By the time the jeep entered the market district, night had fully arrived.
Lights glowed softly from inside wooden shops built from the remains of Akaza Ruin’s shattered buildings.
They came to the market at Alice’s advice.
Since Isaac was planning to start his own company, it was best if he started from a small scale like a shop.
“We should go see if anyone’s willing to lease out a shop,” she added.
They split up, spoke with several shopkeepers, and were met with polite rejections every time.
“They’re being cautious,” Alice said as they regrouped. “We can’t blame them. They’re probably worried the conglomerate might retaliate since Selene was injured by you.”
Isaac turned to Professor Catherine. “Then I’ll buy land. Can I do that?”
“You can,” she replied. “But no help from Sanctum. That was part of Lucius’ conditions. You will have to find a builder for your shop yourself.”
“That’s fine. I’ll handle it.”
“The deal is still the same. One hectare for fifty million as long as you keep selling 5,000 Vitality Grains a week to Sanctum.”
Isaac nodded. “Yeah. That contract was already in play before Chairman Lucius’ challenge. It doesn’t violate anything.”
Professor Catherine left to get the paperwork while Leora guided Isaac and Alice to the available plot.
It was located near the end of the market zone. The land was still littered with broken beams, shattered stone, and collapsed rubble from long-forgotten buildings.
“This is it?” Isaac asked, stepping over a jagged chunk of stone.
Leora nodded. “Once it’s bought, we’ll get the rubble cleared. It’s a standard support for landowners.”
The area was large. Quiet. Tucked away but not so far it’d lose foot traffic.
Isaac could already picture the store with simple walls, neat design, a cooling system to preserve the grains, and space for expansion.
By the time Professor Catherine returned, he was already imagining how it’d look.
She handed him two contracts. One for the weekly supply agreement, and one for the immediate land purchase.
Isaac skimmed the first document.
“Valid only until I buy twenty hectares?”
“After that,” Catherine said, “we’ll have to renegotiate. Sanctum of Masters would lose money if we kept selling land to you that cheap forever.”
Isaac nodded. “Makes sense.”
He reviewed the second contract more thoroughly. It was straightforward.
He signed both and transferred the money.
[50,000,000 Obol debited]
[Balance: 176,100,000]
They piled back into the jeep.
Isaac leaned back and pulled out his device. He dialed Nero’s number.
The call connected quickly.
They exchanged greetings. Nero sounded calm as ever.
Then came Vax’s voice, shouting in the background, “Isaac!? You’re on the line!? Let me talk to him!”
The phone switched to speaker mode.
“Isaac!” Vax said, half-shouting. “Man, you’ve been quiet. How are things?”
“Good,” Isaac replied with a smile. “Just going with the same old things.”
“By the way, the guys here wanted me to ask something from you. You think you can sell us a few Vitality Grains? People here are going feral eating the garbage from the cafeteria. It’s tragic.”
“You’re in luck,” Isaac chuckled. “I’m opening a shop tomorrow. You’ll be able to buy them straight from the market.”
There were several cheers in the background. Isaac recognized a few voices. Broon. Thalia. Even Kael.
Nero cut through the noise. “Isaac, was there something you needed?”
“Not really,” Isaac replied. “Just wanted to catch up.”
They chatted for a bit. Then, Isaac casually shifted the conversation.
“Oh, by the way, do you guys know any builders? I need someone to construct the shop.”
There was a pause. They seemed to be asking each other for the contact. Then Vax came back.
“We’ve got Mara’s number. She built your house, right? She went home recently, though.”
“Still, send me her contact,” Isaac said. “She’s good.”
Professor Catherine whistled when the call ended. “I didn’t know my Isaac was shrewd. You got early customers and a builder’s contact in the same call. All while making it look like their idea.”
“That’s just basic conversation skills.”
As the jeep rolled to a stop outside the house, Professor Catherine unbuckled her seatbelt and glanced at Isaac with a strangely casual tone.
“There’s just one problem, though.”
Isaac narrowed his eyes. A quiet throb of unease stirred in his chest. “What problem?”
Catherine didn’t look at him. She opened the door and stepped down. “Mara’s dead.”
Isaac froze mid-movement.
“What?”
“She was working with the assassins who attacked you. We haven’t made it public. People think she went back to her hometown.”
Alice turned to Isaac. Her eyes searched his face. “You were attacked?”
Isaac nodded and grabbed his bag from the back seat. “It wasn’t that serious. Leora took care of it.”
Alice stared at him. “You shouldn’t brush off things like this.”
He offered a shrug, and said nothing. There wasn’t much point arguing when she was right.
They entered the house.
After a while Isaac came outside and harvested the fields.
You have obtained 1000 Tier 1 Vitality Grains.
Constitution: 100 [425 → 525]
Mana: 100 [468 → 568]
This time, he didn’t move to plant new seeds. Instead, he approached Professor Catherine.
“I want to buy more land.”
She smirked. “I figured you’d say that. Here—”
She reached into her satchel and pulled out a sealed scroll.
“Three more hectares. Contract’s ready.”
He unrolled it, skimmed through the contents, and signed it as he sent the money.
[150,000,000 Obols debited]
[Balance: 26,100,000]
He took out thirty mana potions, and poured them over the land.
After evening out the mana, he burned the harvested stalks and spread the ashes carefully across the soil.
Then he paused.
“If I split the nutrients equally across all four hectares, the concentration won’t be enough to grow Tier 1 Vitality Grains, and it will take a day before the concentration reaches that level.
“Should I even out the nutrients or keep them as is?”
Behind him, Alice stepped into the field.
“What are you thinking so hard about?”
“Just debating how to distribute the nutrients. If I spread them out, I’ll lose Tier 1 Vitality Grains for a day. It might deal us a huge blow.”
“How?”
Isaac explained the situation to her.
She thought about it, and nodded slowly. “You should spread them.”
He raised an eyebrow.
“This market’s filled with students,” she explained. “Most of them are tired and hungry. They can’t afford expensive crops, but Tier 0 Grains? They’ll buy them immediately.”
She pointed toward the distant stronghold.
“Word will spread fast through the students since all of them live together. And when it does, high-end clients will follow. By then, your land will be back in shape for Tier 1 crops.”
Isaac gave a thoughtful nod. “So target students first, let them promote the product for us.”
“Exactly.”
He tapped the ground with his foot and activated Sovereign of Land.
Nutrients surged evenly across the five plots. He planted seeds one by one with practiced and clean movements.
The process drained him slightly, but with Constitution at 100 and Spirit Power recovering his mana at 10 Mana per minute, he recovered quickly.
Dinner was almost ready when he walked back in.
Professor Catherine was already seated at the table, looking suspiciously comfortable.
“You’re staying again?” Isaac asked, dropping his gloves on a nearby shelf.
She grinned. “Blame Leora’s cooking.”
Isaac shook his head.
Once cleaned up, he joined the others at the table. Alice took one bite and froze.
“This… this tastes almost as good as the master chefs from our estate,” she said, blinking.
Leora didn’t respond. But Isaac noticed her subtle smile and the way her shoulders lifted ever so slightly. She was proud, no doubt about it.
After they finished eating, Isaac stood up. “I’ll wash the dishes.”
“No,” Alice said quickly. “You should rest. You must be tired from the farmwork. I’ll handle the dishes.”
He raised an eyebrow. “The princess of Calloway? Doing dishes? You’ll probably break half of them.”
She shot him a look. “What does my family name have to do with dishes? I’m good at housework.”
“Oh yeah?” He crossed his arms. “Since when?”
“Isaac Hargraves, I’ll have you know I am perfect in all types of housework. I learned all of it for—”
She stopped mid-sentence.
“For?”
“It doesn’t matter,” she muttered, turning away. “I’ll wash the dishes.”
The two of them were still bickering when a soft clatter drew their attention. Leora was already drying the last plate.
Isaac and Alice exchanged glances, wordless agreement passing between them.
’Let’s never speak of this again.’
Later that night, they showed Alice to her room, which was next to Isaac’s.
As he turned back, he noticed Professor Catherine leaning against the hallway wall, arms folded and a mischievous grin on her face.
“What’s so funny?” he asked.
“I’m just thinking about tomorrow.”
“What about it?”
“It’s the weekend. Emily’s coming.”
“I know that. So?”
Catherine laughed. “So, how exactly are you going to explain another girl staying in your house? You think Emily’s going to buy that whole ’just a friend’ line?”
He froze.
Catherine stepped closer, still smirking. “You punched Selene in public, risked a fight with her entire family, and declared you were going to take Alice away. You think Emily’s not going to be upset?”
Isaac frowned. “It’s not like that.”
“Of course not,” Catherine said, patting his shoulder. “But you’ll still need to explain it properly. Or else, Emily will think her boyfriend cheated on her as soon as he moved away. It would definitely make her cry.”