The Shadowed Legacy of the Soulless Messenger [EN]: Chapter 445

The herald clans say:

The reign of Emperor Yaeslat was a golden age.

In the era when the new kings of the eight kingdoms competed for their own hegemony, it was common for grain to rot in places with good harvests, while in places with poor harvests, parents would eat their children to survive.

The Emperor united those eight kingdoms into one, transporting grain from the granaries and ore from the mining areas, laying the foundation for prosperity.

However, even during the Emperor’s reign, people often starved to death.

The Emperor loved only his own hegemony. Of course, his hegemony included the people, but it was like the affection given to livestock, something that could be slaughtered with tears if necessary.

But what about Azadin?

‘To be honest, the food situation has actually improved since Naisandokar was attacked. If that hadn’t happened, we wouldn’t have made it through this year,’ Midiam said coldly.

Naisandokar is a rear area where Azadin trains refugee soldiers. It’s a place where refugees who have just gathered from various places are trained, and their families earn wages by logging and reclaiming land.

Azadin gave the people jobs as soldiers to prevent them from feeling useless, and he hired people to log, reclaim land, and build and repair roads.

He employed people in large-scale civil engineering projects, but the value of the grain consumed was greater than the wealth the kingdom earned.

It got so bad that even those who smuggled grain appeared.

Originally, land transportation could run a deficit even for moderately luxurious goods.

Smuggling something like grain, which is low in price but heavy and bulky and difficult to transport, by land is something that cannot be profitable without forming a large-scale transport caravan.

However, because the price of grain in Azadin’s territory was much lower than elsewhere, smugglers went out of their way to come to Azadin’s kingdom to smuggle food.

The Chita Kingdom killed them.

They massacred a large number of new recruits and kidnapped residents, and as a result, many of the refugees who had gathered in Naisandokar scattered, which actually improved the kingdom’s food situation.

‘To be honest, hiring refugees and giving them work was a waste.’

‘They were mouths we had to feed anyway. Of course, they eat more if they work, but even if we told people to lie down like corpses and eat only the bare minimum to save food, they wouldn’t do it.’

‘Yes. We have to give them food anyway since we’ve taken them in. But the problem is humility,’ Midiam said coldly.

‘The refugees don’t appreciate what they’re given. They think they’re receiving their rightful due, so if even a slightly bad rumor spreads, they immediately start saying things like, ‘They have no soul.’ I can laugh it off if they insult me. But Your Majesty, I can’t stand it when they say ungrateful things to you.’

As the queen, Midiam worked hard on the kingdom’s internal affairs and often heard rumors from the city.

Every time she heard how carelessly the residents gossiped about Azadin and herself, she felt a chill run down her spine.

Azadin’s statecraft was a gamble.

He was somehow scraping together food from here and there to put in the mouths of the people, but the people didn’t appreciate Azadin.

Because they were the ones doing all the work, such as logging, land reclamation, civil engineering, and war.

In the current situation, it was a useless job, something he was doing only to encourage the people’s will to live, but they had no humility.

What was even more infuriating and unfair was that these were the same cowards who couldn’t even open their mouths when other Yaegas kings ruled.

They were being vile and talking recklessly because they weren’t being punished.

‘Midiam, that’s just how humans are,’ Azadin said with a bitter smile.

‘You shouldn’t expect gratitude or pity from those you show mercy to.’

‘So, are you saying we should just endure it even if they insult us? Those ungrateful people?’

‘No, there’s nothing to endure or not. Midiam, let’s not get into emotional fights with the people. Just let it go. If they’re openly rude to us in front of us, I won’t stand still, but that’s not the case, is it? It’s wrong to want people to sincerely admire me from the bottom of their hearts and love me. People can curse even a king if he’s not around.’

‘But I want you to be loved by everyone! Why do you love them so much, but they don’t know it? Every time I organize the ledgers, there’s no income, and the expenses are like pulling out the foundation, and we’re scraping together every grain of food, so why should you be treated like this?’

‘Ha, haha.’

Azadin burst out laughing as he watched Midiam, who was even tearing up and upset for him.

Her appearance, so upset for him, was incredibly lovely.

That alone made Azadin feel like all his past hardships had been rewarded.

However, to Midiam, Azadin’s laughter seemed frivolous.

‘Well, I don’t love everyone that much, so it would be a problem if I were really loved by everyone. I wouldn’t dare wish for that.’

‘Is that so? But at this rate, we’ll run out of food and perish. And when that happens, people won’t even think about how we fed them all this time, and they’ll blame us.’

‘I have a plan for that.’

‘It seems like there’s no plan even if the sky were to split open. Are you lying to reassure me? If you’re relying on the Sunwoo’s Sun, it’s not that helpful for growing food. My clan has used it, and it’s only enough to warm a castle. Of course, it could run a farm to some extent, though.’

It was quite useful for heating to survive the cold.

However, the clan’s own investigation showed that it was unsuitable for growing crops and raising plants.

To ward off the cold and survive, people only needed to be in a densely packed area where heat could be distributed, but to farm, light and heat had to be applied to a much larger area.

The Sunwoo’s Sun could not cover such a large area, according to the herald clan’s research.

‘You found out without me telling you?’

‘Well, the clan is afraid of Your Majesty. They’ve been tormenting you since childhood, and they’ve actually been working with the Naga Empire and other cults, but now they’re trying to form an alliance with you, so they don’t know what you’re thinking. And it would be a problem if they thought the Sunwoo’s Sun was useless.’

‘No, it’s useful enough. Because this winter is going to be even harsher.’

Azadin sighed as he looked up at the sky.

*********

Even Azadin, who had seized the Gunan Knights Territory, famous for its granaries, was suffering from food shortages, so the other kingdoms, especially the northern kingdoms, were in even worse shape.

King Cohen Lionheart of Asander had foreseen this end of days and had built many warehouses long ago to store grain.

However, it was by no means enough to feed all the people.

No matter how much one foresaw the future, if grain was stored in warehouses for a long time, bugs and rats would infest it. Of course, investing such a huge amount of wealth in stockpiling would also put a serious strain on the kingdom’s finances.

Yet, the Northern Empire boasted that it had stored seven years’ worth of grain because the amount it had calculated was based solely on cities and towns.

The majority of residents who lived outside of cities and towns gave up farming, abandoned their homes, and tried desperately to flee to the cities, only to starve and freeze to death.

Those who could not endure the starvation and began to consume those corpses, human flesh, became corrupted, and the Kurt cult spread.

To become wererats and easily tear apart corpses.

To fill their bellies by eating even rotten flesh, people had no choice but to entrust their souls and bodies to the Kurt gods, and those who became corrupted and became cultists were directly subjugated by the King of Kings, the Northern Empire.

The king and nobles, and the cities chosen by them, were living lives that were not much different from before the disaster, except that it was a bit cold, but other places were turning into hell.

‘Our Majesty’s choice was a bit crazy, but when you look at this, it’s easy to understand,’ Sion Etar, a member of the merchant guild who was spying on the north, said as he stood in the capital of the magnificent and beautiful Asander Kingdom, the old city of Asendar, and looked around.

Although a blizzard was raging outside, the old Elven city, located in this sunken basin, was warm due to geothermal heat, and hot springs gushed out everywhere.

The roots of the lotus flowers that grew in the warm water were also a favorite food of the elves, and everything was prosperous and beautiful.

It was in stark contrast to the chaos he had seen on the way to this city.

The Northern Empire, which abandoned its people and stockpiled seven years’ worth of food, and Azadin, who took on all the people and was facing a famine.

Sion Etar’s thoughts deepened as he watched the different paths of the two kings.

‘From the perspective of a commoner’s conscience, King Azadin is right, but isn’t it more important for at least some to survive than for everyone to die equally? But this is only possible because the Northern Empire has power. Cultists are now active even within the cities. Even the Northern Empire, which has the strange title of King of Kings, must be burdened by the cultists active within the cities.’

But then, he saw foreigners in front of him.

The envoys of Tarasar and Karasar had come to Asander.

‘Ah. It’s starting,’ Sion Etar carefully observed the scene.

Since they were envoys of the kingdom, security was tight, but the trading house where Sion Etar was currently staying was located on the main street in front of the castle, which nobles heading to the royal palace had to pass through, so he could clearly see the movements of the official envoys.

The embassies and formal accommodations where the kingdom’s envoys could stay were also nearby, so it was a good place to see the movements of the envoys, ambassadors, and even their attendants coming and going from the kingdom.

From here, they would watch the envoys move and then coax information out of their attendants and servants.

The information they had gathered was as follows:

Asander was prepared for the Pimbulbert [a severe winter], but Tarasar and Karasar were not.

Chitai was also completely unprepared, but thanks to the spoils of war obtained from fighting against Azadin’s forces and the supplies provided by Asander, they were somehow preparing for the winter.

The problem was the other two kingdoms.

They were not bordering Azadin’s territory, so they could not prove their loyalty through war, and in the case of Karasar, the king had suddenly died, causing internal strife.

Of course, the Northern Empire, with its title of ‘King of Kings,’ had provided some aid to the other two kingdoms, but it was all just a drop in the bucket.

So, the other two kingdoms had come to Asander Castle to discuss additional aid and future plans.

‘That’s right. There’s no way you guys would be okay,’ Sion Etar thought with a sense of schadenfreude.

Azadin’s Banreung Kingdom was struggling to feed its people while constantly facing the looming threats, so there was no way these northern kingdoms would be normal.