kscans

Chapter 138 - The Little One and the Gods' Banquet ~Interlude: The Seed of the Claudia Kingdom~

How did it come to this?

The King of Claudia sat on his throne, glaring at the southern border count. Count Calvados’s eyes, sunken in the way of the elderly, wandered vacantly, and he stared back at the King of Claudia with lifeless pupils.

"Having been deprived of half my labor force, a tax increase is impossible. Therefore, I intend to return my title and retire to a detached palace on the edge of the border."

Auguste explained that he would have to sell off his estate just to raise the one thousand gold coins, and the King of Claudia grew flustered. If that happened, managing his domain would be out of the question. The withering of the Plain Forest had also taken away their rich farmland. Naturally, the planting was not going well either. The border count explained calmly. Half of it was what he had heard from the Little One, but the border count had been stunned to learn the reason for this year’s poor planting. He had reread all the old documents and understood that it was true. The border count’s family, which had existed for a long time, had many records regarding the Lord’s forest, and according to them, the harvest yields had been decreasing year by year. As if in time with the withering of the Lord’s forest.

"The Lord’s forest has such power...?"

This was a fact known only to Frontier. The Golden Ring, which was shaped like an incomplete circle, was now connected to the new forest created along the mountain range due to the loss of the Plain Forest. In other words, most of the Claudia Kingdom was now outside that ring. If the Plain Forest had been intact, they would have received ample benefits from the forest even with the mountain range in between. But Claudia had committed the outrage of replacing the Lord, causing it to lose its power, and had destroyed that forest with their own hands.

Hearing the explanation, the king and his followers’ faces twisted in fury.

"I have no desire to hear such nonsense! Do something!"

Despite the threats, the southern border count shook his head weakly.

"With only the women, children, and elderly remaining in my domain, there is nothing I can do. We probably will not be able to survive the summer, let alone the winter. Therefore, I will have my people accepted into some other domain and retire. The border count’s domain will wither. ...Now that the blessings of the Plain Forest are gone, the Claudia Kingdom itself may wither."

"I will not allow it! Do something!"

"Then how do you expect me to produce a sum as large as one thousand gold coins?!"

The southern border count’s eyes widened at the wailing king, and he roared with the sharp gaze of a bird of prey. The king and his followers, momentarily speechless, were met with a glare from him as he gritted his teeth so hard they might break.

"Your Majesty was the one who demanded one thousand gold coins! What do you expect my family to do, when we must dispose of all our household assets and will no longer be able to maintain our dignity as nobles just to prepare it! Do you think a domain with no workforce can be run! What Your Majesty has done is tantamount to pronouncing a death sentence on my domain, why can you not understand that!!"

Stunned by the border count’s glare, the king and his followers’ faces contorted.

"Are your words not excessive? Count Calvados, you are in His Majesty’s presence."

A close aide to the king tried to placate him, but the border count, who had already made his resolve, showed no signs of stopping his torrent of rage.

"That is why I am saying this! That for His Majesty’s sake, my family will return its title! That to raise one thousand gold coins, we will close the border count’s domain! Where is the problem? It is a last resort to fulfill His Majesty’s wish!!"

In Claudia, which was not as wealthy as Frontier, a noble’s stipend was around thirty gold coins. Tax revenue was separate, but even without that, one thousand gold coins was an astronomical sum. An amount that would crush a noble family. The people around them finally began to realize that the King of Claudia’s sense of money, which had allowed him to demand such a thing so casually, was strange. Hearing the faint murmurs of the nobles, the King of Claudia looked at the border count with a vexed expression. He had thought he was a good-natured old man. A weak-willed person who would accept anything. It was completely unexpected that he would bare his fangs and bite back.

"Are you threatening me?"

Startled by the king’s unexpected words, Count Calvados let out a great sigh.

"What have you been listening to? It is Your Majesty who is threatening me. Trying to fleece this old man of his money and let him die on the streets. You need not be so roundabout. I am saying I will return everything."

"Who said such a thing!"

The border count replied to the furious King of Claudia in a low voice, trying his best to remain calm.

"Your Majesty did."

The surroundings fell silent.

"One thousand gold coins is equivalent to one month of our country’s national budget. Were you not aware?"

When this was pointed out, the King of Claudia looked back at his aide. Suddenly put on the spot, the aide’s eyes darted about in confusion, but he nodded.

"My domain operates on about one hundred gold coins a year. Even with tax revenue, it’s one hundred and fifty. And you demand a sum as large as one thousand gold coins from such a domain. Of course it is a matter of life and death."

The reality of the border count’s domain was spelled out plainly. In the already not very wealthy Claudia Kingdom, even the border, which had benefited from the forest’s blessings, was run on a tight budget. One could only imagine the state of the other domains. There was nothing but credibility in Count Calvados’s words that he had no choice but to close his domain to meet the outrageous demand.

"Indeed... Even my domain could not produce one hundred gold coins."

"In the first place, why was Count Calvados asked for one thousand gold coins?"

"He also said his workforce was taken. What is this about?"

As the voices of the nobles grew louder, the King of Claudia grit his teeth and raised his voice.

"Enough! The matter of the one thousand gold coins is forgotten, so manage your domain as you have been!"

With those spitting words, the king rose from his throne and quickly exited the audience chamber. Watching him go with a fixed gaze, Count Calvados let out a dramatic sigh. The surrounding nobles tentatively spoke to the border count.

"The planting has not gone well in my domain this year either. Could it be that you know the cause...?"

That was the start. Voices rose, saying, "Me too," and, "Me too," and Count Calvados knew that the Little One’s explanation had been correct. According to her, it was the combination of the seaside forest in the south of Claudia and the Plain Forest in the west, on the other side of the mountains, that filled the entire Claudia Kingdom with the blessings of the Lord’s forest. But recently, the Plain Forest had withered. The Lord of the Plain Forest had also moved to another forest. Claudia could no longer receive the blessings of the Lord’s forest. From here on, the land would wither and the country would fall into ruin.

When he explained the Little One’s story without hiding anything, the eyes of many of the nobles wavered in shock.

"If that is true... what are we to do?"

"She said to take up animal husbandry. That princess."

That’s right. The Little One had also left them a way to overcome this crisis.

"Cows or horses. Chickens are fine, too. Graze livestock and fertilize the soil. It might be tough for the first few years, but in two years, the soil should be good, and crops should be able to grow."

To be blunt, livestock could be raised with grass and water. As long as one was careful they didn’t get poisoned by toxic plants, they would happily munch on grass and live healthily. The livestock of Arcadia were wild animals, almost close to their original species. They were tough and sturdy. If they could survive the present by raising livestock for meat and continuing to farm on a small scale, there was a future, that little princess had said.

Adding that story, the border count left the audience chamber. Count Calvados quietly watched the nobles who had started to move with changed expressions. A hand suddenly tapped his shoulder, and he turned around.

"Prince Pascal?"

"I heard what happened. Do you have a moment?"

At the boy’s gentle smile, Count Calvados felt a strange sense of hope welling up in his chest.

"...And that’s the gist of it."

"Good heavens..."

Count Calvados was aghast when he learned the reason for the one thousand gold coins. It was simple. The one hundred million gold coins, the payment for the slaves the princess had bought on her previous visit. Having gotten their hands on it, the king and his followers had lost all restraint and, after several months of unrestrained luxury, had spent it all. And humans are foolish creatures. Once they get a taste for something, they don’t stop. To continue their luxurious lifestyle, they were collecting money from here and there. It wasn’t just the border count’s family.

"I only learned about this because the princess came, you know."

Since that day, Pascal had gathered many subordinates and had been investigating the movements of the king and his followers. Pascal had also received a share of the payment for the slaves. Out of one hundred million coins, he had been given one thousand, but that was still a sufficient amount of funds. The king and his followers, having spent all their own money, probably never imagined that Pascal, to whom they had given so little, would have any left. As a result, the money in his possession was not taken. And when he learned the amount lost to the king and his followers’ debauchery, Pascal was at a loss. So much money and goods, feasts and amusements of the utmost extravagance. The foolishness of spending ten years of the country’s annual budget in a few months. Because it was not a wealthy country to begin with, they did not know how to use their newfound wealth. Pascal also learned for the first time from his investigation that most of the country’s administration had been left entirely to the retainers. They would give vague instructions, and all reports and duties were left to the retainers. In other words, the king and his followers knew nothing of governance. Then, this great sum of money fell into their laps, and they were dazzled by it. Without even putting it in the national treasury, they spent it all on debauchery. They didn’t even know the amount of the national budget. A balance was skillfully maintained at the discretion of the retainers, and the king and his followers just spent what they were given. That was why they had no sense of money. The ones running the country were a group of competent retainers. Pascal couldn’t help but be grateful that they, who knew how poor the Claudia Kingdom was, had distributed the taxes correctly.

"This country has been rotting from the roots for a long time."

The border count could only nod at the boy’s bitter words, and he was suddenly shaken by the presence of a proper royal before him.

Here he is. A person who thinks of his country and feels its pain.

It was undeniable that he was young, but he could grow from here. A heart that thought of the people was the most important thing.

Come to think of it, he had heard that Prince Pascal was the only royal who had cooperated with the princess who had freed the beast-humans and saved the Lord of the Forest. News of that great commotion had reached the border count’s ears. As had the story that he was disliked by His Majesty the King because of it, and that he would be sent to the remote northern regions as a subject. The one thousand gold coins must have been a final act of parental compassion.

With a relaxed smile, Count Calvados decided to raise Pascal. As a senior in domain management and statesmanship, he would teach him all the knowledge he possessed.

The small seed of a king that had sprouted here would nestle against a great tree rooted in the earth and transform into a large sapling.

A bond born in a place unknown to the Little One. Under the watchful eyes of the gods, a single light flickered in the turbulent Claudia Kingdom.