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If his memory was right, both the Love God and the God of Life were goddesses, weren't they?
The Love God, in love with the God of Life, who was also a goddess?
Troy asked carefully, "Are we really going to spread this?"
"What," Luo Wei's face darkened, "you no longer follow my orders?"
"No, I just, " Troy's lips worked for a moment, stammering, before he finally dropped his head. "I'll listen."
He was just afraid this would invite Divine Retribution, and that he had no power to protect her if it did.
"Troy, I know what you're worried about," Luo Wei said, rising to her feet. "But I'm not as weak as you think."
"You've been with me long enough that you've probably guessed a few things." She walked to his side and reached for the hilt of the sword at his waist. "However much you've guessed , I only have one question. Do you believe in the gods, or do you believe in me?"
Troy's entire body went rigid. He stood rooted to the spot, not daring to move.
"Believe in the gods? The gods won't grant you their favor."
"Believe in me, and I can't give you everything you want , but I can give you a soul that belongs to no one but itself."
She drew the longsword in one clean motion. The silver blade caught the light as it swept past those dark eyes.
"Troy. Kneel."
The cool voice carried something in it that couldn't be refused. Troy's knee hit the floor before he'd consciously decided to move. He looked up at her.
Luo Wei raised the sword and laid the blade against the right side of his neck. "The gods, or me?"
Sorrow moved through Troy's eyes. He lowered his head. "But I , I've already broken one oath."
A dishonorable Knight. A Knight who had betrayed his master. He'd long since forfeited any right to the title.
How could someone like him dare to make another vow?
"The Troy I know was born the moment we first met," Luo Wei said, holding his gaze. "With me, you can start over."
She pressed down on the hilt. "I'll only ask once. The gods, or me?"
Troy raised his head at last, humble and unsteady. When he spoke, his voice came out rough. "I... believe in you."
"Your oath."
Troy's breathing quickened. He held the tremor in, and spoke:
"I swear upon my life to offer you my complete faith and loyalty. Where your sword points is the direction of my battles. Where your gaze falls is the place I will guard. To serve you is my duty. To sacrifice for you is my highest honor."
"I dedicate this life to you. I will fight for you until death."
The Blade of Mercy touched his shoulder, and his body trembled faintly, twice.
Luo Wei's voice was grave. "I accept your oath and grant you the honor you have earned. Troy , in the name of the Princess of the Mist Kingdom, I name you Captain of my Royal Guard."
"When we have finished our mission in the Western Plains, I will take you back to my kingdom and hold your formal investiture."
"Receive the sword, Troy."
"Yes, Your Highness."
She drew the blade from his broad shoulder and laid it across his outstretched hands.
Troy stared at the sword. Something that might have been tears flickered through his eyes.
"No way." Luo Wei bent down to peer at his face. "Troy, are you actually crying?"
Troy turned his head sharply away, sheathed the sword, and stood. "No. I have a task to carry out."
"Oh." Luo Wei straightened up. "Then go. Be careful , if someone picks up your trail, duck into the Calamity Forest. You know how to survive in there."
"Alright." He nodded, slid the sword home, and walked out the door.
Luo Wei watched his retreating back , practically fleeing , and tsked.
Just "alright." Not even "Your Highness" anymore. And she'd barely gotten to enjoy it.
After Troy left, Luo Wei changed into something lighter and headed downstairs. She found Chris bent over a piece of embroidery and told her to let Yves know to bring the carriage around.
"Bella."
"Master, at your command!"
Bella came running from the next room the moment she heard her name. The servants' hearth room , when they had nothing to do, they liked to gather there and sit by the fire.
Luo Wei caught the smell of milk on her and glanced toward the doorway. "Were you feeding Luo Lin?"
"Just finished." Bella smoothed the front of her outer skirt, which had gone wrinkled from holding the baby. "Luo Lin drank her fill and went right to sleep. Sharon's watching her."
Luo Wei looked away. "Come with me to the outskirts, then. I want to have a look at the land."
"Of course, Master."
...
The weather had cooperated. The afternoon sun was still out, and the air was warmer than expected.
Luo Wei stepped down from the carriage without so much as a shiver. The sunlight was pleasant on her face.
Bella moved ahead to lead the way, and Luo Wei lifted her skirt and followed.
"This whole stretch is ours — everything we've rented. And over there, that river too."
"Mind your step, Master, the slope gets steep here."
"That grove across the way is in the deed as well. The city steward said we could clear the trees and use the land for farming."
Bella talked as they walked. Luo Wei held the rough-drawn map and matched each direction Bella pointed to its place on the page.
Just over a hundred acres, threaded through by three small streams and rising into five low hills. The widest east-west stretch ran about three hundred meters; north to south it was over seven hundred , shaped like a squashed wine gourd.
Standing at the top of one of the hills and looking down, Luo Wei turned it over in her head. Mulberry trees were drought-tolerant but hated waterlogging , they needed warmth and moisture. The sun-facing southern slopes were the obvious choice.
Silkworms hated heat and poor airflow. The silkworm houses needed shade and ventilation, up on the hillsides where the moisture couldn't pool around them.
If she wanted chickens, the coop couldn't sit anywhere near the silkworm houses. Put chickens and silkworms too close together, and the silkworms became lunch.
The land itself was long and narrow. The southern soil was clearly the richer of the two ends; the north was thin and sandy. The eastern plots were too wet. The western edge was overgrown with shrubs and broken up by patches of exposed rock.
Once she had a rough layout mapped in her head, Luo Wei pointed toward the seventy or eighty southern acres. "Turn all that slope over for mulberry planting."
"Understood." Bella produced a wooden tablet and a charcoal pencil and scratched it down.
Luo Wei waited, then continued. "Dig fish ponds in the lower valleys between the hills. Leave space on the lower slopes for a duck shed , we'll build it later."
People in the Western Plains didn't have much taste for freshwater fish. Whatever they raised would likely stay unsold. Better to feed it to ducks. Ducks could help clear weeds from the mulberry orchard, their down could be made into quilts, and duck meat made excellent roast duck.
"The west plots, along the mountain's edge , fence those off for chicken coops. Put two stone houses along the river for earthworm breeding."
"This hill I'm standing on , build ten large tile-roofed rooms on the shaded side, about two-thirds of the way up the slope."
"There's a wetland to the east. Dig it all out into ponds."
No need for fish. Shrimp and crabs would do just as well.
"Build a vineyard to the north. Here on the map — this flat section — put a villa. Dig a cellar underneath it for wine storage."
Bella's charcoal pencil was moving so fast it was practically smoking. Luo Wei talked, Bella wrote. Somehow she kept up, committing everything to her tablet in a chaotic shorthand that looked like no known written language , a set of strange symbols that no one but Bella herself could have decoded.
After the full survey of soil and terrain, Luo Wei picked her way back down along the gentler slopes. She was halfway back when something came to her.
"We still need an overseer," she said.
"An overseer?" Bella looked up from her tablet. "Someone to manage the hired workers?"
"More or less." Luo Wei glanced at her. "You're the steward of Starfall Residence. I can't have you running back and forth between the city and out here every day."
"Find an overseer first to hold things together. We'll look for a proper estate manager in time."
Bella nodded firmly. "What kind of person should we be looking for, Master?"
"Someone with no ties, no distractions , someone who can put everything they have into this estate." Luo Wei said it with complete seriousness. "Check the nearby villages. Look for strong, able-bodied widowers. Put up a notice listing what we need and let them come to us."
"Once you've got candidates, draw up a list. I'll go through it myself."
She had to screen them personally, after all. Just in case her loyal devotee Nick somehow got overlooked , she'd make sure to screen him right back in.
➤ Next: The Wastes Temple, the Saint?
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