Chapter 50
Two weeks had passed since the Desert Flood began.
A huge river had formed along the road connecting Kron and Dreihart, completely cutting off all travel.
Ruuuumble-!
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“This is really serious.”
“Yeah. It shows no sign of stopping at all.”
The scouts from Kron sighed as they gazed at the river.
That was because Kron was suffering just as much from the blockade of logistics between it and Dreihart.
The spices from Dreihart and the liquor made from desert cacti were also best-selling drinks in Kron.
The scouts sighed at being unable to drink the sweet liquor that filled them with energy at night.
Meanwhile, the Klaus informants watching the scene sent word that all the supply routes had been completely cut off.
Ever since the Desert Flood began, House Klaus had also completely halted even the minimal amount of wheat it had been supplying to Dreihart.
They had also sent knights to block the other roads in their territory under the pretext of constructing waterways, preventing any supplies from passing through.
Klaus now held Dreihart’s lifeline in its hands, and if two more weeks passed like this, Calix would bow his head to save Dreihart when it stood on the verge of starving to death.
As Lois thought this, news arrived.
“An envoy has arrived from Dreihart.”
“An envoy? What kind of envoy?”
“They say it’s ‘Noah White,’ Lord Calix’s financial officer and the acting lord of Dreihart.”
“The acting lord has left the territory… Dreihart must be starting to feel hungry. Beric, have a good talk with her.”
“Understood, Lord Lois.”
The acting lord was, in effect, the person who held the lord’s authority in Dreihart.
The fact that someone like that had come here personally meant that Dreihart was truly desperate.
Lois could not hide his smile at the fact that everything was proceeding according to plan.
The same was true of Lois’s chief steward, Beric.
Beric normally disliked showing people his narrow eyes, so he tried to open them, if only a little.
But now, he made no effort to hide them.
He realized that he was not the one who needed to accommodate anyone.
“Welcome to Klaus. Acting Lord Noah, what brings you here?”
Noah’s gaze was cold as she waited, sipping coffee.
She quietly set down her coffee and spoke.
“I’ll be direct. Please deliver the wheat you contracted to supply to House Klaus.”
Dreihart had ordered wheat from Klaus in advance and paid for it.
And Klaus had been violating that agreement for several months.
“As I told you last time, we can no longer make the delivery because of our circumstances. I apologize.”
“I can see, too, Steward Beric. What are you planning to do with all the wheat in that warehouse?”
“That is merchandise intended for other parties.”
Beric barely managed to suppress the words, ‘for you in the future,’ as he spoke.
Then he dangled a little bait.
“However… if you pay five hundred silver for a sack of wheat, we will sell it to Dreihart again.”
Noah was dumbfounded by Beric’s words.
Noah spoke with an enraged expression—one Calix had never seen before.
“How absurd… Are you saying you’ll sell a sack of wheat that currently costs two silver for five hundred silver?”
“The value of a commodity naturally changes depending on the circumstances. You know that well too, Acting Lord Noah, don’t you?”
Noah placed a copy of the contract she had brought on the table.
Then she glared at Beric and spoke.
“We signed a contract a year ago. We’ll have to check whether that other person’s contract was made earlier than ours.”
“That is a confidential contract of House Klaus. We cannot share it with you.”
“Then it is an act that violates imperial commercial law. You are aware of that, I assume?”
“Of course we are. That is why we will compensate you with a breach-of-contract penalty.”
“You do realize that what we need right now is not money, don’t you?”
“That is unfortunate.”
At Beric’s words, Noah felt that there was no need for any further conversation.
She spoke clearly.
“Steward Beric, on behalf of the great Lord of Kron, I will confirm this one last time.”
Noah stared coldly at Beric.
Beric met her words with equal coldness.
“Dreihart is running out of food because Klaus has not delivered the wheat. If this continues, the people will suffer, and that harm will be equivalent to war. In effect, House Klaus is declaring war on us. May I understand it that way?”
“War? That is an overly extreme comparison. However, I can only offer you my sympathies for the harm that may ultimately result, Acting Lord Noah.”
Beric was not sorry in the slightest.
After hearing that, Noah closed her eyes and thought for a moment before getting to her feet.
“I see. I clearly understand Klaus’s intentions.”
She decided there was nothing more to say.
Then she looked at Steward Beric and left him with a final remark.
“I hope you enjoy what little peace you have left…”
Noah White’s words were like a death sentence pronounced by a black grim reaper.
But Beric dismissed them, thinking they were merely her final desperate struggle.
* * *
“So, Beric, how did it go?”
“Dreihart is on the verge of starving to death, Lord Lois.”
“Yes! I see!! Hahahaha!! The plan worked!”
Lois rejoiced at Beric’s words.
It would not be long before Dreihart knelt before him.
“What should we do now, Beric?”
“There is no need for any other method. We simply need to keep blocking every avenue of aid to Dreihart, including assistance from the surrounding territories, just as we are doing now.”
At present, every route leading to Dreihart was blocked.
The informants’ reports said only that every route they had blocked remained perfectly sealed.
Of course, if enough time passed, Dreihart and Kron might eventually come to blows once Dreihart could endure no longer, but that was fine.
Kron could not move because of the Desert Flood, and Dreihart’s warriors, on the verge of starving to death, were no match for the knights of Klaus.
Even if House Klaus was weaker than Kron or Ryan, it still had three mages permanently in its service.
They were confident they could win a battle of that scale.
They were somewhat afraid of Kron’s retaliation after everything was over, but it would be fine.
Because Lord Calix was a good lord, he would formally protest and first try to resolve the problem through dialogue.
While stalling with negotiations, they would offer the gains obtained from Dreihart to the Northern Grand Duke, officially join his faction, and receive his protection. Even Kron would then be unable to retaliate against them recklessly.
In these harsh and troubled times, someone who was merely kind could not survive.
“We only need to wait for victory here, Lord Lois.”
“Kwahahahaha!!! Yes, let’s have a drink like old times for once, Beric!”
“Very well, Young Master Lois!”
And so they held a drinking party, making a feast of Dreihart’s starvation.
As they enjoyed themselves with Dreihart’s desert liquor and night grew late, a messenger sent by Noah arrived at a forest between Dreihart and Klaus.
After the messenger entered the forest, people began emerging from it a short while later.
They were the Kron knights.
‘Rikain’ and the armed Kron knights rode out at the front, followed by Dreihart’s warrior corps, led by ‘Zarha.’
Then the red mage ‘Sharen’ and escort knight ‘Azel’ emerged, followed at last by Calix Kron, who led them.
“Everyone is here, my lord.”
“All right. Let’s make the final preparations.”
I moved after Rikain.
How were we, who were supposed to be in Kron, here?
Because we had moved ‘people’ instead of moving ‘food.’
The Klaus informants had been focused on tracking food supplies.
Taking advantage of that, we kept food shipments moving as usual while gradually moving people to Dreihart.
Under normal circumstances, the sudden increase in Dreihart’s population would have given us away.
But Dreihart was currently crowded with the free citizens sent by Klaus.
Using them as cover, we gradually moved the Kron knights into Dreihart, while disguising key figures such as Rikain and Sharen with stand-ins.
Klaus could have discovered this if it had investigated carefully, but because it focused only on food, it neglected to investigate the people.
As a result, all of Kron’s core forces were able to gather here without Klaus knowing.
But I wanted to give them one last chance.
If they handed over the wheat they had agreed to supply at that final moment, I was prepared to forgive them.
But they ultimately crossed the final line.
The Kron knights and Dreihart’s warrior corps gathered on the plain, and I stood before them.
“A messenger has just arrived from the envoy.”
I took the message Noah had sent.
It stated how much Klaus intended to charge us for reselling our own wheat.
“That vicious Lord Lois of Klaus has declared that he will starve Dreihart to death.”
Klaus himself had not said it directly.
But his subordinate, Steward Beric, had clearly conveyed that intention.
Even if it had only been his subordinate’s personal thought, a subordinate’s responsibility was still the superior’s responsibility.
“We gave them money. We gave them time. We gave them a chance. Yet they betrayed all that trust.”
The more I spoke, the angrier I became.
Those bastards had said they would pay the breach-of-contract penalty, but they hadn’t even paid us anything.
That pissed me off the most.
“Knights! Warriors!! How should we repay that traitor who betrayed our trust?”
The knights and warriors shouted in response to my words.
They shouted as one.
“Death to the traitor!!!”
“Kill them! Kill them!! Kill them!!!”
I dislike unnecessary killing.
But I would not hesitate to fight for myself and my people.
“Yes! Today, we will show the entire continent what happens when anyone provokes Kron! Dreihart!! or us!!! with some ridiculous little scheme!!!”
I drew my sword.
Then I gave the order.
“Everyone, march on Klaus!!!”
If those Klaus bastards launch a 『food attack』 against us…
I will simply 『attack』 them.
It was time to demonstrate overwhelming power.
<Heroine Illustration>
Sharen Lilicia
Azel Tis
