Chapter 29 – Shiny Stone, Starving Kingdom

Chapter 29 – Shiny Stone, Starving Kingdom

Aiko was sneaking around avoiding all the beasts. All of them were strange beasts with stingers instead of tails. Lion with a stinger, dog with a stinger, you name it.

Fortunately for her, they didn't develop intelligence yet, so she was able to easily avoid them as she attracted their attention by throwing rocks away.

She managed to arrive at the opening and was stunned.

In front of her was an extremely large white stone that was shining gently, what was more amazing was that it soothed her emotions...

[Good/Evil: 380 - 620 -> 420 - 580]

'I want this.' Aiko's eyes shined with stars. 'I will definitely take this!' She giggled in her mind and left this place. She felt something wrong about this place but didn't know what. The Darkness also told her that it was not yet time to push her luck, so she obviously wouldn't.

She sneaked back which was much easier than sneaking in. She already knew the path and was quickly out. A delicious smell drifted into her tiny nostrils.

'MEAT!' She drooled, the meat smelled better than what she had at the Princess's palace.

She walked around, avoiding servants and guards, yet swiftly arrived at her destination.

"I'm telling you! If it wasn't for the stupid beast, I would be able to easily poison her!" Screamed the very familiar Cook.

"I won't hear your excuses." Yelled the familiar overly dressed woman.

Aiko ignored them and moved around towards the food. She used her tail to sweep the plates inside her pouch. She would eat them later and she noticed they were all of extremely high quality almost rivalling that of that Fox...

Aiko paused, she quite missed that Fox's cooking. 'I hope she is alright.' Little did she know that the Fox was currently an unstoppable beast sweeping through the towns demolishing anything and anyone who slighted her.

Aiko made it out of the kitchen unnoticed. Only after she was almost out of that she heard the scream of that Cook.

'Serves you right! You should've given me good meat!' Aiko hmpfed away, but not yet returning. She also browsed the nearby palaces. She didn't take anything, she would just scout for future opportunities.

...

Aiko returned in the middle of the night and the Princess was waiting for her.

"Took you long enough." She pouted.

Aiko placed deliciously smelling food in front of her and puffed her chest.

They walked through the streets and while Cultivators ignored them, mortals were incredibly happy about seeing this Princess instead of the others.

"Immortals bless you, Princess." They constantly chanted those words as they bowed towards her. She smiled at them nodding towards them and that was enough for the people. They already knew that most money donated towards their well-being was by this Princess and not by those ungrateful Royalties.

...

They arrived with some difficulty as commoners were too happy to see her and gave her many gifts. Apples, carrots, blueberries, etc. She accepted them, she was already subjected to this and knew that it was useless to decline as they would later come in full force with even more gifts. This burdened her greatly, but the people were happy, so she couldn't just tell them to stop.

The administration building was mostly deserted. It was a poorly paid job after some concubines changed the payouts. Almost nobody wanted to work here as there was too much paperwork and too little money.

Aiko looked around, this place almost looked abandoned, in the sense that it was already crumbling. The paint was scraped, some bricks fell here and there, the wood looked rotted from the inside, etc.

"This place looks more awful than before..." The Princess sighed.

"My apologies Princess." Official bowed towards her.

"There is no need, I know you got almost no money left." She smiled gently. "I'm here for another donation for the starving people.

"We are grateful for any kind of help Princess." He bowed almost 90 degrees.

"Please, we've gone through this already too many times." She shook her head. "How are they doing."

"Our kingdom might collapse at this rate. 70% of the working farmers do not have enough food to feed themselves, 30% of that won't be able to survive the upcoming winter and 5% won't be able to survive the end of this month." He explained the status. Showing her all the ledgers and everything.

"I will be soon leaving so I have bought more than usual, after I leave I probably won't be able to return in the foreseeable future, so it will be up to you." The Princess explained.

"That's- I understand." He bowed gently, but it was obvious he hoped that the Princess would stay in this kingdom.

Aiko jumped down walking around. The Princess sighed, but let Aiko do whatever she wanted since there would be a lot of paperwork to take care of and they were short on hands.

Aiko strolled around this building. Some things already crumbled and it seemed like only the main building was maintained.

She jumped on top of the wall and looked around. The buildings were... awful, most were shacks or already half-destroyed ruins, but those ruins still housed families. This kingdom was slowly perishing, not that she minded. She never lived here so she was detached from such emotions.

Looking further there were... a lot of brothels. It was the cheapest and easiest job to do, so most of the families around lived from that, but since this city was known for Cultivators, not many normal kinds of visitors visited, as such even those whore didn't earn nearly enough to support themselves.

Aiko jumped onto a nearby building looking further, but there was no change, this whole place was one big ruined country slowly descending to hell. Once the people weren't able to support themselves that would naturally affect the people in higher rankings. Sure they could support themselves for longer since they could use their warehouses full of food, but every food had an expiration date and they still didn't know how to extend the shelf-life of food. Everything spoiled too quickly unless it was winter. In that case, everything froze and it was once again inedible...