The Count’s True Intention

“Count Hagenberg, I have something I would like to discuss with you.”

That night, Jonah visited the Count’s study alone.

“Hmm, for you to come speak to me alone… is this something Marguerite cannot do?”

“Yes… for now.”

“I see… well, come in.”

“Excuse me.”

Urged by Count Hagenberg, Jonah sat down on the sofa in the study.

“So, what did you want to talk about?”

“Yes. Could you please tell me the reason why you raised taxes on the citizens starting three months ago?”

Jonah asked directly, without any beating around the bush.

The eyebrows of Count Hagenberg, seated across from him, twitched ever so slightly.

“I heard that Your Lordship is trying to purchase large quantities of wheat and grain. This territory is part of the Empire’s granary belt and is blessed with good harvests every year, so why are you doing such a thing?”

“…………………………”

“Moreover, although the increased taxes have made life harder for the citizens, they are not severe enough to drive them to ruin—the line has been drawn with exquisite precision. It feels almost as though you are deliberately forcing them to save.”

Exactly… After listening to Ottmar and the siblings, Jonah could feel nothing but a sense of wrongness.

If he were truly imposing heavy taxes for personal greed, he would squeeze them dry without doing anything half-hearted.

Of course it might be intended as “keeping them alive but not letting them live well,” yet judging from what those siblings said, he could probably have imposed even higher taxes.

On the other hand, while the citizens are forced to cut back on food because of the heavy taxes, using the money collected that way to buy wheat and grain is an obvious contradiction.

Taking all of this into account, the conclusion Jonah reached was—

This:

“Is there some major problem with this year’s harvest…?”

“…!?”

At Jonah’s question, Count Hagenberg’s eyes widened.

That reaction alone was enough for Jonah to understand that his hypothesis had been correct.

Stockpiling food to the point of placing a burden on the citizens.

That could only mean preparation for an impending food shortage.

“Yet on my journey from the imperial capital to this town, I saw fields of vibrant, ripening wheat stretching as far as the eye could see. It’s hard to believe such a situation could occur.”

“…………………………”

“Count. Just what is it that you can see?”

Jonah pressed the silently brooding Count Hagenberg.

“…Phew. You’re about the same age as Marguerite, yet you understand things remarkably well.”

“No. Lady Marguerite has already reached the same conclusion I just explained.”

Just as Jonah said, Marguerite had also arrived at this conclusion.

She simply could not bring herself to ask the father she respected so much.

She was afraid that her expectations might be wrong—that the father she believed in might betray her.

“I see… I kept thinking of her as a child forever, but it seems I was blind.”

“Lady Marguerite is trying her very best. That is precisely how much she respects and adores Your Lordship.”

The feelings toward a father that Jonah himself had never been able to hold until the very end.

That is exactly why Jonah did not want Marguerite to experience the same pain—so he had come here alone to ask.

“Very well. Then I will tell you everything… with Marguerite here as well.”

“Eh…?”

When Jonah turned around and looked where Count Hagenberg was gazing… he saw Marguerite peeking through the gap in the door.

“U-um… I happened to see Jonah walking in the corridor, and so…”

“Aaah…”

Jonah clutched his head, realizing he had been completely off guard.

He had gone out of his way to consider Marguerite’s feelings and come alone to learn the Count’s true intentions first, yet now it was all ruined.

Still, at the very least he now knew that the Count’s actions were not for personal greed, so even if Marguerite had overheard, it was not a problem.

Deciding to think of it that way and not dwell on it further, Jonah let the matter drop—

“Jonah… Thank you so much. If you had not asked for me, I probably never would have been able to ask Father myself and would have kept it all bottled up forever.”

Marguerite grasped Jonah’s hand tightly, her ruby eyes moist as she gazed at him.

Enchanted by her beauty illuminated by the lights of the study, Jonah was so entranced that he could not even let out a voice.

“Ahem.”

“…!?”

Snapped back to reality by Count Hagenberg’s cough, Marguerite hurriedly let go of his hand.

Though both felt a lingering reluctance, hearing what the count had to say clearly came first. The two straightened their postures and looked at the earl.

“Very well… It began with our neighboring country, the Duchy of Aubern.”

Count Hagenberg slowly began to explain the situation to the two of them.

Last year, the Duchy of Aubern suffered heavy rains that damaged the crops.

Although wheat and grain prices rose as a result, the damage apparently was not severe enough to cause a food shortage, so the Count had simply watched and waited.

However—

“…Three months ago, I received reports that water was drying up in some regions of the southeastern part of the Duchy of Aubern.”

“Eh…?”

As Count Hagenberg spoke with a grave expression, Jonah’s face suddenly changed.

Back when he was bedridden, reading had been Jonah’s only pleasure; hoping one day to be useful to the Langheim family as its eldest son, he had devoured documents compiling past statistics of the Langheim territory.

Among them were records of heavy rains from roughly eighty years ago, the drought that struck the following year, and then the arrival of the tiny demons that came afterward.

Those were—

“Locusts…”

Jonah muttered under his breath.