Early the next morning, I was wide awake after a refreshing night of sleep. My mind felt perfectly clear.
“Good morning, Agnes.” Lord Nazel was also awake. He embraced me tightly again, but I quickly held him back. Once Lord Nazel started fawning over me, there was no telling how long he’d be at it.
“L-Lord Nazel, let’s confirm the situation outside first.”
Lord Nazel skillfully got up while holding me in his arms and looked through the window. The wind was still howling outside. The lightning had stopped, but the sound of the rain was intense.
“It looks like we still can’t go outside. That’s frustrating,” Lord Nazel said.
“If anyone went out during the storm, there would be a risk of additional harm.” People working in agriculture had been notified to absolutely not go and check on their fields or canals.
But this really is a difficult problem in Desnim.
In many territories, farmers often worked together in groups to manage the canals and pathways around their fields, so that everyone’s work could progress smoothly. For example, Sutrena had people in charge of the canals, the equipment, and the pathways. There were other roles too, like people in charge of resolving disputes between farmers, or those who promoted new enterprises. These duties rotated every few years, so everyone ended up undertaking various tasks.
As one might guess, in Sutrena, the people in charge of the canals or other duties had been known to go to the fields during storms out of a sense of responsibility. They weren’t simply checking on their own fields out of curiosity. I felt really sorry for them. If they went out, people unaware of the situation criticized them for going to the canals when it was dangerous, and if they didn’t go, their fellow farmers criticized them for not doing their jobs. Since they’d have to continue farming in the same fields in the future, being ostracized by their peers would be a death sentence.
Therefore, many people ended up going to check on their assigned locations even in the middle of a storm. There had also been cases in the past when people had been asked to do so by their superior, so they’d had no choice but to go and check on that person’s field and canals. In those cases, accidents had occurred, such as people slipping on mud and falling into canals. And so, although the measures were a bit drastic, in preparation for this major storm, we’d dispatched fortress personnel to each farming co-op, and declared that going out on patrol in Sutrena during the storm was banned, with a punishment for violators. In exchange, we’d told the farmers that they’d be compensated in case of any damage, such as their fields being submerged, so they’d reluctantly agreed.
In Sutrena, tasks like patrolling during a storm tended to be assigned to young people and newcomers to the farming industry, who were in a weak position and found it hard to refuse, or kind and good-natured people. It would be a true shame if anyone died as a result. And so, the administration of Sutrena had taken responsibility for the complete prohibition. Anyone who asked someone to go check on the fields and those who did go would be fined. Anyone who forced someone else to go out would be detained. So far, we hadn’t received any reports of people getting into accidents at the fields or canals, but the real challenge started now.
“Let’s go, Lord Nazel.”
“Right.” Lord Nazel got out of the bed, a bit reluctant to part from me. “Oh, Solis was awake.”
I followed Lord Nazel’s gaze and turned toward our son, who I’d thought was asleep.
“You’re right. His eyes are wide open.”
Solis seemed to have quietly woken up. He had a puzzled expression, perhaps bothered by the sound of the storm.
“Buh!” Solis made a noise once he noticed us. I had no idea what he was trying to say, but he was adorable.
“Let’s take Solis with us.”
“Dah!”
Lord Nazel picked Solis up and we moved through the manor together. The maids who passed us by smiled sweetly at Solis. The pure and innocent boy was loved by many of the people who worked in the estate. The three of us took a look around the shelters, but there didn’t seem to be any particular problems.
“The shelters look fine. Let’s have breakfast while we can,” Lord Nazel suggested.
“Sure. Things will get difficult after the storm,” I replied.
“Buh!”
Since it was still early morning, we simply filled our bellies with bread and soup, and I quickly finished feeding Solis too. He seemed to be in a good mood and stayed quiet inside his cradle.
When I looked outside, it seemed that the wind had picked up, and the rain kept pouring.
A short time later, Mrs. Holly finished getting ready and came over, so I left Solis with her. Since there was nothing to do during the storm, her sons would apparently also be helping with Solis’s care today.
The sound of the wind eventually stopped, and you could barely hear the rain anymore.
“I think the storm will pass soon.” Lord Nazel looked like he was going outside through the back door to check on things.
“I-I’m going too,” I said.
“It’s dangerous, so no,” he immediately replied.
“I’m worried about Geni and Dunk.”
“I’ll go check on the garden, and if everything looks all right, I’ll call you.”
It seemed like I couldn’t go with him right away; I accepted his condition. I secretly peeked at the garden through the door Lord Nazel exited from.
The trees are still in one piece, and it looks like the garden isn’t wet. In fact, it isn’t even raining at all... This is a very strange phenomenon. Perhaps the heavy rain we’d heard yesterday had been the sound of the rain hitting the reinforced air, or rather, the pseudo-barrier I’d created. It seems that the wind we heard was also the sound of it blowing outside the air barrier.
From the look of things, there were no areas that had been damaged by the storm; everything was unscathed.
Oh my.
Even though it was right after the storm, there were no signs that it had passed through here at all, which was truly unnatural. I’d done it to protect our people, but it seemed that reinforcing the air itself had been overkill.
As I panicked, Lord Nazel returned after finishing his tour of the garden.
“Well, there weren’t any problems at all. Both the field and the mountbeast stable are safe. Dunk even went out on her own and started eating grass.”
“I’m glad, but...”
“Yes, the problem is how we’re going to cover this up.”
The people who’d come to take shelter weren’t allowed outside until everything was confirmed to be safe, but the current state of affairs was extremely suspicious.
“For now, you should return the reinforced air back to normal.”
“O-Okay!” I undid the reinforcement I’d applied on the air surrounding the entirety of the estate, including the garden. The next moment, the blocked rain started falling down and hit my cheeks. I hurried to get under a tree and take shelter from the rain.
“It’s still raining, so if the entire garden gets wet, we should be able to cover this up... Let’s pretend that there was miraculously little damage thanks to a string of incredibly convenient coincidences,” Lord Nazel proposed.
“I’m glad the rain hasn’t stopped yet. But it looks like we’ll have to wait some time for the whole garden to get soaked.”
While we were talking, Dunk walked over while munching on grass. She seemed lively.
“Let’s keep the garden off-limits while we’re confirming its safety. I’ll take Dunk and go check on things outside the estate,” Lord Nazel said.
“Take care. Please leave the people in the shelters to me. Once puddles start forming in the garden, I’ll send them home, assuming conditions remain stable.”
Lord Nazel intended to supply plant residences to the people whose homes had become uninhabitable after being damaged by the storm. They would be able to live in them free of charge until their homes were repaired.
If I train this power, I might be able to protect houses and fields all over. It would be a problem if I got found out, though. Just like Master Robin, I might be kidnapped by people from countries after the saint’s power, like Polpystan or Myzahn. In his case, though, Master Robin had chosen to go with them. Using my magic certainly posed some difficulties.
Perhaps noticing my presence, Geni also trudged over. He was big and also had wings, so it seemed that it was a little difficult for him to get through the passage near the back entrance.
“I’m so glad you’re okay, Geni.”
Geni yawned drowsily. It seemed that he’d been sound asleep in the stable during the storm.
Just like Solis, Geni is also the type to fall asleep easily, huh? I approached him with a smile.
“You’ll get wet if you stay out here, though I don’t think it would bother you.” After all, he’d leisurely flown in the middle of the storm, and he jumped into the pool to his heart’s content during the rainy season. He could also create a barrier at will, and it didn’t seem like he minded getting wet.
Oh yeah, I should also check the state of the damage from the sky. I got on Geni and circled around the estate. I could see the town clearly from here. Some trees were broken and some fences had collapsed. It seemed that the storm really had been of a larger scale than usual. I hope everyone’s safe.
I landed in the garden and checked the ground to find that enough water had gathered that it no longer looked unnatural. Now it looked like the ordinary aftermath of a storm...I hoped.
“We should be good to go now.” I went back inside and told the people in the shelters that the storm had passed and it was safe for them to go outside now. “Please be careful of collapsed buildings and broken trees. If you can’t stay in your home because of flooding or other reasons, we will keep the rooms open so you may take shelter here again. Take care not to push yourselves too far.”
Everyone looked relieved to hear that the storm was over and they hurriedly left, probably because they were worried about their homes. I made sure to see them off.
There hasn’t been any damage inside the manor. Thank goodness.
After I finished inspecting the manor, I put on a raincoat and went outside again, where I decided to go help Lord Nazel. I called Geni, who was loitering around the back entrance, and we took to the sky together. My guard Torre also followed behind us.
“I shall assist you, Lady Agnes! My gigantification magic will be useful in the rebuilding efforts.” Torre had lost some of his confidence after the incident with Master Robin, but I was happy to see that he had recovered.
“Thank you, Torre. Your help is more than welcome.”