84 Chapter 84: Visitors
Rezen’s Farm
It was already late in the afternoon when Rezen returned to his farm along with his Nightmare Crows
A thousand and five hundred crows were a huge number. The farm would be filled with crows if Rezen let them stay there
Fortunately, in these two weeks, Rezen has accomplished a lot of things. He already purchased the land surrounding him and overall, Rezen now has ten acres of land. That’s nearly ten times the size of his original farm!
Having connections is really wonderful! Rezen managed to buy such a large plot of land in a short period of time
However, that is only partly because of the location. His farm is a territory of the Greenwood City but is outside of it
He was close to the wild where magic beasts live. This causes the price of the land to become cheap and the government would be more than happy to sell land that almost no one would want to buy
With Rezen’s expanded farm, he uses two acres of land for his house and the house of his subordinates. That two acres aside from the middle part was filled with cherry blossom trees! Almost like a mini-forest!
Rezen’s house was basically surrounded by trees and that is for his safety. In those trees, the Nightmare Crows live
If an enemy arrives, they would have to face the Nightmare Crows first before they can get to Rezen
He felt proud for thinking of such a design!
Rezen walked while admiring the trees around him. For aesthetic purposes, he even chose to plant cherry blossoms trees!
His farm even ‘helped’ him. Even though it was still not spring yet, the flowers were already pink in color!
While normal cherry blossoms have a smell similar to a very faint scent of lilac, these cherry blossoms trees were fragrant but not the overpowering type of fragrant
Rezen even has a hunch that these trees would be pink all year round. His farm has turned into a paradise though the view is somewhat ruined by the crows
The crows and cherry blossom trees don’t really make a good pair
Still, this small paradise has the ability to lift up everyone’s mood, Rezen’s included
When Rezen arrived, just like what happened in the past weeks, his subordinates weren’t there to greet him
The way that Zero acted arrogantly when he was the only one that saved their Master made the other artificial humans feel bitter
For two straight weeks, they all went to train and search for spirit plants that would help them grow stronger
“Sigh… in the past, when they always greet me enthusiastically I feel awkward. But now that they aren’t here, I feel a bit sad” Rezen said with a sigh when a particular crow landed on his shoulder
He recognizes it as the first crow that he enslaved and also the only one that survives when he was attacked by a flock of Wind Sparrows
“Roo, you’re still a glutton. We just arrived yet you already want to eat” Rezen said while poking the crow
Since this crow has become special to Rezen, he gave it a name
“Here, eat your Spring Almonds” Rezen said
Fortunately, the trees of the Spring Almonds are permanent unless Rezen decided to cut them down and they bore almonds fast. The crows can just fly on the small trees of Spring Almonds if they want to eat
But as for Roo, it always wanted to be fed by its Master. It became spoiled after all the preferential treatment that Rezen gave to it
“Alright, go play or whatever. I have to cook” Rezen said and Roo flew from his shoulder
Outside of the Mushroom Homes was an outdoor kitchen. It has stoves, grillers, ovens, tables, etc.
Since Rezen has eleven subordinates, most of the time, when he decided to cook, he would cook enough portions for them
It feels a bit bad if he cooks only for himself. As such, for convenience’s sake, he decided to build an open-air kitchen (ordered his subordinates)
Granted, this type of kitchen is not 100% hygienic but Rezen doesn’t think that it would be that bad
Rezen gathered the tools and ingredients he would need first before starting
The first on his agenda was peeling and cutting both garlic and onions. These two were a staple. There were countless meals that needed them to cook
Since Rezen is feeding more than ten people, he needs more than a single piece of them
“La~ lalala~ lala~” he hummed while peeling the garlic and onion. When he was done, he grabbed the onion first
Rezen placed the onion on the chopping board and he cut it with a knife, turning the whole onion into minced onion before he placed them inside a bowl
After the onion was the garlic and Rezen also minced them and put them into a separate bowl
Rezen cut some more vegetables and every vegetable went into different bowls
After cutting various vegetables, Rezen moved on. The first thing on his agenda was the fried eggs since it was the easiest to make
He cracked the four large eggs in a bowl and beat them with a whisk since he like scrambled eggs better than sunny side up. He doesn’t know what kind of magic beasts these eggs came from but they should be edible, right?
After all, there are many people that eat the eggs of various magic beasts
After beating the eggs, Rezen added store-bought salt and milk along with his personally grown peppers
Rezen heated a pan and placed butter in it. When the butter melted, Rezen put the garlic and onion at the same time
People argue what should go first between garlic and onion but Rezen always fry them at the same time
When the garlic and onion were cooked and golden, only then did Rezen add the egg mixture and he cooked it slowly
The aroma wafted in the air, inducing a person’s appetite. Rezen was not yet hungry but he already wanted to eat his fried eggs
He focused on fighting the temptation while cooking the scrambled egg when he felt the movement of mana in the air
His more than a thousand crows were stirred and they used their own magic. It is impossible for a mage not to notice the movement of mana with this intensity
“Hmm? What’s happening?” Rezen muttered. He turned off the fire from the stove before calling out his crow-type gem and used a spell that would help him share a vision with his crows
Outside of the cherry blossom trees were two people, both women. One is familiar to Rezen but the other one is not
“Ah, right! Only Rain and Neil picked up the spirit plants. I forgot to have the crows remember Florine’s face!” Rezen said to himself
His crows were his farm’s defenders but they don’t exactly know who is a threat and who is a friend
Those crows were attacking Florine and the unknown woman. Fortunately, Florine alone is powerful enough to block the attack from the crows and she doesn’t have to kill them to prevent getting hurt
Rezen washed his hands first and removed his apron before speeding up to where Florine is
“Sister, I’m sorry. My crows are just overprotective” Rezen apologizes after he arrives
He sent his will to his crows and they calmed down. The crows retreated back to their trees, bringing back the peace in the surroundings
“When I learned that you are walking the path of enslavers and placed cherry blossom trees on your farm, this is not what I expected” Florine commented, the side of her lips twitching
It has only been two weeks since Rezen asked for books about crow-type magic yet he already enslaved this many crows!
The majority of them were even at the 3rd rank!
Not to mention, the cherry blossoms…
The more she interacts with Rezen, the more she felt that he was unfathomable
“Yeah, I was a bit busy and I only have this many crows” Rezen replied while scratching the back of his head
Since he also saves time for enjoyment, he has less time to enslave crows. If not, he would have more than 1,500 crows
His ‘humble’ words cause Florine’s face to twitch harder
“Little brother, were you cooking?” The woman with Florine asks
This woman looks even younger than Rezen and she was wearing a long white dress
Her long purple hair was in a Romantic Braid style that really suits her
This young woman from head to toe looks like someone that came from a rich family but since Florine brought her here, she shouldn’t be a bad person
“Little girl, I look older than you are. I think I should be the one calling you little sister” Rezen said
Just like most people, he has a soft spot for cute things or people. This young woman fits the criteria for being cute and in Rezen’s eyes, she was very lovable
But of course, appearance-wise, there is still no one that can beat Claude