However, neither of them planned to take a break, and both sat down with a stack of docunts in hand. After working for a while with the sound of papers rustling, Ayra, suddenly feeling dizzy, pressed her fingers to her temple and asked.
“Jinas, shouldn’t we hire soone before one of us dies from overwork?”
“No. We are on a tight budget and cannot afford to pay extra salaries.”
Jinas, whose HP had dropped by 35, spoke decisively, his eyes bloodshot.
Ayra didn’t say it out loud, but she couldn’t help but feel like she wanted to fire the incompetent administrator, Graffni. Every docunt he submitted needed to be reworked. Yet, despite his incompetence, she had to keep him in the position because there were not enough hands to manage the estate, and there was too much work to do.
‘This reminds of the last promotion exam. The thesis, it was truly hell...’
Every ti her senior mages criticized her thesis, Ayra felt like her life was getting shorter due to stress. She comforted herself with the thought that, compared to that ti, things were a little better now as she focused back on the docunts.
They worked through the night until dawn, and just as Ayra thought she might collapse, she lifted her head and saw that Jinas had fallen asleep, his head buried in the pile of papers. There was no way to understand how such a small estate could be drowning in so many tasks. Normally, she would assign these things to subordinates, but with the manpower shortage, it fell to the responsible higher-ups to take on the work.
Ayra, thinking she should at least feed Jinas, woke him up and headed downstairs. Sitting for too long wasn’t good for your health. Both of them, weary and dragging their feet, made their way to the dining hall. Exhausted, Ayra almost stumbled down the stairs, but thankfully, she managed to grab the railing before her head t the ground.
Once in the dining hall, without much thought, Ayra used magic to drag the chair across the floor and sat down. As the attendants noisily set out the food, Jinas’s eyes glead, and he spoke.
“Lord, this needs to be more refined and elegant.”
Already tired, Ayra groaned, annoyed, and infused more magic into the chair. The knife that had been dragging across the plate to slice the at now shimred with a glimring light and moved gracefully, cutting the at into neat, even slices.
A few days ago, after dealing with Bolni’s 2,000-strong army, Ayra had called Jinas and Bloom to discuss what had happened during the landslide in Dalum Gorge. Upon hearing the truth behind the event, which had been clearly aid at her, Bloom’s face hardened.
‘From now on, I will be more vigilant with the castle’s defenses.’
However, Jinas, the chief administrator, focused on a different detail.
“It was a good idea to pretend to be a devout Morunka believer. After all, mages are unfamiliar to our estate.”
Ayra could feel [N O V E L I G H T] that too. With many zealous followers of Morunka, mages in Solar were practically seen as witches from the dieval tis. Due to the estate’s poverty, mages were a rare sight, and ignorance quickly turned to fear and rejection.
“But, as the Lord is a mage, it’s already well-known across the estate. From now on, you should cast beautiful magic.”
‘...Beautiful magic? What does that an?’
Ayra was confused. The only "beautiful magic" she knew was the kind of fireworks magic shown to console new Labyrinth mages who would cry when they first arrived. Most Labyrinth mages preferred highly practical magic.
“When you faced Bolni’s army, your descent from the tower was quite impressive. Isn’t that right, Bloom?”
Jinas’s words made Bloom nod in understanding.
“Indeed, seeing the Lord alone face Bolni’s army, the morale of the soldiers and knights greatly improved.”
The slight increase in support seed to be thanks to the soldiers and knights. By now, Ayra understood what Jinas was getting at.
“Use magic, but make sure it looks impressive. People are easily swayed by appearances. We can’t afford to cause any more confusion in this estate. There could be real consequences.”
Since then, whenever Ayra cast magic, Jinas would rush to her side, his eyes gleaming, urging her to make her magic appear more elegant. Just like now...
Feeling self-conscious, Ayra cast her flashy light magic, trying to win favor from the workers in the castle. She couldn’t help but feel a little embarrassed. From now on, she decided to call this flashy magic “fairy magic.” Maybe, if she had the ti, she’d try making an ice palace or an ice golem. Who knows? Maybe it would increase her support rate.
In her exhaustion, Ayra thought to herself.
“This place really is a dreadful black company. Please, soone save the Lord. I really want to go back to the Labyrinth...”
❄
After days of working herself and Jinas into exhaustion, Ayra finally managed to clear out a bit of the overwhelming pile of docunts.
She finally had a little free ti.
“I really don’t get it.”
Laying out a map she had taken from the Lord’s study, Ayra sighed.
As she pondered, Stone, who had been traveling around the estate, marked key locations on the map with tiny miniatures. Most of them were castle watchtowers, trade posts, shops, and farms—nothing that would explain why Sobletz and Bolni were so keen on taking this land. Even Botello and Jinas, who had lived here for so long, didn’t know anything substantial, and after flipping through old records and docunts, nothing ca up.
“I’m sure there’s sothing here, sothing worth more than 10,000 Cell.”
Having reached the conclusion that it was impossible to gather any more useful information through normal ans, Ayra reluctantly rolled up the map and put it away.
She was tempted to take a nap to relieve her fatigue, but as she glanced at the quest window in the corner of her vision, a sense of urgency filled her. She knew the gar’s duty—she had to complete the quest and level up. The stress was definitely starting to take its toll on her mind.
“Well then... Should I go downstairs for a bit?”
Having extinguished the imdiate fire of the estate, Ayra rembered the person she had been putting off. She hurriedly changed into her robe and asked Stone.
“Where’s Janus right now?”
As her magic drained, the words “Loading” appeared over Stone’s body. After a mont, the spirit answered via the system window.
Connection failed due to server instability. :( Please level up more!
The navigation map feature was useful, but it consud a lot of magic and had a high failure rate. Since she had to level up anyway, Ayra began trudging toward the stairs.
For the first ti in a while, she headed down to the lower levels of the Lord’s castle. As she passed by the stead bun shop, she rembered Janus’s words—this was one of the few good things about this estate. It was the only place with decent food.
“Oh, custor! Long ti no see!”
As Ayra entered, the shop owner, Wolf, imdiately recognized her and smiled brightly. The hardworking wrinkles around his eyes made Ayra feel nostalgic. She would love to have him brought to the castle to cook every day.
“Four stead buns, please.”
“Of course, just wait a mont!”
As Ayra waited, inhaling the savory aroma from the steaming buns, a woman entered the shop. She had brown hair, and her face looked familiar, but Ayra couldn’t rember her na. Fortunately, Wolf called out her na.
“Hera, welco! Glad to see you again.”
“Hera, it’s been a while. Oh, you know, I can’t eat food from other shops now. It’s terrible.”
Looking at her smiling face, Ayra finally rembered who she was. She was the sa villager who had boasted about capturing Murka alone when they first t in a tavern.
“Recently, I’ve been hunting about a hundred gasras in the mountains over there. I can’t get through without this food. Could you steam eight more buns for a snack?”
“If you can’t get through without it, that’s a problem. I’ll steam them up for you.”
Listening to their friendly conversation, Ayra beca curious and pulled up both their stat windows. Wolf’s was normal, but Hera, clearly a hunter, had an HP that exceeded 20,000. Now that she looked more closely, she could see that Hera was well-built, her muscles strong and firm.
Sensing Ayra’s gaze, Hera turned and recognized her right away.
“Ah, you’re the one from the tavern, right? How’s settling in here? Is life treating you well?”
“It seems to be going okay.”
“Well, that’s a relief. By the way, have you heard? Bolni’s army was nearby not too long ago...”
“Oh! I heard about it. My father was so worried.”
While waiting for the food, Ayra chatted with the villagers. Soon, the hot buns were ready, and Wolf handed them over with a pleasant smile. He truly was a chef who could brighten anyone’s day with his sincerity.
“Enjoy your al, and have a great day! See you next ti.”
As Ayra walked away, holding the warm buns, she couldn’t help but sigh. She thought to herself that she couldn’t let Sobletz and Bolni tear this estate apart. It was hers, and it was the people’s.
But the real question was: Could she get the 10,000 Cell before winter passed? She could barely manage the interest, and there was no way to co up with that kind of money. She had to figure sothing out...
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