IMYL 14

Chapter: 14

2. The Finest Dinner Banquet

Good heavens…

Baron Forman felt as though he were sitting on a bed of needles.

This is bad…

His anxiety had become reality.

The warp gate had completely stopped functioning.

The central region was a basin surrounded by mountain ranges, and monsters had begun appearing on every mountain.

The hills marking the borders of the territory were no exception.

Monsters were useless even if you killed them—their meat wasn’t edible.

With monsters roaming about, it was impossible to climb the mountains. Even edible herbs became poisonous if touched by monster saliva.

And encountering monsters in the first place was a life‑or‑death risk.

If only we hadn’t traded the horses for dairy cows… damn it.

One and a half months ago.

Baron Harwin had ordered that all the horses be taken to the western border and exchanged for dairy cows.

At first, everyone had welcomed the idea.

“We can make porridge with milk, and butter too! Old cows can be eaten as meat!”

But problems soon arose.

Dairy cows drank an enormous amount of water. Two cows drank more water than ten people combined.

The wells in Baron Harwin’s territory quickly began to run dry.

On top of that, cows ate far more hay than horses—something Baron Harwin hadn’t known.

When he ordered people to fetch water from the river in Erenta, the knights of Sayers blocked their way.

“You were the ones who blocked distribution through Jezel Street first.”

To make matters worse, dairy cows were extremely sensitive to changes in environment and feed, so at first they produced very little milk.

“At least horses can haul things around, but these… all they do is create more work cleaning and milking. And if they eat even a little less feed, the milk stops.”

The workers who had originally managed the horse ranch were full of complaints.

The cows consumed in less than half the time the amount of hay horses would eat in a month. After that, people had no choice but to feed them food meant for humans.

“Feed them dried corn! We have the most of that left!”

The cows ate the corn eagerly.

In fact, they ate an enormous amount.

But before long, the cows collapsed, panting heavily. The sugar in the corn caused ruminal acidosis.

Naturally, milk production dropped even further. Meanwhile, their water consumption increased.

In the end, we’ll just slaughter those cows and be done with it.

But even that was wishful thinking.

The physician warned that eating cows that had died from acidosis could cause food poisoning. They were unfit for consumption even as meat.

In that situation, Baron Forman—who was still being fed regular meals—felt deeply uncomfortable.

Those meals were growing poorer by the day, but still…

The human appetite is more frightening than I thought.

Baron Forman wondered.

Even he was no longer able to eat his fill.

What about Sayers? They don’t even have salt, do they?

With knights guarding the borders, Baron Harwin’s men hadn’t been able to go over and check.

They probably can’t even dig up potatoes yet, fishing hasn’t been good, and surely their grain ran out long ago…

“Apparently, they bought up all the chickens on Jezel Street. A huge amount—every single shop’s stock.”

When a merchant from Jezel Street said that, Marquis Harwin snapped irritably.

“A foolish choice. Where do they think they’ll get feed for those chickens?”
“Well, they do lay eggs every day.”
“Then distribute some salt to our villagers and bring back chickens. We should raise some at the manor too.”
“Um… every household has salt, but I’m not sure they’ll trade their chickens…”
“Force them to trade if you have to!”

The chickens were noisy, so they were locked in a warehouse.

However, contrary to expectations, the chickens didn’t lay eggs every day. They were fed barley husks, which caused weight loss and stopped egg production altogether.

“Why aren’t the chickens laying eggs?”
“I—I don’t know… When we fed them proper feed at home, they laid one egg a day.”
“Then where is that feed?”
“We bought it before, so we don’t have any now. And with the warp gate down, we can’t get more…”

Then aren’t all the chickens in that territory in the same situation?

In this state of affairs, he quietly stared at the invitation.

The date of the banquet was approaching.

Wouldn’t I just be a burden if I went?

When had Baron Forman started worrying this much over a single meal?

My grandson is the heir of House Nozen, Grand Ducal family…

In his old age, the baron felt despair at having to survive on the food others spared for him.

Should I just not go?

But declining a formal invitation would be discourteous.

And he was curious—and worried—about Sayers’ situation.

All right. I’ll inspect the territory first, then decide whether I should attend or not.

In the end, he began disguising himself once more.

The ones blocking movement are only people from Harwin’s territory. I’ll just use a forged western ID.

Rolling up his sleeves, Baron Forman secretly slipped out of Baron Harwin’s manor.

* * *

“Wow…”

As Philip brushed away the soil with trembling hands, round potatoes emerged.

It had been a month and a half since the seed potatoes were planted—the minimum growth period for harvesting young potatoes.

Seeing the dirt‑covered potatoes made his lips curl upward on their own.

Success.

They were still only finger‑sized, but there were plenty of them. Given more time, they would surely grow plump and full. The leaves looked healthy and the tubers firm—a sign of a good harvest.

“They need to be peeled and cooked thoroughly.”

Just in case, I emphasized this to the head chef.

“They’re immature, so only harvest enough for today. Include portions for the territory’s residents. Tell them tomorrow will have its own potatoes.”

Even early‑harvest potatoes normally took two months to fully mature. Still, potatoes that were edible could be harvested around this time.

It had been a month and a half since the territory was isolated. We had only one month’s worth of grain.

“We need to stretch this for another month and a half. Eat sparingly.”

I had told the kitchen staff early on.

“But we’ll have eggs, and soon enough, chicken meat as well.”

That was why I’d bought so many chickens in the first place.

I ordered them to mix rice bran and wheat bran with crushed clam shells from the river—feed for the chickens.

“Why add clam shells?”
“They need calcium. Once we have eggshells, we’ll crush and mix those in too.”

During the day, I had the knights release the chickens into the potato fields or by the river.

The chickens naturally hunted larvae—providing protein.

Normally we’d have used commercial feed, but under the circumstances, this was the best we could do.

Even so, with their nutritional needs met, the chickens reliably laid one egg per day.

“We’ll have other ingredients too.”

A lettuce garden appeared on the rooftop of the marquis’s residence.

There shouldn’t be any land going to waste.

One household had saved lettuce seeds from early spring. Lettuce was the most common crop in the small riverside plots.

Lettuce grew quickly and was easy to cultivate. Most importantly, you could keep harvesting it continuously.

And there were other things coming in as well…

“Miss! We received another large shipment of salt today!”
“We got another basket of perilla seeds!”

Food supplies smuggled in from Harwin’s territory.

The moment I heard Dalia say, “They’re raising dairy cows,” I foresaw all of this.

Dairy cows drink a lot of water.

And they’re sensitive to environmental changes.

They weren’t livestock that people with no experience could just bring in and raise successfully.

Milk production will drop, and water will run out.

People can’t survive without water.

And both Jezel Street and the Veron region had been part of Sayers Marquisate just a month and a half ago. Of course they’d try to draw water from the Erenta River.

That’s why I stationed knights—to stop them from taking water.

That didn’t mean we truly refused them water. It was prohibited only by regulation.