151 Tranquility (1/2)

Li took in a breath and sighed. Now he was getting to the part he wanted to: the recruitment of the farmers and beastwomen. Even for an immortal being with infinite stamina, he felt something resembling tiredness, or maybe that was the human part of him conjuring up a familiar feeling for him.

Still, Li felt more anticipation for what was to come. This would be, if all went right as it should, the beginning of a new era for his farm. Finally, he would expand beyond his acre and revive the old ways of tending to the land, ways that gave justice to the term 'husbandry', ways that would bring forth a true appreciation of everything the soil had to offer.

Li spoke to one of the vampire knights. ”Round the farmers up and move them downstairs. I need to talk to them.”

The knight nodded, and as he moved, several others moved concurrently with him, entering into the rooms to retrieve the farmers. While they did that, Li moved downstairs. As his steps carved out wooden echoes through the staircase, he thought about what Meld had told him.

Meld said she would put up Chevrette's assets for auction. That was a seemingly highly unrelated and random statement, especially coming in light of an even more out of place question about Alexei's finances. However, as Li thought about it, he realized Meld had done him a massive favor.

By putting those assets up for auction and asking about Alexei's money, Meld was implicitly telling Li to have Alexei buy up Chevrette's assets. Count Alexei, the man whose maids came from the streets, whose outward generosity was just second to Chevrette's own.

Then it occurred to him that this was Meld's way of trying to make sure Ella Chevrette had a good future for her. She was hoping that Alexei would take her in and let her live a life of relative comfort.

Not only this, however, but Li also gained an immense amount of power over the farmers. He, by having Alexei under his thumb, would essentially also have the farmers' livelihoods under his control. He did not know if Meld had intended this, but she could not have been ignorant of the fact that this would happen. No, she had wanted to help Li as well for some reason or another.

If ever Li encountered Meld again, he would think to thank her, though on second thought, he was better off not doing so. After all, the reason she had hinted at the auction was because she probably did not want anything on record indicating that she had tried to help either Li or Ella.

Regardless, Li did appreciate the sentiment, and he would put it to good use.

Although Li knew this would break some amount of the secrecy he upheld, he was willing to thin the veil for the greatness of his farm and the sake of the farmers and beastwomen.

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”Can you take them up to their room?” said Li as he pointed back to Sylvie and Jeanne's sleeping forms. ”They've done enough already. You should get some rest, too. Despite whatever training you might have gone through, you're only human.”

”Ain't that right,” said Azhar as he looked knowingly at Li. ”But you know, if yer' gonna' be doin' somethin', Sylv and Jeanne are gonna' be sad they slept through it without helpin'.”

”And you're sure all of you are in good enough condition?”

”Probably. Worst case we sleep in durin' the morrow'. Adventurers like us ain't real friendly with the concept of a good night's sleep anyhows.”

”I guess you're right. I've underestimated you all,” said Li. It was odd. He felt the adventurers so fragile, bound by things like a need to sleep and eat and even breathe. He tried to remember what it felt like to feel those same thing, when he used to struggle to keep his eyes open after hours and hours of studying into the dawn, but he could only come up with faint feelings. Vague, dream-like impressions.

So he tried to be considerate with the adventurers, but at the same time, he had to acknowledge that they were superhuman compared to humans of his previous world.

Li nodded. ”Then prep them to wake up. We're heading to the farm soon.”

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The farmers came down and gathered around the center of the room. The beastwomen looked at them wonderingly, mostly, though there were a few suspicious stares here and there. The younger folk among the farmers were positively terrified, eyeing the beastwomen and their sharp claws and teeth like panicked stares.

The older ones, however, had the composure of rooted oaks, standing still as they stared at Li who stood in front of them. At the corners of the room were the adventurers, watching to see nothing went too wrong and being a comforting presence in case the farmers were afraid of the beastwomen.

”I trust that all of you are feeling a load off your shoulders now that you're no longer bound to Chevrette?” said Li.

The farmers shifted around as they nodded, trying to see where Li was going with this by talking to them.

”Should I introduce myself?” said Li.