Chapter 144 The Harvest Rush.
Her eyes widened and she held her free hand over her mouth in disbelief, "Tion!!"
With a straight face, Tion told her, "I can assure you governor that my mouth is sealed tighter than the shields of the Varakas company. If your conversations have been leaking I am not the source."
She pushed her face forward slightly in a bid to look for the telltale signs of lies on his face, like a twitching eye, sudden perspiration, rubbing of his nose but she got nothing. He was as always, rigid and still like a rock. How did he convince Grace to marry him like this? The man was like a robot at times.
"Leave Tion alone." Esong spun her back to face the front and they continued walking, ten more steps and they would land in the corn fields. "The two of you discuss personal things in the hearing distance of workers, it\'s inevitable that the gossip travels to all corners of this planet. Now that we are moving into the castle all the maids in waiting if you have any, cleaners, cooks, guards and whoever else works for you especially has to sign a confidentiality agreement. The more official and developed the planet becomes the more efficient we have to become as well. Things must be done the right way."
"I know," she responded, "My mother had this conversation with me already and some contracts have been signed. She got me maids too between the ages of twenty and fifty. I also have the robot butlers your grandfather gave me to help around the castle. I do not have any maids in waiting, my family has never been keen on that kind of thing, we leave it to you upper nobility, like your family." His sister had three ladies in waiting and four maids in waiting.
"As my wife you are upper nobility." he reminded her. It ticked him off sometimes that she drew the line like this, saying things like our, my, your, especially when it came to their families. To date, she did not refer to herself as a part of his family. He had tried to bring it up many times before but he held himself back out of desire to keep the peace in the fragile relationship they had.
She saw Fey waving at her with Justin in her hands and she abandoned Esong, running toward her baby who was holding ripe corn in his hands. First, she took a picture and then she carried him.
"What are you doing here baby?" she asked him. He hardly responded when she covered his face with kisses.
"Mother, don\'t do this in public." Justin whined.
She was taken back, puzzled why and since when had Justin started rejecting her overly affectionate gestures and public displays of affection. "Why?" she asked him.
"I am a man, great grandfather said that men must be dignified at all times. He also said that in the rules of nobility, men and women should keep a distance apart physically after the age of five." he opened his adorable mouth and retold her what Esong\'s grandfather said to him.
"You are not five my dear," she amended. "You are still four years old."
"Oh," Justin said and he blinked, he looked around stealthily in an extravagant manner, "Okay you can kiss me but my friends should not see."
"What?" Scarlet burst out loud in laughter. "Wow, my only reason for living is embarrassed of me, oh my heart is breaking." she said, acting overly dramatic.
"Mom, you can kiss me in the house." Justin put his little hands around her neck and he explained.
"I don\'t want to have an affair with you." Scarlet giggled and she shook her head.
"An affair." he parroted.
Esong took him from her hands and placed him on the ground, "Boys should not be carried at this age. And don\'t say such things to him, what if he repeats them in class?"
Justin turned his little butt around and run to join his friends as Scarlet sighed. "I can\'t believe he is already embarrassed to be seen kissing and hugging his mother in public. In a world where people live to be a three hundred I should be able to baby my son until he is at least one hundred."
She received stunned and horrified looks from Esong, Fey and Tion, all of them clearly befuddled by her words.
"What?" she asked them.
"You are crazy." Fey said. "Really crazy, just follow me to the collection center before you declare that your son should not marry until he is one hundred fifty years. I never took you to be one of those clingy mothers, I feel so sorry for Justin. You gave birth at the age of twenty four but you want to cuddle and baby your son when he is one hundred years old, oh this is so....."
"Jesus Fey I get it!" Scarlet could not receive the message any louder. She turned her attention to the fields now that Fey was silent and she noticed that the number of workers had tripled. It was almost as if a quarter of their population was here for the harvesting.
Up in the air camera drones which belong to live streamers and BSTV were recording the entire scene. "Did everyone come out here today?" she thought they would be more interested in moving.
"We are harvesting many crops today, the corn, wheat, sweet potatoes and peanuts. Even the cola fruits in the green houses are all being harvested, we cannot wait for the yellow rain to fall. Sometimes yellow rain is toxic and the professors do not want any crops getting infected. There is also a story about the yellow rain being acidic hundreds of years ago apparently it burned everything alive like a plant or person." Fey explained as they hurried along.
The collection center she mentioned was mostly a bunch of tables put together with robot butlers and humans working together to weigh, record, pack and transport the harvested crops away. Everyone was busy here and they were all working in a rush.
"Is that Captain Zorl of the RGB?" she asked Fey.
Fey nodded, "I asked for their help, the RGB officers are here to maintain order and make sure that nothing is stolen, it is not uncommon for some people to lose their minds during this time and attempt to loot provisions. Even nutrient solution companies tighten their security at around this time."
Everything about winter in this world was intense, the people behaved as if they were going into hibernation or preparing for war. If they lost their minds to the point of looting supplies then what was coming had to be brutal. Scarlet wondered if she was truly ready for it.