Two days later, Shuye informed me that the rice situation had been resolved and that the Lady wanted me to plant more rice.

We were seated in the main hall, and I had already given him the crocus flower he liked so much. Shuye was wearing his usual brown clothes, and I was still in my work clothes since the two of us tended to be much more casual with each other compared to my meetings with Prince Baiyu.

“What happened to the chaos you said would ensue if I tried to sell more rice?” I asked.

“Prince Baiyu told you that it’s the time when the clans discuss the yearly budget, right? The Lady met with all the clan heads and everyone agreed that the White Tiger clan would buy up the supply and be in charge of distributing it,” said Shuye.

“For a very good price, I hope,” I said.

“Of course,” said Shuye. “And I’ve also been instructed to provide you with anything you might need.”

“Planting season is over, but I can clear a field and plant rice this autumn,” I said.

“Wonderful! I look forward to that,” said Shuye.

“By the way, before I forget, there’s something that I’ve been meaning to ask you. Is there supposed to be some meaning behind Prince Baiyu leaving his kills at my doorstep? He seemed to think I should already know,” I said.

Shuye rolled his eyes. “You have to know what it means. It’s perfectly obvious.”

“…” I wasn’t sure what to think.

“Fine. If you want me to say it out loud, a male leaving his kills on a female’s doorstep means he’s courting her.”

“...”

“But you already knew that.” Shuye gave me a penetrating look.

“I guess I can’t say that I was unaware,” I said. “I mean, he hasn’t exactly been subtle.”

Shuye laughed heartily. “If he was subtle, you would probably ignore him.”

“Eh.” I shrugged my shoulders, then a terrible thought struck me. “Wait a minute, wouldn’t everyone in his hunting party have noticed? Does everyone know about this?”

“Of course everyone knows! You didn’t think it was a secret, did you? Nothing that a member of the ruling family does can be hidden.”

Oh, no! “Isn’t he his mother’s heir? People can’t be happy about this.”

No matter how much the clans respected the humans that they protected, they had to be troubled when one of their most prominent members courted a member of the weaker species.

“Don’t worry about it. Prince Baiyu is the Lady’s only child, which makes him a prince, but the White Tiger clan is always ruled by a female.”

“Then who is the heir?”

“… Prince Baiyu.”

“What?”

“Only theoretically! The Lady named him her heir, and he rules when she’s away, but no one really expects him to become the next head of the family. He’s only the heir until the Lady gives birth to a female.”

“What happens if she doesn’t?”

“She will. The Lady is young, and she will probably have more children. If, the gods forfend, she doesn’t, then the clans will probably elect the new ruler.”

“What would happen to Prince Baiyu then?”

“He could either marry the new Lady or her daughter-heir, or give up his position.”

“I see.”

“None of that matters. You’re a human, so these things aren’t for you to worry about.” Shuye hesitated then continued, “You know, it’s absolutely forbidden for us to harm humans. That doesn’t just mean physical harm. Insulting a human by insinuating that they aren’t good enough for Prince Baiyu would be a sin, too.”

I gave him a disbelieving look.

“It’s true,” Shuye insisted. “You know the story of the five continents. The gods reformed the world when their offspring warred on humans, and the Southerlands were laid waste by a divine punishment when the clans there sinned by attacking the humans. It’s our greatest taboo.”

“Okay,” I said.

He was talking about their religion.

The story goes that during the Dawn Age, the gods became curious about humans and even mated with them, which resulted in stronger and more intelligent divine-human offspring. All went well for thousands of years, with generations of enlightened demigods ruling humankind, until it all went downhill when the original semi-divine rulers’ progeny began fighting for power amongst themselves.

The gods intervened by reforming the continent into five territories. The Northern, Southern, Western, and Eastern lands were given over to the clans, while the central area was reserved for humans. Peace was maintained by a spell or geas that weakened members of the God Beast Clans whenever they were out of their territory. Thus, for example, if members of the White Tiger clan left the Westerlands, they would feel more and more uncomfortable until they were forced to return to their homes.

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Now Shuye was claiming that even insulting or discriminating against humans was considered a sin.

“Anyway, the clans are mostly human,” said Shuye.

I gave him a disbelieving look. “No way.”

“Yes. Think about it. When was the last time that a god came down to mate with one of us? Millions of years ago!” he said. “How many times has one of us had children with humans? Countless times! We have only a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of a drop of god’s blood in us. The rest is all human.”

“That sounds logical.” I was very surprised at Shuye’s reasoning. It made sense, but I wouldn’t have thought that the clans considered themselves mostly human.

“Plenty of clan members marry humans, don’t worry.”

“I’m not thinking of marriage!”

“Sure. Sure.” Shuye covered his mouth with his hand to hide his smile.

“Okay, enough about that,” I said.

“Fine.” Shuye leaned back and smiled at me. “Is there anything you want?”

“As a matter of fact, I was wondering if you could come over with your flying cart and take us to the lake. I’d like to go fishing there with my apprentices, but it’s too far for us to walk,” I said.

“Which lake?” asked Shuye.

“The Lake of Clear Ripples,” I said. “It’s east of here.”

“I’ve never heard of that lake,” said Shuye.

“Hmm.” I took out a pencil and a piece of paper from my inventory and tried to draw a map. I pointed out the approximate location of the lake to Shuye using the drawing. “It’s right there.”

“This map is a bit weird. I can’t make out what this is and I’ve never heard of any of these places. Which way is north?” Shuye seemed confused by the replica System map.

“Uh, nevermind, can you just bring the cart tomorrow? I can tell you where to go,” I said.

“Sure, when do you want me to arrive?” he asked

I called Fengying over and we talked about the details of the trip. My idea was to just bring a picnic basket, but Fengying said she wanted to go to the lake with Deming, too. We hashed out the details with Shuye, who said he would be available the next day.

***

Vacation time!

Okay, it wasn’t really a vacation; it was a fishing trip, but it was exciting.

I hurried through my morning routine and was out of the gate even before dawn. I was already halfway through watering the vegetable field when my sleepy apprentices arrived to help me out. We finished in record time, and I sat down to eat some porridge while we waited for Shuye to arrive.

“Don’t burn down the house while we’re gone,” said Fengying to the staff.

“Tongs,” said the Demon Chef to his assistants, who were packing up the supplies that he would need to cook lunch for us. One of them handed him a pair of tongs.

“Are there any special fish in the lake?” asked Lari.

“Maybe,” I said. I honestly couldn’t remember. There were a lot of different varieties of fish in Adventure Incarnate, and most of them were fictional or legendary ones, so it was hard for me to recall all the different species that one could catch. “But I’m sure that there are a lot of different fish there.”

That part I remembered clearly. Many of the rivers only had a few species living in them, but the Lake of Clear Ripples was home to a wonderful variety of fish populations.

“Look! There he is!” Kharli pointed up at the sky where a small black dot was flying towards us.

“He’s just in time,” I said as I put down my bowl of porridge.

“Good morning,” said Shuye when he arrived on his flying oxcart. The oxen were actually some sort of talisman or spell creature, and the whole thing was the product of a skilled magical artisan. My puppet, Mr. Bear, was the same kind of creature, but much more advanced.

“Good morning,” I said as I handed him another crocus flower, which he placed on his belt as usual.

Shuye didn’t bother to alight from his vehicle and motioned for us to get in right away. The others made their greetings, then they all piled into the cart while I climbed up beside the driver’s seat where Shuye was.

“I hope you know where we’re going, because I don’t,’’ said Shuye.

“Don’t worry. I know exactly where to go,” I said.

Using the System map, I directed Shuye to the lake. It would’ve taken us at least three hours to walk there, but flying there in a straight line only took twenty minutes or thereabouts.

“See? I don’t know how you could’ve missed this enormous lake!” I said.

“But, but, but…” Shuye spluttered indignantly. “There isn’t supposed to be a lake here!”

“Then how do you explain that?” I pointed at the large body of water below us. “Maybe you don’t know the forest as much as you think you do.”

Shuye just shook his head and sighed. “If you say so.”

“Um, can you land like really, really, really slowly?” Flying was fun, but I hated landings.

“How slow? You mean slower than a snail? I’ll try,” he said.

“Yes, please,” I said.

“Don’t worry, it’s very safe,” said Shuye.

I tried not to look down as we descended and my stomach dropped. “Oh, I really don’t like this part.”

Unclipping Mr. Bear from my belt, I made him grow until he was big enough to cuddle. I squeezed him tight and closed my eyes while I tried to stay calm.

“Here we are,” said Shuye.

Moments later, I felt the jolt of our landing.

“We survived, Mr. Bear,” I said to my puppet.

“Trust me. I’ve never had a cart crash at landing,” said Shuye to me.

Fengying, Deming, and the others had already alighted. Shuye helped me down because I was still feeling a little shaky.

“Thanks,” I said.

I looked around at the lake that was so large that I couldn’t see the other side. The shore was lined with trees, and there were mountains in the distance. I took a deep breath and enjoyed the fresh, clean smell of water and grass.

The surface of the lake was a clear blue ruffled by a slight breeze, making it ripple in a lovely way. I suppose that was why it was called the Lake of Clear Ripples. I was glad that the waves weren’t too high.

The kids were extremely excited and were running around here and there, screaming their heads off as though they were school children on the first day of vacation. I let them be and went with the adults to find a good place to set up Deming’s workplace.

The plan was for me and my apprentices to fish in the lake while Deming would cook our catch for lunch. I thought every place looked the same, so I let the Demon Chef choose where he wanted to stay.

I left him, Shuye, and Fengying at a shaded spot near the lake shoreline and called my apprentices over.

“Nice place, huh? I’m glad you like it,” I said.

“I’ve only read about this type of place in storybooks,” said Kharli.

“Really?” I asked.

“We’ve never been outside of Anwei,” said Lari.

“Most people never leave the place they were born in,” said Kharli. “I can’t believe I’m here.”

Mo nodded. The two girls hooked their arms together and jumped up and down.

“I’m so happy!” said Kharli.

I let them play around for a few more minutes before saying, “Alright, this day is going to be great fun. Open your System map. You will see that there are certain places on the shoreline that have yellow dots on them. Those are the places where we can fish. Let’s try out a few of them.”

We walked over to the nearest spot. Of course, we were well-prepared with wide-brimmed hats, fishing bibs, and hip waders.

“Wouldn’t it be better if we were on a boat?” asked Lari.

“Yes, but Shuye didn’t even know that there’s a lake here, so I couldn’t ask him to prepare a boat for us,” I said. “Anyway, shore fishing is good enough. You’ll see.”

By this time, my apprentices had learned enough about the System to know how to get their fishing rods and bait by themselves. I instructed them to put their catch in buckets and give the fish to Deming for cooking. Then I left them alone to find whichever fishing spot suited them best.