129 Returning Home (1/2)

Letters cut off by the mountains’ ridges,

Winter turning into spring.

With trepidation I approach my homeland,

Fearing to ask locals passing by.

Heading straight north, the nearer I approached that familiar land, the more I experienced the ”trepidation of approaching my homeland.” However, due to the worsening circumstances, it was impossible for me to back down even if I wanted to.

Since it was fated to be unavoidable, I might as well face it head-on.

Under my request, the Borealis stopped at every single town, and I would disembark from the ship to inspect the situation there.

Due to the frequent stops, the journey to East Mist Communal Country that should have only taken a week dragged on for two months.

This was my usual way of doing things, and I imparted this foundation of governance to Annie and Reyne as well. It was impossible to solve problems by sitting on a high throne and commanding one's subordinates. To truly solve a problem, one had to first investigate what the crux of the problem was.

In this aspect, waiting at one's quarters for a report and witnessing it firsthand were two completely different sensations. ”Twenty people starving to death” and ”personally seeing ten frozen bodies on the street, and the tragedy of humans snatching food from one another” were two completely different matters. The former would only result in the information being thrown to the back of one's mind after flipping through it, while the latter could give any conscientious governor insomnia.

At this moment, the more I investigated the situation, the more appalling I realized the situation was, contrary to my estimations.

All of the worst predictions that I had held for the country came true. After losing its final mine, the bankrupt East Mist was unable to sustain its spending and had barely kept together for twenty years.

Furthermore, the war with the Beastmen a year ago had shaken the final foundation of East Mist. After grinding away the last bits of the resources of the country, to the point that it did not have sufficient money to purchase rations for winter, the East Mist Communal Country was on the verge of collapsing.

As usual, the crops this year were lacking, and the treasury was so poor that its doors did not have to be locked. It was nearly guaranteed that a famine would occur. It was an utter blessing that we had extorted a large sum from Auland Empire, so that not many frozen corpses would be found during this year's winter.

Even so, seeing those citizens who didn't demand much of the country suffering so bitterly made one feel terrible inside. When I met cases which I was unable to tolerate, even though I knew that my actions wouldn't bear much effect on the country as a whole, just temporarily alleviating the situation of the individual, I still chose to lend a helping hand.

”Perhaps this may not be sufficient to change the fate of the whole country, but at the very least, it is able to change the fate of the person before me.”

Throughout the journey, we collected more than thirty orphans. If that Ailee wasn't adopted by the warrior Cloone, I might have taken her away with me as well.

Of course, where there were good children like Ailee who left one heart's aching, there were bound to be evil fief lords and immoral merchants who, as always, stockpiled like the ones that appeared in traditional folklore. No matter where, those who tried to profit from catastrophes could be found.

Whenever I met with such situations, I jotted it down in my book to remind me to get even with them in the future. If they really went too far—for example, there was a fief lord who threatened to exercise his droit du seigneur to extort from his people. which caused all of his people to cry in discontentment. I would not forget to fulfill my duties as an executioner. Of course, at such a moment, I had to thank Reyne for the proof as an envoy of the royal family.

TL: Droit du seigneur, also known as ius primae noctis, refers to a feudal lord's rights to conduct sexual activities with any woman in his territory. ED: There are no known contemporary sources for this actually occurring in medieval Europe.

”Wonderful, the royal family has started to punish the evildoing nobles.”

A chaotic era called for extreme means. Since it would be the death penalty even if they were to granted an impartial hearing, for the sake of the oppressed citizens of his territory, it would be wiser to spare the cumbersome processes.

Even though I made sure to conduct my activities covertly, the rumors still spread like wildfire, causing a rise in prestige and authority of the royal family.

However, what was relieving was that perhaps those nobles who craved for a better life had escaped to other countries. Perhaps this country had the tradition of distributing land to those who had significant contributions to the military. Or perhaps, due being in the far north that the corrupt and extravagant means of the human nobles had failed to make its way here, a large portion of the fief lords didn't spout nonsense like ”Since we don't have grains, why don't we consume meat soup instead.” They did not try to free themselves of the smell of earth, and continued to fulfill their duty in protecting their people.

Yep, using the words of the ”pure noble blood” inherited over a span of several thousand years by the ”true nobles” of Auland, the supposed nobles of the Northern Lands were barbarians who used their muscles to think. They had yet to shake off the stink of manure off themselves.

However, if I had to say, compared to those supposed pure-blooded nobles who were obsessed with banquets, extravagance, and hallucinatory drugs, I still preferred these farmers and barbarians. At the very least, they had not forgotten their origins. At the very least, they were like the ancient fief lords, protecting their own people from famine and the savage beasts of the wilderness.

While the royal family was stuck in a desperate situation due to long years of wars, a large portion of the fief lords were still trying their best to prop up the country. I had seen many who worked hard to bring better lives to their people, and there were also quite a few who were willing to use all of their fortunes to bring relief to their people. Every time I met with such situations, I couldn’t help but feel that when the people and fief lords had yet to give up hope, this meant that the backbone of this country had still not broken. There was still hope for it.

This was the aspect that I found the most relieving my entire journey. There was a solution even for the hardest external problems, but if even the bones had started to decay, then there was really no saving the country.

I had promised little Ailee to change everything, but as for how I should go about doing it still remained a gigantic problem for me.

In this era where the citizens did not demand much, there were two basic prerequisites to ensure a country's steady development. First, a steady supply of ration. Second, the security of the society. These two factors were closely associated with the basic problem of survival. As for jobs, commercial and education, all these were higher tier demands up the pyramid.

The Northern Lands had never been a fertile land for growing crops. However, it was rich with mines. Using minerals to trade for rations and daily necessities was the standard norm that had been continued for thousands of years. In this very land, the past Mist Country stood high and mighty in the North. However, the current East Mist Communal Country kept losing its territories and it was on the verge of collapsing. This cannot be blamed on the previous generations of emperors for being inadequate. In truth, there was only a single reason.

”When the country is strong, its people will be strong. When the country is weak, the people will be weak. When a country is weak, everything really is sorrowful.”

It was clear to see what the core of the problem was just by doing a slight comparison.

In the past, the Mist Country was a prominent country. Despite being small, it wasn't weak. The country had a militaristic tradition. The numerous combination of tier-3 troops and the Aurora Knights who were at a minimum of tier-4 were renowned throughout the entire world. Of the seven elite knight divisions under the Royal Knight Order, any two of them were sufficient to sweep through the entire Northern Lands.

Back then, the powerful Mist Country had helped the human society ward off the Beastmen and Elves, while sealing away the Demon Abyss in the east. Furthermore, being rich with mines, not only did the neighboring countries not attempt to choke the Mist Country of its food supply, they even took the initiative to trade with it.

However, after the East Mist Communal Country rose from the fallen ashes of the destroyed remains of Mist Country, many of its powerful troops were lost, and the rich mines were occupied by other countries. Furthermore, the countless years of resentment that had accumulated throughout history brought it many different enemies. With its externals enemies and internal instability, it grew weaker and weaker throughout the course of numerous wars.

”Weak nations long for strength.” Perhaps a reason for the current weakness of the East Mist was due to the heroic Twin Star Knights being seen as its Guardian Gods. Although the Mist Country walked to its doom eventually, the historical story of how a single country caused the alliance army consisting of over a dozen country scramble to flee was still spreading to date, and those lost, powerful troops still remained as legends within the speech of the males of East Mist.

However, when comparing to its glorious past, the current tragic state its people were in made them even more depressed. Even if the militaristic tradition still remained, the current East Mist Communal Country had already been reduced to a third-rate country. Not only was it unable to dominate the Northern Lands with its military prowess, it was barely holding up against the waves of beasts in winter and the ambitious neighboring country.

”If only we had sufficient provisions and resources, Ailee's mother would not have starved and frozen to death. With a stronger military, even if the Mist Country is still unable to conduct the Winter Hunt and prey on the winter beast packs, at the very least, it will be able to control the scale of the beast pack before winter arrives. Entire cities wouldn't have to move in the face of oncoming winter, and little Ailee's father wouldn't have died in the journey.”

This was also why I said that I was only ”temporarily alleviating the situation.” The foodstuffs that we extorted would be finished sooner or later, and without sufficient military power, even if we were to survive this year's beast wave by some luck, we would still meet with problems next year.

If I wanted to reverse all this, what I had to do was clear. Since the lack of food and a weak military were our foremost problems, then settling the issue of rations and strengthening the army was what I had to deal with first. This was the path I had to take to settle the problem at its core.

I already had a plan for strengthening the army, but the greatest problem still lay with food.

”Provisions, is it … This is really hard to deal with.”

The barren, frozen ground may be rich in mines, but it really wasn't arable land. It was possible to hire Mages to adjust the weather in the short-term, but the Mages would require certain materials for their spell, and doing it on a large scale would be unsustainable for anyone.

Since the solution eluded me, I should check the walkthrough. Naturally, the ”history walkthrough” wouldn’t provide me with the answer for this question. The one I had to check was a different one.

[Roland's Foreign World Survival Booklet]

The thick and worn-out booklet had a thick layer of dust coating it, and the pages of it had turned yellow. Just by changing its cover, it could probably be sent to a museum as a historical artifact.

This was the notebook I made when I first traveled to another world so that I wouldn't forget the knowledge of the foreign world. Upon consideration that I might come to use it this time, I brought it along with me.

”Earning money by creating glass.” The front pages of the notebook were filled with ideas, but most of these ideas had a small note written below it. ”The creation of glass is a success, but the idea is a failure from the start. Alchemists have already created an even more transparent glass in the midst of their experiments out of sheer coincidence. My efforts are in vain.”

”Inventing gunpowder ... Goblins have already invented it. Printing press ... The God of Knowledge has built his career on this.”

My failures were jotted below each of those ideas. The notes written on it were the traces of my failures after my hard work back then. If words reflect a person, then these squiggly words clearly revealed my immaturity and anger back then.

With the knowledge of a foreign world, I expected to build a big name for myself in another real world. Looks like I was filled with ambitions then, but was struck down repeatedly by the cruel reality.

However, this wasn't the time to be reminiscing about the past. Recalling my primary objective, I flipped to the page on food, and I was shocked by it yet again.

”I got it! The solution to our food problem. Yeah, that is to plant highly resilient crops with high yield. Corn, sweet potato, potato, hybrid rice ... Using the high-yield foreign crops to replace the ordinary low-yield crops? This sounds like a great idea.”

While nodding my head in agreement with the excellent ideas written on the book, I closed the book and threw it against the wall.

”That's easy to say! Where can one find corn and similar high-yield crops in this world!”

Yes, that's the main problem. If this world had such plants, famine wouldn't be a problem in this world. Looks like I really wasn't reliable back then.

”I know that the possibility isn't high, but it is worth a try. System, are there any high yield crops that can be exchanged for points?”

[There are.]

A question that I asked without expectations turned out to be affirmative. Even so, I wasn't moved yet. After all, I have been scammed too many times.

”What conditions do I have to fulfill for it? If it were that simple, I would have exchanged for it back then.”

[10,000,000 Fate Points per high-yield crop.]

Alright, the System was still as damned as I expected it to be. However, this time, I unexpectedly received an explanation.

[If high-yield crops were to appear in this world, under the propagation of Druids and Mages, it would change this world from its core. It might even shake up the society that is based on feudalism. You can't possibly afford such a twist in karma.]

So that was the reason why I am unable to exchange for it. However, the System's explanation reminded me of a possibility.

”Looks like I have to send a letter to Eaglestorm. It would be impossible for us to hire Mages, but as long as we acknowledge the teachings of the Druids, who are viewed as a threat in most countries, they shouldn't demand much from us.”

Since we are intending to accept Undead in our country, Druids were naturally not a problem. Different from the expensive Mages, Druids didn’t require a catalyst to utilize their spells, not to mention that ripening crops was one of their areas of expertise.

”However, that isn't sufficient. No matter how many Druids there are, it won't be sufficient to satisfy the needs of the entire country. Looks like I still have to scavenge for other ideas.”

[I have already hinted you to such an extent, have you not realized it? The System might be unable to exchange high yield crop for you, but can't you create it yourself?]

Create it myself? My first thought was that the System was trying to scam me. I was only capable of Undead Creation. It was possible for me create a being that would turn one into an Undead when consumed, but it was definitely impossible for me to create a safe high-yield crop.

[Have you forgotten from whom you learnt Life Creation from? You are still deeply etched in her mind.]

At that moment, I came to realization. My Undead Creation originated from the combination of the knowledge from multiple fields, and many of the theories within came from a certain great Mage of Life Creation. If my memory did not fail me, that great Mage's specialization was the creation and summoning of plants. It might be impossible to create a high-yield crop that was capable of changing the entire world. However, to create and modify a crop suited for a little country in the Northern Lands shouldn't be too much trouble for her.

Thus, I hesitated for a moment on how I should write the second letter. That great Mage was different from Eaglestorm. If possible, I wanted to never meet her again in my entire life.