The moment they returned from the Spatial Farm to the bleak slope of Iron Mountain, Mirella stood still for several breaths, as though her spirit had not yet fully caught up with her body.
The black soil wasteland stretched before her exactly as it had a moment ago, barren and lifeless, the wind carrying dry dust over the cracked earth, but in her heart, the world had already changed.
Just now, she had walked into a place where spring obeyed Sienna's will.
She had seen orderly fields, living crops, rich soil, clear water, and a barn that could hold more wealth than many noble houses.
To others, House Vale had been pushed to the edge of the world to wither and disappear.
But Mirella now knew that what the Empire had thrown away as a dead seed had quietly been planted in divine soil.
And once a seed takes root, no matter how fierce the winter, it will one day split stone.
Her hands trembled slightly, not from fear, but from excitement.
