Chapter 19 - The Farm in Irttat
Lucita suddenly felt she had picked up a huge burden.
Now that Violet was so weak, it wouldn't be right not to care for her. The elven race was so far away, she couldn't send her back either.
She decided to take her in for two days first. When their high priestess came in a couple of days, she'd let her go back with the high priestess.
Anyway, she'd already escaped the seal. No matter how bad the high priestess's intentions, she couldn't seal her back together with Mirror Lake.
Moreover, that high priestess might well be a good person.
Lucita very cautiously established rules: "I am very poor. You can stay, but when your clanspeople arrive in a couple of days, you need to have them pay for your room and board. If they won't pay for you, you'll have to find a way to earn money and pay me back yourself."
It wasn't that Lucita was stingy, it was really that aside from an empty house, she had no ancestral inheritance whatsoever. She still had to work hard to save money to raise sheep. Her house could truly be described as bare-walled.
Violet still agreed to everything with a good temper.
So Lucita went out once and brought back a burden.
The house only had one set of bedding. Lucita didn't plan to prepare a bed for Violet. First, it was too expensive. Second, Violet wouldn't be staying long.
When returning to town, it wasn't dark yet. Lucita went to Elsia's tailor shop and bought a thick blanket and a cotton quilt. Although she chose the most basic style without any patterns, twenty silver coins were gone again.
Violet was very aware of living under someone else's roof. She didn't mind the plain gray quilt at all and accepted it with a smile.
Lucita: "You heard it, twenty silver coins. I'll keep it on the bill."
Violet nodded to show she understood. Each person carried one item, and they walked back to Lucita's farm.
After returning, while Violet was making a floor bed in the study, Lucita very quickly wrote a hasty note and secretly sent it to Sophia through the message feather box.
"Don't need the book. I saved her. Come confirm tomorrow! Don't show it. Don't reply.
Lucy"
At this moment, Violet finished making the bed and came out: "Lucita, I'm hungry. May I eat dinner?"
Lucita's dinner today was pan-fried tuna and fish and chips packed from Lily's tavern, both were leftover food. She was too embarrassed to give them to Violet.
Besides that, she hadn't cooked for the past several days. Her vision had just recovered today. The kitchen could be described as empty, with only some long-term stored flour. But she also couldn't possibly light a fire to bake bread for Violet late at night.
Baking bread was a complex task. Wealthy and leisurely people like Javena might enjoy doing it themselves, but Lucita could hunt for half an afternoon and earn enough to buy twenty loaves. She had no interest in such inefficiency, and her baking skills were unreliable at best.
After thinking it over, she took out the two remaining loaves of white bread from her cufflink storage space. Fortunately, time did not pass inside the space. The white bread inside was still like it was just bought, very fresh, warm, and soft.
Lucita took out the bread, sliced and fried it golden, spread it with cream cheese, then went to the yard to pinch some tender pea sprouts and mixed them with salad dressing. The staple food and vegetables were gathered.
"Here, this is the last food in the house."
One loaf of bread weighed one pound. Usually Lucita needed three meals to finish one loaf. This time she sliced an entire loaf and fried half for Violet. But Violet devoured it like a whirlwind and, sitting in front of the empty plate, said shyly: "Lucita, I'm still a bit hungry."
Lucita: ...
She went to the kitchen again and fried the remaining half.
This time it still wasn't enough. Not only that, the tureen containing the pea sprout salad was also empty.
"There's no more salad. Pulling more pea sprouts will reduce my yield." Lucita said mercilessly and took out the last loaf of bread: "There's one more loaf of bread. Can you finish it?"
"Yes!"
Lucita went to the kitchen again. After a while, she brought out a plate of bread slices.
She poured Violet a glass of milk, sat across from her, propped her chin, and said worriedly: "Is this enough now? Why can you eat so much? You know, I'm very poor. If you eat like this for three meals a day, I won't be able to support you, not even for just two days."
Violet swallowed the food in her mouth, drank a sip of milk to wash it down, then said: "I'm sorry, Lucita. To be honest, it's not quite enough... I need a lot of energy to heal my wound. But I can eat less. Starting tomorrow, however much you eat, I'll eat that much too. Is that okay?"
Probably all elves were born with a pair of beautiful eyes. When they looked at you earnestly, it was really hard to refuse them any request. After Violet said this, Lucita actually developed a sense of guilt that "it's all my fault for being too poor."
Soon, reason suppressed her guilt, because she truly couldn't afford it.
Early the next morning, Sophia came to the door.
"Good morning, Lucita!" She pretended to act naturally while secretly glancing at Violet.
Violet recognized her immediately as an elf and regarded her with the distant composure of a ruler observing her subject. Facing Sophia’s furtive scrutiny, she nodded with calm dignity.
Sophia: !
The elf before her—aside from slightly torn clothes, a pale complexion, and a hideous wound on her chest, which didn't quite fit a king's status—indeed bore high resemblance to the portrait in the history books.
Although the portrait in the history books was slightly abstract, features like the teardrop mole at the corner of her eye and upturned phoenix eyes all matched very well. Moreover, to still look dignified and elegant under such a disheveled appearance was truly convincing. Just one look made one involuntarily believe this was the king.
Sophia immediately withdrew her gaze, slightly flustered.
Lucita hadn't expected Sophia's acting skills to be so poor. Her intention in calling her to verify had probably been seen through completely by Violet. She also felt somewhat guilty.
Watching Sophia nod in what she thought was an inconspicuous way, Lucita didn't even dare turn back to look at Violet's expression. She said stiffly: "Violet, this is Sophia, an elf. Sophia, let me introduce, this is your elven race's king from five hundred years ago, Violet."
Sophia had read plenty of adventure novels and vaguely felt she should bow when meeting a king. But because the current elven race had no royal family at all, let alone any protocol for bowing, for a moment she actually didn't know what greeting would be appropriate.
Fortunately, Violet saw her predicament. She had always been tolerant of underage children. She nodded and spoke first: "Sophia?"
Sophia nodded.
"Sit." Violet said. After thinking, she added: "Don't be constrained."
"Your Highness, I've already heard from Lucita about your situation. This is truly wonderful. I think if everyone knew this news, they would definitely be very happy too." Sophia's brain was already a complete mess. She organized her words in a confused manner, rather like the unease of meeting the principal during student days.
Watching Violet chat with Sophia while wearing those clothes that had been soaked in the lake until they were ruined, Lucita realized she should buy her a wearable set of clothes.
Additionally, Violet was staying here and needed some daily necessities.
Just now she'd created an awkward situation and wanted to escape, so she said naturally: "You two chat first. I'll go out to buy some daily necessities for Violet."
Walking out the door, she heard Violet's thanks and waved her hand.
Violet then asked: "How is the elven race doing now?"
"Everything is well. Now everyone lives around the Esti Mountains and rarely goes out..."
When Lucita left, she didn't close the door. The morning sunlight slanted into the living room. Faint murmuring voices came from the small house.
Lucita counted her coins and entered the tailor shop again.
Violet needed new clothes and a pair of new shoes. Additionally, toothbrush, tooth powder, towels, washbasin, and other daily necessities all required money.
Anyway, Violet wasn't staying here long. The clothes just needed to be wearable. When she returned to the elven race, they'd be discarded anyway. So Lucita bought the cheapest basic style again, a plain white dress.
No dyeing, no complex tailoring. She only needed to spend the money for one piece of clothing. Lucita's abacus clacked loudly.
Even so, after buying everything, the money pouch she thought would last a long time was empty again.
Lucita's current expenses were as exaggerated as if she'd suddenly had a child to raise.
She used the last bit of money to buy some radishes, potatoes, and a loaf of bread. Both vegetables were very cheap.
No matter what, when the high priestess came tomorrow to take the person away and collect the money, she'd go hunting in the mountains the day after. Otherwise, she'd be living on air.
Although hunting income was high, the hunter's cabin belonged to Mavis. If she kept staying there for free, it wouldn't be good either. Moreover, the quality of life in the hunter's cabin was far worse than in town.
She thought worriedly: when would she be able to live the leisurely life of raising sheep and farming?
When she returned, the two elves had already ended their conversation.
Sophia silently shared the same room with Violet. She was simply sitting on pins and needles, just waiting for Lucita to return so she could say goodbye and leave.
After seeing off Sophia, who disappeared very quickly, Lucita showed Violet the newly bought items and calculated for her item by item. Finally she summarized: "Dear, including the quilt and last night's dinner, you've already cost me sixty-three silver coins. Now the house only has twelve silver coins left. Let's not spend any more money today. For breakfast we'll eat boiled potatoes, for lunch cheese with bread, for dinner stewed radishes. This is our food for the whole day. If the high priestess can come take you away tomorrow, I'll cook meat for breakfast to send you off. If the high priestess can't take you away tomorrow, I can only leave you a few loaves of bread and go hunting in the mountains myself."
After rattling off this long calculation, Violet very sensibly nodded obediently.
Violet took a bath and changed into the newly bought white dress.
The originally tattered battle robe that could vaguely be seen to have once been magnificent was thrown into the trash by her. At that time, the chains had been threaded through together, leaving a hole in the chest of the clothes that simply couldn't cover the terrifying wound.
Fortunately, Sophia had killed people before and wasn't intimidated by Violet's appearance before.
In comparison, she really loved her new clothes.
The new clothes were good in every way, precisely because they were intact.
After changing clothes, Violet looked at Lucita busy with breakfast in the kitchen and very consciously went to the yard to draw water to tend the vegetables.
The pea sprouts had already climbed high and produced small tender pods. The bean vines swayed slightly in the morning breeze. The potato sprouts and radish sprouts also stood upright greenly, swaying their broad leaves.
Fine shadows dappled, gracefully lovely.
Violet hadn't had such a peaceful life in a long time.
She shaded her eyes with her hand, looked up at the sun on the horizon that still had a trace of morning chill, and sighed contentedly.
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