Beneath the floor of the living room where Dant and Bazara were speaking, a hidden figure eavesdropped. If that conversation had gone a little differently, those two men might’ve never left the wasteland again.
They would never know that it had been Dant’s words that saved their lives.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Good morning, Dant. Did you sleep well?”
“Good morning, Lord Luke. Yes, thanks to your hospitality.”
Dant looked surprisingly refreshed the next morning. He’d seemed a little pale the day before, but perhaps it had just been fatigue from traveling. Even his escorts had seemed a bit haggard, but they looked better this morning too.
“Lord Luke, there was so much going on yesterday that I neglected to say this properly...” Suddenly, Dant’s expression grew solemn.
I tilted my head, curious what was going on in his mind.
“Thank you for accepting the people from the North.”
“Oh, um... Don’t mention it. If anything, I should be apologizing for poaching your people,” I said awkwardly.
“No, our people were forced to abandon the village. My failures left them with no other choice. I’m the one to blame. I should be thanking you.”
Phew, at least he’s not upset.
“And, well...” he continued. “I realize this is asking a lot, but would you be willing to sell us some food? The North is enduring a severe famine right now.”
He explained that this year’s harvest had been abysmal; on top of that, the people had been hit with a massive tax hike. Many had already fled to our village, but there were still scores more who had remained behind and were starving.
I honestly didn’t see how they could focus on war with things like this going on.
“Sure, we’d be happy to help. Honestly, we’ve got more food than we know what to do with at the moment,” I said.
“R-Really?!”
“I can expand the fields more if I need to, and we’ll probably be able to harvest through the winter due to our soil quality.”
Most of our population, which numbered over a thousand now, was working the fields anyway. We had plenty of manpower to handle more farmland.
“I’d appreciate that very much, but I must admit the North’s coffers are a bit low. We’d prefer to barter goods instead of using coin, if possible,” Dant said.
“That works for us. Our village is still new, so we’re in need of a lot of things. Honestly, we’d welcome a trade like that,” I said.
“Th-Thank you so much!” Dant bowed his head over and over again.
Since his family had ruled over the North for generations, he—unlike outsiders who were assigned to rule foreign land—likely felt a deep responsibility for his people. But he couldn’t outright defy my father. He must’ve been frustrated by the hopelessness of his position.
“How should we handle the trade?” I asked.
“I’ll contact a trustworthy merchant guild and have someone sent here. They’ve got branches all over the territory, so it’ll be quicker and smoother than going through the local office.”
“I see. That sounds good to me,” I said.
I hoped we’d be able to barter for some clothing since we still didn’t have the means to produce proper clothes. Everyone was washing and re-wearing the same ratty outfits again and again.
He said they wanted to trade a few times before winter set in. Once the snow began to pile up, merchants would have trouble trekking out to the frontier.
Dant said his party would be leaving soon. I asked if he would stay a little longer, but he said he wanted to hurry back and arrange things with the merchant guild.
I walked him and his group to the outer gatehouse.
“Please visit again, Dant,” I said.
“Of course. I look forward to returning to see the village’s development,” he said with a smile.
“Ha ha. I don’t think it’ll change that much.”
Just as Dant was about to climb into the carriage, an idea popped into my head. “Ah, please wait a minute. It must’ve been a pain getting through the wasteland by carriage, wasn’t it? I’ll build a road for your trip back.”
“Pardon?”
I quickly built a road that stretched straight through the rough terrain. I couldn’t see the end of it from here, but I was pretty sure it reached to the edge of the wasteland. Now, merchants wouldn’t have to deal with a bumpy, miserable ride every time they came through you.
“Th-Thank you so much...” (“A project like this would normally take years of work! And he just said the village wouldn’t change much...”)