Roland thought Granni would resist with a sour face. Surprisingly, Granni jumped up, exclaiming:

"That's wonderful! But wouldn't this cost too much of your time?"

Roland reassured her, "Nobles always have plenty of leisure time. From now on, I'll give you a two-hour class after dinner every day."

Despite the challenge, Roland was satisfied with Granni's positive attitude. He believed there were no unteachable students, only incapable teachers.

Roland left after a casual conversation.

Compared to Granni, Melannis was the one Roland was more concerned about. He had assumed the elves and Druids, both followers of the Goddess of Nature living in forests, would share common ground. However, Melannis refused to meet with Luet. Unlike Granni, who acted impulsively, Melannis's refusal was unexpected.

Upon returning to the castle, Roland knocked on Melannis's door.

"Melannis, I know you're home, please open the door."

After a long silence, a somewhat hoarse voice responded:

"Roland, I don’t feel good today. Would you mind leaving me alone?"

"Of course; but we have to address the problem sooner or later, right?"

Roland decided not to force entry upon receiving no response and was prepared to leave.

Just then, the door slowly opened. "Lord Galaxia, please come in."

Melannis looked dispirited. She was truly ill rather than feigning.

"Well, have some good rest, I will find you a doctor...or Yanis. She’s from the Court of Light; I assume she has abundant knowledge of healing spells."

"Don’t bother. I’m just not in a good mood, I’m not sick."

Melannis let out a weak smile, "Please come in."

After some idle chat, Melannis’s spirits seemed to have improved.

"Roland, you probably want to know about the relationships between elves and druids, right?" Melannis sipped the tea and continued, "Contrary to your assumption, the two races remained an amicable relationship. Sharing common beliefs as followers of the Goddess of Nature, most elves agree that druids are friends."

"But when it comes to belief, there’s a main difference lying in our interpretations of the Goddess’s orables. While the Elves believe in Nature, Druids believe in Balance.

The elves preferred to maintain the forests’ natural state and use its resources without altering it, while Druids might reshape the forest according to their will."

"For instance, for Minhausen Barony’s forest, the elves would protect the forest , but Druids would fell trees to their needs."

"What? Even Druids will fell trees?" No wonder Luet could tolerate Granni’s felling trees that day. Probably he did share a common ground with Granni, huh?

"The origin of such distinction is our inherent differences." Melannis explained. She let out her hand and pointed at her veins, "For you humans, your body is built with flesh, and your blood is red. But Elves are different. We are children of the forests, with plant sap running through our veins."

To prove her words, she cut a small wound on her finger, and dripped some blood on a tissue. Roland could see that the color of her blood was green.

"Therefore, the felling of living trees is almost a taboo akin to killing a family."

"If I attended the meeting, I would have had an intense argument with Luet. That was why I did not."

"Roland, please eliminate the blood. It can be researched upon and cause danger."

Roland nodded and cast a fireball spell to burn up the blood.

Watching Roland casting spells without chanting, Melannis’s was surprised.

"Lord Galaxia, it was a fireball spell, wasn’t it?"

"Yes."

"And you don’t need to chant before casting the spell?"

"You also cast spells without chanting, don’t you?" Roland shrugged.

"It’s completely different!"

Melannis casually unbuttoned chest and revealed her fair skin. As she concentrated her power, light green lines slowly appeared on her chest.

"Did you see it? We Elves have a Mana Core where we can store our mana. We can communicate with the Mana Core and cast spells without chanting with the stored mana. However, humans are inherently lack of affinity for mana. Therefore, they must chant to use mana. It’s amazing that you as a human can cast spells without chanting."

Seeing Roland staring at her chest, Melannis suddenly realized that what Roland was interested in was probably not her Mana Core, but the plump and chubby carrier of the Mana Core.

She lowered her head and murmured, "It’s a bit cold, I have to button up."

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

Roland coughed, looked away and praised loudly, "The exquisiteness and mystery of Mana Core is far beyond my imagination. No wonder it’s the crytallization of wisdom of elves."

Melannis felt embarrassed on hearing Roland talking about the Mana Core. Perhaps because of her past experience, she instinctively misunderstood others and almost misunderstood Roland. Had Roland wanted to mate with her, he wouldn’t have signed with her an equal contract.

Such suspicision is great disrespect for him, Melannis thought.

Roland asked Melannis to have a good rest and left.

...

The war came to an end, and construction began.

In the past few days, Roland had finally found some joy in being a noble.

Every morning, he would greet the first light of dawn with open arms, enjoy breakfast happily, and then, amidst the compliments of "Lord" from his people, he would ride his horse to inspect his domain, accompanied by two loyal and beautiful maidens knighted as his guards.

Even the Bloody Yanis from the Court of Light and the Great Druid of the Forest Brotherhood were working for him.

Life is great!

Roland smiled warmly, spreading his good mood to every corner of his domain, believing this was what a lord should do.

Though Minhausen was barren, it covered a vast area. The three thousand residents lived on both sides of the Eserel River, with vast tracts of barren land far from the river.

These lands were cursed, where no crops could grow, yet weeds thrived.

This anomaly made Minhausen, despite its size rivaling the capital, merely a baron's land.

And this was just the valley area; including the primal forests to the south and north, the area was even larger than the capital of the Lisenburg Empire.

Minhausen was currently a village, but with the potential to develop into a mega-city. The arrival of Yanis and Luet prompted the development of Minhausen.

A large number of workers settled in Roland's domain. The Court and the Forest Brotherhood designed construction plans, mobilized workers, gathered materials, and built places for preaching: the Church of Light and the House of Nature.

Meanwhile, they each demonstrated the glory of the Goddess to the residents in their own ways. Villagers, naive and inexperienced, may not recognize the face of the Goddess, but they acknowledged these missionaries for their genuine assistance in the domain's development.

On one side, the Forest Brotherhood busied itself with clearing fields, fetching timber from the forest to help residents rebuild homes, and bringing in food to help them through tough times. On the other, the Court of Light offered medical services.

Luet planted a batch of bread trees and cast the "Wild Growth" spell to mature them quickly. The sight of large trees growing within three days and harvesting delicious, filling bread left the simple villagers in awe. Many knelt to thank the Goddess and pledged allegiance to the Goddess of Nature.

Yanis healed a bedridden, leg-disabled person, restoring his health so that not only could he walk but also jump. He immediately became the most devout believer of the Goddess of Light. Yanis, accompanied by priests offering medical services, was seen as an angel descended among the residents; the number of believers in the Goddess of Light grew. Ironically, these people did not realize that their worship was directed towards the Goddess of Light and Darkness, as the Court of Light referred to her simply as the Goddess of Light.

In short, everything was progressing well, flourishing.

Except for...Granni's education.

Fairly speaking, Granni was very diligent in her studies, at least when Roland was teaching. She sat upright, focused, took notes diligently, and if she didn't understand something, she would ask. After class, she earnestly completed her homework. She was the kind of straight A students...

If the teachers ignored her grades.

Roland, who received modern education and had tutored throughout college with excellent feedback, was confident in educating even barbarians. He had seen many slow learners, but Granni was not one of them. She was quite intelligent in her daily life.

Roland was patient. He never yelled at Granni, and he always guided her step by step. His teaching methods were excellent, and Granni learned earnestly. Unfortunately, her academic performance was far from satisfactory.

Roland had to admit, the world indeed had its share of dunces. His most loyal and brave maid, his Guardian Knight Granni, was such a hardworking yet academically challenged student.

After more than ten days of effort, Roland finally accepted that barbarians were just not good at learning. While he recognized this reality, he did not give up and continued to persevere. Seeing the pure desire for knowledge in Granni's innocent and large eyes, he couldn't bear to refuse her.

He made a tough decision: as long as Granni didn't give up, he would teach her to the end!

No matter how slow the student or how poor the learning outcomes, he would keep teaching!

In fact, it wasn't all that bad. At least Granni had mastered addition and subtraction within twenty. Unfortunately, that was all she could manage. Anything beyond that was impossible because, after all, one only has 10 fingers and 10 toes.

Today, Roland went to insepct his new domains, Delauber.

Soon after Roland entered Delauber, Yanis arrived. This was her preaching territory, and she brought quite a few followers, including several informants who naturally knew of Roland's movements.

"Lord Galaxia, are you inspecting the domain?"

Yanis, clad in a voluminous priest's robe and hood that concealed her stunning figure and beauty, appeared at first glance to be an ordinary little priest. However, her smooth brown hair and beautiful golden eyes were impossible to conceal. Her extraordinary demeanor was like a bright light in the dark night, truly dazzling.

After dismounting, Roland approached:

"Not exactly an inspection, just a casual visit. How's it going? Met any troubles yet?"

"Of course, there are so many. Would you like to help?"

"As long as it's within my capabilities, certainly."

Yanis then shared her troubles with him.

"Ah, it's a long story. Initially, preaching went smoothly. We cured the sick, and the residents converted, similar to other places."

"But people eventually get healed. Then, we must rely on the prestige built up during that time to slowly preach. However, the people here are odd. They don't care about the Goddess's might, don't understand the teachings, and even see worship and mass as a waste of time."

She sighed softly, a hint of resignation in her voice:

"Luet is progressing faster than I am. I kept up with him during the healing phase, but now I'm falling behind by dozens of believers daily. If the gap continues to widen, I'll have to concede. I had hoped for a grand victory to secure my position as an archbishop. Now, it seems I can't even maintain my status as a regional bishop. If it were just about personal interests, I could let it go, but I can't accept such a failure."

Yanis's eyes slightly reddened, her disappointment fleeting.

"The Court of Light has not lost in any missionary competition for over a hundred years. We have grown accustomed to victory; even a draw would stain our record, let alone defeat!"

Through their time together, Roland had come to understand Yanis a bit more. Her cruelty was only towards enemies; she was quite friendly towards friends and those close to her. She was a rather straightforward girl.

Although Roland, deep down, leaned more towards the Forest Brotherhood, he did not wish for the Court of Light to lose. The best outcome he hoped for was a tie.

He said with a smile, "Would Bloody Yanis give up so easily?"

"Of course not, if it were a duel, I would never give up! But this is not a problem that can be solved by force. I have tried all possible solutions, and none have worked. What can I do?"

"All solutions...including asking me for help?"

"No, if you were to help me, even if we win, it would not be a justified victory."

"I won't directly intervene, but I can offer you sensible advice."

Yanis clenched her fists in excitement, whispering softly, "That's great, so you do hope I win!"

"Yes, I don't want you to lose, I promise."

Roland Galaxia promised, just as he promised to Luet yesterday.