Chapter 123: Milking Money (3)
“Ready to fire.”
Creak. Clank! Clank!
In the royal courtyard of Magenta. An officer’s voice rang aloud in the grand drill hall. 50 archers holding a crossbow turned the windlass at the voice. They put the fatal bolt on the string, and the sharp bolt head glinted against the light. Just then, the officer commanded in a serious tone.
“Fire!”
Thwack! Thwack!
More than 50 lethal bolts were fired in unison, each carrying a tension of 1,250 pounds. They all flew toward the same target: Queen Alicia Termina Magentano.
“…”
Queen Magentano’s eyes held a glint of ferociousness. The 50 archers that surrounded her were on a more elevated footing than hers, so the arrows were fired at a slanted angle. But it took only a split second to identify the trajectory of each bolt, hear the sound, and feel it. Her response was immediate.
Clank! Slash!
The moment her sword came out of its sheath, strands of her silver aura appeared.
Slash! Crack!
12 sword strikes in one blink. She slashed, struck, slayed upward, defended, spread, twisted, slayed, hit, stabbed, and divided. The aura of twelve strands roared, surrounding her with a storm, which turned into a soft breeze in no time.
Drop…
50 bolts, which were cut in exactly half, fell to her feet by dozens. But they weren’t just sliced in half. Nothing about it was random. It was cut at the same length and angle. Not a single bolt was exempted. But Queen Magentano looked bored and disinterested because what she did was nothing but some stretching of her muscles.
“Again. This time fire indiscriminately,” she ordered dryly.
The officer, who gulped as he saw her, turned toward the archers.
“Reload! Ready to fire!”
Creak. Clank!
The archers busied themselves with reloading and getting ready. Beside them was a pile of hundreds of bolts. This bolt was lethal enough to fatally pierce into heavy armor. Even though she was faced with such an intimidating situation, Queen Magentano breathed with aplomb. It was only obvious as this was her normal training routine, even though it doesn’t look like so to others.
This isn’t enough.
Queen Magentano told herself that she needed to grow stronger. She needed to get better at sword fighting. It wasn’t an option to relax and take things easy just because she rose to the level of a sword master. Otherwise, she could put herself to shame in the future.
I never wish to experience it again.
She recalled that day. It was the day the suspension bridge was finished. A banquet was held. She drank poison. Sir Kyle attacked her. The mere thought of the event overwhelmed her with shame and rage.
I’d received too much help.
A nameless knight, Javier, overpowered Sir Kyle, who was a sword master. And what about Lloyd, whom she had pegged as a simple young master? He showcased a technique she had never heard of. He absorbed mana around him in an indiscriminate manner and even bore a large hole through the banquet hall roof by emitting some powerful energy. And with what? Just a simple dinner knife.
Whereas I couldn’t do anything.
She was embarrassed by herself. She had gotten too relaxed, boasting that she was already a sword master. But now, ever since she recovered from the poisoning, she had been engrossed in training every day.
There are also several other matters giving me a headache.
She failed to receive any confession from Sir Kyle. Swordmasters had the power to build powerful psychological walls unique to them. Several drugs were put out in his system, and the confession magic was also employed to shatter them to pieces, and the process was likened to digging a thick steel wall with a spoon. But she didn’t give up. Dozens of magicians stuck to the job for almost a month. At last, they succeeded in disarming the psychological wall from Sir Kyle. But what has revealed in his heart frightened the queen.
Sir Kyle was… empty. Completely empty. He knew nothing.
To be technically correct, a part of his memory about the power behind the assassination attempt on the queen and their motivation behind it was completely erased by a powerful brainwashing spell. He didn’t remember anything. The only thing that remained was the strong will that had lived in his head for a long time: I will kill Queen Magentano according to his wish.
Something definitely is going on here.
Who could have cast a powerful brainwashing spell on Sir Kyle when he was a sword master? What for? She didn’t have an answer despite the countless investigations that were conducted. As though her head wasn’t aching with that alone, the east was going through turmoil.
Lloyd Frontera. His prediction was spot on.
The monster domino the sultan kingdom created in the east was much more substantial than she expected. The damage was considerably huge as 17 fiefdoms in the eastern range were annihilated.
Thwack! Fwish!
Another 50 bolts were fired while she was in a trance. And yet, despite the indiscriminate storm of arrows, her train of thought didn’t stop.
When I heard of his prediction, I thought it was just a potential disaster that could unfold. And I thought that its magnitude would be small enough for each fiefdom to adequately respond to. Who would have thought that it would be this destructive… This is clearly my fault.
She realized that she had thought too lightly of the incident.
Slash! Slash!
She wished that she could overcome this incident easily, like these bolts that sliced so smoothly in her hands.
“Your Majesty, Frontera barony has sent a response to your order.”
A clear voice echoed aloud in the corner of the training hall. The queen turned around to find an official hanging his head. She dropped her sword and wiped the sweat off her forehead.
“A response?” she said.
“Yes, Your Majesty. It has been sent through a carrier pigeon.”
“Bring it to me.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
She received the letter the palatial official held out and spread it out.
[I, your faithful subject Lloyd Frontera, express my sincere loyalty to Her Highness.]
She noticed that Lloyd’s handwriting was ugly, as though he had scribbled it. The corners of her eyes drooped in annoyance.
Loyalty? I do not think so.
She knew that Lloyd would never be a loyal person. Raising her guard hard, she went on to read.
[Today, I have gravely received your order and vowed to obey it to the best of my abilities. However, I do not have the money to do so.]
“…”
She couldn’t believe her eyes. She kept reading nonetheless.
[The state of the refugees flooding the fiefdom is wretched and sordid. The children are skins and bones, and the elderly have grown weak. They can only rise with the support of their children. In obedience to your dignified will, I yearn to feed them fully and clothe them warm. However, I do not have the money to do so.]
“Tsk.”
She was starting to see where he was heading. She continued to read.
[It is my sincere wish to overcome this disaster wisely. However, I am poor. It is my desire to be loyal to your will. However, I do not have the money for it. I do not have any food, clothes, or other basic necessities either. If there is anything I have, it is the ebullient and yearning loyalty toward Your Highness, and with it, I can only cry out Your Majesty’s name day and night toward the blinding and dark days ahead of me.]
“…”
Don’t do that please.
Queen Magentano sincerely wished to stop him, and she wanted to fold the letter and look at it no more. But Lloyd’s tenacious whining written in his letter was so appealing and forceful that she couldn’t pull her gaze away from it.
[Therefore, to overcome this wretched disaster as one, I have hung a painting of Your Majesty on my wall. Last night alone, I stood along with the starving refugees and gazed at your painting at length. Do you know what happened then? The boiling loyalty for Your Majesty wonderfully worked to erase the pang of hunger in the refugees!]
“…”
[The stinging pain of losing their home had the same effect. Just this morning, the refugees and I formed an organization called ‘XOXO Queen Magentano.’ Indeed, it is the organization, a fan club that strives to forget the pain of losing your home out of loyalty and affection toward Your Majesty.]
“…”
Hold on. What? Is he out of his mind?
[When a pang of hunger strikes, we gaze at Your Majesty’s painting. When pain rushes over us, we sing a song that celebrates Your Majesty. When the cold hits us, we count day and night how many days are left until your birthday. Once we do that, we smile in happiness in the clear hopes that our hunger, pain, and chills shall be forgotten.]
“…”
That sounds so sickening that it makes my hair stand.
[Certainly, it is not sickening. Every moment is fun. Every attempt feels anew. As I report to you, it dawned on me that being penniless has gifted the refugees and the fiefdom with happiness and enriched us with meaningful experiences. We are happy because we are poor and hungry. We are joyful because we are poor and sick. We are thrilled because we are poor and cold.]
“…”
Stop it, you weirdo.
[What is the good of having money anyway? What else matters more than our loyalty to Your Majesty? That alone shall be enough to overcome this starvation, agony, and cold. So that when the spring comes to bloom beautiful flowers on the land, your beautiful name shall be written on our skulls. Oh, oh! Your Majesty! Ah! Your Majesty!]
“…”
She was out of things to say, so her resigned eyes simply moved to the far bottom of the letter.
[P.S.—Your Majesty is aware that there are only a handful of fiefdoms that remain intact in the Cremona region aside from us, and it is in my knowledge as well. Therefore, please remember me, who carried you on my back! Should Your Majesty still remember a part of the warmth in that devoted back of this menial servant, please give us some money… along with the royal master blacksmith Corgidus…]
“Ha, haha…”
Laughter escaped Queen Magentano after she finished reading the letter. She wasn’t even dumbfounded anymore.
I made another mistake.
Queen Magentano realized that she shouldn’t have sent the royal order to the Frontera barony at all. But she did, eventually giving Lloyd a reason to confidently whine about his predicament to her.
Tsk. I would have paid little attention to his whining if I did not issue the royal order.
It never occurred to her that Lloyd would whine and wail about his situation the moment he received the letter. And never with this kind of force and tenacity.
I should scale up my assistance to him more than what I had in mind.
Otherwise, Lloyd may whine again. No, it was just obvious that he would do so, and it would be even worse next time. Queen Magentano didn’t wish to defile her eyes again as she read the letter once more. And so, she considered going all out in assisting him since she had meant to support him in the first place.
How about assigning the Frontera barony to act as the hub of rebuilding the Cremona region?
She recalled the news about the barony, about how it managed to defend monster invasions twice, and how it mastered a giant monster in the eastern range. Not enough with that, the orc tribe in the wilderness was persuaded to move to the range.
The Frontera barony must be the safest area from the monster domino situation now. If Lloyd’s skills and my bountiful assistance are combined, then the reconstruction project is worth pushing ahead.
The reconstruction project could be expanded to make the Frontera barony become the second city in the Cremona region. If that happened…
Lloyd Frontera can be my shield in the east.
The barony was seeing a steep hike in population with the massive number of refugees flooding there. Stably housing the population and helping everyone settle there would allow the barony to quickly grow in size, taking the first step to becoming a big city.
That wouldn’t be a loss for the palace and me as well.
If she showed him a clear benefit and let him enjoy it steadily. Lloyd was ready to give her his unchanging loyalty. The throne would grow stronger as well if a person like him rose to power. The sultan’s kingdom, her enemy in the east, would be deterred by his growing influence. So, all in all, it was a solid investment. Once that decision was made in her head, Queen Magentano looked up.
“This is my order. The palatial minister is thus ordered to return to the palace and hold a review committee on the motion of granting special escalation of status in the Frontera barony to the status of the county,” she ordered in a dignified voice”
“This isn’t an order but just a favor.”
Back here in the Frontera barony, the sun shone brightly in the early winter, and Lloyd started speaking on top of a plain lot.
“Have you ever run a hamster wheel before?”
“Ppodong?”
Ppodong cocked his round head to the side as he stood on Lloyd’s palm. Lloyd smiled in satisfaction.
“I guess you haven’t, right?”
“Ppodong!”
“I knew it. Do you want me to make one for you?”
“Ppo-do-dong?”
“About 65 feet in diameter. You’ll be able to run to your heart’s content. How does that sound?”
“Ppodong!”
A joyous smile spread on Ppodong’s chubby cheeks from surprise. He found himself dancing his buttocks in happiness, and the same reaction was visible on Lloyd’s face, who smiled in contentment. But did Lloyd smile because he was happy to give a gift to Ppodong? Of course not.
Kekeke. The construction equipment has been acquired.
When Ppodong ran on the wheel in excitement, he would actually be turning the equipment connected to it.
That’s how I’ll make sure that the cement doesn’t dry up!
The Frontera barony was welcoming the early winter, and the sun blessed the land. There, a special equipment called “Ready Mixed Concrete” was being invented to enable the construction of the first-ever apartment complex in the Lorasia continent. And that was the 65-foot diameter wheel Ppodong would turn with his utmost strength.