The duchess pulled back a little. She withdrew her smile and froze up like a deer in the headlights as she felt Li's pressure, but this time, he could tell that her fear was completely feigned. Her eyes betrayed her. They remained completely focused and attentive, unclouded by terror.

Sunstar, sensing some tension, started to float towards them, and Li stretched his fingers out, readying for a confrontation, but the duchess waved at the hero to stand down.

"Do excuse Sunstar, it is his job to guard me, so I hope you can forgive him." The duchess ran her hand through her hair, folding errant strands away from her eyes. Her stare softened, mellowing out into the same shade of warmth as her smile. "Of course. Your terms are more than reasonable to ensure that my people are fed. I will exempt Riviera from the contract.

I enforced it to halt the flow of drugs within the duchy, anyway, and Black Vine, those criminal scoundrels, have ceased their activities here, so I suppose there is no real reason for me to force a document upon you.

I only felt that you were deserving of some royal aid, but I now understand you wish for peace and solitude, and I will respect that."

"Basically, I'm a participant of an experimental study. I try out these seeds and see if they work?"

"Not at all. I would not have you sully your fields with seeds that did not work. No, I have already had the mages of the Arcana study them. They are entirely effective and safe. I merely wish you to be the first so that I may tell my citizens that they came from humans, not beastmen."

"Wouldn't that put a spotlight on me?"

"I would say yes, but nothing to worry about. I will keep your identity vague should the commoners ever grow curious, but I doubt they will. The common folk cares not where their grain comes from so long as it came from human hands. I should say that your recent meteoric rise as this city's prime herbalist warrants more attention to you."

Li paused, his face completely still as he thought. The duchess nodded to Li and cocked her head, as if asking him if there was more he wanted.

That was it?

There was little to no opposition here. She asked for essentially nothing of Li, but even so, she seemed happy, victorious, even, with the way she never had to think about anything she said. It was as if this was the outcome she had always wanted, always known would happen.

Perhaps it was because she loved her people enough that the prospect of adequately feeding them outweighed any personal advantage to her. As it stood now, the situation was entirely satisfactory for him and nothing but negatives for her.

Without a royal herbalist to do her bidding in Riviera, she would lose much of the herb harvest in the west.

He could work on his farm with Old Thane unnoticed and cherish the rest of his humanity without worrying about the needless chaos of this world. He could do what he loved – tending to the farm and the herbs – all day with these miracle seeds and there would be no pesky crown telling him where to send what he grew. His sense of curiosity had dampened since he had come to this world, but to know that there were seeds he knew nothing of was still an exciting prospect.

Li stood up, putting the pouch in his pocket. "Then we're done here. If you respect our agreement, I expect that we won't be seeing much of each other ever again. Goodbye."

Sunstar's arm twitched, and that was all it took for the duchess to immediately raise a hand to stand him down. "It is fine, Sunstar. He is right. Our talk has come to a satisfactory end."

"I have to say, easterner, you drive a hard bargain. You're a big man, aren't you!" said Sunstar as he gave a half bow and floated aside with exaggerated flair.

Li walked up to Sunstar, close enough that they were almost eye to eye, though Sunstar's floating made him stand higher. The hero smiled as he met Li's gaze, his glowing golden pupils seeming to expand.

"One more word, and I'll rip that self-absorbed smile off of your face." Li and Sunstar stared at each other for a few seconds, but the hero did not speak. "That's what I thought, 'big man'," said Li as he left, giving neither of them a second look.

________________

"And that's that," said Li to Old Thane. "The crown won't bother us anymore, and this land's all ours."

They sat around the dinner table as they usually did, the fireplace crackling with its idyllic rhythm. When Li came back to the cottage, he had found Old Thane pacing about the fire, anxious for his return.

"Gods, lad, you buckled the crown under your words?" Old Thane said. He sighed deeply as he ran his hand through his face, rubbing away his weariness. "What fortune for us. To think I thought you sent to the dungeons! Still now, my hands shake with worry."

Li noticed Old Thane's shaking and felt that the old man was so much smaller than he was. It made him realize that despite the old man's strength and his past filled with bright and wonderful memories, he was still just an old man with everything in the world to lose.

Before Li, he must have resigned himself to wasting away while tilling the land, only ever living to remember his past and look forward to joining his wife through death's helping hand. But now that Li was here, the old man had something to lose once more, and so naturally he feared.

But Li couldn't stand to see him afraid like this for no reason. He must have felt this way every single time Li had disappeared, and all because Li wanted to keep his power a secret. He would let the old man know of his power, but he wouldn't give up that he was inhuman just yet.

"Old man, I want you to know that you will never have to worry about me," said Li. "I have power. Power beyond measure. Nothing in this kingdom, no, nothing in this world can stop me. I want to let you know that. The oath I made to you? About building this farm up to unreachable heights? I made it because I have the power to keep it."

"I know, lad. I've always known. I'm no fool – I know you are a man of peerless strength. I know you slew all those bandits. I know that the hound here is a demon yoked under your power – I fought in the demon wars, lad, I can sense their ilk. I know that you must have shattered Black Vine, tearing them up by their very roots."

Li felt confused. "Then why did you play along with me? Why are you still worrying?"

Old Thane smiled. "Because, lad, if you wanted to keep it a secret, then who am I to disrespect that wish? You've good reasons, I'm certain, and I trust your judgement, aye that I do. As for why I still worry, I do wonder that."

His cloudy eyes flitted upwards, reminiscing. "Say, lad, I never tell tales I feel hold less than glory for me, but I'll say one now.

I hail from the north. The far north, beyond even the elves and beastmen. Beyond even the dragons. At the edge of the world, where winter is eternal, where life bludgeons all under a mighty fist of iron, caring not for the elderly or young.

There, nothing can grow. There is only the hunt, prowling through thick winter storms only to wrestle with the wrath of beasts that have learned to make such unforgiving lands their home. Once, when my stomach rang with hunger, bringing forth my savage instincts, I came upon a lad and his crooked old father.

I knew the man. Sigmund the Indestructible. A mutant, aye, unkillable to any blow or spell. Far stronger than I. But my hunger was so terrible that I was still willing to fight them, maul them for the chance to gnaw at their flesh.

Truthfully, I rose my fists then to accept death. I knew I would not fell Sigmund, but I would rather die by blade than to the cold or hunger.

Yet Sigmund's father feared for his son's life. That old man, shriveled and hunched over as he was, begged me to tear off his arm to soothe my hunger so that his son may not fight.

I did not take that arm. I did not fight Sigmund, and I survived. For decades, I have thought of that moment. What could have possessed that shriveled husk of a man to fear for his son, a man whom I could never even hope to draw blood from?

When I became wed to Aine and settled in the south where life can grow so beautifully from the earth, I still had no answer, for Aine could not bear child. When she passed and I myself became aged, shriveled and weaker, I still had no answer.

But now that you are here, I finally understand. I am sorry to say, lad, but it matters not your strength – a father will always worry."