Chương 9: Blackstone Town

I looked outside, and for a few minutes I didn't see anything. Then, the town finally entered my view. My new territory. Blackstone Town was built right at the edge of the Titan Spine Mountain Range and the Verdant Expanse forest. Two endless and basically unexplored natural structures. Immediately our theory about having stone and wood in masses turned out to be true and I realized why the town got its name. The houses were made out of mostly stone, with most of them being in their usual gray color.

But all buildings had black accents that made them stand out much more. Besides this, there were also a lot of wooden constructions, I knew had been built just recently yet were mostly unmanned. The famine. I looked around to find the fields. All dead. I grimaced. It was worse than I thought. There weren't even farmers trying to tend them. Either all farmers were dead or had given up. Neither of the options sounded optimistic. As we neared the town, I also noticed that it was barren. Barren of people.

There were quite a lot of weed and unplucked grass growing all around the town, making it seem even more abandoned. I asked Sebastian why they didn't eat them and his answer was that the weeds were poisonous while the grass could barely be digested.

"Where are all the people?" I said concerned. There could be no territory without its population.

"Starving," Sebastian said in a heavy tone.

"They are at a point where they can't move, or don't have the willpower to. Most will probably die in the next few weeks. At most. And those that have food, make sure to stay home and preserve their energy and hide that they have that energy. Humans turn ugly when hungry." I nodded and our carriage entered the Town. I stepped outside immediately, Inky inside my hands and wandered across my new territory. Worry was stretched across my face. I was trying to find anybody. Just somebody.

I wasn't expecting a grand welcome but where were the curious children? The skeptical adults? The enthusiastic young men or worried maidens? My head went from side to side. In my worried state, I didn't notice the small bump against my body. It was so weak and powerless that it might have been a small gust of wind. Yet, as I looked down to my side my eyes widened. There lay a boy. Skinny, thin, no—skeletal. His body was skin and bones, cheekbones and ribs protruding outward.

His large, round eyes stared at me with fear as he lay on his buttocks. For a few seconds, I couldn't help but just stare at the child. Hurried steps ran from my side, and a worried voice rang out from my side.

"Please don't hurt the child!" an older gentleman said. Like the boy, he was skinny, but in better shape with at least some fat and muscles on his bones. I suspected he would have died already if he didn't have that mass.

"He doesn't know better! He is just a child!" The old man continued to scream before arriving in front of me and kneeling at my feet, his head touching my shoes.

"I apologize that he has dirtied your noble clothes! If you need to punish somebody to appease your anger, let this old, useless Town Elder become the target of your rightful wrath." I stuttered for a moment, then looked at my knights, who, to my fucking surprise, had their swords drawn.

"Bring the child something to eat now!" I screamed.

"But–""I said now!" This time my scream was louder. One of them scrambled towards our carriage. I knew we barely had enough food, but this child had nothing.

"Please," I said much more gently and grabbed the Elder by his shoulder. I made sure not to hurt his frail body as I forced him up.

"Don't kneel. I haven't done anything worthy to receive such treatment. You are this Town's Elder?" He nodded slowly.

"Only remaining one."

"If that's the case, can I entrust you with a task?" I said gently.

"Can you gather all the children? We don't have enough food for all, but at least the children shouldn't starve." He just looked at me with wide eyes. Then he nodded hurriedly, and after getting my okay sign, he sped off. The Elder went from door to door. I could feel his excitement. Sometimes, however, he would enter an unanswered door, just to come out with a pale face. He kept going on with his task. Within minutes, a group of small kids was lined up in front of me.

All of them looked like the one from before: thin, with barely any muscle on their frames. Most of their eyes were listless, almost dead. I genuinely wanted to cry. I wanted to see them play catch, hide and seek, get into fights and complain to their parents--annoy adults by asking too many questions. I wanted them to be children. Instead, I saw lost hope, dead eyes, and strength so little I wondered how they were able to walk around.

Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation. I didn't know them, but I didn't have to know a group of innocent children to feel compassion. Before I could yell at my knight again, he arrived with hurried steps, flasks of water inside his hands combined with multiple rations of beef jerky and bread. I could see the greedy eyes around us. None of the greed came from the children. But the adults that had gathered and surrounded us. I didn't blame them.

Despite their greed, they didn't make a move, and for some reason inside my heart, I knew it wasn't because of my knights. But because the children deserved to eat.

"Make sure they don't eat too much and fast," Sebastian said from my side.

"If they choke, they will die, and they have been starving for far too long. If they eat too much, it could lead to heart failure, seizures, or unconsciousness." I nodded. I knew that a starving person wasn't supposed to feast. I just didn't know that the consequences would be so stark. One after another, the knights gave the children little bits of food and enough water. Only after Sebastian gave the okay would we repeat the process. Over an hour, we fed the children.

It couldn't have been more than a hundred calories. Sebastian assured that this was enough for now, and we would repeat the process a few more times today, and over the next week, to stabilize them until they could eat properly again. The adults around us just stared with greedy and salivating mouths. A few looked like they wanted to rob us, but most were just hungry. Starving. And honestly, I couldn't blame a starving man for thinking about robbing us for food. I knew I would do the same.

But, mostly because of my knights, the few men didn't make a move. They just stared at me with greedy eyes and went back towards where they came from.

"Come in a few hours again and then right before bed," I kneeled down next to the kids and smiled. They just stared at me blankly.

"Deal?" I said, and lifted my hand. For a few seconds, they just stayed silent, then the kid whom I bumped into raised his bony arm slowly. With unsure eyes, his small hand smacked across mine.

"Deal," he said in a trembling voice, looking at me like he did something wrong. I ruffled his hair and we went on our way. The carriage was pulled behind us, with my family's knights by my side. I made sure to walk on foot and observe the town. It seemed that my arrival had spread across the town as I would spot a few curious glances from the inhabitants. But I barely saw anyone outside. The weeds kept drawing my attention. There was something about them. Then it hit me. Yes, that was right.

I knew they weren't poisonous. The memories inside my mind confirmed that. I just didn't know how to prepare them in a way that would leave them safe to consume. Still, I made sure my knights grabbed more than a handful. I would experiment later. The Town Elder showed us my new territory while explaining how the place came to be.

"The previous head of the town was one of the first to die. Went hunting into the forest, and came back with an arrow sticking out his neck. Goblins, they explained," Samuel, the Town Elder said.

"Me and a few other old men whom had been here since the beginning took charge afterwards. I am the only one left after the famine hit." I nodded, sad to hear what had happened.

"You know, Young Master," Samuel said.

"Blackstone Town was prospering as much as a town inside the Barren Lands can prosper. The Blackstone we sold to the merchants was one of the reasons why they even came to this place. In return, the surrounding villages and town would send their own people here to sell to those same merchants while we were paid a small amount of tax." This indeed sounded like a prosperous small town.

"Then the mine collapsed," Samuel muttered with a thousand-yard stare.

"My son... he... many died. Most of our miners perished. A month later, heavy rainfall befell our lands, letting them regain some of their vitality. Then the locusts arrived. It was bad luck after bad luck."

"Life has been a struggle," I said.

"Yet you persevered."

"We did," Samuel smiled.

"But it's over. Our food ran out. Most of our older population died. Children and those who newly got the System were prioritized when it came to food." Then the man stopped and changed the topic.

"There is your mansion," Samuel said.

"I hope it's to your liking." With that, he left. I could tell he didn't like me. No, he didn't like nobles. And I don't think I could blame him considering what I knew about them. At least he tried to hide it. The mansion was a large wooden structure. But I could tell the quality was good. It was an orange-red color with a few heavy accents of Blackstone spread across the building. It looked beautiful, if a little run down.

It was surrounded by a giant courtyard that was encompassed with a stone wall made out of Blackstone. Weeds were sticking out of the ground pretty much everywhere, while dirt and grime had accumulated on the structure and road. It was in dire need of cleaning. And Sebastian seemed to be in agreement with me as a large fireball hovered across his head far up in the sky so the heat didn't reach us. Still, I could see the knights take fearful glances.

"I will burn this feast of bacteria down," he said.

"It needs to be cleansed."

"You will not do such a thing," I sighed.

"We will clean it and then it will look new."" I will clean it," Sebastian retorted, and the fireball disappeared.

"You don't know how. I don't trust you to do the job." I shrugged. Being a privileged asshole apparently came with the added benefit of not having to do the shitty part of every move simply because of incompetence. We promptly entered the mansion. The insides actually being worse than the outside. I could see insects, spiderwebs, and another huge fucking fireball hovering besides me.

"Stop trying to burn our house!" I screamed.

"It's not our house," Sebastian said, and pointed at a group of cockroaches.

"We have been invaded. Our only option is retreat and to capitulate."

"So much for perseverance and fighting till the last breath," I scoffed. We stood inside a large greeting and common area with couches and cushioned furniture. Two pairs of stairs led upstairs inside the mansion. That was where the bedrooms were located. To the left was a large kitchen area and to the right a large library and multiple smaller offices and a meeting hall. Besides this, there also was another large courtyard on the backside with enough space for guards to train.

There was also a more private personal gym in the basement. These many amenities meant that the mansion was quite compact and packed, but I liked it that way. It felt cozy in a way. Well, as cozy as an insect-infested and rat-overrun abandoned mansion could feel. We decided not to disturb our guests and camped outside. There was a rat family in my bedroom and a group of maggots inside Sebastian's. The man freaked out in a way I haven't seen before.

Flames enveloped the whole place, for a brief and short moment, as the man screamed. The next moment, only ashes remained. The furniture, the wallpaper, the bed, and all of the insects were burned to nothingness, leaving a charred floor, ceiling, and pair of walls.

"You burned the room," I said, my eyes wide.

"I sterilized it," he said as a matter of fact. He would sleep here today. We set up tents quickly. Well, the knights did. I had no idea how. They would rest here for a few days before leaving again for the county.

"Here," one of them said and handed me a bag of weeds we had plucked from the ground. The herbs I had brought inside the city already lay beside me. I would use them later. I had a bigger problem right now. My Town was starving.