Regressor Of The Fallen Family [EN]: Chapter 44

Logan stood in his planning room, pointing at a map on the table. Hamar the dwarf and Clayton the wizard looked at him, their faces showing disbelief.

Hamar the dwarf frowned, looking at the map. “You want to make a hole through the mountain?”

Clayton the wizard chuckled, shaking his head. “And bring river water through it? Like some kind of water gate? Heh heh heh.”

Both of them looked at Logan, clearly thinking he was crazy.

Logan chuckled at their reaction, replying confidently, “It’s entirely possible. So, I’d like you to proceed with it.”

He couldn’t really blame Hamar and Clayton for their reactions.

The McLaine territory was bordered to the south by the Southern Mountains, which seemed to go on forever, and to the north by some shallow hills. These hills blocked the Luther River from flowing south.

There were no rivers to the east or west that people could easily reach. That’s why the land outside the castle was dry and cracked, like a giant’s broken plate. Dust devils danced in the wind, and only tough, grey bushes dared to grow.

Logan was suggesting they dig a big hole through the northern hills to bring river water through.

To the people of that time, the idea of flattening the mountain might have seemed more realistic.

But Logan kept explaining his idea without hesitation.

“We will dig a big tunnel, about 30 meters wide, straight to the Luther River. This tunnel will have a gate to control the water flow, like a dam. People in the west use this idea to manage water.”

Small dams were probably already being used in some areas of the western continent, so he wasn’t completely wrong. But it was more like a water management method that would become popular in the Empire twenty years later.

This plan was based on a dam he had seen at a fortress in the northern Empire. It used a mountain as a natural wall and created a water gate by digging a tunnel.

‘Of course, I don’t know all the details about how to build it.’

But Logan had a dwarf and a wizard to help.

In the future, the Empire would be able to do huge projects, like changing the path of a large river, in just a few months.

But right now, McLaine didn’t need anything that big.

‘We only need a little bit of the Luther River to flow through.’

If that happened, the wasteland west of McLaine Castle could become good farmland.

Of course, he knew it wouldn’t be easy. That’s why he planned to use a lot of magic scrolls and wizards, and even make the people in the territory help with the construction.

“Heh heh……”

Even after hearing the explanation, Clayton looked unsure. But Hamar was different.

“……We’ll need to choose the location carefully. The ground condition will be important. We also need to consider the water level and waterways. Hmm, to prevent that tunnel from collapsing, we’ll need to build an arched structure and get help from the wizards……”

Hamar frowned, his brow furrowed in concentration. He tapped his fingers on the table, his eyes unfocused as he pictured the mountain in his mind. Slowly, his frown softened, and a flicker of understanding appeared in his eyes.

Clayton stared at Hamar, surprised, and Logan’s face lit up.

“Does that mean it’s possible?”

“Huh? Ah……. Haha. What did I say? Hahaha. I’ve been spouting nonsense lately without realizing it.”

“No, even I, who doesn’t know much about construction, thought it sounded plausible.”

“Haha… Maybe I’ve been in the mines too long. I must be losing my mind, right?” Hamar chuckled nervously, rubbing the back of his neck.

Logan grabbed his hand.

“Yes, I knew it was possible. I’ve seen things much bigger than this!”

“……Pardon?”

Hamar asked, looking confused, but Logan didn’t seem to hear him.

“Humans have built things tens of times bigger, so there’s no way a dwarf can’t do it. Right?”

In fact, if Hamar said he couldn’t do it, Logan was planning to just flatten a small mountain and dig a waterway.

It would take a lot of time, but it was a sure way to do it, even for someone without any special knowledge.

‘But it would have cost a lot more money.’

Maybe people would have told him to just buy a hundred years’ worth of food with that money.

If they didn’t know he was preparing for war, that is.

Because of Logan’s confident expression, Hamar’s face gradually turned pale.

“I, it’s poss, possible, I think……”

Foolish pride ignored the screaming reason and blurted out nonsense.

“It will require a tremendous amount of manpower and money! It’s easier said than done to bore through a mountain……”

Reason, having quickly regained its senses, struggled desperately, but it was already too late.

“We have magic scrolls and wizards.”

“It’s not something that can be done with one or two scrolls……”

“120 per month.”

“Pardon?”

“120 4th Circle Collapse scrolls every month. That’s enough to use four every day without rest. Besides, we have Clayton here, a 5th Circle wizard. Isn’t that enough?”

Thus, Reason’s last struggle collapsed futilely.

“Now, we need to find a mountain suitable for boring that tunnel. The place we can bore through the fastest.”

There was still time left before the food and scrolls arrived anyway.

They could thoroughly prepare in the meantime.

“Don’t tell me…… I have to do that too?”

However, Logan knew nothing about the related knowledge either.

“Then who will?”

“Huuuugh.”

At Logan’s brazen question, Hamar slumped down on the spot powerlessly.

Two weeks later.

“Here, are you sure this is the right place?”

Logan asked, his face tired, as they stood on a ridge of the second lowest hill among the northern hills of McLaine.

For the past two weeks, Logan had been personally carrying Hamar on horseback. Hamar could only ride ponies because of his size, and he seemed to have lost his motivation because of all the work.

It was the only way to compare the location to the dam he had seen in the future, and to use the dwarf’s knowledge of geology.

And the result was Logan looking like a beggar.

“Ughhh. Yes. The ground and geology are uniform, and the altitude is low. And it’s close to the Luther River over there, so it’s good for digging waterways.”

Fortunately, Hamar finally nodded. He looked even more tired than Logan and seemed about to collapse at any moment, but he also had a slightly relieved expression.

“Okay, let’s go back and prepare for construction now.”

“Master, please! Can we just rest for a bit?” Hamar pleaded, his voice hoarse. “My legs feel like they’re going to fall off!”

Logan grinned, patting Hamar on the back. “Come on, dwarf. We’re almost there. Think of the river water! A little more work, and you can rest as much as you want.”

However, Logan, with an indifferent face and without answering, grabbed him onto the horse.

“It’s fortunate that it’s a low-lying area with a path up to the mountain. It will be easy to bore a tunnel.”

“That means the ground is harder! Don’t talk so easily when you’re not the one doing it!”

Ignoring the tired dwarf’s desperate cries, Logan spurred his horse towards the castle with a much more refreshed face.

Three days later, at sunrise, a sudden announcement echoed: “All those obligated to perform corvée labor are summoned to McLaine Castle, West Outer Gate, and Tesron Castle, East Outer Gate. Failure to comply without a valid reason will be punished…”

The sudden proclamation stirred up all the territory residents of both castles.

“In the end…….”

“The nobles are all the same.”

The residents of Tesron Castle, which felt like a conquered territory, felt like what they had feared was finally happening.

They began to be terrified, saying that the conqueror was finally starting to exploit them.

However, the atmosphere in McLaine Castle, the conqueror’s home, was even worse.

“Corvée labor. If I go to corvée labor at this time, my children will all starve to death!”

“I barely survived the war, and now the lord is trying to kill us. Alas…….”

“Should we run away?”

“Is there anywhere to live around here?”

“Are we being told to choose between dying while running away, dying while working, or starving to death?”

It was truly a bleak atmosphere, but they had no choice.

The only places to escape were the Southern Mountains, where monsters roamed, or the wasteland where farming was impossible.

It was literally a situation where they had to choose how to die.

The territory residents, who had lived passively all their lives, had no choice but to obey the ruler’s orders, even amidst despairing imaginations.

Three days later. In front of the castle gate.

“Depending on the situation, we can run away…….”

“Or maybe deliberately get injured and rest…….”

Some of the gathered territory residents were looking around anxiously, seeking a way to survive.

“If I go to corvée labor, my children will all starve to death! Please stop it! My lord!”

“We’re just barely surviving on porridge because there’s no food! We don’t even have the strength to do corvée labor!”

Some were shouting and protesting, whether they had lost their fear or were just that desperate.

With nearly 4,000 of them gathered, the atmosphere naturally gradually turned into chaos. Fear and confusion filled the air as they awaited their fate.

“With this many people, we could actually fight back, couldn’t we?”

“Even so, if the knights come barging in…”

“We’re going to die anyway, aren’t we?”

“Yeah. Might as well take a chance this time…”

The feeling of wanting to rebel grew stronger in the crowd. Some people’s eyes shone with a wild light, especially those who were easily swayed.

From his spot on the castle wall, Dwayne sighed. He watched the worried faces of the people gathered outside McLaine Castle’s gate. Dust swirled around their feet, and the air felt heavy with unspoken anger.

“Did we really have to force people to join?” Dwayne asked. “Couldn’t we have just given out food and asked them to come?”

“If we did that,” Logan replied, “we wouldn’t have even half this many people here.”

“Sorry, what do you mean?” Dwayne frowned, confused.

Logan smiled, but it wasn’t a happy smile. “Because they wouldn’t believe us.”

“What? That can’t be. Not to boast, but our territory has always been managed fairly and smoothly.”

“I know that, but this isn’t about managing well or poorly.”

Logan knew very well that his father would never exploit the people of the territory for unreasonable or unjust reasons.

The McLaine family’s decline had started because of bad things an ancestor did four generations ago.

Back then, the Earl of McLaine, who was still an earl, took too much from the people because he was greedy and started a war. But he was betrayed and suffered a big defeat, which hurt the territory even more.

The next Earl of McLaine, three generations ago, tried to fix things by being even more ruthless. He exploited the people like an evil noble to start another war, but he failed again. Even the people who worked for him turned against him.

That’s why the main family of McLaine ended up living in McLaine Castle, which had only been used as a fortress before.

So, the current head of the family, Patrick McLaine, didn’t want to make the same mistakes as his ancestors, and he never has. Logan was sure of that.

“It’s because of another main problem.”

“Yes? What is it?”

“Because we are nobles.”

Logan had spent a long time living as a commoner, wandering around as a mercenary in his past life.

Nobles thought of the territory’s people as their property. Nobles who thought they were reasonable believed that protecting the territory’s people was their duty and felt they were doing a good job.

‘Just like our father.’

But to the common people, the only difference between a good noble and a bad noble was who took less and who took more.

Dwayne didn’t understand that difference.

“What does that matter? Even though it’s poor land, I’m proud to say we’ve used the best ways to run things. It can’t be!”

Dwayne felt like everything he believed was wrong, and he couldn’t help but get angry.

“Father thinks most about the people of the territory? No. It’s the knights.”

“T-that’s because the head of the family…”

“In this poor land, policies that are a little better than normal just mean life is a little less hard here.”

Dwayne had to be quiet after hearing those words he couldn’t argue with.

Patrick McLaine believed that the family’s strength depended on the knights.

That’s why he kept over 50 knights, even though he was having trouble with money.

The knights’ salaries cost more than 1.5 million gold each year.

More than half of the territory’s money went to the knights’ salaries.

The sad truth was that even with all that money, the McLaine knights’ salaries were lower than in other territories.

So, he couldn’t blame the knights.

As the finance manager, Dwayne knew that the territory would have run out of money a long time ago without Kairos’s help, so he couldn’t argue with Logan anymore.

“So, he’s forcing them to gather to show them himself. To make them believe.”

“Heh heh…”

“Well, it’s time. Watch and see.”

As Logan said this, Dwayne looked below the castle walls.

Creak… creak…

“T-the castle gate is opening!”

“Everyone knows, right? We live if we stick together, we die if we scatter!”

“Yeah. We’re all going to die anyway. Why are they making us work like this now!”

“Alright, everyone, focus! Get ready!”

They were farmers who had never been trained properly, but the fear of starvation and death made them determined.

The people of the territory patted each other’s backs and glared at the castle gate with an angry feeling that could lead to violence.

Thud… thud…

Boom.

The castle gate opened, and many wagons appeared.

“Giddy up! Let’s go!”

“Hurry!”

Neigh.

Under the command of a few knights in armor, a long line of wagons came from inside the castle, from the east gate, and kept approaching the castle gate.

“W-what is all that?”

“Looks like grain…?”

The people of the territory became more and more worried at the sight they had never seen before, and the area in front of the castle gate became noisy.

“Where is all that going?”

“Is it coming this way?”

The angry feeling that had slowly grown in the eyes of the surprised people faded away.

Neigh.

“Stop!”

“Alright, get ready to give it out!”

Sacks of grain were taken off the wagons and carts. Unfamiliar porters carried the sacks and started piling them up in front of the people.

“W-what is this?”

“Could it be that they’re giving that to us?”

“Don’t even dream about it! What kind of people are nobles…”

“But why now?”

“W-well.”

The people started to hope, one by one.

Tables were placed in front of them, and sacks of grain were piled up behind them. Their hopes grew even stronger.

Soon, one of the knights shouted in a loud voice.

“By order of Grand Duke Logan, those who help with the work will get enough grain to feed their whole family for a month!”

There was silence for a moment because they didn’t expect this.

But that silence quickly turned into an even bigger uproar than before.

“W-what did he just say?”

“It sounds like they’re giving out grain?”

“Really?”

“We will start giving it out now. Line up in order!”

The knight shouted again to the confused people.

Waaah!

The people shouted loudly and rushed towards the tables.

“Stop! We won’t give anything out if you don’t line up! Hey, you there! Get in line!”

Five knights stepped forward to show how serious they were, and they quickly stopped the chaos that was about to become a riot.

“It’s real grain! Are you really just giving it away?”

“Yes. You can get it every month if you help with the construction.”

“E-every month?!”

“It is the Grand Duke’s order.”

“Hic. I-I’m saved.”

“Thank you, Knight!”

“It is not my order, but the Grand Duke’s!”

“Thank you anyway! Really…”

As the people received grain, they stopped being suspicious, and they cheered louder and louder.

And finally.

Long live Logan McLaine!

The area in front of the outer castle was filled with praise for Logan, who had started this.