Chapter 70 - Disaster

I wave back at the princess who is waving at me. This is the last day of the princess' visit to the north, and following behind her carriage are five wagons filled to the brim with long-lasting food like Wheat and other grain, like oats.

I also tell Richard to send a dozen of his best fighters to watch the princess and the convoy from far away. I know the knight can handle a normal bandit or monster, but this is the north. There is a strange monster roaming around.

I don't want a weird rumor that says the princess is dead from visiting my territory. I don't want that kind of trouble.

When the princess disappears from my view, I look at Richard and say.

"Richard, Do you send some men to follow the princess?"

"Yes, My lord. I send our best shadow to tail the princess from a distance."

"Good. I don't want anything to happen to the princess after she visits the Sea Dragon City. Good work"

"It is my pŀėȧsurė, my lord."

I look at a dozen or so papers ready to be sold. The technique we get from the princess is working like a charm. While it needs human labor, this amount of paper produced per week is good enough for me.

Sadly we need to adjust the paper's thickness because it cannot handle a quill really well.

Fortunately, the easter continent merchants want to buy our paper in a large order. While most of the people in the eastern continent are warriors, they spend their time either practicing calligraphy or writing some philosophy.

Sadly, parchment is not really good to write in a smooth motion decreasing their calligraphy quality. Anyway, they decide to buy half of the paper we currently have, and the other half is used for our daily use.

The farming technique we got from the princess is a work in progress, and in a few months, we will see the result.

"My lord, My lady."

I snap from my thoughts when Rovul calls me. I look at Rovul near the warehouse on the dock and smile at him.

"Rovul. How are you doing?"

"Doing fine, my lord. What can I do for you?"

"The usual monthly inspection. Could you show me around?"

"Of course, my lord. Please follow me, my lord, my lady."

Lucina and I follow Rovul to one of the warehouses. When we arrived in front of the warehouse, we greet the guards and processed to walk inside. When I walk inside, I see some of the workers sorting the goods.

"Rovul, do you bring the list of all the items inside this warehouse?"

"Of course, my lord."

Rovul gave me the paper, and I gave the meat section to Lucina. I go to the vegetable section and begin to inspect all the vegetables inside the warehouse. I look around the vegetable sections, and when I encounter a bad vegetable, I make it float and put them away from the fresh vegetables.

With my mastery over Green Magic, I know which vegetable is in its perfect state and the one that already decreased in quality. While Rovul and the others think those vegetables are still good to eat (and I must agree), I want my people to eat high-quality food if I can help it.

I then used the 'lower' quality vegetable to feed the livestock and the horse in the stables. I want not only the human to stay healthy but also the animal.

After ten minutes, I walk away from the vegetable sections and meet Lucina, who tells me about the meat condition.

"Dear husband, the quality of the meat starts to decrease. However, I need another month to make it low-quality meat."

"I see."

I nod at Lucina's report and look at Rovul before saying.

"Rovul, please send half of the meat in the list and all of the vegetables next to me to the private farmland. When you arrive, please tell Rachel to give the meat to the cook in there for him to use it to make some food for the worker. As for the vegetable, tell her to use these vegetables to feed the livestock."

"I will do it at once."

"You can take two barrels of drinks from the farmland."

"Thank you, my lord."

I nod at him and walk toward the docks, where I see the ship I owned begin docked. Next to the ship is Lucas, the Master of Ship ordering his underling around. They either take a crate full of arrows to the ship or take a supply for their voyage to the other continent.

Lucas and his men will be the ones guarding the merchant I send to the Eastern Continent to trade our goods. Not only that, but I also order the merchant to buy something that we don't have, like sugar beets and sugarcane from the Eastern Continent if they can.

Sweets are still an expensive commodity in this era, especially in the Western Continent. We usually use Honey to make desserts or other sweet dishes. The only one with other choices other than sugar is the Eastern continent, where they have Sugar Beets growing around the continent.

I want to test if the Sugar Beets will grow in my land with the help of magic.

"Lucas"

Lucas looks away from his job and sees me walk toward him. He smiles at me and does a quick salute, and says.

"My lord, What can I do for you?"

"A monthly inspection. How is your job?"

"We are doing fine, my lord."

"Are the pirates causing you a problem?"

"Sadly, yes. We lose good men fighting the pirate."

"Are the pirates increasing?"

"Unfortunately. With most of the kingdom in the Eastern Continent in war with each other, the sea patrol began to decrease, and that made the pirate rule the Eastern Continent sea."

"Should we increase the sea patrol?"

"I will be grateful if you do it."

"I will speak with Leonardo and Ayas. You will get some news in a few days."

"Thank you, my lord."

Before I could say more, I felt a spike of magical energy coming from the north. The magical energy is strong enough to knock out the weaker people and make most of the soldiers drop to the ground gasping like a fish out of water.

"What is that?"

When Lucas is about to answer my question, the sky begins to darken, and I can see the cloud begin to create a whirlpool-like pattern in the sky. The cloud moves to the north, the same location as the magical spike located.

"The birth of the S-rank monster…."

"Dammit!"

If what Lucas says is correct, then we are in real trouble.

"Lucas, delay your voyages until this disaster averted. Tell me, how long will the S-rank monster be born? I know it is not complete because I can feel it absorbing the mana in the air at an alarming speed."

"Depend, my lord. The fastest one recorded is three days, the longest is one month."

"I see. Then we must hurry up to the monster location. Lucas, gather our men as fast as you can. I think Leonardo already gathered the soldiers."

"Yes, My lord. What about you, my lord?"

"I will go and see where the S-rank will appear."

".... Alone?"

"Yes."

"No can do, my lord. Please take my men to accompany you."

"... Very well."

I look at two dozen men who are still standing and say.

"You guys! Come with me!"

With that being said, Lucina, me, and the soldier begin to run toward the castle. When we arrive in front of the castle, I see my mother have a pale face and worried expression. Next to her is Richard and twenty or so Castle Guards still standing and ready to fight.

"My lord…"

Richard looked at me with a grim expression.

"I know, Richard. I will immediately go to the monster location."

"... Are you sure, my lord?"

"Yes. It is my duty to protect my subject."

"Then I will come with you."

"No. You will stay here to protect the castle and my family. I will leave their life in your hand."

"But…"

"No. This is my order to you."

"... I will give my life to protect them."

"Thank you. I also want you to tell Leonardo to leave half of our men in the city. You will be the one in charge of the army in the city."

"I will not disappoint you, My lord."

I then look at Lucina and say.

"Lucina…."

"No. I will come with you."

"But…."

"No! I will come with you. Remember our oath."

"To have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death do us part."

"Till death do us part."

I hesitate for a moment before I nod at her. I take out both of our weapons and armor from my pocket dimension. These are the armor we built together. Lucina has plate armor made of Pure Mithril. Under the plate, armor is chainmail made of the same material.

Her armor has light blue color with a snarling lion symbol on the ċhėst area with a twin ax under the lion. These are both Lionheart and Macgrath house symbols.

My armor has the same design as Lucina's armor, but instead of light blue, my armor is colored silver.

My mother, who stayed silent the entire time, decided to help both Lucina and me wear our armor. When we finished wearing our armor, my mother looked me in the eyes and hugged me tightly.

"Please be safe. Please come back to me."

"I will, mother."

"Please come back to me in one piece."

"I will, mother."

My mother released me from her hug with eyes full of tears before doing the same to Lucina. She then hugged both of us with a tight hug before releasing us. She looked at us once again and said,

"Please wait for a second. I will come back."

We wait for her for a minute before she comes back with a red ribbon. She then tied it in the middle of my spear before looking at me and said.

"You know what this ribbon means to me. I want this ribbon to be a good luck charm for you. I want you to return this ribbon to me when you return triumphantly."

"I promise."

"Good… Good…"

She then looks at Lucina, takes out her necklace away from her neck, and puts it around Lucina's neck.

"This is the Necklace my husband gave me in the past. She said that this was a gift from her late mother before she passed away. This is the necklace worn by Lady Angelica 'The Lioness' Lionheart. Let this necklace become your strength in this fight."

"Yes, Mother"

"Good. I also want you to return to me alive and whole."

"I promise, mother."

My mother took a step back to look at both of us for a few seconds before saying.

"Then go. Go and come back to me victorious."

I nod my head and mount the horse that Richard has prepared and shout.

"Move out!"