Author Note:
Woaaaah, I haven't written in a long long time. Well, I was wondering how I should continue this story. So I sat on it, left it for a while and reread it over and over again. Although there are so many 'isekai' other worldly light novels that have sprouted out like weeds, I still really enjoy writing them.
So I decided, I don't give a rat's butt about what others think and wrote what I was happy to write about.
Well, here it is! Chapter 5!
P.S
Chapter 4 is still under works, lol wtf i know right? dw about it.
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Chapter 5
[Kurisu’s point of view]
Our training was finished for
the day and the sun began to set. Yuki passed out from exhaustion of the
training and is currently being carried like a sack of potatoes by Nakajou.
Heading out to the middle
district, we entered an old establishment called the “Shield bar”. People of
all different age, race and gender gathered here, drinking, singing, laughing
and chatting. The bar was almost entirely made from wood and timber, smell of
alcohol and food drifted into my nose. Almost as if my nose were communicating
with my stomach, it growled demanding food.
A waitress dressed in cute
frill apron came to greet us in a gentle yet excited smile.
“Welcome to the Shield bar!
We haven’t seen you around before, are you new to the town nya?”
... Nya?
What stood out the most about
this person was not her unusual way of speech, but her small black and white
animal ears. The ears were flickering above her head, and her two tails, one
white and one black that was swinging left to right.
“…nya?”
I was lost for a moment
there, and made an awkward silence between the two of us.
“Hi, we are looking for-“
“YES! Make that a table for
four, and why don’t you join us? Actually make that a table for two, it can be
just you and-“
“BAKA-JOU!”
Yuki who was passed out just
now, awoke, swinging her left leg above her head, she round house kicked his
head down to the floor. His face splendidly crashed under her feet. The now,
unconscious body of Nakajou is being dragged out of the bar by his neck by
Yuki.
“… My apologies for my
comrades, we are looking for a man with black hair and about my height, have
you seen him?”
“Ah! The hero! Yes yes, are
you friends of the Hero nya? Right this way nyaa~”
Being lead to the corner
furthest of the room, directly next to the bar table, Soujiru was sitting there
and waved energetically towards me.
“would you like anything to
drink nya?”
“just give us 4 house brews
and one large serving of cactus fries please.”
“right away nya!”
The waitress happily skipped
towards the bar table and made the order to the kitchen.
“oi, where is the other two?”
“they’re outside at the
moment, having a heated argument as always.”
“Ah, good, I’d like to talk
to you about something first.”
Soujiru clasped his hands
together and leaned his elbows against the table.
“Kurisu, from memory, you
have done a bachelors in economics and law right? The prime minister of
this country actually came to the magic guild when I was there, and I happened
to overhear his conversation.”
Our drinks arrived along with
a large bowl of what looked like fried potatoes you can get from a fast food
store. Taking a sip from the ale,
Soujiru continued his talk.
“Apparently the country is
going through a famine.”
The street markets and the
bar had plenty of customers and supplied their food at pretty reasonable costs.
It surprised me that they would be anywhere near a famine…
“Ah… I see, they’re importing
food from other nations and supplying at their usual lowered costs to the
public.”
The country would be taking a
huge financial debt from doing this method, however it saves it from another
whole deal of problems.
“That’s right, actually, I
invited him over to the bar to talk about this, ah here he is.”
A man looked like who have
lived 5 times my age was dressed in a simple yet elegant clothing, bowed and
introduced himself.
“Great Heroes, I am this
country’s acting prime minister Galleon Gi Gallows, it is my most honor to get
a chance to meet you both.”
“Ah, Galleon, please do not
mind formalities, we are not very good at those either.”
“Well then, please allow me
to be frank.”
He took a seat and took a
large breath in and let it out before continuing.
“I will get straight to the
point. This country is in the verge of a famine, our crops haven’t been
supplying enough to feed our nations completely. Our hands are bound because if
we suddenly raise tax and or costs of food, the citizens will not only be
unable to purchase food, it will lead more citizens to become jobless. This
might force citizens to sell off their daughters to slavery to have less mouths
to feed. Public order will be in chaos and might even lead to a civil war.”
Looking down grimly to the
floor for a moment, and continued.
“Our country had no choice
but to purchase food from neighboring countries and resell them to the general
public at their usual costs. Of course because of this, our nation is heading
straight to bankruptcy. This has become a huge problem for our country.”
According to the prime
minister, majority of the crops that are planted are wheat, cabbages and
tomatoes. Not all crops were edible, there were crops called “Cash Crops” where
they were grown and traded to neighboring nations for food or money. Since the Demon Lord’s
arrival, war supplies were in demand. Iron ores, leather, wool and cotton were
especially extremely high in demand by frontier countries.
“Just out of curiosity, how
much food crops are planted compared to the cash crops?”
“I believe it would be around
half. Half of our crops are cash crops, half of those crops are cotton and the
other are medicinal plants.”
“Let me guess, the crops are
turning bad due to some disease and majority of the crops are inedible?”
“H-how did you know?”
“Do you rotate crops on
different seasons and/or year?”
“Rotate you say…? No, I don’t
believe so, most farms stick with one type of crop for years and years,
however… a lot of farmers are drawn to the profitable cash crops like cotton,
so they began to switch over from food crops.”
This was their problem.
“Sir that is where your
problem lies. I will tell you what to do, if you wish to solve this problem,
please listen to me and do exactly as I say. You must implement them to this
country as soon as you can before it gets any worse.”
“Y-yes! If we can solve this
problem, we shall do all you heroes command!”
“Good, now, cut and uproot
all cash crop farms aside from medicinal crop farms. Make a King’s decree that:
‘for all those who plants these cash crops without authorization are punishable
by death.”
The prime minister jumped out
of his seat and sweat began to drop down from his forehead.
“W-wait! Please wait! Cotton
exports are what runs this country! It is one of our biggest exported national
incomes! We still require cotton farms for the economy of our kingdom! Without
it, we will be flat broke!”
“would you rather be broke or
have a civil war over food?”
“That is… Of course feed our
people…”
“Good, cash crops are good
when a country’s financial and agriculture status are stable, however, right
now, you are in a verge of famine. This country must focus on being self-sufficient
regarding food. To do that, we shall split the country’s crops into four, make
sure that each type of crops are nowhere near each other and never repeat the
same crop for next four years in the same place.
We will begin rotation crops
of the following: Beans, Cabbages, Onions and Potatoes. No farmers will be
allowed to plant anything else in their farms unless said otherwise for the
next 4 years.”
The prime minister became
speechless, with his eyes and mouth wide open, he just stared blankly at me. As
if an epiphany struck him, he quickly pulled out white clean pages, quill and
ink and wrote everything down in detail.
“Also, you must import as
much food as you can for the next 6 months while the newly planted crops bears
fruit. Set up contracts with neighboring countries to supply steady amounts
for next 6 months and work all your country’s financials around this project.”
“We will be needing a huge
amount of money to supply the whole country with such expensive imported food!
How will we ever do such a thing? We cannot afford it!”
“Gather all rich merchants
and rich nobles and borrow money from them. If we do not pay back within 2 year
from now, give them this country’s portion of the land as collateral.”
The prime minister spat out
his drink and his eyeballs were about to pop out of his sockets.
“H-h-how can we do such a
thing! A King who freely gives away land without a fight will be labelled as a
pathetic king and will be laughed at throughout history! We can do no such thing!”
From what I have seen of the
current king, he genuinely loves his people and cares for them. Only such
rulers would be willing to import food and sell them without even raising
taxes. I see him as an ideological ruler, a ruler who actually believes that
this country’s citizens are his children. He will be able to understand.
“Would your king still be a
king without his citizens? Citizens are what makes a country, not the king nor
the land. Also, calm down a bit, there is a good reason for this: this country
has too large of land to be controlled by the current government. Large portion
of this country is still covered with monsters and beasts because the military
is still too short staffed to hunt them all down. I am not telling you to sell
the land with people but land without people and no economical or historic
value.”
“Also, I am not saying you
have to definitely sell your land, as long as we can pay it back within one
year or two years, we won’t lose anything.”
“How do you expect to pay
something back like that when we don’t have any cash flowing into our country?”
“There are more ways for a
country to gain money without selling cash crops. For one, cash crops are one
of the worst ways for a country to make money, let alone depend their entire
country budget on. I could go through with the details with you right now,
however, we will be here all night.”
“Bahahahaha! Admit it
Galleon, you lost to this youngster. A King without citizens is no king at all.
I love the way you speak! A worthless king! Bahahahaha!”
A man covered in a dark
hooded mantle started laughing from the bar table that was overhearing our
conversations. He lifted his hood and revealed his face.
It was the king himself.
“Your majest-“
Holding out his hand, he
stopped the prime minister from continuing.
“I am being incognito today,
do not treat me like a king here in public.”
“Y-yes sire, understood.”
The king sat next to the
prime minister and stared deep into my eyes for a while, then opened his mouth.
“As you said, a King without
his citizen isn’t a king at all. Selling his land and be called a worthless
king? Fine by me! I’d rather be remembered as a worthless king than a king who
killed his people from starvation. Bahahahaha! I approve all of this. Prime
minister.”
“Yes sire!”
“Go gather my subjects and
work with our hero here and implement all his ideas to this country’s policies.”
“Yes sire! Right away!”
Prime minister bolted out the
door and ran towards the castle.
“It is such a shame and also
great pleasure that Kurisu is our hero. You would make a great politician. How
about it? How would you like to become minister of finance? No, what about next
prime minister! Bahahaha!”
“I am honored by your
evaluation of me, however, I must respectfully decline. My place is here with
Soujiru and my comrades.”
“Ah, it is a shame indeed,
but what can we do. However, do you mind being in charge over these plans as
they are implemented? I am afraid none of my subjects could compete to your
vast knowledge.”
“I will do what I can,
however, as I have said earlier, my place is with my comrades, they will come
first before this duty. Is that fine with you sire?”
“Umu, that will do.”
The king nodded his head in
approval with a smile on his face.
“Soujiru!! Sorry about my
lateness! I had to take care of an annoying mosquito.”
Yuki who was dusting her
clothes in one hand, and dragging an unconscious Nakajou in another.
“THE KING!? WHY IS HE HERE!?”
Yuki screamed so loud
everyone in the bar had heard her speak. Every single person in the bar dropped
to their knees and bowed before the king.
“Oh dear, I believe I stayed
here for too long. Well, I have heard from the Captain that your training are
going well. We shall talk more in depth about this topic in the near future.
Guards, let’s head back.”
Four shadows came out from
underneath the tables and appeared in human form in front of the king.
“Yes sire.”
As the king and his guards left
the bar and the crowd all ran out of the bar, sprinting more likely, throwing
their sacks of money on the table without counting and bolted out of the restaurant.
*growl*
I still haven’t eaten yet.
