THIEM 33

Chapter 33

The soldier let out a scoffing laugh and continued.

“We get paid our measly wages to stay stationed here, but in all my years, I’ve never seen anything clean come into this place.”

“T-That can’t be…! The reports clearly said…!”

“Hah, there you go again with those reports. You’ve seen it with your own eyes and still can’t believe it?”

He pointed toward the scene behind him with one hand.

Filth scattered everywhere, tents that had collapsed and left people lying helplessly on the bare ground, and those who had lost an arm or a leg staring at the sky with eyes full of despair.

‘This is on a completely different level from the capital.’

The capital had at least been receiving support for appearances’ sake.

Unlike this place.

I glanced at Killian’s face.

His eyes, clouded with shock, trembled endlessly.

‘Hmm. Maybe this will finally change him.’

As the young duke, Killian was actually quite capable. He managed his territory efficiently and handled administration well.

But if he had one flaw…

‘His butt is too heavy.’

He trusted written reports to an excessive degree.

He placed too much faith in statistics and believed everything could be solved without personally inspecting anything.

Duke Rosental had returned to the capital as soon as the war ended, meaning everything that happened afterward had been Killian’s responsibility.

Including this refugee camp.

‘Even if the Imperial Family was supposedly providing support, he should’ve checked personally.’

While looking at his devastated expression, I surveyed the surroundings.

At that moment, a quest window appeared before my eyes.

[Quest Name: Relief for the Poor

Objective: Establish a temporary distribution network for food and daily necessities in the refugee district created by the war.

Reward: Fame +500 / +5% Stat Gain from Refugee and Poverty-Related Quests]

Huh? What’s this?!

I rubbed my eyes furiously and checked the system window again.

‘A whole 5% bonus to stat gains?!’

As someone desperately chasing freedom, there couldn’t have been a more welcome notification.

In other words, completing this quest would increase my efficiency by 5% compared to normal!

There were slums in the capital as well, so this reward would be incredibly useful later on.

Covering my mouth in excitement, I barely stopped myself from shouting.

‘…I’m going to work my ass off!’

I clenched my fist tightly.

And so, while everyone busily worked, two weeks passed.

Gulp, gulp.

After drinking a full bucket of water from the well, Lina finally let out a breath.

The growling in her stomach that had been making noise moments earlier had finally quieted down.

“Ah, I’m full.”

Though she said that, Lina didn’t actually know what being full meant.

Now eight years old, she barely remembered anything from before the war.

The only thing she knew was that drinking lots of water made her stomach hurt less, and when her belly felt swollen and sloshed around, people called that being full.

“Lina! If you’re done drinking, get out of the way!”

A woman standing behind her in line shouted irritably.

She lived in the tent right next to Lina’s family.

The woman had a twenty-year-old son who had been drafted into the war and returned without both legs.

Maybe because of that, she was always angry.

At everything.

“Auntie, if you’re always that grumpy, people won’t like you!”

“What? You little brat…!”

“Hmph! You’re the only one who doesn’t know that!”

After shouting that, Lina quickly spun around and ran away.

The woman’s angry yelling echoed behind her, but Lina kept running.

Her legs were so thin the bones nearly showed through as they stumbled into one step after another.

Her unwashed hair had become so tangled it was difficult to tell its original shape, and her neck, stomach, and entire body constantly itched.

After only a short distance, Lina was already exhausted.

Panting heavily, she entered her home.

It was little more than a dirty tent, but it was her family’s shelter.

Her father had been taken away as a soldier and died on the battlefield.

The rest of her family had suffered severe burns while fleeing their village when it was engulfed in flames.

Even after the war ended, they had been unable to return home and wandered from village to village before finally settling here, in the western refugee camp.

No one was willing to take in Lina’s mother, whose body was covered in burns and who had lost an arm.

Every day, her mother cried while holding Lina’s younger sister, who was only three or four years old, until she eventually fell asleep from exhaustion.

“Mom! Mom, where are you?!”

Lina shouted as she searched the tiny, shabby tent.

But no one was there.

Fear immediately gripped her.

“M-Mom? Mom!”

She bit nervously at her fingernails as she turned around.

Then—

“Lina! Lina, are you in there?!”

A desperate voice called out.

A gaunt woman rushed into the tent from outside.

Cradled in her remaining arm was a tiny child.

Lina’s little sister.

“Mom!”

Lina cried happily.

“Lina! This isn’t the time for that!”

“Why?”

“Quick! Grab some clothes or a bucket—anything that can carry things!”

Confused, Lina followed her mother while clutching the largest piece of clothing she could find to use as a sack.

Even that was filthy and tattered.

When she arrived where her mother had led her, Lina’s eyes widened.

“What is this?”

There was a line so long it looked as though everyone in the refugee camp had gathered there.

Lina had never seen so many people in her life.

“Alright! Alright! Form a line! There’s plenty for everyone, so don’t fight!”

At the very front, armed men shouted with friendly smiles.

They scooped something out of enormous sacks and handed it to the people waiting.

The sacks were piled around them like mountains.

“Mom, what’s happening? Huh? What’s that?”

Everyone’s eyes were shining in a way she had never seen before.

As though they had finally found hope.

At last, her mother, who was standing in line, bent down and met Lina’s gaze.

“It’s supplies! The supplies finally arrived!”

“Supplies…?”

“They say His Highness the Second Prince is helping the people!”

It was the first time since the war that Lina had seen her mother’s face look so happy.

That day, Lina experienced the feeling of being truly full for the first time in her life.

Beginning the next day, voices praising the Second Prince erupted everywhere throughout the camp.

“I knew His Highness would do something like this! Didn’t he achieve great feats during the war?”

“Of course! Of course! Without him, who knows if the war would even be over yet?”

The adults’ enthusiastic conversations quickly spread among the children as well.

“They say the Second Prince should become king!”

Mila, a girl her age who lived several tents away, said.

Mila was rather snobbish.

She had an older brother who had died in the war.

Lina tilted her head.

“But there’s the Crown Prince! My mom said the Crown Prince is supposed to become king.”

“I don’t really know. But they said the Second Prince is giving out money. Because my brother died.”

“Wow!”

Lina blinked.

She hadn’t even known people received money when someone died.

The Second Prince really was a good person!

After all, the soup she’d been eating every day lately had come from him too.

“The Second Prince gives people money, gives them food, and they say he’s handsome too! The grown-ups said he’s unbelievably good-looking!”

“Really? I’d like to hear those stories too.”

At the sudden voice, Lina turned around.

The moment she saw the owner of the voice, her mouth slowly fell open.

Silky black hair.

Flawless pale skin without the slightest blemish.

And within that beautiful face were two gleaming ruby-red eyes that gave off a mysterious aura.

It was the prettiest—

No, the most handsome face she had ever seen.

Lina unconsciously parted her lips.

“Wow… an angel…”

If angels truly existed, this person might be one.

The angel let out a small laugh at her words.

Even that tiny smile seemed sacred enough to inspire reverence.

Lina swallowed hard.

Beside her, she could feel Mila stiffening with tension as well.

The angel smiled harmlessly before speaking again.

“About those stories concerning the Second Prince… would you tell them to me as well?”

“So, did you find out anything?”

Rakiel asked as he climbed into the carriage.

He had just handed several pieces of candy to the children he’d been talking with.

‘Not that they knew much…’

Well, children only knew so much.

Holding the carriage door open for him, Hagen climbed inside after him.

Taking a seat opposite Rakiel, Hagen slowly began speaking.

“It was Rosental Territory. The place where the rumors originated.”

“…As expected. Was it the duke’s doing?”

Rakiel muttered.

It had started about two weeks ago.

Supplies began arriving in villages near the border that had suffered heavily during the war.

In particular, aid was distributed to smaller villages that had long been neglected, as well as nearby cities.

Several famous large merchant companies of the Empire had mobilized, busily traveling around and distributing food and daily necessities to refugees.

It was a good thing.

At least until the strange rumors began spreading.

“We can’t stop the rumors spreading from the west. Not that there’s any reason to stop them in the first place.”

“You’re serious? People are placing all this hope in something I didn’t even do.”

The rumor claimed that the relief effort was being led by the Second Prince, Rakiel Bernhardt.

Rakiel himself had no idea how such a thing had happened.

He frowned deeply as he spoke, but Hagen shook his head instead.

“You say you didn’t do it, but haven’t Your Highness been doing similar things all this time, even if no one knew about it?”

If Evelyn had heard that, she would have been absolutely dumbfounded.