Wheat

Tak

Tak

Tak

The wheels of the carriage were making loud noises as they passed the rough and uneven road and the people sitting inside were moved back and fro as the vehicle kept moving. Inside the luxurious carriage that was about double the size of Alaric's burnt one, three people were sitting quietly, occasionally holding onto the chair or the body of the carriage to prevent falling down due to the carriage's sudden movements.

Tak

Once again, one side of the vehicle rose up all of a sudden, making Alaric lose balance and hit me.

"Ah, sorry."

He apologized with a low voice and moved back to where he sat on the other end of the long chair hurriedly. The whole time we were moving forward, I couldn't stop thinking about one thing.

'It was a wrong decision. Alaric's choice was wrong!'

We shouldn't have agreed to go with Barnett. Even if we accepted the offer, we should've refused to share the same carriage with this young lord!

'And what the hell am I doing here?'

Why was I sitting inside the young lord's carriage? It's so awkward here... and so uncomfortable. It's not like Alaric's carriage that I could act as if it was my home... It's not comfortable at all with this dude around.

Looking at Alaric's numb face, I could tell that he had similar thoughts to me. Regret and remorse! Well, it's his own fault for not thinking deeply about things before accepting them. It was obvious that he had to sit in the same carriage with Barnett. There is no way such a man like Barnett would act so disrespectfully towards the son of a count and give him a cheap carriage.

But this young master of mine had not thought about that and didn't even expect it. As soon as Barnett invited him inside, Alaric panicked and searched for ways and reasons to refuse the offer, only to shut his mouth under Ranger's gaze. Unable to change his face, he decided to pull me down with himself!

He forced me to come inside with him!

His excuse was that I got injured and the wound needed to be treated with care, but I know that he dragged me here only because he was scared to be left alone with Barnett! Hearing about what had happened to me, Barnett agreed that I should accompany Alaric.

'It'll only make things hard for me! My plan to run away in the jungle will be ruined this way...'

I guess I have to think of another plan.

Tak

Tak

Tak

The carriage continued to move forward. No one inside said anything for a long time. Barnett was staring outside the window while Alaric opened a book to read, which made the former secretly send glances at the title of the book and its content from time to time. I wanted to take a nap, but as Barnett was around, I couldn't be so rude. I could only lean back in my seat and think of various things.

'That black-haired dude... Raven, was he? Did they already leave?'

I didn't see them this morning and before we left. Last night, I heard from Ralph that his Aunty Eleen said they would leave soon to search for the bandits' hideout for the stolen goods, hand in the bandits to the state's soldiers, and return the goods to the person who hired them.

'Aunty Eleen! He got real close to that woman in only one day!'

Well, he is a kid with not much an experience of real life outside of the mansion and that woman was also kind, so it's not really odd for Ralph to be drawn to her.

'It'd be good if that Raven dude was also a little bit like his friend. Gah, I hope I'll never see him again.'

Still, he knows that I work for Poqlen county and might come searching for me, so I have to hide for a while, at least until he forgets me or gives up on searching for me.

'But seriously, who is he?'

The more I think about it, the more confusing it gets. How can I forget about someone to the point of not even remembering their name? I can't think of anyone named Raven at all... Well, Raven might not be that man's real name.

'I have a lot of time to figure out who he is.'

Even if I can't manage to find out in this life, I still have my next life and its next life and the other next life...

I sighed and turned my face towards the window. The sky was orange-red. It was sunset. The weather was starting to cool down a little bit as the sun moved lower in the sky. The radiant glow from the setting sun had blanketed the earth beneath it, making the countless fully grown wheat in the farms seem like a vast sea of gold. They were swaying right and left under the slight breeze, looking like small waves in the golden sea from afar.

"They haven't harvested them either..."

At that moment, Barnett mumbled under his lips a few words as he also stared at the scene outside the window, as if mesmerized. While gazing at the wheat farms seen throughout the land, a faint frown formed on his forehead. His eyes reflecting the sunlight turned a little bit gloomy and he heaved a sigh.

We were in the middle of the summer. The wheat must've been harvested till now. As the son of a duke who lured over most of the wheat farms in the country, Barnett must know that full well. The fact that these farmers have not harvested wheat yet showed that there must be some kind of problem.

'Hmm... So they really knew that something was not right before the Great Drought struck, but couldn't understand the reason and cause of the abnormalities...'

Should I be nice and hint at this young man a little bit?

"They might face some problems in providing food in the future if they don't harvest wheat on time."

As if talking to myself, I tilted my head a little bit while staring at the scene and continued in a low voice.

"If the wheat is not gathered and sold a few months later than the usual time... Then the people using that wheat will starve in the meantime..."

I tilted my head a little bit more and repeated in a whisper.

"Starve..."

"...."

"...."

Both Barnett and Alaric's gazes were on me, one was frowning while the other was confused. The former's expression changed rapidly, from a frown to a puzzled one and from that to a look of understanding. After a few seconds, the young lord suddenly looked nervous.

'I think he made some guesses with that.'

It's a wonder how they didn't think of it beforehand. As the noble family that had most of the wheat market on their palms, it was strange that they didn't think of the consequences of wheat not being harvested on time.

'Or maybe they trusted on the capacity of their warehouses and their stored goods way too much.'

After all, the shortage of wheat in one year wouldn't affect the country that much, it was in the long run that the devastating outcomes would occur.

Barnett, who had lowered his head in thought, raised it again and looked at me. He opened his mouth to say something but closed it immediately. He then turned to Alaric and repeated the same thing, but in the end, he said nothing.

As it was sunset and the weather was starting to turn dark, the carriage driver decreased the speed a little out of cautiousness and continued to ride at a steady rate. After about half an hour, we arrived at another small village that was going to be our place to rest at night.

As the carriage stopped and we stepped down from it, an old man stepped in front of Barnett and bowed to him 90 degrees.

"We are honored to welcome you to our small village, young lord."