Dreams do come true.
I can die happily if Samson accepts me.
“Good granite,” Lazul exclaims. “What do you take me for?”
“An opportunist.”
The lord huffs. “Everyone else already knows about the board.Bothof you have been out of the loop for days, which—of course—we expect from you, Samson. We just had no idea your condition was contagious.”
“Must be a farmer thing.” Samson waves Peri’s request. “You’re sure you aren’t singling Citrus out to do all this stuff?”
Lazul tosses his arms together, petulant. “Of course I’m sure.I feel compelled to repeat:what do you take me for?”
Samson doesn’t miss a beat. “Someone with a bag of rocks where his brain should be.” Splaying his free hand, he references me. “Look at her, Laz. She’s tense. Her smile’s rigid. She thinks you expect her to handleallof this. By herself. If that’s not the case, you need to clarify that. Instead of having the social awareness of a goat.”
Lazul looks at me, and I flinch beneath the perusal. Confusion muddies the lord’s brow. “She looks normal to me.”
“That would be the bag of rocks talking.”
Lazul scowls. “Youhave gotto stop being so familiar with me. I am a noble.”
“And I’m a farmhand. Which I’m pretty sure means I control whether or not you have cheese. Who’s really in charge here?”
Lazul’s lip juts. “I quite entirely hold you in subpar regard.”
Samson brandishes his teeth in a lethal grin. “Keep talking like that, and I’m raising the price of eggs for you specifically.”
“Clearly, being raised in an adventurer guild served you no respect,” Lazul mutters.
Samson’s smile vanishes. “You’re right. I was too busy killing monsters for pricks like you to be served anything. I lived on scraps from noble tables while I bled out for their protection.” Stepping past me, Samson corners Lazul. “Respectbelongs to those of us who work hard. So, I think, the least you can do is respect the time and feelings of someone you’re conning intodoing your job, right?”
Thatrightleaves my Samson as a growl, and my knees turn into slime, held together only by the thinnest of membranes. A couple bops with a training sword, and Iwilldisintegrate into nothing.
Sighing, Lazul breaks eye contact with Samson and pushes back the long, blond strands of his hair. Soft, he says, “I understand.”
“Good.” Turning, Samson lifts Peri’s request for eggs. “I better get on this. Later, Lemonade.”
A shiver courses through my soul. “Uh…yeah…bye.” I smile stupidly at his back as he heads up the road out of town, completely forgetting Lazul’s still here until the lord’s mumbling snaps me out of the daze.
“Odd of him to latch onto anyone so swiftly. What, pray tell, did you do to earn his favor? I’ve been vying for half as much decency for years.”
All my happy feelings twist up when I pull my attention back to Lazul. I donotwant to give away my sweets scheme. Without meeting the lord’s icy blue eyes, I say, “Oh? Is this not normal for him?”
Full deadpan, he says, “Don’t tell me you also think I’m an idiot.”
Fine. I will not tell you. Or look you in the eye.
After the silence grows insanely uncomfortable, Lazul’s mediocre shoulders sag. “This isn’t even what I wanted to speak with you about when I dropped off that letter the other day. There are some projects that require ample amounts of stone—retaining walls behind the new beach house and Slate’s, for starters. Having a void bag would make the transportation time for materials much simpler. Good weather won’t last forever, and I’m worried about future landslides if we don’t get a head start on reinforcing what the storm weakened. Gabbro, Pyro, and Austin have already started gathering material, but…they’re better suited to construction.”
Stone.
Austin.
I forgot.
I ordered an axe from him. And I never picked it up. And it’s anaxe, not a pick. Because there’s way more wood stuff all over my farm than stone.
I don’t have enough iron for a pick if I’m about to start a stone gathering quest. I’d need to go back to the mines. And then it would still take three days for Austin to make the upgrade. And, since the townies are apparently not useless or waiting around for me to prompt their actions, he’d probably tell me he’s too busy working on the retaining walls out of spite.
