Chapter 104: Want to Make a Bet with Me? (4)
Alfoy and the mages appeared with relaxed smiles.
They had also heard the rumors that spread widely in the territory.
It was the rumor that Ghislaine had made a bet he absolutely couldn’t win.
The mages were confident that Claude would win the bet.
‘Hehe, this evil spirit guy is finally going to be humiliated. Well done, Chief Officer. I believed in you!’
Alfoy had no intention of hiding his laughter.
How could he not be happy when Ghislaine was about to be greatly embarrassed?
If he had known this would happen, he thought he should have treated Claude better.
The other mages looked just as cheerful.
Only Vanessa was sulking with her head down.
Clearing his throat a couple of times, Alfoy boldly faced Ghislaine.
“Ahem, may I ask why you called me?”
Now that he was a lord, he couldn’t just act all familiar like before.
Being an heir to the mage tower didn’t get him noble treatment like a tower master or elder.
Ghislaine replied with an indifferent expression.
“Why did I call you? Because I need to use magic. It’s a very important matter, so pay attention.”
“I’ve heard the rumors. You’re not planning to forcibly raise the soil quality with magic, are you?”
“What?”
Ghislaine frowned. Alfoy hurriedly continued.
“It’s unreasonable to handle all that cultivated land by ourselves! If you forcibly raise the soil quality, you know the land will become even less fertile next time, right?”
Using powerful magic or divine power can temporarily increase soil quality.
However, no lord actually used that method.
Because just doing it once would ruin the land. It was the price of forcibly extracting life force.
To fix the side effects, one had to draw mana from the surroundings each time, and that was a method only a high-level mage or priest could employ.
If they were going to hire them, it would be much more beneficial to buy food with that money.
Of course, Alfoy didn’t care whether Ghislaine’s land turned into a mess.
Even if there were no side effects, he had no intention of helping.
“I haven’t learned such magic in the first place. And using shortcuts goes against fair betting.”
“What are you talking about? I’m going to create a magic circle in the open space behind the castle.”
“A magic circle?”
Alfoy clicked his tongue inwardly.
From the looks of it, it seemed he was going to do some other useless thing instead of cultivating land.
“Right, I will use a runestone to create a Mana Convergence Circle. I’ll stack regeneration magic circles and add some other magic circles… No, forget it. What’s the use of explaining further to you? I’ll skip the details.”
“Moreover, about the other magic circles… No, never mind. What’s the point in telling you guys anyway? I’ll skip further explanation.”
The mages tilted their heads in confusion.
It wasn’t only because the explanation lacked sincerity, but also because it was the first time they’d ever heard of such a magic circle.
Alfoy pretentiously asked, “What exactly is this magic circle? Do you even know what magic is?”
“Very important stuff. Just get ready. I don’t have time to explain everything, so I’ll be checking thoroughly, so proceed carefully. Fast and certain. Got it?”
“Tsk, it’s obvious that the Mana Convergence Circle is the center of it all. You think I wouldn’t know that?”
A magic circle that artificially converges mana using runestones is called a Mana Convergence Circle.
Training the Mana Circulation Method within it allows one to accumulate mana slightly faster than usual.
It was the dream of anyone who used mana, whether knight or mage.
But not just anyone could use it.
Creating just one convergence circle would require several runestones, and yet the duration of the magic circle wouldn’t exceed a week.
Within just a few days, the runestones would lose their power and shatter.
Unless you’re a highly promising knight from a wealthy territory, an average knight could expect to experience a Mana Convergence Circle maybe once in a lifetime, if they were lucky.
Of course, Ghislaine, who possessed runestones, was a different story.
“Duke Delphine’s Swordmaster Count Balzac only managed to use one for about a month thanks to some support when he was young, right?”
Even the famously wealthy Delphine family only allowed truly talented individuals to experience it briefly.
“Will the Lord be using this personally?”
“Why would I use this?”
Ghislaine asked in disbelief. Alfoy raised his chin and inquired, “If you’re not going to use it yourself… do you need to create several?”
“Oh, that’s a sharp question. Got an idea of where this is going?”
“Hmph, that’s obvious enough. So how many do we need to make?”
“About… 200?”
“Excuse me?”
All the mages gasped at Ghislaine’s words.
To create 200 Mana Convergence Circles would require an astronomical amount of runestones.
It surely must have been about the same volume they sold to the Mage Tower back in the day.
But Alfoy nodded as if he understood.
“That makes sense… we need that much.”
Currently, there were nearly three hundred mercenaries.
To have them all training at once, that much would be necessary.
“It’s great to spend money to grow quickly, but… if you spend this much, you won’t be able to maintain it for long,” Ghislaine responded, a bit surprised.
“Once will be enough. You’ve got some insight, haven’t you? I underestimated you,” she said.
Alfoy shrugged as if to say to keep the compliments coming.
“Given the actions the Lord has shown so far, it would be strange not to know. He’s always rushing around for something.”
“You’re quite aware. Anyway, since things are busy, I need you to prepare quickly. If you have questions, ask Vanessa. She’s the best at magic circles in our territory.”
“By the way, why are we stacking other magic circles? I’ve never seen this before… Which Mage Tower’s method is this? Unverified magic circles are very dangerous. Are you confident? Furthermore, something this complicated will take a long time…”
“Ah, look at you, a real chatterbox who learned a thing or two. Stop talking back and just move quickly.”
“Stop talking so much. Just get on with it.”
Alfoy, filled with curiosity like a true Mage, swallowed hard and stepped back at Ghislaine’s fierce expression.
He was curious, but he felt like he’d get hit for asking any further.
“Well, since you’re asking so earnestly, I’ll give it a shot.”
“Make sure it’s done properly since it’s for inspection. I did see a bit today. You’re smarter than you act, after all.”
Ghislaine threw out a comment that was neither a compliment nor an insult and left the room.
Alfoy felt an inexplicable sense of pride and puffed up his chest.
“Vanessa, did you hear? Get ready to create the Magic Circle. It needs to last for a few days, so let’s engrave it properly.”
“Yes, absolutely! Understood.”
Vanessa couldn’t hide her surprised expression.
She had no idea why she was making the Magic Circle, but she guessed the Lord’s intention right away.
Despite everything, it clicked that she was indeed the heir of the Mage Tower.
Alfoy began directing the Mages to engrave the Magic Circle in the Open Space.
The Mages started their work confidently, but that enthusiasm didn’t last long.
“Uh, how do we do this again?”
“This way, the magic circuits won’t connect.”
“This isn’t my area of expertise….”
Creating a Magic Circle requires extensive research.
Even the slightest mistake can cause the Magic Circle to fail to activate, and sometimes it could even explode, leading to dangerous consequences.
Having to draw 200 of these complex overlapping Magic Circles was more than Alfoy and the other Mages could handle.
“What now? If this goes wrong, we’re all toast. Not to mention, the Lord’s temperament is terrible.”
Alfoy nervously bit his nails.
Seeing the Mages in a panic, Vanessa jumped in.
“I-I’ll try to fix this part!”
“Okay, give it a shot. I’m giving you a chance.”
Vanessa etched the Magic Circle with pinpoint accuracy. It took a long time due to her low magic power, but she didn’t miss even the tiniest line.
As she confirmed details that others had missed, it made sense why she gained authority quickly among the Mages.
Vanessa soon took the lead among the Mages.
Alfoy, feeling somewhat pushed aside, awkwardly cleared his throat repeatedly.
“Wow, she must’ve studied a lot. When did she find the time to study while doing laundry?”
Other Mages nodded in admiration.
Even without magic power, they had known from the last War that she had considerable knowledge.
But now, it was evident that she was more than just knowledgeable.
She drew the Magic Circles with absolutely no blockage, clearly surpassing even the Elder of the Mage Tower in terms of magic knowledge.
With a sigh of relief thanks to Vanessa, Alfoy began to mumble as he helped her.
“But what in the world is this Magic Circle? I’ve never seen one like it before. Is it a proper Magic Circle? Where did they even come up with this? Just throwing in a bunch of good stuff doesn’t guarantee it’ll work.”
“Well, I’m just doing what the Lord told us to do….”
“Is it something like the Perdium family’s vision? I’ve never heard of any Mages in that household.”
As Alfoy speculated, he eventually shook his head.
“Ugh, let’s just do as we’re told. If something happens, the Lord will take responsibility. Man, it feels like I’m going to lose a bet and end up doing all this random stuff. Is he trying to win over the Mercenaries with this? Tsk tsk… people can be so petty.”
“I feel like I’m going to lose the bet, so I’m resorting to anything. Is this to win the mercenaries’ favor? Tsk tsk… People are really pathetic.”
Beside her, Vanessa pouted, but Alfoy didn’t notice.
“Yes, yes. Then over there, the circuit again… No, what are you doing? Not there, here… Oh, you don’t know this? Haven’t you studied?”
“Uh, uh? Sorry. Is this right?”
Her words to Alfoy and the mages started to blend in with subtle sarcasm, but no one caught on.
*
The rumor of the Mana Convergence Circle being set up spread quickly.
A whopping 200 of them!
The mercenaries, who relied on rumors to make a living, couldn’t possibly be unaware.
At some point, conversations about gambling and drinking had died down, and everyone was buzzing about the Mana Convergence Circle.
“The captain’s gonna teach us the Mana Circulation Method too, right? Half of us don’t know it!”
“He’s said he’d make us elites so many times, he probably will!”
“Oh, we need at least a long-term contract then.”
The mercenaries had come to realize that they couldn’t survive just renewing their one-year contracts indefinitely.
Surely, a new proposal would come soon, and when it did, they would have to make a choice, good or bad.
Most likely, the Mana Circulation Method and Mana Convergence Circle would be the bait for a long-term contract.
Days passed in the mercenaries’ anticipation, and finally, the Mana Convergence Circle was completed.
“This is my creation… No, it’s the Mana Convergence Circle I made with Vanessa! You’ve never seen anything like this in your lives, have you? Hahaha!”
Alfoy boasted, but the mercenaries brushed him off and swarmed over to Ghislaine.
As Ghislaine checked whether the magic circle was engraved correctly, she was a little surprised when the mercenaries rushed in.
“Why are you all suddenly here? I didn’t call for you. What’s going on?”
The answer came from Gillian.
“It seems everyone is curious since it’s a Mana Convergence Circle.”
Seeing the curious and expectant looks in their eyes, Ghislaine chuckled.
“Don’t worry too much; everyone will get their chance in turn. Don’t be greedy.”
Hearing that, the mercenaries were convinced.
This Mana Convergence Circle was truly prepared for them!
Impatient Gordon couldn’t hold back anymore.
“So, who goes in first? What about the Mana Circulation Method?”
“First? They’re the ones going in first.”
Ghislaine said dismissively, gesturing to the side.
Claude, looking utterly exhausted, plopped a pouch on her hand.
Ghislaine pulled out a handful of what was inside.
Robust, glossy grains of grain revealed themselves.
While everyone blinked in disbelief, Gordon asked again.
“Are you saying… those are going in first?”
“Yep.”
“That’s grain, right?”
“Exactly.”
“Did they also learn the Mana Circulation Method?”
“What kind of nonsense is that?”
Gordon swallowed hard and asked one last question.
“You’re seriously saying that those little grains are going in there first in the expensive Mana Convergence Circle…? Not me?”
“See, I told you! How many times do I have to say? Besides, why would you be first?”
Ghislaine snapped irritably.
It finally dawned on the people that she wasn’t joking, and their expressions twisted in horror.
Using those expensive runestones to let grain go instead of a person!
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