In fact, if she were only running the winery in the village—her own home—she wouldn’t need to hire Lydia. But she was planning to build her business in town for a while. Since wealthy Third Young Master Ethan was willing to give her a place to make wine and other drinks, why not go to town?

The trickier part was asking her father what he thought, then asking the village chief to let someone who needed it use their family’s fields—

The villagers didn’t actually own the land. It belonged to the lord of the region, so the villagers were essentially renting it from him and had to pay him taxes. As the village’s actual administrator, the village chief had the authority to redistribute the land. That was what Lydia had done.

But what about the red peppers? Could she really stop growing them? That didn’t seem possible—at least not as far as her mother, Xilika, was concerned.

Xilika told Tori very seriously, “I don’t oppose your plans to build a business in town. And I believe in you, Tori. You’ve proven that you have the intelligence and ability to do it. Even if your mother was deceived, you won’t be so easily fooled.” She really did know herself well.

“But I don’t want to move to town. Your father and I have lived in Lusaka Village since we were children. All our memories are here. We don’t want to leave. I know everyone in this village. I know what they like, and I know their routines. I feel safe here.”

That was Xilika’s opinion, and Tori could sense how unshakable her resolve was. It was as if she were looking at her parents from her previous life. One year, after a major earthquake, rumors spread that a flood was coming—that the dams wouldn’t be able to hold back the floodwaters after the quake. Everyone was supposed to flee, but her parents refused to leave. They stood on the roof and said, “Our family has lived here for generations. If we’re going to die, we’ll die with this place.”

Stubborn to the very end.

People always seemed to form attachments to certain things. She sighed and looked over at Lydia, the silver-haired girl hauling empty barrels.

“What do you think, Lydia? Do you want to go to town?”

“Of course, Tori! I’ve only been to town once, when I was little, but there were so many fun things there. All kinds of little toys, like dolls. My dad bought me one once.” Lydia sounded as if she were remembering—and imagining it all over again.

Hearing that, Tori couldn’t help thinking how easily children found happiness. She considered it for a moment, then asked, “What if you had to live in town all the time?”

“Wouldn’t that be even better?”

Young people and older people really did think differently. Though, come to think of it, her mother was only twenty-five or twenty-six. Technically, that still made her young. What was going on here?!

Tori tugged at her hair and sighed in frustration. Honestly, two little girls couldn’t manage a winery in town on their own.

If only Ethan could show up himself.

For now, she put those concerns aside. The most important thing was to figure out the moon grass—what exactly was moon grass essence?

As Tori understood it, you took the part of the moon grass with the most concentrated magic and crushed it. That was the very essence of the plant.

“Lydia, remember to keep an eye on that pile of bones for me. I need some bone worms. Let me know if any show up, so I can catch them.”

“No problem! Leave it to me! The bones Dad used to throw away after hunting would grow bone worms. I know what they look like—I’ve caught them before.”

Well, you may be little, but you’re braver than my mom.

Tori threw herself into experimenting with moon grass.

…

Southwest of Blackwater Town lay a place called Layata Town, the closest town to the deep mountains. Hunters passed through Layata Town and ventured into the vast, endless mountain range to hunt the game they wanted—or search for certain materials…

That was why the nearby towns all had Adventurers' Guild quest boards. Official adventurer registration and the like still had to be done in Dais City, of course. But adventurers could accept quests in nearby towns or turn in the materials they needed for them.

At that moment, Ethan was riding in a carriage on his way back.

His carriage carried the corpse of a rather large monster that looked like a rat.

Yabu, the middle-aged butler, was driving. He asked Ethan, who sat beside him, “Young Master, are you really not going to tell the lord that your strength is starting to recover? You had some trouble a few years ago, but now that you’re getting stronger again, the master won’t keep you in this town. You could become a knight.”

Ethan waved a hand. “You’re wrong, Yabu. Even if I told my father that my strength was returning, it would do me more harm than good. I’m treated very well as things stand. My brothers and sisters are kind to me—because I can’t inherit anything from our father, apart from perhaps a few businesses, and money doesn’t matter much to them. So they can afford to be fond of me and send me all sorts of gifts. Whenever I ask them for help, they do their best, because they want to show our father how well his children support one another.”

Sitting beside Yabu, Ethan glanced back at the Rat King he’d hunted and smiled. “This is a good thing for me. Think about it: if I hadn’t come to Blackwater Town, I’d never have discovered someone like Tori. People with goals of their own are rare. She loves money. She really wants it—there aren’t many people left who are as single-minded about money as she is. People like that are easy to keep on your side. As long as you keep providing them with wealth, they’ll be your most loyal partners. It’s a lot easier than dealing with nobles.”

Yabu opened his mouth, hesitated, then finally asked carefully, “And your engagement to Miss Shalian…?”

Ethan looked completely unconcerned. “Shalian is an ordinary noble girl. When she admired me, it was because she thought I had exceptional talent and was handsome. When she came to despise me, it was because my strength declined and my talent was gone. She’s just an ordinary woman. Even if her family hadn’t asked to break off the engagement, I still couldn’t have married her. If my strength hadn’t recovered, what would be the point? I’d have no standing in the family and would live a miserable life. So this is the sensible choice. Don’t worry about me.”

“But you and Miss Shalian have known each other since you were children—”

“There’s no need to bring that up again, Uncle Yabu. There’s no point in talking about it anymore. Anyway, we’re already heading back. Let’s take a detour to Lusaka Village and prove to her that I really am an adventurer, and that I wasn’t lying. What do you think?”

Yabu hesitated again. “Young Master, that girl is only eight years old. I’m afraid she wouldn’t make a very suitable fiancée.”

Ethan stared at him in disbelief, then laughed and scolded him. “What are you talking about, Uncle Yabu? Why would I be interested in a little girl with no womanly charm? No, I am interested in her—but because of her intelligence and talent. I have no feelings for her as a woman. At the very least, she’d have to grow another seven or eight years before I could tell if she was my type! You can’t joke about things like that. If people hear about it, how am I supposed to become a knight? They’d laugh me to death.”

Hearing that, Yabu relaxed and drove the carriage toward Lusaka Village.

Then someone knocked on the door of Tori’s home. She saw a carriage parked outside, with a young nobleman sitting in it and smiling at her. He wore finely made light armor, stained with blood.

Tori looked surprised. “Young Master Ethan, what are you doing here?”

“I came to thank you.” Ethan gestured for Tori to look at the thing in the back of the carriage. The enormous rat carcass left her stunned. She compared it to herself and realized the rat might actually be bigger than she was.

“Is this… a magical beast?!”

Compared with the oil toad, this magical beast was far more shocking. The rat was as huge as the ones Tori had only ever seen in disaster movies, and it lay in the carriage covered in wounds. “What are you going to do with a magical beast like this?”

“Materials from magical beasts are often used to make Potions. In fact, many Potion Makers have poor combat skills, so they hire adventurers to kill certain monsters for them. Adventurers need money—and the points they need to rank up. So these quests are worth doing. The rat poison you gave me last time was a huge help. Its little buddies are all dead now. Otherwise, Yabu and I would’ve had a hard time dealing with them.”

Damn, impressive!

Tori studied the rat, then suddenly remembered something. “How many rats did you kill?”

“I couldn’t count them. There were too many—packed together, everywhere you looked.”

“In that case… will lots of bone worms appear there later?”

Ethan nodded. He remembered the description in the Meditation Potion recipe. “Of course. But it won’t just be bone worms. All kinds of little bugs will come out of that place. It’ll become a breeding ground—and most of them are poisonous. Do you want bone worms?”

Tori nodded. “I piled up some oil toad bones there myself, but the bone worms haven’t grown yet.”

“Hmm… If you want, next time I take a quest, I can bring you there to have a look. If there are any, I’ll help you gather some. You could call it an investment. Are you brave enough?”

Tori froze for a moment. She realized the young master was testing her, trying to see how brave she was. People like him, who thought they were born above everyone else, really did think a lot of themselves.

Still, there were bone worms to consider.

“You’d really do that, Young Master Ethan? Wouldn’t that be too much trouble for you?”

“Then you don’t have to go.”

“…I’ll go.”