Chapter 159

Chapter 159: Winter Departs, Spring Arrives

The Teixilam Mountain Range.

Since Lolan Hill’s last visit to the Rabbit Ears School, two weeks had passed. During this period, she had also delivered batches of Golden Maple Sugar Cubes to schools in other cities of the Rabbit Ears Tribe, ensuring that each child currently enrolled could have one. This was greatly beneficial for them, as not only did it supplement their nutrition, but it also significantly improved and enhanced their physical condition, making it much easier for them to advance in the Extraordinary Sequence in the future.

Moreover, she had sent some to Clancia and the Callithes Chamber of Commerce as well. However, due to limited materials and energy, she could only do so much. Yet, seeing her handmade products being enjoyed by everyone made her very happy.

After touring the Teixilam Mountain Range, since these two Demonic Beasts had performed exceptionally well over the years—helping to smelt metals with the Lava Rock Turtle and mediating between the Rabbit Ears Tribe and the Demonic Beasts with the Vine Fairy—Lolan Hill rewarded each of them with an Amber Fruit, greatly pleasing the two creatures.

The Lava Giant Turtle was extremely excited; after eating the fruit, the flame pillars on its back began to turn semi-transparent, making its breakthrough to Sequence 6 imminent. It was noteworthy that it had been stuck at Sequence 5 for nearly a century.

The Vine Fairy circled around Lolan Hill several times. Standing only half a person tall, it had transparent butterfly wings that glowed faintly as it laughed happily, expressing its joy.

As the weather grew colder, Lolan Hill gradually stopped going out and stayed indoors to research alchemy and modify new crops.

—

Outside the window was deep winter, while inside the room, the fireplace burned brightly, casting a soft glow on the wooden chair and small table. The heat from the hearth warmed the entire room.

Lolan Hill sat on a wooden chair by the fireplace wearing a black dress. The soft fabric of the dress was slightly heated by the fire. A stack of books was placed on the small table, and Lolan Hill held a pen, quietly writing something down.

She had recently finished reading the books given to her by Lady Phyllis and was now summarizing what she had learned. She was recalling everything she had studied and then organizing it. Afterward, she would reflect on what she was still unfamiliar with or had missed.

This was a method she had learned in high school. There were many variations, such as explaining what she had learned to someone else and answering their questions. This form of output forced input, allowing her to quickly identify where she was unclear or lacked understanding. When explaining things to others, she would find herself becoming clearer with each explanation.

The thick paper cover wrapped around the pale pages, with fine, clean texture, and black magic ink sketched clear curves and arcs on the paper. Compared to using the common language of this world, she was more accustomed to using the characters from her past life.

The common language was somewhat similar to Latin, where every new thing required creating a new word. While accurate, this led to increasingly cumbersome and difficult-to-remember terms. In contrast, each Chinese character and word could be combined to form various phrases, making their meanings easily understood at a glance. Whether in writing or memorization, Chinese was extremely convenient.

A classic work written in Chinese was always thinner than its English counterpart.

On a winter night, the faint candlelight illuminated the room, and she resumed her quiet life. Day by day, as the sun rose and the moon set, finally, one day, the snow outside the window began to melt, and tender green buds started to emerge from the trees.

New Bud.

She pushed open the door, and the fresh morning breeze dispersed through the forest. Lolan Hill stepped out of the house, her feet touching the stone slabs of the courtyard in front of the door. Some emerald hues began to appear in her vision. Although there was still a chill in the air, spring had quietly arrived. The icicles hanging from the eaves started to melt, dripping water continuously, and birds could be seen flying across the sky.

Lolan Hill flew into the sky for quite some time, relaxing before slowly descending. Next, she prepared for the journey to Emanas.

First, she needed to count the things she would take with her. Naturally, money came first. Although she had been the young lady of the Callithes family for a while and earned a lot of money, most of it remained with the guild, managed by someone else to support the orphanages and schools within the city. Before leaving, she took only 100 gold coins. Originally, she didn’t want to take any, as she wasn’t truly Angus’s daughter, and making money through alchemical potions wouldn’t be difficult for her. She believed that was enough for herself.

But she couldn’t refuse Chelsea’s kindness, saying that she should at least maintain the guild’s image and not live too poorly. Otherwise, people might think the Callithes Guild was mistreating its benefactors.

After the Hopeland incident, Lolan Hill called Ceres and Chelsea to an internal meeting to read Angus’s two wills, clarifying that she wasn’t Angus’s biological daughter. After avenging Angus, Hopeland and the Callithes Guild stabilized, and she had dreams to pursue, so she had to leave.

She still remembered that scene. The crowd in the venue was first shocked, then confused, and finally reluctant. Many events had occurred during this period, perhaps more than in the past ten years. Lolan Hill’s performance had become like a pillar in a turbulent stream, becoming everyone’s backbone and support. Her departure would create a power vacuum within the guild, as no one could integrate everyone’s efforts and gain their genuine trust like she did.

Originally, 60% of Angus’s shares were left without an heir after his death. According to reason, these shares should have been reclaimed by the guild alliance and half given to other shareholders of the guild. However, the current guild alliance was mainly led by the Callithes family, and many people had directly or indirectly benefited from Lolan Hill’s grace during this change. Many were even former guild members, and out of gratitude and desire to retain her, they proposed giving these shares to Lolan Hill to recognize her contributions in this incident.

This proposal received widespread support. Even those who might have wanted to benefit selfishly did not dare express dissent, as it would be too conspicuous and dangerous. No one knew if there were any admirers of the young lady around who might report such actions.

Thus, the guild alliance unanimously passed a resolution to gift 30% of their shares to Lolan Hill. At the same time, other shareholders expressed willingness to give up part of their shares (actually out of fear of Lolan Hill’s immense reputation both inside and outside the guild) and also transfer another 30% to her.

During this process, Lolan Hill declined several times, stating that she might leave Hopeland and wouldn’t have much time to manage the guild’s affairs. But many still hoped she would occasionally return to provide guidance, and many neutral figures within the city advised her, such as Lady Phyllis and Bishop Jua of the Angel Church. They valued Lolan Hill’s character and potential, hoping she could provide additional security and protection for the city’s future.

In the end, reluctantly, Lolan Hill accepted this gift, but

She expressed her intention to leave for a period of time and would not stay long here. The others did not seem particularly concerned. In this world, high-ranking Extraordinary Beings were often a powerful symbol; as long as they stood there, they had a significant deterrent and influence. Usually, they only needed to show up every few years to maintain their presence.

After counting the 126 gold coins in the storage ring, the remaining items were several Extraordinary dresses.

【Snow-Avoiding Velvet Winter Dress】(Rare Golden Grade), a gift from the Lamia Chamber of Commerce. Made from the fur of a Golden Grade Winter White Bear combined with cloud-patterned cloth, it has five layers of enchantment: 【Heat Insulation】【Deflection Field】【Stable Wind】【Cold Current】【Resilient Fiber】. It can isolate cold and heat to maintain a constant temperature, deflect projectiles and weak attacks, stabilize the airflow around, and reduce wind speed.

【Cuckoo’s Poem】(Excellent Silver Grade), a gift from the Aoene Chamber of Commerce. The cover is wrapped in gray Moon-Viewing Rhinoceros hide, and the pages inside are light green, faintly showing leaf vein patterns, very beautiful, made from special leaf-vein paper. The book contains exquisite illustrations, telling stories and legends spread across the continent.

【Starlight White Dress】(Rare Golden Grade), this one she made herself, suitable for spring and autumn, the dress she wore when leaving Hope Lane that day. The hem has blue and hollow star patterns, with a light blue ribbon at the waist.

【Starlight Cloth】(Excellent Golden Grade), five bolts, originally woven by Lolan Hill herself. From now on, if she wants to wear any clothes, she can make them herself.

【Crinascha’s Butterfly Hairpin】(Rare Epic Grade): The Great Witch Crinascha entrusted her unique magic to this hairpin before her death, which can be worn and used. (Usage times: 2/3) (Epic Grade, roughly equivalent to Level 9 in the Sequence)

The hairpin had been used once before, the young lady thought it was during the use of the Fate Thread. She then pinned it back into her silver hair.

The rest were potions. Simple ones included 【Vitality Potion】【Rainbow Potion】. Slightly better ones included 【Bubble Potion】(can form bubbles to wrap around the head and allow oxygen flow, enabling underwater breathing), 【Purification Potion】(rare Silver Grade), a fine neutralizer that can concentrate and enhance the effects of various raw materials.

Next were her recent research achievements.

【Lightness Potion】(Perfect Silver Grade): Can significantly reduce air resistance and make the body light, increasing speed.

【Wings of Favorable Winds】(Perfect Golden Grade): Allows one to gain wings formed by winds, flying freely in the sky. Although the wings are not very resilient, they can last for three whole days.

【Lucky Starlight】(Legendary Coral Grade): Makes one lucky for the next day. The blue vial contains intermittently appearing seven-colored starlight.

New potions were developed according to her own talents, incorporating her unique magic to succeed. Especially the last potion, Lolan Hill had made it many times but only produced three finished products, extremely precious.

Almost everything was organized. Let me think if there’s anything else I need to bring, Lolan Hill placed several suitcases in front of her, neatly arranged with items inside.

Knock knock knock—

A series of knocks came from outside the door.

“Long time no see, little Lolan, I came to visit you~” A familiar girl’s voice came from outside the door.