Chapter 200 – Day 30 – The Princess
“Ah… Ah… Princess, give all of these things to us…”
The man at a loss was an old man with a white beard. Behind him were men who looked quite young, but all of them, like the old man, had a very thin appearance, probably because they hadn’t eaten properly for several days.
Their faces were thickly covered with pure white powder, which adhered to them like skin and did not come off at all. Thanks to this singularity, the princess was able to know that these men were miners who worked in the mine to dig for magic stones.
Haha! Eat as much as you want without hesitation. How can you talk when you’re hungry? That’s right, drink this too!”
“Ah.. Aigoo.. Oh my God… A star won’t fall from the sky tomorrow… I don’t know…”
The old man was frightened and accepted the bottle of wine the princess gave him. The wine bottle filled with purple liquid was full of wine that the old man had never seen before in his life. In front of him, the stew that the princess had brought was boiling in a huge pot, and it smelled surprisingly delicious.
It didn’t end there, and even the fat pigs were roasted and distributed to the miners as food.
“Hmm…”
Hedone didn’t like this look at first. She’s not just telling the miners about the mine, she’s having this huge banquet in front of the mine.
Not everything looked like money, but the price of the food the princess gave to the miners today was no joke. It wasn’t just the bread they had in their hands, nor the potatoes they had brought in from the far south.
“Now, everyone, eat comfortably. I heard that it was already half a year ago that you could not work in the mine because you could not enter the mine.”
Seeing the princess smiling and talking to her, the miners nodded at her. Some people didn’t really listen and shoved bread and thick stew into their mouths at random, but most of them listened.
“As the owner of this dukedom, as the ruler. I have not heard from you for a long time. It is my fault. At least for today, it would be nice if I could eat this food and sleep comfortably.”
“Ah… Oh, Princess… Why are you saying that? We Schoners are just… Happy to be able to live here…”
Haha, isn’t this a good place to live? There isn’t much land to farm. The only way you can fill your stomach is by digging for magic stones, but I’m sorry I’m slow to hear from you , so I’m trying to solve the problem now.” It follows.”
At the words of the princess, the miners looked at each other’s faces.
Since they were born, they have heard many stories about the royal family, the imperial family, the princess, and the emperor, but these were stories above the clouds. It’s a story you would only see in dreamland. There were even people here who didn’t know what the princess looked like.
They were uneducated and poor, so they had no way to know about the royal family in a distant place that took more than 10 days by carriage. By the way, the princess in such a dream appeared yesterday riding an Alicorn, and today she suddenly said that she would give her something to eat and solve the mine’s problems.
“Cho.. Chief. Wouldn’t you really solve it?”
“This… Man. How could someone as precious as the princess enter the mine? Lowly people like us have to deal with it.”
“But Chief…! You’ll die if you go inside!”
The voices of the old and the young were blatantly audible. When the princess heard that, she let out a hum and let out a snort, then she walked over to them and she sat down.
“Ah, my God! Princess! Now, what…!”
“As expected, don’t we have to make eye contact like this to talk? Come on, talk comfortably. I’m the princess of the Empire, but I’m also the ruler of the Kearga Duchy, so shouldn’t I listen to your stories and solve the problem?”
“Ha-ha-ona… That, the princess…”
Haha, I can make a lot of money only when the problem of this mine is solved.”
The princess acted like a snob for no reason, and the old man called the village chief was at a loss when he realized the obvious lie. It was the first time that aristocrats were so considerate of themselves and provided food. He set the bowl and bread he was holding to the ground with tears streaming down his eyes.
“Joe, I’m sorry. Princess… We committed a mortal sin.”
“Yes, that’s right! Princess! Cho, as the chief said! Even if you kill us, you have nothing to say…!”
Seeing them suddenly start bowing and shouting, the princess didn’t say anything.
“Why is everyone doing this all of a sudden? Did I bring even soldiers with swords? Don’t be afraid to talk.
“That…That’s…”
“We’re afraid of the monsters that live in the mine..! We haven’t been able to go inside since half a year ago.”
“Yeah, by the way. I don’t like starving…”
They couldn’t finish talking.
“It looks like you have falsely reported that you are working with money because you want to get it. Princess.”
At Hedone’s blunt words, the miners trembled and nodded. Hedone, who even had a ledger in her hand, could understand the circumstances even by skimming through the book.
“But if you can’t enter the mine, you can’t work, so you don’t even have a magic stone to show Ceres.”
“If you have mana stones, you can use them like money to merchants, so you probably stole a little while working, and mana stones can’t always be mined consistently… “
Even if they couldn’t mine magic stones for a few months, there were many cases where they thought that the tunnel was just getting deeper. The princess, who knew such a story, silently nodded her head.
Some lords might have been angry with their eyes lit up for having their offerings stolen if they had heard such a story. And they weren’t doing anything wrong.
“Why didn’t you guys report to the castle that there was a monster in the mine?”
“The… How could they go straight to the castle where the duke lives. I told Count Baal…”
“Has the Count of Baal ignored your story?”
They nodded their heads at the princess’s question. She must have been the village chief who mustered up the courage to tell the story directly to the count instead of the baron… The princess could easily imagine what kind of fool he had been treated.
“Hmm, you are certainly guilty too… Hedone, how did they get their wages?”
“It looks like Ceres gave me 1 gold coin a month.
Die. Hedone knew that. The Duchy of Kealga was quite close to the Hollympus Mountains. So there was no huge ‘city’. There seemed to be a fairly large market in the center of the dukedom, but not all items could always be traded there.
In particular, there was a fixed season for fresh food and things that could be food to be put on the stalls. It was very obvious when these miners would and should spend the gold coins they had been saving all year.
“Six gold coins in half a year.
Hedone calculated the numbers roughly, and it seemed like a rather heavy sack would come out. Thinking that the miners here ate that much gold every day made me feel sick to my stomach.
However, the princess shrugged her shoulders.
“Let’s do something that never happened.”
“Gaeheo… Hmm, Princess, if you get past this…”
“Aren’t they fools too? Will they do this again in the future? If we punish them, they say that there are monsters living in the mines, but Count Baal, who has been multiplying without solving it, is wrong. Let’s get the gold coins from him later.”
Miners and farmers are people who have not been taught in the first place. The princess shrugged her shoulders as if she couldn’t help it. Hedone did n’t like that, but somewhere in her heart she could n’t help but understand.
‘…What kind of punishment can be given to these miners. There would be only the death penalty. What if we kill these miners? Even if the mines are taken care of, there will be no people who mine mana stones…’
Hedone looked at her princess. She was just acting like a nice person and a good-natured woman, but wasn’t there a part of her that was surprisingly calculating? To be honest, Hedone couldn’t help but be surprised.
‘If they all die, this village will collapse, and if rumors spread that the princess personally appeared and punished and killed the farmers, no one would have a hard time coming all the way to the Hollympus Mountains…’
If so, no one will work in the mines in the future. On the contrary, if the food is given like this now and the princess even buys bees, they will work harder than any other humans once the mine problem is solved. There’s a chance it won’t happen, but at least it was more beneficial than killing them.
In fact, isn’t the princess smart? Hedone was seriously thinking about that and coughed slightly.
“Then, Princess. Don’t you have something to do?”
“Ah, ah, yes! Hedone did well. Kheum, dear. Tell me about the monster who lives in that mine.”
At the question of the princess, who quickly recognized Hedone’s notice her, the village chief barely got up from his seat, sat down again, and straightened his white beard.
Due to his actions his, the miners were able to sit down again and filled their stomachs while looking at the princess.
“That, very! A very fearsome fellow. He has wings on his back and horns on his head.”
“Did he look like a man by any chance?”
“I-I don’t know.
“When I went back in later, I couldn’t tell because the lights were off!”
The miners’ words were heard one by one.
“That’s right, that’s right! My red eyes flashed in front of that monstrous shaft! I opened my eyes… I thought my heart was going to drop!”
“Go, I tried hitting it with a pickaxe! Oops, the pickaxe was rather sprayed!”
“That’s right.. Princess, the monster inside there is really, really! It’s scary. He doesn’t come out because he’s afraid of the light…”
He said the village chief and pointed to a wooden board that had been set up in the shape of an X. The entrance to the mine was very poorly blocked, and right in front of it I could see charred charcoal.
‘Every night, you lit a fire to keep the monster from coming out…’
Realizing that the miners’ hardships were no joke, the princess wanted to solve this problem as soon as possible.
“Did you tell this story to the Count of Baal?”
“Of course. But… That…”
“The problem of fanaticism is not the count himself, but the duke, that is, the princess’s problem. The problem of such responsibility is too difficult for these unlearned people.”
The village chief is surprised by Hedone’s words and nods his head. It was because he had told a story he had heard half a year ago, and Hedone sighed. This was a common occurrence in the empire and even in small territories.
It wasn’t that the lords were patrolling the territory for nothing because they had plenty of time.
“Hmm… Then I guess I’ll have to go and talk to that guy named Count Baal.”
“Ah, my princess… So you’re calling the wizard?”
“Wizard?”
At the princess’ question, the miners innocently nodded with their eyes shining.
“When I talked to Count Baal… He said that only wizards who studied at the Mage Tower could defeat this monster…”
“Hey, can that be?”
The princess shook her head as if she was a bit dumbfounded.
“The mana stone stores an enormous amount of mana. If a mage uses magic in a mine where such a thing is mined, a huge explosion will occur, and not only the mage but also you sitting at the entrance can die.”
“Ah… Aigoo… Schoners… Magic is so difficult…”
The village chief shook his head with a surprised expression. They couldn’t help but be even more surprised because they were really thinking about getting a wizard through the merchants.
“Hmm, Hedone. Even if you think about it, isn’t this Count of Baal really strange?”
“It’s really strange. Princess.”
“There’s no way that a nobleman the size of a count doesn’t know the story about the mana stone… There’s a crime that he didn’t report to Ceres even though he knew about the problem that occurred in the mine, so he should be severely punished.”
The princess got up from her seat and brushed her butt off. The miners, including the village chief, tried to stand up, but the princess waved her hand.
“You guys sit down and eat. Didn’t you eat properly because of me and be distracted from talking? I’m going to see Count Baal’s face.. You guys should act as usual.”
The village chief rose from his seat at the words of the princess, who was full of smiles.
“Please go in, Princess…”
He felt a sense of ecstasy beyond gratitude. The princess smiled a little when she heard that, and when she saw Hedone following her, she hugged her around the waist.
“Would you like to give me a kiss?”
“Since you haven’t solved the problem yet… Don’t even think about getting a kiss. Poor perverted princess.”
Hedone was talking bluntly, but she did not refuse the princess’s hand her.
