In City of Ambition, Lady Mila had spent the past several months preparing for the Gui Xu Beast Tide, which was due to arrive in half a year.
On top of that, winter had come especially early this year, leaving the Lady with no time to spare for the fruit farmers.
"Qiongsen, how many Healing Potions have we collected this time?"
With her head buried in a pile of documents, Mila asked without looking up.
Qiongsen promptly replied, "A full twenty crates of Healing Potions. Half of them came from Apothecary Aiven."
"Ten crates of Healing Potions?"
Mila raised her head, extremely surprised. She hadn't expected Aiven alone to have made as many as all the apothecaries in City of Ambition combined.
Hmm, we have almost enough Healing Potions now. It looks like I can hold off on asking Aiven for the recipe... Mila thought.
Truthfully, she'd found it difficult to bring herself to ask him for the Healing Potion recipe, so she felt relieved.
"By the way, Your Highness."
"Apothecary Aiven has been buying unripe Fruit lately."
Qiongsen hesitated, but then told her about the news he'd just received.
"Unripe Fruit?" Mila asked, puzzled. She didn't know what use they could possibly have.
"Yeah, I didn't understand it at first, either."
"But then something happened in Orange Fruit Village, and I started to understand."
Seeing her reaction, Qiongsen recounted the clash between Peter and Peter at the time. Mila was left dumbfounded.
He's buying those unripe Fruit just to help the fruit farmers... Mila felt something stir within her.
These were things she, as the Lady, should have been doing. And yet Aiven was doing them in her place.
After a long while, Mila let out a breath. "Qiongsen, how much money is left in my personal treasury?"
Qiongsen