“Uh? Uh….”
Fortunately, Alpheus didn’t notice anything strange and just nodded blankly.
“Th-thank you…?”
For a moment, silence fell over the table.
Philip and Langsi also stared at me as if they were looking at an alien.
Alpheus mumbled, not knowing what to do.
“Is… is this right? Then, um, I do it like this…?”
“Do it right.”
Langsi answered half-heartedly.
“So, um, Marquess,” I asked about the matter I had patiently held back until now.
“Did you bring some money?”
Alpheus grinned broadly.
“No, not yet!”
He smiled, but he didn’t exactly look confident saying that.
“I told you. I ran all the way here from the Second Prince. With the warp messed up, how could I leave my little bunny-like sibling here alone?”
Hearing that the master hadn’t brought money, Langsi’s eyes grew cold.
“So you only came here with a mouth to eat.”
He narrowed his eyes and added,
“To properly eat the potatoes our miss carefully grew.”
“Hmm… is the financial situation really that serious?”
“No debts, for now. Thanks to the miss, we’ve regained quite a bit of territory. But I’m worried about how we’ll survive going forward…”
Langsi sighed as he explained his regrets to the returning lord of the estate.
“Honestly, we can’t keep living like before—borrowing grains every season and catching mackerel once in a while to make up for it.”
That was true.
According to the original story, the western region, after the monster waves, would no longer have the continuous harvests it once did.
Grain prices had been cheap until now, but not anymore.
“But Captain, I mean, Marquess, when will the remaining knights arrive?”
“Probably tomorrow morning, I think.”
I couldn’t help but sigh.
The elite group Alpheus had taken to the capital was now returning. They were all safe, so it meant there were twelve more mouths to feed.
‘…They’ll eat a lot, won’t they?’
I hadn’t expected this.
I also hadn’t planned to purchase the Baron region…
‘…Wait.’
Suddenly, my eyes widened.
Looking at it differently, a solution appeared.
I slowly looked at Alpheus.
Strong muscles, a big frame, endless stamina.
‘The elite group must be similar, right?’
And I had also found the seed I had wanted at Jezel Street!
A sly smile began to form.
Alpheus flinched and tilted his head.
“Hmm? Why are you smiling? I’ve never seen our princess smile like this before… but it feels kind of eerie.”
They weren’t just mouths to feed—they were also labor power!
One month later, at the Mage Tower.
“The ratio of monsters is decreasing!”
The largest magic stone in the center of the garden had turned pink.
This magic stone displayed the proportion of monsters in the empire through its color.
For the past three months, the stone had been continuously red. Too many monsters existed—a phenomenon unprecedented in the empire’s history.
Even the tower master was troubled by the unusual situation.
“At this level, it should be fine to operate the warp.”
The tower master let out a sigh of relief as he hurried down. The empire’s travel routes had been blocked, and everyone had been complaining.
The Mage Tower had also suffered in isolation. Recently, the pursuit of dark mages had completely stalled, as the tower had no contact with other regions.
On top of that, all the uncertainty and complaints were being dumped on the tower.
“Are you sure we can activate the warp in midsummer?”
“Can we really trust it? We can’t survive like this.”
The tower master shivered thinking of the past two terrible months. If the warp wasn’t activated as promised, it would have led to riots.
“It’s not my fault the warp is like this! Why is everyone complaining to us, hmm?”
The tower master whined.
“Sadly, that’s how the world works!”
He answered his own question with a sigh.
“Tell the slaves of the tower… I mean, the mages.”
Then he slammed his staff down and declared:
“Activate the warp!”
“Is… is that okay?”
One of the mages asked.
“The warp in the southern region hasn’t been fully checked yet…”
“As long as no one dies, just activate it! Otherwise, the tower will run out of food and we’ll have to farm!”
“But….”
“If problems arise, we’ll handle them then! That’s better!”
The tower master shouted boldly.
“Sadly, that’s how the world works!”
Across the vast western lands, the warp began to flash.
Soon, Leopold and his knights arrived at the Nozen Duke’s manor.
Although the western region had suffered the largest monster wave, ironically the damage was not severe. Leopold had traveled the area, defeating the monsters himself.
Unlike monsters in hills or mountains, western monsters had reached the farmland. Leopold hadn’t rested a moment.
As midsummer approached, the monsters gradually disappeared.
“I’m worried about winter,” sighed Leopold’s aide.
“If it’s like this now, what will happen in winter…?”
The biggest monster waves in the west usually came in winter. Other seasons could be handled by each estate’s knights, but this time it was different. Winter could bring another anomaly.
“Grandfather must be worried,” Leopold sighed heavily.
Now he also had to report on the dark mages.
After meeting Brisa at Delphoven Harbor, Leopold had dispatched knights to each port, catching more dark mages.
If Brisa hadn’t acted, he would have missed the ports where monsters hadn’t appeared.
He intended to interrogate them personally, but soon after capturing them, they surrendered voluntarily.
“I need to know who is targeting me and how,” Brisa said calmly, as if her life wasn’t in danger.
No one could really remain unafraid in that situation.
‘Awkward… I have nothing to say.’
It was hard to tell him that the interrogation had failed.
As soon as Hilbury heard Leopold’s report, he sighed deeply.
“This is a very serious problem. I didn’t expect so many dark mages to infiltrate the empire, especially the western region… and…”
The old duke frowned heavily.
“This must be connected to the unprecedented monster wave. We need more information. We also need to report to the royal family…”
Hilbury rubbed his forehead tiredly.
The monsters were gone, but the damage was serious.
Spring crops were almost destroyed. The empire now had to rely on midsummer crops.
Yet strangely, the fertile lands didn’t feel the same.
The Mage Tower had answered: “The land may not have fully recovered from the monsters’ influence, so we should wait.”
‘That means they don’t know.’
Not being sure meant it was only a guess.
Hilbury was uneasy.
What if there wasn’t enough food?
It wasn’t just the west—possibly the whole empire could face hunger.
