Silvermine City on the Plateau

The nobility of Silvermine City were celebrating.

Gao Kan, who wished to rise above his station, was accelerating his efforts.

But at the center of it all, Lux, who had come to Silvermine City to investigate and provide disaster relief, and was supposed to be "resting in bed," had quietly changed into commoner's clothes and ridden off on horseback.

Her fair skin, however, had become a problem. Along the way, Lux had realized that ordinary farm girls her age didn't have skin as fair as hers.

Fortunately, the ever-resourceful Karya always had clever solutions.

He taught Lux some interesting disguise techniques.

Using only natural pigments from berries and Komugi flour as materials, Lux could transform her fair skin into a healthy Komugi color.

Unglazed wheat grains could serve as her "pimples," and unremoved wheat bran could be dotted on as cute "freckles."

After this transformation, Lux looked completely different. Coupled with a large hat that clearly didn't fit her head, she had completely transformed from a noble lady into a common village girl.

The only slight incongruity was her dress sword, as ordinary people wouldn't have one.

To address this, Lux devised a persona for herself as a "hunter's daughter." Although hunters preferred skinning knives, for a girl, carrying a more elegant dress sword was perfectly acceptable in the martial Demacia.

Moreover, if Lux's demeanor deviated slightly from that of a village girl, she could explain it by saying, "She's always been learning to hunt and doesn't understand farming."

Accompanying her was the most skilled guard in her retinue. He had donned a hunting bow and was playing the role of Lux's uncle—also a hunter.

The story was that he was bringing his niece from Irondale to visit relatives.

Oh, it should be "Skola's uncle." To be cautious, Lux had even reversed her own name.

Thus, through this disguise, she finally arrived at the outskirts of Silvermine City as a commoner.

Unlike the Demacian Imperial Capital, which was located by the sea, Silvermine City was a plateau city.

It was backed by the Dragon Ridge Mountains to the north and faced the endless Demacian Great Plains to the south, situated at a crucial transportation hub.

When spring arrived, the melting snow from the southern slopes of the Dragon Ridge Mountains formed countless streams in the mountains. These streams, guided by canals, were eventually channeled into the lakes of Silvermine City.

This semi-natural, semi-artificial lake provided Silvermine City with abundant water resources, which could irrigate agriculture and support shipping. Although it took a long time to travel from the Demacian Imperial Capital to Silvermine City, the reverse journey allowed one to travel downstream at great speed, covering a thousand miles in a day.

Even more remarkably, due to Silvermine City's rich underground mineral resources, this large lake remained unfrozen for most of the year. Unless a rare century-long cold snap occurred, the city was protected by the lake's waters year-round.

Silvermine City was generally composed of two parts.

The inner city fortress, located within the lake, was the nobility district and also the military zone. This inner city was built on a natural hill at the lake's center, boasting a high elevation and surrounded by water. Even if the barbarians of the North were starving and attacked en masse, they could not overcome this fortress.

Around the lake, other districts were scattered sporadically—agricultural, commercial, handicraft districts, and so on. These areas had low but complete city walls, allowing them to support each other in case of War.

Because of this integration of military, agriculture, and commerce, Silvermine City held an extremely important strategic position in the entire northern region of Demacia. Along with Freljord to the west and Irondale to the east, it was known as one of Demacia's "Northern Three Towns."

Returning to Silvermine City after many years, Lux's eyes were filled with novelty.

The population here was far less than in the Imperial Capital, but it was still quite prosperous.

The sweet lake water seemed to be the source of life, nourishing the fertile fields that had been cultivated between the mountains with the efforts of dozens of generations of Demacians.

It was early winter, and there were almost no streams flowing from the snow-capped mountains, but the water resources in Silvermine City's large lake were still abundant. The number of farmers working in the fields was not large, but everywhere was full of vitality.

By the time Lux arrived at the outskirts of Silvermine City's outer districts, it was already night.

The Lunar moon had risen. Lux didn't rush into the city but, as planned, began to look for lodging in a farmhouse. After expressing her willingness to pay, she and her guard successfully settled down in a village.

The village chief was an elderly man with a kind face. He accepted the introduction fee and then helped Lux and her companion find a family with a vacant room, where they settled in.

It was a family that didn't seem well-off.

According to the homeowner, this vacant room had belonged to his daughter, who had gone to the inner city to work as a maid, leaving the room empty.

By commoner standards, the room was relatively clean. However, in Lux's eyes, this cleanliness was still quite messy.

Lux wouldn't consider herself a neat freak, but lying on such a bed, she found it impossible to sleep.

"Is this commoner life?" Lux gripped her sword hilt. "Karya, why don't they wash the quilt covers more thoroughly?"

"You mean the quilt covers, right? Frequent washing can cause them to wear out easily," Karya replied. "Besides, washing quilt covers is troublesome, and most people don't have the time to wash them often. It's fine in summer, but washing quilt covers in winter isn't a good idea."

"I suppose so..." Lux nodded and decided not to sleep. "Never mind, let's go out and take a look. I want to see the nearby farmland, and you can teach me about frost damage."

After the homeowner went to sleep, Lux and her guard put on their outer clothes, arranged the room to look as if two people were sleeping, and quietly left the courtyard.

The farmland was not far from the village.

It was currently the overwintering period for winter wheat. The wheat seedlings had stopped growing, lying alone on the ground like inconspicuous weeds. They would endure the cold winter in this state, and when spring arrived, they would turn green, joint, and grow vigorously until harvest.

Karya had already explained the knowledge about Demacian winter wheat to Lux.

Here, frost damage to winter wheat was generally divided into two types.

In most regions, it was damage caused by sudden low-temperature frost during the greening or jointing stages—that is, frost occurred when winter wheat was not very resistant to freezing, and it was damaged.

In the North, according to the reports from the nobility, due to its proximity to Freljord, winter wheat could be directly frozen to death during the overwintering period if they were unlucky. Even at its most resistant, it couldn't withstand the low temperatures, which was called hard frost.

Lux's purpose for this trip was to determine if Silvermine City had suffered from hard frost.

Bending down in the wheat field, Lux reached out to touch a wheat seedling.

According to Karya, she carefully stroked the veins on the back of Komugi's leaves.

The leaf veins were clear, and they didn't feel stiff when she pinched them with her fingernail.

She plucked a few leaves, crushed them, and spread them in her palm. There were no ice crystals.

So… this wheat seedling showed no signs of frost damage.

Lux let out a small breath, then walked forward a few dozen steps and selected another seedling—still no problem.

Just like that, Lux busied herself in the fields for nearly an hour, finally confirming that the nearby wheat fields were all safe and had not suffered any frost damage.

Having reached this conclusion, Lux narrowed her eyes slightly. She returned to her room with her guards, took out the map from her package, and put a cross where she currently was.

Continue tomorrow!

After spending half the day checking the farmlands, Lux finally fell asleep when she returned to her room.

The next morning, when Lux woke up, she saw the man of the house returning with a cart.

"Hello!" Lux waved. "I'm back from my work—you're up early!"

"Gotta make some money!" The other man chuckled, leaning the cart against the courtyard wall and shaking his coat. "Just went to town to deliver a cart of firewood. Heard some big shot is coming to Silvermine City, and the nobility there are buying firewood at high prices!"

"Big shot?" Lux put on a curious expression, but she already had a guess in her mind. "How do you know that?"

"My son is a guard for one of the lords!" The farmer, who looked about fifty in Lux's eyes, showed a proud expression. "That kid is sharp. As soon as he heard the news, he had his sister pass the message to me. While everyone else was still chopping wood, I had already delivered mine!"

Hearing him say this, Lux felt a little happy.

"It's all thanks to the lord's kindness!" The middle-aged man began to chatter before Lux could even speak. "He said that as long as I can prepare the armor and a packhorse, my son can also join the Rangers and become a knight… oh, a knight squire!"

"Join the Rangers?" Lux recalled the troop composition of Demacia. "Aren't they fighting the barbarians to the north?"

"Fighting barbarians is good!" To Lux's surprise, her worried question was interpreted completely differently by the man. "Once they fight the barbarians, with my son's skills, he'll definitely become a true knight!"

Why would this be?

No fighting, no sacrifice, isn't that the right of commoners?

Why did this farmer in front of her seem to wish for his son to go to war?

"I heard the barbarians to the north are very strong..." Lux could only probe indirectly. "I've only hunted before, I imagine fighting in a war must be even more dangerous..."

"Dangerous? What isn't dangerous?" Hearing Lux say this, the man looked quite philosophical. "Isn't hunting dangerous too? Even farming, that frost three years ago… if my son didn't have to worry about food… tsk tsk tsk, we all rely on heaven for our livelihood. Going to war can make you a knight, a lord; farming can't!"

"..."

"Once you become a lord, you'll have your own squires, and then fighting won't be dangerous anymore. You can move to the inner city and collect rent, and you won't be afraid even if the barbarians from the north come!"

"..."

Lux listened patiently to his description, his dreams, even though an invisible wall separated them.

The strong man spoke eloquently and endlessly, his eyes full of longing.

He sincerely hoped to work harder, save more money, and buy a set of armor for his son, preferably a horse too—even a packhorse.

As long as he achieved merit on the battlefield, their family could transform from farmers into nobility.

The lowest-ranking knight was still nobility.

He clearly didn't know Lux's identity, nor that the firewood he had chopped ahead of time based on his "inside information" was for the person in front of him. He was simply very happy, happy that he had sold his firewood at a high price and earned a little extra money from Lux and her guards.

This money wasn't much, perhaps only worth a single scale of armor, only worth the nails of a horseshoe.

But it was enough to make him happy all day.

The ability to listen that Lux had learned from Sona allowed him to keep talking endlessly—until his wife appeared, handing him a few pieces of black bread and a bowl of hot soup. That finally shut him up, his mouth filled with bread soaked in hot soup.

Then, his wife, a stout woman with long, soft, light-golden hair, handed Lux a bowl of soup as well. "Warm yourself up, young lady. You shouldn't be chatting with him; he just loves to talk nonsense with people..."

Lux took the thick soup and, like the farmer, leaned casually against the cart and took a big gulp.

The overwhelmingly salty soup almost made Lux spit it out, but with Karya's reminder, she forced herself to swallow it.

"It's got flavor!" Lux drank the soup in one go. "It gives you strength!"

"Heh, right!" The farmer, who had already finished his portion at some point, said, "One bowl of this soup and you'll have all the strength you need!"

"You talk too much!" The farmer's wife shot her husband a look. "Aren't you going to rest? Look at you bragging..."

"If I didn't talk so much, could I send our kid to be a guard for a noble lord?" As if feeling he had lost face in front of an outsider, the farmer shouted. "Being eloquent is also a skill when you're out and about!"

"You're so skilled... if you're so skilled, go chop some trees!"

"I'm a little tired, I'll rest for a while..."

"..."

"..."

Perhaps it was because the soup was too salty.

Perhaps it was for some other reason.

After paying for her accommodation and bidding farewell to the family, Lux felt a strange tightness in her chest.

Even though she had only stayed for one night, and she didn't even know the other person's name, Lux felt as though she had seen and learned a great deal.

Thinking this, Lux took a deep breath, and after a long while, slowly exhaled.

"Let's continue!"

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