Chapter 30

Chapter 30

They managed to purchase the estate cheaply.

But it was far too old to immediately live in.

It was a typical three-story country manor.

A stable stood on one side...

And a warehouse on the other.

Unfortunately...

The warehouse had holes in it...

While the stable had half-collapsed.

Fortunately...

The main manor had been built sturdily.

It seemed the interior was the only part that needed serious renovation.

"It's nice and all..."

Jessica looked around.

"But they said magical beasts appear here."

"Don't you think we need at least a proper wall?"

"I already have an idea for that."

Jake answered.

"For now, let's finish repairing the house."

This was the first house Jake had personally purchased since his childhood home had passed to Baron Valentino.

Even in his future memories...

He had never owned a manor like this.

So...

Across his previous life and the future life he experienced...

This was his first real home purchase.

Jake and Jessica immediately hired people and began restoring the estate.

Masons were called to repair collapsed walls.

Carpenters replaced and repaired furniture throughout the interior.

The workers looked confused when they heard they were being paid to restore an abandoned estate standing alone in the middle of nowhere.

Still...

Jake paid them generously.

So they did their jobs properly.

As time passed...

The warehouse and stable were repaired too.

The old manor gradually regained its original appearance.

With a wide, empty plain before it and the mountain rising behind...

The estate finally recovered some of its former dignity.

Jake and Jessica stared at it with deep satisfaction.

A moment later...

Jessica looked slightly worried.

"It's good."

"But isn't this way too big for just the two of us?"

They had not noticed while it was being repaired...

But the house was much larger than expected.

Simply imagining cleaning every corner made Jessica feel exhausted.

Fortunately...

Her concern was unnecessary.

"Now we fill it with people."

Jake had never planned for only the two of them to live here.

"Huh?"

Jessica blinked.

"We're already hiring servants?"

"I thought we'd do that after adding more party members."

"That would waste too much time."

Jake looked at her.

"Why do mercenaries pay ridiculous prices to stay in inns?"

"To solve the problems of food and lodging."

Jake's reasoning was perfectly sensible.

But to Jessica...

Hiring people immediately meant one thing.

Money.

"But servants are expensive."

"I'm rich."

Jake replied simply.

"And I'm going to become even richer."

Because they had bought the estate cheaply...

Jake still had plenty of money.

He also possessed several magic items.

And...

He was a mage.

There were countless ways for a mage to make money.

"Well..."

Jessica hesitated.

"That's true..."

"I just never imagined hiring servants when it's only the two of us."

Jake had once lived as a noble.

Jessica had grown up as a mountain village girl.

Naturally...

Their ways of thinking were different.

Jake had lived several lives...

So he could understand Jessica's perspective too.

He explained it again in simpler terms.

"Are you going to cook?"

Jessica froze.

"I'm not very good at anything except tea."

That single question immediately convinced her.

With Patrick's help...

Jake and Jessica hired two women to handle cooking and general housework.

In order to ask Patrick for help...

They had to tell him they had purchased an estate.

That naturally led to explaining that they had made a large amount of money.

Fortunately...

Patrick was simply happy about their success.

He congratulated them on finally moving out of the inn.

Jenny immediately volunteered to work at their house.

Patrick responded by flicking her forehead.

Instead...

Patrick introduced them to a widow and her daughter.

They were the surviving family of a mercenary friend he had once known...

People Patrick had been helping in his usual meddlesome way.

The mother was in her late thirties.

Her daughter was in her mid-teens.

When Jake and Jessica met them...

Both women seemed somewhat surprised that their prospective employers were a young man and an unmarried woman.

Still...

Their polite greetings immediately gave Jake and Jessica a favorable impression.

The mother still retained traces of beauty despite having suffered through a hard life.

Her name was Hilda.

Her young daughter was named Anne.

Anne's greeting was still awkward.

But Hilda's manners were proper.

"You have experience with this kind of work?"

Jake asked.

"Yes."

Hilda looked slightly nervous.

"When I was younger, I worked as a maid in a noble household."

The moment she saw Jake...

Hilda had realized something.

Unlike the female mercenary beside him...

This young man possessed deeply ingrained noble manners.

Thanks to that...

She immediately understood who held the real authority between the two.

She also realized this job might be more complicated than she had first expected.

"We'll gradually hire more people."

Jake told her.

"Fortunately, you already have experience."

"As the household expands, I'd like you to manage the other servants."

"Understood."

Hilda bowed again.

Jessica had not fully understood the meaning of the conversation...

But Jake had essentially just promised Hilda the future position of head maid.

"You introduced excellent people."

Jake thanked Patrick.

Patrick laughed.

"You really are full of secrets."

"I'm definitely not giving you my daughter."

"Dad!"

"Patrick!"

Jenny and Jessica shouted at the same time.

Jenny immediately looked at Jessica strangely.

Jessica...

On the other hand...

Looked confused about why she herself had shouted.

"Then I'll pay both of you in advance."

Jake returned his attention to Hilda and Anne.

"Come to the estate in about one week."

"Huh?"

Jessica looked at him.

"That late?"

"The repairs are already finished."

"No."

Jake shook his head.

"There's still work left."

Jessica stared at him in confusion.

The next day...

She learned exactly what Jake meant through her entire body.

"You gave me a few days of rest, and now you're making me swing a pickaxe?!"

The next day...

Jessica stood underground beneath the light of a torch...

Smashing a rock with a pickaxe.

While the house was being repaired...

Jake had at least allowed her to remain in one place during Mana Detection training.

But today...

He suddenly ordered her to break rocks.

The boulder Jessica was smashing was embedded in the manor's basement.

Meanwhile...

Jake had already advanced quite far beyond it by using magic to break apart the surrounding soil.

He was currently digging a tunnel from beneath the estate.

His destination...

The underground Hot Spot beneath the mountain behind the manor.

Jake used magic to move through soil.

Whenever stones and boulders blocked his path...

He ordered Jessica to destroy them.

Of course...

Jake could destroy rocks himself, just as he had broken the pillar inside the dungeon.

But after breaking a large rock...

He would have difficulty using magic for quite some time.

So he left the stones to Jessica...

And focused his own magic on the soil.

"I'm not even a Mana User..."

Jessica complained.

"Those people can cut boulders apart with swords."

"What am I supposed to do by beating them with a pickaxe?"

If Jake had not told her this was part of her mana training...

Jessica would have thrown away the pickaxe and escaped long ago.

But lately...

That strange tingling sensation inside her body kept appearing.

So although she complained nonstop...

She continued following Jake's instructions.

"And what about the pickaxe head?"

"At this rate I'm going to ruin it."

"We don't even have that many pickaxes."

"What exactly are you thinking, making me hit a rock that won't even..."

CRACK!

"...It split."

The boulder she had struck while complaining...

Suddenly split cleanly in half.

Jessica stared between the pickaxe and the stone with huge eyes.

Then...

A massive smile appeared across her face.

She lifted the pickaxe again with all her strength.

A very faint light began flowing around it.

"Whoa!"

"Jay!"

"Another one broke!"

Jake heard her cheering from far away.

He smiled faintly.

-The wall is finally beginning to break.

Fatima commented.

She was right.

A wall inside Jessica...

Was beginning to crumble.

Up until now...

Mana had flowed through her body without remaining inside.

But eventually...

There came a moment when the body began containing mana instead of simply allowing it to pass through.

That was the moment someone became a Mana User.

Jessica's wall had remained on the verge of breaking for some time.

The abundant mana around this Hot Spot...

Was finally pushing it over the edge.

That was why Jake had ordered her to keep breaking rocks.

And Jessica was beautifully displaying her talent.

-Though honestly...

Fatima interrupted.

-You mostly made her do it because you needed the rocks broken.

Jake's satisfied smile toward his excellent student froze slightly.

Fatima had exposed the truth.

She was correct.

Jessica did not actually need to smash rocks like a lunatic.

Simply continuing Mana Detection practice in a cave closer to the Hot Spot would have worked.

This is faster.

Jake shamelessly answered.

He could practically hear Fatima sighing inside his mind.

But Jake felt no shame.

If everyone benefited...

What was the problem?

Six days after they began digging...

Jake finally connected the tunnel to the Hot Spot.

The passage stretched for several dozen meters.

It was wide enough for two people to comfortably walk through side by side.

Every rock embedded along the route...

Had been shattered by Jessica.

The dirt Jake excavated...

Along with the stone Jessica broke...

Had been moved to the surface at night through Jake's magic.

As a result...

By the sixth day, when the tunnel was finally completed...

A high stone wall also surrounded the estate.

Jake and Jessica stood at the end of the underground tunnel.

They looked back toward the long passage stretching all the way to the manor basement.

"Good work."

Jake smiled.

"Damn right I worked hard."

Jessica nodded repeatedly.

"Hehehe."

She looked down at the magic dagger in her hand with an expression containing countless emotions.

Unlike before...

The blade glowed red.

Jessica's mana...

Was flowing through it.

She had finally become a Mana User.

If she had been an ordinary soldier...

She would now qualify for immediate promotion to knight status.

She had reached the same level as her childhood friend Conrad.

No...

Among mercenaries with the thief profession...

Jessica might now be the only one.

"So we're finished, right?"

Jessica was delighted to have become a Mana User.

But she was almost equally delighted that the training was finally over.

"The most important part is finished."

Jake answered.

"But there are still things you'll need to help with from time to time."

"What?!"

Jessica immediately shook her head violently.

"There's more?!"

"No!"

"I'm not doing it!"

"I'm already a Mana User!"

Jake ignored her protest completely.

"I think you'll actually enjoy this."

That stopped her.

Jake pointed toward the tunnel behind them.

"I can gradually expand rooms along the passage myself."

"But I can't properly install traps all the way here."

"I can create magical traps..."

"But those alone won't be enough."

Jessica's eyes lit up.

"Traps?"

"Yes."

Jake nodded.

"Use everything you've learned from dungeon exploration."

"Build proper traps."

"A proper traditional mage's laboratory can't have pathetic traps."

As Jake continued...

Jessica's expression became strange.

"Wait..."

She frowned.

"This sounds really familiar."

"What does?"

Jake asked innocently.

"Making a dungeon?"

Jessica's mouth dropped open.

"What?!"

"We're building a dungeon?!"

"Of course."

Jake looked confused.

"What did you think we were making?"

"This is the workshop of an ancient mage."

"Naturally, it's a dungeon."

"Whaaat?!"

"A dungeon?!"

Jessica spun around while making strange noises.

Then she suddenly rushed toward Jake and shoved her face directly in front of his.

"You're saying we're making a dungeon right now?"

"One of those dungeons we've spent our entire lives digging through?"

"And I'm going to be the first thief to build the traps inside this dungeon?!"

Jessica's excitement exceeded even Jake's expectations.

She was already running back through the cave...

Inspecting places where traps might be installed.

Jake watched her disappear and laughed.

Then he turned toward the far end of the cave.

The Hot Spot.

A place where flowing mana gathered.

Even now...

The air itself seemed to ripple with mana.

Unfortunately...

The mana density still seemed lower than it had been in the Great Forest.

-That can't be helped.

Fatima explained.

-The Reality Replication Magic Circle where my research facility was located was already enormous...

-And the one beneath the Imperial Capital is tens of millions of times stronger.

-It's constantly consuming mana.

-Of course the surrounding regions don't have much left.

Just as the magic circle in the valley had absorbed mana from the surrounding valley to operate the laboratory's replication spell...

The enormous Reality Replication Magic Circle beneath the Imperial Capital was currently pulling mana from more than half the continent.

It did not absorb mana as violently as the small valley facility...

But that was exactly why mana throughout the empire was thinner than in the Great Forest.

"Well..."

Jake looked around the Hot Spot.

"I expected that."

"I'll have to make up the difference through hunting."

-You intend to use monster mana stones?

"That's the fastest method."

"Buying large quantities of mana stones would attract too much attention."

"So hunting is the only realistic option..."

Fatima paused.

-Then you'll need more party members.

-If you hunt with unrelated people, it'll be difficult to keep all the mana stones.

Jake smiled faintly.

"Then I suppose it's finally time to recruit the rest of the party."

Names began passing through Jake's mind.

People he had already selected from the future.