The courtyard was unusually quiet after breakfast.
Su Li sat on a stone stool, the enormous fourth-tier broadblade sword lying across his knees.
His fingers brushed over the blade. The dark-gold circuits flickered in time with the ebb and flow of aether within him, brightening and dimming as though breathing.
The swelling sensation in his meridians, on the verge of overflowing, had not diminished after settling through the night. Instead, it had grown ever more solid.
Not far away, Elena sat beside the stone table, a ledger with a brand-new cover spread open before her.
Written across it in elegant Common was a line: Household Pet (Provisional) Expense Budget.
With a quill in hand and her brow tightly furrowed, she was agonizing over the exact sum to put under "cat food."
Should she calculate it based on the cheapest jerky on the market, or use that spendthrift Saina woman's standard and count premium fresh meat instead?
This was not merely a matter of money. It was a matter of household fiscal discipline.
At the other end of the yard, Saina was squatting in the corner, holding a small piece of trial jerky from before Elena had approved the "funding," trying to teach the fat cat named "Silver" to shake hands.
"Come on. Paw. Give it to me."
The fat cat lay lazily on the ground, lifted its eyelids to glance at her, then rolled over and turned its round belly toward the sun, a tractor-like purr rumbling from its throat.
It gave her absolutely no face.
Elonore held a broom and diligently swept the fallen leaves in the courtyard.
Her movements were light, afraid of disturbing Su Li while he was "meditating," and equally afraid of interrupting Saina's "inter-species socializing."
This atmosphere, where everyone did their own thing while their