Chapter 177

Elder Song interrupts cuddle time again the next morning when the guests are about to arrive, so I reluctantly crawl off the beanbag chair and go shower to face the day. This one is either going to be great or absolutely awful, depending on the aptitude of the children they brought, and I'm not sure that I'm ready to face it.

"Any guesses on what they've brought us to work with?" I ask Elder Song, who I know could use his divine senses to pick through every aura in town if he really wanted to.

"I asked around last night after the two of you retired to your room to cultivate. They all hired village kids from their territory, with only two special requests for children of existing servants, so I would expect a ragtag bunch of kids whose parents didn't have a trade to hand down. But they should be at least generally vetted by the family's experts before bringing them here so they don't embarrass themselves in public with candidates who aren't suitable for cultivation." Song shrugs.