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(223)
Valencianus placed a chair and table above the south gate and looked out across the empty city and the vast tented village.
No matter which way he looked, there was a deep sorrow in his eyes, but he never said it out loud.
Tentia asked, looking at the documents on the table.
“What other problems are you having?”
Valencian nodded to Cornell, who was sitting next to him.
It was still unclear whether the job and responsibility would be delegated to the orphaned disabled girl congresswoman, or whether she would be given the opportunity to rise through the ranks through outstanding performance.
After Cornell sorted out his papers, he spoke to Tentia.
“I’m sorry to say this, but too many people survived.”
As Cornell was a person who cared for people, her voice was quite gloomy.
“During the night we fought the aliens, three granaries were looted and burned, so rations are uncertain. We have to hold out until the fall harvest to maintain order.”
Tentia tilted her head slightly.
“Isn’t security sufficient even now? Our knights are even flying low on wyverns.”
Cornell looked as if he didn't know what to say for a moment, then slowly opened his mouth.
“Even when people were dying in the slums and protests were taking place every day, the citizens of the capital didn’t know. No. To be exact, the citizens of the capital didn’t suffer much damage.”
“That’s right.”
“That’s right. If you cut rations, there won’t be a riot. The royal family and the knights are both very angry.”
"hmm."
“Instead, they would create gangs among themselves and fight and pillage. If they lose, they would starve, so they would want power, and that would cause the cult of erosion to spread like crazy. There are already some gangs that have pillaged a lot of rationed bread, and somehow baked it again to make biscuits. That means you have to collect it while you have it.”
Tentia thought about the older sister she had met a few hours ago.
Near her tent there were also sacks of ration bread, too many to eat right away.
She was a knight who wrote meat for three meals a day even in this situation, and it was not a big deal to persuade one Katalin to get out of his gangster ways.
But since the knight's main job was to draw lines and cut them off, he couldn't embrace all the hundreds or thousands of his followers like that.
Even Tentia originally went there to beat up Katalin and make her kneel before Jin.
“We need to come up with some kind of solution.”
At the very least, the situation should not have developed where former citizens turned into rioters, suffering from erosion and biting each other, and knights like her cut them all down and the land turned red with blood.
Tentia unconsciously looked at Valencianus.
"majesty?"
Valencian had a calm expression, but one leg was shaking madly.
“Lord Tentia. Since things have come to this, wouldn’t it be a good idea to banish them all to other territories?”
“Wake up, Your Majesty!”
“We have to hold out until fall, but no matter how much I think about it, there’s no way. Before we even consider whether or not there are any grain reserves, what kind of crazy merchant would come to the capital in this state?”
At that moment, a blue-eyed royal with faded white hair tied back into a short ponytail approached, pushing up his black-rimmed glasses with his middle finger.
“Valencianus.”
“… … Hardritan.”
* * *
Tentia saw Valencianus face him with an expression that looked as if he was about to faint.
Hadritan was the finance minister, and even as an outsider in that field, Tentia knew that the capital's economy was now in complete ruin.
In this situation, all the news that the treasurer Hadritan brought was bad news, and naturally, Valencianus could not help but sigh every time he saw him, wondering what kind of crazy thing had happened again.
“The central target groups will send grain. They have decided to bring everything, including reserves, old grain, and late-harvested barley. They should arrive by the end of the week at the latest. There may be looting and rioting, so please prepare your soldiers.”
The one-legged girl jumped up from her seat.
"thank you!"
Valencian opened his yellow eyes wide.
“Is that true? What kind of magic did you use?”
It was a magical feat even for a wizard who burned a 1km object.
Hardritan said, coughing.
“You will remember that our royal family contracted for 70% of the grain in the central region. We also divided the transportation among each group. Whether they brought grain they already had or new grain, it was the same, so we demanded that they bring it immediately, and they accepted.”
“Are you going to come to the capital in this state?”
“For them, it is an opportunity to dispose of their reserves and old grains right away. If they don’t sell them, they will have to use them as feed, but if they can sell them at the price of new grains, it would be strange if they don’t come.”
Tentia let out a sigh of relief.
Then she remembered one thing.
“Your Majesty Hadritan. I have just one question to ask.”
“So be it. Sir.”
“Can I pay now?”
The central part of the capital was completely destroyed.
As soon as Valencian heard this, he lowered his head and muttered something about conscription, while Hadritan smiled.
“The gold coins sent by the enemy admiral will arrive soon. Just make a promissory note with them and pay it.”
“What if they ask for gold coins instead of a bill, or if they ask me to exchange a bill I already have for gold coins?”
Hardritan chuckled.
“What do you know? There’s Grand Duke Valen and his men.”
His blue eyes sparkled coolly behind his glasses.
“We are an empire. The economy can be run on debt, but people cannot survive. We must first prevent people from starving to death, and then we can use that labor to rebuild the capital.”
When Tentia heard those words, she felt a strangely comfortable sense of relief.
It may not be entirely fair, but I was glad that even the finance minister was using his brain for the people.
“Your Majesty, Valen. I will go on patrol again.”
Valencian tried to capture her.
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“Sir. How about taking a break?”
Tentia laughed heartily and shook her head.
“Your Majesty, please rest.”
“That can’t be. There are mountains of things that only I can do.”
“Yes, Your Majesty. Me too.”
There was hope in her voice, and Valencian smiled and gestured for them to go.
Tentia thought as she pressed down her helmet.
It's still a bleak situation, but if you do what you can in your position, this whole disaster will end.
* * *
Valencian Soletaraon Soletaras.
I straightened my back and looked at the stamp with my name on it.
Maybe because I had stamped too many times over the past few days, the fine parts of the stamp were starting to break.
"oh my."
Somehow things just kept piling up.
It would not be an exaggeration to say that things were breeding grounds, as solving one thing would lead to another.
“Yes, sir. What brings you here? Feel free to tell me anything.”
“Thank you, Your Majesty.”
He was a member of the court nobility, wearing a splendid uniform and a prestigious gold badge.
He was a representative member of the pro-imperial faction, an old man who had been at odds with Cornell for a long time, and the leader of the faction that led the church to a unanimous vote under my secret orders when it was trying to revise the law.
He sipped the tea Rudy had brewed with dignity, expressed his feelings politely, and then slowly opened his mouth.
“Your Majesty, I have heard that grain will arrive soon.”
“That’s right. Our finance officers worked hard.”
“Thanks to you, public opinion in the capital seems to have stabilized, so I would like to ask you one thing.”
“Why are you so afraid? I owe you so much, so talk to me comfortably. Talk to me comfortably.”
He said with a still heavy expression.
“A great disaster struck the capital, but our nobles suffered relatively little damage.”
The nobles were basically of mixed race and had some knowledge of magic and swordsmanship.
“However, at that time, there were many relatives who suffered minor and major injuries while leading private soldiers and fighting against hordes of invaders.”
"hmm."
“Of course, I fulfilled my duty as a nobleman, and I immediately received treatment and prayers of purification from the church, so there is no problem.”
“Thank you for saying so.”
I broke out in a cold sweat.
To remind them that they had sufficiently fulfilled their duty meant that they were going to ask for something enormous.
“However, with the demonic realm still open in the capital and the temporary evacuation from the mansion, it is true that I feel uneasy about leaving the children in the tent village.”
At this point I knew what the old man was going to ask.
“Please allow me to send my family to a villa in the suburbs.”
Right now, I was keeping watch with the Central Knights and the private troops they brought to make sure no one left the tent village.
Because we couldn't allow people who might have been infected with the spirit of erosion to spread throughout the entire empire.
Of course, the nobles were much stronger as they were of mixed race and had been properly purified by the church, so they were less at risk of being eroded.
But if they were to show themselves leaving the capital city in this situation where all the capital's citizens are living in fear and anxiety, public opinion would become wildly incendiary.
The bourgeois who led the workshop was eating porridge in a tent.
The capital's 500,000 citizens will be hostile to the 'runaway' nobles and will resent the imperial family for granting their demands.
So that won't work.
… … Even if I died twice, I couldn’t say this.
First of all, they were nobles with rights, and the fact that they didn't leave early was a sign that they were quite considerate of my situation.
I am grateful that they waited for the food shortage to be resolved and for public sentiment to calm down to some extent, but I could not neglect them any further.
Moreover, the imperial upper class was essentially tightly knit.
Most of the knights also belonged to noble families of the court.
At present, Sir Barbatos' younger brother is a magistrate, his younger sister is a noblewoman of the High Court, his father is a deputy, and his mother is a former vice-captain of the Brass Knights and a current member of the House of Representatives.
In other words, the fact that this old man came to me and asked me this favor meant that the knights were starting to think that they wanted to ensure the safety of their families.
What they did every day was grinding down hundreds of eroders.
If I thought that the Encroacher might attack my family or retaliate by moving the Encroacher so that I would be purified, I would really feel like I was being loyal.
And the most important thing a lord had to do for his knights was to make them feel loyal.
I thought about it for a moment and then answered.
“Just wait one day.”
* * *
I looked at the open magical mirror in the capital city sky.
Still, the magic mirror didn't know how to disappear or open.
Below it, the ivory tower wizards and the palace magic workshop wizards were crowded together and doing something.
I wonder if my older sister Sereraji is working while sleeping.
The day before yesterday, I was standing in front of people to help them, and I was so tired that I could die from being washed.
Now that I think about it, I don't even know how many days ago was the last time I slept.
During the day, I process paperwork, and at night, I go on patrol with Sir Tentia.
I met a student council member who was a former gangster and a senior of Tentia Kyung's yesterday or the day before, and I liked how close the two of them seemed.
It was the end of summer and the weather was extremely hot.
If it were normal, I would have drank some iced honey water, but now it was half-exhibition.
As I was wiping the sweat off my documents, a cold wind suddenly blew.
“Valencian. Why are you so haggard?”
Tall and slender, with wavy blue hair and snow-gray eyes.
“Ah, Severic.”
It was the Northern Grand Duke Severic.
I said, buttoning up my unbuttoned uniform.
“I’m sorry. I’m showing you something you shouldn’t see.”
Severic waved his hand, causing a cool breeze to blow.
“It’s okay, Your Highness. When I was isolated in the fortress, I too would chew biscuits while shivering shoulder to shoulder with my men.”
“Hahaha. I can’t quite imagine.”
“Is that okay? I heard from downstairs that the Archduke’s name was being mentioned a lot by people.”
I smiled bitterly.
It was a play where I secretly allowed the nobles to leave their families, and then got caught by Sereraji and got beaten up.
It was the most effective way to simultaneously maintain the demands of the nobles and support for the imperial family.
“I guess we have to do it that way.”
“So what happened?”
“It didn’t tear, and it didn’t burst. The priority is to just endure each day.”
Severic, who heard my story, looked at me with pity.
He took a large pewter cup from Lucena's handbag.
A thick honey scent rose in the air.
As he made a slight gesture, ice formed in the lukewarm honey water.
“Drink, Your Highness.”
“Thank you, Severic.”
“I’m sorry this is all I can give you.”
I smiled and shook my head firmly.
“If it weren’t for Severic, there would have been trouble from that night. Don’t worry. I will definitely send you the grain I promised this year.”
“!”
His gray eyes shook as if an earthquake had occurred.
His strong shoulders slumped, and Lucena, standing next to him, also had a sad expression on her face, as if she had done something she couldn't do.
It's obvious even without looking.
Severic must have withdrawn, saying, “How can we ask the royal family for grain when they are so angry?” and Lucena must have dragged him in, saying, “Then why are we going to starve our soldiers?”
I crossed my legs confidently.
“Don’t make that face, my friend. I’m Valencian.”