Chapter 3 Your Highness! I understand you! You've spoken my heart...
"Eat one bite at a time, walk one step at a time," Shu Xin sighed, interrupting Peng Peng'an and Nuonuo Li's argument. "Alright, do you think I don't know who my subordinates are?"
After saying this vaguely, Shu Xin walked straight ahead, and Nuonuo quickly led the way, while Pengpeng grumbled as he went to arrange the carriage.
The treehouse that Shu Xin saw was the top floor of the Flower Castle. The Flower Castle itself grew from the Tree of Life and had a total of five floors, four of which were located inside the tree trunk.
At the base of the tree trunk was a pair of wooden doors. Passing through the wooden doors and entering the Flower Castle, Shu Xin felt that it was much better than she had imagined. It was a normal place with corridors, passageways, and rooms—the palace on the main tree of the Tree of Life was empty inside!
The entire Flower Castle had no windows, but since the elves had night vision, it didn't bother them. However, Shu Xin felt a little stifled.
Shuxin's bedroom was located on the top floor and was spotless. The only furniture was a wooden bed and a wooden table, with only a withered yellow leaf on the bed.
Nono was also very proud, explaining that this leaf was the largest and softest of all the leaves that fell from the magic tree, and that sleeping on it would surely give you the softest dreams.
Shu Xin was speechless for a moment.
As subordinates, Nonoli and Pengpengan lived on the third and fourth floors respectively. Their rooms had no beds or tables, only a leaf on the floor. After seeing the leaf in their room, Shuxin immediately realized the value of the "softest" leaf in her room - the leaf on their room did look very dry!
As for the flower fairies chosen to serve in the Flower Castle, according to Nonori, they are all diligent and clean fairies, so they are allowed to sleep in the wheat field under the magic tree, without having to face the violent sandstorms outside.
Regarding the black-haired boy that Shu Xin brought back, Nono also thought he was dangerous when she saw him. Shu Xin overruled everyone's objections and put him in the room diagonally opposite hers. In the sinful land where magic was extremely scarce, he was a precious existence that could continuously emit magic!
With everyone settled, it was time to address the unresolved issues. Shu Xin, who had no habit of procrastination, immediately led Nuonuo Li and Peng Peng An to the second-floor reception room.
Shu Xin cut to the chase: "Since you both claim to be my personal subordinates, I'll just ask directly. I am a flower fairy, the youngest princess of the Kingdom of Garnar, and this place is inhabited by sinners, a sinful land where even the magic tree has withered. How much do you know about why I came to this place? And why did you come to this place?"
Peng Peng'an said with a look of reverence, "Your Highness! I understand you! His Majesty the King has always been heartbroken by the depravity of the sinners. You came here with the loyalty to share His Majesty's burdens and to realize the great ideal of purifying the sinners! Naturally, I will follow you and fight alongside you!"
Shu Xin: "..."
Nonori: "..."
"You're absolutely right, Pengpeng'an, you've spoken my mind!" Shu Xin praised the young flower fairy loudly, making her dizzy with admiration. She concluded, "You're definitely my most loyal subordinate, Pengpeng'an. From now on, we'll have to rely on you to collect the magic tax. You've been running around all day, go and rest. We can talk about everything tomorrow."
Pengpeng An glanced smugly at the old flower fairy, then strode away with his head held high.
Shu Xin was both amused and exasperated: "It seems he really doesn't know anything, and he just stubbornly followed along."
Looking up at Nuonuo, who also had a slight smile on her face, Shu Xin asked, "And you? My brother?"
Nono seemed to understand what Shu Xin really wanted to ask, and he replied, "It's because of the magic of precognition."
The original owner's mother possessed a precognitive magic talent that could not be actively released. It was only triggered before the original owner's mother passed away. However, the content of the precognitive magic was bizarre: their eldest daughter, Shushuxin, who was taken away, would be banished from the magic tree by the king in the future and die in the land of sin.
At that time, Nono was already a tax officer waiting to be appointed. So, in order to put his parents at ease and to save his fairy sister, he took the initiative to come to the sinful land where the tax officer had been absent for hundreds of years.
Shu Xin fell silent.
If she hadn't suddenly traveled through time, the precognitive magic would probably have come true. Shu Shuxin was determined to die, and even if she had been saved by the palace physician, she would have sought death later.
She changed the subject: "Pongpongan has indeed always served as my tax officer. As for you, I think an administrative officer would be more suitable. What do you think?"
Nonoli didn't ask any further questions. He bowed and said, "It's my honor, Your Highness."
With so much to learn, Shu Xin didn't intend to reveal her identity as a transmigrator, nor did she plan to impersonate the original owner of the body. Instead, she directly asked the questions she was concerned about.
Shu Xin didn't know if Nuonuo Li had gotten any information from her evasive attitude, but the petite old gentleman answered her questions respectfully and earnestly from beginning to end.
This did indeed grant Shu Xin a lot of common sense that the original owner's memories failed to provide:
Flower fairies reproduce and live in much the same way as humans, needing to eat and sleep as well. However, they are all vegetarians, and their diet consists mainly of various magical plant fruits.
Unlike humans, flower fairies have powerful digestive and self-cleaning abilities and do not need to excrete or bathe.
River elves are currently divided into lower elves—flower fairies, and higher elves—flower fairies. On this basis, they are further subdivided into royalty, nobles, commoners, and slaves.
The royal family consists of the rarest number of flower fairies, who are born with the ability to use powerful natural magic.
The royal family rules the country, but does not manage it. The flower fairies who serve the royal family and perform various management duties for generations belong to the noble class.
Below the nobility were the commoners who owned land and houses. Once a commoner lost his land and house, he would become a slave.
How did the originally free and unrestrained riverside elves become so hierarchical? The Key of Life didn't mention it, so Shu Xin had no way of knowing. Her feelings right now were complicated, very complicated, extremely complicated.
"What crops are being grown in the territory now? What do the fairies eat?" Shu Xin asked.
“The only crop that can be grown is bitter wheat. It’s a crop from the Snow Country and can grow even in the poorest soil. It just doesn’t taste very good; it’s really bitter,” Nonoli replied. Then she added, “But don’t worry, I’ve already planted the white rice cake that the flower fairies love to eat under the magic tree. You’ll be able to eat the white rice cake tomorrow.”
If bitter wheat is truly a variety that can grow in even the most barren land, then why is the land outside a desert?
With a sigh, Shu Xin asked, "What about those flower fairy slaves? What do they eat?"
Nonori was confused and bewildered: "Those slaves? I don't know."
Seeing Shu Xin's expression turn serious, Nonoli was puzzled: "My lord, is this important? The slaves in the territory were all brought in by the previous lord. They wanted to use slaves to increase the territory's magic tax, but the land of sin is already lacking in magic. If they bring in so many flower fairies, it will only make the land more barren. The harvest of bitter wheat has been decreasing year by year."
Shu Xin didn't answer, but instead asked Nonoli some more detailed questions, and she quickly understood the current situation in the Land of Sin—
All the land in the Kingdom of Ganar belonged to the king, who would grant different territories to different royal families and nobles. The lords would often have a large number of slaves to work for them. However, the land of sin was too barren to grow any crops. It wasn't until Nonori volunteered to come here as a tax collector that he managed to buy bitter wheat, which made it possible for the land to grow food crops.
Magic tax is a tax paid in the form of magic. It is usually extracted from crops and handed over, but some lords also order the extraction of magic from slaves—after all, some crops are more valuable than slaves.
The king was aware of the state of the Land of Sin, so even though Nonori had been in the Land of Sin for almost eighty years and had never sent a single magic tax to the Magic Tree, no patrol officer came to accuse him of dereliction of duty.
According to Nonori, the former lords of the Land of Sin would often bring many slaves here in an attempt to atone for their sins. They would try to extract magic from the slaves to pay a magic tax, but very few of the slaves brought here survived, and even if they did, they could not extract much magic from their bodies.
All the lords who could leave had left, and those who couldn't had all died. The slaves they brought with them were naturally left behind in this land of sin.
Slaves are flower fairies just like commoners and nobles. As long as flower fairies live, they consume magic power, which is like a vicious cycle. The end result is that the magic power content in the Land of Sin becomes lower and lower.
Shu Xin was in a bad mood. Flower fairies were all descendants of modified elves. They had low talent and short lifespans, but correspondingly, they had low magic power requirements and strong reproductive ability. It was probably because of this that there was a constant stream of flower fairy slaves.
Shu Xin: "Okay, I understand. How many bitter wheat seeds are left? I mean, if we distribute them to the slaves in the territory to plant, is it enough?"
Nonori's eyes widened instantly: "My lord! They're already consuming the already scarce magic power in the territory just by living! And you still want to give them seeds?! The Land of Sin will become a land of death!"
A note from the author:
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