At dusk that day.
Fruit Basket Village.
The setting sun slowly sank below the horizon, dyeing the sky a gentle orange. In the distance, the lush branches and leaves of fruit trees swayed softly in the breeze.
What a peaceful scene!
Just then, several soldiers arrived with a carriage.
"Gentlemen, may I ask what brings you here?"
Robert, the village chief, carefully stepped before the soldiers and bowed.
As he spoke, he took several Copper Sol coins from the worn pocket of his sheepskin robe and offered them to the lead soldier.
"By order of the great Black Wolf Territory Lord, we have come to deliver food."
The soldier refused his coins and spoke solemnly.
With that, he and his companions began unloading sack after sack of barley from the carriage.
Robert: "???"
Food delivery? In all his decades of life, this was the first time he had heard of a lord giving food to serfs! "Is all this grain for our village?" Robert asked in disbelief.
If they mixed this grain with some Bran Nettle Seed to make Black Bread, it would be enough to feed the entire village for a whole month! "This is already considered little. The two famine-stricken villages next to yours received three entire carriage-loads of grain with a stroke of the lord's pen."
The soldier rolled his eyes.
Though he could not understand why the lord was being so generous either, orders were absolute.
"Oh, and farmer, the lord has announced that all the criminals captured some days ago will be executed in Mineral Town at noon tomorrow. You can organize your villagers to go watch."
After unloading all the grain, the soldiers left those words behind, climbed into the now-empty carriage, and hurried away, leaving Robert standing there in a daze.
"This can't