Valen frowned to himself as he looked at the gray, withered trees and the empty earth, devoid of even a blade of grass. He could hear the roar of a large manabeast in the distance.
The barren land caused food shortages for people, but also for manabeasts and ordinary animals too. Polpystan’s arable land had been decreasing over the past few years. This desert occupying the southern part of the country was, of course, barren, but the northern lands had only recently started showing damage, with nothing being able to grow there anymore.
The cause had been unknown—until around two years ago. When the Margrave and Margravine of Sutrena—the Desnimer territory bordering Polpystan to the north—had been visiting the Duchy of Masroono, a plague of polyphenic big hoppers had caused large-scale damage in the territory. It had thus been discovered that the mana leaking from those manabeasts had been the cause of the barren lands.
After the big hopper plague, damage caused by other manabeasts had continued occurring in various places. Many of those cases had involved manabeasts attacking humans because of a lack of food. Besides that, there had also been a number of attacks caused by manabeasts turning ferocious during a night of the new moon once per year.
My head hurts. Although Valen had learned countermeasures from Sutrena—which was in the same boat—the situation remained harsh. How many years will this continue for?
At the moment, only a few types of crops could be planted in the barren lands, including the special sunchokes they’d received from Sutrena—the ones Nazelbart had personally created through magical selective breeding.
Relying on foreign countries for all of our food makes me uneasy... It would be great if Polpystan could do something about the situation on its own, but that was difficult at the moment.
And that wasn’t the end of Polpystan’s problems. There had been some suspicious activity from Myzahn recently. Relations between the two countries had always been tense, but the situation had gotten more disquieting lately. It felt like things could erupt into a crisis. Valen’s father and older brother were currently focusing on countermeasures on that front, but Valen also had his role to play.
I need to go to Desnim and secure their full cooperation. It was Valen’s job to travel here and there in place of his older brother, who couldn’t leave the palace much.
I think I’ll leave the school’s management to Duke Masroono for the time being. The duke was also the school’s founder, so whenever Valen was busy, he often asked the duke to take his place as chairman.
Latriche’s sons would be having their second birthday party six months from now, so Polpystan planned to send someone to Desnim for the occasion; Valen could very well be that person.
I guess I’ll stop by Sutrena first. It’s on the way to the capital, after all. There were many things he wanted to discuss regarding crops and manabeasts. If possible, he’d like to acquire new types of crops too.
Sutrena was thriving despite suffering the same kind of damage as Polpystan. Polpystan hadn’t found anyone who could use special magic like Nazelbart, but Valen wanted to find hints for any countermeasures they could implement here as well. That was the reason they’d been focusing so heavily on the big hopper research.
Come to think of it, is Lady Agnes doing well? Although Valen had occasionally exchanged letters with Agnes, such as the time he’d sent her a gift to congratulate her on giving birth, they hadn’t met again ever since she’d visited Polpystan. I’d like to see her...
Agnes, the Margravine of Sutrena, was a kind, honest woman. Valen felt soothed just by being with her. He was also very interested in her magic. She seems to be hiding its true nature, but I’m sure her magic isn’t just matter reinforcement.
Matter reinforcement magic wasn’t particularly unusual. After meeting Agnes, Valen had contacted several people who possessed that magic and had them reinforce blades he’d hastily created with his magic. Valen’s metalworking magic allowed him to create anything as long as he had the raw materials available. For starters, he’d asked all of them to reinforce the blades with their magic. The exact results varied, but none of them could measure up to Agnes’s magic.
They could only make the blades a little less difficult to nick... None of them managed to turn them into weapons that could cut through the ground, like what Lady Agnes did with her magic. Just what was that? The mystery only deepened.
The shortsword Agnes had reinforced was now Valen’s favorite weapon. However, he had to be careful when using it because it was practically too powerful.
Still, I don’t want to worsen our relationship with Sutrena at the moment. I’m interested in Lady Agnes’s magic, but I’ll refrain from bringing up the topic while I’m there.
Even if Valen were to investigate Agnes’s magic, it would be a bad move to do so openly on the other side’s home turf. Nazelbart wouldn’t simply sit on his hands either. He was someone you should never make an enemy of. It was much better to have him as a cooperative ally.
Now that everything’s decided, I should start with preparations. There are many things to do in the next six months. Valen hurried to his mountbeast and headed straight home in order to get ready.