Chapter 141 — Just Bad Luck (1)
"Farming on this land is impossible."
An old man shook his head.
His hair was pure white and his face heavily wrinkled, but his voice was still vigorous.
Above all, his seasoned presence was remarkable.
The composure and nerve of one who had lived long years and was no longer greatly surprised by anything.
Without that,
he could never have remained so calm while everyone else trembled before the emperor.
To the official who beheld the imperial countenance for the first time, that human's words were like a calamity.
Fearing disgrace before the emperor, the official spoke sharply.
"What nonsense! What could the likes of you possibly know?"
"Yet the old man, without a trace of intimidation,"
posed another question to the official. The goblin official glared with eyes that seemed about to pop out.
The documents in his hands trembled with rage. They were the papers containing details on the test plot to be reported to the emperor.
Without even noticing the papers crumpling, the goblin stared at the human as if he would devour him.
"You have lost your fear."
It was just as he was about to step forward.
Beside him,
a low, gentle voice was heard.
"Old man. Why do you think so? If the soil here is strange, that can be resolved with magic. That is the purpose of this test, after all."
Everyone turned to look at the emperor with astonished eyes.
The human elder who had spoken brusquely to the official also seemed to recognize the emperor alone, bowing that stiff neck deeply as he spoke.
"Yes. I received an explanation from the honored official. But that is not the issue. Has a crop ever grown here? It likely has not."
"What do you say?"
The goblin official, who had been quietly grinding his teeth, swallowed his anger and opened his mouth.
"Yes. It is not originally land used for growing crops."
Ten days prior.
The Duke had abruptly ordered to secure a plot of land as large as the imperial garden.
Although he was a Raju native who had never been to the imperial palace, the official could at least imagine how vast the imperial garden would have to be at a minimum.
Even the garden within the Raju lord's castle was a magical space unseen elsewhere in Raju. The vast grounds were entirely covered in green.
The imperial garden would have to be larger than that at a minimum.
And Raju was a city.
Usable land was already full of people.
As soon as he received the specific figures, the goblin official, who had frantically searched for vacant land within the city, repeatedly apologized to the Duke. In the end, he barely managed to find an empty lot outside the castle, on the outskirts bordering on the slums.
It was fairly close to the riverside and the space was wide.
The goblin official, confident it would perfectly suit the tastes of the Duke and the Emperor, had already received a noble title and taken the chancellor's seat in his imagination.
But then a human he had never seen before,
a human who didn't even seem to possess much strength, appeared and was trampling his brilliant future into the mud.
"How did you know, old man?"
Roan asked quietly.
The old man then explained calmly.
"The topography is poor. It is a spot with poor drainage, and the soil itself is poor, Your Majesty."
The goblin official's face, which had been turning red and blue, grew pale as he listened to the conversation between the emperor and the old man.
The East Yellow Territory was barren anyway.
Wasn't all land the same?
And hadn't he heard it was an experiment to turn barren land fertile so they could farm it?
Yet Roan, having listened to the old man, looked at the goblin standing stock-still in panic and said,
"It is not your fault. Securing such a large plot of land in ten days could not have been easy for you either. But it seems that among those gathered here now, none know the land better than this elder."
At those unbelievably gracious words,
the goblin prostrated himself flat, trembling uncontrollably.
"I suppose we learn as we go. In any case, that means we must find new land..."
Upon hearing this, the Lord of the East Yellow Territory bowed his head, and all the officials, lords, and tribal representatives also bowed.
Only Aina and Diobe, standing far behind the emperor, watched the bowing demons with slight smiles.
"Would the elder happen to have a method?"
"Normally, farmland is inherited through generations or has a previous owner, so one can easily ascertain the soil quality. If that is not the case and it must be newly reclaimed..."
The old man, who had been searching his distant memories, only answered when the patience of the silently bowing demons was beginning to wear thin.
"One must personally travel around and search, Your Majesty."
So it would take that much time!
At the fact that the emperor had been kept waiting, the demons bared their fangs. Diobe flinched and grew tense at their momentum.
They could not know that the old man had taken time because he was mentally enumerating one by one the conditions of land suitable for reclamation.
However, Roan's virtue was patient and Attentive Hearing.
He answered without any particular question or demand.
"Understood."
And then, Roan's command fell like an abstraction.
"It seems finding suitable land first must be the priority. The person in charge shall be this elder, and together with the humans he designates, find land suitable for the test."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
Rumors in this era were always a step slow and inaccurate.
The rumors about a merciful emperor who had belatedly hired humans had only just reached the East Yellow Territory, replacing the tales of a cruel emperor.
The demons, who had half-believed and half-doubted such talk, were astonished by the emperor's attitude, which they could never have dreamed of.
Roan's next words were even more astonishing to the demons.
"I do not wish to rush, but time is precious to me as well. Spring will arrive soon, so results must be achieved before then. I would appreciate haste."
Someone began to hiccup in surprise.
It was not a threat that heads would roll if not done by tomorrow, nor an order to accomplish it immediately.
Even the Lord of the East Yellow Territory, known as a lord who refrained from unreasonable pressure, did not issue commands in so gentle a tone.
With the blood drained from his face so that his green face turned pale green, the goblin official answered in a trembling voice.
"I shall keep it... in mind. Your Majesty."
"Good. Then let Diobe accompany the humans."
"Your Majesty. I have a request."
Upon hearing the command, Diobe stepped forward one pace. The demons' eyes grew wide. Only those who had come from Basel watched this scene without surprise.
At the sight of a human standing fearlessly before the emperor, the demons of the East Yellow Territory, including the Duke, looked at Diobe with wonder.
The Lord of the East Yellow Territory had seen human servants working in the Basel palace before, but they had only ever worked without a word.
"Speak."
"Though it is the lofty command of Your Majesty, there may be demon folk who are startled at seeing a human for the first time. Might I possibly receive help from other demon soldiers or knights?"
"Hm."
Diobe's request was reasonable.
Roan shifted his gaze to the Duke, and the Duke likewise nodded as if in agreement.
"Understood. Vice-Commander Yurus, assign two men and ensure there is no problem for the humans' work. They are individuals His Majesty has personally brought."
"Yes."
The scarred knight who answered was the one who had guided Roan into the desert. It seemed he was the vice-commander of the East Yellow Territory Knight Order.
As he disappeared with Diobe to lead the humans away, Roan shrugged his shoulders slightly.
"Not easy from the start."
"I am mortified, Your Majesty. It is my fault for failing to properly divine Your Majesty's will and issuing an ambiguous command."
The demons arrayed beside and behind them witnessed yet another precious sight.
In this East Yellow Territory, the sky-like Duke was repeatedly bowing his head.
The only time he apologized was when dealing with his wives.
In any other case, the Lord of the East Yellow Territory never bowed his head to anyone.
Everything he did became right, even if it was wrong.
A great lord within his domain was such an existence.
Yet Heaven Beyond Heaven.
No matter how sky-like a great lord, he bowed his head before the emperor.
And Roan shook his head.
"No. Both you and the official in charge have labored. Securing even this much land in such a bustling city could not have been easy. In the first place, someone capable of recognizing such things at a glance would not be working as an official."
"Thank you for your generous words."
Already, a week had passed in March.
Though his heart was urgent, speaking of it to anyone would not help.
Roan suppressed his emotions to the degree of faintly furrowing his brows.
**
Fortunate news flew in.
Just a few hours into the humans' and official's uneasy joint excursion, a report arrived that land suitable for planting crops had been found.
"...That was fast."
"Yes. The old man who offered counsel to Your Majesty presented several conditions, and because the land meeting those conditions was limited in this vicinity, they did not have to travel far. Thanks to that, much time was saved."
Having heard the details, the Duke of the Desert Blade reported to the emperor.
As if he had prepared a checklist beforehand,
the old man had recited several essential conditions before the official and asked him to find only a place matching them.
The number of candidate sites meeting the conditions was small, and by good fortune, the very first place they inspected had been selected.
Of course, they had to give up one condition the old man hadn't taken into account....
"Will it not be uncomfortable?"
The Duke asked cautiously.
The candidate site, satisfactory in wind, drainage, and sunlight, was an hour's carriage ride from Raju Castle. Riding a Ker at full speed would take about ten minutes, but not everyone was as skilled in riding kers as Roan.
Originally, Roan and the humans were scheduled to stay at the lord's castle. But the farmers had requested to stay as close to the field as possible, and there was no inn or private house nearby.
So the Duke's soldiers were hastily erecting large tents to create a lodging.
Once the crops were planted, time-acceleration magic would be activated from the Count's equipment, shortening the cultivation period.
Therefore, even outside the hours of instructing the demons, the farmers had to occasionally visit the field to inspect its condition.
In other words, Roan, who had to make observations and handle the equipment in the Count's stead, also had to stay near the field for a while.
Of course, Roan was not greatly inconvenienced.
Throwing away two hours round trip on the roadside was wasteful whether by subway or by carriage.
Moreover, though he had never farmed, he at least knew one had to be diligent.
How unsightly it would be to saunter in late, claiming it was fitting for the emperor. He would lose face.
"It does not matter."
Tent life? He had once slept curled up like a caterpillar on frozen ground, relying on a pitiful groundsheet and sleeping bag.
And was this not the emperor's tent?
It was certain to be more luxurious than Erenier's tent, which he had glimpsed through a magic orb.
He had urged them many times not to make it luxurious, but it would surely not be followed. Most likely.
And the very next day.
Roan and the demons arrived at their new lodgings.
They would not share the same room, but for a while it would be a group stay.
"You have toiled greatly."
Praising the soldiers who had created a plausible lodging in a single night, Roan gazed at the dry, crumbling land sparsely covered with shrubs.
To Roan, who had been imagining the dark-soiled fields occasionally seen on trips to the countryside, it was an unexpected sight.
"Then, first, I shall explain why this topography was chosen."
A youth with a muscular build stepped one pace forward from the group of humans.
Broad-shouldered with bronzed skin. For a human, he looked like a young man who had heard he was fairly strong.
The old man sat at the back among the humans, his eyes shining as he watched the youth.
"The best land is land where plants have grown. Roots must create spaces so water can be stored and absorbed. It suffers less from drought and absorbs nutrients applied to the soil better. There are several other matters that must be considered."
At the lecture that had begun suddenly, the demons blinked vacantly and looked at each other.
Roan, watching this scene from the very back, chuckled inadvertently.
It reminded him of the bewildered recruits on the first day of training camp. Fortunately, this instructor was not shouting and was not like a demon.
In conclusion,
even a soft-spoken tone was enough to torment recruits.
The explanation began to grow longer than expected.
What kind of topography should be sought.
What elements to consider first, and which crops to cultivate if the conditions did not match.
How to practice mixed cropping once the crops had grown to a certain degree, to maintain the strength of the land.
Embarrassingly, by the tail end of the explanation, Roan, too, had lost focus for a moment.
The demons who had risen at dawn and gathered at the empty lot were blankly listening to the instructor's explanation as if entranced.
'Should I have brought a notebook?'
Just as Roan was thinking he should at least prepare desks and chairs,
one demon who could no longer contain his irritation finally shouted in rage.
"We did not come here to listen to this nonsense! When will the crops be planted!"
The humans flinched at the demon's roar,
and Diobe's eyes turned fierce.
As Roan slowly turned his face toward the one who had shouted, the demon who had raised his voice finally flinched and gauged the emperor's expression.
But it was a human who had shouted in return.
"Does wheat become bread if you simply burn it! Only by milling it and preparing it step by step does something come of it!"
At the old man's thunderous words, Roan could only stare at him, blinking with rounded eyes.