Chapter 272: The Wheat Ear Blessing

The carriage came to a halt in front of an inn named “Wheat and Anvil.”

The name was quite straightforward, fitting the overall style of Douglas City perfectly.

Klein helped Lia down from the carriage, and the two of them walked into the inn.

The lobby lacked the extravagant crystal chandeliers found in Lucerne Port, featuring instead a pendant lamp made of antlers and frosted glass that emitted a warm, heavy glow.

The aroma of toasted bread and ale drifted through the air.

Behind the front desk stood a sturdy middle-aged woman with well-defined muscle lines on her arms.

Seeing Klein and Lia, she broke into a hearty smile. “Are the two of you here for a room? You look like travelers from afar.”

“Two of your best rooms,” Klein said succinctly.

“You got it!” The woman briskly pulled two brass keys from a drawer. “Top floor—it’s quiet and has a good view. I hope the two of you enjoy your stay in Douglas.”

After settling their luggage, Lia impatiently pulled Klein out for a stroll.

She found everything about this city novel.

The streets of Douglas City were wider than those in Lucerne Port to accommodate vehicles fully loaded with cargo.

The roads were paved with heavy square stone slabs, and one could see stubborn blades of grass growing in the gaps.

Most of the shops here sold grain, farming tools, leather, and ore.

Lia noticed a hoe hanging at a shop entrance, enchanted with sharpness and durability runes, priced at three silver coins.

Inside, a farmer was haggling with the owner over a price difference of just a few copper coins.

“The application of magic here is so practical,” Lia commented.

“For them, magic isn’t a miracle used for showing off; it’s a tool that can yield a few more bushels of wheat or save the plow ox some effort,” Klein replied.

They passed a square with a massive public well at its center.

Several women were lining up to draw water using a wooden bucket enchanted with a water-drawing spell.

On the edge of the square, an alchemical craftsman was selling his products—alchemical spheres that slowly released fertility.

When buried in the soil, they guaranteed crop nutrition for an entire season. Many farmers surrounded him, carefully inquiring about the effects and prices.

Everything was filled with the breath of life, vastly different from the restless atmosphere of Lucerne Port where money never slept.

“It feels like the people here live very grounded lives,” Lia said sincerely.

“Because the earth is beneath their feet.” Klein looked at the dark, rough faces, while Lia saw hearts as clear as crystal.

“The land does not lie; it gives back exactly what you put in. It’s not like the Exchange in Lucerne Port, where countless lies might hide behind the numbers.”

Lia nodded; she liked the atmosphere here very much.

As they walked, a noisy argument broke out not far ahead, and a crowd began to gather.

“I told you, you broke it yourself! I just overhauled this Spiral Fountain for you last week, how could it break so quickly!” a man in greasy work clothes shouted loudly.

Standing opposite him was a dark-skinned, sorrowful-looking old farmer.

“Nonsense! It was working perfectly fine yesterday, but this morning I couldn’t get it started no matter what!”

“This is the critical time for watering the sweet beets. If the irrigation is delayed, my harvest for this season will be ruined!”

“I don’t care. If I have to fix it again, it’ll cost extra!”

“You…” The old farmer was so angry his beard was shaking.

Lia squeezed into the crowd out of curiosity.

She saw a metal device about half a person tall sitting by the roadside. It looked like a strange tin bucket connected to several thick leather pipes, one of which extended to a distant ditch.

Simple magic circuits were etched onto the surface of the device, but they were currently dim and lifeless.

‘So this is what they call a Spiral Fountain—a small magic pump.’

“What’s going on?” Lia asked a middle-aged man nearby who was watching the scene.

“Hah, same old story,” the man curled his lip. “Old Buck’s pump broke, and Gary the mechanic insists Buck broke it himself because he wants to charge a second repair fee.”

Klein stood behind Lia, watching with interest, having no intention of interfering.

Lia walked up to the Spiral Fountain, crouched down, and observed it carefully.

“Little girl, what are you looking at? This is none of your business. Don’t touch it; if you break it, you won’t be able to pay for it.”

Lia ignored him, her gaze sweeping over the magic circuits.

The principle of this machine was simple: it used a water element array to drive an internal spiral mechanism, pumping water from low to high places. The design was crude and wild, possessing its own unique style.

She extended a finger and lightly touched a core energy node.

A wisp of faint mana delved into it through her fingertip.

“Hey! I told you not to touch it!” Gary tried to push her away impatiently.

Klein took a step forward, blocking the space between Gary and Lia.

He said nothing, merely looking at Gary calmly with his blue eyes.

Gary felt as if something had choked him, and his words died in his throat.

He felt an inexplicable pressure radiating from this man, making him afraid to move.

“The energy circuit is blocked.”

Lia stood up and patted the non-existent dust from her hands. She said to the old farmer, “You didn’t break it. There’s a problem with the design of the machine itself.”

“The energy loss during transmission is too high. Long-term operation causes an accumulation at this node, and it was bound to clog sooner or later.”

She pointed to an inconspicuous intersection of circuits on the side of the machine.

“Wh-what are you saying!” Gary’s face turned beet red.

“This was designed by a famous alchemical workshop in the city! How could there be a problem!”

“Famous doesn’t mean perfect,” Lia said flatly. “Can I see your tools?”

Gary was still hesitating, but the old farmer, Buck, acted as if he had caught a lifeline and said hurriedly, “Young lady, can you really fix it?”

“I should be able to. It’s just a small problem,” Lia said nonchalantly.

Old Buck immediately turned to Gary. “Give her the tools! If she can’t fix it, I’ll pay you anyway!”

Under the gaze of the crowd, Gary reluctantly opened his toolbox. Inside were some wrenches, pliers, and several mana-conductive wires of different attributes.

Lia picked out a small wrench and a short length of copper mana-conductive wire.

She walked to the machine, used the wrench to pry open the metal casing of that node, revealing the complex wiring inside.

“See, right here,” she pointed out to Old Buck. “The original energy path takes a sharp right angle here, and there’s no buffer circuit.”

“Every time mana flows through, a portion of energy dissipates due to the impact. Over time, it forms this crystallized sediment, blocking the path.”

As she spoke, she used the tip of the wrench to carefully scrape away the grey-white sediment.

Then, she bent the copper wire into a smooth arc and connected it between the two nodes that used to be a sharp turn, essentially building a small “overpass.”

“There.” Lia put the casing back on. “Try it again.”

Old Buck walked to the machine half-doubtingly and pressed his hand against the activation array.

The machine emitted a steady hum. Immediately after, a stream of clear water gushed from the end of the leather pipe, splashing loudly into the ditch beside the field.

“It’s working! It’s working!” Old Buck’s face turned red with excitement. “And… the flow seems much stronger than before!”

“I optimized the energy path for you to reduce unnecessary loss. Naturally, the efficiency is higher,” Lia explained.

The onlookers let out a burst of exclamation.

“Heavens, this girl is amazing!”

“Gary spent forever and couldn’t fix it, but she solved it in a few moves.”

“Gary’s really lost face this time.”

Gary’s face turned various shades of blue and white. He looked at the smoothly running machine, then at Lia, and couldn’t say a single word.

In the end, he packed up his toolbox and scurried away through the crowd in shame.

Old Buck walked up to Lia and grabbed her hand excitedly. “Young lady, thank you so much! You’ve helped me immensely! This… how can I ever thank you!”

“It was just a small favor.” Lia tried to pull her hand back, but the old farmer held it tightly.

Old Buck looked back and forth between Lia and Klein, who had remained silent behind her, and his smile grew even brighter.

“You two are a couple, aren’t you? Truly a talented man and a beautiful woman—a match made in heaven!”

Lia’s face flushed red instantly, as if it were on fire.

“No… no, you’ve misunderstood, he is my…”

“He is your what?” Klein’s voice sounded by her ear, carrying a hint of a smile.

Lia was momentarily speechless. She couldn’t very well say “he’s my mentor”; that would sound even weirder.

Old Buck didn’t notice the subtle interaction between the two at all. He fumbled in the cloth pouch at his waist for a while and pulled out a pair of bracelets carefully woven from plump ears of wheat.

The wheat ears were golden yellow and carried the fragrance of the sun.

“I don’t have anything valuable.” Old Buck pressed the two bracelets into Lia’s and Klein’s hands respectively, his attitude sincere.

“According to our tradition, for those who have helped us and for a well-matched couple like you, we offer a blessing of abundance.”

“May your love be as full and golden as these wheat ears, and may your future life be as rich and beautiful as a harvested field!”

Lia held the wheat ear bracelet, her palm burning, and her cheeks burning even more.

She wanted to explain, but looking at the old farmer’s sincere and rustic face, she couldn’t bring herself to say the words of refusal.

“We accept them.” Klein naturally took the bracelet and nodded to Old Buck. “Thank you for your blessing.”

With that, he took the still-dazed Lia by the hand and led her away from the crowd.

Lia didn’t snap back to reality until they were quite a distance away. She forcefully shook off Klein’s hand and glared at him huffily. “Who told you to accept them! And who is a couple with you!”

“It’s impolite to refuse someone’s kind intentions.” Klein waved the wheat ear bracelet in his hand, a visible smile hanging on the corners of his mouth.

“You just want to see me embarrassed!” Lia was both ashamed and angry.

“No.” Klein’s expression was innocent. “I think what he said makes a lot of sense.”

“What sense?”

“A talented man and a beautiful woman—a match made in heaven.”

Lia’s face turned even redder. She stomped her foot hard and strode forward quickly, no longer wanting to deal with this wicked man.

Klein followed leisurely behind her, watching the girl’s angry back, his blue eyes full of amusement.

He looked down at the wheat ear bracelet in his hand, then carefully tucked it into his spatial ring.

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