Valenciaunos placed a chair and table on top of the southern city gate, alternating his gaze between the desolate city and the vast encampment.
Regardless of which direction he looked, a deep sorrow was evident in his eyes, yet he did not voice his feelings.
Tenitia, examining the documents laid out on the table, asked, “Is there another problem?”
Valenciaunos gestured toward Konel, who sat beside him.
It was still unclear whether he was assigning tasks and responsibilities to the young disabled girl from the orphanage or giving her an opportunity to rise in status through her outstanding contributions.
After tidying up the papers, Konel spoke to Tenitia, “I regret to say this, but too many people have survived.”
Being someone who cared for others, Konel’s voice was laden with gloom.
“Three grain warehouses were looted and burned on the night of the battle with the Infiltrators, leaving our rations uncertain. We must hold out until the autumn harvest if we want to maintain order.”
Tenitia tilted her head slightly, questioning, “Isn’t order sufficient for now? Our knights are even flying low on wyverns.”
Konel hesitated momentarily, unsure of how to explain, before slowly responding, “The citizens of the capital didn’t know when people were dying in the slums and uprisings were happening daily. Or rather, they weren’t significantly impacted.”
“That’s true.”
“See? Cutting rations won’t cause a riot, especially since both the Imperial Court and the knights are already on edge.”
“Mm.”
“Instead, they’ll form their own gangs to loot and fight. When you’re starving, you crave power, and that madness will spread like wildfire. Some of the gangs are already hoarding looted ration bread, attempting to bake it into biscuits somehow. They believe they should gather what they can while they can.”
Tenitia recalled her sister, whom she had met a few hours ago.
Nearby her tent, an abundance of ration bread bags lay, too plentiful to consume immediately.
Despite the situation, she had knights who could afford to eat meat three times a day, and persuading one person like Katalin to stay out of gang activities was not a challenge.
However, a knight’s primary duty was to draw lines and cut off threats, making it impossible to embrace and care for hundreds or thousands of gangs.
In fact, Tenitia had originally gone to confront Katalin and bring her to kneel before Jin.
“We’re going to need some countermeasures.”
At the very least, a situation where former citizens turned into rioters, plagued by corruption, would tear each other apart, leading to knights like her cutting them down and staining the land with blood should not happen.
Unconsciously, Tenitia turned her gaze to Valenciaunos.
“Your Excellency?”
Valenciaunos wore an indifferent expression, yet one leg was shaking uncontrollably.
“Lady Tenitia, under these circumstances, wouldn’t it be a solution to expel them all to another province?”
“Pull yourself together! Your Excellency!”
“Until autumn, we must hold out. But no matter how I think about it, there’s no solution. Whether we have stored grains or not, what insane merchant would come to a capital in this state?”
At that moment, a blue-eyed member of the royal family, with faded white hair styled into a short ponytail, approached, adjusting his black tinted glasses with his finger.
“Valenciaunos.”
“…Hadrian.”
Tenitia witnessed Valenciaunos’s expression as he faced Hadrian, seemingly on the verge of fainting.
Hadrian was the treasurer, and even as a novice, Tenitia knew that the capital’s economy was in complete ruin.
In this situation, any news treasurer Hadrian brought would be bad news, and naturally, Valenciaunos would have no choice but to sigh every time he saw him, wondering what other calamity had occurred.
“The central merchants will send grain. They’ve agreed to bring all their stockpiled and aged grains, including late-harvested barley. They should arrive no later than next week, but be prepared with soldiers as looting and riots might break out.”
The one-legged girl abruptly stood up.
“Thank you!”
Valenciaunos’s yellow eyes widened.
“Is that true? What kind of magic did you cast?”
It was a miraculous occurrence, even for the mage who had burned 1 km of Infiltrators.
Hadrian cleared his throat and replied, “You remember that our Imperial Court contracted 70% of the grain from the central province. We also divided the transportation tasks among the merchants. Whether it’s the grains they already possess or the new harvest, it’s all the same now, and we demanded they bring it immediately, which they accepted.”
“Are they really willing to come to such a capital in this state?”
“For them, it’s a chance to dispose of their stockpiled and aged grains. It would be odd if they don’t come when they can sell them for fresh grain prices instead of having to use them as animal feed.”
Tenitia let out a quiet sigh of relief.
At that moment, she recalled one fact.
“Lord Hadrian, may I ask just one thing?”
“Certainly, Lady.”
“Is it possible to make the payment now?”
The central part of the capital had been utterly devastated.
Valenciaunos lowered his head immediately, mumbling about requisitions, and Hadrian smiled.
“The gold coins sent by Admiral Jeong will arrive shortly. We can create a promissory note with them for payment.”
“What if they demand gold instead of a promissory note, or want to exchange an existing promissory note for gold?”
Hadrian chuckled.
“What do you care? There’s Duke Valenciaunos and the knights present.”
His blue eyes gleamed coldly over his glasses.
“We’re the Empire. The economy can be run on debt, but lives cannot be saved that way. At the very least, we must prevent people from starving to death; otherwise, we cannot restore the capital with their labor.”
Tenitia found herself inexplicably feeling a sense of comfort upon hearing those words.
Though it might not be entirely just, she was pleased that even the treasurer was using his wit for the sake of people.
“Your Excellency, I will go patrol again.”
Valenciaunos tried to hold her back, but…
“Lady, why not take a little break?”
Tenitia laughed heartily and shook her head.
“You should rest first, Your Excellency.”
“That can’t be. There’s a mountain of work only I can do.”
“Yes, Your Excellency. I’m in the same situation.”
Her voice was imbued with hope, and Valenciaunos chuckled softly, giving her the gesture to go.
Tenitia adjusted her helmet and reflected.
The situation was still overwhelming, but she believed that by doing what she could do in her position, all this calamity would eventually come to an end.
Valenciaunos, Silentalouon, Solletarass.
I straightened my back while looking at the seal with my name imprinted on it.
Perhaps because I had stamped it too many times over the past few days, the engraved part was gradually wearing down.
“Oh dear.”
The workload seemed to be increasing strangely.
One problem resolving seemed to spawn another issue, making it no exaggeration to say that work was breeding like offspring.
“Yes, Representative. What brings you here? Feel free to speak.”
“Thank you, Your Excellency.”
He was a representative from the court nobility, dressed in an impressive uniform, adorned with an authoritative golden badge.
A prominent member of the pro-imperial faction, he had been an elder with whom Konel had had longstanding conflicts, and he had been a faction leader who helped secure unanimous votes for the Church’s legal amendments under my secret orders.
He elegantly sipped the tea prepared by Rudi, expressing his sentiments according to etiquette before slowly continuing.
“Your Excellency, I have heard that grain will soon arrive.”
“Indeed. Our treasurers have been working hard.”
“Thanks to that, the public opinion in the capital seems to have stabilized somewhat, and I dare to make a request.”
“Why so serious? I owe you a debt or two; please, speak comfortably.”
He continued to speak with a serious expression.
“A great calamity has befallen the capital, but we nobles have suffered relatively little loss.”
The nobles were generally of heterogeneous descent and had some proficiency in magic or swordsmanship.
“However, many of my relatives who led personal troops to battle the Infiltrators sustained both major and minor injuries.”
“Mm.”
“Of course, they fulfilled their duties as nobles, and they have received immediate treatment and purification prayers from the Church, so there are no issues.”
“Thank you for saying that.”
I internally broke out in a cold sweat.
To remind me that they had sufficiently fulfilled their duties typically meant that they were about to make a significant demand.
“Nevertheless, with the magical realms still open in the capital and having temporarily evacuated from our residences, it is frankly difficult to keep the children in the tent village.”
At that moment, I figured out what this elder was going to request.
“I request permission to send my family to our villa in the suburbs.”
Right now, I was monitoring through the central knights and those they brought, ensuring that no one could escape the tent village.
We could not allow those possibly tainted by the aura of corruption to spread throughout the Empire.
Of course, nobles had mixed blood from heterogeneous races, making them inherently much tougher, and since they had received proper purification from the Church, the risk of corruption was lower.
However, in a situation where all the citizens of the capital trembled with anxiety and fear, if they were to leave the capital, it would undoubtedly escalate public sentiment furiously.
It would be like the bourgeois leading the Duke’s faction, eating gruel in a tent.
The 500,000 citizens of the capital would turn against those ‘fleeing’ nobles, resenting the Imperial Court that had granted their requests.
Therefore, it had to be a no.
…I couldn’t say that even if I died twice.
After all, they were nobles with rights, and their not leaving sooner also showed that they genuinely cared about my situation.
I was grateful that they waited for the food crisis to stabilize and the public sentiment to settle a bit, but I could not further disrespect them here.
Furthermore, the upper echelon of the Empire was tightly interconnected.
Most of the knights belonged to noble families.
Right then, Sir Barbatos’s younger brother was an administrative officer, his sister was a legal uniform aristocrat in the Supreme Court, his father was a representative, and his mother was a former deputy commander of the Imperial Guardian Knights and a current council member.
In other words, this elder’s request indicated that the knights were beginning to desire guarantees for their families’ safety.
Their daily work involved cutting down hundreds of Infiltrators.
If they suspected that Infiltrators would attack their families or retaliate by spreading corruption, they would certainly lose their motivation to remain loyal.
And among the most crucial duties of a lord to a knight was to ensure that their loyalty remained intact.
I contemplated for a moment before replying, “Please wait just one day.”
*
I gazed at the magical realms that opened in the sky over the capital.
The magical realms still showed no signs of disappearing or closing.
Wizards from the Ivory Tower and mages from the Imperial Palace’s Magic Guild were densely gathered below, performing some tasks.
I wondered if Lady Sorelazie was also working while perhaps catching some rest.
Just days ago, she stood before the people to assist me and was so fatigued that she nearly collapsed.
Now that I thought about it, I also couldn’t recall the last time I had a proper sleep.
During the day, I processed documents, and at night, I patrolled alongside Lady Tenitia.
Was it yesterday or the day before when I met a student member from the gang who was said to be Tenitia’s senior? They seemed quite close, which pleased me.
It was the tail end of summer, and the weather was scorching.
Usually, I would enjoy iced sweet water, but right now, it felt like half of it was in a wartime state.
As I wiped the sweat from the documents, a sudden cool breeze blew in.
“Valenciaunos, why do you look so haggard?”
Tall, with wavy navy hair and stormy gray eyes.
“Oh, Seberik.”
It was Duke Seberik of the North.
I fastened the buttons of my uniform that had come undone.
“I apologize. I must be showing an unseemly sight.”
Seberik waved his hands dismissively, summoning a refreshing breeze.
“It’s alright, Duke. In the past, when I was isolated in my fortress, I shivered shoulder to shoulder with my men and nibbled on biscuits.”
“Hahaha, I can hardly picture that.”
“Is everything alright? I have heard people speaking of the Duke’s name quite often lately.”
I forced a smile.
It was a performance where I secretly permitted the nobles to evacuate their families while I got caught by Lady Sorelazie and received a scolding.
It was the most effective way to maintain both noble support and loyalty to the Imperial Court.
“I suppose there was no other option.”
“So what has happened?”
“It hasn’t torn apart, nor has it burst. For now, holding on day by day is the priority.”
Upon hearing my story, Seberik regarded me with pity.
He retrieved a large tin cup from Lysena’s handbag.
A rich honey aroma wafted up.
With a light gesture, he created a layer of ice on the lukewarm honey water.
“Drink this, Duke.”
“Thank you, Seberik.”
“I’m sorry I can only offer this.”
I smiled and firmly shook my head.
“If it weren’t for you, it would have been a problem since that night. Don’t worry. I promise to send the agreed amount of grain this year as well.”
“!?”
His gray eyes shook as if there had been an earthquake.
His strong shoulders slumped, and Lysena, standing beside him, looked as though she had done something forbidden.
It was obvious.
Seberik must have thought it impossible to ask for grain from a Royal Family in turmoil, which led Lysena to ask if that meant our troops would go hungry.
I crossed my legs confidently.
“Don’t make that face, my friend. I am Valenciaunos.”
