A Single Mother's Farm of the Gods
Chapter 178: The Incident

Chapter 178: The Incident

"Why?" Elaina asked.

"Right now, the public eye is still on the hots for you, especially from your divorce. Revealing another factor that could cause another reason for people to see you again for another reason that would make you famous would attract unwanted attention. I think it is fine for you to keep it in the dark for some time. For now, we should keep this thing a secret until it is necessary to be used. I suggest that we make your farm grow and become a well-known one for its crops and quality products to ensure that their eyes would instead focus on your farm, and not on you."

Elaina pondered on what Julia had said and she did have a point. It was just recently since she got her divorce from Alfred and the public still has their eyes on her on whatever things that will happen related to royalty. As much as she wanted to make this popular and accessible in the future, Elaina would need influence to do so. Just relying on her business prowess is not enough, she needed some backing as well.

"You are right. This is why I have thought of something that would make this fruit more useful for petrified people or people who need help with status ailments without the need to expose ourselves. You are quite well versed in Alchemy and perhaps in Apothecary practices seeing you create potions from medicinal plants, which means you have an idea on how to convert this fruit into a liquid form medicine that can be used to drink in small amounts?"

Julia was stunned when she heard that from Elaina and nodded. "Although I am not confident with my alchemy skills, I have been practicing a lot with making potions. I can try it out and extract something from that fruit that we can use for our advantage."

Elaina nodded. They might not be able to make it popular just yet, but this fruit can help a lot in the future. Elaina also remembered the other fruit she grew during spring. Although that one was bitter, its effects have proven to be more effective than normal medicine can do and that is enough.

After the discussion, the two meet up with Princess Margaux who just came out from the room where Princess Tabatha was resting.

"How is Princess Tabatha doing?" Elaina asked.

"She is fine now. She just fell asleep after I lay her down on the bed. I don’t know what happened but it seems something bad happened on the way for her to become like that in the first place."

"That’s good. It’s a good thing we managed to restore her body to normal before her whole body parts turned to stone. If that happened, I don’t know what could happen to her and her life could be in danger," Elaina sighed in relief.

"I am worried about my mother and father now. For some reason, I feel nervous whenever I think about them. I couldn’t explain it but there must be something that happened to my Sister who should be at the palace and came back in that condition."

"We shouldn’t think negatively, Princess. We shall ask later your sister about that before we think something like that. Maybe Princess Tabatha got it on the way to the palace, we just don’t know," Julia shook her head, trying to react positively to Princess Margaux who was not feeling great knowing the situation.

"Anyways, you should also rest as well, Princess. As much as what happened to your sister has passed, you might have stressed yourself after what you have seen. I agree with Julia, you shouldn’t stress yourself about it."

Princess Margaux reluctantly nodded and returned to her room as Elaina and Julia returned to do their respective work until Princess Tabatha had fully rested.

...

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...

While Princess Tabatha was resting, Julia began her work at Elaina’s request. but in reality, that request was one of the suggestions the God of Farming gave. It was something of a way to make use of the fruit without wasting it too much. As much as the effects of the fruit are very useful, it is currently unavailable as summer ended not too long ago. Elaina has no idea what kind of plan the God of Farming had but it seems he knows something that he wasn’t telling and he was just preparing them in the process.

In any case, Elaina went ahead to help with the farm work by giving supervision with the work. Curaj worked on the Wild Cows instead since there was no heavy work that needed his help, he instead helped deal with the cows.

Not sure if it was because Curaj is a half minotaur or just because the Wild Cows are friendly but Curaj has an easy time working with them he was even more surprised that it worked much better compared to when he worked with regular cows.

Still, Elaina was quite happy with the Wild Cows. She still can’t get anything from them without tools just yet but once she has enough money, she will start the process immediately.

As for the plants, the plants are growing nicely and even without Elaina’s intervention directly, the Feys are doing a good job by themselves. But Elaina can’t wait to become hands-on with the farm once again. She only has to endure a few more months before she can officially return to the farming scene once more.

Around the afternoon after most of the work was done and everyone was already cleaning up, Princess Tabatha woke up from her rest. Princess Margaux was the one who first saw her and notified everyone to gather around and question her.

"How are you feeling now, Princess?" Elaina asked.

"Not so good. My body felt heavy and despite the cure taking effect, the side effects seem to have not subsided so fast along with the disappearance of my petrification."

"I think it is normal. After all, you have almost turned to stone. The feeling might be a bit more dangerous than you think it was than what you think," Julia said as she continued the swirl the liquid on the flask that she was carrying.

"Sis...what happened? I was sure you were going to the palace to visit Mother and Father about the recent situation with my fiancee. How come you ended up like what you did earlier?"

When Princess Margaux asks, that’s when Princess Tabatha grits her teeth.

"No. That bastard...he was having a facade to everyone and fooled our parents after all."

"Sis?" Princess Margaux is now worried about what is going on with Princess Tabatha’s anger welling up all of a sudden.

"Did something happen on the castle?" Elaina asked. She doesn’t like the direction of where it will be going.

"Yeah. Big incident. And from the looks of it, the people have yet to know the entire situation just yet and I am afraid that it was for the best that the public will have no idea what was happening inside."

"Don’t tell me..." Princess Margaux slowly backed off.

"Yes. As much as this sounds bad and untrue, what I witnessed before I managed to escape is that everyone in the palace at that time had been petrified and turned to stone. I also saw the situation unfold as he just finished doing the deed and dealing with everyone in the palace. At the moment, the only people who have yet to turn into a stone should be the two guards who are still watching the gates outside the castle, aside from them, the rest have been petrified by the culprit.

"Princess, from the looks of what you are saying just now, it seems you knew who was the culprit."

"I do. And it was someone that even my Sister knows and loathes at the moment."

When Princess Tabatha said that, everyone immediately knew who she was speaking of.

"You mean..." Princess Margaux was shocked.

"Yes indeed. The bastard seems to be using black magic and decides to petrify everyone in the castle. I saw him go after me when I escaped. I managed to get away but I didn’t get to move quickly enough as my foot got caught from the blast of his magic which then ended up becoming petrified. I used the secret exit I usually used to exit the castle when I was still a kid and managed to get away from him. After that, I run and run back to the farm. And I think you knew the rest as I no longer can see and move properly by the time I arrived. I only managed to make a gentle knock on the door."

After hearing the incident, Elaina now understood why the God of Farming insisted on working with the cure for the petrification as soon as possible and even employed Julia’s skills.

The only way for the people in the castle can reverse the situation is to return with the cure in hand.