Northward

Leaving Demacia City for Silvermine City meant traveling generally north.

Since Demacia's terrain was higher in the north and south—the Dragon Ridge Mountains to the north, and the Shimmering Silver Mountains to the south—and lower in the middle, where the Demacian Great Plains lay, Lux and the others had only traveled downhill for a short while before the road began to slope gently upward.

Lux had lived in Silvermine City when she was little—or, more precisely, she had been born there.

But almost as soon as she was old enough to remember things, she had moved to Demacia City with her parents.

So she didn't actually know much about the place where she'd been born.

And since this was her first time leaving Demacia City on her own, Lux was full of curiosity about everything she saw and heard along the way.

For Karya, the biggest consequence of that curiosity was that Lux had become much more prone to daydreaming during lessons.

Especially after Kuren returned to his own carriage, Lux's mind had begun to wander everywhere, and she could hardly focus on her studies.

They had agreed that Karya would help her get through the lessons on accounting, freeing up time for catch-up lessons. But with Lux so distracted, Karya's progress was painfully slow.

However, the anger and scolding Lux had expected never came. Seeing that she had little interest in her lessons, Karya simply became her tour guide instead, turning their magic lessons into educational talks.

Knowledge about the natural world was knowledge, too, and Karya generously told Lux she could ask about anything.

Lux didn't hold back. She pointed up at the sky.

"Karya, Karya, what are those things up there?"

"The flock that just flew past was Snow Geese, which usually live in the North. They're probably flying south for the winter," Karya quickly concluded. "They like living at high elevations, so they stay in the Dragon Ridge Mountains in summer, then return to the Shimmering Silver Mountains to nest and lay eggs before winter."

"The Gate of Sorrows is in the Shimmering Silver Mountains, right?" Lux thought for a moment. "That's where Father is!"

"That's right. Those Snow Geese you just saw might be flying over your father's head in five or six days."

"Five or six days is all it takes? They're so fast!"

"Snow Geese aren't very fast when they're flying at full speed, but they can fly very high, and they have great endurance. Without those abilities, how could they live safely in an area where dragons roam?"

"Oh, I see... Hey, did you see that thing that just darted past?"

"That was a stag. I saw its antlers."

"You can tell what it is just by seeing its antlers?"

"Yes. Stags have unusually distinctive antlers with six branches, and they grow a layer of white down when winter comes."

"You know that, too?"

"Of course."

"Then what are those bushes by the road?"

"Some kind of Rose Hips. The carriage is moving too fast for me to tell which, but they have a clear feature: the flowers on each cluster grow to the same height, and so do the fruits. From the carriage, they look like a colorful line of flowers in summer and a dark line of fruit in winter."

"Doesn't anyone eat the fruit?"

"It's poisonous. You can't eat it—not people, and not even dogs."

"..."

"..."

From the flocks of birds in the sky to the beasts darting through the woods beside the road, it seemed there was nothing Karya didn't know.

Lux's astonishing curiosity as a young girl, with her endless stream of questions, didn't trouble Karya at all.

By the time the party had finished its first day of travel and stopped to rest in Edsa Town, Lux had learned about all sorts of animals and plants. She might not remember every last detail, but the boundless knowledge drove away the boredom of the journey and put her in a very good mood.

More importantly, although Ogesha considered Lux a "frail little girl," Lux was actually quite sturdy, so the jolting of the long journey barely bothered her.

When Lux reached the inn full of energy and vitality, the guards assigned to protect her all breathed a quiet sigh of relief. Their young lady was not only easy to get along with, but also in good shape.

As long as she stayed this way, the journey would be much easier for everyone.

They hadn't experienced it themselves, but stories about princesses with delicate sensibilities were common among noble guards. Thank goodness the Crown Guard family's little princess wasn't like that.

Of the entire party, only Kuren remained grimly serious.

Kuren wasn't serious because he was naturally gloomy. It was because the burden on his shoulders during this journey was simply too heavy.

On the surface, this trip to Silvermine City was meant to train Lux by introducing her to the family's affairs. In reality, Lux was only a pretext—or, rather, a convenient excuse.

Kuren was the one truly responsible for auditing the accounts!

And Silvermine City's accounts were an absolute mess!

Three years earlier, an unprecedented cold snap had brought heavy snow and frost to much of the North. The disaster had caused severe crop failures across a vast area, including Silvermine City.

But three years had passed, and Silvermine City had reported frost damage every single year, claiming poor harvests and requesting tax relief each time.

That was a bit ridiculous, wasn't it?

Even Irondale, farther north, had suffered frost damage for only two years. How had Silvermine City been hit for three years in a row?

In the second year, Ogesha, who had always handled the family's affairs, sent an envoy to Silvermine City to investigate and question the family members left in charge of overseeing the fief. But the response had been unanimous: "We really did suffer severe frost damage. We need tax relief."

With everyone telling the same story, Ogesha had to accept their account and show her generosity as a noble by granting them tax relief.

But it just so happened that three years ago, the Noxians had invaded Ionia.

At the time, no one knew what was going on, and all of Demacia was preparing for war. Other lords had reported to the King and requested tax exemptions, but Peter had said that one year of frost damage wasn't a big problem; they could manage.

"War might break out, and that's when we'll need money most. We can make do."

So while the other lords had their taxes to the royal treasury waived that year, the Crown Guard family in Silvermine City did not.

Peter had been acting out of loyalty to his country, and one year without agricultural taxes wasn't a big deal.

The problem was that for the next two years, Silvermine City had continued to report frost damage and claim it couldn't collect taxes.

Ogesha could grit her teeth and accept a single year's shortfall in agricultural taxes as a contribution to the country. But after three years without collecting those taxes, even with Silvermine City's substantial commercial taxes, the matriarch of the Crown Guard family could no longer bear the burden.

So she sent Lux to audit the accounts and provide disaster relief.

Fortunately, the Noxians were now locked in fierce fighting in Ionia, so there was no chance of war breaking out here in Demacia. By the time Lux returned from providing disaster relief, the agricultural taxes from Silvermine City should have been suspended for three years, making up for the extra taxes they'd paid before, right?

That was Ogesha's official reasoning, presented with great fanfare to the Demacian nobles' council to keep them quiet.

As for what was really going on in Silvermine City...

Only after Kuren arrived could anyone properly investigate.

And according to Ogesha's suspicions, the frost damage was probably fake.

Peter might be the head of the Crown Guard family, and Silvermine City might be the family's fief.

But in reality, the Crown Guard family's focus was now in Demacia City, and its control over Silvermine City was quite limited.

Peter's main branch, which held the position of family head, was deeply trusted by the King and occupied high office. But the family had few members, most of their connections were in the military, and they lacked enough people to manage the fief.

In practice, Silvermine City was managed mostly by members of the Crown Guard family's cadet branches. Compared with the main branch, there were plenty of them left in Silvermine City. But in terms of ability, calling them useless parasites would have been a compliment!

Ogesha knew exactly what kind of scum they were!

Those bastards were perfectly capable of exploiting the frost disaster to embezzle the fief's agricultural taxes and bribe the envoys sent to investigate.

They were the kind of people who didn't care if they sold off their family's inheritance, and they were certainly capable of screwing over their own relatives.

After all, when Peter had returned to Demacia City, he had refused to recommend that pack of misfits, and they had fallen out badly over it.

Peter had made quite a few "dear relatives" angry that time.

Incidentally, even in Demacia, nobles like Peter, who were willing to make sacrifices for their country at their own family's expense, were exceedingly rare!

Why were the Lightshields, Crownguards, and Buweier so close?

Because those two families were the most dependable!

The rest of the nobles...

Most of them were little more than vermin.

Ogesha, who knew full well what was happening in Silvermine City, could have acted much sooner.

But on the one hand, Silvermine City really had suffered a disaster three years earlier. On the other, losses within the family had left a power vacuum and caused upheaval, while Peter was constantly on the move. Ogesha herself hadn't found the time to act.

Besides, she still cared somewhat about noble propriety, so she had given the cadet branches a little leeway.

She had thought those bastards would know when to stop. They'd been lining their pockets for three years, so surely they'd had their fill. But when she received the autumn harvest report this year, Silvermine City was still claiming, "Frost in the fief. Requesting tax relief!"

Well, well. Three whole years!

Those "dear relatives" in Silvermine City still dared to report frost damage. They couldn't even be bothered to come up with a new excuse!

Those brazen bastards had gotten far too full of themselves!

This time, Ogesha wasn't going to let them hide behind family propriety.

Frost damage, was it?

Tax relief, was it?

Fine. Then I'll send disaster aid and audit your accounts!

You don't know how to behave.

I'll teach you how!

The steward, Kuren, was the one tasked with teaching them how to behave. With that responsibility on his shoulders, he couldn't help but be serious.

On top of that, Kuren was responsible for evaluating and testing Lux.

When they left Demacia City, Ogesha had given Kuren broad discretion. He could choose to tell Lux everything, or keep her in the dark for the entire journey.

As long as he kept Lux safe, that was all that mattered.

If Kuren decided Lux wasn't suited to handling this sort of matter, Ogesha would take her under her wing herself for a while!

Under the circumstances, even Kuren—with all his experience and sharp instincts—had to stay serious and on alert at all times.