The carriage came to a screeching halt. I opened my eyes and looked at Lily and Maria sitting in the back with me when the door of the carriage was knocked on.
"We're here," Keith said, opening the door for us.
I let him escort the two ladies first and then jumped down at the end. Then, Keith gestured at some of the villagers who had formed the mob to take out the rations from the carriage. With my arms still crossed, I looked down at the village from a distance.
Worn-out shanties and huts filled the place as far as the eye could see. Few children with cheeks as thin as their bones ran around but not even half as fast as one would expect kids to. When they saw their parents coming back with a carriage, their eyes widened and they ran over to them.
Some stables were built up on the sides, a few of them had dead cows while some others had dying horses and bulls.
The ancients from the broken homes came rushing out at the commotion, and their eyes widened as well at the sight of the carriage.
"Mother! Mother, what is all this?"
I saw one child screaming at a woman, who only got down on her knees and pulled the child into a tight embrace.
Similar scenes broke out everywhere as the people of the mob that had barged into my home went back to their own and shared sweet tears with their loved ones. I didn't miss one of the mobs slyly walking over to the person with the deepest hunch and explaining things.
"Oh! Great Marquis." The old man walked over to us and bowed in front of me. He went down on his knees and held back his tears.
"How, how can we ever repay this? You have saved the lives of all our children, how can we repay this?"
Idiot was appealing to me. We both knew there were more people here than the food could last with.
"What happened here?" I ignored his words and asked.
"Lord, we were already a poor village. The magistrate from the next town over sent a publican once a year and took away most of our growth. Lord, times became tougher each passing day for five years. Rain lessened, our crops deteriorated. We were struggling to feed ourselves, let alone pay our taxes."
For a man so old, he spoke with great fluency. A testament of his desperation. He looked up and stared at my eyes.
"Lord, the time came for us as well. The rain was abundant this year, and the crops were flourishing! It was the greenest we had seen our fields in ages... But then, a few weeks before harvest, a swarm of locusts attacked the village."
Fuck.
"Our grains... our crops... they didn't even leave the food our animals ate, what were we to get? Lord, we didn't have anything to feed our young, nothing to keep our youth going. The animals that died caught diseases, eating even them was no better than swallowing our deaths. We old ones could do it, but how could we feed death to our children?"
At that point, almost all of them broke into tears. The woman hugging her child before started sobbing, and so did her child. People all around me were crying, most of them, though, were tears coming down at the sight of hope.
The longer I heard them, the more annoyed I got.
Just what were these bastards thinking, charging into a suicide operation like that?
What were they doing, giving up on their lives when they still held this much hope?
"Lord... we can't ever repay... what you have done..."
Finally, the old man lost his pith and his voice cracked.
"You don't have to," I said and turned away. "It's a noble's duty to look after the people."
I think I heard some surprised sounds, but I ignored it.
"Let's go, we're leaving."
I stopped in front of the carriage and extended my hand to Lily and Maria, after escorting them in, all of us got inside the carriage and Keith hit it up. The horses neighed and started dashing through the path again.
As long as I could see the village, those people were still kneeling with their heads down.
After some time passed by inside the carriage, I closed my eyes and crossed my legs. At that time, Maria spoke up, a slight teasing tone in her voice.
"Young master," she said. "There were about 80 people in that village, the food will barely last them a week even if they ration."
"I am aware."
"The money we get from the estate is also not nearly enough to keep them fed."
Then, the small wooden window that kept the coach away from the coachman unclasped and Keith's voice came ringing in. He scoffed and spoke to Maria. "You think our young master didn't think those things through? Ask the more important question, the more important one."
Lily and Maria tilted their heads to the side while I opened one eye and stared at Keith's back, resisting the smile that threatened to fill my face.
"What important question?" Lily asked.
Keith held the reins with one hand and supported himself with the other as he turned back and faced me through the small window. "Young master, how much authority are you planning to gain here?"
I smirked and rested my back on the cushion of the carriage.
"Enough to threaten the Marquis," I said. "Just watch, we're going to flip this place on its heels."