Chapter 19  

My questions about Ruben still weren’t solved when time passed, and it was finally time to prepare in earnest for rice farming.

I took the Black Hawks and headed to the mountain below the Siastor duke’s estate.

It wasn’t flat like a plains field since we were halfway up the mountain, but it was spacious enough to experiment with growing rice.

Apparently, during the previous duke’s era, they had planned to build a villa here. So the land was already reinforced and well-prepared.

Most importantly, there was a large lake at a nearby mountain peak, and water from that lake flowed down through a valley.

That valley was right next to us.

Truly the perfect land for making rice paddies.

Standing at the entrance, I turned to the workers and declared,

“Alright, let’s start by making field ridges!”
(bunds or embankments)

“Yes, ma’am!”

The workers—who had been lured into this job with the promise of rice cakes—grabbed their shovels like they were weapons and shouted energetically.

They charged forward full of spirit… and then abruptly screeched to a stop.

They turned to me with confused faces.

“Uh… Miss, what’s a field ridge…?”

“…Ah.”

Right.
I hadn’t explained rice paddies to them at all.

I gathered them around, and we all squatted in a circle.

Being surrounded by heavily built knights with shovels in their hands was… intimidating, but I spoke seriously.

“To make rice, we need to farm rice plants. And to farm rice plants, we need paddies!”

“Oooh.”

“Paddies are also called water fields. You fill the field with water, then grow rice in it. See the valley nearby? We’ll guide water from there so it collects at one point, then flows into the paddy.”

“Ooooh!”

“Before that, we need to choose a spot where water can pool. Then we’ll stack soil around the field to make ridges—embankments—to stop water from leaking out.”

“So that stacked soil is the ridge!”

The bald knight suddenly raised his hand and shouted triumphantly.

I pointed at him with my finger.

“Correct.”

His cheeks flushed pink. He seemed embarrassed by the praise.

His face wasn’t exactly pleasant to look at, so I quickly looked away and continued.

“That’s why I gave you all shovels. Half of you will dig from the valley, and the other half will build the paddy here.”

“Yes, ma’am!”

They were definitely knights.
Some were dragging their feet from hangovers, but most dug the ground with ease.

Far better than Karl after drinking ten bottles of carp juice!

That alone lifted my expectations for them, which had previously been at rock bottom.

‘Oh, they’re a lot more useful than I thought.’

There seemed to be about twenty Black Hawks total.

Seeing ten people building the ridges in front of me confirmed that.

‘Do they not have personal attendants?’

Knights usually had at least one squire.

But considering how isolated the Siastor estate was—deep in the mountains and barely accepting outside workers—it made sense.

Even in the original novel, the Black Hawks were treated as a special, isolated group. So it wasn’t strange they didn’t have squires.

I was watching them work when a familiar voice came from behind.

“Your back looked so familiar I had to check… It really is you, Cillia?”

“!”

“So the person in the Siastor estate developing food is you! Wow, what a coincidence!”

My stiff neck creaked as I slowly turned.

There stood the man I met at the mill last time.

Soft pink hair, gentle-looking face, round glasses —

The kind of man who had “Even if you bully me, I will never hate you :)” written all over his face.

He smiled brightly at me.

“I’m the imperial officer sent here for training—Cedric Eihartz. Long time no see, Cillia.”

Right.
His name was Cedric.

I forced my lips into a weak smile.

“Long time no see.”

I could almost hear the younger him crying when child-Cillia broke his glasses.

***

Later…

“Geez, when we met at that mill in Sui, I wasn’t sure it was really you. You hardly ever go outside your house.”

Sui—that must be the name of the city we visited.

I just laughed instead of responding.

“Haha.”

“This is the first time seeing you since we graduated from the academy, right? About seven years? You’ve changed a lot.”

The pink-haired boy from the past had completely grown up.

Well, technically it was the original Cillia’s memory—not mine.

Cedric carefully observed and recorded everything about the patty we were making.

Afterward, we went together to the annex building for tea time.

Cedric smiled warmly as Karl poured him tea.

“Karl, it’s good to see you again too.”

“Sir Cedric. It has been quite a long time, hasn’t it? How have you been?”

They seemed close—childhood friends, apparently.

The two chatted comfortably, completely leaving me out.

Then Cedric suddenly turned to me.

“Aren’t you scared… being in the Siastor estate?”

“Hmm?”

Cedric had a worried look.

“What do you mean?”

“I knew it. You don’t think it’s a big deal.”

“What do you—”

“You were always brave and strong since we were kids, Cillia.”

“…”

Cedric’s pink eyes dimmed, like he was reminiscing about something far away.

A heavy emotional wall I couldn’t break through.

“I was a crybaby who got scared easily. You always helped me. Sigh.”

“So—”

“No matter what, you’ll be fine. Even if the Duke of Siastor murdered my father and brother in cold blood.”

“…What?”

“Even if people call him a monster duke behind his back.”

WHAT?!

Excuse me—
I think you actually should be worried for me?!

Just a few days ago, Elstern hinted at something, but Cedric had just dropped a whole bomb.

‘It’s known among certain people. Some transcendents remember their past lives.’

I stared at Cedric with my mouth hanging open.

His gaze remained soft and nostalgic.

Karl beside him also stared distantly, lost in the same memory.

Meanwhile, my eyeballs were practically spinning.

‘Dazhar killed the previous duke and his older brother? What the heck?!’

Was this the “wind of blood” Elstern mentioned?

‘There was a bloodstorm in the Siastor estate in the past.’

No matter how I searched my inherited memories, I couldn’t find anything.

Probably because I was obsessed with farming at the time… Or maybe I was just too young to remember.

“Anyway, beyond the duke himself—this is the Siastor estate.”

“What do you mean ‘the’ Siastor—”

“Ugh, it’s scary. I nearly fainted when I heard I’d be training here.”

“No—”

“But you? You’re amazing as always. Whew.”

“……”

Looking at this brick wall of a man…

I suddenly understood child-Cillia’s desire to torment him.

‘And as for Dazhar Siastor… the more I dig, the stranger he becomes.’

Just when I thought I was forming a sense of kinship because he remembered a past life—
He becomes infinitely more distant again.

***

Somewhere else…

A spotless white room.
Everything—from the desk to the chair to the walls—was perfectly white.

The man who lived there sat on a white sofa, holding a letter.

“So that’s how it turned out.”

It was a reply to the message he had sent earlier.

Elstern reread the entire letter, from the opening line to the final period, then frowned slightly.

Imagining the neat smile of the letter’s sender, he muttered,

“Dazhar really must have betrayed the gods.”

His expression turned cold as he set the letter on the table.

“If he recognized Ruben and still chose to spare it…”

Ruben.

The name of the being Cillia had found in the library.

Elstern twisted his lips.

“With his abilities, it’s impossible he didn’t notice.”

The Siastor family’s innate power was special even among transcendents.
They were born inseparable from Ruben.

Elstern burned the letter with magic and stood up.

“Good thing I followed your advice and sent demons to Dazhar. Thanks to that, I learned he might have betrayed the gods.”

Demons.

An odd word coming from timid Tower Master Elstern.

“Alright then. Time for me to do my job as the ‘hidden villain,’ just like Cillia said.”

Humming happily, Elstern took out another letter.

This one bore a sacred-looking emblem—used for direct communication with a very important person.

“I don’t really want to contact that strange woman again, but oh well. It’s my role.”

Elstern thought briefly that maybe he was the only normal person around.

He failed to consider the gold rattle he carried everywhere like treasure.