Chapter 265 Harves
Two Months later.
On the fields near the border of the Kingdom of Lanthanor where the Echer seeds were planted, a kid was running through the fields with a smile of joy on his face.
It was finally the time to harvest!
Over the past one year, only he and his father knew how much they had to care for these plants which seemed to be very delicate. Even though his father had over a decade of farming experience, he had been baffled as to what these plants were.
Regardless, all they needed to know was that they would be paid very handsomely if they managed to reach the minimum quota. They had only chosen to take this opportunity after calculating that they would earn at least three times more by tending to these crops than if they planted other crops in their field.
After reaching the small hut which had been their home for the year, he was puzzled to see a man at the door talking to his father.
After handing a tinkling bag over, the man walked away leaving his father with a wide smile on his face.
"Bless the King for giving us this opportunity! We don't even need to do the harvest ourselves, there will be other people tending to that. We got the silver! Now we can finally move to the capital! I'll find some work, and you can attend the school so that you can have a better future!"
Hearing these words, the kid's face lighted up even more as he ran to his father who had opened the bag to see tens of Silver Lans jingling around. This was the first time he was seeing this much money in his life.
School! He had heard about it on the Network which was broadcast every day in the place where all farmers gathered, and he had spoken to his father about how he dreamed of going there and finding out more about the world. His dream was finally about to come true!
Laughing and talking among themselves, the duo went inside the hut and started packing their belongings to leave the location.
…
Similar occurrences could be seen all over the fields where the Echer sees had been planted. Families glowed with joy as they obtained the fruits of their hard work and made hopeful plans for the future while feeling thankful that they were being ruled by a King who was so kind.
A day later, all the farmers and the families who came over to tend to the fields had left.
Then began the laborious process of harvesting the Echer seeds. Just like their peculiarity where they needed special care to grow, even their harvest was very different.
As per the instructions, teams of mages had to use wind blades to cut the plants which were now around knee high at their bases.
Apparently, roots did not have to be worried about as they would shrink and mix with the earth after the base was cut.
Hence, almost all the mages in Lanthanor were assigned this duty where they had to walk through the fields while collecting them in hemp baskets.
As there were not many mages in the first place, this process itself took three days with all of them working day and night tirelessly.
The seeds had been planted over an area of 50 acres. After the harvest was done, all the hemp bags which had been used were arranged neatly in an open area.
Standing at the eastern border gate of the Lanthanorian Kingdom, Daneel looked at the scene before turning around and noticing that the contingent from the Black Raven Kingdom which was here to collect the crops had almost arrived at the mark where they had been told to wait.
Giving the order, Daneel watched as mages in teams worked to levitate these numerous bags to the location outside where multiple Ether-driven carts were waiting to be loaded.
Due to the recent incident in the Black Raven Kingdom which had been a huge blow to their pride, the soldiers and even the King whom Daneel had contacted had all been a bit subdued.
Apparently, the unrest was still present as this wasn't an incident that could be forgotten so easily.
The loading went smoothly, with all the workers being very careful not to drop the bags.
After an official from the Black Raven Kingdom checked the number of bags to make sure that the quota was met, he nodded to himself and took out a communication trinket to speak to someone.
A few seconds later, Daneel felt an incoming communication from the trinket which connected him to the Black Raven King.
"Congratulations on successfully fulfilling your end of the deal! I've spoken to the member of the Big Four who gave the contract in the first place, and they told me that they will be coming soon to receive the plants as the ones responsible are currently under closed-door training. After they check and see that everything is in order, they will give an identification trinket and location where the person who wants to learn their secret spell technique must go. Well done! It was great collaborating with you! The gold has already been sent, and I trust all is well."
Seeing the gold bars which had been unloaded from some of the Ether-driven carts, Daneel said, "I'm glad to hear that. Yes, all is well. I'll be looking forward to it, then."
Closing off the connection, Daneel turned around again to look at the land which was now empty.
Although it looked normal from the outside, he knew very well that a year from now, it would be barren making his Kingdom suffer the loss of losing a lot of its most fertile land.
Of course, this was only if he did nothing.
Back when he had accepted this deal itself, he had made an outline of the plan which would stop this from happening.
It was only due to their expedition that he had been able to finalize it so that it would also bring tumultuous changes in the Black Raven Kingdom.
Over the past two months, he had been working hard to set everything in place, and it was now finally time.
"Begin."
Sending this message to Kellor, Daneel teleported back to the Royal Palace.
…
Tripping and falling on the ground for the third time since the morning, Sherry wondered why she had ever chosen this profession.
Yet, seeing the self-cleaning enchantment of her clothes kick into effect and making the dust fly away, she knew that the answer was money.
She was a professional Ker Gem mine hunter, and she was now in the Lanthanor Kingdom to continue her journey of finding the mine on the employ of the Black Raven Kingdom.
The way this profession worked was that mine hunters would be given a premium and be employed by Kingdoms to ensure that they would be the only one receiving the information about any new mine that was found.
She had always had a knack for this. Ever since childhood, she had always had a specific sensitivity to energy materials which allowed her to detect them, or at least their general location.
Over time, she had learned to control this feeling and tune it so that she would only sense high-level energy materials. This had led her to become one of the best Ker Gem mine hunters in the trade.
With the record of finding three mines, she was sought after by all Kingdoms.
Yet, she had been quite shocked when she was approached by the Black Raven Kingdom which usually wasn't known for its proactive actions in finding mines.
Of course, the pay had been great, so she had taken the offer as she had just been planning to get back to hunting after a period of rest.
How typical mine hunters worked was that they knew a certain number of clues which meant that a high-energy resource was quite close.
For one, the earth at the right place would be much more fertile than that around it as it seemed that Energy had some sort of effect on the fertility of earth in general.
Other than this, animals also loved to spend more time at spots like these.
Using these clues and intuition, mine hunters searched in the general area to find the entrance to the mine.
Right now, she was in the Kingdom of Lanthanor as she had just received a tip a day ago.