Spring 26, 1388

  FIELDS

  81 Strawberries — 21/36 Days (Masterwork) (1x1) — 81 tiles.

  81 Potatoes — 1/20 Days (Masterwork) (1x2) — 162 tiles

  81 Peas — 21/23 Days (Masterwork) (1x2 — Trellis) — 162 tiles

  GREENHOUSE NOT USED

  SEED MAKERS USED FOR POTATOES - UNUSED

  110 Masterwork Potatoes sold @8 gold each = 880 gold

  Current Finances: 1196 (316+880) Gold Pieces (Clean), 270 Gold Pieces (Unlaundered), 184 Golds Escrow (Clean)

  “It wasn’t hard at all to sell Masterwork Crops, and since they were yours, they sold instantly, Ashy!” Jasmine said, but also took 120 gold from me. “Ophelia told me about your other plan, and I wouldn’t be doing your job as your sister, best friend, and treasurer if I didn’t stop you. You know how it works!”

  Jasmine was unbearably cheery in the morning, and wouldn’t give me the few moments I needed to collect the new Masterwork Seeds and hand them to Mirchie to have my undead crew plant them.

  When that was done, she followed me into my hovel. Jasmine picked up my cursed wooden bowl and let her fingers run around the edges. “You know, to make this place from a hovel to a small bachelorette pad, it’d only be 100 gold. And you could probably do it yourself to level [Craftswoman]. Or I could help!”

  Listening to Jasmine was one thing, but she was talking a lot, and specifically about me. My fingers shifted my dresses aside, since I had no idea what I was supposed to wear with Jasmine.

  I only had my working clothes, two different types of adventuring clothes, and the 11 dresses - 1 from Mrs. Bellamine, 10 from Ophelia - and then that dress. I shivered, and quickly put the other dresses back to cover it, and looked between my work dresses or my adventuring ones. I glanced at Jasmine, who was wearing… just a pretty dress. It wasn’t as fancy as mine were, but it wasn’t as plain as my working clothes!

  And her shoes matched!

  I returned back to the closet, going back and forth between my clothes. The adventuring clothes were looking mighty appealing, but then I felt an arm around my shoulder. I immediately shivered and began to pull away, but Jasmine’s fingers clenched. Since it was Jasmine, it was alright, so I forced my body to relax.

  “Wear the one Mrs. Bellamine gave you, and then we can buy some more dresses! You have some spa–”

  “Jasmine, why are you so concerned about my finances and what I spend it on?” I stared at her face, but I grabbed the old black dress.

  Jasmine returned the stare and then leaned her head against mine. “Ashy! You’re about to become a property owner! And more importantly, you’re gonna be my boss. And even more importantly-er is that we’re sisters! I have to make sure you don’t just spend your way into ruin.”

  “But I have to balance the le–”

  “You want to spend most of your gold on buying back a silly debt!” she countered, but her words were mixed with laughter. “I know you know how important a gold coin is and you’d track it, but like business health? That’s what I’m good at. And I don’t want you to lose sight of the entire operation just because you want to prove a point, you know?”

  “Fine!” I muttered. “It would be better if I didn’t have to worry about the money part of it and could just worry about crops.” I bit my tongue on the next part, but Jasmine’s face scanned mine. She just smiled!

  “I’m not gonna do anything bad! You’re spending too much time with that side of your community. I just want to run a small set of shops and live happily in Oakheart. I can’t accomplish that if you're not around!”

  “I know, I know… it’s just weird you know? Goin’ from like nobody to havin’ a weird community of people?”

  “I don’t,” Jasmine admitted. “But that’s not a bad or good thing. You have people who care about you! Like me! And you know, a certain friend of yours Birthday is in a week…”

  I pulled the dress out of the closet and began to get changed. “Was this some weird way of gettin’ me to go birthday shoppin’?” I teased back.

  “Might be! Only way I’m gettin’ you out of your head, sis. Besides, we can get matching dresses! And some new shoes! Aaand we can try the new candy shop.”

  “That does sound nice,” I had to admit. “We can stop by Madd–”

  “She already moved. I’m also trying to spend time with you before you move for who knows however long!”

  “You heard about that?”

  “Missy told me. Said you volunteered in my place, and was hopin’ you’d be back by the wedding. Hasn’ heard a peep from you about the plannin’”

  Oh right. The actual duties that I now had five months for. Which I did nothing about. Not even a remote thought on how to ruin it. I turned around to nod to Jasmine, fully dressed and ready to go. “Shall we, Jazzy?”

  “We shall!” her hand grabbed my wrist and we quickly headed out.

  The Queen’s Collection was oddly busy for the morning, which made it even more weird to see people staring at me. My hands tightly held onto Jasmine’s wrist this time, as I hung behind her. A few of the people tried to catch my eyes, give me a smile, and then wave.

  This was worse than simply being ignored. I leaned in against Jasmine’s ears. “What do they all want?”

  She squinted her eyes and gave me a gentle push away. “They’re being neighborly, Ashley! You finally joined the community. They just wanna say hi and see how you’re doing.”

  “Why? That’s weird. I’m still the same as yesterday.”

  “That’s not the point? It’s just about being happy to see someone, it doesn't have to be anything bigger than that!”

  “Yeah, but then they just talk about things and I don’ wanna talk about things.”

  “Then don’t! It’s not about the thing, but how it makes someone feel. Like, I care more about how you feel about farming than farming itself.”

  “You don’t like farming?”

  “Oh, Amaril no. You and Addy like getting dirty all day and plantin’ seeds for some reason, but me? I like workin’ with my head.”

  I continued to stare at her, dumbstruck. “You were a maid!”

  “Yeah? Do you know how many rules and weird specificities we have to follow? The Lady’s pudding goes with the lord’s knife, not the cabaret! The handkerchief must be folded in three ways, with the last in a quarter moon!” She dramatically raised her voice to a mock mixture of… what I had to assume was Ophelia and our Teacher from school.

  “So what, you think being a maid is harder than bein’ a farmer?” I fumed.

  “Nah! It’s different. But the fact I can care about your farmin’ is because I care about you and your opinion on things, like you care about mine! That’s how you small talk, Ashy! Just ask questions about themselves! Everyone’s favourite topic is themselves.”

  “What?”

  “Ophelia told me about your disastrous attempt at small talk.”

  “Oh.”I stared forward for a moment. “Wait, what was the point of this?”

  “To… have you talk about something you don’t care about?”

  “But I care about farming..”

  The line moved forward again. More people stared at me in passing, offering smiles and waves. Jasmine would greet each of them with passing ‘how are you doing’ and ‘doing fine!’. It felt all artificial and fake.

  “Anyways, we're next. I know you care about farming, so it's easy to lead a conversation that way! But I bet you didn’t know that about me, so I had to make you ask about being a maid. That’s all talking to people is, Ashley, giving them a chance to talk about themselves.”

  “But you make it look so easy!”

  “Well, yeah? I had more practice with it. I don’t know the first thing about farmin’. Doesn’t interest me one lick. I’d expect you to know more about it. But like I said, I work with my head. It’s a lot of work having to remember all these things about everyone to make everyone feel special about their interests, but I find it rewarding! I know you don’t, and nothin’ wrong with that, but it’s not hard to reach across the aisle. You just gotta try.”

  I released my grip on Jasmine and just watched her eyes. “Fine! Did you like being a maid?”

  Jasmine shook her head. “No, no! I should have said the first part too. Don’t ask questions that only have a one word response! I can only respond yes or no to be polite. Ask something like ‘How do you like being a maid?’ instead!”

  That question still felt incredibly artificial to me, and it felt rather boring. But I did get her bigger point…

  “Why did you choose to be a Maid?”

  Jasmine stopped. “Wow, asking a real question instead. And here I was hoping for something light for smalltalk!” She cheerfully said. “Ah, no matter! Being good with people isn’t really a trait that makes it far, Ashley. I’m sure some exceptional people can make it big. I've read some novels about a beautiful pauper marrying a prince, but realistically? I either marry someone with money while I’m still young, find a job that I can get good at that doesn’t require too much, or, I dunno, live on the streets? I should be maximizing my options.” She said nothing for a moment. “I wish I had your brain, so I could have more options. But I wasn’t lucky enough to go to the Academy.”

  If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  We were next in line. I sighed, since now I did want to talk to her more. Jasmine was very good at making me care about her. But at the same time, it was clear she cared about me too. I was much easier for her to read.

  “Look, Jazzy, you don’ want my brain and my problems, yo–”

  Jasmine smiled at me, raising her finger to my lips. “Nope! Don’t try to fix or explain the problem. It’s bad for conversations and in real life. It sucks, we both had it bad – and as Elora always says, ‘My Lace is mine alone’. I wouldn’t be able to know what I would do in your situation since I never Lived your situation. And you haven’t Lived mine. But you can understand why I’m feelin’ that way, right?”

  “Of course, I feel it all the time.”

  “Then you know how to smalltalk!” Jasmine smiled, losing whatever sadness her voice was carrying. I rolled my eyes, but squeezed her hand. She returned the squeeze, and pulled me inside.

  “You are paying the entire amount in full, a few days before the first of the next month, if I am understanding correctly?” Agent Marigold said. Her clipboard flipped a page, and the phoenix-plume quill dipped itself in ink and began to write.

  “Yes, ma’am,” I began. I looked at Jasmine who gave me a polite smile, and nodded. I looked at her again, before angrily whispering, “You took the gold! You have it!”

  Jasmine bounced up, realizing that as well and pulled out the money. We placed it on the table, and Agent Marigold inspected five.

  “Different people buying Masterwork Potatoes? Right, I was told you were loaned some by that other [Hero]-girl.” Agent Marigold said, putting the coins into the tender. As each coin fell in, the amount of debt on the paper rang down. My eyes rolled following it, until it landed on a nice, crisp 0.

  “Congratulations, Ms. Hart, the Hart Farm is yours.” Agent Marigold handed me the deed, alongside a certificate of debt completion.

  I held the paper in my hand, shaking. The debt was paid off, and now it was mine. I had so much more to do already though. My smallest goal was down, but I made so many others I wanted to keep. I could start taking things a bit easier and put more attention to the Bazerie thing.

  “You know, you’re lucky, Ms. Hart.” Agent Marigold began. “We had already received the paperwork to change your amount in regard to your new social class. Did you want to hear what it would have been if you hadn’t paid it so early?”

  “...No.” I began.

  “30,000 gold pieces. I tell you that so you can appreciate the magnitude of the amount you… saved.” she dryly continued. “So, I am pleased to tell you, based on the acreage - 30 acreage - divided into these zones: 20 Acres - Farmland; 5 Acres - Meadows and/or Pastures; 3 acres - Undeveloped; 2 acres - Residential. With standard rates of common corn at 440 silver, the Property Tax is set at 1400 gold every month, with payment due at the end of every month - starting the next month from this contract draft.”

  She spoke in a single breath, with numbers and words flying out all at once. Jasmine eagerly nodded along, but my head got stuck on the new price. “1400 Gold a month?” I immediately said, causing both Jasmine and Agent Marigold to look at me.

  “At the bare minimum, Lady Hart. That’s just the property tax. There’s the Duke’s Tithe of food which is an amount required, then the actual church tithes. Alongside supportive ones. And if you wish to be part of the [Vendor] Market to use their rates, the [Farming Guild] has fees too - unless you only plan to sell on the open market, and I will be checking into that if you do.”

  The Farmers Guild? Duke’s Tithes? That was far more complicated than just making minimum payments. And its not just gaining access to the [Vendor] markets for low grade crops, guilds are almost like a gang of their own. Pa wasn’t a member, having joined the Floran’s for the religious exception.

  “Oh? Were you considering renewing your father’s con–”

  “I would rather burn.”

  “Hardly appropriate, Ms. Hart.” Agent Marigold chided. “You are a professional after all, there’s no need for dramatics. It’s just numbers and business.”

  “Yes, yes, we know,” Jasmine interjected. “The Hart Stop needs to make a certain amount per month based on acreage since its farmland. Everywhere else its building prices. We are also adding an additional 100 gold to our monthly fees to acquire The Stew.”

  “The Stew?” Agent Marigold said, her bespectacled eyes turning to look at her phoenix-plume quill. It squeaked at her, and she nodded. “That rundown old place? Why are you looking to buy a bath house?”

  “Ashley here - no, I mean, Dr. Hart here - was gifted the powers of medicine by Nyla herself! She needs to make the place a bit healthier, and she’s even setting up a clinic.”

  Agent Marigold’s eyes lit up, and she raised her hand to stop the quill from writing. “Is this true, Ms. Hart? Are you a doctor blessed by a goddess now? Is that how far you’ve gotten?”

  I shrunk back in my seat, unsure of what the sudden interest was about. Was I supposed to bridge into how they feel? Or is it asking about observations?

  “Ye–” Jasmine began, but Agent Marigold raised her hand. “Quiet, girl.”

  “Yes?” I muttered. “I’m a doctor now? I think? It’s all very confusing.”

  The woman peered at me. “Why do you have no biography?”

  “A what?”

  “A Biography. You’re a [Hero], are you not?”

  “....Yes?” I muttered.

  “Sweet Azadin, have you not even joined an [Adventurer’s Guild]? You learn this as an [Adventurer]!” Marigold mused. “Okay, girl. Inspect me.”

  Jasmine inspected Marigold first and scrunched her face. “I don’ see what’s special about it.”

  Agent Marigold just glanced at her and pursed her lips. This caused Jasmine to raise her arms up in exasperation and cross her arms.

  I used [Inspect] on Agent Marigold.

  I stared at that description. “I swear, I’ve seen somethin’ like that before.”

  “It’s just her name, Ashy.”

  “Ignore the NPC.” Agent Marigold shouted, again waving Jasmine away. “She can’t see it. Where is yours?”

  That broke my reverie and I stared at her eyes. “Go to Torment.” I squeezed Jasmine’s hand.

  Agent Marigold groaned and wiped her eyes. “No, listen. I don’t care what you do, this is a backwater town and all that - like the help that's your prerogative. But I’m offering you a choice. The Phoenix Army needs trained Doctors, especially those blessed by the Goddess of Healers. The Phoenix Queen is offering any trained professional like that an opportunity: serve two years in the Mortem Border, come back a hero, with a heroes reward. You’d become exempt from all taxes except property taxes and income taxes, would owe the duke nothing, and would even be given a signing bonus of 100,000 gold pieces.”

  “Exemptions and a bribe?” I muttered, before looking at Jasmine. “No thanks, I’m quite alright with my friends here.”

  “That’s a shame, Ms. Hart. Then, I will hope you have your minimum required payments by the end of the following month - with your ‘friends’ help or not.” Agent Marigold said, returning her attention to the floating quill.

  We both stood up, but before we left, I turned to face Agent Marigold. “By the way, I’m going to be renaming The Stew to The Cockatrice.

  Agent Marigold’s face scrunched up, but not in rage. Her eyes were raised, her body was waiting for me to continue – it was just utter confusion, and her shoulders made an exaggerated shudder. “Alright? I don’t need to know the name, but you should do it by the proper paperwork if you wish for it to be recorded for some reason…”

  I stared at her. She had seemed so interested in the empire! Guess she didn’t know what The Cockatrice was either.

  “Nevermind.”

  Agent Marigold just shook her head, “Bloody Peasants.”

  We stepped outside to more people walking beside us. We both inhaled deep and just broke out into laughter. “What a creepy lady,” I said.

  “Yeah, and tryin’ to get you to go to the frontlines? No one survives more than a year there, Ash. They say the Enemy makes your own dead fight against you,” she paused, and then looked at me.

  She quickly slapped my side.

  “What the hell!”

  “Don’t you be thinkin’ of desertin and joinin’ the enemy there too!”

  “I wasn’t! I was tryin’ to figure out how to grow that many crops!”

  “What?” Jasmine asked

  “Well, I figure if the smallest amount is 1400, and theres so many other fees, I would be wise and all to be makin’ at least 2000 gold a month. That’d be 2000 Masterwork Carrots… That’s a lot of work.”

  “...That’s why you have Ophelia and her friends, remember? The numbers and work won’t ever make it too profitable without... you know…”

  I nodded. “We should really figure out what we want to produce and what we want to focus on then, Jazzy. But first, we still have to buy dresses for your birthday, right?”

  “Yep! You can leave if you don’t want to, I’ll only be mad at you forever.” She dutifully informed me.

  I laughed it off and then patted her shoulder. “Nah, I was lookin’ forward to the matching dresses, and I had an idea of making peach wine.”

  “...Can we just stick with Good-Old Floran Grapes?” Jasmine pouted before grabbing my wrists. “You realize we’re going to be seeing Missy again, right? Did you think of a reason why your hair is red, that isn’t ‘you got offended by her husband calling you old’” Jasmine said.

  That confused me. I looked at Jasmine’s eyes for a moment and shook my head. “No, uhm… I… did something I’m trying to forget. It just makes me uncomfortable to see it.”

  Jasmine looked me up and down. “Look at you having filters, boundaries, and secrets! And doing something for a reason that isn’t so childish! And here I thought It was always going to be everything or nothing with ya. Glad to see you growing, Lil’ Sis - and I know your birthday is Fall 61 so yes, you are younger than me.”

  I gave Jasmine a playful little shove, but walked off to Melissa’s.