novelraw Chapter 142 : Chapter 142
Chapter 142 : Chapter 142
Chapter : 142
The Great Famine.
At first, it did not receive much attention from the nobles. In the first place, there was no way a noble lord who ruled a domain would care about the lives of the lowborn.
When they heard it was raining early during the sowing season, it was more like, ‘Ah, yes. And?’
But the rain lasted two days, a week…. Finally, a month.
When it kept falling throughout the entire sowing season, everyone slowly began to feel that something was off.
-This rain…. Why is it not stopping?
-Isn’t this a problem? Hurry and send people to grasp the situation!
No matter how little they cared about ordinary peasants’ lives, that did not mean they would neglect their own money source.
At the very least, any normal ruler knew the basics of farming.
When the sowing season came, seeds were planted, and fields were cultivated.
If you could not sow the seeds during this time, then that year’s harvest….
Went completely to ruin-!
And sure enough.
-M-my lord! Because of the unending rain, the embankments collapsed and swept away all the farmland.
-Most peasants could not sow. This is a disaster.
-More than the farming itself, the fields that were swept away by the river are rotting foully. The grain we stored has gotten soaked and is rotting, and epidemics are spreading across each region.
The reports coming up from the officials we dispatched were, in a word, utterly miserable.
Farming was, above all, about timing. Yet not only had they missed the time to sow, an epidemic was spreading as well.
The southern lords who had raised armies and been demonstrating near the Margrave of Bellua felt their minds go blank.
Rather than punishing the Margrave of Bellua for absorbing the County of Bozen, was it not right to focus on their own domains right now?
Nobles lived off taxes that came from their fiefs.
So as they watched a year’s harvest being ruined, even the mercenaries they had hired began to feel like a burden.
But this was only the beginning.
-The farmland is cracking open. Even the streams are drying up.
-My lord! We are short on drinking water. Each village is requesting that you send technicians so they can dig wells.
-The crops we managed to plant are all twisting and dying! Oh God! Have mercy on us….
A vicious heat suddenly arrived.
The rainy season that had crushed the sowing season ended, and the moment it did, an unbelievable summer drought began.
“What is the situation like? Are the fields all holding up?”
“Fortunately, during the canal construction, we expanded the irrigation facilities, so the damage is small. From what we have confirmed, only about 15 percent of the farmland has been destroyed.”
This damned Great Famine was not something even I could avoid.
No matter how hard I had prepared, a massive natural disaster was not something humans could handle by force.
Chamberlain Hamil called it fortunate, but it was 15 percent.
It was only because our domain had maximized productivity by introducing a four-course crop rotation that it was fortunate at all. If we had still been using the traditional three-field system, this would have been truly horrific.
Under the three-field system, agricultural output was genuinely miserable.
“Still, our situation is better than other domains. Do not worry too much. Besides, such abnormal weather will not last long, so can you not simply hope for next year?”
Magician Agpiel, who had been receiving the report with me, spoke in a calm voice. He seemed to be trying to soothe me.
“No, Agpiel.”
“What do you mean?”
“What if this drought continues?”
“Surely that will not happen.”
Magician Agpiel laughed lightly, as if my words were too much of a leap. But I did not laugh, and my face only hardened.
Normally, Magician Agpiel would have been right.
It was rare for abnormal weather to continue for multiple years in a row.
But this time was different.
This drought would continue from now on. Beyond one year, two years, no, for four straight years.
“…It seems you think differently.”
Only then did Magician Agpiel wipe the smile from his face and ask again.
“Yes. It could be only this year, but what if it is like this even next year? If we do not prepare and suffer this again and again, the domain’s situation will become immeasurable. We must always consider and prepare for the worst rather than the best.”
“Hm, to think of the worst rather than the best…. You are right. That is truly right. I was thinking too complacently. I am sorry.”
Magician Agpiel reproached himself while also admiring me. This young noble was thinking far more deeply and richly than he had expected.
Normally, such words were what he, the one called a great sage, should have been the one to say….
He felt ashamed.
That was why Magician Agpiel clicked his tongue and decided to help this young noble even more.
“I made a mistake.”
“No, Agpiel. Why are you saying that between us. Haha.”
“No. I truly will help you. Come to think of it, this is the part I can help with best. Thankfully.”
“Yes?”
I tilted my head at Magician Agpiel’s words.
He could help me in the middle of the Great Famine? And it was the thing he could do best?
I wondered if Magician Agpiel had been deeply versed in architecture. After all, what we needed was to build irrigation facilities.
“…Have you forgotten who I am?”
“Who is Magician Agpiel? Well…. You are a forest magician…? Aren’t you?”
“Yes. And you still do not know?”
Then Magician Agpiel stared at me as if he was dumbfounded.
“Recall the specialty I mentioned last time. The mystery I can wield.”
“Um…. You said you could use the mysteries of healing and protection…. You could pull up vines…. Plant growth, huh? Don’t tell me?”
As the memory surfaced, I froze with my mouth hanging open. Was what I understood just now actually correct?
Unable to believe it, I looked at Magician Agpiel, and Agpiel nodded as if it were obvious and spoke.
“Yes, that is right. I can accelerate the growth of plants. Even crops that missed the sowing season will grow vigorously if they receive the mystery of my magic. Ah, you do know that crops are included among plants, right? You do not, do you?”
“Um….”
Of course, instead of answering, I subtly turned my head away.
“…….”
“…….”
In any case, although there was a bit of a misunderstanding(?), Magician Agpiel’s bold claim was true.
When Magician Agpiel went to the ruined fields, wielded his mystery, and bestowed a blessing upon the crops, wheat sprouts began to push up vigorously even though the sowing season had already passed.
-Ohhhh!
-As expected of the great sage!
Because of that, I could not help but gape.
To think magic’s power was really on this level…. The frightening thought even crossed my mind that if I returned to reality and showed this to scientists, I might be captured on the spot and turned into a lab rat.
“Good, then is this enough?”
“Yes? What do you mean. Of course you have to do it for all the fields. Ahem.”
“……?”
“C, cough. What if next year’s harvest is also bad? We have to produce as much as possible this year and store it.”
“You truly do not know the meaning of moderation….”
I thought I heard some sulky grumbling, but what did I care! If I could receive help, was it not best to shamelessly take it while I could? The domain’s situation was already heading in a very bad direction.
“Grrr, you young noble are working me far too hard.”
Of course, even while grumbling, Magician Agpiel did everything anyway.
Six months after the vicious drought began.
It was the time when we should have been gradually harvesting the seeds we had sown, but the entire continent’s land had become a sight worthy of the name Great Famine.
The fields began to split open like a turtle’s shell, and the small streams by the villages dried up, leaving fish flopping and dying on bare ground.
Of course, the same was true for people. Those living in regions without a nearby large river began to abandon their villages and wander in search of water, driven by scorching thirst.
The nobles who ruled domains tried by any means to stop peasants and serfs from fleeing, but it was not enough.
-If not death, then give us water!
-My lord! Water…. There is no water. Please help us dig wells!
-Taxes…. There is no grain to pay taxes. Please forgive us.
Because the humanity of the nobles had not rotted enough to stop people crying out like this.
Normal nobles did their best to reduce taxes for their residents and guide them to water-rich regions for relief.
In the end, having abundant residents was a noble’s power.
Even if the harvest was ruined this year, if they still had people, they could farm again next year and become prosperous.
But a few stupid and greedy nobles were different.
-Serfs dare to leave their assigned fields and migrate elsewhere!
-Execute every lawbreaker!
-Confiscate all their property and drive them out.
Instead, they began squeezing them even more harshly.
-No grain to pay taxes? Search the warehouses. Stop spouting nonsense, and if there is any grain left, seize every last bit of it!
They even began confiscating all the seeds that had been stored for sowing next year.
This might let them survive this year, but next year could not be guaranteed.
But to the greedy nobles, that was none of their concern.
They were obsessed only with increasing their own wealth.
When things became like this, the king and the Holy See urgently stepped in, ordering them to stop the exploitation.
Of course, there was no way that would work.
-What? You dare try to infringe on our rights?
-Why is the king trying to break the vassal contract he swore before God! This is interference in internal affairs. We cannot accept it.
Matters within a domain were the lord’s authority. No matter if it was the king or the Holy See, there was almost nothing they could intervene in.
After all, it was not as if there had been treason or heresy.
And that was not all.
-They cannot even stop the Margrave of Bellua, yet they only threaten us!
-They think we are easy.
-The Duke of Bourgogne was right! The king does not think of the nobles.
The fact that they had failed to clean up the incident of my absorption of the County of Bozen had snowballed.
The king’s authority and dignity were severely damaged, and nobles were openly ignoring him and showing signs of wanting to join the Duke of Bourgogne.
In a hurry, the king tried to crush a few small lords by force, but it only backfired. The more the king tried to intervene, the more the lords resisted and challenged his authority.
The foundation of the Elang Kingdom, which had seemed so solid, began to crumble little by little.
At this point, the southern lords who had opposed me and gathered armies into an alliance, as well as the officials of the king’s royal demesne, all came to the same thought.
-This…. If it keeps going like this, it feels like something big is going to happen.
-Do we really have to keep gathering our armies like this? Shouldn’t we just return to our own domains and protect our jurisdictions first?
And before long, their worries proved exactly correct.
-Waaaaaah! We cannot live like this!
-Overturn it! Drive out the filthy nobles!
The price of what the greedy nobles had done.
A massive peasant revolt erupted.
At first, it was hundreds.
But soon, before long, it surpassed thousands.
Their weapons and appearance were shabby, but their momentum was real.
The enraged peasants became rebels and began seizing lords’ castles and setting them on fire. Since it happened simultaneously everywhere, there was no way to respond.
At this point, the king finally had to admit it.
-Lift the blockade on the Margrave of Bellua…. Officials of the royal demesne, defend your fiefs.
That the alliance meant to bring me to heel had collapsed.
The gathered armies scattered in all directions to protect their own domains, and the Elang Kingdom sank into suffering from peasant revolts.
No one had the capacity to help others, or even to protect them.
-Tiriring!
[The Great Famine event begins.]
[Be careful. The abnormal weather that struck the continent exacts a harsh price. You may die in this process.]
At last.
At long last, what I had wanted so desperately.
The season of every man for himself had arrived.