Chapter 16: The Uninvited Guest, Leah

Aldo stood on the carriage, watching the long merchant caravan slowly pass the weathered, nearly illegible boundary marker on the border.

He let out a long sigh of relief.

“We’re finally here.”

Three hundred and twenty wagons had crossed Deer Antler Ridge and traveled for several days along the dried-up river valley.

This route was indeed as the president had said—quiet, like a corner forgotten by the world.

No bandits, no roadblocks, not even any wild animals.

Aldo took out his small notebook and meticulously recorded the route.

If they ever received another Frostsilver Ore order in the future, taking this route would be an extra lifeline.

He was still writing when he heard the sound of rapid hoofbeats behind him.

Li Ya rode up from the rear of the caravan, the hem of her dark traveling outfit fluttering in the wind.

She reined in her horse beside Aldo.

“Is this the border?”

Li Ya’s gaze traveled past the caravan, settling on the distant, gray horizon.

“Yes, President,” Aldo hurriedly put away his notebook.

“From here, about half an hour’s ride ahead, you’ll see a river. Follow the riverbank east, and you’ll see an ancient castle. That’s where Mr. Rex lives.”

Li Ya nodded and tugged on the reins, ready to leave.

“President!”

Aldo quickly called out to stop her.

“You’re going alone? Should I take a few men to escort you…”

“No need,” Li Ya said without looking back.

“You continue north with the goods, deliver them according to the original plan. I’ll go see this Rex. Don’t worry about me.”

“But…”

Before he could finish, Li Ya had already spurred her horse.

The horse whinnied and quickly disappeared into the gray twilight.

Aldo stood there with his mouth agape, watching the shrinking figure, and could only sigh in the end.

He turned and urged the caravan to keep moving.

“This young lady really is just like the rumors in the Merchant Guild say, acting on every whim…”

He muttered as he climbed back onto the carriage, silently praying that nothing would happen to the president.

Li Ya rode along the riverbank.

The river here wasn’t wide, but the current was swift.

The land on both banks was much more open than she had expected, but vast stretches lay barren, overgrown with waist-high withered grass.

Occasionally, she could make out the outlines of field ridges and half-collapsed stone walls mostly swallowed by wild grass.

“So this is the North,” Li Ya said to herself.

She had almost never been to the Empire’s border regions, only heard that the Empire’s North was an extremely desolate place.

Seeing it with her own eyes now, it was even more desolate than she had imagined.

She hadn’t ridden far when she spotted a person.

In a distant field, a person was bent over, working.

That plot of land was different from the surrounding wasteland; the overturned soil was a darker color, neatly arranged in several rows.

The person was squatting on the ground, pant legs rolled up to the calves, wearing a pair of boots caked in mud.

Li Ya slowed her horse and observed from a distance.

From the back, it was a young man, tall and slender with broad shoulders.

He wore a simple linen shirt, sleeves rolled up to the elbows, revealing sturdy forearms.

He didn’t look much like a farmer in terms of build and physique.

She urged her horse a little closer.

The man didn’t seem to notice her, still squatting and muttering something under his breath.

Li Ya moved a few steps closer and finally got a clear look at his profile.

She was taken aback.

This face…

Was far more handsome than she had anticipated.

‘So handsome!’

Li Ya noted his well-defined, clean-cut features.

It wasn’t the meticulously maintained, pale delicacy of noble young masters; his face was also pale, but it held a wild, weathered handsomeness.

He had a high nose bridge, a sharp jawline, and a few strands of black hair were stuck to his forehead with sweat, adding an indescribable charm.

Li Ya unconsciously stared a moment longer from her saddle.

But she quickly snapped out of it and cleared her throat.

“Hey.”

No response.

He was gently brushing the soil away from a sprout with his fingers, still whispering something.

“Hey!”

Li Ya raised her voice.

“Do you know if there’s someone named Rex von Klein around here?”

The man’s hand paused.

He looked up at Li Ya.

Only then did Li Ya see his eyes clearly.

Deep, calm, like a pool of undisturbed water.

His face showed little expression, just a faint glance of assessment before he lowered his head again to fuss with his sprout.

“What do you want with him?”

Li Ya frowned.

This man wouldn’t even stand up, and his tone was so casual.

But she held back her impatience, straightened her posture in the saddle, and spoke formally.

“I am Li Ya Granchester, President of the Granchester Chamber of Commerce.”

As she said this, she lifted her chin slightly, her tone carrying a natural pride.

What the Granchester name meant in the business world across the continent needed no explanation from her.

She had seen it too many times.

Whenever she announced this name, people either showed awe or put on ingratiating smiles.

She waited to see the change in this farmer’s expression.

“Oh,” Rex said without looking up.

Li Ya was stunned.

“Oh?”

She repeated the word, thinking she had misheard.

What did “oh” mean?

In her entire life, no one had ever responded to her name with just an “oh.”

Not even a pretense of polite composure.

Just a simple, plain “oh.”

“Hey!”

Li Ya’s voice rose a few pitches involuntarily.

“What kind of attitude is that! I am the President of the Granchester Chamber of Commerce herself! Do you have any idea—”

“Alright, alright, I get it,” Rex finally looked up, a hint of annoyance at being interrupted in his tone.

“Can you not bother me while I’m farming?”

Li Ya’s face flushed red.

Not from shyness, but from anger.

She, the esteemed President of the Granchester Chamber of Commerce, had personally come to this desolate, uninhabited North, announced her name, and was now being told by a mud-covered farming peasant to “not bother him while farming”?

“You… you country bumpkin!”

Li Ya stamped her foot in the stirrup, furious.

“I’ve introduced myself! Aren’t you going to tell me your name?!”

Rex, unable to continue his work with her noise, finally stood up.

He was much taller than she had imagined.

He brushed the mud off his hands and looked at Li Ya.

“My name is Rex.”

After he said it, Li Ya’s expression instantly froze.

“Huh?!”

Her mouth hung open.

All the intelligence analysis in her mind short-circuited at that moment.

Rex von Klein.

Head of the Klein Ducal House.

One of the Empire’s Four Great Dukes.

The man Aldo described as having single-handedly dealt with over thirty bandits and slain two Giant Bears with one sword strike.

And here he was, standing in a field, working like a peasant?

Li Ya jumped down from her horse, intending to walk up to him, but stopped after taking just one step.

She looked down at the muddy ground in front of her, then at her own finely crafted leather traveling boots.

These were her favorite pair, made from premium deerskin, with pure silver buckles.

She hesitated, then pulled her foot back.

Rex raised an eyebrow, watching her hesitate at the edge of the field ridge.

Li Ya couldn’t hold back anymore.

Standing on the ridge, separated from Rex by several steps of muddy ground, her voice carried a sense of defeat by reality.

“Aren’t you curious why I’m here?”

Rex finally looked at her properly, his expression still flat.

“It’s not too late for you to tell me after I finish this bit of work.”

“Huh?!”

“Don’t be so easily startled, alright?”

Rex squatted back down to inspect the new sprouts emerging from the soil.

“Does your Merchant Guild have cheap seeds?”

Li Ya felt she had already endured enough shocks today, but this sentence rendered her completely speechless.

Before coming to the North, she had thought of a hundred different opening lines.

She had also considered that this Rex might be a deeply hidden sword master, or a wise man who saw through worldly affairs.

She had thought he might talk about conditions, payment, cooperation, even politics.

She had prepared all her arguments about transport routes, Frostsilver Ore, and trade.

The one thing she hadn’t prepared for was “Does your Merchant Guild have cheap seeds?”

“The Rye and Winterroot here in the North are too expensive. The shipping costs are higher than the goods themselves. You have your own transport lines, so you should be able to get them cheaper than the market price.”

Li Ya stood on the field ridge, looking at this Duke squatting in the mud discussing wholesale seed prices with her, and suddenly felt this man was much more interesting than she had imagined.

“…Aren’t you going to invite me inside to sit and talk?”

She finally managed to squeeze out.

Rex stood up and looked at the sky.

“Sorry, this isn’t a good place to chat. How about we talk at my ancient castle?”

Li Ya looked at his mud-covered self, then at her own clean traveling outfit, and hesitated.

“Is there a clean path?”

“Yes.”

“Then let’s go.”

The two walked one after the other along the riverbank.

Li Ya led her horse, carefully avoiding puddles and muddy patches on the ground.

On the way, Li Ya’s gaze kept involuntarily drifting towards him.

The intelligence said he was “lazy,” “silent,” “uninterested in everything,” but just now, when talking about seeds, there was something very genuine in his tone.

It wasn’t perfunctory or polite; he was genuinely serious about solving a problem.

And…

That face really was good-looking, matching the level of handsomeness she had privately imagined.

Li Ya suppressed that thought and continued walking with a blank expression.

Arriving at the castle entrance, Li Ya stopped to observe.

The building was much smaller than she had imagined.

The spreading vines on the stone walls went without saying.

Several roof tiles were missing, and weeds grew in the cracks of the flagstones before the door.

If not for the smoke rising from the chimney, she would have thought this was a completely abandoned ancient castle.

This was absolutely, without a doubt, the shabbiest ancient castle she had ever seen.

Then she noticed two horses leisurely nibbling on weeds in the yard.

Not eating fodder, but chewing the wild grass growing from the ground.

“This…”

Li Ya pointed at the two horses, her voice slightly altered.

“Are these your horses?”

“Mhm.”

“You let them eat weeds in the yard?”

“What’s wrong with that?”

“What’s wrong with that?!”

Li Ya’s eyes widened.

“Those are Friesian horses! Look at that chestnut one—its shoulder height, bone structure, muscle lines—that’s a purebred Friesian warhorse! In the Federation, one could sell for over five hundred gold coins! And you let it eat weeds in the yard?!”

Rex looked back at the two horses, then at Li Ya, his expression innocent.

“They’ve been eating weeds ever since I brought them back. They seem quite happy with it.”

Li Ya took a deep breath and decided to drop the subject.

Discussing it further might just make her die of anger right here.

Rex pushed open the castle door.

A wave of warmth and the aroma of coffee greeted them.

Hilda seemed to have already sensed that Rex would bring a guest back and had prepared coffee in advance.

She had changed back into her black-and-white maid uniform.

Hearing the door, she looked up calmly towards the entrance.

“Welcome back, My Lord.”

Her gaze shifted to Li Ya, and she gave a slight nod.

“Greetings, guest.”

Li Ya stood at the doorway, looking at this maid whose features were so exquisite they seemed unreal, then at the mud-covered Rex beside her.

Once again, all the intelligence analysis in her mind crashed completely.

‘Uncle Victor’s investigation report didn’t mention a woman of this caliber by his side. No, wait. Besides that ex-fiancée who broke off the engagement.’

Li Ya’s gaze lingered on Hilda for a few seconds.

That face, that figure, that cold yet elegant demeanor—she could outshine everyone at a Federation ball.

And here she was, wearing a maid uniform, standing beside a long table in this dilapidated castle, pouring coffee for a mud-covered Duke.

Li Ya suddenly felt that her understanding of the word “waste” might need redefining.

“Please, have a seat,” Rex gestured to the chairs by the fireplace.

He went to wash his hands first, then naturally sat down opposite her.

“So, the President of the Granchester Chamber of Commerce personally coming to the North probably isn’t to sell goods.”

Li Ya sat down in the chair and accepted the coffee Hilda handed her.

The cup was a plain ceramic one, but the coffee tasted surprisingly good.

“Rex von Klein,” she pronounced his name, a tone of having found an interesting toy in her voice.

“You are much more interesting than the intelligence reports described.”

Rex’s expression didn’t change.

“Thank you.”

Li Ya waited for him to say something more—to ask her purpose, inquire about the intelligence content, or even just exchange a few polite pleasantries.

But Rex said nothing.

He just quietly drank his coffee, watching the fire in the fireplace, as if completely unconcerned about why she had come.

Li Ya held her cup, feeling for the first time that she might not gain the upper hand at the negotiating table.