Chapter 548 - CLOVER's Contribution

Months had passed and monsoons had come to an end.

With it came the advent of the autumn season, causing the weather to get colder each day.

Over six months had passed since the Lockdown had been initiated.

The request for relief for the starving people affected by the plague had also been a huge success.

Either it was from the goodness of their hearts or the greed of having their names etched into the records of the Rosenhyde Royal family, every single fief had come forward to lend their support in this time of distress.

The King did not care which one had led to this outcome but was pleased that no one would starve during this period.

While a few fiefs had sent over food grains as their contribution for the relief of the affected people, they had stopped after the first month.

This was expected as they would have to feed their people as well instead of solely focusing on helping the other fiefs.

However, much to the King's surprise, a few other fiefs had continued to send over food grains and other basic necessities every month without complaining even once about a shortage in their own lands.

Amarthea, Tanner, Brodie, Roschester, Kiron, Samed, St, Claire, Valente, and finally, Zavanth were the Northern fiefs who had not hesitated to continue supporting the other fiefs.

While the King had no clue how they had managed to do so, the Fief Lords in charge of them were sure of the reason.

The suggestion given by the daughter of the St. Claire family had helped a large number of these mentioned fiefs except for the Capital, Brodie, Roschester fiefs who were not privy to gaining her advice.

The remaining fiefs not only had sufficient grains to feed their own citizens, but they also had a surplus to donate to those in need.

The Fiefs Lords had no idea that when they were accepting the child's requests at that time to build storage houses and granaries would save them in the long run.

However, now they realized that her vague and seemingly thoughtless suggestion at that time had given them the confidence to not only feed their own people but also those who were in dire need of it.

The King was immensely impressed with their generosity and would surely reward them once this plague had come to an end.

While he was happy with the kindness of these Fief Lords, there was someone else who had also garnered his attention.

The owner of CLOVER had reached out to him when the King had sent his messengers to these fiefs for their support.

Not only did that person propose to give away the soaps he had in his storage, but he also promised to continue to do so until the plague came to an end.

The King was shocked to hear about this from the messenger who had come back with this news but he did not reject this gesture from the mysterious owner of CLOVER.

This only increased the King's curiosity to know the true identity of the person who was willing to give away such a large amount of his products even when he would gain no profit from it.

Thus, the secretive owner of CLOVER had improved his impression in the King and his Minister's sights.

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Right now, the same owner of CLOVER was seated on a picnic sheet laid out far into the woods behind their summer mansion.

Her elder brother had promised to pick the sweetest plums for her and hence the St. Claire siblings were currently alone here but had no fear as Demon was with them.

Howard had climbed one of the trees while Yvonne was staring at the stream next to their location.

Three months had passed after her father had promised to support the King to save the starving people in the other fiefs.

Yvonne's long violet hair fluttered due to the breeze as she sat there, reminiscing the thoughts of what had happened at that time.

____

The plague had been rampant for many months and when the messenger arrived with the King's request to lend aid, Rutherford had promised to do his best.

Raylene too had assured the man that their fief would support them in whatever way they could.

With this reassurance, the man was still stunned about the Countess' involvement in this matter but he could only nod and set out towards the next fief on his itinerary.

The Valente fief was next and he would reach there after a day's journey.

After Yvonne was sure that the man had left their mansion, she turned to her father and called out to him in a serious tone.

"Papa, CLOVER wishes to help out as well!" She declared and showed no signs of being talked out of her decision.

St. Claire fief could send over clothes and grains while CLOVER would help out by sending soaps to these disease-riddled areas which needed it the most.

From the symptoms that she had just heard from the Earl, it was clear that the blisters were a source of the disease being spread.

Washing themselves and their surroundings was still a compulsion so CLOVER's soaps could be used for this purpose.

Since it was for the good of their Kingdom and she would not be involved in any way, the Earl did not forbid her from doing so.

The soaps were still being manufactured and stored in the Plantation at the Valente fief without being distributed.

Therefore, she was sure that they could set aside a chunk of those products to be sent out to these affected fiefs.

The messenger who had come today had informed them that the Royal Palace would send people over to whom they should hand over the items they would prepare.

No one from the fief was allowed to step outside the borders and these men would be in charge of transporting everything back to the Capital where these rations would be allocated to different zones that needed aid.

Therefore, before those men could arrive at their fief in a week, they had to prepare everything in advance to not delay them any further.

Raylene called for her maids and the Old Butler for help in the suggestion she had given.

Rutherford, Howard, and Butler Limo were in charge of the food grains so they headed to the Office to discuss the logistics.

The one left in the same place was Yvonne who had already announced how she would help out in this time of distress.

Jax was with her but he remained silent when he noticed that the little girl seemed to be in deep thought.

At that time, this little girl was in fact communicating with her etcher, requesting him to do her a favor.

For the past many months that they had been staying in this summer estate, Rutherford had taken over the position of tutor and trainer for his children.

As he had undergone training to become a knight in his youth, he was knowledgeable enough to educate them.

While he never sparred with them or picked up a sword, he did teach them how to do so without breaking the promise he had made to his father of never touching a sword ever again.

He let his children spar or even asked Jax to join while teaching them.

During this time, he even taught his daughter more things about etchers that he had learned throughout his life.

Right now, Yvonne was using the information she had obtained from her father regarding etchers.

A surprisingly useful trait of an etcher was that it could communicate with other etchers it had met in person.

She had already known about this when she heard that Captain Desmo's Precious spoke to Demon, teasing him, while Yvonne patted her when they had met at the Tanner estate in the Capital, many months ago.

However, she had later come to know that this skill could be used in another way.

While the etchers remained connected, their Masters could speak to each other as well.

This meant that if Yvonne wished to communicate with her trainer, Captain Desmo who was right now in the Tanner fief, all she had to do was ask Demon to connect with Precious.

Through the connection between the etchers, she could speak to her trainer through their minds.

'A conference call.' She had chuckled when she first heard about this ability which was common in her previous world using smartphones.

Therefore, right now, Yvonne had asked Demon to connect with Hakka, her uncle Marcus Valente's etcher so that she might speak to the man.

In no time, she had heard the voice of her uncle who was anxious to know whether everyone in their family was safe.

After she assured him that they were fine and healthy, the man was relieved and then inquired about the cause of this communication.

Yvonne did not hide from him the arrival of the messenger and even revealed that he would reach their fief next.

She next spoke about her desire to help the Kingdom by giving away soaps and received a positive reply from the man.

"I can send word to the Hagens and get preparations started immediately." He declared that there would be no issues if she had already decided on what she would do.

She then requested her uncle to send Hakka over to their estate so that she might pass on a letter to the etcher which needed to be given to the messenger when he arrived at the Valente estate.

Uncle Marcus assured her that Hakka would be there in three hours and to have the letter prepared.

Thanking him, she cut off their communication and hurried to where her mother was with the Old Butler.

Since this letter from VC, the owner of CLOVER, was meant for the King, she had to find the Old Butler.

He had written the last letter sent to the King so she wished to assign this task to him once again.

The Old Butler was quick to draft a letter while she dictated it for him and they waited for Hakka, the snow eagle, to arrive.

When the bird appeared at their estate, Demon notified them and Yvonne tied the letter to Hakka's feet before sending him away.

When the messenger had arrived at the Valente estate, he met the Viscount who agreed to lend support and even asked the messenger to deliver VC's letter to the King.

The messenger was stunned to see that VC already knew of the reason why he had arrived here and had already prepared a letter that needed to be given to the King.

When he tried to gain more information about the letter, the Viscount remained silent which disappointed him but there was nothing he could do.

Therefore, he could only promise to hand it over to the King which he soon fulfilled.

Finishing his purpose in the Valente fief, the messenger returned to the Capital and delivered VC's letter to their King.

Thus, the King had received a letter from VC, requesting to lend support to this purpose which he was glad to accept.