Ch.3Winter Preparations

“These are fabrics bestowed by His Majesty.”

“Oh, thank you so much…”

As the storekeeper distributed fabric from inside the warehouse, people shivering from the cold bowed deeply at a 90-degree angle to express their gratitude.

By the way, the sensation of items leaving the warehouse in real-time was truly indescribable.

How should I put it… like all the moisture being drained from my body? It was definitely perceptible, yet impossible to express in words.

Anyway, with this, the distribution of fabric was complete, and with ample firewood placed in the market, preparations for winter were essentially finished.

With clothes and firewood to survive the winter, all that remained was food.

The population wasn’t particularly large, so sufficient winter provisions could be gathered from farmlands on the city outskirts. Forest keepers and hunters collected wild vegetables and caught game, securing plenty of meat and side dishes.

Of course, whether the lowborn could afford these things was their own concern.

If they couldn’t survive the winter despite everything I, their sovereign, had provided, I’d have their corpses whipped.

“Master, I’ve prepared wine.”

“Very good.”

Glug, glug…

I drained the chilled glass of wine and stretched.

“Ahh~ wonderful… this is what self-sufficiency is all about.”

In truth, while self-sufficiency was possible in theory, the flaw in human society was that contentment was difficult to achieve.

Can people survive on bread and meat alone? Sometimes one needs alcohol to discipline the liver and kidneys. But this city still lacked a brewery.

In other words, all alcoholic beverages distributed and consumed in this city were 100% imported.

“Hehehe… that simply won’t do.”

Regardless of anything else, relying entirely on imports for consumables like alcohol that humans naturally crave was foolish.

People will drink industrial methanol if alcohol isn’t available.

If the alcohol supply were cut off for an extended period, people would ferment food waste and distill sewage to make something resembling alcohol, leading to mass deaths without even the warning of an epidemic.

As the sovereign of this land, I had to prevent such absurdities.

“Hup!”

*

BOOM!

“Whoa!”

“W-what’s happening?!”

People walking by were startled when construction materials and scaffolding suddenly appeared out of thin air.

The construction site was set up in an empty lot that farmers had been saying would make good farmland.

No wonder people were surprised when it suddenly became a construction site.

“Looks like His Majesty is planning something.”

Anyone would think so, seeing the construction site occupying the entire spacious lot.

It was too large to be a house, and such materials weren’t necessary for creating farmland.

“Out of the way, you lot!”

“Shoo! Shoo!”

As people gathered, hundreds of strong men appeared from somewhere with their sleeves rolled up.

These were workers assigned to construction duties, a massive group numbering over 300.

“Excuse me… what’s being built here?”

“His Majesty says it’s a brewery. You know, where they make alcohol.”

“Ah, I see…”

With their curiosity satisfied, people quickly dispersed. There was no reason to stay, and besides, it was cold.

Though it was only October, the biting wind made the temperature feel much lower despite the absence of snow.

If snow were to mix with this wind, the city would quickly be buried.

Since it was a facility handling large volumes of liquid, the brewery was comparable in size to a decent housing complex.

It required as many as 50 workers, but winter was the agricultural off-season, so plenty of hands were available.

Once the brewery was complete, they would need barley fields for beer, orchards for wine, and personnel to directly brew the alcohol.

Bang! Bang!

“Hey! Be careful there!”

“I won’t be responsible if you get hurt, you fools!”

Insurance didn’t exist in this world. If you got injured, you paid for it yourself, and if you had no money, you simply suffered until you died or became disabled.

But no one thought this strange.

They accepted it as naturally as spring follows winter. They completely lacked awareness of how to prevent or remedy such situations.

Everything in society was controlled by the sovereign and the nobles who shared in their power. For commoners living day to day, the only truth close at hand was the principle of survival or death.

If they didn’t like it, they could leave the city.

Beyond the protection range of the Core, a free life awaited without anyone’s restrictions—this was neither deception nor falsehood, but plain fact.

“By the way, I heard from merchants that ghouls have been appearing on the roads lately.”

“Ghouls… I hope merchants aren’t being attacked…”

However, that freedom wasn’t exclusive to humans.

*

[Core operating.]

[Status: Normal.]

[Current population: 11,351.]

“Hmm…”

I closed my eyes and concentrated to examine the information about my domain.

11,351 people. Even by this world’s standards, it wasn’t a large population.

To properly style myself as a sovereign, I should have at least 100,000 people under my rule.

Considering that average city-states in this world boasted populations of 1 million, with truly massive cities exceeding 10 million, I was essentially just playing king in the countryside.

Knock, knock!

“Who is it?”

“Master, the merchant you summoned has arrived.”

Michaela’s fresh voice reached my ears. It seemed the merchant I called had arrived at the castle.

“Let him in.”

Creeeeak…

The one who entered my room was the elderly, portly man I had seen in the infirmary before.

“Your Majesty, you summoned me?”

“Yes.”

He certainly showed more respect than before. Perhaps because Ignatz stood beside him with his hand on his sword.

“Raise your head.”

“Yes.”

As he lifted his head to look at me, I told him what I wanted.

“I desire more subjects. Serfs or commoners, it doesn’t matter.”

“Increasing one’s people is the wish of all sovereigns.”

“That’s why you need to help me.”

Merchants trade in everything.

Including people.

This world is too harsh for ordinary people, and countless wanderers roam outside in fear.

“Hmm… exactly how many do you want?”

He asked me with narrowed eyes, and I silently held up one finger.

“One thousand? Ten thousand?”

“Ten thousand.”

“Ten thousand…”

The merchant muttered, rolling his eyes before asking me:

“What have you prepared?”

“What do you want?”

Answering a question with a question was the privilege of noble birth.

“…For the next ten years, I would like our merchant group to be exempt from taxes when trading in this city.”

“You want tax exemption privileges?”

“Yes. For merchants like us, taxes are what we most want to avoid.”

I nodded. Trading tax exemption for ten years in exchange for 10,000 people was a profitable deal. It seemed I had made a positive impression during our previous meeting(?).

I wouldn’t age anyway, so ten years would pass in the blink of an eye, and the increased population would directly translate into power for me.

“Let me make one thing clear: I won’t accept the elderly or the sick.”

“Of course. I have enough sense for that, so don’t worry.”

“Good. Wait a moment.”

I called Michaela and ordered her to bring parchment and a quill.

When Michaela brought them, I wrote out the full contract on the parchment and signed it at the bottom with my sovereign’s seal.

“Now it’s your turn to sign.”

“Let’s see…”

The old merchant took out a quill from his breast pocket and, wearing glasses, bent down to write his name on the contract.

“Ebenholtz. So that’s your name.”

“A humble name, indeed.”

“Well, that’s done. You may leave.”

“I shall strive to repay Your Majesty’s trust.”

“Hmph.”

One might think I’m unnecessarily cold, but in this world, merchants were either riffraff or worn-out serpents.

Most rulers were either depraved tyrants or lazy sovereigns who found everything bothersome.

Merchants were cunning creatures who precariously balanced between tyrants and lazy rulers to increase their wealth. If I hadn’t been so harsh, they would have somehow tried to tempt me for greater profit.

And in this world, someone else’s gain meant my loss.