Chapter 9
(Kyle Calendar
Year 501: Age 8)
Inevitable
Discord and the Fourth Arrow
Translator : PolterGlast
【⚔History of the Solis
Barony⚔ Omen of Demise】
Kyle Calendar Year
501, heavenly disaster brings turmoil to men.
The turmoil brings new
discord even to the lords.
Seeds of new disaster
are born in the direction of sunrise and sunset.
Conflict over the
seizing of grain, like war itself.
The flames of strife
spread like wildfire, and great discord revolves.
Discord deepens
further, greatly perplexing the Solis baronial family.
***
"Why did it turn
out like this!?"
I couldn't help but
hold my head in my hands.
Relations with the
Gorman Viscountcy, one of the neighboring noble territories that also suffered
damage from the great famine, became even more strained.
In the previous
history, we had quarreled over the purchase of soaring grain prices and caused
a rift between us, but this time, there was no conflict whatsoever.
Rather, the Solis
baronial family was supplying grain to them. And at a lower price than the market.
The Northern Cornell
barony, my mother's family, was given top priority for free food provision, and
they were very grateful for the turnip seeds, cultivation methods, and recipes
we sent.
The Hiyorimi
Viscountcy, near the Eastern border, and the Gorman Viscountcy, on the Western
border, both accepted the free provision and sale of grain as aid, but they
refused the turnip provision.
"To eat livestock
feed is unbecoming of nobility!" they said...
No, the ones who
mainly eat it aren't you nobles, but the citizens!
Hearing that, I got a
little annoyed.
Especially the Gorman
Viscount, who not only made money by speculating with food, which was
unbecoming of a noble, but also later made unreasonable demands regarding water
rights during the drought.
Well, putting aside
the fact that they profited, the Org River has its upper reaches in their
territory and the lower reaches in ours.
It shouldn't be any of
Gorman's business even if we pump water downstream and use it for irrigation...
It would be understandable
if the Hiyorimi Viscountcy, located downstream of the Org River from the Estol
territory, complained.
I had gone to great
lengths to avoid discord with the neighboring territories, yet...
"Why did it turn
out like this!?" (I said it one more time)
※
In the Gorman and
Hiyorimi Viscountcies, they received disaster relief, but because they had few
surplus reserves and refused aid in the form of alternative food (turnips), the
adverse effects began to appear.
When winter came and
things became difficult, and as the new year dawned and the cold became even
more severe, several farming villages experienced starvation deaths, and the
urban areas were overflowing with the impoverished, and it seemed the voices of
resentment from the citizens were filling the air.
It was also gradually
becoming more noticeable that people were abandoning their farmland and fleeing
to the neighboring Estol territory as refugees.
This seemed to
displease them even more...
"The Turnip
Baron, as his name suggests, uses food as bait to win over and seize the
citizens. It is truly outrageous!"
They said... it's
impossible to talk to them!
The Hiyorimi
Viscountcy didn't say anything openly, but the Gorman Viscountcy blatantly said
whatever they wanted, whether it was true or not.
This caused my father,
mother, and Raymond-san to hold their heads in their hands.
And this matter
reached the ears of the Margrave of Hastburg, the patron of the Solis barony.
The Margrave's
territory also suffered from the drought, but the Margrave family, who
possessed the unique skill of water magic, had long been skilled in irrigation,
securing water sources, and adjusting water flow, so the damage from this
drought was very minimal.
They had also
succeeded in urgently releasing some materials that had been stockpiled for
military use and mobilizing merchants to secure grain from various sources.
Therefore, aside from
the Estol territory, they could be said to be the most stable.
My father, having
consulted with the Margrave of Hastburg in advance about the allocation of aid,
had taken meticulous measures such as voluntarily providing more food aid to
the neighboring territories than allocated.
Because of this, no
matter how much the Gorman Viscountcy made a fuss, the Margrave's side completely
ignored them.
In fact, they even
sent a messenger of appreciation to the Solis barony privately.
Could we somehow crush
this Gorman Viscountcy while we have the chance?
I earnestly wished
they would be wiped out by this great famine.
※
Around the time the
winter cold became severe, the influx of refugees into the town of Est became
noticeable.
There were a very
small number of people who came from the villages within the territory, but
most of them had fled from the Gorman Viscountcy, followed by the Hiyorimi
Viscountcy.
As time passed, their
numbers continued to increase, swelling to a number that could not be ignored.
Voices began to arise
from the residents who were worried about the deterioration of public order and
the chaos in the town caused by the refugees.
So, once again, I had
my parents and Raymond-san gather and made a proposal.
"I believe that
even the town of Est is currently struggling with the influx of refugees.
Please allow me to propose measures to deal with this crisis."
My parents listened to
me earnestly.
What I proposed this
time was the establishment of refugee camps and public soup kitchens, which did
not exist in this world.
〇Proclamation of Relief Measures
By preparing soup
kitchens and announcing the implementation of soup kitchens in advance, we
would guide the refugees and calm the townspeople by informing them of the
measures.
〇Establishment of Relief Facilities
・Establishment of soup kitchens exclusively for
refugees and provision of food there.
・Establishment of refugee camps to provide shelter from
the winter cold.
〇Management of Refugees
Establish a reception
center where refugees can register, collect information such as names,
occupations, and the number of refugees, and create a system to manage this
information.
・Use of soup kitchens and camps is limited to
registered individuals.
・The reception center will serve not only to collect
information but also to disseminate it.
〇Utilization of Refugees
Not just providing
aid, but also mediating various jobs and short-term labor to give them income,
utilizing them as a labor force, and using the reception center as a
dissemination point for this.
・Employ refugees to operate the established reception
centers and soup kitchens.
・In the future, provide settlement land to those who
wish and form pioneer groups.
We would create such a
response system, and the information collected at the reception center would be
submitted daily to the government (Raymond-san) to be used as material for
considering future responses.
This was readily
agreed upon by the three of them.
Before long, a
reception center (employment agency), soup kitchens, and a refugee camp with
simple housing were established on the outskirts of the town of Est.
Almost every day, I
went to the reception center and soup kitchens with my bodyguard Anne,
sometimes even helping out.
Among the refugees,
the number of those who were introduced to jobs at the reception center and
those who worked at the reception center and soup kitchens themselves increased.
Around that time, it
became a publicly known secret that the child who came every day was the second
son of the lord and the originator of these measures.
The refugees, upon
learning this fact and hearing about the child prodigy of the Solis family, were
uniformly quite surprised by the stark difference in treatment compared to the
nobles of the territories they had previously resided in.
Well... yeah, it's
true, it's not very noble-like...
Child prodigy.... yes,
I understand. I have fully reflected on going too far.
They would share this
story with the newly arrived refugees, and this cycle repeated.
Around this time, I
felt that Anne had become less of a watchdog and more of an understanding ally,
on par with Raymond-san.
Before I knew it, she
had completely stopped scolding me.
She always had a
gentle smile and turned a blind eye.
Come to think of it,
she had silently helped me even during the turnip incident.
More than that,
recently, I would occasionally catch her looking at me, a child ten years her
junior, with an expression of respect...
The sharp-tongued ice
woman was no longer in my mind.
For me, she had become
a reliable ally, someone I could walk outside with in peace, a beautiful
bodyguard older sister (though in reality, she was like a grandchild to me in
age), such was her presence.
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