Welters Qunaris

Today was to be the day that the Qunaris clan began its journey to nobility. With the ruination of the Archduchess’ reputation the clan would have risen in position. Or that was what he presumed until the girl climbed that ladder.

And now she had gotten her bodyguard take the Clan’s commoner geniuses, Kerril and Viona, as her servants. It was unlikely that either of the two would ever achieve Sapling realm, but they would have been good servants to show off the Clan’s prosperity.

More than that, it was a message from the Archduchess. That she knew what was going on and had not forgiven them. It would seem that the trap he had set had not just failed, it had backlashed in a most spectacular fashion.

The price he had managed to inflict on her may have calmed the panicking Elders, making them feel as if they still had the upper hand, but Welters knew they didn’t have the upper hand, the Archduchess did. And she seemed set to crush them with it.

The only thing that remained to be seen was how thorny he could make his clan. The sharpest thorns could shred hands after all.

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(Altura-MC)

“What in the world should I do with you?” I asked Aswelth as he shifted nervously while surrounded by children.

“I am sorry Archduchess, the Qunaris clan insisted that all the children should benefit from your beneficence and I could not find a reason to say no.” Aswelth said. At least he was looking guilty, the new flustered version of Aswelth was cute.

Apparently the Qunaris clan had been happy to give the MC and the love interest to me, as long as I took charge of several dozen of their ‘brothers and sisters’. Brothers and sisters, the Qunaris Clan knew I did not have the resources to feed. Which meant I would have to acquire the resources from elsewhere.

And naturally, all of the places around town that sold grain were owned by the Clans. The Qunaris Clan, of course, having the only granary large enough to have enough grain at hand. Thankfully I had some experience acquiring supplies for parties otherwise the townsfolk would have seen an Archduchess running around looking for grain.

Now I was going to have to leverage the Xianxia competitiveness in hope that the rival Clan could perhaps provide the necessary grain.

“Aswelth, your new task is to negotiate with whatever Clan that Dorien guy was”-

Aswelth interrupted me by saying, “Arches your grace”

“Yes, Arches, get the grain from the Arches Clan, the Qunaris Clan will most certainly overprice us and the third Clan I know too little about to even try and contact.” I said as I took out 10 shining gems from the sleeves of my dress.

“Here, take these ten Spirit Stones, ten thousand gold coins should be enough to get the grain, yes?” I asked

Aswelth on the other hand looked at the spirit stones as if they were poison. “A hundred gold coins would be overpaying your grace…” Aswelth said.

“Then get as much as you can for 1. It's best if we have some storage. The ‘mansion’ we have now is thankfully big enough to store some grain.”” I said, trying to hide the fact that I had no idea what I was doing.

Aswelth thankfully left, leaving me alone with a few dozen kids. It was, to the unknowing eye, a motley bunch of brats. To me who knew the plot they were the initial gang of troublemakers.

While only Viona and Kerrin had survived the Clan Qunaris, the rest had also rebelled against the Clan; they had then died so that the author could have an excuse for the protagonist to ‘awaken’ his past life’s memories and escape.

“Hello, I am Archduchess Altura. What do you want to do?” I asked

The group of kids shifted nervously, none of them daring to even look me in the eye. Finally, the first love interest, Viona said, “Please do not kill us, your grace, we are willing to work, we won’t be a burden!”

Ugh…why are you so cruel, Xianxia land. Making this cute ten year old work. But sadly for you, I have better plans. The bunch of brats were, one and all, talented. Not geniuses perhaps, but talented enough that they would reach the Sapling realm easily if they were taught how. And I could teach them.

The idea had come to me while I was waiting for Aswelth to return. I needed an army, both, because my Royalty seed required I have one, and to counter the Clans and other forces that would contest my rule.

Now I would prefer if said army was not a bunch of brats that would take years to reach an employable age, but one made do with what one had. Plus I might have qualms with sending them to war, but I didn’t see anything wrong with getting them to stay inside the house and play guard.

Besides, this was Xianxia, even kids needed to learn to protect themselves.

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“Viona, I will not put you to work. I have little need for servants. Now, you will be required to cook your own food, I fear we are slightly lacking in cooks here, but otherwise you can do what you want.” I began. The kids looked at me as if I had just said that I was their mother, the poor sods couldn’t have been more shocked.

“There is one thing that you must do however, and that is cultivate.”- the children gasped, even Viona’s fake composure seemed rattled at the revelation, only Kerrin’s green eyes continued to bore into me,

“ Yes, cultivate, after Aswelth and I return from the meeting with the Clans today, we will take you outside to hunt down a few beasts so you can germinate your seeds.” I said to my shocked audience

“Now if you all promise to behave, I shall go to the meeting, I believe the City Lord should have returned by now.” I said, moving out quickly. What? I was a 17 year old only child in my last life! Don’t ask me to handle a bunch of kids please! Plus I wasn’t being irresponsible, these Xianxia kids were a tough breed, I bet they could take better care of themselves than I could take care of me.

Outside on the street, a commotion was in progress. I wasn’t speaking nonsense when I said that the City Lord should have arrived, I had felt the man’s arrival. Everyone had. How could one miss the presence of a man that was constantly sending out Qi pulses, a clear sign of an imminent breakthrough.

If it had been a few hours ago I wouldn’t have recognised the Qi pulses, but the King’s lecture had triggered Altura’s memory so many times that I was sure that I now had most of the information I would need.

Now I knew what I was seeing, and I did not like it. It meant that one Clan Head was now breaking through to the Sapling realm, likely having just killed a Sapling class beast. That meant I needed to level up a bit. From what I could tell, my dual element would let me skip a level to mid-Seedling realm and the Archduchess buff would let me beat the late/peak Seedlings.

But a Sapling was a completely different thing that would be hard to beat. But thankfully the King had left me with a hidden card. ‘Choose a retainer. As Archduchess, I could have two retainers, choosing one would count as a milestone as an Archduchess and boost me right to mid Seedling at least. And I would always have a second spot to give someone if the need came.

If I had any doubt before about how unbalanced this world was, I was now convinced, as an Archduchess I could choose a retainer to do my housework and level up. Commoners on the other hand would likely work their entire lives to achieve this level.

Heading back in I shouted at the kids that were now lively and discussing something. Likely me.

“Oh, and Kerrin is in charge. Also, he’s my retainer so listen to him.” That was bossy enough right? It should convince the System at least.

Retainer gained!

Reincarnator Kerrin (Max Rank): For gaining a max rank reincarnator your cultivation has been raised to half-step Late Seedling stage. In addition you gain 5% of your retainers Qi growth everyday

It did. And the reward was luxurious. I took a deep breath in as deep within me, a seedling grew some more, reaching for the surface and nearly reaching the border. I knew instinctively that if it had reached the border then I would reach the late Seedling stage and if I crossed it the Sapling stage.

But this was not the time to think about all that. No, now I had three Clan Heads to deal with.

Name

Altura Selrin

Title

Archduchess (In name) (landed)

Element

Dragon Fire, Snowflake ice

Age

10 years

Seeds

Military (ungerminated), Royalty (Seedling), Energy (ungerminated)

Stats

Strength[The amount of brute force one can use]

9

Endurance[The amount of time one can work continuously]

13

Flexibility[The range of movement of the body]

11

Precision[The accuracy of one’s movements]

13

Perception[The ability to notice nuances and advanced concepts]

9

Intelligence[The ability to comprehend the advanced concepts]

12

Wisdom[The ability to effectively use the concepts]

13

Aura Force[The ability to force your will on your surroundings]

14

Combat[The speed of one’s reactions, ability to process situations and other general combat abilities]

13

Retainers

Kerrin

No cultivation. Nascent Unknown Constitution