On March 21st, the eve of the Magic Duel tournament—
Everything was in full swing.
Nora had been working nonstop these past few days, often so exhausted that she fell asleep the moment her head hit the pillow.
This, unfortunately, deprived Ron of much of his usual pre-sleep "entertainment."
As a hands-off boss, Ron technically had even more matters to oversee, but now he only needed to give orders—others handled execution.
And as a third-tier warrior, he was in excellent physical condition and didn't feel fatigued at all.
Nora, however, was still an ordinary person. Her management skills, while improving, were still developing. If she didn't personally verify things, she couldn't feel at ease.
Combined with long hours of work, she would have already collapsed from exhaustion if not for daily resin baths and pine-needle tea.
Even so, every night, Ron quietly cast wood-element healing magic on her, ensuring she recovered properly.
As Nora continued using resin treatments, her physical condition gradually improved.
It wasn't just her skin—her internal organs, bones, and blood were all slowly becoming healthier and more resilient.
In a few months, this level of workload might not even affect her anymore.
After breakfast, Nora bid Ron farewell and headed to the Magic Duel arena through the storage room portal.
Tomorrow was the start of the preliminaries, and there was still a mountain of work to handle.
Registration would close at 6 PM tonight.
Based on estimates, the number of participants would likely exceed 1,800.
This posed a massive logistical challenge.
All seven floors of the arena would be fully opened, dividing players into groups of around 200 per floor.
That way, the pressure on space would be manageable.
With 1,800 participants and 10 matches per person—
That meant 18,000 matches.
Fortunately, each match was a single round.
Spread across 7–8 days, that was roughly 2,300–2,400 matches per day.
Divided across seven floors—about 300+ matches per floor daily.
Each match took 3–10 minutes on average. Assuming a maximum of 20 minutes per match (including prep time), and 11 hours of operation per day—
Each arena could handle 30+ matches daily.
Thus, each floor required at least 10 battle platforms.
And beyond calculations, countless real-world variables had to be accounted for.
All of this fell on Nora.
Yet she enjoyed it.
Because only in this way did she feel truly useful—not just someone by Ron's side, but someone who could support him.
Even in the worst case—if one day Ron grew tired of her—she believed her management skills would still allow her to remain by his side.
So everything she was doing now had meaning.
Ron, of course, had no idea about her inner thoughts.
To him, women could and should have their own careers—like Nora, like Mia.
So when she left after breakfast, he simply patted her head encouragingly and told Yuna to wash the dishes.
After everyone left, Yuna pouted, summoned her loli puppet body to do the dishes, and turned herself into a shadow.
"Hmph!"
Her voice echoed before the shadow vanished into the floor.
Ron suppressed a laugh, returned to his study, and read for a while.
When Guy and Sylvie arrived, he brought them to Tansen City.
Stepping through the storage room portal, they arrived at the flower shop branch in Tansen City.
The shop was purely decorative—no real business happened here.
Though the price list was posted and a clerk was hired, there were no plants in stock.
After all, everything was priced in gold coins—completely unaffordable for locals.
And without wealthy nobles, there were no high-end customers.
For Ron, this place was just a teleport hub.
"Your Highness, our people are still on the way. They should arrive before noon," Guy reported.
"Then let's visit the convent first," Ron said, looking at Sylvie. "The first batch of nuns arrived, right?"
"Yes, last night."
Soon, they arrived at the outskirts between Tansen City and the Forest of Freyst.
The area had been cleared.
Two convents were completed, three more were under construction, and vast empty farmland awaited development.
Inside, nuns were finishing their prayers.
After greetings, Ron led them to the fields and explained their tasks.
With a wave of his hand, rows of Chameleon Radish appeared—instantly forming a plantation.
Then, he distributed wooden staffs embedded with two "sweet potatoes"—
one blue, one yellow.
The nuns stared in confusion.
"These are… Element Potatoes?"
Ron didn't explain immediately.
Instead, he demonstrated.
Activating the staff, water, and earth elements flowed from the embedded Element Potatoes.
Green light flared—
Plant Growth Spell.
A previously harvested Chameleon Radish instantly regrew, producing fresh Element Cards.
The nuns were puzzled.
"We can already use Plant Growth Spell ourselves… what's the point of the staff?"
Ron smiled.
"What if you had to cast it thousands of times a day?"
Silence.
Even the strongest among them couldn't sustain that.
Understanding dawned.
These staffs—created by Illya—used Element Potatoes as energy sources, allowing near-limitless casting.
Unlike traditional elemental stones, which would need frequent replacement, Element Potatoes could last months.
Massive cost savings.
By noon, several high-speed carriages arrived.
They moved at three times normal speed, glowing with magical engravings.
Two groups stepped out:
~30 experienced nuns from the City of Chaos
~10 skilled workers proficient with Heartvine
The veterans would train the newcomers.
Ron also distributed mahjong sets, spreading the glory of "War of the Gods" to Tansen City.
The experienced nuns grinned—finally, fresh "victims."
Then came the highlight—
"Is this the Element Vehicle?" Guy asked.
Ron nodded.
"This is just version 1.0—still horse-drawn. Future versions will run purely on Element Potatoes."
Guy was stunned.
After lunch, Ron visited the factory.
New workers arrived—poor, ragged, visibly nervous.
Ron sighed internally.
"Guy, distribute uniforms."
Clean clothes, bathhouses, structure—
dignity.
He then had veteran workers mingle with newcomers.
Because nothing builds bonds faster than shared hardship.
Before leaving, Ron ordered the Element Vehicles sent back to the Royal Capital.
Then he returned as well.
On the way, he bought candied hawthorn for Nora—and snacks for the staff.
A good boss delegates.
He also takes care of his people.