Harold's expression changed. Surprise flickered across his face, followed by something close to joy. Sienna had never asked such questions before. Sienna used to only care about pleasure, food, women, and anger.
But Harold did not waste time.
"Young Miss, we are currently in the main castle of the territory. It is built on the abandoned Dwarf Iron Mountain. This is the only place here where land can still be cultivated."
He continued, speaking clearly, like she was reporting to a commander.
"When we received the order to leave the capital, this old servant sold what we could. I exchanged most of our wealth for supplies, seeds, tools, and one hundred slaves. We brought only what we could carry. Right now, we still have around one hundred gold coins left."
Harold's voice lowered slightly, and his eyes carried bitterness.
"The people who came with us are only myself, my wife Mirella, my granddaughter Meg, and the twins Wood and Stone. The rest are the one hundred slaves. Everyone else… has already left."
Sienna Vale listened quietly. Her mind was already calculating. A hundred slaves meant labor. Seeds and tools meant survival. Gold was useful, but in a dead land like this, food mattered more than coins.
Harold had made the right decision.
Sienna Vale nodded.
"You did well," she said simply. "In a place like this, supplies are more valuable than gold."
Harold's expression softened slightly, as if those words lifted something off his chest. Sienna Vale continued, her tone practical.
"We need to know how much land we can cultivate on this mountain. We must plant something quickly. No matter what, we can't starve."
Harold immediately nodded. "Yes, Young Miss. I will arrange it at once."
He hesitated, then added, "I will send Meg to attend you."
The moment Harold mentioned Meg, Sienna Vale's mind produced an image of the young girl with cyan hair and a quiet face. Sienna's memory of her was not clean. Sienna had been shameless and reckless, and Meg had always avoided her like she was avoiding a snake.
That wasn't Sienna Vale's fault, but she would still have to live with the consequences.
Sienna Vale gave a small, awkward cough and shook her head. "No. Let me rest for now. Don't call anyone in. I'll come out at dinner."
Harold looked surprised again, but she did not question her. She only bowed slightly.
"Yes, Young Miss."
Then she turned and left.
The room fell silent again.
Sienna Vale sat for a moment, then slowly climbed out of bed. Her body felt strangely healthy. She had been unconscious for so long, yet her limbs didn't feel weak. She stretched her arms and rolled her shoulders, then walked toward the window.
She pushed it open gently.
Cold air rushed in.
The view outside made her pause.
A small castle stood below, western in style, with stone walls and a wide courtyard. The building wasn't small at all. In fact, it looked like it could house thousands of people if it were properly used. But the place felt abandoned. Moss clung to parts of the walls, grass grew between cracks, and many windows were empty, missing their paper coverings. Only her room looked recently repaired.
In the courtyard, piles of supplies were stacked in groups. Sacks, crates, bundles of tools. Around them moved men and women in rough cloth clothes, working busily like ants carrying food before winter. Sienna Vale noticed the marks on the men's foreheads even from this distance.
Slave marks.
She narrowed her eyes and looked farther out.
Beyond the castle walls stretched endless black land, dark like oil, flat and silent. It looked fertile at first glance, almost rich, yet it gave off a lifeless feeling that made Sienna Vale uncomfortable. Like the ground was dead but pretending to be alive.
On both sides were barren hills. A few weak trees clung to them, thin and sickly, their branches drooping as if they had no strength left. Even the grass looked pale and hungry.
Sienna Vale leaned against the window frame and let out a slow breath.
In Sienna's memories, the House Vale's home in the capital had glass windows, shining halls, warm carpets, and servants everywhere. Compared to that, this place looked like a forgotten ruin.
But as Sienna Vale stared at the land outside, something stirred in her chest.
A strange stubbornness.
This wasteland was her now.
No matter how people laughed, no matter how the empire wanted her to rot here, the land in front of her carried her name. If she died here quietly, then she would truly become Sienna Vale, the useless noble the emperor wanted her to become.
Sienna Vale's eyes narrowed slightly.
"I don't believe this place can't grow anything," she muttered under her breath. "If it really can't… then I'll force it to."
She didn't know if she was speaking for herself, or for Sienna's ruined pride, but it didn't matter.
She was here now.
And she would not die like a dog.
Just as that thought settled in her heart, a sudden sound echoed inside her mind, clear and strange, as if someone had spoken directly into her soul…
A cold voice suddenly rang out in Sienna Vale's mind, clear and mechanical, as if someone was reading a report without emotion.
"Spatial Farm program activated. Connecting to network… connection successful. Program running normally. Host detected. Checking host condition… host condition normal. Binding complete."
Sienna Vale froze on the spot, her body stiff as if someone had poured ice down her spine.
Then the voice continued, still calm and steady.
"Current level: 1. System reward: five hundred gold coins. Six bags of grass seeds. Each bag can plant one acre. One plot of land has been opened, total area: ten acres. Current farmland level: 0. You may purchase seeds in the store. You may sell harvested products in exchange for gold coins."
There was a short pause before the voice spoke again.
"Due to a network malfunction, you may enter the farm freely. Communication is limited to the host only. Friend functions are unavailable. Apologies for the inconvenience."
The voice disappeared.
Sienna Vale stood there like a fool, blinking again and again. Her mouth was slightly open, but no words came out. If this had happened on Earth, she would have thought she was hallucinating or that her brain had finally broken from staying up too many nights.
But she had already transmigrated.
She had already woken up in a stone room, in a ruined noble's body, in a world with magic and curses.
Compared to that, a strange voice in her head was not impossible at all.
Sienna Vale swallowed hard, her heartbeat speeding up, then wherpered inside her mind, almost afraid of being laughed at.
"Enter the farm."
The moment she said it, the world spun.
Her vision blurred as if someone had pulled a curtain across her eyes. The cold air vanished, and in the next breath, Sienna Vale found herself standing in a wide open space under a pale sky.
She stared around in shock.
In front of her was a huge field, neatly divided, fully opened and ready for planting. The land stretched out for about ten acres.
The soil looked dark but soft, like it had just been turned. At the edge of the field lay a brand-new shovel, clean and shining.
Nearby was a small spring of clear water, bubbling quietly, with a wooden bucket placed beside it.
Not far from the spring stood a small grass hut. It looked simple, built from straw and wood, but it was sturdy.
To the left of the hut was a fenced area like a kennel, and under the hut's window were two bottles.
One was marked "insecticide" and the other "weed killer." A basket sat neatly beside them. To the right of the hut stood another smaller grass building, with a wooden sign hanging above it that read: "Warehouse."
Beyond that… nothing.
Thick fog surrounded the entire place, rolling like clouds pressed against the ground. No matter how hard Sienna Vale stared, she couldn't see beyond it.
Her chest rose and fell quickly.
This scene…
She knew it.
It was too familiar.
It was the same as the farm game she used to play back on Earth.
The only difference was that she wasn't looking at it through a screen anymore. She was standing inside it.
Sienna Vale slowly walked forward, her steps cautious, as if she feared the ground might vanish beneath her. She knelt down and grabbed a handful of soil. It felt real, damp, and alive between her fingers.
The moment she touched it, the voice returned.