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The afternoon sun stretched shadows long and slanting across the ground. Yellow grass rippled across the barren slope in the breeze, carrying the first real scent of spring.
The Western Plains calendar had been established two thousand years ago by a master astrologer working from agricultural seasons. It lacked the solar terms of the Chinese calendar, but like the Chinese lunar calendar, it was a lunisolar system.
Early European calendars had mostly been built around the phases of the moon , ancient Rome, ancient Greece , but calculating the lunisolar year proved so complicated that they eventually borrowed the solar calendar from ancient Egypt.
Even then, it was said the earliest Egyptian calendar had also been lunisolar. They divided the year into twelve months of thirty days each, and because that left them five days short of the solar year, they simply tacked those five days on as festival holidays.
The ancient Egyptian year held only three seasons: the Flooding Season, the Growing Season, and the Harvest Season. The Wastes of the Star of Galan used the same structure.
This world was full of echoes of Earth. Whenever Luo Wei was close to forgetting that she had transmigrated into a game rather than been reborn into another world entirely, something like this would surface to remind her.
She didn't belong here.
She pushed through the waist-high wild grass, her woolen skirt collecting a dense coating of grass seeds along the hem. The maids at home were going to have their work cut out for them.
The sunlight was fading. She climbed into the carriage and left the barren outskirts behind.
Yves drove them back into the city, easing the horses to a slower pace as they turned toward the Star Luo Residence.
The carriage rocked and swayed. They were almost at the gate when Bella suddenly cried out, "Good heavens — why are there so many beggars?"
Luo Wei looked out the window. Thirty or forty filthy little beggars were clustered at the entrance to the Star Luo Residence, some squatting, some standing, all of them wrapped in rags and thin as rails.
Hadn't Roman said there were only twenty-one? This was clearly far more than twenty-one.
"Bella, help me down."
"Yes, mistress."
Bella opened the door, lowered the step stool, and helped Luo Wei descend from the carriage.
The moment she appeared, every child who'd been crouching scrambled upright. They looked at each other and shuffled backward, their faces so caked with grime that only their eyes were visible , wide and frightened.
They spread themselves instinctively to either side of the gate, pressing against the base of the wall. A few broke and ran outright, ducking around the corner some seventy or eighty meters away to peer at her from a distance.
Luo Wei pulled her gaze back and turned to Bella. "Don't frighten them. Let's go in first and find out from Roman what's going on."
Bella followed her through the gate, back straight, chin lifted.
Outside, the little beggars collectively exhaled. They drifted back together, huddling in hushed conversation.
"The noble lady didn't chase us away!"
"I heard her. She told that fierce housekeeper not to scare us. So what Little Mouse said was true?"
"It has to be true. Little Mouse used to beg on the streets just like us. Look at him now — he's filled out, and he gets to go to school!"
"Little Mouse has the luck of the gods. A noble lady actually noticed him."
"Well, Little Mouse is good-looking. He was good-looking even when he was all bones. He always got hit the least when we were fighting for food."
"It's the noble lady who has a kind heart. Otherwise why didn't anyone else take him in?"
"Keep your voices down! Stop calling him Little Mouse — his name is Roman. If he hears us, he might not help us anymore."
The chatter dropped to a murmur. Dozens of anxious eyes fixed on the gate, waiting.
In the courtyard, Luo Wei found Roman bent over a flower bed, writing.
"What are you writing?" She walked over.
"Miss!" He turned, face lighting up. "You're back!"
"Did you see the people outside?" He held up a sycamore leaf that had been soaked in water until it was flexible. "I'm writing their names."
"Finished?"
"Not yet. There were only twenty-one originally, but when I gathered them today, more than a dozen others came along."
"More than a dozen more? Are there really that many street children in Heria?" Luo Wei asked, genuinely puzzled.
"Some of them aren't street children," Roman said, his brow furrowing with the worried density of a caterpillar. "Someone let word slip that you were willing to take in strays. A few families outside town dressed their kids as beggars and sent them here."
"Didn't you tell them I only provide meals? No copper coins?"
"I did. They said meals were good enough and they still wanted to come." He looked up at her. "Miss, is this too many people?"
"A few extra is fine." Luo Wei smiled. "You did well."
"Really?" His whole expression brightened.
She was already thinking ahead. "Go bring everyone in from outside. Take them to the side courtyard. I'll have Rosie bring down some parchment , you two can register them together."
"The form needs their name, sex, age, and address. Anyone with family needs to state their household situation as well. No false information. Anyone who lies won't be accepted."
She patted his small shoulder. "I'm leaving this in your hands. You're the lead, Rosie is your deputy. If anyone on that list causes trouble later, I'm coming to you two first."
Roman squared his little shoulders under the weight of the responsibility and gave a solemn bow. "Please trust me, Miss. I will handle it properly."
Children were so easy to manage. Luo Wei watched him stride out the door looking very much like a tiny official and turned to Bella. "Go keep an eye on them. If they run into anything they can't handle, step in."
Bella nodded. "And what do we do with the children once they're registered?"
"Take them to the backyard. Separate by gender. Hot baths, fresh clothes. Teach them basic hygiene and manners. Once the mulberry garden workshops are built, we'll send them over in groups."
This was the first batch of management trainees for the mulberry garden. She would identify the most loyal and capable among them, and build her future management team from there.
Early February. A few days before the mulberry garden officially broke ground.
Luo Wei attended classes at the academy every morning, drafted building plans at the Star Luo Residence every afternoon, and patrolled the perimeter every night. Five days of that, six days , and she was nearly finished before Troy finally returned.
"What took you so long?" She was lying in a chair by the fireplace, dark circles carved under her eyes that pearl powder couldn't touch.
"There were Church agents at Black Reef Coast. I was worried about being spotted, so I hid in the Calamity Forest for two days." Troy paused. "It was the only option."
Luo Wei's brow tightened. "Church agents? What were they doing at Black Reef Coast?"
"I only heard pieces of it." He wasn't certain. "Apparently a Saint from the Wastes Temple is coming to the Western Plains for a training pilgrimage. The Church got word and was waiting at the shore."
"Is the relationship between the Wastes Temple and the Western Plains Church good?"
"Not good, not bad," Troy said, which wasn't much of an answer. "But the Wastes Temple operates differently. They have many temples, each one dedicated to a single deity."
"Only one deity each? Don't they venerate the Sun and Moon Gods?"
"They do, but in the Wastes, the Sun God and Moon God aren't supreme. And their temples are separate from each other."
Luo Wei tapped the armrest slowly. The way Troy described it, the Wastes Temple and the Western Plains Church had to be in quiet conflict. The theology alone would guarantee friction.
"Which deity's temple does the Saint belong to?"
Troy shook his head. "Nobody said."
"Nobody said," she repeated, and the corner of her mouth twitched. "Then the Church wasn't there to welcome someone. They were there to cut someone off."
Troy's expression shifted into thought.
"Did you finish what I asked?" Luo Wei closed her eyes, the weariness finally settling fully into her face.
"Done," Troy said. "I scattered ten baskets of leaves across the docks. Some blew into Black Reef Town."
"Good." Her lips barely moved. "I'm sleeping for a while. Wake me when it's dark."
"Yes."
He set down his sword and lowered himself into the chair beside her, careful to make no sound. The fireplace crackled. He watched the charcoal burn.
It went fast. Two rounds of adding wood, and the sky outside had gone black.
He woke her gently, then walked her back to the magic academy himself.
➤ Next: News from the Southern Nations
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