Alice bit her lip as she watched Isaac remain silent.
For a moment she wondered if she had said displeased him. The thought of Isaac being displeased with her was strangely heart wrenching.
But she understood why he would be displeased.
Alice had always been selfish when it came to Isaac. She had kept him away from other women, and now she was doing the opposite. Now she was asking him to be with someone else.
Her own sister.
Alice lowered her gaze slightly.
Did Isaac even like Selene that way? Alice knew Isaac had warmed up to her over time. Their conversations were easy, and Selene clearly enjoyed being around him. But Isaac was also the type who held grudges longer than most people realized.
Maybe he had simply hidden his displeasure because of Alice. Maybe he tolerated Selene because she was her sister. And now Alice was asking him to go to Selene willingly.
For her own motives.
The thought made her chest feel strange.
But she couldn’t bear to see Selene unhappy, and seeing Selene happy made her happy.
Selene herself probably hadn’t even realized it yet. She never showed jealousy when Isaac talked to other women. That wasn’t the problem. The problem was the quiet look she sometimes had when she watched them together.
It wasn’t envy.
It was the realization that she had no place in that kind of relationship with him.
Alice slowly exhaled and tried to clear her thoughts.
She had never been good with complicated emotions. When problems appeared, she preferred to deal with them directly. Once she made a decision, hesitation only made things worse.
So she pushed forward.
"Isaac, Selene likes you."
Isaac still didn’t say anything.
Alice tightened her lips and continued anyway.
"So be with her."
A small, wry smile slowly appeared on Isaac’s face.
He studied Alice quietly for a moment. Her tone was firm, and her eyes carried a stubborn conviction that he knew very well.
"What about my feelings?" he asked with a teasing voice. "You didn’t ask how I feel about this."
"...do you dislike her?" she asked, biting her lip again.
Isaac chuckled softly and stepped forward.
There was no hesitation in his movements. Inside, he was actually surprised by how light he felt. Hearing those words from Alice had removed a burden he didn’t even realize he had been carrying.
It helped him accept something he had been avoiding himself.
Outwardly, though, he kept his teasing smile.
He wrapped his arms around Alice’s waist and pulled her closer.
"Are you really sure you want me to try being together with Selene? I thought you hated the idea of my hands touching other women," he said casually.
Alice looked up at him but didn’t respond.
Isaac continued in an exaggeratedly serious tone.
"What if I get corrupted by seducing Selene and start liking it too much? Then I might go around putting my hands on every woman I meet. I think I should show some restraint."
"Isaac," Alice said flatly. "This is not the moment to joke."
"I am serious. Don’t you know my God Domains are harem, lustful, and NTR? Clearly destiny has already decided the kind of man I’m supposed to be," he replied with a disheartened expression.
Alice tried to frown, but the corner of her lips twitched.
She knew Isaac hated those domains more than anyone else. The fact that he was joking about them made the whole thing sound ridiculous.
He was clearly trying to lighten the mood.
Still, this was an important matter.
"Isaac, about Selene—"
"I’ll tell you what," Isaac interrupted casually, his expression changing once again to a teasing one. "Let’s sleep together tonight. If your performance is good, I’ll consider your proposal."
Alice blinked.
His words were shameless.
Yet the tone he used made it sound so forced that she almost laughed.
Isaac clearly thought he was delivering some perfect sleazy line. In reality, he sounded like someone trying far too hard.
Before Alice could drag the conversation back to the main issue, Isaac suddenly lifted her off the ground.
"Isaac—"
"Discussion postponed," he said calmly.
He carried her straight toward his room.
Normally he would have worried about looking suspicious to the troops stationed at the Ladder of Heavens stronghold.
But things were different now.
Tomorrow they were leaving.
His main body would remain inside the stronghold, hidden and farming. From the outside, everyone would believe that Isaac and Alice had been ’captured’ by the Sword Empress’s army while outside.
It was the perfect cover.
Since they were leaving tomorrow, Isaac didn’t feel the need to keep up appearances tonight.
Which meant he had absolutely no reason to pretend he wasn’t taking Alice to his room.
The next morning, Isaac and Alice left the stronghold quietly.
The entire fortress was under strict surveillance. Patrols moved constantly along the walls, and multiple detection formations covered the surrounding area.
Normally slipping out would be extremely difficult.
But things were different when two of the highest authorities inside the Ladder of Heavens were helping you.
Dean Avery.
And Dean Selene.
With both of them arranging things behind the scenes, Isaac and Alice passed through the heavy surveillance without anyone noticing.
At the same time, another one of Isaac’s clones had already departed earlier. That clone was heading toward several nearby kingdoms to negotiate alliances with the Ladder of Heavens.
That mission required secrecy as well.
Meanwhile Isaac’s real body stayed behind.
More specifically, it stayed inside the Soulbind Pendant.
The pendant rested quietly with Selene and Avery while Isaac worked inside its internal space.
He had decided to use the time productively.
Farming.
The first step was clearing land.
That turned out to be much easier than expected. Isaac’s summons handled most of the labor. With coordinated effort they removed trees, leveled the ground, and prepared irrigation channels.
Within a short time they had finished preparing an enormous stretch of land.
Roughly one thousand hectares.
Isaac stood at the edge of the field and looked across the wide area.
He could technically expand the farmland even further. There was enough space inside the Soulbind Pendant to support much more.
But the problem was efficiency.
His farming abilities consumed mana depending on the area being cultivated. Once the farmland crossed a certain size, the mana cost increased dramatically.
If he pushed beyond one thousand hectares, the mana consumption would become excessive. That would reduce his overall productivity.
Instead, keeping the farm at this size was far more efficient.
His crops matured quickly thanks to his skills. While they grew, Isaac could recover his mana and then repeat the process. Over the course of a full day, that cycle would produce a much larger total yield.
Isaac crossed his arms while thinking.
"Now the question is what I should plant."
He opened his storage and looked at the seeds he had brought from the future.
Most of them were designed for a very specific purpose.
Maximum nutrition.
Maximum energy density.
In the future era where he came from, those crops were extremely valuable for feeding large populations and sustaining soldiers during long campaigns.
But this era was different.
"These seeds might not even suit the soil conditions here," he muttered.
He went to Avery to ask for grains.
As it turned out, his crops from future era were needed. Avery had told him before that many kingdoms were fighting over treasures left by Celestial Kitsune Race. These wars were perfect places to sell his high nutrition and energy crops.
The surprise, however, was something else.
Dean Avery and Dean Selene were the highest-ranking troops in Ladder of Heaven after Stronghold General (who had teleported away with Sword Empress and yet to return).
It meant, Avery and Selene had a huge authority. They snapped their fingers and dozens of special seeds were brought before Isaac.
"...is this heaven?" he murmured. He quickly grabbed a list that had been prepared with the names of each crop.
He began reading.
"Sungrain Wheat."
"Crimson Iron Barley."
"Moonroot Tuber."
"Azure Spirit Rice."
"Silverleaf Millet."
"Golden Pulse Beans."
Each one had its own unique traits and uses in alchemy.
Isaac’s eyes practically lit up.
Selene watched him with an amused expression. Her mood had improved after they found a visible solution to the Quest.
"Are you really that happy?" she asked.
"Yes. I’m very happy," Isaac replied immediately.
He looked down at the seeds again.
"These crops can produce a lot of different harvests. Some can be used directly as food, some as ingredients, and their harvest can bring a lot of alchemy materials. And if I bring the crops back to the future later, they’ll bring tremendous results."
He was already imagining the possibilities.
Better potions.
Better food.
More resources for alchemy.
His mind was racing with ideas.
Selene shook her head with a soft laugh.
"Seeing you this excited about farming is strangely amusing."
"Well, farming is extremely profitable," Isaac said seriously. "Oh, right. What about livestock?"
"They should arrive in a few hours. Avery already arranged it earlier. Once they are brought here, you can collect their genes and whatever else you need," Selene replied.
Isaac nodded slowly.
Selene watched him for a moment and realized she was smiling without noticing it.
Right now they were both inside the Soulbind Pendant. Avery was outside dealing with matters in the stronghold, leaving the two of them some quiet time while Isaac prepared his farming work.
Isaac had already started sorting the seeds Avery had given him. Containers were lined up on the table, and he was checking them one by one while making notes about which crops he would plant first.
He looked unusually focused.
Or maybe excited was the better word.
Selene rested her chin on her hand while watching him move around the field preparations.
The summons were finishing the last adjustments to the soil.
Crimson Sky Wyrm was holding a huge bucket in sky and pouring mana potion over the land as it flew. The N’theris Serpent was learning commanding other summons through the Mammoth while he gave commands. Genos—the Metavore Hivemind—was building robots to help with field work.
Isaac walked across the farmland and occasionally stopped to inspect something.
Watching Isaac, reminded Selene of a child who had just received a new toy.
After a while Isaac suddenly stopped walking.
A thought had crossed his mind.
He turned around and looked at Selene.
"Hey," he said.
"Yes?"
"Isn’t using your and Avery’s position as Deans a bit too much of a cheat for my Talent?"
Selene raised an eyebrow.
"What do you mean?"
Isaac walked back toward her and crossed his arms while thinking.
"My Talent’s main problem are my mana pool, and availability of seeds. But right now Avery just snapped his fingers and dozens of rare seeds appeared in front of me. It almost feels like I’m exploiting your authority. And..."
He added slowly,
"What would happen if we bought potions or treasures out of this place to our world? Things like swords, artifacts, or rare materials. Normally, items taken from Quests disappear once you leave, even if you store them inside a spatial ring."
Selene nodded. That part was common knowledge.
Isaac continued.
"But we have the Soulbind Pendant. Do you think it might bypass that restriction? Could we bring things back with us?"
"Ah..."
Selene fell silent.
She hadn’t thought about that before.
After a few seconds she answered carefully.
"I think... it might work. The Soulbind Pendant is definitely special. It allows us to bring people inside it, which already breaks the normal rules of Quests."
She paused and looked around the farmland for a moment.
"After all, this Quest was supposed to be completed by a single person. But we brought several people with us, and the System didn’t stop us."
Isaac nodded slowly.
Selene continued.
"But the System might still react if we push things too far. If we try to take too many things back, it might interfere somehow. That means—"
"We can still bring things back as long as we stay within a certain limit."
Selene blinked.
Isaac had already reached the conclusion before she even finished explaining.
"We should ask Avery what he thinks about this. She probably knows more about how the System behaves during large-scale Quests."
He was already smiling now.
If potions, weapons, and treasures from this era could actually be taken back to the future...
That would be an incredible opportunity.
Isaac was already imagining the possibilities.
Rare swords.
Ancient artifacts.
Alchemy materials that no longer existed in the future.
By the time the Quest ended, he might walk away with an absurd amount of wealth.
Selene watched him quietly.
When she saw the grin on his face, she couldn’t help giving an awkward smile.
Since when was Isaac this materialistic?
Was... this his dragon bloodline acting up?
...
Author’s Note:
This is regarding the slow updates for the past week. I didn’t want to share the reason, since it is personal, but after much deliberation, I came to conclusion that I should explain everything to you guys, who are paying your hard-earned money for this novel (for which I’m very thankful).
My mom has been hospitalized. I’ve been staying with her in hospital.
I do have a lot of time to write in the hospital, but I can’t get myself to do so. Gathering Wives with a System is a ’relaxing novel’, something that is supposed to help readers and myself de-stress. Writing the Chapters for it these days, when I’m in a shitty mental health, is hard.
I will try my best to keep the updates regular. Sorry about this.