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After stopping her nosebleed, Luo Wei didn't dare pick up the pen again. The Magic Rune deconstruction work would have to wait.
She poured some water from the cup onto a handkerchief and wiped her face in the mirror.
This body really was fragile. Constantly on the edge of falling apart. She wondered, vaguely, if doing more blacksmithing would help her build up some physical resilience.
She rested for a bit, then tucked the Magic Rune and the map into the wardrobe, draped a shawl over her shoulders, and headed out.
Dusk was creeping in. Students who'd gone out for the day were trickling back through the school gates, and the shops along Academy Street were flipping their signs to "Closed."
The Escore Dessert Shop closed at five. Luo Wei wandered around the plaza for a while and soon spotted Laura making her way back from work.
"Miss Luo Wei! What a coincidence — did you just get back too?"
Laura quickened her pace, heading straight for her.
"No," Luo Wei said, walking to meet her. "I came to find you."
"Me?" Laura pointed at herself.
"Yes." Luo Wei pulled her aside and lowered her voice. "I'm planning to build a Mulberry Garden outside the city. We'll be transplanting the trees in a few days, and I want to hire you as the head supervisor."
"The pay is one silver coin a day. You could start tomorrow, if you're willing."
"One silver coin a day." Laura's mouth fell open. "But , I don't know how to do anything. What does a supervisor even do?"
"Just oversee the daily operations. Direct the hired workers, make sure the mulberry trees are growing properly. That's it. Nothing complicated."
Laura looked tempted. She also looked nervous. "What if I don't do a good job?"
"Then you don't do a good job. It's fine." Luo Wei pressed on before the hesitation could settle. "Besides, you've already helped me plant mulberry trees. No one here has more experience than you. I trust you."
"R-really?"
"Couldn't be more certain."
Laura ducked her head, a little shy. "Then... I'm willing."
"Perfect." Luo Wei smiled. "I'll meet you at the dessert shop tomorrow at noon."
"Mm!" Laura nodded. Her mulberry saplings and silkworm eggs were still sitting in the employee dormitory , she'd need to collect them tomorrow. She also hadn't told Manager Theresa she was quitting. That conversation needed to happen too.
The next morning, Luo Wei pulled the carriage up to the dessert shop's back door. She and Laura loaded everything out together.
The mulberry saplings had shot up considerably under the Magic Rune's nourishment. Their leaves spread wide and green in the open air, so fresh and vivid the color almost seemed to bleed into the chest.
The silkworms had begun to spin. Oval white cocoons nestled in a wooden box, plump and soft, like little balls of packed cotton.
Laura had raised them beautifully. She really was a careful, attentive girl.
Luo Wei helped her onto the carriage and had Yves drive them out of the city.
After more than ten days of reclamation work, the wasteland outside the walls had transformed almost beyond recognition. The waist-high wild grass was gone. The thorny vines that had sprawled across every hillside were cleared. The northern plot, earmarked for grapes, was mostly turned over, and so was the southern slope where the mulberry trees would go.
Hundreds of hired workers filled the Mulberry Garden, all moving at once. Some turned soil. Some hammered up buildings. Some dug out fish ponds. The whole site rang with shouted instructions and the sounds of hard labor.
Troy was in the villa section, walking a group of workers through the engineering drawings Luo Wei had sketched. Bella was at the chicken farm, directing the construction of wooden fencing while chicks were let loose inside. The newly appointed foreman, Nick, was on the southern slope, working alongside the crew building the silk reeling factory.
The chicken coop and duck shed had been finished the day before , solid structures of mud and stone. The silkworm house was only one-tenth done, but what existed was well-built: open, ventilated wooden cabins designed for airflow.
Luo Wei had Yves fetch Troy and Bella and introduced them to the supervisor she'd brought from the academy. Laura, who would be overseeing the mulberry trees and the silkworm house.
Not that introductions were strictly necessary. They'd already met.
"Should I call Nick over too, Master?" Bella asked.
Luo Wei waved her off. "No need. Let's just go take a look."
They walked south. Four hundred meters or so later, the silk reeling factory came into view, still mid-construction.
"Nick!" Bella hollered.
A thin, wiry middle-aged man broke from the crowd and jogged over.
Nick had spotted them from a distance , Butler Bella, the knight, and at the center of them, a young woman in luxurious dress, beautiful enough to stop the eye. He didn't need anyone to tell him who she was. This was the owner of the Mulberry Garden. A noble lady of obvious breeding.
Up close, her bearing was even more striking. Something in her presence made it hard to look directly at her. He found himself bending at the back, eyes dropping to the hem of her gown, where pearls caught the light in neat, quiet rows.
"You're Nick?"
Her voice was gentle. Warm and smooth, like water moving over river stones, the kind of voice that made a person feel they'd done nothing wrong and never could.
Nick bent lower. "Yes, honored young lady. I am Nick."
"There's nothing to worry about," Luo Wei said pleasantly. "I only came to see how things are going."
Nick stood stiff and wordless.
Luo Wei smiled. "Alright. Back to work."
"Y-yes." He nodded twice, turned on his heel, and walked very quickly back toward the worksite.
Only once he was sure she could no longer see him did he exhale.
She'd been perfectly gentle. Soft-spoken, even. But there was something about her , some quality he couldn't name , that pressed against him like a physical weight. He hadn't been able to so much as twitch while she was looking at him.
Luo Wei watched him go, visibly baffled.
"Do I look scary?" she asked the group.
Laura shook her head quickly. "Not at all, Miss Luo Wei. Why would you think that?"
"Because he was clearly terrified of me."
"Master is gentle and kind and beautiful," Bella said firmly. "Not scary in the slightest. Nick is just like that with everyone. He doesn't talk much."
"...Alright," Luo Wei said. She accepted this.
Mid-February, the mulberry trees went into the ground.
Early March, the silkworm house was finished. The temperature in Heria climbed sharply. The withered yellow hillsides outside the city flushed green again, trees pushing out new buds, the whole landscape softening into a haze of pale, fresh color from a distance.
Spring arrived, and with it, rain.
Luo Wei was in the Mulberry Garden, showing the hired workers how to top and prune the young saplings, when a fine drizzle started drifting down. It settled across her hair in tiny, glistening beads.
"Miss Luo Wei, you should head back," Laura said, worried. "Your body isn't strong. Getting caught in the rain will make you sick."
"We'll go back together."
Luo Wei took Laura by the hand and they left.
Kittens hated rain. It matted their fur. Laura was probably the same way.
They returned to Starfall Residence, changed into dry clothes, and had barely made it back downstairs when a commotion broke out in the courtyard. The maids were crowding near the entrance, voices pitched high.
"Heavens — what is that thing?"
"Is it a bird? What kind of bird looks like that?"
"It's so black — is it a crow?"
Luo Wei looked toward the door. Chris came hurrying in from outside, both hands wrapped around a piece of bark.
"Master!" She held it up. "A bird just landed in the courtyard. Ugly thing. This was strapped to its back."
She turned the bark over.
There was writing on it.
➤ Next: The Raven That Became a Spirit
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