Chapter 36 - The Farm in Irttat
Chapter 36: Visitor from the Royal Capital 02
Previously, Linnea lived in an orphanage near the Deep Sea Palace. Like many children who had lost their mothers, she was raised collectively by the entire merfolk race.
But as the merfolk returned to land, Linnea, like her ancestors five hundred years ago, quickly became enamored with life on the continent. She began spending her days in Irttat making new friends, singing in the square, playing in the forest, and only returning to the nearby shallow sea late at night every day.
Unfortunately, every meeting must eventually end. A month passed quickly.
Amala had stayed in Irttat for a month, handling various diplomatic issues after the merfolk's landing. Now it was time for her to return to the deep sea and resume her responsibilities.
Unexpectedly, Linnea was unwilling to go back with her.
Amala had forgotten: how could a child who had lived in the silent deep sea since birth not linger after seeing the continent's prosperity?
If Linnea were a bit younger, Amala could assert parental authority and forcibly take her away.
If Linnea were a bit older, she could live here on her own without Amala worrying.
Unfortunately, Linnea was precisely at the fearless age, full of curiosity about everything, most adept at opposing authority, stubbornly going her own way without listening to advice.
A rebellious-phase child—after several days of persuasion with no results, Amala didn't dare forcibly take her away.
Thinking it over, Amala thought of Lucita.
Lucita was amenable either way.
On one hand, she had helped the merfolk race greatly and accepted their mental arts inheritance. Relations between both sides were already very harmonious. Helping watch a child wasn't much.
On the other hand, she also had a small private reason.
Her life in Irttat was harmonious and fulfilling. If she were the real Lucita, with a certain and real past, with a natural sense of belonging to Irttat, she would probably feel very happy.
But she was a ghost without a past. Even with Violet, similarly abandoned by the times, to huddle together for warmth, deep in her heart there was always a bit of loneliness and anxiety hidden beneath the calm, difficult to dispel.
Sometimes, she would even question the authenticity of her own existence.
Would having one more lively child on the farm make this place feel more like a real home?
Holding onto a quiet hope she did not voice aloud, she took Linnea’s hand.
"Of course! I also like Linnea very much." Lucita said with a smile.
Linnea's eyes lit up. Hugging Lucitas’s arm, she cheered: "Yay! I also like Sister Lucy the most—"
The girl's clear, bright voice penetrated the spring mist, startling birds roosting in the trees.
Lucita ordered a smaller oak bed from Skloot, still a three-day construction period.
The farm had no extra room for Linnea to sleep in. Fortunately, her own master bedroom was quite spacious. She planned to temporarily place Linnea's small bed in her own bedroom, then later expand a new room for Linnea.
Actually, before Linnea came, Lucita had already had some plans for this matter.
When she first arrived, this house's wall boards already had aged mold spots and cracks that needed repair. After Violet moved in, the original study was converted to a secondary bedroom, and the house's space also became tight.
Therefore, Lucita had already planned to expand a new study after earning money from storage necklaces.
Now with Linnea here, rooms were even more insufficient. It seemed like the perfect time to finally put this on the agenda.
By early summer, there were already over a hundred elven households in the nearby forest, of which several dozen were idle hunters.
After her storage necklace market opened among the elven race, in one month at least twenty-some hunters had patronized her business, often buying more than one. Adding some scattered customers who used them for other uses, all told, in April she actually had five to six hundred silver coins in income, almost matching the entire spring season's harvest from the fields.
Other businesses had expenses that ate into profits, after calculation, net profit might be only half. But Lucita's business needed no cost, apart from eating a little more food herself.
It was essentially pure profit.
In addition, Amala paid a boarding fee for Linnea, covering the bed and two months of food expenses. Altogether, she paid five hundred silver coins.
Combined with Lucita’s own earnings, her savings reached roughly one thousand silver coins.
She finished tallying the savings in hand and knocked on builder Durani's door.
Lucita had made a plan in mind and discussed it with Violet. The final plan was to add a corridor to one side along the back of the current house and expand two rooms backward.
One room for Linnea as a bedroom, the other as a new study, so the incongruous bookshelf in the living room could be moved back.
In addition, since harvest season was approaching, Lucita planned to build a small separate structure in the backyard to store grain and tools, where she could also smoke ham.
The front yard also needed a room. After harvesting the potato plot in front of the well, a small shop could be built on this plot. Digging out a bay window and displaying storage necklaces inside. From then on she wouldn't need to welcome unfamiliar customers into the cramped living room.
Finally, the existing house also needed to replace moldy, cracked wall boards, another task.
Calculated this way, all told, this was no small project. Durani gave a two-month construction period.
If Lucita provided lumber herself, she needed to pay Durani four hundred silver coins. If Durani also handled the lumber, it would cost five hundred silver coins total.
Additionally, house decoration was another expenditure.
Painting for pest prevention was one item. Some special colored dyes were also very expensive. For instance, red paint made with cinnabar cost fifty silver coins per barrel, which was barely enough to cover the exterior of one small room.
Repainting her entire house would need about two hundred silver coins.
Lucita wasn't particularly well-off. The house-building expenses were excessive, making her somewhat strapped.
Therefore, she decided to prepare the lumber herself.
Why waste money when she could save a hundred silver coins?
Lucita already owned tools for chopping wood. The toolbox still held an oil-sealed axe she had used when first clearing the yard.
Timber resources were also very close. Behind the farm was a large forest. Even the trees Violet cut when expanding the farm were still piled in a corner of the yard.
Lucita and Violet took turns using the axe and spent two full days felling trees. During that time, Linnea helped by gathering grass for the sheep.
Violet was a long-lived race with enormous strength. Though Lucita as a mixed-blood was much weaker, her physical qualities were still extremely excellent compared to ordinary humans.
The two cut trees very efficiently. In just two days they cut enough timber, piling it high in the corner.
After asking Durani to come look and confirm the timber's quality and quantity had no problems, the two finally rested.
They paid half the silver coins as a deposit. On the last day of early April, Durani began work.
Lucita and Violet rested for two days, then became busy again.
The vegetables planted in spring were ready for their first harvest, and it was time to start storing winter fodder for the sheep.
Before the first rainstorm came, they'd better finish harvesting the last crop of peas.
Lucita was responsible for harvesting vegetables at home. Violet took Linnea to care for the little sheep.
Of course, taking Linnea out was just incidentally taking her to play.
Linnea seemed to really like the grassland, always picking many wildflowers to bring back.
Lucita inserted clusters of pansies and primroses into the living room vase. Some unexpectedly obtained rare magical herbs were planted in the small medicine garden in front of the door.
She first finished harvesting the small potato plot by the well to make room for Durani's construction work.
Since the storage shed wasn't built yet, these potatoes were temporarily placed in storage space—Lucita's space limit had reached thirty liters, filling four or five shell necklaces.
The potatoes were planted for her own consumption.
As for other cash crops, the peas in front of the door had already harvested the last crop. Only empty pea vines tiredly clung to the frames, waiting to be removed.
The radishes behind the yard had also been pulled up completely, piled high in a corner of the kitchen.
In the newly opened pea plot, the peas were maturing for the first time. After Lucita picked this once, two more crops of peas could still grow. Jade-green pea vines swayed slightly in the summer breeze.
The harvest of these crops wasn't far from the original estimate, even a bit higher. Who knows if it was because Violet helped with planting.
In any case, selling everything to Aurora, Lucita earned the expected five hundred-plus silver coins, close to six hundred.
Lucita counted the savings in hand. Excluding the reserved five hundred for buying experimental equipment and three hundred for the house construction balance, she had a total of five hundred in usable assets.
Having savings in hand gave more security than anything.
She looked at Violet's simple plain white cotton dress and with a grand wave decided to add some new clothes for them.
Violet: Tearful.
Heaven knew she'd been alternating this dress with sleepwear for almost two months.
Linnea was also in high spirits. She liked brightly colored things. These dyed fabrics always made her love them dearly.
Thus Violet had her own lace cotton blouse and grass-green large-pocketed bloomers. Linnea also happily wore her cherry-red new overalls to the square to sing her new songs.
On the last day of mid-April, summer's first rain came.
This rainstorm lasted an entire night. Through the window one could see the ink-splash sky, tree-branch-shaped lightning lighting up from time to time, accompanied by rumbling thunder.
Raindrops hit the window, making crackling sounds, making it hard to sleep.
Lucita woke in the middle of the night, tossing and turning. Not knowing how much time passed before she fell asleep again uneasily.
When she awoke the next morning, everything outside was drenched.
Birch leaves glistened with fresh, vibrant green after the rain, catching the morning sunlight like tiny mirrors.
Faint cicadas began to sing.
Lucita raised her head. Between the dappled branches and leaves, the morning sun was slightly dazzling.
She squinted.
Summer had truly arrived.
Comments
Post a Comment