Chapter 183 - Chapter Seven: Dark Clouds
During the four months of investigation, the clover in the Flatlands grew steadily, creating green patches across the farmland along with oats and ryegrass.
While the free-range goats munched heartily, Lyudmila and Flora consulted with each other, gradually tilling the whole plants into the soil and watering them. Since seeds had already formed, they were expected to multiply greatly by next spring.
Tonight, Beatrix and I will be staying overnight. Flora will be with us too.
Since the Flatlands team consists of Beatrix, Lyudmila, Bonnie, and myself, we decided to pair up and stay overnight, combining as appropriate each day.
"Lyudmila said she wants to raise two or three piglets soon."
As Fiona and I were making vegetable soup for dinner over a bonfire in the yard, Beatrix, who was roasting boar meat with the bandits, spoke up.
According to Lyudmila, the oats and rye from the experimental farm had been harvested, securing feed until autumn.
I felt it was a bit late for this season, but she apparently wanted to try raising them experimentally.
"Hoho. You all will be raising pigs too?"
"We have a smokehouse, so we can make smoked goods too."
Wait a minute, who's going to butcher the pigs? I'll get attached to pet pigs.
"That's impressive. Are you going to sell them?"
"Yes. In fact, we'd be grateful if the Jaegers bought them."
"Two or three pigs won't be enough. We have too many people; we'd lose in a price war if we don't increase the number a bit more."
Indeed, two or three pigs would be devoured in an instant.
"Oh, what a shame. Well, it can't be helped then."
She was grinning.
This one knew from the start that we wouldn't buy them and said it anyway.
Honestly, she makes me nervous.
Just then, three bandits on horseback arrived for the night watch.
Recently, it had become a custom for everyone to eat dinner together during the handover.
At these dinner gatherings, called the Boar Club, we ate vegetables grown by Lyudmila and the bandits, wild plants gathered from the mountains, and rabbits and boars we caught during hunts. Except for the bread, cheese, and drinks we bought, everything was self-sufficient, so it was quite inexpensive.
All three of them had participated in the capture—no, the recapture—of the Primordia fortress.
Of course, the Jaegers said nothing, but everyone knew.
Calling it the Boar Club was a kind of code.
However, the three of them looked strange.
Their eyes were serious, or rather, excited.
Had something happened? Paul-san had already gone home with Bonnie, so support might be difficult.
"What's wrong?"
The three day-watch bandits stood up, noticing the state of the three night-watch bandits.
"War is about to begin. Engrio has started preparations to invade Regnentes."
We decided to listen to their story while eating.
"Apparently, an Engrio envoy was assaulted in Regnentes."
What was that about?
"The border dispute between Regnentes and Engrio in the previous war was apparently quite severe, involving the surrounding residents. Engrio seems to have demanded compensation for it."
"Didn't the compensation payment already conclude?"
Beatrix tilted her head.
Indeed, I had heard such a thing.
"It's a false accusation. They're saying there were new complaints from villagers near the border, so they demand additional payment. Of course, Regnentes refused. Apparently, someone struck an envoy who was persistently badgering the King of Regnentes."
After that, it became a declaration of war because someone had struck the chief envoy.
"War just starts that easily?"
Beatrix was surprised.
Well, of course. Violence is bad, but if that led to war, Matilda would be declaring war every day.
"The point is, they just want to start a war. Any reason will do. Even if no one had struck them, they would have used the compensation liability as a pretext to start a war."
The person who struck the envoy was apparently one of the King's Royal Guards.
He was said to have received a reward for protecting the King from Engrio's disrespectful envoy. It must have been a deliberate provocation. In other words, Regnentes was also ready for a fight.
"Sertoria is an ally, right? Are we going to send support?"
"Ostensibly, no. The Central Army is confronting the Demon Lord's army. The Eastern Plains Corps probably can't move until the Demon Lord is defeated and the monsters in the Northeastern Forest calm down."
There was absolutely no room to fight Engrio now. The bandit said that Sertoria would declare non-belligerence and maintain strict neutrality under the pretext of subjugating the Demon Lord's army.
"'Ostensibly, no' means..."
"Exactly. It means there's a covert aspect."
"You don't mean the Jaegers are participating?"
The Jaegers were a hidden army. Missions they participated in did not become public.
I heard the Jaegers had a low return rate...
We had fought monsters together.
I had seen them injured many times, and I had healed them.
I had even chanted the Chant of Exorcism before their sorties.
"Don't make that face. Our top priority is the defense of the Kingdom. We don't participate in other countries' wars."
He patted my head.
If they participated in combat and were captured, it would provide a pretext for a declaration of war.
Oh, good. They weren't going to war.
"Our role is to hunt down scouts infiltrating from Engrio. There will be those who come through the forest and enter our country. We'll ambush them, capture them one by one, and send them back."
"You won't kill them?"
Beatrix said something scary. But normally, they would kill them, wouldn't they?
"I don't know about other countries, but our country doesn't kill them. If they know they'll be spared, the enemy often gives up resisting. After interrogation, we either take them prisoner or send them back."
Enemy scouts were surprisingly weak; once caught, they apparently became docile.
"They'll enter Sertoria?"
"Yes. Direct infiltration into Regnentes is heavily guarded. A considerable number will likely pass through Sertoria first. Those who don't cross through checkpoints are illegal immigrants, so we'll thoroughly crack down on them and prevent them from entering Regnentes."
I see. That's elaborate.
"At the same time, we'll infiltrate Engrio to gather information. Well, it's not enemy territory. We'll enter normally as traveling merchants, listen to rumors, and bring them back. It shouldn't be too dangerous."
Then I felt relieved. Prince Roberts had said they usually did that much. At most, the number of people would increase.
"As traveling merchants, what will you sell?"
"Highway Cookies. They're especially popular among our goods. After that, dried octopus and dried monster meat."
It's all food. Won't only female customers gather? Will that gather information?
"Information in the world is disseminated from women's gossip! The next best place is a bar."
It was apparently a secret method of information gathering and dissemination discovered by the first king.
Do well-side meetings and old men's tall tales at bars really have that much influence? I felt like they were mostly lies, but is that not the case?
"Then, could you sell the marble-dyed goods from our shop? Not the field uniforms. They're for young women."
"The ones sold in Nakanohara, right?"
"Yes. If you're traveling merchants, you can sell them, can't you? Right now, I think they're only in Sertoria. If you combine them with Highway Cookies, women will gather."
"I don't mind. If possible, it would be good to have some for a slightly older age group too."
Beatrix smiled, saying she'd think about it. If they weren't sold in Nakanohara, she'd have an excuse to her competitors.
"After that, it's food aid and its escort. Well, the Kingdom's garrison army will probably handle that."
"Can a neutral country do that?"
"It's fine. Business is free. There's no reason to complain. They'll probably sell it cheaply to Regnentes and Medioland."
That's complicated.
Medioland probably doesn't need aid.
Won't the transportation costs be high?
"Could Medioland be sending reinforcements?"
"They're an ally. They probably will. I don't know what form it will take, though."
Does that mean my mountain investigation will be postponed?
Prince James must be busy.
When war breaks out, even if the church doesn't intervene, they have to help displaced civilians, so church priests will surely be mobilized for evacuation centers.
Huh? Wait a minute.
"Um, is it possible for disaster victims to cross the border?"
If they're going to flee anyway, it would be safer to flee to a neutral country.
"Probably. Our country has no status differences, so serfs from both countries might flee by the village."
"What will you do?"
"Send them back. The Kingdom's garrison army will be guarding the border."
"You'll send them back?"
"Yes, because our country cannot get involved in a war. In any case, both countries will demand their handover. Those who flee here will be captured and handed over to their respective countries."
Apparently, when they are handed over, it's common for them to be beaten and kicked by officials who come to retrieve them as soon as they cross the border, and on top of that, they are burdened with debt in the name of a penalty fee.
How pitiful.
If they could live in Sertoria, they wouldn't be serfs.
Robinson-san had said it. Robinson-san was apparently the child of a free farmer, but the life of a serf who couldn't use magic was truly poor, and their usual meals weren't wheat bread, but rye and oats. Such grains were eaten in Sertoria too, but more as a change of pace, and most were fed to livestock.
"Even if the numbers increase, there's no food. As long as there isn't enough land to support them, increasing the population will only lead to conflict. It will be hard for those guarding to send them back, but they'll just have to endure it."
"Is this country's food situation that severe?"
"Not really. We secure enough for famines, disasters, and wars. However, with the Demon Lord subjugation and this upcoming war, and the amount we'll sell, we might run dry."
Couldn't we somehow help them and have them participate in development?
I heard that people who lack nutrition easily die from epidemics and struggle to get through winter.
Sertoria was originally a country formed through a process like a peasant uprising led by martial hunters, but has that spirit been lost now?
"They should just defect by the village."
Beatrix was probably right. Even nobles are a minority. The poor are overwhelmingly more numerous. Couldn't something be done if they just drove out the nobles?
"Apparently, such things happened until the time of the third king. Sertoria expanded its territory that way. However, now all such small and medium lords have been absorbed into their respective countries. While defecting between warring countries is one thing, if they defect during neutrality, it would just give Engrio an excuse to attack."
The Kingdom of Engrio.
Invaders from the continent, people say.
On the continent, large empires occasionally rise, and periods of significantly low temperatures whimsically arrive. Just like the Demon Lord's revival on this island.
During such times, conflicts over food occur, and large numbers of desperate immigrants emerge.
All those who drifted to this island were like that.
And there, they were further engaged in territorial disputes.
They're no different from wild Orcs!
As I sighed, a bandit who noticed patted my shoulder.
"Wilson-dono said during the Goblin rescue operation that conflicts over food happen even among animals. In other words, it's a natural thing. It's certain proof that we humans are part of the living creatures breathing on this island created by the Goddess, and the struggle for food to survive cannot be easily denied."
Was he saying we should affirm war?
"Eliminating the cause of war is the best method, and producing food in fields and facilitating the economy through trade is the ideal, but the realization of that ideal is still far off."
The bandit pointed to the Class of 175's land, where clover and oats still dotted the ground.
"So, future effort is needed, he said. It's just like the story of your land."
Indeed, in its current state, it could only support one goat.
All eight of us would starve to death.
We need to expand the fields and plant wheat and vegetables. Without pasture, we can't raise livestock.
It's fine because we have other jobs, but if not, would we have no choice but to steal?
"But Engrio is said to be the country with the highest food production."
"That's why they're troublesome. That country is a greedy rich nation. Isn't it irritating?"
"That's true. I wish they'd just leave other people's lives alone. They say 'the rich don't fight,' but is it still not enough?"
"That's why, he said, we cannot afford to lose. Well, we have no obligation to lose a war started as a rich man's hobby."
"They won't understand until they're destroyed once and suffer."
Beatrix. Your remarks are extreme.
And first of all, when did this become an emotional argument?
Why do wars happen?
I had asked Jennifer-sensei before.
In the case of the continent, she answered, it was the maintenance and expansion of the economy, including food self-sufficiency, differences in ideologies including religion, and then ambition.
I didn't quite understand the third one, ambition, but it apparently exists only in humans, not animals. They want to acquire more things and be praised by those around them. It's certainly more gratifying to defeat a large boar and be praised than a small one. Even if a small boar provides enough food.
I was taught that when the goal is not securing food but being praised or fulfilling desires, it becomes troublesome if it's a nation.
The target of the hunt becomes other countries, and the goal becomes acquiring larger territories.
Engrio must be like that.
Huh? Does that mean...
The Demon Lord doesn't have such ambition?
Prince Henry had said something like that, that the Demon Lord's goal was not to occupy the island but to slaughter humans.
What exactly does that mean?