The Founding Monarch Became the Mastermind

Chapter 58

Although it was many decades ago, the last time I saw Princeton, it was a bright and lively pioneer village.

The population was sure to have grown since then, and I had secretly expected it to have at least 60 to 70 households, maybe even more than 100, becoming a sizable village.

But the Princeton before us now was a rundown place, with houses that looked more like abandoned ruins, exuding a bleak atmosphere.

“Yonas, explain.”

“I-I’m sorry. I don’t know anything either.”

Yonas, who had only been involved in his family’s affairs in Paloma and knew little about administrative matters, bowed his head in embarrassment.

“I heard that the Duchy’s administrative power weakened after Brother Brian passed away. Perhaps that’s why…”

“I see.”

Indeed, after Brian’s death, the Ducal seat had remained vacant for quite some time, long enough to cause a gap in administrative capabilities.

Still, I found it difficult to understand.

‘Princeton wasn’t a poorly positioned village. It’s a strategic point between Sionia and Paloma, with ample water supply and steadily expanding farmland.’

Simply put, this village had no reason to fall into such ruin given its location and resources.

“Let’s go in.”

“Yes, sir.”

A moment later, the group, led by me, entered Princeton.

Given the hour, the wooden gate, which should have been firmly closed and guarded, was left open.

More precisely, it was half torn and dangling.

Clop, clop.

The sound of dozens of horses and twice as many people echoed through the eerie village.

Then, windows made of wood creaked open in the buildings that were little more than ruins.

From the darkness inside the wooden windows, eyes filled with fear gazed at us.

They probably thought they couldn’t be seen, but I could clearly see the residents’ faces and expressions.

They were all tired, with faces devoid of hope.

Creak—

At that moment, an old door opened, and someone suddenly stepped out.

Although there was no reason for concern, Yonas and the others following me instinctively reached for their weapons.

However, no one drew their swords.

The person who opened the door was a young child, barely seven or eight years old.

The child, thin and dirty, as if they hadn’t bathed, looked up at me on Blackie. After a moment of resolve, they clenched their fist and quickly approached me.

“Stand back, you—”

“Oh, it’s fine.”

As Yonas scolded, I waved him off and looked down at the child, who, despite being clearly terrified, had not stopped and had come cautiously close to me.

“So, what is it?”

“Uh, sir, are you a knight from the castle?”

“Well, I suppose you could say that.”

At my response, the child’s expression relaxed, and then they abruptly knelt down.

“Hm?”

Just as I squinted an eye, the child suddenly bowed deeply.

“Sir Knight! I’m so hungry. Please give me some food. My younger siblings are starving too. Please help us. We’ll do anything.”

* * *

Princeton village became lively and noisy for the first time in a long while.

About 70 to 80 villagers had gathered in the town square, all licking their lips while staring at two large cauldrons of bubbling stew.

Following my orders, the soldiers had taken out a substantial amount of provisions stored on Gau, and the stew, cooked with whatever ingredients were available, didn’t look particularly appetizing, nor did it smell great.

But the villagers, who hadn’t had a proper meal in a long time, stared hungrily.

“Um, uh…”

Hearing the voice of the child who had first bravely approached me, I turned my head.

“Thank you, Sir Knight. Thank you so much for sharing your precious food. Come on, kids, you need to thank him too.”

The boy, who had the rustic name Billy, urged the smaller children who had been standing in a row behind him, and they all bowed.

“Th-Thank you, Sir Knight.”

“Thank you so much!”

Watching the little ones, who looked about five or six years old, bow and straighten up, I suddenly remembered a scene I’d seen a long time ago in my original world.

‘They look just like meerkats.’

Whether it was due to being beaten or simply because they hadn’t bathed, the dark rings around their eyes and the way their bony hands rested around their navels made them look exactly like meerkats.

“The stew will be ready soon, so make sure you all eat plenty.”

“Yes!”

At first, the kids had clearly been terrified, but the fact that armed men were not threatening them and were even giving them food gradually eased their tension, and soon, they were smiling brightly.

Seeing their joy, my expression stiffened slightly.

The kids immediately sensed this and shrank back, and Billy, noticing my displeasure, hurriedly spoke to them.

“The knight is probably tired. You all go get ready to eat.”

“Okay!”

“Got it, Billy!”

As the children scattered, Billy nervously bowed his head.

“I’m sorry, Sir Knight. They’re country kids, so they’re young and don’t know proper manners.”

“It’s fine. I’m not angry with the children.”

Billy was so small that I’d initially thought he was seven or eight years old, but he was actually ten this year. I smiled at him.

Then I glanced at the villagers, who, even as they stared intently at the stew cooking in the cauldron, couldn’t stop stealing glances in my direction.

“Weren’t the adults taking care of you? The Princeton I know was a generous place.”

“Huh? Have you been here before?”

Billy, who had grown up in Princeton, looked at me with a slightly confused expression.

There were no knights as unique as me in his memory—one who he wouldn’t have forgotten once seen.

“Well, it was a long time ago.”

“Oh, I see.”

Billy, who had no way of knowing that this “long time ago” was before both he and his parents, who passed away two years ago, were even born, continued to speak, his head tilted slightly in confusion.

“The adults in the village are struggling too. They used to give us food, but last year’s harvest failed, there was nothing stored, and no aid came… Most other kids are in the same boat as us.”

Indeed, most of the ten or so kids in the village looked just as bad as Billy or only slightly better.

Though the village was falling apart, it seemed that at least some basic kindness remained.

“If it’s this hard, why didn’t you leave for somewhere else?”

“Well… I heard other villages are in a similar situation. And even if we could reach the nearby villages, it’s too dangerous to go farther because of bandits and monsters.”

Billy, perceptive for his age, answered cautiously, but his expression still showed that he couldn’t understand why an adult would ask something so obvious.

“Hm. I see. It looks like the stew is ready. Go ahead and eat.”

“Yes!”

Despite his maturity, Billy was still a child, and he quickly ran off with a brightened face after bowing.

“Line up, everyone!”

“If it’s not enough, we’ll get you more!”

The soldiers calmed the approaching villagers and served the stew with ladles, while I watched briefly before turning away.

Yonas, who had been fidgeting and watching me nervously, quickly stood at attention.

“What are you so tense about? You said you only did what Gede ordered.”

“Forgive me. Even so, as a member of Si-on, I have nothing to say to you, Grandfather.”

“Yes, and you should feel that way.”

“……”

Yonas fell silent.

I was angry.

If a village with Princeton’s favorable location and conditions had deteriorated this much, what about the others?

Aside from major cities like Sionia and Paloma, which had populations in the tens of thousands, and their nearby areas, the rest of the Duchy was likely in complete disarray.

More than half of the Duchy’s 200,000 residents were probably in situations similar to Princeton’s.

“Have the grain stores on Mile Mountain not been opened?”

“As far as I know, they haven’t been opened yet… Opening the grain stores also requires the Duke’s seal, so… I have no excuse.”

The Mile Mountain grain stores were something I had painstakingly established after stabilizing the Duchy.

They were a type of cold storage that maintained a constant temperature using dwarf technology, designed to store grain to help the Duchy’s residents endure poor harvests or natural disasters.

“Idiots. Regardless of whether there’s a Duke or not, they should have opened the stores given the situation. I built those damn things precisely for times like these. Damn it.”

Hearing me curse for the first time, Yonas grew even more nervous.

Though my speech sometimes became rough, I rarely used such language. But now, I was openly swearing.

I was truly furious.

‘He’s more enraged at seeing the Duchy’s residents starving than at the failures and disputes of his incompetent descendants.’

“Those bastards are begging for death. I thought I’d just clean up the family mess and pave the way, but that’s not enough.”

Crack.

As I cracked my knuckles, it almost felt as though a murderous aura was emanating from me.

Of course, if I had truly unleashed my killing intent, Yonas wouldn’t have been able to breathe where he stood.

As I openly expressed my anger, a small figure came running from the other side.

The figure racing toward us was one of Billy’s younger siblings.

A little girl, about five or six years old, with a beaming smile and a dirty face, somehow managed

not to trip as she ran up, offering a wooden bowl she held carefully in her filthy hands.

“Sir Knight! Please eat this. It’s hot, so blow on it first.”

Though she spoke to me, the girl’s eyes were entirely fixed on the stew in the bowl.

The bowl, just as dirty as her hands and clothes, was filled to the brim with stew, and a wooden spoon was stuck inside.

She must have been hungry too, but she had brought me my share first.

“…I already ate plenty before I got here. You go ahead and eat.”

“R-really? Can I really eat it?”

“Yes. Blow on it since it’s hot, and eat slowly. Eat a lot.”

“Yes! Brother! Brother! The knight said I can eat!”

Nodding energetically, the little girl clutched the bowl tightly and ran back to where Billy and her siblings were.

From afar, Billy bowed his head to me.

I casually gestured for him to eat quickly, then watched quietly as Billy and his siblings, now mingled with the village adults, buried their faces in their bowls and eagerly dug in with their spoons.

Watching the kids grin as they filled their cheeks with stew like squirrels, I spoke.

“Leave enough food for two days and give the rest to the villagers.”

“Yes, Grandfather.”

Sionia was about a three-day journey from here, so my words meant we’d arrive in two days.

“If Piotr handles things well, I should be able to sort everything out within two days. If not… it doesn’t matter.”

At the Founding Patriarch’s declaration that he would not only reach Sionia but also resolve everything within that time, Yonas could do nothing but swallow nervously.