Behind the Scenes 06-01: Fief
“That concludes the report.”
“Thanks for your trouble.”
When the Civil Official finished his report and left the room, the King of Slantania Kingdom made sure that the door was closed before sighing.
The Prime Minister, who was also present, also had a grim expression on his face, and a dark aura filled the room.
The King picked up a piece of paper that was on the desk.
“Is the situation in the rural areas still the same?”
“Yes, it’s calmed down around the Royal Capital, but the pet.i.tions keep increasing.”
“Is that so?”
The black swamp that had appeared at the West Forest had been annihilated thanks to Sei, and the number of demons around the Royal Capital had decreased incredibly.
The problem of the demons, however, was the same as before.
There had been a lot of problems; they kept the information about Sei a secret but they couldn’t continue to do so if they wanted to decrease the amount of demons.
The success of the【Saint Summoning Ceremony】was already talked about amongst the n.o.bles and whispers of the【Saint】have been heard because of the current situation.
If so, then the n.o.bles who had remained silent until now will also begin to take action.
Until now, the feudal lords understood that the Royal Palace and Knight Division had their hands full trying to handle the situation at the Royal Capital.
However, the Royal Capital had calmed down and the feudal lords requested for the Knight Orders be sent to their fief, since they were almost at their limit.
The King also understood the state of the rural areas and thought that he should send a Knight Order there soon.
That wasn’t a problem.
The problem was the【Saint】.
Some of the n.o.bles loudly claimed that their fief had the worse situation and even asked for the【Saint】to be sent there.
“We had antic.i.p.ated this, but it’s impossible to respond to all these requests.”
“Let’s think about where to send the 【Saint】later. For now, prioritise the sending of the Knight Orders, starting with the worst place.”
“Yes. The most problematic place right now is Klaussner, wasn’t it?”
There was a stack of pet.i.tions from every region asking for the sending of the Knight Orders and the 【Saint】.
The pet.i.tions that arrive at the Royal Palace were examined closely by the civil officials.
The pet.i.tions that were delivered to the King came from regions that seemed most likely to have a black swamp, like the one that was in the West Forest.
The topmost pet.i.tion was from Klaussner, the region that could be said to be first or second in medicinal herb production in Slantania Kingdom.
The person investigating the reports judged that it had to be given the highest priority and put it at the top of the other reports.
The King stroked his chin while looking at the pet.i.tion in his hand.
“They have problems with the demons, but it seems they also have problems with cultivating medicinal herbs.”
“Was that the reason they didn’t deliver that many to the Royal Capital this year?”
“That seems to be it.”
The King pa.s.sed the pet.i.tion he was looking at to the Prime Minister.
The Prime Minister skimmed over the doc.u.ment and sighed deeply.
The pet.i.tion by Klaussner stated that the reason why they were requesting for a Knight Order was because the increase in demons had effected the harvest of medicinal herbs.
Of course, Klaussner also employed mercenary groups, like the other fiefs, to deal with the demons but they couldn’t keep up with the sp.a.w.n rate.
If Klaussner was a normal fief, then it probably wouldn’t be given priority.
However, Klaussner was a leading medicinal herb production area and it was given high priority because medicinal herbs were being affected.
Medicinal herbs were also part of military supply because they were potion materials.
Klaussner was famous for cultivating medicinal herbs that couldn’t be cultivated in other fiefs, and they could cultivate them in large amounts.
The civil officials judged that Klaussner should be given the highest priority, because a military supply that couldn’t be replaced was being affected.
“Even so, it’s horrible. The market was also affected by this.”
“We’ve temporarily stopped supply to the Royal Palace and instructed people to secure the supply at the market, but probably……”
The yield of medicinal herbs listed in the pet.i.tion was about half of the previous year’s.
Klaussner had seen a downward trend in yield recently, but this year’s rate was abnormal.
The feudal lord who was in charge of the land where medicinal herbs were mainly cultivated must have felt a sense of crisis.
The King and Prime Minister didn’t think that he was being unreasonable for sending a pet.i.tion like that.
“Is it because of the demons……?”
The King put his elbows onto the desk and intertwined his hands together.
He looked down and thought for a while, before those words came out of his mouth.
The thing that had popped into his mind was the swamp from the West Forest.
He thought that the swamp that Sei had annihilated with her mysterious technique was made from miasma.
There were two reasons why he thought so.
The first reason was that demons were gushing out from the swamp.
Demons were born from miasma that reached a certain density.
Furthermore, Alberto, the Captain of the 3rd Knight Order, went on the subjugation mission with Sei and reported that the miasma was thicker the closer they got to the swamp.
The second reason was that after the swamp disappeared, the sp.a.w.n rate of demons decreased as well.
It is unclear when the swamp appeared in the West Forest, but since its annihilation, the number of demons had decreased.
The people who were observing the area had reported that the miasma around that area had thinned out with time.
It was called a swamp because it was dark and stagnated, but it was like a fountain that gushed out miasma.
The Court Mage Division’s Head Magician, Yuuri, also reported his own opinion of the swamp.
It was possible to imagine that a similar swamp had appeared at Klaussner, from the pet.i.tion.
If so, then there was only one solution.
The King wasn’t the only one who thought that, the Prime Minister also saw what he was thinking and spoke, “We might also need the【Saint】-sama on this expedition.”
The King nodded.
It wasn’t a decision and although they thought of a solution, the mood around the King and Prime Minister remained unchanged.
The King and Prime Minister discussed more about what they should do, as a heavy atmosphere surrounded them.