‘This can’t be solved with human powers.’ Even after the priests, mages, and alchemists poked around the territory for research purposes, they all shook their heads and left, only saying that there was a nasty, uncrackable curse cast upon this place. Most residents had probably lost hope for the territory to return to its past condition.

“Haha. But you never know, maybe the seigneur will please the heavens and they will shower us with rain.”

“Mister.” Gordon froze. He called Freeman, who was joking about how that would never happen. “Mister!!!”

“Hey, you! I’m going to go deaf because of you!”

“Was… Was that a raindrop just now?”

Freeman frowned at Gordon. “What kind of cock-and-bull story…” As Freeman lifted his sore body and peeked out the wooden watchtower… Drip… Something cold dropped from the sky and scattered after hitting his head. “Huh?”

They both froze simultaneously.

“…”

“…”

They were silent for a while.

Drip. As the cold water droplets fell from the sky, Gordon rubbed his eyes in disbelief and opened them wide. At the same time, both Freeman and himself kneeled and bowed down with their hands up, as if they were worshiping a god.

“Please forgive these two foolish idiots, who did not have faith in the saint!”

“Oh… Seigneur, I believe. Amen…”

As the men shouted their prayers, rain began pouring down from the sky, like the heavens were waiting for this moment. It was like they were putting a stop to this horrible drought that was killing this land. Drip… Drip… Pitter-patter!!! It was an intense rainstorm with thunder that seemed like the sky was letting out all its sorrow.

18. Just Plow! Then! Plant!

“These are dangerous times.”

“This is the worst possible situation. The information got into the hands of none other than Marquis Peiltris. If we don’t do something, it’s only a matter of time before the solid bond of the nobility breaks and vanishes into thin air.”

In the drawing room of Duke Bariatta, the chancellor of the Rowane Kingdom and the actual power holder, four or five men sat deep in thought with frowns on their faces.

“Ha… It just had to be Marquis Peiltris…”

Marquis Peiltris was someone even the nobility couldn’t easily mess with. Even though he stood alone in opposition to the nobility, he never backed down. He was one of the few people still loyal to the kingdom. However, since he publicly maintained a neutral stance, the nobility was just watching him closely. One side would surely disappear if they were to fight, but the winning side would suffer a huge loss.

This was the current state of affairs, but if Marquis Peiltris had something that would put the lives of the nobility in his hand…

“Would there be a way to make the evidence unusable?”

As Count Proom, the entourage of Duke Bariatta, asked with worry, the long-bearded noble beside him sighed and replied, “To be honest, there probably isn’t a way.”

“He is putting pressure on us, as if he was waiting for this moment. He has already begun purging some low-ranking nobilities as an example.”

“And our enemies are starting to come out of hiding because of that.”

Since there wasn't a clear justification, the nobility couldn’t stop Marquis Peiltris; the fact that they couldn’t do anything was driving them crazy. The low-ranking nobilities that supported them were an important source of funding and power. Not even the most outstanding individuals could do everything alone.

“I don’t know who it was, but it’s true that they took all of our secrets.” Everyone’s attention was drawn to Duke Bariatta, who broke his long silence and spoke.

Everyone had believed that leaving the information with the intelligence guilds would be safest. The intelligence guilds’ ability to conceal was quite incredible, and that information wasn’t something that could be concealed in someone’s mansion or secret hiding place.

Starting with the Dark Moon, the most exceptionally skilled intelligence guild, all of them were robbed in one night, without anyone noticing. Some were destroyed to the point they could no longer operate, and some were just barely holding on. Not only that, their information was given to Marquis Peiltris in an organized and coherent fashion, excluding the fake information they had kept along with the real evidence.

‘Was it Marquis Peiltris’ doing?’ Most likely not. Although Duke Bariatta knew that the Marquis was an outstanding ‘Swordmaster’, he knew that the Marquis did not have the skills to go through all the intelligence guilds in one night without anyone noticing. That’s why he was at ease, but…

“We have to find that insolent fellow. We have to find them and punish them.”

“Ha… We’re stuck like this because we can’t do that! It’s frustrating!”

“The intelligence guilds sent word that they wish to not be involved in this matter any longer. The guilds have been totally destroyed and they can no longer operate. Do you think that the Marquis will bat an eye even if we come down on them? If anything, it will just give him more reason to come after us.”

As everyone was debating, one noble frowned. “So, what is Her Majesty going to do?”

“Her Majesty the Queen?”

“Yes. I don’t understand her, to be honest. Prince Davey was given a stigmata? He’s still a greenhorn who cannot properly use holy power. Since his stigmata is unstable and different from the usual stigmata on the wrist, it’s nothing but a defective scar.”

“Marquis Raultis.”

“So what if he received a stigmata? The Sacred Land is already in cahoots with us. Will they even acknowledge him? Of course, they won’t. He has no power, either. Her Majesty was too focused on that half-wit prince.”

“The people we should’ve been focusing on were His Majesty and Marquis Peiltris.”

The others silently agreed with Marquis Raultis. No one acted like it, but everyone was starting to become a little irritated with Queen Lynesse’s preoccupation with Davey. Their bond, which had been solid for years, was beginning to crumble because of one prince. To them, Davey was just a weak and powerless prince that even the king had given up on.

“Watch your words, Marquis Raultis.”

“I’m just saying. Ha…”

Duke Bariatta took a short breath as he glanced at Raultis, who was holding his head in frustration. He then said, “Even Marquis Peiltris won’t be able to break our bond instantly. We must fight back, even if we suffer some injuries.”

“That’s right. However, we must try to find a way to retrieve the top-secret information.”

Marquis Peiltris was waiting to strike the nobility with a lethal attack, so it was too dangerous for them to act recklessly. There was only one thing they could do, since the secrets that kept all the nobility safe were now threatening their lives.

“We must be willing to go to war, Marquis Raultis,” Duke Bariatta said.

“Yes, Your Excellency.”

“How is the preparation going?”

“We can be ready right away at your command.”

“Please prepare in secret. We cannot give them a reason to do anything until we are perfect.”

Marquis Raultis nodded silently at Duke Bariatta.

‘You are underestimating that prince too much.’ Duke Bariatta frowned as he watched the nobles come together hand in hand.

Prince Davey had surprisingly changed since he had woken from his coma. It was difficult for Duke Bariatta to put his finger on it, but his instincts, from his years of experience as the chancellor, were telling him something was fishy. Also, the assassins of the Dark Moon, sent to kill Prince Davey, disappeared without a trace—no, it was more like they were taken care of, rather than running away. If he was right, Prince Davey would immediately show his claws as soon as he gained support or power.

‘Still, he probably can’t do anything about the Heins Territory.’ The Heins Territory was transforming into the land of death, and not even the continent’s mages, alchemists, or priests, could find the reason behind its disease. Even Davey, whom Duke Bariatta suspected of hiding something, probably could not do anything about it. ‘What is he going to do in a countryside like that, where it doesn’t even rain?’

Since he couldn’t send someone down due to the circumstances, Duke Bariatta remained oblivious as to what Davey was doing in the territory.

* * *

It began raining. All the residents, who knew what this meant, stopped what they were doing, ran out and stared at the sky in disbelief. As they realized that the water droplets hitting them was really rain, they all cheered in joy. Although most of the residents were elderly, with a few children and a very small number of young adults, the rainfall that had returned in a few years made everyone shout in joy like children. To them, the rain wasn’t just the supply of water, but hope that the dying land could come back alive, since the land was dying because of the prolonged drought.

The rain poured down for many days and stopped after it had wet all of the dry land. Unlike the residents, who were celebrating, Davey was going through a busy week since he had to take care of other regions.

Pitter-patter!! Davey was satisfied by the rain only after he finished changing the code at the ancient ruin in the northwest region.

-So, you fixed it all.

Perserque spoke while she was almost half-asleep. Davey nodded silently and stood in the rain. He looked weird just standing in the rain, but after being in the dry wind for so long, he had sort of missed the coolness.

A few days later, Royal Attendant Bernile and Militia Leader Monmider, returned to the territory from the commercial city of Hellium. Since Bernile always had the same expression, he didn’t seem too interested in the current situation, but Monmider was different. He couldn’t help but be shocked at the fact that it had actually rained in the dying territory, and that Davey had slaughtered all the nearby goblins with a small group of the militia after he had left.

‘No, he probably returned back here as fast as he could after hearing news about the rainfall.’

Even successfully slaughtering the goblins was an amazing outcome since the territory wasn’t in good condition, but Militia Leader Monmider was seemingly more surprised at the fact that Davey had rescued all the residents without any injuries or casualties.

Of course, Monmider still couldn’t fully trust Davey, but that was natural, since he had supported this territory for so long by himself. To be honest, it was probably difficult for Davey, who was on Monmider’s bad side, to fully get on his good side in just a week.

‘Though, he’ll probably be in even more shock after he hears about what I did.’

After Davey succeeded in changing the climate of the last region, he kept silent for about a week. Did he just sit around and rest? Not really.