After leaving the farmland, Louis mysteriously leaned in closer to Sif, lowering his voice: "Come, I'll take you to eat something good."
Sif regarded him warily but followed nonetheless. They arrived at a small workshop, where a faint sweet scent lingered in the air. Inside, a middle-aged woman stirred syrup in a pot. Her name was Doris—a refugee who had accompanied Louis to the Northern Border.
A few days earlier, Louis had learned through his daily intelligence system that she had experience making sugar, so he had arranged for people to gather tree sap and attempt birch sugar production. The first batch was already complete; today, they were boiling the second.
Outside, workers tapped birch trees about a meter from the ground, inserting tubes to let clear sap drip into wooden buckets. "Don't take too much from any tree—no more than half a bucket daily—or you'll harm it," Doris instructed, pausing her stirring. "And plug the holes afterward, with a wooden stopper."
The syrup bubbled and gurgled, increasing the sweetness in the air. Doris looked up and smiled when she saw Louis. "You've arrived just in time—the sugar made yesterday has cooled and is ready to eat!"
Louis inhaled the aroma and smiled. "Then I'm certainly in for a treat today." Doris handed him a golden, translucent piece of birch sugar from a wooden tray. He popped it into his mouth and chewed thoughtfully. "Hmm, it's really good." He offered another piece to Sif: "You try some too."
Sif frowned, wary of this unfamiliar confection. She suspected Louis might have laced it with poison. Louis chuckled, ate the sugar he held to prove his point, then urged, "No poison—go ahead."
Reluctantly, Sif took a piece and tasted it, her eyes widening as sweet flavors and a hint of fresh wood filled her mouth. She had never tasted anything like it. She quickly swallowed and nodded, feigning indifference: "It's alright." But the faint curve of her lips revealed her true reaction.
Louis noticed and laughed, handing her a small bag of sugar. "Take it if you like it." Sif accepted the bag, turned her ears red, and looked away wordlessly. Louis turned back to Doris, nodding appreciatively. "The taste is excellent—better than I imagined. Keep producing."
Doris beamed. "Yes, my lord! I'll work hard."
Louis frowned slightly. "The sap collection period is too short—it stops after a few weeks in spring. We can't rely on it as a stable specialty industry." He sighed, "What a pity."
Doris sighed as well. "Yes… once the sap stops flowing, that's it."
Louis rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "But since we can make birch sugar, let's try planting fruit trees later to explore fruit sugars."
"My lord is clever!" Doris exclaimed. "If we grow good fruits, we can produce more varieties of sugar!"
"Let's take it slow," Louis said. "When conditions allow, we'll build a sugar refinery."
Doris's eyes sparkled with determination. "Thank you, my lord! I'll research more methods!"
Louis grabbed a small bag for himself and caressed the larger batch remaining in the workshop. "Give these sugars to the children," he instructed. A knight nearby took the bag and prepared to head to the school.
It wasn't really a school—more a daycare. Children under thirteen were gathered there, taught basic knowledge and supervised by women. This allowed their parents to work freely. Thankfully, the Red Tide Territory didn't have many children; otherwise, such a setup would have been difficult to maintain. Once they turned thirteen, children began working—often helping with fishing.
As they arrived at the school, they overheard a woman animatedly instructing the children in a story about Louis:"Lord Louis just returned from battling orcs at the Northern Border—his armor still stained with green blood. He held a commendation banquet until midnight. As the guests were dispersing, he suddenly stomped on a stone, pointed to the sky and shouted, 'You dragon! You've been circling my territory all day—do you think I'm a pushover?' Then he bent down, picked up a cobblestone, and threw it in a full arc. The stone whooshed toward the clouds, punched a hole through them, and a wailing Frost Dragon, thirty meters long, spiraled down, crashing into the Black Pine Forest…"Sif listened, her mouth twitching. She slowly shifted her gaze to Louis, her eyes full of quiet disdain.
Louis cleared his throat uncomfortably. "They made that up themselves," he explained.
Sif crossed her arms, raising an eyebrow. "Oh? Is that so?"
Louis avoided her gaze.
Suddenly, one child spotted them at the doorway. "The great Lord is here!" Another shouted, and soon the room erupted into cheers: "Lord! Great Lord!"
The children rushed toward Louis, their small hands raised, faces bursting with admiration and anticipation. This was clearly not his first visit.
Louis looked at the excited crowd. Though he looked momentarily helpless, he managed a warm smile and began patting one of the children on the head. He took the sugar bag from the knight, scooped a handful of candies, and gave them to the children.
"Thank you, Lord!" they exclaimed, joyfully popping the candies into their mouths. Sweet grins blossomed on their faces, and their eyes lit up with delight.
Sif watched the genuine smiles. Her mood, once dull and gray, brightened slightly as she took in the children's happiness.
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