Circumstances of a Fallen Lord

Chapter 31

     “Passers-by may see you, so return to your room to eat,” Carlton said.

“Oh, okay.”

“I’ll escort you to your room. Let’s go.”

“…..Why would you do that?”

“Do you have complaints about my assistance?”

‘It’s not that I’m complaining…I’m just nervous.’ Luisen hesitated.

Carlton heaved a deep sigh. “Let’s go.” The mercenary was far from a patient man, and he took the lead at his own discretion.

‘What’s he doing, honestly?’ Luisen felt uncomfortable with Carlton’s mysterious behavior and gaze. Still, the lord followed in the mercenary’s footsteps while observing his face. The moon cast a soft light over his manly but agitated features. ‘What’s wrong with him? Is he crazy?’

Luisen couldn’t understand Carlton’s ever-changing mindset, nor could he understand why Carlton was bothering to help him. Luisen was a tactful man–a quick-witted man as well.

He had known that Carlton was operating under some huge misunderstanding. He’d been angry enough to throw down the buried old hag at one moment, and then suddenly helped him harvest three more in another moment. However, he had no idea what that misunderstanding could be.

****

The next day, the duchy was spurred into motion as soon as the sun rose. All the servants were mobilized; warehouse doors were opened, and carts were loaded with a bounty of supplies for the village.

Most of the servants were not allowed to leave the castle’s domain. Despite the increased workload, no one complained due to the dire situation. Many had family, friends, or even lovers that lived in the lower village, so they worked as if it were their own crisis.

Luisen had stayed awake all night. After hearing the bustle, he had finally realized morning had come. Yesterday, he had harvested some buried old hags and brought them to the general for consultation; afterwards, he double-checked the ledgers. ‘I never thought in my life I’d spend the whole night reading books.’

Luisen stood up, pressing his fingers down over his stiff eyes. He had an appointment with his advisors over breakfast. Under Ruger’s steady assistance, he prepared himself and left the room

     The duchy housed a large banquet hall. Unlike the restaurant-like dining hall used for dinners, the banquet hall was a cozy and comfortable space made for more casual gatherings

     When Luisen arrived, all the seated advisors stood. Every single face was haggard and fatigued. “You’ve arrived, my lord.”

“Did you lose sleep last night? You have bags under your eyes.”

“Ah…Just a bit,” Luisen replied.

“Oh no…Please take breaks as we continue.

     As Luisen took his seat, the meal began with no further fanfare as the attendants brought in the food.

As the south was an area rich with food, the duke’s table would usually sample from various different cuisines, plates filling every inch of space. But this time, the table only had just enough to eat.

    It was a table comparable to a farmer’s, but Luisen, who had fallen in love with any and all food due to his previous nomadic life, enjoyed his meal. In the past, he would have complained heavily; the advisors all admired his new maturity.

    Over the meal, the retainers informed Luisen of what they had decided on during yesterday’s meeting. The structure of the report was formal, and Luisen did not understand every word, but still, they felt respect for the lord who attempted to digest all of the information.

    As the conversation moved onto the heavier side of the operation, the treasurer lightly changed the subject. “By the way, did my lord go down to the village last night and directly hand out soup? That was quite effective.”

    The knight commander added, “I also heard from the knights that returned from the village. In contrast to what other knights may have observed during the day, the village had a calmer atmosphere than they expected.

     “The story of the lord handing out soup himself had endeared the people to the castle. So, at sunrise, many people gathered at the gate to help with the distribution. Thanks to your help, everything has been made much easier.” The regard the advisors held for Luisen had changed greatly from just a few days ago. They were impressed with his boldness, braving the village after being caught in the riot.

They thought the more difficult a situation the duchy had been plunged in, the more he showed how worthy he was of his title: guardian of the golden fields.

“Truly amazing. You saw such viciousness yesterday…If it had been me, I may have been too scared to step outside the castle.”

Luisen’s ears flushed red at all the praise pouring in for him.

 He was so embarrassed, he could die. The atmosphere felt similar to when he was seven years old–a time when even just walking was considered brave and praises followed his every small act. “I’m glad it helped.”

Despite his misgivings, Luisen continued to receive praise for his maturity.

     “However, it’s too early to relax. If we run out of food right now, we’ll have another riot on our hands,” the captain of the security responded–a salient point.

“About that. I’d like to show you all something.” Luisen gestured, and a servant brought in a large plate piled with buried old hags. These were the roots that Carlton had harvested yesterday.

As the roots were peeled, it looked completely different from its original horrid appearance. The yellow flesh inside was appetizing and smelled savory.

“What kind of crop is this? I’ve never seen it before. It smells terrific,” the gluttonous and food-savvy treasurer asked. His hands twitched to reach towards the roots, tempted by the smell.

First impressions had gone over well. ‘I’m glad I peeled the skin. People definitely can’t ignore visuals,’ Luisen thought. “This is the buried old hag–the very same one we all should know.”

“This?” asked the treasurer, eyes wide open. His grasping hands stilled and shrank back.

“Should it not look more like….a human head?”

“It’s been grilled in the fire and peeled. Like this, the old hag looks like a completely different plant, right?”

“Yes. But…Why would you….”

“You’re not going to feed that to the people instead of wheat, right? It’s not such a potent poison that it would kill most straight away, but it would be a terrible catastrophe to feed it to them now under their current circumstances.”

“No, listen to me.” Luisen gestured to Ruger to hand him a book. The book itself was large, about a hand’s width thick. The title on the cover said, ‘The Chronicles of the Duke of Anies,’ a record of all the large and small events in his family.

“Isn’t that an old record?” someone asked.

“Yes, this was written by my grandfather’s father. If you look here, there’s a story in which he ate a buried old hag when the cold front hit.”

“He ate that?”

“That’s right. That winter must have been particularly harsh. If you look here, the text refers back to the 56th crop diagram.” Luisen beckoned everyone’s attention to the specific page. This time, Ruger handed over the encyclopedia that Luisen’s great grandfather wrote. This encyclopedia of crops was a historical relic containing information about edible crops–a culmination of his ancestor’s studies.

“It says here that the buried old hag develops its poison when exposed to sunlight.”

It was the general who had dug up Luisen’s ancestor’s records late last night. After Luisen had shown him the harvested roots, the general had remembered reading about similar experiences in the records.

When Luisen heard that, he immediately checked the book. As he wasn’t a fast reader, he had stayed up all night and barely found what he needed.

“Then, why haven’t we been eating these things?”

“Why should we? We’ve never run out of food before, nor have we been desperate enough to eat these buried old hags. Since they look so gross…”

Centered in an overflowing food basket, there was no reason to delve into the ground to harvest something that looked like a rotting head.

“That’s true…..”

“If it’s the record of one of your predecessors, it must be credible…”

“For your information, the general, Ruger, and I ate these roots last night–a great little late night snack. We haven’t even had symptoms of a stomach ache.”

“My lord ate this kind of thing himself?”

“I even dug it up as well!”

“That’s….!” The advisors were greatly surprised. Luisen had to hold onto the knight commander who attempted to rush out to call for the family doctor.

“As the book said, nothing bad happened. How about you, General?” Luisen said.

“I’m fine as well. It tasted all right, too.”

 “Hmmm….”

“And Ruger?”

“I’m also well……” Ruger frowned in spite of his words. He still had no desire to eat something like the buried old hag.

“Well…If you’re truly feeling fine…” The others in the banquet hall muttered.

“Well, it is handwritten by one of the duchy’s forebears….so it must be reliable…” With Luisen’s personal experiments added to the word of his ancestor, the retainers’ opinion became more accepting to the root. Viscerally, they may feel disgust in their hearts, but their brains were convinced.

‘Thank you, Great Grandfather!” Luisen sent his sincere gratitude to his ancestor. Even in death, his family was helping this scum descendant.

Luisen placed the buried old hags on a plate and chopped them into bite-sized pieces with a knife. After a sprinkle of salt and pepper, Luisen, and even the general, popped the sample into their mouths.

The treasurer, who watched the two nervously, couldn’t stand it anymore and reached out to take a bite of the old hags as well. His strong appetite overpowered his apprehension.

“….What do you think?”

“It’s different from how it looks….It’s delicious.” The treasurer somehow felt lost. After his testimony, the others also carefully lifted a few roots onto their plates.

“Since the buried old hags are everywhere in the castle grounds, it’ll be easy to supply and distribute.”

“Once it’s recognized as foodstuffs, the villagers can also find and harvest it on their own. As an alternative, this root is ingenious, but….”

“But do you think the people will obediently eat this?”

That was a good point. However, Luisen had an idea in mind.

TN: I usually update earlier in the day but I was in a plane today! I’m on vacation this week 😀 (But don’t worry, I have some chapters stockpiled so it shouldn’t affect updates…although the stockpile will look sad when I come back T_T) In other news, I really wanted to eat roots while I was TLing on the plane….