After tidying up the living room, Ron called out to Nora just as she was about to head downstairs. He pulled out a Scalevine from his backpack and handed it to her.
"Boss, what's this?" Nora took the slender vine curiously.
"This is a Scalevine—the third product of our shop," Ron replied with a smile. "It's not officially for sale yet, so I'm giving you one in advance."
"Just drip a drop of your blood on it each day. In fifteen days, it'll recognize you as its master. When you're in danger, its leaves can open to shield you."
Nora looked down at the vine in shock, carefully examining it. She instinctively tried to refuse: "Boss… this is too valuable…"
Ron's expression immediately turned stern.
"This is part of our standard employee package—just like your uniform. It's not a gift; it still belongs to the shop in principle. I'm only letting you use it."
"You saw what happened yesterday—an assassin tried to kill me. You're just a staff member, so you probably won't be targeted, but we still have to be careful."
"If something happens to you, who's going to watch the shop, wash dishes, and clean the place?"
Nora understood that the Boss was just using the excuse of "employee safety" to give her a Scalevine. She felt deeply moved.
Knowing that the Boss was worried for her safety, she happily accepted it.
Since Scalevine hadn't officially gone on sale at Ron's Wonderful Flower Shop yet, Ron could freely distribute the ones produced in his breeding space.
Once he transplanted the Scalevine to the wooden rails on the first floor of the shop, that would mark the official product launch.
Its price would then be listed on the shop's board, and after that, anyone who wanted one would have to pay.
Nora went downstairs, delighted, holding her gift tightly.
Ron followed, gave her a few instructions, and then left the shop for his usual trip to the Chaos City Magic Academy.
"Once the ritual is over, I'll officially become the Goddess's Proxy for the Church of the Goddess of Harvest."
"That means I'll be able to command all convents across the Empire."
"Plant Growth Spell is only a Tier-2 spell. Calling in twenty or thirty nuns who are Tier-2 mages shouldn't be too hard, right?"
"That solves the whole Chameleon Radish planting issue."
Ron walked along the road to the academy, planning his next steps in his mind.
Happiness had come far too suddenly.
Just last night, he'd been worrying about how to plant Chameleon Radish outside the breeding space—and now someone had shown up in the morning to solve the problem for him.
Was this the protagonist's aura at work?
Hahaha!
He imagined a bunch of young, beautiful nuns in the fields, casting spells and tending plants—smiling, chatting, plucking tender Chameleon Radish leaves…
The image was just too wholesome and heartwarming.
With that, mass production of Chameleon Radish wouldn't be a problem anymore.
All he needed was to find a plot of land near a water source on the outskirts, use his breeding space to grow the crops to maturity, then transplant them and let the nuns take care of them.
To Ron, mages were the most efficient labor force imaginable.
Something that might take ten people over an hour to harvest could be done by a mage with a single Falling Leaves Spell.
Unfortunately, in this world, mages clearly focused more on cultivation and combat spells than mundane applications.
No one had thought seriously about how powerful magic could be when applied to production.
Or rather, no one dared to consider it.
Because to those in the production field, mages were high above them. How could such exalted figures be expected to do manual labor?
That's the deadlock created by class division.
So even though the Archbishop had given Ron the title of Goddess's Proxy, granting him the right to command nuns…
…asking these mage nuns to go farm fields might stir up some serious resistance.
Hopefully, the Goddess's Proxy title had enough authority…
Or maybe he'd just… pay them well?
But what if these nuns were all ascetic types with no worldly desires?
Ron shook his head. He'd just have to wait and see when he met the convent representatives.
For now, the problems he needed to solve were:
Land for planting Chameleon Radish
Sales channels for the Element Cards after they were mass-produced.
The land part should be easy.
Chaos City sat at the foot of the Manchester Mountains, and its surrounding terrain was incredibly diverse.
To the north and west—near the Human Empire and the Dwarven Kingdom—were wide plains.
To the northeast was the Forest of Freyst, with rolling hills.
The south and east led into the lower slopes of the Manchester range, with more mountainous terrain further out.
Despite being the continent's biggest commercial city, Chaos City had a low permanent population. Few, if any, were farmers.
So most of the land outside the city was idle.
Some merchant groups rented land to build warehouses, and a few nobles had built villas, but no one was interested in using the land for farming.
With his identity as the Seventh Prince and now a Goddess's Chosen One, Ron could easily acquire land—so long as he had the gold.
But sales channels were a trickier problem.
Originally, he had planned to tackle this slowly over time.
But now that he'd be taking command of a group of nuns in just half a month…
…it was time to start planning this, too.
He needed someone knowledgeable to consult.
As he pondered this, a familiar face surfaced in his mind: Guy, the goblin manager from the Gold Reserve Bank.
"I've deposited over 30,000 gold coins at the Gold Reserve over the past few weeks... So... poaching one of their people isn't too much to ask, right?"
When he first got his Black Gold Card at the Gold Reserve, it had all been handled by Guy.
Every time he returned to the bank, Guy personally came out to assist him with his transactions.
More than that, Guy frequently pitched various investment opportunities to Ron, hoping he'd fund projects backed by the Gold Reserve.
Ron remembered how his head was spinning from all the financial jargon during those presentations.
But recalling his past life and the smooth-talking salespeople he'd encountered, Ron chose to politely refuse every time—whether he understood it or not.
Still, if Guy could present those projects so clearly and persuasively, it was proof that he knew his stuff.
Given his age, Guy had probably worked at the Gold Reserve Bank for many years—he might even be familiar with merchants from the Gemstone Trade Alliance.
With Guy helping as a go-between, Ron could potentially connect with some large merchant caravans in the Alliance and establish a solid distribution channel for his Element Cards.
So if he could poach Guy and make him his professional business manager, wouldn't that be ideal?
With that thought, Ron's mind started spinning with ideas.
Unknowingly, he had already arrived at the Magic Academy.