Chương 6: Fort Barthorn

Giddy with my new achievement, we arrived at the city. Unfortunately, my training had taken more time than I had expected, so when we arrived at the entrance, my full attention was demanded—much to my dismay. A duo of guards in steel-plated armor arrived at our carriage window and asked us a couple of questions: who we were, what we were doing here, and all that. They took out a notebook and wrote down each piece of information. Bureaucracy.

After noting down our information, they apologized for the trouble and let us in. Riding inside a carriage, past a group of commoners standing in line, made me realize that even if expelled, I had a much more privileged background than most. None of them complained. Barely a few even looked at us, and those who did averted their eyes the moment our gazes met. I could only sigh. A feeling of pity swelled inside my heart. They looked so thin. Ribs and collarbones were protruding outwards.

The children had exposed cheekbones and bony faces instead of plump cheeks and round faces. It genuinely broke my heart. No child should starve. I remembered the famine. Then I swore to myself that as long as I was alive, no citizen inside my town was going to starve. We entered the city. The roads were wide, allowing passage for multiple carriages side by side, or in case of emergencies, enough space for an army. In the distance, a market and a statue were erected. But my will to explore was gone.

"I have a task for you," I said and looked straight into Sebastian's eyes. His back straightened, and he nodded.

"Find out the cause of the famine. See if you can find anything concrete. Then use our remaining funds to buy high-caloric food and seeds." The man nodded before opening his mouth to speak.

"I don't think there will be any seeds left. Anything that can be planted is probably already in use by the city. I will look out for high-caloric food, however. It will be costly, but there should be some." I stayed silent for a moment and thought about the situation. In all honesty, I didn't know enough about my new territory to make such hasty decisions, but I also didn't want anybody to starve if I could change that. I felt responsible for their lives already, and I haven't even met them.

"However, young master, you don't need to worry about food. I will hunt for you," Sebastian said.

"The count wouldn't send you towards your death; even in a famine, strength reigns supreme." I froze. Hunt? For me?

"The food isn't for me," I said, to Sebastian's surprise.

"But for Blackstone town."

"Hmmm," the man scratched his chin.

"The funds might be able to sustain a whole village for... two weeks. At most. The money would be wasted."

"But the starving—" Sebastian raised his hand.

"Let's figure out what kind of famine it is first." I leaned back in my seat and sighed. For the next few minutes, I just enjoyed the view of the city, as people went about their day. The evening sun covered the Fort in an orange glow, and for a minute, it felt like nobody was dying. Then we arrived at our inn and went to our rooms. It seemed that everybody knew about the itinerary except me.

I was woken up by a knock on my door the next morning. It was Sebastian. He came in with a full ledger of papers and documents. My face went pale, thinking I hadn't paid my taxes, before I remembered I was noble and had people to do that for me.

"All the information about the famine," he said before dropping the ledger upon my wooden table with a thud.

"I have already read through it, so let me give you a summary, and afterward, you can look into it on your own." He pulled out a pouch before opening and spreading out a few almost hand-sized locusts. I winced at their size.

"A locust plague," he said and spread their wings in front of me.

"It appears that they have migrated from the Titans Spine Mountainside after heavy rainfall in the region further south from here and towards our new territory. The city is actually still in good shape, and the people we saw yesterday were refugees." I nodded. We had seen nothing but the beginning of the famine.

"The Barrenlands start from here, and that's where Baron Adrian's lands end," Sebastian said.

"The Fort had prevented the spreading of greens a century ago, but the damage was done. Without much rain, the vegetation is still scarce. But this changed a few months ago. Heavy rainfall befell our region, allowing for the vegetation to revive and food to prosper compared to before. But this brought new problems." The man picked up the locusts and showed them to me, and I understood.

"Now that we had some amount of food, they," I pointed at the insects.

"Also wanted to be a part of that."

"Precisely," Sebastian nodded.

"Thank you," I said and sat down in my chair. Sebastian sat across from me and said nothing. He produced a cup of tea from who knows where and gave it to me. I thanked him for the tea. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. For a few minutes, I was lost in thought. I tried to come up with a solution, but I had no idea. Even my farming and herb knowledge didn't help. It was similar to the memories of the old Ivor. I had to unlock them first.

I had to see the herbs first before I knew what they could do, and only if my memories could provide that information.

"How do we deal with this famine?" I asked my butler. He shrugged.

"I am a mage. I have no idea. The count said to me that families will pass and after a few people die, things will slowly return to normal." I clenched my fist in anger. Rage filled my chest, as I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't some kind of hero. No, I was a selfish asshole in both lives and I will continue to be a selfish asshole. But I wasn't a monster. How could I turn a blind eye to people starving? To children starving?

I knew I couldn't save everyone but sometimes it wasn't about that. It was about trying your best.

"How long will we be staying inside the city?" I asked.

"We will leave this evening."

"That fast?" I was surprised. Sebastian nodded, "The knights aren't fond of this city. Nor is it their task to stay here."

"Why do they dislike the city?" I asked, curious. Until now I hadn't bothered to speak with the family's knights, and neither did they.

"Jealousy."

"Jealousy?" Sebastian smiled slightly.

"They could never be the man Sir Bathhorn was." Apparently, Sebastian was quite the history geek and he was happy to lecture me on why they could never be the man Jason Bathorn was.

I arrived at the herb market and winced. The smell was putrid and prickled in my nose. Stall after stall was set up to my left and right, leaving a narrow passage for pedestrians. My eyes scanned the goods with great speed. Whenever I would recognize something, I would stop, let the information enter my mind and then continue upon my path. I repeated the process multiple times until no new herb entered my mind. Then I sat on the ground with a pen and paper and began to write down their names and properties.

As I did, a few compounds began to form inside my mind: fertilizers, laxatives, and a few healing salves. Nothing special—the man's life I simulated was a farmer's and not an alchemist's. However, as I stared down at the herbs on my list, a plan began to form. I crossed out a few herbs and stared down at the ten remaining. Then I crossed out four more. This should work. I wasn't sure if it would, but I was confident enough to try.

It was a combination of my earthly wisdom, Ivor's drunken epiphanies and the farmer's herb knowledge. The holy trinity of science. I stood back up, and dusted myself off and grinned brightly. With a pouch full of gold strapped to my belt, I entered a small stall that was one of the few that had an inside. One of the knights followed me behind. They refused to leave me alone. They said it was for my protection. But I knew they thought I would squander that money inside a brothel.

The owner was a thick-bearded man and greeted me with a grin on his face, a golden tooth shining through. I could practically see his hands rubbing against each other and the gold rotating inside his eyes.

"What can I help you with today, kind sir?" he asked.

"I need tar-Anisole, Hag-Clove, Ferula-Weed, Devil's Fennel drops, Coumarin-Grass, Witchgrass." The shopkeeper whistled.

"How much?"

"As much as this can get me," I stretched out my bag of gold into the man's palm. His hand dropped slightly and his eyes widened. Then he grinned brightly.

"I will give you a good price," he said.

"But I don't have Devil's Fennel; it's usually only something alchemists use..." The man turned silent for a moment before his eyes lit up. He turned around and hurried further inside his shop. My gold inside his hands. My knight gripped his sword tightly and stepped forward. I raised my hand and glared at him. A few minutes later, the shopkeeper reappeared. He pressed a card into my hand.

"From what I have gathered, you need everything in equal mass. Devil's Fennel is quite potent and expensive, so you will need less for whatever you are doing." He said and began to take out big empty bags of what looked like old potato bags.

"So I will only take so much gold that it leaves you with enough funds to buy Devil's Fennel and return you to my friend. He too will give you a discount. Just mention my name: Zahid." I nodded and left with multiple giant bags stuffed with herbs. I let my knight carry my stuff. Gotta enjoy being a noble sometimes.

I arrived inside the alchemist's shop. It was a tightly crammed and messy room that smelled as foul as it looked. Potions were displayed on shelves to each of my sides. In the corners, old withered herbs and plants lay, while the walls looked like they had their own grandchildren. I knew I was in good hands. From the far back of the alchemy shop, I could hear the sounds of bubbles popping, combined with a foul stench. A moment later, the popping sound turned into a loud explosion and a voice rang out.

"Careful boy!" I didn't have time to react before a wave of black gunk burst towards my face. I could only stare as the thing neared, and in that moment, I regretted not using my stat points for dexterity just to avoid whatever that was. Luckily, my knight in shining armor stepped forward, his sword drawn. He slashed at the black gunk, while a golden barrier formed in front of us. The blade cut cleanly.

The thing split into two as half of it splashed against the knight's barrier while the rest spread across the alchemy shop. I gagged at the smell. An old and withered man hurried out of the back side of the shop. His bare feet splattered against the ground as he stepped on the gunk without even a change of expression. He ignored my knight and arrived at my side.

"Are you okay, boy? You can't just barge into another man's shop when he's working!" The alchemist clicked his tongue.

"Give me your card. Did Zahid send you? What is it that you want?" For a moment, I was shocked. How was that my fault? Almost robotically, I gave the man my card; he looked at it and muttered.

"Devil's Fennel drops, high concentration." Before any of us could say anything, the man went back into his shop, brought out multiple vials of green liquid with a reddish tint mixed inside it. I moved my arm to grab the vials, but the alchemist's arm flashed away.

"Money first," he said, as he stared at me. I gave him the pouch of gold. He opened it, counted each gold coin, then gave me two vials less than he had originally brought.

"Why is it so expensive?" I said exasperated.

"Taxes, my friends," the old man shot me a toothy grin.

"Everything in this shitty city is expensive. If it weren't for–" The alchemist caught himself from speaking further before glancing at my knight for the first time. Some of the blank gunk was on his armor and sword.

"Use this to wash yourself," he said and handed my knight another small vial that was filled with blue liquid.

"Now get out of this shop." And with that, we were kicked out of a run-down alchemy shop that almost covered us in shit, or something worse. We walked through the city back to our inn. I still let my knight carry all of my stuff, but this time I felt bad about it. Here and there we would get frowns and people snorting. Not my fault I was noble. Anyway, luckily, I wasn't dumb enough to spend all of our funds. The herbs were all useful in their own way, so even if what I created didn't work, we could still use them.

And if it worked, we would have a big enough quantity to test it out properly. The rest of the gold was kept on Sebastian. The man was an enigma. Producing tea and gold out of nowhere! Either way, we decided not to spend more money here inside the city. Quite frankly, we had no idea about Blackstone Town and how we could invest that money into making it prosper. It was a shame since the city was a month away, so the journey back would be quite annoying, but there was nothing we could do about it.

We arrived at the inn a few minutes later. The moment we entered, all eyes turned to us. The knights stopped whatever they were doing and stared at us in pure horror. One person started gagging. Then the next, and suddenly it became a symphony of gagging sounds. Fuck my life, we stank.