Chapter 4

(Lancelot’s POV)

When we finally reached the chief’s house which is located at the edge of the town, the glaring of the townsfolk during our journey here is unbearable. Somehow even when we were standing at the front door of the wooden house that doesn’t look like the house of a town chief at all, Hans were trying to protect me from the dagger stares by standing behind me while both of us waited for the chief to response to the door knocking that I did a few moments ago.

A few moments later, a head peaked out from the door. Based on his attire and the wise aura he emitted, he was probably the chief of the town, a middle aged, short, chubby, and kind looking guy.

“Hello.” I bloomed a smile. Spiting others like what Lancelot usually does wasn’t my cup of tea, so I just acted according to what I like.

Though, instead of a heartfelt greeting back, he crouched down low to the ground while he pleaded for mercy.

“Please! Please give us more time. We will pay the tax soon we promise!”

Despite sounding frightful and pathetic, his words were enough to send a piercing pain inside my heart. For this older person to bow down to a scum like Lancelot, it’s infuriating to know about it.

“Stand up.” My orders sounded so absolute to him, he immediately shot back to his standing position before shrinking away in reluctancy. I pursed my lips for a brief second.

“There’s a limit for the lateness of your payment.” The town chief flinched and gradually trembled in fear. I must have looked like a total ass because Hans were glaring at me while trying to hide his anger.

Suddenly I turned around and walked through the entrance door. From the outside of the house, I raised my voice a few octaves, loud enough for the people inside the house to hear, but low enough for other people to not hear it. “I want see the crops. Show them to me.”

The chief looked dumbfounded, passing his gaze from me to Hans before he hastily followed me from behind and showed me around the cropland.

“O-Our town’s specialty is the wheat crops that we cultivate. It could withstand against magical pests and diseases.”

It’s a lie. As I plucked a grain I could see that they were not what I expected a healthy wheat would be. And besides, this fief is located in the Northeast of the kingdom so the air is probably more dry than humid. While the chief was muttering about something, I stared towards an empty stretch land not far from the cropland.

“What is that place?”

I pointed towards the empty land.

“Ah, that. That land previously got cursed by a witch. Because of that, crops won’t grow on it no matter what we do.”

“Hmm.”

I paced closer to the land. Looking around, I noticed that most of the land is empty like the one I’m stepping on, just like what the chief had stated about the curse. The earth surface is rocky and dry, making it hard for plants to grow up in this kind of soil. Despite that, the color is quite similar to the sandy soil I have back in my world.

“Chief, is this sand?” I knelt down and picked up some of the soils. The chief trotted near me and nodded.

“At first, we thought it was sand. But when we look back at it, it was just a soil that is similar to soil.”

I pondered while rubbing the soil in between my fingers. “Do you mean this feels like huge specks of ashes?”

“Yes! That’s what it feels like.” The chief then cast his eyes down to the ground. “The ground has no nutritional properties in them, so it was quite useless to plant anything on it.”

I heaved a sharp sigh. This seems problematic. It would probably be excusable if the amount of dead land is less than the amount of healthy soil, but with the majority of the land here is filled wth such ash sands, the town won’t flourish like this.

It’s time to use drastic measures.

“Unless...”

I stood up and turned to look at the chief. “We won’t plant on this soil, but we will plant crops on the soil ABOVE this soil.” The chief looked at me with confusion. Of course he would, I mean, what kind of bastard suddenly claimed something as  ridiculous as planting crops on top of a soil that had topped a dead soil? But listen, earth also has different layers of soil so despite this sounding taxing and burdensome, it’s not a bad idea isn’t it?

“For the new soil, do the ration like this-”

“Wait!”

The chief blurted out after a few moments of keeping his silence. He still looked at me timidly but he seemed like he really wanted to ask me something.

“Are you helping us, by any chance?”

The two of us stared at each other quietly. Letting out a snigger, I replied in a confident manner, “Of course. I am the lord of this fief after all.”

In an instant, I saw his yes glinted, similar to what I saw in Hans’ eyes. It was like a glint of strength, like he was given a new spirit to work hard.

“Yes, you are...” He is still befuddled.

While waiting for him get back to his senses, I took this sheer chance to inspect far into the distance. Not far from where I stood, I saw several unknown figures here and there. It’s not possible for the town of Isaiya to have that many guard given their financial casualties, so that begs the wuestion. Are they just a mere passerby, perhaps? Or...

“And...”

I turned back to the chief. He still stood there blank but at least he did not oppose my idea. He’s a farmer so I bet he understands my instructions. After briefing him about the portions needed to make a soil that will be able to cover the dead soil successfully, I told to execute the plans immediately. I’m glad that I spent my time reading many books about agriculture in my past life, they have come in handy now.

We finally finished discussing after a couple of hours. It ended when my stomach suddenly rumbled.

I scrunched my lips and covered my stomach with both arms as I paced my gaze to both the chief and Hans. The two of them looked at me in surprise.

“Baron Lancelot, are you hungry?” The chief stood up from the chair of the dinner table where the three of us were having a discussion, looking like he’s about to prepare a meal for me.

“No- It’s alright. I can’t really burden you with this hunger of mine now, am I right?” I breathed a nervous laughter before pulling Hans’ to leave the house with me.

“Oh, right.” I halted, which caused Hans to almost collide with my back. Turning around, I was caught in an awkward position of being too close to Hans’ body that it managed to make my homosexual heart leap, yet I managed to parry that unnecessary feelings away and tilted my body so I could see the chief from behind Han’s body.

“Mr. Chief, for this month, I’ll reduce the tax to 2% only, so make sure to pay up by the end of the month, okay?”

The chief once again gazed at me with wide eyes. Though in utter surprise, he passively answered. “Oh, okay...”

I chuckled. I bet he would be surprised by it but it also helped me that he didn’t ask any further. Me and Hans climbed our own horses and as the horse turned away, I gave him my last words.

“Thank you for taking care of me for all this time. Goodbye!”

I smiled and the horse galloped away from the house back to the mansion. I hope all the other townsfolk would heed my advice, even just a small amount of it.

On our way back to the mansion, Hans suddenly galloped his horse closer to me.

“Master!” He yelled, rendering me to slow down Ildian.

“What’s wrong, Hans?”

Hans paused for a bit and casted his eyes to the dirt ground. “Why...” He shot his gaze back up. “Why are you helping them?”

I blinked my eyes, clearly confused by his question.

“Why?” I turned my horse to face him. “Am I not allowed to help my people?”

“It’s not that. It’s just... You look different now.”

I sniggered. After that, I turned back Ildian to the direction of the mansion and said, “A dying person WILL look different.”