Isaac checked the status of the gardening tool Tyr had just give him. As soon as the status window appeared before him, he carefully read through every line, curious to see what kind of item the treant had created.
[Gardening Tool.]
[Rank: Mystic.]
[Abilities:]
- Hellroot Cultivation: Plants tended with this tool absorb surrounding mana more efficiently, allowing them to grow healthier and mature at a noticeably faster pace.
- Myre Soil Restoration: Land cultivated with this tool slowly recovers depleted nutrients and naturally purges minor impurities, making it easier to maintain fertile farmland.
- Gentle Harvest: Herbs, fruits, and magical plants gathered with this tool retain their medicinal potency and freshness to the greatest extent possible, reducing accidental damage during harvesting.
- Hell-Ore Resilience: The tool gradually repairs minor wear by absorbing traces of ambient mana, allowing it to remain in excellent condition without frequent maintenance.
Isaac’s lips curved into a faint smile after reading the abilities. The gardening tool was only a Mystic-ranked item, but every ability it possessed was practical instead of flashy, making it far more valuable for Isaac than many combat-oriented treasures of the same rank.
More importantly, this was something Tyr had personally forged for him, and that alone gave it a value that no status window could ever measure.
"Thank you. I will put it to proper use," Isaac said before storing the gardening tool inside his spatial ring.
Tyr’s bark shifted slightly, the grooves forming something that resembled a warm smile, and the treant looked genuinely pleased by his response.
"How about you all come inside? We’ve been standing outside this whole time. I’ll make everyone some coffee." Isaac suggested as he looked at the group.
Freya immediately stiffened after hearing the last sentence. Paul forced an awkward smile that looked more nervous than polite, while Tyr remained completely calm as though nothing unusual had been said. Isaac observed their reactions for a moment before narrowing his eyes.
"Who told you about my cooking?" he asked. To be honest, there was only one person who would spread strange rumor about his cooking.
"C-Cooking? What are you talking about?" Freya replied with a noticeable stutter.
"Oh, you don’t know? Then it’s nothing. Come inside, and I’ll make some coffee," Isaac said with an easy smile.
Freya’s expression became increasingly complicated over the next few seconds. She looked confused, then alarmed, then quietly accepted whatever fate awaited her, especially after Paul gently patted her shoulder as though comforting someone before an execution.
"Then... please lead the way," Freya said with a defeated expression.
As they walked into the house, Isaac sensed faint mana fluctuations passing between Freya and Paul. They were subtle, but impossible for him to miss, and he quickly concluded that they were communicating through some kind of item. Judging by the timing, they were almost certainly discussing his cooking without saying it aloud.
Isaac brought everyone into the living room before heading toward the kitchen. As he glanced around, he realized something rather ’coincidental.’ Every other person who had been in the living room had somehow disappeared.
He was absolutely certain they had heard him mention cooking. Somehow, they had all found an excuse to vanish before he even stepped into the kitchen. Isaac resisted the urge to sigh aloud.
’Do they really have to react like this? Even if my cooking isn’t perfect, it’s not like I’m serving toxic waste. Besides, with our stats, we could probably survive eating actual toxic waste anyway,’ he grumbled inwardly.
Putting those thoughts aside, Isaac focused on preparing the drinks. It didn’t take him long to brew four cups of coffee, each prepared with the same care he usually gave to anything involving ingredients.
By the time he returned, Tyr had reduced himself to a much smaller size and was comfortably sitting on Freya’s shoulder. The little treant jumped onto the table, increased his size just enough to reach the cup comfortably while sitting on the table, and happily sipped his coffee through the straw Isaac had thoughtfully placed inside.
Paul was the first to reach for his cup. Isaac could tell the blacksmith wasn’t completely convinced by the ’rumors’ and wanted to see the truth for himself instead of blindly believing someone else’s opinion. He took a sip, then immediately froze.
Freya watched Paul for several seconds before cautiously picking up her own cup. After taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes and took a careful drink. A moment later, she also became completely still.
"Th... this is good," she said in a shocked voice while staring into her cup. "No, it’s much better than good. I honestly haven’t had coffee this good in years."
Isaac maintained a calm expression despite feeling rather satisfied inside. Hearing genuine praise for something he had personally prepared felt surprisingly rewarding, even if he didn’t let it show on his face.
Honestly, Isaac felt the Conqueror Trial was worth it just because he could not make a good coffee.
"It’s quite different from what Celia told you, isn’t it?" Isaac asked.
"Yes, it’s completely different from what she—" Freya suddenly stopped speaking and quickly covered her mouth. Realizing she had accidentally revealed the source of the rumors, she lowered her eyes with obvious embarrassment.
Isaac didn’t say anything immediately. He simply took another sip of his coffee while keeping the same composed expression. Internally, however, his thoughts were much less peaceful.
’You’re dead, Celia. Just wait until I get my hands on you.’
He ground his teeth for a brief moment before calming himself. Of course, he loved Celia, and he never doubted that she loved him just as much. She had proven that during Catherine’s trial when she willingly sacrificed herself to let him live for a bit more despite knowing that using the purification potion would have allowed her to live out the rest of her natural lifespan, unlike him who would gain only a few years.
Remembering that still filled him with warmth. At the same time, however, it didn’t excuse her constant habit of causing unnecessary trouble wherever she went.
That devil simply had no concept of restraint.
"Uhm, Lord Isaac, please don’t be too angry with Lady Celia. She praises you a lot too. In fact, we once overheard a few of her fans badmouthing you in a café. She fought them angrily without any hesitation, saying she disliked anyone who badmouthed you," Freya said awkwardly after noticing his silence.
Isaac simply nodded. He understood what Freya was trying to do, but she quickly realized she wasn’t going to change his mind. In the end, she could only smile helplessly before the conversation naturally drifted toward other topics.
The four—three—of them chatted for a while longer about Tyr’s craftsmanship, upcoming farming plans, and a few recent developments around the territory. The atmosphere gradually became much more relaxed, and before long, Freya, Paul, and Tyr excused themselves and left.
Once they were gone, Isaac activated the Soulbind Pendant and entered its internal space. The moment he appeared, countless Happy Bunnies noticed his arrival and rushed toward him with overwhelming enthusiasm. They moved so recklessly that one of the nearby mansion walls exploded outward as they charged straight through it instead of running around.
Their strength had clearly increased once again. Thankfully, Isaac himself had also become much stronger over the past several hours. Otherwise, getting tackled by so many Overlord-ranked Happy Bunnies at the same time would have left even him with a few injuries.
"Alright, alright. I’ll play with everyone, so you don’t need to drag me there," Isaac said with a laugh as the rabbits piled onto him.
The Happy Bunnies completely ignored his words. They buried him beneath a mountain of fluffy bodies before happily carrying him away toward the open fields.
After the original Isaac disappeared into the energetic crowd, another Isaac quietly appeared nearby. His clone walked over to Celeste, who was standing exactly where she had been supervising the bunnies.
"How is everyone doing?" he asked.
Celeste looked at him with her usual calm expression, but the dark circles beneath her eyes immediately caught his attention. Dragon maids were Apex-ranked species with incredible vitality, so for everyone of them to look this exhausted after only a single day, the Happy Bunnies must have pushed them far beyond anything words could describe.
Even so, none of them had voiced a single complaint since he arrived, and they continued carrying out their duties with their usual professionalism.
"It’s no problem, Master. The children are listening to us nicely," Celeste said with her calm expression still intact.
Isaac nodded as he looked at her face more carefully. The dark circles beneath her eyes made it obvious she was stretching the truth, but he also understood why she answered that way.
Saying the work was too difficult would be the same as admitting they weren’t capable of handling the task, and Celeste would never willingly say something like that. Knowing this, Isaac simply let the matter rest.
"Master," Celeste called after a brief silence. Isaac turned toward her and waited for her to continue.
"Yes?" he asked.
"Could you provide us with some more rations? The food we have won’t last much longer." Celeste said carefully.
Isaac frowned slightly, confused by the request. Without another word, Celeste handed him a neatly organized report containing the current food stock inside the mansion along with the amount consumed since the Happy Bunnies had appeared. He lowered his eyes to the document and began reading through the numbers.
A moment later, Isaac was completely stunned. The Happy Bunnies had consumed nearly half of everything his farms produced in a single day, and that figure was far more shocking than he had expected. His farms were enormous, and with his farming abilities, the amount of food he harvested every day was already considered outrageous by normal standards.
He slowly massaged his brows before looking back at Celeste.
"I’ll have Selene transfer all the spare food from our warehouse over here," he said after thinking for a moment. "Do you think they’ll continue eating this much, or are they only consuming so much because they’re rapidly growing into the strength expected of their rank?"
"Normally, it would be the former. But I’m honestly not sure in their case. We’re still observing them, so I can’t say with confidence whether their appetite will stabilize or remain at this level," Celeste replied.
Isaac nodded thoughtfully as he considered her answer. A food shortage would be disastrous for most Lords, but his situation was different. His greatest strength had always been farming, and with the vast amount of land inside the Soulbind Pendant, increasing food production was much easier than limiting the number of Happy Bunnies.
The more he thought about it, the clearer his decision became. An army of Overlord-ranked Happy Bunnies was simply too valuable to give up because of food consumption alone. If feeding them required expanding his farms several times over, then that was exactly what he would do.
After making up his mind, Isaac sent several of his clones deeper into the Soulbind Pendant to begin cultivating new farmland immediately. With enough ’workers’ and enough land, increasing production was only a matter of time.
Once that matter had been settled, Isaac returned to the mansion and took a seat in the living room. Through his clones, he called all of his wives to gather for a meeting. Unsurprisingly, one person failed to appear.
Celia was nowhere to be seen. Isaac smiled coldly, knowing why the devil was missing. That chaos gremlin had clearly figured out he knew she was responsible for spreading rumors about his cooking, so she had wisely decided to stay out of his sight for the time being.
A few minutes later, the others entered the living room one after another. Selene arrived while wiping her damp hair with a towel, suggesting she had only recently finished bathing. She looked around briefly before turning her attention toward Isaac.
"Isaac, you called us?" she asked.
"Yes. I wanted to discuss the rewards I received from the Conqueror Trial. Since I’m planning to distribute them among all of you, I think we should decide together who gets what," Isaac replied.