Chapter 1688 - 234 - The Duchy of Lerbia (4)

The political situation surrounding Lerbia was complicated, to say the least.

It wasn't really a matter of whether Lerbia could continue functioning as a country, because the people and the land were still there. The problem was that the political structure holding everything together had effectively collapsed after the duke's death and the removal of the people who had been supporting his administration.

Whether the Duchy of Lerbia would eventually be abolished or whether the territory would simply be transformed into some kind of province or territory was something that would have to be decided later.

For the moment, there were more immediate problems to deal with.

The people of Lerbia would eventually have to decide whether they wanted another ruler to take the duke's place. Considering what they had just experienced, I wasn't sure how enthusiastic they would be about the idea.

They had spent years being ruled by a man they hated.

Then they had watched that ruler's administration collapse.

Having another person placed above them might not exactly sound comforting after all of that.

At the same time, Lerbia could still function as a country if someone capable of leading it stepped forward. The land itself was still valuable, the people were still there, and their agricultural resources were much larger than I had initially expected.

The government had been corrupt.

The duchy itself wasn't necessarily worthless.

As I thought about it, I couldn't help looking at the farmer beside me.

He might actually have been suited for the position.

The man had already demonstrated an impressive amount of determination. He had walked all the way to another kingdom simply because his own government had refused to help him. He had apparently been willing to endure the journey without knowing whether anyone would even take his request seriously.

That told me quite a bit about him.

A person like that would probably understand the struggles of ordinary citizens much better than some noble who had spent their entire life surrounded by servants and luxury.

There was also the fact that he had personally experienced the consequences of the previous administration.

If someone like him became the next duke, there was a decent chance that he would actually remember what it felt like to be powerless.

Ironically, I didn't think he would want the position at all.

In fact, I was almost certain that he wouldn't.

After everything he had suffered under the previous duke, the title itself probably carried some unpleasant associations for him. Becoming a duke might even make him feel as though he was turning into the very kind of person he had spent years resenting, even if his intentions were completely different.

Besides, there was a possibility that the people of Lerbia would eventually decide that they didn't want to have a duke anymore.

The title had probably been thoroughly ruined in their minds.

Still, I wanted to hear his answer directly rather than making assumptions about him.

"King Myrcella is considering putting you in that position," I said. "Would you want to become the new duke?"

The farmer's eyes widened.

"Me?" he asked, looking genuinely surprised by the suggestion.

"That's right," I replied.

He shook his head almost immediately.

"Of course not," he said. "I'd rather just remain an ordinary farmer."

His answer came so quickly that I almost laughed.

At least he knew exactly what he wanted.

After everything he had experienced, I suppose it made sense that he would prefer a simple life. Becoming a duke meant taking responsibility for an entire territory, managing the government, handling disputes, and probably having enough problems dumped on his desk to make farming look like a vacation.

Honestly, after seeing what the previous duke had gotten himself involved in, I couldn't blame him for wanting to stay as far away from the position as possible.

The farmer then looked at me again.

"I heard that the whole country is at war right now," he said. "If that is true, then I want to help them with the crops we're growing here."

He gestured toward the surrounding land.

"Surely, if the country is currently at war, the agricultural supply will eventually dwindle, won't it?" he continued. "You don't have to worry about that, though. We can send a large amount of our crops to the Kingdom of Milham."

I raised an eyebrow.

"We haven't harvested any of them yet," he explained, "but there are quite a lot of crops planted throughout the region. Almost a hundred thousand hectares of land have been planted with all kinds of crops."

A hundred thousand hectares?!

That was a fucking lot of farmland.

I had known that Lerbia possessed a large amount of agricultural land, but hearing an actual number still caught me completely off guard. Almost a hundred thousand hectares was an enormous amount of land, especially when it had already been planted with crops that could eventually be harvested and distributed.

For a moment, I wondered whether I had heard him correctly.

He seemed completely serious, though.

Apparently, Lerbia had been sitting on an absolutely ridiculous amount of agricultural potential this entire time.

"Well, I'm willing to trade for it with money as well," I said after thinking about the situation. "How about ten thousand gold coins for all of it?"

The farmer froze.

"A-A ten thousand?!" he stammered. "T-That much?!"

His reaction was almost comical.

I couldn't help remembering how shocked I had been when he told me about the nearly hundred thousand hectares of farmland. Apparently, we had managed to surprise each other within the span of a few minutes.

I had been shocked by the sheer size of their agricultural production.

He was shocked by the amount of money I was willing to offer.

Ten thousand gold coins might not sound like much when written down as a simple number, especially when compared with the kind of wealth possessed by powerful nobles and entire kingdoms, but for an ordinary farming community, that was still a considerable amount of money.

Depending on how they managed it, ten thousand gold coins could potentially allow the community to support itself for an entire year or even longer. It wasn't the kind of money that could simply be treated as pocket change, especially by people who had spent years struggling under an administration that had apparently done very little for them.