chapter 18
I worked hard day after day to build a body capable of handling my newly learned technique (I decided to simply call it a boost). He learned swordsmanship from Mustafa, supplemented his lack of skills, and studied magnetic field control.
As the days of training continued, winter slowly came to Iron Blood.
At lunchtime, I drank hot black tea indoors with Mustafa.
“… … .”
“… … Hmm.”
There wasn’t much conversation going on, but there was an atmosphere where they noticed each other strangely. Mustafa stopped holding his glass in the air from time to time as if to say something, but the words I was waiting for never came out of his mouth.
Had it been like that for 15 minutes?
“You don’t bring up the topic of training today. Lately, I thought it would be too late to say that we should train slowly.”
I put my chin on my chin and said with a grin.
“Ugh.”
Mustafa, who had given up after thinking about it and drank tea, flinched.
“No matter how you are, is it hard to endure the cold?”
Normally, Mustafa would say let’s drink tea quickly and do combat training, but recently, as we said, let’s train slowly and speak slowly. I didn’t really want to train, but I was paying attention because it was a little fun to see Mustafa, who secretly didn’t want to go out.
“… … The place where the Amer people lived was a warm place. I am not used to the cold.”
Mustafa was embarrassed and made an excuse.
“How deplorable it is that someone who is said to have the best swordsmanship with iron blood doesn’t want to go out in the cold like a cat.”
“Then we go out and train right away.”
As I smirked and teased him, Mustafa immediately jumped up from his seat.
“I’m kidding. I also want to rest today. Let’s have some hot tea together.”
I laughed and shook my head. Mustafa stood still and quietly sat down again. It was a needlessly small move.
“… … To be honest, the villa is too warm.”
“is it?”
And I started making excuses. Nearby, Katyusha hmm, hmm. He turned around and saw him coughing as if trying to swallow his laughter.
“When I was in the base, it was cold inside and outside, so it would have been better to heat up through training, but it was so warm that I had no choice but to sag. I think it’s an excuse… … .”
“That’s right. Sometimes it’s so hot it wakes me up.”
As Mustafa said, the palace was too warm. Most aristocratic mansions are probably like that. There must be a huge amount of firewood there.
It would be a terrible luxury in the barren Iron Blood.
“… … Katyusha. Have you researched what I asked before?”
I asked Katyusha, who was pouring black tea into an empty teacup.
“Are you talking about this year’s harvest? It wasn’t good. It was the worst crop failure since Iron Blood started.”
“Then did you collect less taxes? That should be enough to loosen the grain.”
At my question, Katyusha shook her head.
“… … It’s no different than usual.”
“I thought so, but so it was.”
Perhaps the high-ranking members of the State Council do not even know that it is a bad harvest. In reality, the State Council was nothing short of a social gathering. They just enjoy the banquet while chatting about the superiority of Sangvis Sangvis.
‘Then, the incident in the original story will happen as planned.’
I immediately drank the black tea Katyusha poured for me and stood up.
“Katyusha, Mustafa. Would you like to go on a field trip together?”
At my sudden words, Katyusha and Mustafa stared blankly at me.
“If it’s a field trip… … Are you talking about the knight academy?”
Katyusha asked, puzzled. I shook my head in denial.
“no. Not there yet. Where to go this time… … .”
Knight Academy is the setting of the first part of the original work. It’s definitely a place to go, but it’s not yet that time.
“It’s Saratov.”
The area to go now is Saratov.
It is the largest granary of Sangvis Iron Blood and the place where the prologue of the Iron Blood Revolution begins.
“… … indeed. Are you going to go to the top of the famine?”
“What would happen if I kicked up? I have neither the money nor the power to buy them porridge.”
To be precise, there was nothing I couldn’t do, but even if I did that, it would only fall outside the emperor’s eyes. In Iron Blood now, it is the high-risk low-return that gains the support of the people and incurs the antipathy of the nobles.
I am going to Saratov only for confirmation and verification.
“Departure is tomorrow. Katyusha, prepare a robe to use to hide your identity.”
Katyusha and Mustafa were looking at me as if they didn’t know why.
“I have a hunch that something extraordinary is about to happen.”
I looked back and said why. After roughly grasping the atmosphere, the two nodded and started moving to get ready.
Saratov is quite far from the capital where the villa is located.
‘When will the replacement railway be completed?’
Work on the railway, which had begun before I even possessed Mikhail, was still in progress. It would probably be completed by next year’s entrance ceremony at the Knights Academy, but for now, the only option was to go by carriage.
“Riding in a carriage is more painful than I thought… … . In the days when there was no sense of touch, I had no idea.”
“yes. very sick It’s something I really hate.”
“I have a good ass, but I have a bad stomach… … . Whoops, whoops whoops… … .”
It tasted like death. If we had known this would happen, wouldn’t it have been better to work on the development of railroads rather than firearms? With that thought in mind, I put another cushion on my buttocks.
After spending such a long time in the carriage, we arrived in Saratov.
Wearing ragged robes to hide our identities, we got off the carriage and looked around the vast Saratov.
“It’s even more miserable than I imagined.”
The land of Saratov, which must have been the largest granary of Iron Blood, was so dry that there was not even a single blade of grass. If it hadn’t been for the prior information that it was a field, I would have thought it was just a vast wasteland.
“… … It’s like a wasteland. It wasn’t like this when I came before.”
“Even if you put half of the earth magicians in the rose garden, you should be able to reap the minimum harvest.”
“Then why not?”
When I said this with a wry smile, Mustafa expressed a question.
“It’s for a simple reason. A geomancer who can fertilize the land is sure to gain a lot of popularity among the farmers and the people. But, then it might become the main axis of the rebellion.”
I explained the reason why it came out of the work.
“It’s plausible, but no matter how so.”
“It would be better to starve to death rather than give the possibility of rebellion.”
This was the iron-blooded way. Mustafa was silent as he stared at the wasteland that was the field.
“Does the Crown Prince think this is right?”
“well. But one thing is certain… … .”
I walked through the wasteland ahead.
“Without the people, the country would cease to exist.”
“… … That is a good word.”
Mustafa and Katyusha followed me.
We crossed a land too dry to be called a field and arrived at the Saratov stream.
“The inside is just as bad as the outside.”
“I know. I never thought it would be like this.”
The city of Saratov was as dry as the wasteland it had crossed.
There was no life in the eyes of the skinny passers-by, and beggars lined the streets. It was the largest granary area ever seen. It was like a huge slum.
‘No matter how severe the famine was, is this the best grain belt?’
When I read it as a novel, I didn’t think too deeply because the description was brief, but it was more miserable than I thought.
And when the relief food was not enough, Iron Blood extorted the same taxes from the people as before. In fact, it was an act of extortion.
‘Iron blood must change.’
If Iron Blood collapsed, there would be no place for me to be.
In order for me to survive, I must change Sangvis. To do so, he must survive and gain the power of the emperor.
‘Even though they seem connected, they don’t mesh.’
It’s daunting, but it’s something you have to do.
And behind that, an invisible villain existed.
Parabellum.
A person or group whose name is still unknown.
To be honest, it’s not that hard. Not knowing where to begin, I lowered my head and let out a deep sigh.
And when I looked up, I found a man.
“… … stop.”
I reached out and stopped Katyusha and Mustafa.
The man was standing a block away. It was a tall man in a white coat.
After talking for a while with the woman holding the child in front of her, the man took out a small piece of bread and money from the pocket of her gown and gave it to her. The woman lowered her head and disappeared into the alley. After taking a deep breath, the man turned around and entered the shop behind him.
It was a clean store with a sign that said ‘Johannes Pharmacy’.
“found.”
The man’s name is Johannes.
He is the father of Eugene, the main character of the original, Iron Blood Revolution.
“I’m glad I got to meet you before I die.”
He loses his life in the event of the prologue, the Saratov Rebellion, which will happen here some time later.