The Herbs
"MASTER!!! THE FARM WAS IS ON FIRE!!!"
Butler Cavis had some explosive news as he burst through the doors. Sweat covered gray hair, an emaciated and wrinkled face, and an unkept black tuxedo. This was far from the usual immaculate butler.
The news he brought was so explosive that it would be a sin to be well-kept. My father, mother, and Jenny were having a hard time taking this news in. This was evident from their dark expression.
After a moment, my father turned to me and said "You should rest for a while my daughter. Your father will take of this."
"Let her rest up. Emily, you stay with her." Aunt Jenny added on. Their words contained a hidden meaning.
Emily was to stay here to protect us as we might be under attack. She did have a higher level than me so it is fair. It was also an explicit order for me to not leave the room until I was told otherwise.
This was an extreme situation so they didn't say much more and everyone except Emily and I were left in the room. It was a good thing that father didn't have an outburst as soon as he heard the news as he needed to be calm when handling matters related to the family.
He had an outburst just earlier so that played a role in his quick reaction. My aunt and mother are people who don't react openly. They would help him out with all business related tasks as he didn't have a poker face at all.
"Are you sure you are fine sister?" asked Emily with her voice as sweet as honey. She sat beside me and hugged me tightly.
She only showed such intimacy when no one else was around. We were raised together as she lost her parents early on. I consider her to be my younger sister and she looks up to me as an elder sister.
"I'm fine. There is no pain and we can get the herbs I need easily. You don't have to worry."
I wish that she didn't have to become my maid but there was no other way to keep her close to me.
Without her parents, there was no one else to protect her from my mother's family. Another noble family wanted to send her off on a political marriage. I had to pull quite a few strings to have her name changed from Emily Weinstein to Emily Zocraten.
"You know what, why don't we go for a walk? I'll show you how energetic I feel right now." I asked slyly.
Her green eyes widened and she yelled "NO!!".
There was no way she would let me leave after Father told me to stay put.
"You can't stop me." I declared as I jumped off the bed and ran towards the door.
Emily would never use force to stop and she could never stop my shenanigans.
"HAHAHHA!" I gave out the maniacal laugh that I used whenever I committed acts of terror.
I ran out the door into the overly decorated halls of our noble residence. Everything was as opulent and expensive as I remember. Covered in ancient pottery or paintings and some gold 'stuff' as well.
Emily was close behind me as we ran to the back of the mansion. "Stop!!"
Emily was screaming behind me she held up her maid dress to run. It was always a comical sight to see. Maid outfits were not good for fast movements. On the other hand, my black dress was fitted in a way that it moved with my body.
It was made to follow my movements and not to impede it. Enchantments are so useful.
It didn't take long to reach the back of the mansion with our superhuman speed. I slammed the door open as the bitter scent of burnt herbs engulfed me.
I stopped dead in my tracks and so did Emily as she started at the miles of destroyed farmland. I had already seen this exact sight once before so it didn't faze me as much.
However, some unpleasant memories were brought back as I unwillingly contorted into a frown.
Aunt Jenny and my parents had an even darker face than me at the moment as the amount of destroyed crops and land was beyond the understanding of most. But they understood.
They understood that millions of gold coins worth of crops had been burnt today. The crops and herbs that allow our family to run this city as we wished. The green expanse that fueled our power as a noble clan had been charred to a crisp.
The damage was already done, not even the 10's of water mages that were putting out the remaining bits of fire could not reverse this.
"Our coffers will take a massive hit just to restore the land and replant all the herbs. Not to mention the years it will take most of them to grow back."
"It will take a while until our ledgers are in the green."
Mother and Auntie discussed what measures they had to take and how much damage they were looking at. My father on the other hand was gloomy. He looked into the horizons where our field stretched.
None of them were concerned with the idea that I had disobeyed orders and came here. The combat mages were all floating in the air and were on high alert so it wasn't dangerous for me anyway.
I didn't like being ignored so strode over to the trio of adults and spoke my mind.
"The other large plantations in the empire will also take this chance to eat up our portion of the market. Our pharmacy and pill production partners might even cut relations."
This was enough to get the trio's attention as they turned toward me but I wasn't done.
"Let's also not forget the internal threats. Some rotten apples in the orchard are interested in taking over the entire tree."
As much as I believed that I had a kind family, there were some people we had to get rid of before they attempted to take my father's seat.
"You're right. We need to mend the house before we can grow a garden." My father was the first to speak as the woman beside him nodded in agreement.
"That's why I will get started now." His aura burst out again as he was covered in a red light. He screamed "AHHHHHH" and then jumped. A spiderweb crack was left on the special granite floors.
He had flown off to who knew where.
"WAIT! I WAS NOT DONE YET! WAIT!" I yelled. I was not expecting this. I thought he was done with outbursts as he never had more than one a day even if he received a ton of bad news.
It was too late. He was gone. Probably to investigate and purge some branches of the family on his own without any proof. He would just pummel them until someone blurted out their crimes.
I was anticipating creating a solid plan where we used the burning of our plantation as an excuse to investigate and purge systematically. To prune with almost precision.
I need to stop him so he doesn't repeat the same mistakes he had made in the last iteration. I needed to make sure that we didn't lose the support of our branch families as we would need them for what was coming.
I needed to make sure that no needle sacrifices were made again. My heart was about to burst as the anxiety was making me want to kneel. To clutch my heart and shake my head.
Even though the painful memories tried to drown me to the point where my body was filled with magma-like water, I kept my cool. I used my ice element mana core and spread its cold energy through my veins, to stop the heat that flowed through my body and mind.
I exhaled a visible breath and said "Can you please stop him, Auntie? I have a plan to deal with both our family and the plantation's loss."
"Are you sure?" Aunt Jenny raised her eyebrows and looked at me questioningly as so far I have only been a pampered daughter with zero experience in the world.
I couldn't tell her that I had already lived longer than she could've imagined. Long enough to see the world nearly crumble.
"Trust me. Trust in me and trust in Ryan." I said confidently. In moments like this, my aunt likes confidence, not pleading.
"Ryan as in Ryan Vornix? What about him?" My aunt's terrified face was fun to see at the mention of Ryan. It was only fair as he was the most famous...infamous character in Sofenia.
The biggest menace to this city from the day he turned 5. There hasn't been a day in the last 14 years, even when he left to attend school, where his exploits were not mentioned.
"He is coming back from the Supreme Sword School tomorrow." I announced with a smile.
'Shit..."
After so long, my stoic aunt has finally let out a curse.