Dust smiled, raised a glass of wine, and gestured to his friend. "It's fine by me as long as you're paying for this feast, hahaha."
Darkness also nodded, "There's no need to be so formal, after all, we fought together."
Aqua, on the other hand, frowned; she wanted to say something but stopped herself. "Hmph, you want my money? It won't be easy," she said, flashing a bright, toothy smile.
Inox, in turn, smiled back at her. He took out a lunchbox he had sneaked out of Aqua's backpack without her noticing and placed it on the table. "Please have this, Goddess of Water, as a token of my appreciation for you."
The prince bowed slightly and used formal language, drawing a smile from Darkness and Dust.
"Hmph..." Aqua let out a huff and tilted her head while puffing out her cheeks, but Inox didn't stop. He uncovered the container, releasing a wonderful aroma that quickly made Aqua stare at the food with sparkling eyes.
"Tsk," the blue-haired girl sighed again. She looked at the prince's mischievous smile and narrowed her eyes, but her nose sniffing, the aroma going to her head, and her outstretched hand already betrayed her reasoning.
"Besides, this right here is a hundred-year-old wine I just bought, Lady Aqua..." Before he could finish speaking, the girl snatched the wine bottle from his hands, hugged it tightly, and started eating Inox's food while giving a thumbs-up.
"Hehehe," the prince's laughter rang out. He patted Aqua's head while looking at Dust and Darkness. "Sometimes you just have to understand what motivates other people to get along with them..."
Kazuma, naturally, accepted without much of a fuss.
"Actually, I still have 400,000 Eris in savings after buying my pots, equipment, and everything else. We'll use this amount of Eris to build a small house on the land, and we can all live there for a while before building something better," Inox said after finding out that Kazuma and Aqua were living in a barn.
Naturally, Dust wouldn't refuse, and Darkness shrugged, although she later made a couple of jokes about Inox wanting to watch her or live with her.
The day ended, and everyone agreed to meet at the guild tavern a week later to be taken to the farmland that Inox was going to buy.
The next day.
Inox bought a one-hectare plot of land from an old farmer who was planning to retire; he didn't meet the same person from the first time, as he had found him unpleasant.
Thanks to the farmer's kindness, the farmland had a section in one corner with a cabin featuring a few rooms, and it was surrounded by a large, slightly old, two-meter-high wall.
The land inside was fertile, with green grass growing all over the place. The soil would need to be prepped to put the plants in and eventually be able to harvest.
Inox nodded to himself upon seeing the land. Then, he verified that the place wasn't too far from the center of Axel-city; it was still inside the city walls, and not far away, there was a potion shop.
Besides the abundant green grass, he noticed that the cabin in the corner, although old, was completely clean. Made entirely of wood with glass windows, it looked like an antique painting.
That day, he paid ten thousand Eris to some men to spend a few hours with him moving the pots from the inn to his new land and placing them in a corner, ready to be transplanted into the soil.
He spent another ten thousand Eris on basic farming equipment like pickaxes, hoes, and so on, grabbed something to eat at the adventurer's guild, and headed to the construction site where Aqua used to work.
"So, a five-bedroom house, a kitchen, two bathrooms, and two showers on old Gedanzi's land?" Rosco, the head contractor builder who was celebrating the completion of that construction project with his friends and employees, spoke casually with Inox.
The prince nodded, looking at the sample blueprint that Rosco always kept with him to talk to certain clients.
"Hehehe, actually, I never thought anyone would buy old Gedanzi's land. I've heard there are some ghosts around there, is that true?" Rosco raised an eyebrow as he drank some of the beer from his glass.
For his part, Inox narrowed his eyebrows. Gedanzi, the nice old man he signed the purchase contract with, hadn't informed him about that. He clicked his tongue and was about to curse when he suddenly calmed down.
Thinking about it for a bit, he remembered that he hadn't felt any ghosts or anything inside the property, so he simply shook his head. "I don't know," he stated.
"Actually, I was just kidding, hahaha," Rosco laughed before pausing. "What is around there is a crazy woman who sells really weird potions. I've gone a couple of times for some back pain I get." He rubbed his temple while shaking his head.
"She is incredibly sexy and beautiful. Her face is like an angel's and her body is like a succubus's, but she's crazy, and..." Rosco looked down before lowering his voice. "She's also very powerful. Some foolish old adventurers tried to intimidate her once, but none of them showed up the next day."
He scratched his head before sighing. "Anyway, the final price is 300,000 Eris and it will be ready in about two days. Of course, we'll use top-quality materials," Rosco nodded.
"Really?" Inox thought. Five days was relatively common; after all, with the builder profession, people here work very fast, but the price surprised him a little.
Thinking about how he used to pay half a million Eris just for a beautiful priestess to spend half an afternoon with him during his days as the prince of Belzerg, Inox couldn't help but feel a sharp pain in his heart.
After agreeing, Inox finally returned to his cabin on his newly purchased land and slept.
The next day.
He got up at six in the morning. First, from a thousand-liter water tank he bought yesterday and filled with water for a total of 15,000 Eris near the cabin, he began scooping out water into large containers to start watering a ten-square-meter section of the dirt.
Then, once the soil was damp, he began to turn it over with a pickaxe, pulled out the rocks and weeds from the overturned dirt, and started breaking it into small pieces with a hoe.
He did a final sweep, removing thorns, shards of glass, and anything that could affect his plants' growth. Finally, the soil was ready for transplanting.
The day ended quickly.
Knock Knock
A sound woke Inox from his sleep. Yawning and looking around, he realized it was coming from the front door. He put on a coat and went out to open it.
"Hehehe, Mr. Inox, we're here as agreed," Rosco's figure was revealed after he opened the door. He smiled, seeing that he had come with five workers carrying construction materials.
"Good morning," Inox greeted. He designated a spot next to his cabin and near the wooden water tank that looked like a wine barrel, and everyone started their work.
Returning to his farming work, Inox divided the land so that each plant would occupy exactly one square meter of soil in the field, and he began to transplant.
He grabbed a shovel and dug a half-meter-deep hole in the center of a square of soil. He went to the corner where there was a pot with a grade 1 carrot blooming.
He broke the pot with a sharp knife and quickly placed the plant along with the fertilizer—which was compressed into the shape of a square—right in the center of the dirt.
When he broke the pot, a unique forest scent reached Inox's nostrils. He had no words to describe it; it was simply a peculiar smell that brought vitality to his newly awakened body.
Smiling, he quickly repeated the process ten times before Rosco interrupted him.
"Mr. Inox, I have to ask, what kind of plant is that?"
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