Chapter 141: A Rare Noble Lady

Chapter 141 -137: A Rare Noble Lady

「Four days later.」

The sun hung high in a cloudless sky. Beneath it, vast fields of wheat glowed a brilliant gold. A hot breeze swept through, sending slow, heavy waves rolling across the fields like an ocean, a deeply reassuring sight.

This was now the third consecutive year of the “long summer” for the Octavia Kingdom, located in the northern part of the continent.

Blessed by almost decadent amounts of sunshine, every ear of wheat was heavy, nearly bending its stalk to the ground and heralding another undeniable year of bumper harvests.

“RUMBLE RUMBLE—”

Accompanied by the distant sound of wheels, a small black dot suddenly appeared at the end of the gravel road bordering the wheat fields.

Then, as the clip-clop of hooves grew clearer, the black dot took shape.

It was a two-compartment noble’s carriage, a full four or five meters long. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

Pulling it were two purebred Wilson black horses, their coats glossy and their builds tall. They held their heads high, and the shiny white buckles and decorative plates on their harnesses gave them a spirited air.

The carriage itself could only be described as exquisite and noble. Its frame and corners were crafted from spotless oak, its sides carved with vines and flowers. Some parts were even inlaid with thin, gilded copper plates that reflected dazzling spots of light in the sun.

Although it bore no banner, the design of the carriage alone was enough to proclaim the noble status of its occupant.

Clearly, this was a noble or a Wealthy Merchant.

Or perhaps a noble who was also a Wealthy Merchant.

After all, important figures of this caliber rarely appeared in Heitai Town.

The last time had been half a year ago, when a regional Bishop of the Natural Theology came to preach.

But His Grace the Bishop had only stayed for a day before leaving, reportedly to spread divine grace in even poorer places.

Heitai Town, apparently, did not meet the criteria for being a “poor and remote backwater.”

Therefore, it was unworthy of divine grace.

This left everyone feeling a bit disappointed for a while… even though no one really knew what “divine grace” actually was.

In any case, the moment such an exquisite carriage entered the town, it immediately drew a great deal of attention.

Everywhere it went, passersby turned to stare and whisper amongst themselves.

But the small windows of the carriage were covered by velvet curtains, so no one could see who was inside.

About ten minutes later, the carriage slowly turned into a clean, wide alley and finally came to a stop outside the Silver Moon Corridor inn.

Soon, the door opened, and a true noble lady stepped down from the carriage.

She wore an off-white silk Cloak, and the silver-thread embroidery on her dress hem swayed gently in the breeze, revealing the tips of her spotless patent leather shoes. The sight was simply captivating.

And when this young lady merely turned her head, gasps of astonishment rippled through the crowd of onlookers in the distance.

“Heavens! What am I seeing!”

“I swear! I’ve never seen such a beautiful young lady!”

“Look at the trim on her Cloak, it must be gold thread!”

“She’s looking at me!”

“Wow, what a pretty lady!”

“…”

Farmwives carrying vegetable baskets, Adventurers with Weapons on their backs, and even a group of children who happened to be passing by.

The crowd, seemingly intimidated by the young lady’s aura, dared not approach. They simply gathered at the alley’s entrance more than ten meters away, admiring her with surprised exclamations.

However, when the young lady’s brow furrowed slightly with impatience, all the chatter ceased in an instant.

It was as if a collective Great Silence Technique had been cast upon them; the scene became utterly quiet in a flash.

Many even lowered their heads in fear, not daring to look at even the hem of her dress or the tips of her shoes, as if afraid of angering the ill-tempered noble miss.

“Hmph.”

A moment later, Freya coolly withdrew her gaze and strode into the inn’s front yard with a blank expression.

“Country folk are so vulgar.”

…

…

“CLANG CLANG CLANG!”

“Dinner’s ready! Dinner’s ready!”

Deep within Gelan Forest.

Acorns littered the small patch of woodland. Bai Ya tapped a stew pot with a wooden spoon, calling out in a cheerful voice.

At first glance, she looked like a kindergarten teacher calling the children for a meal.

Or perhaps a pet store keeper.

A short while later, Lu Wei and Furen emerged from the woods, each carrying a large bundle of bright green leaves.

According to Bai Ya, this stuff was called Drowning Joy Grass.

Eating it would numb the nerves, making one feel very relaxed and happy.

But it was addictive. Once hooked, you had to eat it every day, or you’d feel a great sense of emptiness.

To put it simply, it was “Western Leaves.”

However, Drowning Joy Grass had rather strict requirements for its growing environment, so it hadn’t yet been cultivated on a large scale in this world; it was basically all wild.

The purchase price was about 3 Silver Coins per pound.

It was one of the more expensive medicinal herbs.

“Wow, that’s so much!”

Running over to help the two of them put the leaves on the ground, Bai Ya said with pleasant surprise, “This feels like ten pounds!”

“About that,”

Lu Wei wiped his sweat, pleased with himself. “We picked it all clean.”

“Good work… You didn’t sneak a bite, did you?”

Bai Ya’s expression suddenly turned wary.

Lu Wei pursed his lips. “Don’t worry, I won’t touch gambling or drugs with a ten-foot pole.”

“That’s good. You really can’t eat this kind of thing.”

Bai Ya muttered under her breath, “If you try it a few times out of curiosity, you’ll very likely get addicted.”

“Never mind the harm it does to your body, the most important thing is that it costs a lot of money.”

“The purchase price is already so high, the selling price must be even higher…”

?

‘So you’re just heartbroken about the money?’

Lu Wei rolled his eyes and changed the subject. “What about Mirana? Isn’t she back yet?”

“Mm-hmm, she’s probably not done drawing yet.”

Bai Ya turned to Hess beside her and commanded:

“Go! Mirana! Eat!”

“Puru!”

Hess blinked hard, then immediately hopped and skipped its way into the eastern woods.

That’s right, after several days of practice, Bai Ya could now fluently give Hess commands.

She had even invented a “keyword communication method” specifically for this purpose.

Essentially, she would break down sentences that Hess couldn’t understand into a few keywords.

For example, the recent “Go, Mirana, Eat.”

This meant “Go get Mirana to come eat.”

Of course, Hess was, after all, a low-Intelligence creature. Its intelligence level, not even reaching that of a goblin, wasn’t high enough for it to logically connect the words.

So, its training had been a gradual process of trial and error.

This had led to quite a few funny situations.

For instance, four days ago, when Bai Ya told it to go get Furen for dinner, it mistakenly thought the command was “go eat Furen” and pounced on Furen’s head.

Fortunately, its Power was too low. After chewing for a long time, it couldn’t even manage to eat a single strand of hair.

Otherwise, Furen would have achieved the unprecedented grand accomplishment of “Killed by a Fur Ball.”

“Puru puru~”

About ten minutes later, the Fur Ball came hopping back, but Mirana was nowhere in sight.

Bai Ya communicated with it for a moment, then translated:

“Mirana said we should go ahead and eat. She’s going to keep drawing the map.”

“Alright, let’s eat then.”

Lu Wei nodded, plopped down next to the stew pot, and took out his map to look at it while Bai Ya was ladling out the soup.

‘If nothing goes wrong, we can leave the mission area tomorrow.’

‘The day after that, we’ll be back at the Dome Pillar.’

‘And the day after that, we’ll be back in Heitai Town!’

‘Yes!’

‘We’re finally going back!’

‘I wonder what the Dome Pillar is like now.’

‘And new Professional Skill Books… After all this time, Sebas should have been able to get a couple, right?’

‘This is great!’

‘My Professional Promotion is just around the corner!’

‘Soon, I won’t be a Crafty Merchant anymore!’

Taking the soup Bai Ya handed him, Lu Wei sipped it while looking down at the symbol for “Giant Tree” [〒] on the map, his heart set on returning.

“I really can’t wait!”