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A brilliant golden glow lit up the sky not far away, and the pitch-black world was thus pierced by a trace of light.
Perhaps because of the light rain last night, a hazy mist rose under the sunlight, as if it were the spiritual energy from myths and legends, enveloping this remote small village.
The feeling of a hidden paradise immediately came into view.
Even Yulian, who had already lived here for over ten years, couldn't help but have his eyes light up, and a feeling of admiration welled up in his heart.
"Hazy mist, sun rises!"
"Yulian, wake up early!"
"Good poem, good poem!"
Yulian stood at the wooden house door, and a heroic spirit naturally arose within him.
After indulging himself for a bit, Yulian knocked on Miss Frieren's door next to him.
"Knock knock knock!"
"Knock knock knock!"
"Knock knock knock!"
Three knocks in a row, Yulian waited patiently.
Yulian naturally knew that Miss Frieren loved to sleep, especially her habit of sleeping in.
Following the principle of "if you don't want to go, I'll force you to go," Yulian didn't mind playing the role of the person he disliked the most in the days to come.
"Miss Frieren, time to get up."
Yulian called out gently towards the room, and seeing no movement inside, he began to secretly rejoice.
Still sleeping?
Then I'm going to insist on disturbing your sleep!
I don't believe you can stand the life of having to get up early every day!
About a minute passed, and there was still no movement inside.
Yulian's lips curled up slightly, his early morning drowsiness inexplicably vanished, and he became energetic.
"Miss Frieren?"
"Miss Frieren, time to get up~"
"Knock knock knock!"
"Knock knock knock!"
"Miss Frieren~ Time to get up!"
It was already unclear how many times he had knocked without a response, but Yulian was enjoying it and even brought out an iron pot to build a fire and cook porridge directly outside the wooden house.
On the one hand, having woken up early with difficulty, he naturally had to reward himself; on the other hand, he was looking for some excuse to call Miss Frieren to wake up.
Otherwise, Yulian had no doubt that even if Miss Frieren didn't discover his Demon Clan identity, the outcome of him disturbing Miss Frieren's sleep like this wouldn't be good.
"Miss Frieren~"
"Breakfast is ready!"
"Time to get up!"
Yulian blew on the hot porridge in the bowl and took small sips, finally patting his slightly full stomach, a contented smile appearing on his face before habitually calling out again.
However, this time there was a response.
"Is there something?"
The wooden house door was opened at some point, and Yulian stumbled, nearly falling at the doorway.
Then, Miss Frieren appeared wearing a thin white nightgown, looking coldly at the fellow who had disturbed her sleep.
Yulian felt a little cold, but he was certain that this chill wasn't caused by the dissipation of the morning mist.
If he didn't have a good reason, he would probably die, the miserable kind!
"Well, please have some porridge."
Yulian pursed his lips and tried to smile, pointing to the hot porridge simmering over the fire to make himself look less guilty.
...
"So, you woke up this early just to call me to have porridge?"
Miss Frieren wiped the corner of her mouth with a clean white handkerchief, her frowning expression looking somewhat beautiful.
＜(´⌯ ̫⌯`)＞
"Uh..."
Yulian laboriously swallowed the rice porridge he had just drunk, only feeling that his stomach was about to burst.
However, seeing that Miss Frieren's tendency to explode was under control, Yulian decided to cautiously probe further.
"Actually, there's one more thing."
"What is it?"
Miss Frieren's face showed a "just as expected" look, which made Yulian couldn't help but wonder what the consequences would be if he had been fooled by the previous pretense.
Indeed, daring to do this just for the sake of having breakfast is no different from seeking death, right?
Yulian muttered in his heart, then suddenly noticed that Miss Frieren seemed to be staring at him, so he quickly put on a hesitant expression as if finding it difficult to speak.
"Tell me, as long as it's not a bad thing, I should be able to help."
Miss Frieren slightly furrowed her brow; it was the first time she had seen someone so wishy-washy.
No, if it's about being wishy-washy, he could be considered one too...
"Alright, actually, I wanted to ask for your help to harvest some wheat together."
Yulian spoke "reluctantly," his eyes looking at Miss Frieren filled with pleading.
"You know, Granny Anneliese is already old, and Nico is just a child. If they rely only on the two of them to harvest such a large field of wheat, it's likely that before winter arrives..."
"I.."
"You'll definitely help, right!"
Yulian slightly lowered his body, then tilted his head up, looking at Miss Frieren with an expression full of anticipation.
Want to refuse?
Impossible!
I'll let you experience more of the hardships of the human world, work hard, and I don't believe you can still stay in this place!
I've lived here like this for ten years, day in and day out. Honestly, if I hadn't been a genuine country kid in my previous life, I really might not have been able to stay.
"But I don't have any Magic that can help."
Miss Frieren pursed her lips.
For some reason, she had a feeling that she had to help. This feeling was strange; she had never encountered it before.
"You don't need Magic!"
Yulian smiled.
It's good that you don't have any useful Magic!
This is exactly what I want!
"Don't need Magic?"
"Right!"
Yulian nodded affirmatively, and instead of trying to suppress the smile he couldn't hold back, he just started laughing happily.
"Harvesting wheat, you see, mainly relies on people."
"After all, there's strength in numbers!"
After speaking, Yulian didn't hesitate. He quickly packed away the bowls, chopsticks, and cooking utensils, then extinguished the fire and pulled Miss Frieren towards Granny Anneliese's house.
The road wasn't far, and it hadn't been long since dawn broke completely.
The two who hurried to Granny Anneliese's house just happened to catch another breakfast, so under the difficult-to-refuse hospitality, Yulian stuffed down another large steamed bun and then ran to the outhouse clutching his stomach.
By the time Yulian returned, the three of them were already ready to go.
"Brother Yulian, let's go~"
Nico, wearing high boots and a small straw hat with a veil, ran to Yulian's side and handed him a sickle and a face towel.
Yulian looked at Miss Frieren, who was currently wearing a new version of an outfit similar to Nico's and chatting cheerfully with Granny Anneliese, and for a moment began to doubt his strategy.
But before Yulian could figure it out, the group, pushed and pulled by Nico, had already stepped into the wheat field.
"Speaking of harvesting wheat, it's actually very simple."
Granny Anneliese took Miss Frieren to a corner of the wheat field and demonstrated with the sickle in her hand.
"Just three steps!"
"One, grab; two, cut; three, place!"
While chatting and laughing, Granny Anneliese grabbed a handful of wheat stalks, applied slight force with the sickle to cut back, and then gently placed the wheat she held down.
Smooth and flowing, done in one go!
Miss Frieren watched, exclaiming how amazing it was, and also started working hard!
This scene completely stunned Yulian, who was in another corner of the wheat field.
No, seriously, how is harvesting wheat something fun?!
But despite feeling depressed, Yulian still lowered his head and worked hard to harvest the wheat with a bitter expression.
After all, the more he harvested himself, the less Granny Anneliese and Nico would have to work.
This wheat field was quite large; with the concerted efforts of the four of them, only one-third had been harvested from morning until noon.
However, this wheat field was also very small.
Because Granny Anneliese only had three such wheat fields, yet she still had to hand over nearly half of the harvest to the soldiers who came to collect taxes.
"This year's wheat hasn't been harvested yet. Could you come back in a few days?"
Granny Anneliese looked at the two soldiers who had brought a large ox cart, held sharp long swords, and wore sturdy armor, speaking nicely to them with a troubled expression, and even secretly slipped a few copper coins into each of their hands.
It seemed she had been prepared.
The soldiers silently accepted the copper coins and didn't make things difficult for Granny Anneliese, merely urging her to prepare the wheat quickly before driving the ox cart away.
"What were they here for?"
Miss Frieren, sitting on the field ridge resting with Yulian, her white dress already stained with some dust, watched everything happening not far away and asked curiously.
"Collecting taxes."
Yulian watched the direction the soldiers left in and replied softly.
"What is tax?"
"Why do they collect taxes?"
Miss Frieren pressed on.
She had never heard of this before.
Yulian looked at Miss Frieren beside him, who was blinking her large, emerald-like eyes, full of curiosity, and for a moment didn't know how to explain.
"Collecting taxes is essentially collecting money, but if you don't have money, you just use things like grain as collateral."
"You can roughly understand it as you give me money, and I protect you."
Yulian didn't know if this explanation was correct, but it was the only way he could explain it.
"Then why aren't you collecting taxes? Didn't you fire the cannon when the bandits came?"
Miss Frieren didn't quite understand, but it seemed she didn't need to anymore.
Not far away, Granny Anneliese was already waving at the two of them; it was time to eat...
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