Chapter 225 - Chapter 218: Cold Wave and Heavy Snow
"Good morning, Master, Mistress. Please wake up."
It was early morning on a certain day in mid-January of the Royal Year 218. The voice of Kimberly, the steward, echoed through the lord's bedroom.
"...Good morning, Kimberly."
"...Good morning, Kimberly-san."
Noein, who was not very strong in the morning, replied in a voice still half-asleep, his body still lying on the bed rubbing his eyes. Clara, on the other hand, sat up while returning Kimberly's greeting in a reasonably clear voice.
Until just a moment ago, Matilda had also been sleeping in the same bed, but she woke at the slight sound of Kimberly entering the room, slipped out of bed, and before Kimberly woke Noein and the others, she had already neatly put on her work clothes for the day: a shirt and trousers.
Soon, Noein also got up from the bed and scooped water from the bucket Kimberly had brought when she entered to wash his face.
"Good morning, Matilda."
"Good morning, Noein-sama."
He stood up from the bed and exchanged a light kiss with Matilda.
Then, Matilda helped Noein change clothes. Or rather, since Noein had just woken up and his head was still foggy, he just stood there and let Matilda do almost all the dressing for him.
On the other side of the bed, Kimberly helped Clara change, and further supported the morning preparations of the lord's wife as her steward, combing and arranging her hair, and applying light makeup to her face.
The weekday mornings of the lord and lady began like this almost every day. Incidentally, Eleos was in his own children's room, and the night-shift servants kept an eye on him, so there were no problems.
"...More heavy snow today, huh."
After finishing changing and checking the outside view from the bedroom window, Noein muttered in a dark voice.
"It's been nothing but snowy days since the new year..."
Clara, still in the middle of her morning preparations being helped by Kimberly, replied to Noein with a serious expression.
In the Royal Year 218, an abnormal cold wave and snowfall had continued since the new year. Days that could be called extreme cold continued without a break, and days without snow were fewer. Even now, due to several consecutive days of heavy snow, there was snow accumulation deep enough to bury one up to the knees.
This impact was also affecting the work and lives of the domain's people, and to reduce the negative effects, Noein was mobilizing the domain's military to regularly shovel the snow inside the domain capital, Noeina, outside the city walls. Furthermore, they were also clearing snow from the roads connecting to the mining village Kilde, Aspida Fortress, and the pioneer village, but clearing the highway connecting to Retovik was currently abandoned.
Even if they removed the snow, it would snow again soon, so they were at their limit just trying to keep the traffic between the cities, villages, and fortress within the domain uninterrupted. They couldn't spare the hands to clear the roads outside the domain.
Of course, when they contacted Viscount Koenitz's domain via Konrad's "Distant Talk," the situation seemed to be the same on their side... or rather, it seemed the entire kingdom was in the same state this winter, so clearing only the Arqvist domain side of the highway would be pointless anyway.
Clara's preparations finished, and Noein moved to the dining room with Matilda and Clara. The moment they stepped from the bedroom, kept at a comfortable temperature by a heating magic tool, into the hallway, the cold air, like a different world, pierced their skin.
"Whoa, cold..."
Pulling Matilda and Clara close to him as he walked, they entered the dining room, first drank some warm tea, and then had breakfast.
Even though her own home was relatively close to the mansion, Noein could only be grateful to Rosetta, who came to work early in the morning in this cold to make breakfast. The same went for Kimberly, who woke up much earlier than Noein, and the maids like Mary, who handled the housework and cleaning in the cold mansion every day.
Clara finished her meal a little earlier than Noein and temporarily left to breastfeed Eleos. When she returned to the dining room after finishing, the three of them drank tea together again to warm up.
After finishing their post-meal tea, it was time for work. First, Noein and Matilda saw off Clara, who was heading to work at the school. Since Eleos had grown a bit, she had also returned to work after the new year.
"Well then, you two, I'm off."
"Take care, Clara. It's extremely cold and snowing, so please be really careful."
"Please take care. I hope you won't overexert yourself."
With a worried expression on Noein's face, and Matilda's concern also evident in her voice, they saw Clara off at the mansion's entrance.
Although it was a winter with much snow, the main roads within the domain capital had been cleared of snow, so the school was operating as usual. For the children of farmers, winter, the off-season for farming, was a precious time for learning. They couldn't simply close the school.
Noein had arranged for heating magic tools to be installed at the school as well, and Clara had told him that the children were attending school lively, also for the purpose of keeping warm.
"...Well then. It's time for our work too, Matilda."
"Yes, Noein-sama."
Noein, accompanied by Matilda, entered the lord's office on the second floor of the mansion. Since Kimberly had activated the heating magic tool while Noein and the others were having breakfast, the room was already at a comfortable temperature.
"Today... I wonder what I should start with."
Sitting at his desk, Noein pondered with a wry smile.
Because of the great cold wave, many schedules had been thrown off, and unexpected things kept happening. Lately, he had been constantly thinking about how to deal with them, discussing things with his retainers and merchants.
The extreme cold temperatures and heavy snow were unusual, but at first, he thought it would end in a few days. But it didn't end after a week, it didn't end after two weeks, and now they had already entered the third week. There was still no sign of it ending.
From the mining village Kilde, a report came in that due to the severe snow, they couldn't mine as usual, and transporting mineral resources from there to the domain capital Noeina was also becoming delayed.
In a normal year, they would transport to Retovik once around the beginning of February, but that would be difficult if the cold wave and heavy snow didn't end. Even Retovik, which usually took half a day on foot, was now questionable whether they could reach it in a whole day. If they tried to force their way there, they could freeze to death. They simply couldn't send people.
The garrison at Aspida Fortress had been further reduced before winter, down to about 200 men, but the sutlers who brought supplies for them from outside the domain probably wouldn't be able to come for the time being. Currently, they seemed to be managing with the stockpiles brought into the fortress before winter, but if those ran out, Noein would have to provide their food.
The domain's people had stoves and hearths in their homes, so there probably wasn't much worry about them freezing to death, but he heard that the rate of firewood consumption was inevitably increasing. To prepare for depletion, soldiers were being made to collect firewood around Aspida Fortress, which was surrounded by forest, and currently, they had transformed from a border defense unit into a firewood collection unit.
The lives and livelihoods of the domain's people were being maintained, but in exchange, the schedules for commerce and industry were constantly disrupted. It would probably be tough even after winter ended.
"Noein-sama, you have a scheduled meeting with the retainer Edgar-sama today. For now, it might be good to prepare for that discussion."
"I see... yeah. Well then, for now, I guess I'll review this year's agricultural plan."
"I'll get the documents right away."
With Matilda's support, Noein finally got into the swing of work.
.....
Around noon that day. Welcoming Edgar, the retainer in charge of agriculture, who had come to the lord's office for the scheduled discussion, they sat facing each other on sofas across a table in the meeting space inside the room.
Edgar, who had a dark expression since entering the room, spoke in a stiff voice.
"...The growth condition of the wheat is quite bad. If this cold wave and heavy snow continue, this year's harvest will be hopeless."
"Hopeless... specifically, can you predict how much the harvest will be?"
Prompted by him, Noein also hardened his expression and asked.
"...It depends on how many more days the cold wave continues, but I'd say we'd be lucky to get even fifty percent. It might drop below thirty percent."
Noein was momentarily speechless at the too-terrible prediction.
"...That's... serious."
In the Arqvist domain, forty percent of the wheat harvest was collected as tax. Also, ten percent had to be preserved as seed rice. At this rate, they couldn't even cover the tax and seed rice.
Before that, there was even the worry of famine. In this domain, potatoes also functioned as one of the staple foods, but wheat was also an important food source. A prospective harvest of less than half the planned amount was bad no matter how you looked at it.
"Well then, for example... what if we make wheat tax-free this year and allocate it to the food consumed by the domain's people? On top of that, if we strive for mass production of potatoes from spring, could we overcome the poor harvest without starving?"
"...However, if wheat is tax-free, Noein-sama's tax revenue will..."
"That's fine. The Arqvist family originally gets more income from my business than from tax revenue. There's no problem even if we go tax-free for about a year."
In the Arqvist domain, which focused on producing potatoes, soybeans, and sugar beets, the amount of wheat produced relative to the population was small. Since the tax revenue from that also made up a small portion of the domain's income, they could manage without it.
Since ore mining was being affected, business income probably wouldn't be as usual either, but he didn't mention that point now. Saying it would only make Edgar shrink back even more.
"So, how about it?"
"...Then I think it would probably be fine. May I take this back once and calculate it more accurately?"
"Yeah, please. I want you to calculate assuming we also divert as much of the edible potatoes as possible to seed potatoes. Oh, and also, assume we allocate soybeans for food instead of oil raw materials. For cultivation locations, let's plan to use any suitable vacant land in the domain, or even the edges of roads, if it comes down to it."
"...Is it alright to go that far?"
"It's fine. It's an emergency. Compared to the people starving, this is nothing."
"...Understood. I will confirm the amount of potatoes stockpiled for food by the lord's family and the Skinner Trading Company, calculate it together with the soybeans, and bring you the results."
"Yeah, sorry for the trouble, but thanks."
He saw Edgar off, speaking to him as gently as possible, and after he and Matilda were the only two left in the room, Noein plopped down heavily on the sofa and sighed.
"Haah... a cold wave and a poor harvest, huh. I thought we finally had peace, but what a start to the year this is. This is really something."
He made Matilda sit next to him and let out a weak complaint with a troubled expression.
"...Noein-sama."
In response, Matilda didn't say anything but just leaned close to Noein. Having her by his side, feeling her body heat and scent, relieved Noein of some of the pressure.
"You can prepare for war, and you might even be able to avoid it if you try hard, but temperature and weather... no matter how hard you try, you can't do anything about it."
With the occurrence of abnormal weather, a situation Noein could do nothing about even more than war, the Royal Year 218 began with many worries.