Rosily had been watching Elqi, but now she heard something about practical training, and it was going to be in the Northern Mountains!
Her beautiful eyes were already sparkling.
The book Enya had given her, Rosily had read it countless times, even memorized it backwards and forwards.
It was a thousand times better than any travelogue or storybook.
That book, though not particularly thick, contained content that covered nearly every race from the south to the north of the continent, along with all kinds of bizarre and mysterious realms.
Each one made her yearn to visit.
Rosily often fantasized about being the protagonist of an adventure story.
With her deep curiosity, she felt she couldn’t leave her mother alone at home, so she had always consciously suppressed that desire inside her.
Now, hearing they were going to the Northern Mountains, how could she not be excited?
That was where all stories began!
Rosily’s eyes sparkled like stars, and she let out an eager sound.
“Hehe~”
Elqi, hearing this, snapped back to reality from her heart flow state.
She turned to look at Rosily, who was staring into space, lost in her fantasies, and couldn’t help blinking.
Elqi hesitated for a moment, then leaned close to Rosily’s ear and whispered softly, “The Northern Mountains are very dangerous.”
“Yeah.”
Rosily looked at her and smiled.
“I’ll protect you!”
“…”
Elqi shook her head helplessly.
She knew that once Rosily became interested in something, she was practically impossible to talk out of it.
Still, while the Northern Mountains were dangerous, it was only deep within the mountains that one would encounter threats capable of endangering their lives.
As long as they didn’t try to cross them to reach the mysterious Northern Continent, the danger level wouldn’t be too high.
The girl let out a soft sigh. Instead of extinguishing Rosily’s flames of desire, she watched her excited expression and shook her head with a smile.
Just then, Rosily grabbed her hand and leaned close to her ear.
“I’ll take you somewhere later.”
“Huh?”
Elqi was stunned. Rosily gave her a mysterious look.
“Don’t worry, it’s not my house this time. It’s where I train.”
“…Okay.”
The two exchanged words back and forth, finalizing how they’d spend their free time.
After Tristan and Samuel gave a brief introduction to the Northern Mountains expedition, they announced the end of the second day’s lessons.
Madam Samuel scanned the teams present.
The intensity of today’s matches was higher than yesterday’s, and half of them looked disheveled.
She narrowed her eyes slightly and turned to Tristan beside her.
“Don’t you think this is a bit too fast?”
Even in Moonview City, going to the Northern Mountains was something done only at graduation—a group hunt of a high-rank magical beast as the final assessment to determine if one could graduate.
Hearing this, Tristan grinned.
“So what? Danger won’t wait until they’re ready. So what we need to do is, in this short time, teach them what survival combat means.”
“…”
Madam Samuel rolled her eyes at him.
These people selected from Red Pine City included some who had risen from the common folk.
Their ability to fight against others was better than those who had always stayed in the academy.
The main issue was coordination…
The girl with the dark green ponytail, Scarlett, was walking alone through the woods, heading back to her own nest.
But ahead of her, two figures suddenly blocked her path.
They were two boys also chosen as special training students—one tall and burly, the other lean and agile.
“Something you need, fellow students?”
“…”
The burly boy stared at her.
“Scarlett, you seem pretty close to that Rosily?”
“Oh.”
Scarlett shrugged nonchalantly and slipped through the gap between the two.
After walking a certain distance, she turned around and flipped them off.
“None of your damn business?”
The two boys looked at each other, then just watched her leave.
When Scarlett emerged from the small forest, she happened to see Rosily dragging Elqi along. The two seemed to be sneaking off to do something.
That kind of scene was certainly curious.
She glanced back once, then snorted coldly.
Ever since Red Pine City started accepting commoners into the academy, many common-born prodigies had emerged, some even outshining those with bloodlines.
Where did these people come from? And why hadn’t they shown themselves before?
Scarlett knew the answer.
Red Pine City, Crimson Academy, a private dining room in a nearby restaurant. Two scarlet figures sat at a small round table.
Lilith reached out her tiny hand, grabbed a piece of cake, and stuffed it into her mouth.
“It’s so big…”
“Of course, because sister has gotten small.”
Yelena watched from the side as her little sister took a small pastry no bigger than an egg, puffing out her cheeks. She smiled appreciatively.
“Sister looks so cute like this.”
“We’re talking about serious matters.”
Lilith’s pair of scarlet pupils glanced at Yelena.
She was trying to put on a dignified elder-sister expression, but with that face, she had no intimidating power at all.
“Pfft… hehehe.”
Yelena couldn’t help but laugh.
Lilith pouted her greasy little lips, narrowed her sparkling eyes, and glared at Yelena.
She hoped her younger sister would act normal, but Yelena just couldn’t return to her original serious demeanor.
Finally, Lilith gave up on that fantasy.
Go ahead, laugh at your sister. Hmph.
Lilith turned her head away, pretending to sulk.
After laughing enough, Yelena took a deep breath, rubbed her sore cheeks, cleared her throat, and spoke.
“The northern wall has been heightened and thickened according to the plan you set, sister. Work on the other walls is progressing step by step. Civil engineering mages are really useful.”
“Good. Keep it up.”
“Also, the third expansion of the refugee camp is complete. The third batch of refugees has passed screening and can be brought in tomorrow. But their condition clearly won’t allow them to start working immediately.”
Yelena had personally visited the refugee camp outside the city.
Those people were barely clothed and starving, their faces sallow and thin, clearly the most oppressed bottom dwellers.
She had only brought some black bread to fill their stomachs, and they knelt before her, calling her a kind-hearted lord.
Unlike her sister Henna, Yelena hadn’t traveled to many places.
Before becoming a lord, she was still a young lady, pampered and privileged, making it hard for her to understand the suffering of those people.
But when she saw with her own eyes the gathered aura of suffering people, the oppressive feeling made it hard for her to breathe.
At that moment, Yelena thought, maybe this was what the nobles always meant when they said the existence of the poor would pollute the air?
Thinking this, Yelena felt a chill.
She broke out in goosebumps. When she left, it felt like fleeing, hardly befitting a qualified noble lord.
Lilith noticed something was off.
She reached out and placed her hand on Yelena’s, which rested on the table, and spoke in that soft, sweet voice.
“Is the lord’s work tiring? If you’re tired, take a good rest.”
“No… I’m not tired. I just feel helpless, like I can’t do anything. I want to escape but have nowhere to go.”
Yelena turned her hand and gripped Lilith’s soft, tender one, lowering her eyelids.
Lilith looked up into her eyes.
“Like drowning?”
“Like drowning.”
Yelena nodded gently. She had once fallen into the water, pushed in by her own older brother.
After pushing her, he ran away quickly, then blamed a maid. The maid admitted her negligence.
Even though Yelena corrected the story, saying she had fallen in by accident, it couldn’t change the maid’s fate of being executed.
She still remembered the maid’s hollow gaze as she looked at her.
Yelena didn’t dwell on it for long. Instead, she forced a smile.
“Sister, why reinforce the walls?”
“Why…”
Lilith fell silent at this question, which was rare for her.
She pulled her hand back from her sister’s, sat up straight in her chair, and stared at the door of the private room.
After a moment of thought, she turned to Yelena.
“Because Princess Vivienne has thickened the walls on all northern borders, sparing no expense to buy stone from White Stone City. And she started this a long time ago. On top of that, she chose to invest in our Red Pine City. That princess probably has some long-term plan.”
Lilith, without spoiling anything, told Yelena why the walls were being built. It was simply because an enemy would come in the future.
Who it was, she didn’t know yet, but following a major nation’s military buildup was never a mistake.
Yelena listened, spending some time pondering the meaning.
“Oh, sister… about the grain issue. After introducing the new wheat seeds from the Zephyr Empire, our grain output this year is expected to be a full double what it was in previous years.”
“Collect as usual. Spend the rest to buy, but don’t offer too high a price, or trouble will come.”
In just an instant, Lilith had made the decision.
Yelena nodded repeatedly.
“That Princess Susia seems to have already gone back, but that Miss Ishumir is still staying in our city.”
When it came to Ishumir, Yelena found that woman truly hard to deal with.
If she could, she wouldn’t want to face someone like that at all.
But Ishumir didn’t seem to have any plans to leave.
“Mm.”
Lilith responded indifferently.
She wasn’t surprised by Susia’s departure, nor did she care about Ishumir’s stay. What Lilith cared more about was…
“How’s Madam Phil doing lately?”
“Sister, you really do care about Madam Phil. You know, in this form, you’d definitely win her favor.”
Yelena suppressed a laugh and teased Lilith.
Lilith gave her a sharp glare. After being warned by Enya, how could she dare get close? She could only watch from afar.
Yelena covered her mouth with a laugh. Seeing that Lilith truly wanted to know, she reluctantly shared the news she’d gotten.
“Madam Phil lately…”