CH 77.1

Caenista Capture Operation 2

Harvest time had arrived in Caenista Kingdom, the land ruled by the humans.

Thanks to the presence of the Beloved Child, the farmlands around the royal city had an unprecedentedly good harvest. Although the city still bears deep scars from the fire that ravaged the city and reconstruction is not yet complete, the stalls in the city are overflowing with food, and the city is beginning to regain its liveliness.

However, if you look closely, you can see adults dressed in rags sitting in alleys off the streets in King’s Landing, with lethargic faces.

The area outside the walls surrounding the city was inhabited by laborers and others of low status who had left the city. Although the area was not damaged by the fire, the number of vagrants had increased due to the influx of victims from the fire in the city, and many fights involving snatchers and robbers had caused merchandise to disappear from stalls, giving the area the appearance of a poor neighborhood.

Most of the land around the capital is the property of the upper-class nobles who live in the capital. They did not want to give their harvest to the affected people, but instead sold it at a high price to other areas where the harvest was poor.

In the periphery of the kingdom outside the capital, there were many areas where the harvest was less than half that of the previous year due to the decrease in the number of spirits. The lands ruled by some nobles who had received support from Flare and the lower nobles who had bought crops anticipating a bad harvest were still better off, but security deteriorated to the point where farmers, unable to make a living due to ever-increasing taxes and refugees from the capital, became wild thieves.

The people on the frontier, whose livelihood had been weakened by the departure of many subalterns and powerful adventurers, began to riot and skirmish with the knights of the fiefdom, and when the frontier lords asked the royal capital for support, it was brushed off.

The nobles and merchants in the capital, who had a good harvest, did not feel threatened. On the contrary, they saw the turmoil on the frontier as a good opportunity to make money.

Originally, the king did not have to do his royal duties because the senior nobles, such as the Prime Minister and the Duke of Prata, ran the kingdom, so until now, no major problems have arisen. This delayed the handling of the problem.

The royal family and the nobles of the capital have no sense of crisis. Tonight, too, a night party boasting of the nobles’ wealth was being held somewhere, and in the royal palace, night parties and tea ceremonies were being held every day in honor of Beloved Child Alice.

Even so, complaints and requests for assistance were received from the frontier, and in the capital, where only a minimum number of knights and soldiers were left to defeat the demons, the Prime Minister, the Marquis de Cadeau, disposed of the nobles who complained about the kingdom as a mob, in the name of maintaining security, but the Prime Minister alone was not enough to completely stop the rumours.

Alice Lannon Yogle, Viscountess Yogle. For her efforts in capturing Flare, who rebelled against the royal family, Alice replaced Flare as the Crown Prince’s official fiancée.

She was the only one who could deal with the mysterious decrease in the number of spirits that was consuming the kingdom as the [Beloved Child of the Spirits], the head of the Lannon Conglomerate, who had the royal family’s support, and the next queen, to whom many lustful nobles and wealthy people flocked. When Alice overheard one of them mention the growing dissatisfaction of the people, she smiled prettily and clapped her hands.

“Then let’s have an event at my graduation to relieve everyone’s resentment. How about we have the commoners join in the entertainment at our graduation party and behead Ms. Flare? Let’s see… admission is three small silver coins for adults and half price for children…”