Rainy Weather

Pitter-patter—pitter-patter—pitter-patter—

The quiet autumn day in the Hidden Borderlands welcomed another torrential downpour.

Raindrops fell from the sky and struck the roof, waking the sleeping botanist.

Finn opened his eyes, his bones aching slightly. Now frail with age, he could no longer endure gloomy, rainy weather. He only hoped the Solar Energy would emerge soon and warm his body.

"..."

"Today was the day Linsey was due to come."

Thinking of what he had to do today, Finn got out of bed.

He caught his breath and rested for a while before pulling on his robe and rising to his feet inside the house.

Finn could not help sighing again.

Three years ago, when his student Linsey had first arrived in this town—

With a little effort from these old bones, he could still walk all the way to the Lord's Manor on the other side of town.

But now, the years had carved their marks deep into his bones.

Without help, Finn found it exceedingly difficult even to walk five hundred meters to inspect the more distant Farmland.

"Volcano City Plant Guide (4)—Linsey has already studied that one. Empathy of Life—he's studied that too. Source Material Cultivation Secret Manual—I think he borrowed and finished that last year. Mo Wen's Annotations... Oh, right. This one..."

After getting up, the botanist entered his study.

He sorted through his bookshelves, searching for what he ought to teach Linsey today.

At the thought of his student, a smile appeared on Finn's lips.

Linsey was a very clever child. Perhaps he ought to be called a young man now.

During the three years the boy had spent in Border Town, he had studied knowledge and skills under the town's various Awakened. At Finn's place, Linsey had done exceptionally well, always progressing through his studies both quickly and thoroughly.

And according to what the botanist had heard, he had performed just as outstandingly while studying under the other Awakened.

"If this weren't the Hidden Borderlands, this child truly ought to have gone to Volcano City."

Finn murmured softly as he finished preparing today's study materials.

By then, he was having trouble walking again.

So he sat down directly in the study, recovering the strength that drained quickly from him and returned only slowly.

After half an hour had passed—

Once his breathing had steadied again, he rose and returned to the entry hall by the front door. Listening to the rain striking the eaves, his gaze naturally fell upon the rain hat by the door.

"Time to feed Xuan Cao..."

Xuan Cao was the name of a hen.

Finn had not originally kept any poultry, but two years ago, Linsey had helped him build a chicken coop outside the house. Since then, occasionally collecting a few eggs had made Finn's life much easier.

It was something Finn, who had once focused solely on plants, would never have considered or done.

Slowly picking up the rain hat, Finn walked outside.

At the edge of the small yard, beneath skies where the rain was beginning to weaken, he stepped through the muddy ground and scattered a handful of millet and carrot bits for Xuan Cao.

He wanted to check the chicken coop.

But the cold dampness of the rainy day made Finn's lower back ache unbearably. He could not even bend down to see whether there were eggs in the nest.

"Xuan Cao, you're getting on in years too. Be careful in this rainy weather."

Finn murmured a few words toward the coop.

Only after seeing the hen come over to peck at the food did he adjust his rain hat and head back inside.

"Cough, cough—"

Finn set down his rain hat and coughed twice.

He lit the fireplace, and as soon as the firelight fell over him, he felt much better.

Taking advantage of the warmth, Finn went to the side, scooped a ladle of water into the kettle, and hung it over the fireplace.

Watching the flames in the hearth, Finn thought of his experiments again.

Over the past two winters, the temperatures had grown colder and colder. Even the average temperatures of the other seasons had dropped somewhat.

The subtle change was not especially noticeable to people.

But for crops planted in the fields, the situation was becoming increasingly dire.

Finn's knowledge had allowed him to foresee this in advance, so even as old age drained his strength, he continued his research.

Because Linsey occasionally went hunting with the Hunting Team—

Finn had asked his student to bring back several wild cold-resistant plants. He cultivated them at home and tried crossbreeding them with several existing food crops.

It was a lengthy undertaking.

If all went well, then with the techniques of the Life School, perhaps seven or eight years would be enough to cultivate entirely new cold-resistant crops.

But that span of time was far too long for Finn.

He could feel that his life was nearing its end.

This winter... perhaps even this autumn, would be the last river this old ship of his could sail.

"In the end, I am a man without talent."

Finn shook his head with a sigh.

"If I could elevate my techniques one more time and touch the boundary of life, perhaps I could accomplish it."

In these distant borderlands, everyone knew Finn as a botanist.

But in Volcano City, the headquarters of the Life School, it was actually a common title, because it referred to the basic designation held by those beneath a Life Scholar.

Within the Life School, only those who had elevated their techniques five times could receive the title of Life Scholar in Volcano City.

Those in the first four stages could only be known according to their field of research.

Such as Finn's title of botanist.

Whooo—

Amid his long contemplation, the kettle atop the fireplace began to whistle.

Finn was pulled from his thoughts. He hurriedly lifted the kettle with trembling hands and poured himself a cup of hot water.

His withered hands cradled the cup before him, while his gaze settled on the lightly rippling surface.

The old man, whose life was nearing its end, thought of something else.

His source material.

Finn's source material was the most common and broadly applicable basic source material among the Awakened.

Yet among the other types of source material, there was one particularly unusual path.

—The source material used by traveling merchants.

Those who followed the path of a traveling merchant extracted the source material from within their bodies and housed it in an external object.

It was like placing an energy core outside the body, but it did not hinder their own use of techniques.

At the same time, it allowed the object housing the source material to gain certain miraculous effects.

And so, one day long ago, someone changed everything.

A powerful Awakened, already advanced in years and nearing death, discarded his techniques and abilities. Using the methods of a traveling merchant, he infused a vessel with the source material he had accumulated over his lifetime, forging it into a treasure to pass down to later generations.

This treasure possessed the power to discern lies.

Even treasures crafted by fairly skilled forgers rarely possessed such an effect.

At this moment, Finn was considering whether he could achieve something similar.

And as far as he knew, within the Hidden Borderlands, the only people who possessed such a technique were at the church outside town.

"Perhaps I should seek out the Red Moon Lady..."

Bang, bang, bang—

"Teacher Finn, I'm here."

Just then, someone knocked on the door of Finn's wooden house from outside.

Hearing that familiar voice, he looked up and smiled. "Linsey, you're here."

"The door isn't locked. Come in quickly—the rain is still falling outside."