The Agony of Knowledge
Chloe did her best not to look pathetic, but the question was doomed to make her seem exactly that.
“Of course, to you, my lord, it may be a trivial sum, but countless commoners live on just five bronze a month.”
Just how much is one bronze in Korean money, anyway?
Chloe racked her brain, but no answer came. With no other choice, she decided to lean fully into foolishness.
“What exactly can you buy with one bronze?”
“Hmm… three slices of bread, one jug of goat’s milk, and half a sack of coarse wheat, roughly?”
Three slices of bread for one bronze. That put it somewhere around ten thousand won. So these people survived an entire month on fifty thousand won?
Chloe was startled for a moment, but as she reflected on her own past, she quickly understood. She had once lived on forty thousand won a month for food. Boiling a single pack of ramen for breakfast, saving the broth, then reheating it at night to pour over rice had been routine. The realization made the territory residents’ harsh lives feel painfully real.
When Chloe offered no reply, Scrooge kept speaking, his frustrated expression never easing.
“But after such a long drought, even that has become difficult. Most of them have not held even a single bronze in a very long time, let alone five.”
Chloe’s gaze drifted back to the carriage window. Vast coniferous forests stretched in every direction. The wide fields showed no trace of green, only thickets of dry weeds. Neither the soil nor the climate looked suited for farming.
Ah! That’s right—the geography knowledge about the Grace Territory!
While staring blankly at the endless land in quiet desperation, Chloe remembered the information she had purchased with hidden points not long ago. She glanced at the now-silent Scrooge and called silently for the status window.
Would you like to view the terrain information (Level 1) recently purchased with hidden points?
The status window, as if reading her mind, posed exactly the question she needed. Chloe nodded quickly.
With a loud chwa-ra-ra-ra-rak, the window unfolded square panels downward in a noisy cascade. Chloe examined the tiny boxes carefully and was stunned by the dense text packed inside each one.
Don’t tell me I have to read and memorize all of this?
Of course not. After analyzing the user, the system estimates it would take approximately five years to read and fully acquire Level 1 terrain knowledge. For efficient delivery, the information will be batch-stored directly into the user’s mind.
It definitely sounded like the system was mocking her for being slow. Still, it wasn’t wrong, so Chloe pressed her lips together and glared at the busy window.
After ten full minutes of unfolding panels, the status window finally stopped. The squares that had spilled onto the carriage floor covered every inch and still overflowed, piling onto Scrooge’s feet. As with the window itself, it seemed only Chloe could see them.
Begin acquisition? Please answer yes or no.
There was no reason to hesitate. Yes.
Forced acquisition selected. The process will take approximately ten minutes. Please be advised that mild nausea and headaches may occur during transfer.
Forced acquisition? The wording felt ominous. An unpleasant image of her skull being pried open and knowledge forcibly crammed inside flashed through her mind. While she fidgeted anxiously, the system continued its explanation.
The side effects sounded better than she had feared. Chloe took a deep breath. If it was a matter of enduring pain, she was more confident than anyone. After all, pretending nothing hurt was the one skill she had truly mastered. To avoid getting fired from part-time jobs, she had often forced herself to smile through pain—a hard-earned, bittersweet specialty.
Soon the letters scattered across the floor began to wriggle like ants. Then, with a loud shwooooosh, they flew toward her like dust sucked into a vacuum, pouring straight into the space between her brows.
Huh? Wait—!
At first it felt refreshingly cool. She thought the side effects might not apply to her after all. But suddenly one cluster of characters jammed in her forehead with a heavy thud.
“Uuuuurgh!”
An unbearable wave of nausea crashed over her.
“My lord! Stop the carriage at once!”
A startled Scrooge shot to his feet, checked Chloe’s condition, and pounded rapidly on the carriage wall.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Each knock felt like her skull was splitting open. It was as if someone were hammering the crown of her head with a small axe.
This is what they call a mild headache?
“You damn con artist! You swindling bastard! Uuuuurgh!”
“M-My lord?”
At Chloe’s anguished cry while clutching her head, Scrooge—who had been supporting her—collapsed onto the carriage floor in shock.
The headache stopped exactly ten minutes later.
For the entire ten minutes she had retched nonstop like someone suffering morning sickness, clutched her head in torment, then retched again in an endless cycle. Scrooge suggested turning back to consult a physician, but Chloe firmly refused.
“My lord, are you truly all right?”
Scrooge asked in a worried voice as he looked at Chloe slumped limply against the carriage seat like someone completely drained.
“I’m fine. It doesn’t hurt at all.”
Her face was pale and sweat beaded on her forehead, yet she genuinely seemed better than moments before.
“Wouldn’t it be wiser to turn back now?”
Visiting the residents was important, but if the lord’s health was poor, forcing the trip was out of the question.
“I’m really okay.”
Chloe even managed a bright smile as she answered. Scrooge’s eyes remained full of concern, but since the lord insisted she was fine, he had no choice but to nod.
“Understood. However, you must still receive a proper examination from the physician later. I cannot compromise on this.”
Scrooge spoke with firm determination.
“All right. I will.”
How long had it been since someone worried about her like this?
Even though strength had not yet returned to her limbs, the lingering headache vanished the instant she saw Scrooge’s anxious, almost fatherly gaze. The knowledge that came with Level 1 was staggering in volume. Quite apart from that, she was deeply resentful that the system had casually dismissed such excruciating pain as a “slight headache.” Still, there was nothing she could do about it. After taking a deep breath, Chloe recalled the information she had endured so much to obtain.
She searched for anything immediately useful from the terrain knowledge and found several key points.
Grace Territory Terrain Knowledge — Level 1
Limited to Morta and parts of the Condal region. Includes select climate data.
Four seasons present. (Cool summers. Extreme cold requires caution.)
Well-developed coniferous forests.
Cold climate results in low evaporation. Precipitation is low, yet dense forests provide abundant water. (Recent drought has caused rivers to run dry.)
Soil generally unsuitable for farming. (Possible in limited areas.)
Traveling north reveals more than half the region covered in snowfields.
Small number of territory residents live in snowfield zones. Home to reindeer, snow rabbits, snow-flower foxes, and similar wildlife.
Morta Region Characteristics
1. Soil unsuitable for farming, but can be transformed through specific processes to support various field crops.
2. Possesses the Forest of Healing — the giant coniferous wood known as the Black Forest or Monster Forest. Green sap harvested from needle-tree cross-sections has excellent wound-healing properties, but its foul odor can severely damage vision and the respiratory system.
3. Natural Dural cultivation zone present — primary food source for lesser monsters, yet safe for human consumption.
4. When darkness falls, keep distance from the Black Forest.
5. The pure-white lands yield resources of 00 distinct varieties.
6. In the midst of barren fields, seek groundwater (streams originating from snowfields) and damp soil.
30. Numerous Moho moss habitats.
Condal Region Characteristics
1. Mostly flat terrain.
2. Dry, nutrient-poor soil unsuitable for farming. Limited crops possible.
3. Groundwater flows beneath well-draining soil atop solid bedrock.
30. Clearing Moho moss habitats for fields enables Dural cultivation.
Of all the information, the one that caught Chloe’s eye most was the plant called Dural.
It’s edible?
But the name sounded strange.
“Dural? What is this? Does it look like a pair of balls or something? If so, I don’t think I’d want to eat it.”
For Level 1 knowledge, there was quite a lot of useful information. While she pondered pleasantly which part to use first, the carriage carrying Chloe arrived at the entrance of Morta Village.
The moment the lord’s carriage stopped, the villagers rushed toward it as if they had been waiting.
“The lord has arrived!”
“My lord!”
Even as the knights held them back, Chloe stared with dazed eyes at the people greeting her with loud, joyful voices.
It was the first time anyone had welcomed her so warmly.