Chapter 1687 - 234 - The Duchy of Lerbia (3)

After I killed the Duke of Lerbia, I had his body hung from the walls of the capital so that the citizens could see for themselves what had become of the man who had ruled over them for so long. The moment the people realized that their former ruler was finally dead, the atmosphere throughout the city changed almost immediately, and before long, a crowd had gathered around the place where his body had been displayed.

Some of them started throwing stones at him.

The fact that he was already dead obviously did not stop them.

People shouted insults at his corpse, cursed him, and blamed him for nearly everything that had gone wrong in the duchy. Some were furious enough that they looked as though they had been waiting years for the chance to finally release all of their anger. Others simply stood nearby and watched, apparently trying to process the fact that the man who had caused them so much trouble was finally gone.

The mercenary he had hired was hung there as well, along with the other people who had been involved in whatever kind of fuckery had been taking place throughout the Duchy of Lerbia. They had all contributed to the mess in one way or another, and the citizens clearly had plenty of resentment left for them too.

Instead of mourning the death of their ruler, the people were celebrating.

They were celebrating the duke's death.

They were celebrating the downfall of the people who had supported him.

More than anything else, they were celebrating the possibility that their lives might finally improve.

"You are Mr. Faust, right?" one of the people from the duchy eventually asked me.

I turned toward him and looked at him for a moment.

He looked like an ordinary farmer, and there was nothing particularly intimidating about him. His body was thin and somewhat gaunt, and he certainly did not have the build of someone who had spent years training to become a fighter. His clothes were simple as well, and from the way he carried himself, it was pretty obvious that he was just an ordinary person who had spent most of his life working the land.

"That's right," I told him.

The man lowered his head and bowed respectfully.

"I was the one who asked for help from the Kingdom of Milham," he said. "Thank you for reaching out and actually doing something about the state of this duchy. I truly mean it when I say that I am grateful."

"It's fine," I replied. "Amon is the one you should thank. She was the one who directed me toward this situation in the first place."

The man shook his head.

"Even so, I still need to thank you," he said. "If I hadn't managed to have that conversation with the King, and if Miss Amon hadn't been there when I spoke with her, I wouldn't have been able to get in contact with you at all."

He paused briefly before looking toward the bodies hanging from the capital's walls.

"I've heard about your power," he continued. "If there was someone capable of dealing with these two and the people working under them, then I knew it would probably be you."

I followed his gaze toward the duke and the others.

The citizens were still throwing stones at their bodies, and the crowd showed no indication that it was going to disperse anytime soon. They were calling the dead men all sorts of names, blaming them for the suffering that had spread throughout the duchy, and accusing them of being responsible for nearly every problem the people had experienced under their rule.

"I think it's only natural that they would react like this," the farmer said after watching them for a while. "Many of us, myself included, were subjected to so many underlying problems because of his corrupt administration that we were the ones who ended up suffering."

His expression became more serious as he continued speaking.

"I asked him for help when my wife and daughter were dying from a sickness during the winter," he said. "I went to him because I believed that the ruler of the duchy was supposed to help his own people when they were in desperate need. I asked him for assistance, but he didn't do anything."

He lowered his gaze.

"In the end, both of them died."

I remained silent and allowed him to continue.

"I couldn't do anything to save them," he said. "I was poor, and the government that I had been putting all of my money into wasn't even willing to help me when my family needed it the most. I had spent years paying taxes and doing everything that was expected of me, yet when my wife and daughter were dying, the people who were supposed to protect us simply ignored our situation."

His hands slowly tightened at his sides.

"I eventually had no choice but to seek help from somewhere outside the duchy," he continued. "I walked all the way from here to the Kingdom of Milham because I had nowhere else to turn."

I stared at him for a moment.

That kind of journey was hardly something a person would casually decide to undertake.

Walking from Lerbia to Milham was already a considerable trip under normal circumstances, but doing it while carrying the desperation of someone who had just watched his family suffer and die because his own government refused to help him was another matter entirely.

That was the kind of determination that was difficult to ignore.

If someone was willing to leave their own duchy and walk all the way to another kingdom just to ask for help, then they must have wanted that help badly. More importantly, they had to be desperate enough to continue moving forward despite having no guarantee that anyone would even listen to them.

Someone who was willing to go that far clearly was not the kind of person who would simply sit around and accept whatever happened to them.

He had already tried asking his own ruler.

His ruler had failed him.

So he went somewhere else.

Considering everything that had happened, I could understand why he had done it.

"With this situation, though, this practically is not a country anymore," I told him.