The morning Lucian Von Glesia's carriage disappeared beyond the gates, Sakurai Misaki woke before dawn. Since yesterday evening, Hans's words about "just making conversation" and the sight of Lucian gazing at the agricultural ledgers in the archive had been nagging at the back of her mind. It wasn't that she couldn't sleep. Her eyes had simply opened. (Well, I've always been an early riser anyway.) She changed into her work clothes and fastened the silver leaf-shaped earring to her left ear. The usual order. Outside the window, it was still dark, with only a faint white glow visible toward the Tolvarn Mountains. As she started down the corridor, there was a figure on the landing. It was Mina. Her pale green short bob was disheveled, and though she wore work clothes, her face was ashen. The freckles beside her right cheek stood out starkly in the dim hallway. The moment her bright brown eyes met Sakurai's, she seemed about to say something——and stopped. "[scared]Lady Misaki, the northern fields……" Her voice was thin. Something made a sound deep in Sakurai's chest. --- She ran. Stone pavement beneath her feet, the village road stretching before her, and her steps halted at the entrance to the northern farmland. It was all brown. The plot where green shoots had lined up yesterday was now just bare soil. The seedlings were gone. The drainage ditches were filled in. The grooves she'd spent a week designing and digging with the farmers——their shape was nowhere to be found. Trampled flat, as if they'd never existed from the start. Sakurai slowly knelt. A single uprooted seedling lay on the soil. She picked it up. The root's cross-section was torn. A living root, ripped apart by someone's hands. (Who.) Anger made her hands shake. But the thought that she needed to move before emotion took over occupied her mind. As Sakurai slowly stood, Mina beside her cried out, tears streaming. She pressed her hand to her mouth, but the sobs still leaked through. With mud-covered hands gripping the hem of Sakurai's coat, Mina followed beside her. There was only one place to go. --- The assembly hall of Halbert Village——a stone building used for village meetings and agricultural lectures——had gathered people not long after dawn. The farmer Hans faced Sakurai with a pale complexion. A man in his forties of average build, he'd looked healthier when they were digging drainage ditches together last month. Now he stared at the floor. It was Hans who explained what had happened. In fits and starts, but completely. During the night of Lucian's stay, Hans and several others had been summoned. Before wine from Sorel territory and silver coins, Lucian had spoken in a soft voice. If Glesia territory suddenly became prosperous, the Pelvant Nobility Council——the political body formed by the twelve most influential noble houses of the central Fortina Kingdom, which held audit rights over frontier territories——might take action. If the lord could be accused of obtaining knowledge illegally, territory confiscation was possible. It would be better for all of you to return things to how they were now, he'd said. (He calculated it all.) The perfect smile of Lucian rose in Sakurai's mind. "Sorel territory also has plots facing similar problems"——was that entire statement just a setup? But she couldn't bring herself to blame Hans and the others. Since the Great Famine of Kalen one hundred fifty years ago, the central government's pressure on frontier territories had repeated countless times. Increased taxes, support pushed aside, not just Glesia territory but every frontier bore the same suffering. That these people had moved from fear was, in a sense, inevitable. And yet. A dull pain pierced deep in her chest. A voice rose from the back of the assembly hall. "Would you just leave already?" She couldn't tell whose voice it was. But once someone said it, the air changed. "We never needed a lady candidate in the first place." "You'll just run away anyway. Like the last three." Sakurai stood up. "[serious]We can still do this. The fields can definitely be restored. The drainage ditches can be dug from scratch. The seedlings can be grown again." She was slightly surprised that her voice didn't shake. But no one moved. Thomas the blacksmith silently rose from his chair and headed for the exit. His back was large and broad, and the sound of his laughter when they'd confirmed the farm tool repair list together last month echoed in her ears. Cornelia looked like she wanted to face Sakurai, but couldn't meet her eyes, letting her gaze fall to the floor. Cornelia, who had provided seeds, couldn't look at Sakurai's face now. That fact cut deeper than the destruction of the fields. Mina stood beside Sakurai, trembling softly. --- When she returned to Glesia Manor alone from the assembly hall, a figure stood in the corridor. It was Gilbert. The elderly butler who had long served Glesia Manor, always standing in the corridor in neat attire——but today was different. His eyes were red. His hands trembled slightly. Sakurai's feet stopped. Gilbert said nothing and held out a folded piece of paper. She took it. Opened it. It was Lucian's handwriting. She recognized it immediately. Over these three weeks, she'd seen his handwriting on reports to the office countless times. What that handwriting had written was a short sentence. The position of lady candidate is hereby terminated. A carriage will be prepared tomorrow morning. Sakurai read the paper. Read it once more. Then she folded it slowly and returned it to Gilbert. No words came out. "The lord……" Gilbert started to say something, then closed his mouth. Sakurai began walking down the corridor. Up the stairs to the second floor. Her feet felt heavy. As she turned the corner, something caught the edge of her vision. The office door was open just a few centimeters. From that gap, a silhouette was visible. It was Lucian. His silver eyes seemed to be facing her——seemed to be. But she had no strength to confirm it. The door closed quietly, almost immediately. Sakurai opened her own room's door and stepped inside. The moment she closed it, strength drained from her legs. She sat down on the floor. (What did I come here for?) A voice came out. A crying voice. It was the first time. Over these three weeks, even covered in mud, even treated coldly by the farmers, even ignored by Lucian, she hadn't cried. But tonight, it wouldn't stop. (What changed by getting covered in mud?) The stone walls absorbed her voice. It shouldn't reach the corridor. But on the other side of the door, in the corridor, Mina was sitting with her knees drawn up, her forehead pressed against the door. "[crying]……Please don't go, Lady Misaki." The voice reached her. Sakurai's ears. Sakurai couldn't answer. The words to answer wouldn't come tonight. --- That same night, in the office, only the lantern's light flickered. Lucian sat before his desk. The wide desk had nothing spread across it. The quill he'd used to write the expulsion notice lay there, its ink already dry. He heard Gilbert passing the paper in the corridor. Footsteps receding. After a while——after some time, a faint voice reached him through the stone wall. A crying voice. It took a moment to realize it was a woman's crying. Lucian rose from his chair. He approached the door. His hand reached for it. He didn't open it. There is a thought that he had done the right thing. If the territory attracts attention, the Pelvant Nobility Council might indeed take action. Lucian had felt that pressure up close for ten years. As a frontier lord, he knew what it meant to be watched by the center. So this was a rational decision——part of him believed that. But at the same time, a sense that it was a lie wouldn't disappear. Both remained, as he stood before the door. Eventually, Lucian withdrew his hand from the door. He turned toward the window. He looked outside. In the moonlight, the northern fields were visible. They were brown. Just like Glesia territory before Sakurai came. That was all he understood. --- How long had she cried herself to exhaustion? She couldn't say. Her eyes were dry. Her cheeks felt like they bore salt marks. Sakurai sat on the floor, gazing blankly around the room. A notebook lay open on the desk. She'd left it out last night while researching materials and had fallen asleep without closing it. Her graduate school notebook——the one densely filled with notes from when she was researching Glesia territory's history. Sakurai crawled toward the desk. The open page was her notes from researching the Great Famine of Kalen. One hundred fifty years ago, a great crop failure that struck the entire continent. The page where she'd recorded how three consecutive cold summers and plague, which killed a fifth of the population, had become the distant cause of chronic poverty in frontier territories. In the margin, there was a small scrawled note. Sakurai brought her eyes closer. "Reclamation Encouragement Edict: Wasteland converted to farmland within three years → Five-year tax reduction of fifty percent. Glesia territory has zero implementation record." She stopped. (……This system.) The back of her mind suddenly began to move. The Reclamation Encouragement Edict——a royal law issued fifty years ago that, if wasteland was made into productive farmland within three years, granted a fifty percent tax reduction for five years. Sakurai had explained this to Hans in Episode 3. She'd said "I'm still researching the details" and hadn't fully worked them out. But if this system were formally applied——. The reclamation of Glesia territory would become a legitimate exercise of royal law rights. "The Pelvant Nobility Council might take action," Lucian had told the farmers. But if they tried to obstruct agricultural restoration based on the Reclamation Encouragement Edict, the central nobles themselves would be the ones ignoring royal law. The situation the farmers had feared would reverse. Sakurai looked out the window with wet eyes. The brown fields were illuminated by moonlight. (The soil is still there.) Even if uprooted, even if buried, the soil itself hadn't disappeared. She just needed to plant seeds in that soil again. If she used the system, she could legally repel central intervention. What she couldn't see while crying was visible now. But. Sakurai hugged the notebook to her chest. To utilize this system, she needed the lord's signature and cooperation. Lucian's. Sakurai had already received an expulsion notice, and a carriage would come tomorrow morning. Before dawn, she had to convince the person who had left that door open and then closed it. She stood up. She opened the door. In the corridor, Mina was there. Leaning against the wall, she'd been dozing. At the sound of Sakurai emerging, she lifted her face. The traces of tears remained on her cheeks, caught in the corridor's lantern light. Mina said nothing. She simply stood and took her place beside Sakurai. Sakurai, still holding the notebook, stood with Mina in the corridor. The office still had its light on.