After the assessment was over, knowing the students had been under a great deal of strain, Scholar Haide intended to let everyone unwind and shift gears.
"For the coming week, we will be staying in a village outside the city," the scholar announced to his students.
"Each person may bring only a single trunk of luggage containing changes of clothes. We will depart together tomorrow morning.
"Classes will be held in a natural setting, where we will give you a practical understanding of various crops and the conditions under which farmers work.
"All right. Once this morning's classes are over, you may head home to pack."
"Whoop!" Hearing that they were getting time off, the students cheered in unison.
Afterward, they gathered in small groups to discuss how they would spend their leisure time in the countryside village over the coming days.
To the commoner students, this sounded utterly ordinary, but to the children of nobility and wealthy families, it was quite novel.
"I wonder if we can hunt there. I learned archery a year ago, but I've never had the chance to test it in the field."
"Can I bring my beloved pet Kaka? He's a loyal hound."
"If only we could ride horses, galloping across the meadow with the one I love."
"I'm sick to death of staying inside Burnt Stone City."
"Is there a river? Can we go swimming?"
"If there's a river, we can fish!"
"Sigh, we can't bring servants. That takes all the fun out of it."
"Maybe we can go see the scarecrows. I read a bizarre story about a scarecrow not long ago."
Meanwhile, Kemiya pulled Xilutaiya and Kailun together to confer.
"Kailun, bring your bow and arrows! This is your chance to put them to good use. Who knows, maybe we can bag some game and have a barbecue," Kemiya suggested.
"No problem. I also have a set of wilderness gear that I've used before," Kailun nodded.
"What about you, Tiya? What are you good at?"
"I can probably help you identify wild plants. And, well, I can prepare food too," the young girl replied after some thought.
"Then how about you bring some seasonings? Or maybe we'll need a picnic blanket."
"As for me, I'm going to have my dad get a tent ready for me to carry along."
"Aren't we staying in a village, not out in the wild?" Xilutaiya pointed out.
"Wait, we're not camping outdoors? All right, then I'll bring some tasty treats and a blanket. I've got to sleep comfortably, after all." She loved sleeping quite a lot.
"It's settled, then. We'll set out together tomorrow."
"Sounds good."
...
In the afternoon, Xilutaiya returned to her lodgings and began packing.
In truth, she had very little to take. Aside from the necessary clothing, she only packed two books, a notebook, and a small pouch of seasonings and cooking utensils.
Should she bring a pillow? She had grown quite fond of the buckwheat pillow she had recently made herself. Unable to afford an expensive one, she found it plenty comfortable.
Holding the pillow in her arms and giving it a pat, she decided to take it along after all.
It wasn't heavy anyway; she could easily carry it.
Then there were the herbs and plants in the backyard that she couldn't stop worrying about.
At the thought, she walked into her bedroom and retrieved the newly concocted vial of potion, inspecting it closely.
Teacher Haide had handed her this vial yesterday. It had reportedly taken people from the Apothecary Guild several days of concocting before it was successfully finished.
[Emerald Pupil Potion] (First-Order - Emerald Honey): Dropped into the eyes, it allows the user to see the flow of nutrients within plants, their latent attributes, and their growth status. (Quality: Good; lasts 3 minutes per use)
"Only three minutes?" the girl murmured softly. She uncapped the vial, carefully drew a few drops with a specialized glass dropper, and dropped them into her eye.
A cooling sensation spread instantaneously, and everything in her vision faded into shades of gray, as if entering a black-and-white world. However... She blinked and looked at herself in the mirror.
One of her originally pale-blue eyes had turned emerald green. These heterochromatic eyes—one emerald, one blue—lent the girl in the mirror a bizarre, mystical charm.
Stepping into the backyard, Xilutaiya swept her gaze over the medicinal herbs and plants. In this monochrome world, the flora displayed extraordinarily vivid colors. Even within green itself, she could discern hundreds of distinct shades and forms—an utterly miraculous sight.
Approaching the Swan Orchids she had cultivated once more, the girl bent down carefully and inspected them up close. As if possessing X-ray vision, she gradually perceived the "colors" within the Swan Orchids. This manner of "seeing" was more akin to an intuition, detecting their internal rhythms and variances.
Following the patterns and textures of these colors, Xilutaiya laid her hand upon a Swan Orchid, activating the "Emerald Honey" attribute infused into her pupil by the potion. An even more delicate and clear sensation surfaced, as if another layer of "tactile perception" was overlaid onto the "colors," along with the faint "rhythm" of the plant's breathing. With these three senses merging into one, a far more three-dimensional, wholly distinct perception revealed itself.
The world itself had not changed, yet she was seeing sights she had never witnessed before, as if stepping out of a cramped, dark cavern to gaze upon an open wilderness under the wide sky for the very first time.
Countless pieces of information converged in her eyes and mind, where she simultaneously understood, analyzed, and sorted them out.
Three minutes was nowhere near enough. She had to place a few more drops of the Emerald Pupil Potion into her left eye. The green-stained iris possessed a strange allure; the emerald hue within her pupil swirled and drifted like liquid, drawing one in.
With each wave of perception and analysis, the secrets of the plants before her swung open like sealed doors before Xilutaiya's eyes.
The unknown behind those doors, the knowledge behind them, the mysteries within—all unveiled themselves one by one.
(Gained insight into "Swan Orchid." Henceforth, an informational advantage will be granted when handling Swan Orchid plants; Appraisal Eye progress +1.)
A flash of enlightenment dawned in the girl's mind, and she gradually disengaged from that deeply immersive state.
Now, when she looked at the Swan Orchids again, sorted pieces of information surfaced in her mind.
[Swan Orchid] (Good - 58): Growing. Humidity is suboptimal; requires an additional 21.24% increase in humidity. Ambient temperature is slightly low; requires an increase of 5.8 degrees. Soil has compacted from watering, reducing aeration; nutrients are insufficient, lacking certain micronutrients...
She would never have known without checking, and what she saw gave her quite a shock—Xilutaiya realized there were so many issues.
Humidity and temperature? Neither was something she could resolve right now; that would probably require a greenhouse. However, regarding the compacted soil, aeration, and nutrients, she could think of plenty of solutions.
First, she would loosen the soil, replace the top layer, and mix in a little gravel to improve aeration and prevent clumping. Next, she would hydrate certain Swan Orchids. Then, she would gather eggshells, crush and grind them into powder, and add them to the soil as fertilizer.
She jotted down these solutions in her notebook and set about loosening the soil. As she worked, she made continuous adjustments and kept logging data, as though searching for the exact degree to which precision gears meshed.
In this manner, Xilutaiya stayed busy until dusk drew near. Only when Taliel returned home from work did she finally rise from the plots in the backyard.
"Tiya, I bought bread on my way home!" Taliel placed the bread she was cradling in the kitchen, then found the girl who had just emerged from the backyard.
"Why are your arms and dress covered in dirt? Were you that busy today?" Taking Xilutaiya's hand, she led her aside to help dust her off, asking with concern.
"Taliel, I made so many discoveries today!" Xilutaiya's voice carried a rare cheerful lilt, tinged with excitement.
"You're that happy today?" Though Taliel didn't understand what Xilutaiya had discovered, she shared in her joy.
"How about we skip the bread and treat ourselves to a big feast at a restaurant instead?" Taliel's mouth was watering.
Under ordinary circumstances, Xilutaiya would have been reluctant to spend the money, as she didn't have many silver coins saved up.
Today, however, she was in genuinely high spirits, so she nodded in agreement.
"Just for today, but we'll have to wait a good while before the next time. We still need to save up." Seeing her agree, Taliel hopped about with delight, then looked Xilutaiya over and hurried to the kitchen.
"What are you doing in the kitchen?" the girl asked curiously.
"Boiling bathwater for you! Tiya can't go out looking like that," Taliel's voice called back from the kitchen.
...
Roughly an hour later, freshly bathed and refreshed, Xilutaiya changed into clean clothes and stepped out with Taliel.
They returned to Jelia Restaurant, where the two found a quiet little private booth.
Tonight, they ordered the "Braised Oxtail."
[Braised Oxtail] (Excellent): Braised oxtail in oil while frying onions and bay leaves in hot fat. When the oxtail is eighty percent cooked, add the fried onions and bay leaves, diced carrots, and season with garlic cloves, salt, and tomato paste. To finish, serve alongside several roasted round potatoes and drizzle with the pan juices.
The two enjoyed a rare and delectable feast. When they finished, a thoroughly satisfied Taliel walked home with Xilutaiya, by which time the girl had already sorted out the tasks she needed to entrust to Taliel.
"So that means Tiya won't be home for the next week?" Taliel grew a little crestfallen after hearing this. Xilutaiya was a good cook, and every evening Taliel got to enjoy something new.
While Xilutaiya's cooking couldn't rival that of restaurant chefs, Taliel was quite fond of it nonetheless.
"If Tiya isn't home, I'll be stuck chewing dry bread and vegetable root broth every single day."
"Bear with it for a bit. If all else fails, you can go over to Sister Wenni's place and bum dinner off her," the girl teased.
"I could, but if I go too often, it'd be embarrassing."
"Speaking of which, Tiya, how should I water the plants you're growing? I noticed you record the water volume and time every day," Taliel asked.
"Don't worry about that. I'll make a schedule tonight, and you can just water them according to the amounts listed."
Taliel certainly couldn't be as precise as she was, but for the current cultivation of the Swan Orchids, the other conditions had already been adjusted. As long as the watering margin of error stayed within thirty percent, it would suffice to nurture Swan Orchids of excellent quality.
"Well then, I'm counting on you for the coming week."
"Leave it to me! o(*￣︶￣*)o~" With that, the two walked home, laughing together.
In truth, she hadn't left Burnt Stone City in over a month. Stepping outside the city again filled Xilutaiya with a sense of novelty and anticipation.
Chapter 32