magic plants had a particularly pronounced mana affinity-the thicksoil potato merely had that name; it was not actually an earth- or soil-aspected magic plant.

As such, planting them together would not cause any conflicts.

With the magic field grape vine present, he also did not need to worry that the plants would be too sparsely spread across the land to absorb enough mana and nutrients-the vine's roots would supply them with mana.

Thus, the magic field grape vine needed to be planted first.

"Here will do."

Kroya paced around the area and soon pinpointed the spot with the most abundant mana using his mental power and perception.

He immediately picked up a shovel and began digging himself.

He dug a hole roughly twenty centimeters deep.

He placed the sunflower mana extracted from the magic pool inside, then covered it with a layer of soil. Next, he carefully planted the grape vine, finally covering the emerald magic soil that came with it with a light layer of earth.

Ordinary grape vines needed a trellis, but according to the instructions, this magic field grape vine needed no support at all. It would grow as soon as it was planted.

Kroya was very curious about how exactly it would grow.

After planting it, he therefore stood perfectly still and watched.

He pushed both the Astral Body Inscription Technique and his mental power to their limits.

The deep-blue grape vine seemed to know it had been buried in the soil. After a brief period of stillness, it began growing at an astonishing speed.

It thickened and lengthened almost visibly. Its underground roots were out of sight, but the vine growing above the ground was clearly visible.

Rather than a grape vine, it looked more like a tree.

One particularly thick main vine grew to around two meters tall without any support, then sprouted a new vine that rapidly spread and grew outward.

It, too, stood two meters tall.

The grape vine produced more vines, which intertwined with one another. Leaves and vines grew vigorously, soon covering all the surrounding ground.

In less than ten minutes, the flourishing magic field grape vine had covered an entire mu of land.

Fully grown, the magic field grape vine remained a pale, translucent blue, allowing sunlight to filter through onto the earth so that the magic plants beneath it would not be deprived of light.

Moreover, the sunlight it filtered seemed considerably gentler. The people standing beneath the vines no longer felt particularly hot; in fact, it was even a little cool.

Everyone stared, utterly dumbfounded-was this the power of their mage lord?

He had grown such a wondrous magic plant so quickly?

And it covered an entire mu of land!

Kroya, who had planted the vine, merely wore a calm expression. Pointing at the obvious ridges in the ground, he said, "Plant all the soothing lilies and thicksoil potatoes. Remember, you must plant them directly above the roots!

"And plant them in neat rows. Don't damage the roots or the magic plants. If anyone damages them, I'll throw you into the sea to feed the fish.

"If you do a good job, each of you will receive one silver coin!"

He infused his voice with the power of Crimson Rondo, easily covering the surrounding area so that every person heard him clearly.

It even seemed to carry an encouraging power.

One silver coin!

They could earn a silver coin just by planting?!

The farmhands immediately grew excited and shouted in unison, "Yes, my lord!"

Then they carefully began digging holes and planting.

Their movements were so gentle that they probably took more care than they did with their own wives and children.

As for Kroya?

After applying the carrot-and-stick approach, he left for the Lake, intending to check on the mushroom and the Kaba Beasts.

He certainly was not going to stand around supervising. There would surely be far more land reclamation and magic plant cultivation in the future.

As the lord, he could not supervise every single task. He had to give his subordinates opportunities to learn.

Useful helpers had to be cultivated gradually like this.

With light steps, Kroya made his way down to the bottom of the Lake.

The bubble formed by the Air Coral was piled high with sacred white iron sent by Baron Kermoyer, and the Kaba Beasts were leisurely munching on the ore.

The two Burrowing Mice were nowhere to be seen, though he could see the tunnels they had dug. They were probably still busy with their grand digging project.

"Hm?"

He did not know whether he was imagining it, but Kroya kept feeling that their fur was suffused with a strange, holy glow, almost as though they were shining.

"...I almost thought I was looking at those people from the Church."

"If the Church saw Kaba Beasts this holy, would they worship them as sacred beasts?"

The corners of his mouth twitched a few times as he approached the mushroom surrounded by piles of sacred white iron and looked down.

Then he noticed something was off about the mushroom.

A very strange point of light had formed on its surface, emitting a soft white glow similar to that of sacred white iron.

It looked exceedingly holy. Through the light, he could make out what seemed to be a... person inside, giving off signs of life?

"How is that possible?" Startled, Kroya crouched down to examine it closely. Sure enough, there really was a humanoid figure inside that point of light, which was no larger than a grape.

He rubbed his eyes, thinking he must have seen it wrong.

But there was no mistake.

The strange humanoid figure had pure-white feathered wings and lay peacefully asleep, wrapped within them.

Wasn't... wasn't this clearly an angel?!

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