Volume 10, Chapter 28 – Luring Fruit

“Although I’d like to test your strength, there are more important things right now. Chloris, Enos, are you staying home, or coming with me?”

After naming Trino 20499 and Trino 20500, Yisi informed her companions that she needed to go out.

She had been so focused on Cornelia’s Mansion for the past two days that many things had been delayed. First, she needed to go to the Margaret branch in Wilfred City. Fran was expanding the branches too quickly, and Yisi was worried about the staff’s quality. It would be terrible if the Margaret brand’s reputation suffered because of rude staff.

Second was Mary’s origin. She needed to take Mary for a walk around the area. Unlike Camilla, who had no feelings for her parents, Mary herself wanted to find hers. Although she knew from Tina that Mary’s purple eye came from a race called the “Demon Clan”, who lived on the other side of the sea—I’ll have to go overseas to find them—it was still possible that Mary’s parents were on the Alexia Continent. If Mary’s parents, or at least someone related to her, had never been to the Alexia Continent, Mary couldn’t have appeared here.

Thus, what she needed to do was take Mary to crowded places. If anyone had seen Mary’s heterochromia and half-elf features before, they would surely recognize her and provide some information, like who was holding her, what they looked like, and so on. With clues, the search wouldn’t be as hard as finding a needle in a haystack.

Of course, she could also get a few other things done. For example, asking the Margaret branch if they had any job openings for the maids who weren’t selected. Also, she needed to buy tools for the gardeners. When the gardeners took out their own tools earlier, she’d noticed they were old, rusted, and their thick gloves were full of holes. She’d feel bad making them work with tools like that. She planned to go to the market and buy new ones. The maids got three uniforms each; it would be pitiful if the gardeners got nothing. It felt like discrimination.

Of course, to prevent the gardeners from exploiting the tool-buying for personal gain (as the maids had mentioned), she planned to lend the tools to them, just like the uniforms. After a period of time, she would give the tools to them.

It might sound like bragging, but a salary of one gold and two silver coins a month is three or four times the market rate. I feel like as long as I don’t fire them, they’ll be willing to work here for life and won’t try to pull any petty tricks.

Besides these two things, Yisi also planned to visit the surrounding neighbors. On the way here, she’d noticed this area was remote, and the residents were mostly farmers who grew crops and raised livestock. Yesterday, they had looked at her, the buyer of Cornelia’s Mansion, with such worried eyes, so she figured there must be a deep reason. If she built a good relationship with the farmers, the maids could buy the day’s ingredients directly from them, saving time on travel.

“Master, am I going out too?”

“Mhm, Mary is coming with me. What about the others?”

Yisi looked back at Camilla and Edith.

“Onee-sama, I want to stay at the mansion and look for that magic weapon forging book you mentioned. Also, I’m a little worried about leaving the mansion without someone strong in charge.”

“Where are you going?”

Unlike Camilla’s direct answer, Edith chose to ask Yisi her destination.

“To visit the local farmers.”

“Tsk. You can handle that troublesome business. I don’t get why you’re always trying to build relationships with these insignificant small-fries.”

“Pepe, you’re looking down on them too much. It’s better not to say such things.”

Yisi gave a wry smile and reached out, attempting to pat Edith’s head, but her hand was swatted away. Edith huffed and turned to leave the dining room.

“Tina and Tiffany?”

“This one wants to observe human life.”

“Together.”

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Just the loli-trio?

I feel like passersby will think I’m a big sister taking my three little sisters on an outing. Yisi looked at the remaining “angel group.” Refina would definitely stay with Edith, so Yisi didn’t ask. Although she had already asked Chloris and Enos if they wanted to accompany her, they hadn’t answered, instead looking at Laxy as if for permission.

“The mansion cannot be left unguarded. I will stay. You two go with My Lord. Let her get to know you better.”

“Understood. That is all.”

“O… Okay.”

The personnel were quickly assigned. Yisi, the “loli-trio” of three, Chloris, and Enos left the mansion and walked onto the packed-earth country path. Although the road from the city center to Cornelia’s Mansion was relatively wide, allowing for one-way carriage traffic, from Cornelia’s Mansion onward, the dirt-yellow country path narrowed to a track that only two people could walk abreast.

On both sides were crops.

Since it was still daytime, many farmers wearing conical hats could be seen working in paddy fields. As for the crop they were tending, it was a plant whose stalk looked almost identical to a rice stalk, but at the top, it bore purplish-red, grape-like fruits that gave off a sweet, fruity aroma. It looked quite tempting.

“Looks tasty. Can I try one?”

“Delicious.”

“Hey, hey! Don’t ask after you’ve already picked it!”

Yisi and Mary were at the front of the group, so she couldn’t stop Tina and Tiffany, who were in the middle, in time. By the time she noticed, the two had already pulled up the plant, the ‘Luring Fruit,’ from the paddy field and were sharing it.

Their happy smiles are cute, but that’s someone else’s hard work!

While unceremoniously stuffing the grape-sized Luring Fruit into her mouth, Tina waved dismissively at Yisi, as if shooing a bug. “We just have to pay for it, right? This one knows that much.”

“Mhm. Pay.”

“Never mind that you have to get their permission before buying. First of all, you two don’t have any money!”

“Do your best.”

Tiffany gave Yisi a thumbs-up, then tossed the stalk, which had been picked clean of its fruit, and frowned slightly. “Mmph… Tingly taste.”

These two…

Without holding back, Yisi gave both Tiffany and Tina a hand-chop.

“Ow.”

“Ugh… When this one regains her Demon Lord’s power, this one will definitely make Yisi taste a hand-chop too.”

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“That’s never going to happen. Now, the owner is coming. You two need to apologize properly.”

While Yisi was lecturing the two, the farmers who had been watching them ran over, shouting. If it weren’t a bad example for the kids, I’d have already made a run for it.

“Hey, what are you doing!”

The first farmer to run over shouted at Yisi’s group. What surprised Yisi was that his face held more anxiety and worry than anger.

Yisi bowed apologetically to the farmer. “I’m sorry, my children are ill-mannered and took your fruit without permission. We will pay three times the price as compensation. Please forgive their rudeness.”

“Wait, the Luring Fruit? Where is the Luring Fruit?” Although he faltered for a second at the mention of three times the price, the farmer’s attention quickly snapped away. He looked at the plant stalk Tiffany had tossed on the ground, and then his mouth fell open in terror, as if he’d seen something horrific. “Y-you didn’t eat the Luring Fruit, did you?”

“Confirmed she ate it. That is all.”

“Tiffany and Tina… th-they really did eat it…”

“You’re kidding me!?”

Following this farmer, the others who ran up also looked shocked, breaking into a panic.

“Goddess preserve us! They ate the Luring Fruit raw!”

“We have to find a healer, quickly!”

“Someone! Get the ox cart! Someone over here ate raw Luring Fruit!”

It seems this thing called Luring Fruit can’t be eaten raw. No wonder Tiffany gave the ‘tingly taste’ review after eating a few. It must have some kind of toxin. But Tiffany herself is a slime; she won’t get sick or get a stomachache. And Tina has the Demon Lord’s tough body, so she won’t be poisoned either.

“Excuse me, is this thing called Luring Fruit poisonous?”

“Poisonous? It’s not for eating at all! Enough of it can poison a Giant Ogre!”

“We planted it in this remote place because it’s poisonous. I can’t believe someone still ate it. What do we do? If the City Lord holds us responsible…”

“M-Miss! Please don’t tell anyone about what happened today! We’ll find a way to scrape together the treatment fee your children need. Please, we beg you, spare us!”

Emotionally, the farmer knelt down to apologize to Yisi, but Yisi, completely bewildered, didn’t let him. She secretly used wind magic to lift the farmer’s body.

“These two children of mine are naturally immune to poison. Please, everyone, don’t be so agitated. Tiffany, Tina, apologize to everyone.”

“Sorry.”

“Mmph. For Yisi’s sake… fine. Sorry for taking your things. I apologize in the name of Tartaros and promise to compensate you in the future.”

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“No way… they’re really fine.”

“But that’s a ripe Luring Fruit! It can poison an ox!”

“Ah, thank goodness. I thought I was going to be thrown in jail. We just got Lord Schumann’s permission to plant this. If news got out that it poisoned someone, the City Lord would definitely order us to rip it all out.”

Seeing that Tiffany and Tina were fine, many of the farmers let out long sighs of relief, just short of collapsing on the spot.

The first farmer, the uncle, waved his hand as if bothered by the hassle and told the other farmers who had gathered around to return to their posts.

“Haa. Good thing they’re okay. That scares me. Alright, alright. If it’s fine, then get going. This is no place for kids to be. Don’t go randomly stealing food next time.”

“Um… actually, we’re the new residents who just moved into that mansion over there. We came here to visit our neighbors. A small gift, it’s not much.”

Explaining her purpose, Yisi handed the paper bag of small desserts to the farmer uncle, but he didn’t take it. Instead, he cried out in disbelief.

“What?! You’re the people who moved into Lady Cornelia’s mansion yesterday?”

“They must be Lady Cornelia’s disciples! No wonder they’re followed by angels.”

“Lady, would you like to come to my house to sit for a while? I’ll have my wife prepare good food and wine right now!”

“I’ll go slaughter the family ox!”

“Me too!”

So these people really are connected to Cornelia’s Mansion.

Yisi sighed inwardly. Yesterday, when she saw the farmers’ worried gazes, she had guessed that Cornelia’s Mansion must have some special meaning for them. For example, Cornelia might have used the mansion’s ability to change the weather on a small scale, bringing rain for the farmers during a drought.

If I let the farmers slaughter their only plow ox to entertain me, I’ll feel too guilty.

Yisi called out to the farmers who were running home, beaming with joy, and at the same time, asked about the Luring Fruit and Cornelia’s relationship with them.

According to the farmers, this plant called Luring Fruit, which gave off a pleasant smell, was a controlled substance in the Norta Empire, on the same level as a Tier-4 magic scroll. One could only plant and trade it with the Empire’s permission; otherwise, it was considered illegal.

The strict control was due to the Luring Fruit’s special properties. Besides being poisonous, in the hands of magic casters who used dark or necromantic magic, the fruit’s juice could be processed into a kind of psychotropic drug, turning the consumer into a puppet that had lost their self-awareness and only followed orders. In addition, the Luring Fruit itself had the characteristic of attracting low-level demons and driving them mad. If not for the Luring Fruit’s other quality as an ingredient for mid- and high-level magic potions, the Norta Empire would have banned anyone from planting it long ago.

After the current Wilfred City Lord, Schumann, took office, he had forbidden these farmers from planting Luring Fruit. But this land, from being used to plant Luring Fruit for so long, had become a place where nothing else could grow. To survive, the farmers had to plead with City Lord Schumann through various means. Only after making a large number of guarantees and paying a hefty tax were they allowed to plant it again. That was why they had looked so desperate when they saw Tina and Tiffany eat the Luring Fruit. If someone died because of it, they would never be allowed to plant it again.

In short, the Luring Fruit was an extremely dangerous fruit.

As for the relationship between them and Cornelia’s Mansion, it was just as Yisi had guessed. In the past, Cornelia had used the mansion to solve problems for the nearby farmers, such as droughts, floods, and monster attacks. At the same time, she had improved the soil fertility to some extent. So, the farmers were all very grateful to Cornelia, treating her as a kind of local land deity.

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“With Lady Cornelia’s disciples here, we’ll have good harvests every year again! Hahaha! We must welcome Lady Cornelia’s disciples with the fervor of a festival!”

“This year, we have to earn back all the money we lost in the past few years!”

“We must treat Lady Cornelia’s disciple-lords well!”

“It doesn’t have to be so grand, really…”

In fact, please don’t.

It took a full ten minutes for Yisi to rack her brains and use all her skills to persuade the farmers not to slaughter their plow oxen ¹ refers to oxen used to pull a plow to prepare soil for farming. This practice is a traditional agricultural method where a team of oxen provides the power to move a plow through the soil, which cuts and turns it over before planting seeds. . However, she couldn’t refuse things like smoked meat, milk, and eggs, so she had to accept them.

I’ll buy them some new farm tools later as a thank-you gift.

“Mary, time to go.”

“I’m coming~ Huh?”

Mary’s confused expression made Yisi instinctively ask. “What’s wrong?”

The former frowned and said hesitantly. “Just now, there was a person in that field over there, staring at us. When you called me, Master, I just looked away for a second, and now he’s gone.”

“It was probably just a farmer. This one didn’t feel anything,” Tina said.

“No, he was different from the farmers. He gave me a very strange feeling…”

“Chloris and Enos? Did you see the person Mary was talking about?”

“No suspicious targets detected. That is all.”

“I… I didn’t see anyone either…”

Chloris still replied in her emotionless voice, and Enos quickly agreed, flustered.

“I see.”

Opening the [Omniscient Map], Yisi looked in the direction Mary was pointing. But just as the others had said, there were only farmers working in the fields, no suspicious person as Mary had described.

It must have been Mary’s imagination.

Tucking the incident away in her mind, Yisi waved goodbye to the reluctant farmers.