The Chronicles of Emberstone Farm [Cozy Fantasy] [Farming LitRPG]
Chapter 226 – Everbright Bastion

“Castle time, everyone!” I rubbed my hands together and grinned at my apprentices, staff, and guests.

Scholar Wu had left to join the war effort, my audience consisted of just my household and the clan members who had been looking after the land and working on our shared project to transform the semi-arid grassland around us into a green fertile valley.

This land used to be a wasteland that they say was scorched and cursed by the same disaster that obliterated the Vermillion Bird’s capital city long ago. Nothing grew here unless it was watered by the blood of the desperate clan members who used to live here.

Now, thanks to the System’s [Greening the Desert] quest, Blossom Valley was once again full of green grass and wildflowers. The families who claimed these lands as their ancestral territories had also started their own desert reclamation schemes.

“I think a green castle would look lovely here,” I said to the others. “Ready?”

Fengying nodded, and I went to the System’s [Build] tab to activate the placement of the castle I wanted to live in for the next six days.

[Everbright Bastion of Glimmering Gildenthorn:

A dreamlike living sanctuary of golden vines and endless greenery. Suspended walkways and ivy-cloaked towers grace this legendary citadel, where magic-infused flora fortifies its defenses.]

A huge magic circle appeared on the ground in front of us. It flashed with a bright white light twelve times before disappearing. Everyone clapped and cheered when they saw the castle that stood where the magic circle had been.

It was a fortress with white stone walls around five stories tall. Lush vertical gardens grew on its exterior balconies and terraces. The walls were covered in green ivy and vines with golden leaves. Towers stood in its four corners, connected by wooden bridges shrouded in lush vegetation.

It reminded me of the Parkroyal Hotel on Pickering in Singapore, which was famous for its sky gardens. My mom liked taking pictures of them, but my dad thought they were silly gimmicks and claimed that proper land gardens were better.

A deep and wide moat encircled the castle. Although the moat was optional, I thought it would be beneficial to have it here to add some much-needed moisture to the air.

“Amazing! It’s even better than I thought it would be!” I help up a hand. “Please wait a moment. Let me finish setting it up before we enter.”

Of course, everything was ready because I had decorated its interior a few days ago with the best furniture packs from the Cash Shop. However, I wanted to add a bit of flair to the occasion, so I took out a wand and waved it at the towers as though casting a spell while simultaneously adding banners to the towers.

When I had been granted the title of Duchess, I had been given a coat of arms, which I found quite delightful. As written in the book of records of the Heraldic Authority my new emblem was “upon a field of silver, strewn with violets of purple hue, a golden sheaf of rice.” This was what was shown on the castle banners. Lari liked to joke that it would have been more appropriate to make it a hand clutching a potato, but that would not have been as pretty.

“How wonderful, my lady! A proper residence for a duchess.” Fengying gave me an approving look before bustling off to supervise the staff in moving our luggage inside.

Yinuo waved at me as she set off with two other maids carrying two sacks of clothes each which they were going to unpack in my suite of rooms at the castle. Fengying and I had told her to take it easy because she was pregnant, so I was glad to see she was letting the other maids help her carry things.

I put on a wide-brimmed hat to protect my eyes from the intense morning sunlight. “Well, this duchess will get settled in with her apprentices. Come, let’s explore the castle before we start our work.”

“I love castles!” said Lari. For some reason, he was collecting stones.

Mo gazed up at the towers with a dreamy expression. “Only Teacher could make a fortress that’s also a garden.”

The drawbridge was down, and as we walked to the imposing-looking castle gatehouse with double portcullis gates made of solid steel, I marveled at the clear water filling the moat. “Guys, look! I can see the bottom.”

“It’s perfect.” Lari took a stone out of his pocket and tried skipping it over the water. He was only able to skip it twice before it sank.

Before Kharli could even ask, Lari handed her a few rocks.

“Let’s play later. I want to see our rooms first,” she said.

“Yes, you two need to see this. The courtyard is very fancy,” I said.

Even though I said that, I still took a rock from Lari, and the three of us skipped stones for a few minutes. When we finished playing, we went inside.

I smiled proudly at their awed reaction to my castle.

The outer walls were formidable, easily thirty feet tall. The castle proper was inside of the walls, with towers in the four directions connected by curtain walls and two diagonal wooden suspension bridges that crossed each other. These wooden bridges were prettily draped with vines that had golden leaves and red flowers.

We walked further inside, into the courtyard that had a fountain and a white tree in the middle of it. This was my doing. It looked exactly like what I thought the White Tree of Gondor would look like at the Court of the Fountain in Minas Tirith. My dad and I were huge Tolkien fans, and I sighed internally when I thought of how much he would have loved this.

The rooms were ordinary ones since I hadn’t bothered too much with them. Instead, I’d simply recreated the rooms we had on the main farm. The upper floors were empty except for the towers which had elevators and viewing rooms with large windows at the top. That was for the others since I wasn’t fond of heights myself.

Lari, Mo, and I spent a few minutes going around the castle, familiarizing ourselves with it before we got to work.

“Mo, Lari, shall we visit the trees?” I asked them.

Two years ago, we planted a bunch of trees on Skyfang Hill with great results, and I was eager to see them again.

“Yes, the clan members must already be waiting for us,” said Lari.

He was the one who led us to the spot at the foot of the hill where a female elder was waiting for us with six teenagers.

“Lady Violet, I am very pleased to finally meet you,” said their leader, a little old lady with gray hair and stooped shoulders. She introduced her crew to me. They were all from the same clan and were carrying baskets. “There would have been more experts here, but the war…”

“It’s my honor.” I cupped my hands and bowed back to everyone. Then I introduced Mo to them.

Lari needed no introductions since, among the four of us, he had spent the most time on the desert farm and had gotten to know almost all of the clan members who worked here.

“Thank you very much for agreeing to give the cuttings to us. We’ve marked the trees that we think will do best in this climate.” The elder’s smile showed that she still had all of her teeth. The front ones, at least. They were large and almost blindingly white.

Were they fake? Or did clan members regenerate teeth?

I pondered over the mystery of dentistry in this world as we climbed Skyfang Hill.

This far south, the heat was intense even though it was springtime in the more northerly parts of the White Tiger clan’s lands. However, unlike the Vermillion Bird clan’s lands, it was a dry heat. I wasn’t sure if that was better or worse.

I took my hat off and fanned myself with it once we reached the shelter of the trees. Around half of them were the ones we had planted. They had fancy names like [Shadow Locust], [Dreamweaver Mimosa], [Elderwood], [Rosebud], [Autumn Starfruit], [Onyx Coffee Tree], [Golden Chainwood], [Arcane Acacia], [Midnight Mesquite], [Autumnal Ambrosia], [Skythorn], and [Dragon’s Eye]. The System identified them as “mature,” meaning they were at the part of their life cycle where they could reproduce. We were here today to help them do just that.

We chatted about this and that as we made our way up the hill. I put my hat back on and enjoyed the birdsong as I walked beneath the young trees. Heat rippled between the trees in the more sparsely planted areas, but we took the path that wound under the bigger trees that offered more shade. Beetles with jewel-toned shells scuttled across fallen branches that had been bleached nearly white by the sun. Small, drought-resistant flowers were scattered around us, and I was cheered by a slight breeze that cooled the sweat from my brow.

“Lady Violet, see?” The elder picked up a handful of plant litter and touched the ground under it.

I followed her example. “Wow, it's actually not hot and it’s even a little moist, isn’t it?”

She smiled and nodded. Lari and Mo also examined the ground.

“Such a delight,” said the elder. “To think that in two short years, you turned this barren desert into a thriving forest.”

I tried but failed to look modest because I couldn’t help but break out into a proud grin. Mo squeezed my hand in silent congratulations and I squeezed hers right back. This was a group project, and she also deserved praise.

We continued walking, with the clan members pointing out some of the important sights. Incredibly, given that the ground had been cracked and dry when we first visited this hill, there were now small streams of water all over the place. Sure, the water was a tiny trickle that often dried out after a week of no rain, but it was still a good sign that things were improving.

“We’re here,” said one of the young clan members.

“This one?” I put my hat back on and pointed at a tree that had been marked by someone putting a large rock with a red paint splash beside it.

Looking around, I saw that this [Dragon’s Eye] tree wasn’t the tallest, but it had a wider trunk compared to the others, and its canopy was dense with vibrant foliage.

“Yes, this one looks very healthy,” said the elder. “I’m afraid we can’t help you since we’re not able to touch the trees.”

While certain things from the System, mainly things from the house, could be used by other people, most of the core items like seeds, crops, fertilizer, tools, etc. couldn’t be handled by others.

“Okay, we just need to cut a few twigs?”

They nodded and pointed at the branches they wanted us to take cuttings from.

Lari, Mo, and I got to work. I set up a ladder and we used pruning scissors to cut twigs, targeting the new growth from the branches. The clan members put the twigs in their baskets and we moved on to the next.

It took a few hours for us to finish getting all the cuttings, and I was drenched in sweat by the end of it.

The elder was effusive with her praise. “It’s exceedingly generous of you to share these spirit treasures with the clans.”

“Not at all. I’ll benefit from this deal, too.” I smiled at the thought.

Shuye, my ever-industrious and dependable Farm Guide, had arranged it for me. I would give the clans the cuttings and they would grow them for me in a specialized nursery for spirit trees. Our contract stated that I would get half of the trees that survived after three years. They would also cover the transportation costs. They were supposed to use their half for the desert regeneration program. If they sold the trees instead, I would get seventy percent of the selling price.

“Most people would keep their bloodline inheritance items for themselves,” said the elder.

“Madam, it’s called scaling your business up. We can only plant a certain number of trees per day, but with this deal, we can hire people to plant more trees with us.” I took out some bamboo water containers and offered them to the others who gratefully accepted. The water was cool and refreshing. “Please join us for the noon meal.”

They accepted and we returned to the castle.

***

After lunch, I led my apprentices, household staff, and guests to the western tower. Once again, I donned my magician’s robes. I waved my wand and said, as dramatically as I could, “Behold! The fruit of greatness! Gaze upon my work, ye mighty, and despair!”

There were gasps of shock, cheers, and one forlorn cry of misery from my audience when I unveiled my latest creation.

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