Chapter 33.1

“Mary might seem unfamiliar to you all, right? For the record, she’s not a witch but a low-tier adventurer. I once owed her a favor, so we’ve kept in touch. She’s helped supply goods requested by the Witch Assembly in the past.”

Though the exchange between Isabelle and Mary felt conspicuously awkward, and the two women sent each other not-so-subtle signals with their eyes, neither I nor the witches made much of it.

‘Their acting isn’t exactly stellar.’

Of course, I had already concluded that Mary was a disguised member of the Frost Knights and the Archwitch of the Snowfield.

The witches, meanwhile, appeared to be concocting their own theories.

‘She’s probably from the Frost Knights. Not a witch, but perhaps genuinely an adventurer sent as protection?’

‘She’s gorgeous. Maybe she’s here for… honey-trap purposes?’

‘Honey-trap?! After what happened with the Grand Duchess last time?’

‘Shh! Word is he was rejected…’

‘Again?! But they seemed so close! Didn’t she give him a bag as a gift? She’s still carrying it around everywhere!’

‘Her Highness does have high standards, doesn’t she…’

‘Actually, I heard it was the other way around this time.’

‘What?! Count Jin rejected her?’

‘That’s why he didn’t propose at the title ceremony, apparently. And they’ve been avoiding each other ever since.’

‘Then… the woman next to him now…?’

‘Exactly. That must be it.’

‘But I heard Her Highness still has feelings for him. Why else would she keep his seat beside hers at the meetings?’

‘Oh my…’

‘The scandal!’

The longer this went on, the more the witches’ speculative stares at me and Mary began to feel like something out of a daytime drama. Their sparkling eyes practically radiated gossip.

Doing my best to ignore their curiosity-filled gazes, I got to work on helping dismantle the greenhouse farm.

“You haven’t started tearing it down yet, have you?”

“Not yet. A wide-area magic barrier like this is as difficult to dismantle as it is to set up.”n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

“What about the spirits?”

“They’re unusually quiet.”

“We’ll need to finish this before they react.”

Mary and I rode our horses through the vast farm, accompanied by witches flying on their broomsticks.

We inspected the many stone monuments embedded around the greenhouse farm.

The farm was dotted with these white stone pillars, each the size of an adult man’s torso. Their surfaces were intricately inscribed with runes and ritual spells.

“Over the next month, we’ll need to erase the runes and spells carved into these stones. When removing spells like these, it’s critical not to use ice magic right from the start. Instead, we’ll need to slowly dissolve them with the help of water spirits…”

I explained as I examined one of the monuments.

To an outside observer, I probably looked like someone loudly talking to themselves.

“Hmm, hmm, hmm!”

Most of the witches, including Isabelle, seemed only half-listening to my explanation.

It was that cursed tradition of theirs—something frustrating enough to explain why witches had long been overshadowed by the mages of the Magic Towers.

‘Once the North stabilizes, I should consider establishing an academy to train magitech engineers.’

It was clear that relying solely on the witches wouldn’t be enough to foster the North’s economic and magitech growth.

“What should I do then? Oh, let me take notes.”

“…?”

I was caught off guard when Mary spoke up behind me.

‘What’s this?’

Even Isabelle, the most open-minded of the witches, refrained from directly learning from me due to their traditions.

But Mary—despite being a Frost Knight and supposedly bound by the same customs—boldly asked to learn from me.

‘Ah, of course. It’s her forward-thinking mindset that makes her destined to become the Archwitch of the Snowfield.’

Her eagerness didn’t strike me as odd or suspicious.

Having even one enthusiastic student among the witches was refreshing and energizing.

“Well, first, we’ll need to use water-attribute magic stones and ice-attribute magic stones…”

This prompted me to dive deeper into my explanation.

While the other witches pretended not to pay attention, they still listened intently over their shoulders.

Meanwhile, the younger witches who had yet to achieve independence from their masters covered their ears and scurried away, unwilling to break tradition.

Just as we were about to dismantle the first monument…

“What’s happening…?”

“Why are the spirits acting like this?!”

Even though we hadn’t yet begun dismantling the farm, panic erupted.

“The spirits! All the spirits in the North are going berserk!”

Suddenly, witches were screaming and running around in confusion.

Wooooooom!

At the same time, the stone monuments embedded in the greenhouse began glowing brightly.

It was a completely unforeseen phenomenon.

There was no way to intervene in time.

“What’s going on?!”

“The magic reserves! The mana reserves outside the High Tower are converging here!”

“Calm them down! Do something to calm the spirits!”

The magical energy that had sustained the fields and farms across the North rapidly disappeared, all of it channeled through the spirits to the greenhouse farm.

As a result, the greenhouse was now overflowing with an excess of magical energy.

“The crops in the greenhouse are behaving strangely! They’re oozing sap and dying!”

“The soil has turned completely black!”

“The excess magical energy is overwhelming them—they can’t handle it!”

And the situation was worsening by the second.

“Count Jin!”

“Please call me ‘Boss,’ Mary.”

“Boss! I’m so sorry, but I need to leave early.”

Mary was the first to react to the chaos, immediately requesting to leave.

“Leave? In this situation?”

“I’m terribly sorry! But it’s urgent!”

On her very first day, and amidst this emergency, she was asking to leave early. Even as someone who had dealt with countless MZ generation employees on Earth, this was a first for me.

‘Well, the Frost Knights must be in turmoil by now.’

I had a pretty good idea of why she was acting this way.

‘So much for hiding your identity. How sloppy. Tsk.’

I watched Mary squirm like a puppy desperate to go outside before sighing and nodding.

“Very well. Go.”

I didn’t even ask for an explanation before granting her permission.

If we were on Earth, this story would’ve gone viral on employee forums, with countless workers praising me and my company for our understanding.

“Th-Thank you!”

Mary hesitated briefly, as if surprised by how easily I agreed, then quickly mounted her horse and galloped off toward the inner fortress.

‘That must be where the Frost Knights’ headquarters is.’

As I watched her leave, my thoughts turned back to the chaos in the greenhouse farm.

‘The spirits going berserk like this—someone must have caused this deliberately.’

Turning my attention back to the glowing monuments, I began analyzing the situation.

“Stop the spirits! Stop them!”

“They won’t calm down!”

“What is this?! What’s happening?!”