It felt like a dream.
She walked a long path, crossing snow-covered mountains, walking endlessly through fields that stretched beyond the horizon.
A good place. Golden wheat fields bowed and swayed like waves whenever the wind blew. The wheat shining under the sunlight was beautiful.
"This is a good place."
Murmuring quietly, she turned her back and returned to where she belonged. Unlike the land she had just stood on, this land had turned barren. Land that made one wonder if farming was even possible.
Like watching a video, the scenery around her changed rapidly. Seasons changed, people changed, the moon and sun disappeared alternately.
"Teacher... why."
One day, a close friend who said she would bring legendary seeds from beyond the mountain range returned to her side as only a cold corpse. Her slender body lay on the cold ground, and in the pocket of her thin clothes was a bag of seeds.
"If these are the seeds Teacher brought, surely there might be hope. Maybe Teacher really found the legendary seeds."
She couldn't bring herself to say it. That they were ordinary seeds, no different from any others.
It felt like her insides were rotting. Her friend's last words. The words of an ordinary human.
Were eating away at Shu's heart.
"Right now, we really have no other way."
"I'm asking just this once... please help just this once."
"Can't you save the people here?"
"You promised, that you would stay here..."
A shadow fell over her heart.
How long... must she continue through this invisible hell.
Closing her eyes, closing her ears, erasing her thoughts.
Upon Shu, curled up like a child, a warm platinum light shone. Like the light of dawn driving away the night, like the starlight seen in childhood, the platinum light stayed gently over Shu and illuminated her heart.
After that, Shu woke from her dream.
A gentle breeze swaying the wheat fields. Feeling the cool wind, Shu opened her eyes.
She had lost consciousness. Probably the price for consuming so much power. As her blurry vision slowly cleared, she realized someone was supporting her head.
"…Shennong?"
A name called from faint memory, but the person who helped Shu was someone else.
"Why are you suddenly looking for Shennong..."
Vivid platinum eyes, a stranger who suddenly visited Dahuang.
Yujin was supporting Shu, emitting platinum Arts from his hand. To be precise, it was a lap pillow.
"Yujin? Why are you suddenly...?"
As Shu tried to lift her head to get up, Yujin pressed her forehead with his index finger, laying her back down. Then he looked at Shu with a scary expression, like a kitten pretending to be angry.
"Your body is in a mess. I found you collapsed. How did this happen?"
Shu couldn't answer. Driving away the evil spirits cast over this land couldn't be explained by Arts. It was closer to using the authority residing within her existence.
She felt a warm energy flowing into her body and looked at Yujin.
This power Yujin was using. It was fundamentally close to healing Arts, but something was different.
"…It's nothing. I just used some Arts because of the heavy rain. Maybe because I haven't used it in a while, I couldn't control it properly."
A convenient lie. Shu didn't use Arts, but the power she used couldn't be explained except as Arts. If one didn't know her well, it was a passable lie.
"Liar."
But this boy, seeing Shu, knew instantly that what she said was a lie.
Her body was frail. Unstable from excessive use of Arts. Shu's condition wasn't something to be dismissed with such words.
Shu wasn't an Oripathy patient, and she was strong enough to help with farm work. But such a person was hiding herself with convenient lies.
"Your existence itself is unstable... I don't know what you did, though."
"..."
Like a child caught doing something wrong, Shu was restless and couldn't answer.
Even Shu didn't know if Yujin could grasp her condition. Unless touched directly, even her family couldn't know Shu well, and healing Arts users or doctors couldn't know about authority.
But this man in front of her realized about her instantly.
Just by examining her condition during the brief moment she fainted.
"I don't know if your condition was normal, but using unknown power in that state is just eating away at yourself. So don't use it."
"…I can't do that."
At Shu's clear refusal, Yujin frowned.
"You say no even knowing your own condition? Do you realize what you're saying...!"
"I have a promise to keep."
Shu‘s eyes, looking up at Yujin while lying on his lap, were resolute. Their eyes met and locked, but Yujin knew people like that well.
...Because he was also such a person.
Shu lay quietly on Yujin‘s lap, feeling the breeze, then got up.
Then she thanked him for helping and asked Yujin to keep her condition a secret.
"…Depending on how you do."
"Yujin."
"Ah, seriously... fine, I got it. If you ever need help, tell me. I'll help."
Why couldn't Yujin stop Shu actively?
Perhaps because he saw himself in her.
Knowing he couldn't stop her, Yujin sighed watching Shu‘s retreating figure.
"Dammit...!"
The old man swept the desk, cursed, and threw his nameplate. Everyone was there, but no one could stop him.
"Village Chief, instead of getting angry, you need to calm down."
When a Tianshi standing nearby spoke, the old man‘s hand trembled as he sat his glasses on the desk. Then he wiped his face dry and asked the Tianshi beside him.
"What is the extent of the damage?"
"From Sector Gapsin to Sector Eulin, everything is contaminated. Other sectors weren't greatly affected, but we need to inspect them carefully."
It's okay so far. He didn't expect such damage from a brief heavy rain, but they could endure with the other sectors.
Assuming no other catastrophe comes.
"Village Chief, damage this extensive cannot end as an internal problem of Dahuang. We must immediately inform the Capital and His Majesty the Emperor to adjust this year's food supply nationwide."
"No. If it were a bumper year, maybe, but this year was just barely average."
The Capital, the center of Yan where the Emperor resides.
If they requested support there, getting support was a problem in itself. Aside from everything else, this year seemed to be having a seizure, with catastrophes pouring down.
It could be called the year of disaster.
If a disruption in food supply occurred here, from Yumen to the Capital. It was natural that major cities in Yan would all have problems.
"Food isn't like ingredients sold in the market. If it decreases by 1/1000, it's not just food prices rising, but 1/1000 of the people starving."
Requesting support from elsewhere was problematic because other places weren't doing well either, and if a food problem erupted, it was obvious Yan would face the hardest winter in history this year.
"First, pull all personnel to save the farmland and crops, and we can't be late for summer sowing. Even if we leave the border empty..."
"That won't do, Village Chief."
When the Village Chief said they should divert all personnel to crop-related work even if they had to pull everyone, the military sector and those called Tianshi stepped forward.
"Have you forgotten what lies beyond the mountain range?"
"…[Yanese Profanity]."
In the end, they had to solve it somehow.
And with Dahuang's internal power.
A land where lush paddies and fields spread again. Shu, visibly tired, closed her red eyes.
It couldn't be helped after using power. It was like drawing on her life force. This was the price she had to bear.
"Ah...!"
Shu stumbled over a protruding stone, and again, someone came from behind and held her arm to balance her.
"Careful. Your condition isn't good."
"…Did you follow me?"
"Yeah, I was anxious, like leaving a child by the water."
From Shu's perspective, Yujin, who could be seen as a young boy, looked at Shu anxiously. As if holding onto her lest she disappear like the wind.
"It's okay. No need to worry so much."
Such Yujin looked commendable in Shu's eyes. A human living an infinitely short life compared to hers, but while there are evil humans, there were definitely good humans too.
That's why she couldn't leave this land.
The two walked in step, looking at the yet uncontaminated wheat fields. Then Shu remembered someone upon seeing Yujin and brought up a story.
"In the past, there was a time when catastrophes happened frequently like this."
"…Catastrophes like this?"
"Yes. Back then, we could only watch helplessly. The rice waiting for harvest was all fallen, and we couldn't even fill half the sacks we aimed for."
Looking at the past, Shu stroked a standing wheat stalk. Like tracing a nostalgic memory.
"I had a friend back then too. With mud on her face, she told me. There's nothing to fear, if we advance year by year like this, surely our descendants will see the fruits. Since there are people together, it's definitely possible. She said that but..."
Yujin looked at her like that.
"Shu."
"Hmm? Why?"
"What is the dream you wish for?"
Shu‘s dream.
What is her dream?
Shu stood still, pondered, and said quietly.
"Feeding everyone in the world fully, and creating Ten Thousand Qing of Fertile Land."
A nearly impossible dream. But Yujin looked at Shu because he dreamed a similar dream.
But if Shu acted like this.
Her dream could never be reached.