Chapter 6 - Rosetta’s Seeds

Kuro’s House - Three Days Later

Simon and Kuro sat on the floor inside the Elder’s small house. Despite his prominent position in the village, the home’s interior was free of even the most basic of luxuries. The furniture inside was the same shoddily constructed table and chairs found throughout the village, while his bed appeared to be in even worse shape than most of the villagers.

It was clear the Elder’s priorities lie in the well-being of the village as a whole rather than the enrichment of himself. Perhaps that was why Simon had felt himself growing more attached to the elderly man as the days had gone by. Yeah, that’s probably it. He thought to himself before casually returning an opened flask.

For the past three days, the two had been working on overcoming the obviously detrimental language barrier between them. At first, the prospect seemed hopeless, but after a rather heated session of object identification that may or may not have involved the throwing of said objects, the two men achieved a breakthrough.

After the 'enlightening' session on the first day, things flowed smoothly. By the end of the second day, the two of them were conversing normally, with Simon only occasionally having to stop and ask what a specific term the Elder used meant.

On the dawn on the third day, Kuro had started teaching Simon how to write in this world’s language, and much to his astonishment, by the time the midday sun had sat overhead, Simon was already writing with a level of precision that far surpassed Kuro himself.

Consequently, the literacy rate in this world was abysmally low. None of the other villagers aside from Kuro himself and a man named Kurtin could even read or write. The only reason he knew how was because Kuro, as the Village Elder, was required to fill out the various documents presented by the Kingdom’s tax collectors whenever the yearly tax was collected.

Deciding that their effective, yet brief, crash course on language had come to its conclusion, the two began discussing various topics regarding the world and the village’s history.

One day in this world is roughly the equivalent of 24 earth hours; however, as the only device capable of measuring precise time existed within the Capital of a faraway kingdom, time here normally measured by the position of the sun and the moon overhead.

“Wait, “Simon said with a confused expression. “There are three moons. Why are you referring to only one of them as a moon?”

Kuro shook his head as he took another swig, something that he’d often been doing during their long discussion before replying, “As I said before, the giant white object is Mother Moon. The two other objects are the Eyes of Heaven. We believe the red one to be a portal to the Demonic Realm, while we presume the light blue one to be a portal to the Divine Realm. When combined, we, at least everyone in the kingdom I’ve ever met, refer to them as the Eyes of Heaven.”

“Alright, I guess that’s simple enough. But why are you referring to something that’s demonic as heavenly?”

Kuro tilted his head. “I don’t understand the question?”

“It’s contradictory. Something that’s demonic cannot be heavenly or divine, it’s demonic. Opposite.” Simon said.

“I still don’t get the problem. Regardless, let’s continue. You said you had little knowledge of the gods here?”

Simon nodded his head.

“Hmm… Well, I’m not a priest, philosopher or a scholar, so I’ll try my best to explain things. I’d ask Krinda to explain instead, but… she died in the attack.” The elder finished with a sigh.

“It’s alright, even a general idea would be helpful, if you don’t mind.” Simon replied.

Kuro scoffs loudly while giving him a wave of dismissal, “Nonsense. It’s a tragedy, true, but life goes on. All we can do now is hope that she is resting peacefully. Anyway, I’ll assume the gods more or less ignored whether it is you are from. It wouldn’t be the first time.” He finished while shaking his head.

“Here, the gods tend to play a more active role, offering various blessings to those who believe in them. Sometimes in the form of powerful abilities or grand miracles. Oftentimes, though, they act in more subdued or mundane ways. A gentle nudge here, a spark of creativity there. Often, they provide nothing more than a feeling of peace and comfort to those who pray to them. It may not seem like much, but trust me, here it’s…a blessing.” Kuro finished with a smile, clearly intending the pun.

Can’t believe puns actually translate, Simon thought to himself. “So, you’re saying that the gods here are real? What about demons? Where I’m from, neither are believed to exist, as they’ve never bothered to make themselves known to us.”

Kuro offers a raised eyebrow but swallows a comment before replying, “The gods are very much real here. Simply look around long enough, and you’ll find the evidence you seek. Although it’s odd, they’ve never given your people a sign. They’re normally quite relentless in the pursuit of new followers. As for demons, correct me if I’m wrong but, I think we lost something in translation. We collectively referred Gods and Demons to as ‘The Divines’, though admittedly people just refer to them all as gods for simplicity’s sake.”

“That’s… confusing.” Simon replied with a raised eyebrow.

“Aye, that it is, but it’s been that way since before I was born, so I doubt it’ll change.”

“Well, at least that explains why you didn’t understand what I meant by the eyes of heaven earlier. Have these ‘Divines’ ever manifested directly?”

Kuro tighten the cap on a now empty flask before speaking, “Oh yes. It’s incredibly rare, but it has happened. Normally, they manifest inside their respective temples, but they have been known to manifest to more… directly engage in mortal affairs.”

Simon went silent for a moment, barely maintaining his calm expression while trying to come to terms with this new knowledge. Calm down. He thought to himself, It’s just the words of an elderly man. Let’s put off the introspective discussion until I’ve seen tangible proof.

A worried glance brought him back to reality. “Sorry. That… was a bit of a revelation for me. Where I’m from, simply believing in something like gods or demons would have you quickly apprehended… among other things.”

Kuro offers a solemn nod. “Aye, I’ve heard things are like that to the west, in the Vatu Republic, although it’s more of a forcible conversion to their state religion, worshiping Herke, The Blood Father.”

“Demon?” Simon replied.

“What? No, Herke is a god. Why would you think he’s a demon?”

“D-don’t worry about it. I’ve just about had it with theology today.”

“Understandable,” the elder replied with a sigh. He’s clearly had enough as well.

“What units of measurements do you use here?”

“Metric.” Kuro replied swiftly, “Have you heard of it?”

Wait, Metric? What the hell? “Possibly, kilometers for travel distance?”

“Aye, kilometers for larger distances, meters for shorter, followed by centimeters and millimeters. We measure weight in grams using the same pattern, same for liquids except liters. Judging by your expression, you weren’t expecting that?”

“No. Not at all. Do you have a meter stick around here?”

“Certainly,” Kuro said before rising from his seated position with a grunt.

Potatoes, Barley, Diseases, and the metric system? Did the ARC actually work? No. I saw it detonate and set the damned sky on fire, but how are things from earth here? This can’t possibly be Earth since there are three moons, not to mention the suns. How then?

Simon’s eyes focused on a meter stick dangling in front of him, which he quickly took. [ Analyze. ]

< SYSTEM: Measurement Device [METRIC] Material: [WOOD] Species: [UNKNOWN] ALERT: [Uncertainty 0.7 cm] >

It’s only off by .7 cm? What the fuck is going on?

“Kuro,” Simon said, while handing back the stick. “Do you know where or when this measurement system was introduced?”

“Possibly. Why, if I may ask?”

“Because it’s the same measurement system we used where I’m from. Even the unit names are the same.”

“Oh, that’s all? I guess it is quite odd since none of your other language sounded similar, but it is a pretty common system nowadays. Anyway, as far as I’m aware, the Altrac Kingdom discovered it in some ruins they found some three thousand years ago if the archivists are to be believed.”

“So they did not develop the system, it was discovered? That still doesn’t explain the names or the pronunciation, though?”

Kuro merely shrugged. “Perhaps they deciphered the language or something. I’m not a historian, so I really wouldn’t know much more than you do now. Only learned that little tidbit from a traveling merchant. I picked this up off of, back when my father was still the village elder.”

Rediscovered with nearly exact measurements? Deciphered Language? Bullshit. He thought.

The two continued on until the sun set, discussing the present state of the village, the food storage, and the plague that had been ravaging the harvests as of late. When Simon asked why the town didn’t have any defensive structures, Kuro’s eyes became clouded, with a hint of frustration present on his face.

According to Kuro, roughly 90 years ago, the feudal lords on the outskirts of the Tarrok Kingdom rebelled against the Capital, citing high tax rates and unrealistic levies demanded by the Capital.

In reality, the feudal lords had secretly allied with the neighboring Granular Kingdom under the promise of receiving much of the conquered Kingdom’s land after Grandlarc had conquered the large country. Such a tactic had been widely used in the early days of Earth, so it didn’t surprise Simon much.

However, the Tarrok Kingdom’s reaction did.

The war between the rebelling faction and the loyalist faction raged on for twelve long years. Both factions suffered significant losses on both military and financial fronts. Eventually, the feudal lords were defeated. However, the Tarrok King at the time decided that enough blood had been shed and pardoned the remaining feudal lords who had rebelled, so long as they pledged loyalty to the Kingdom once again.

Rumors regarding this idiotic decision persist until now as to why the King did this, with the most popular and probable one being that the feudal lords had promised to send a huge amount of gold for the King’s personal coffers if they were spared.

Simon let out a deep sigh, holding his head in his hands. “There are no words for how bad of an idea that was.”

Kuro nodded. “Aye, but I can only imagine someone tried to create some."

Things proceeded quickly after the King’s decree. Fearful of the loyalist noble’s response to his decision, the King, and his Prime Minister, promptly devised a plan to justify the decision, along with help from the newly pardoned nobles.

The plan they came up with revolved around creating a scapegoat in the form of the beastmen, claiming that they had forced the feudal lords to rebel against the Capital under the threat of death. Unfortunately for the beastmen, the Prime minister turned out to be quite the political manipulator.

The masses quickly accepted the excuse, reinforced by the fact that the beastmen armies raised by the feudal lords during the rebellion were by far their most effective forces, having significantly more victories than defeats.

The effect was immediate. They placed new restrictions on the remaining beastmen population. Tens of thousands of beastmen were marched from their ancestral homes and relocated to the outskirts of the Kingdom.

Many were forced to settle in locations previously either deemed uninhabitable, prone to bandit and monster attacks, or along the border of hostile kingdoms. These villages most likely were meant to serve as a sort of buffer that any invading forces would have to suppress before entering the Kingdom proper, thus buying the capital time to muster its armies and face the invaders without depleting their forces.

“Two birds with one stone,” Simon muttered.

Besides these inhospitable conditions, they forbid the beastmen villages from possessing arms or armor, building any sort of defensive or militaristic fortifications, and a special tax that was solely applied to their villages.

“No arms or armor, no defenses, and a special tax? How did anyone survive this long?”

Kuro shook his head before spitting on the ground, “Many didn’t. The first few years were the worst, or so my grandfather told me. Deserters, bandits, and even the odd adventurer would attack our villages from time to time. Occasionally, it was a simple robbery with little to no violence, so long as we gave them what they wanted. But usually, it was more violent.”

Simon nods his head, arms crossed with a frown, “I’m guessing the kingdom sent no one to deal with it and that the bandits eventually lost interest when they realized the villages had nothing left of value to take?”

“No, the kingdom did send someone to deal with the attackers, eventually. It took several villages missing tax payments for them to do anything about it. To be honest, I doubt the kingdom would have ever cared what happened to us if they hadn’t started attacking tax collectors.” Kuro said.

Simon raised an eyebrow. “They attacked the tax collectors?”

Kuro waves his hand. “That’s what I was told, anyway. I honestly wouldn’t have been surprised if some villagers had attacked them as well and pinned it on the bandits, just to hasten a response. The capital wasn’t concerned about our villages, but they cared about money.”

“Speaking of money, what’s this special tax you keep mentioning?”

Kuro’s frown returns as he replies, “The special tax was set up as a two-part system. Each year, a tax collector would visit a village and take 75% of whatever was produced that year.”

Simon’s eyes opened wide. “75%? They take 3/4’s of a village’s yearly harvest?”

“Aye, they do. 50% of the harvest is delivered to the capital, while the local lord takes the remaining 25%.”

“Were they trying to cause a revolt?”

Kuro smiled softly. “That’s what my father thought. Many of the relocated villages revolted shortly after they were established. They sent in troops from the capital and quickly culled the first revolt.”

“First?” Simon replied, eyebrows raised.

“Aye. There were three in total. The second one was rather minor. The lizardmen and ursids banded together and tried to carve out their own little kingdom. They had expected more of the villages to join them, but no one did. The lizardmen were almost entirely wiped out, while the ursids involved fled as far as they could.”

Simon shook his head. “And the third?”

Kuro sighed. “The third… was massive. Again, the capital sent out troops to deal with the uprisings. However, the Grandlarc Kingdom invaded the Capital as soon as Tarrok’s troops were engaged in far-off corners of the kingdom.”

He paused for a moment to take another sip from his flask. “It didn’t take long for Tarrok to fall. The noble houses who previously betrayed the kingdom had been conspiring with the Grandlarcians the entire time. Their troops helped pave the way for the invading forces, often opening city gates to allow them in, or sabotaging supply lines.”

“So Grandlarc basically walked right in to the capital, unopposed?” Simon said.

“Aye. By the time their main forces had arrived, the capital’s gates were already wide open, and the king was dead. Killed by the Prime minister.”

“Too stupid to live.” Simon muttered shaking his head.

Kuro lifted an eyebrow. “That’s an odd saying, but yes, I’d have to agree with that statement. Anyway, for his service to Grandlarc, the Prime Minister was given the title of Marques, along with the entire newly conquered province.”

“What about the noble houses who betrayed Tarrok?”

A savage grin crossed Kuro’s face. “The Grandlarc King had all of them put to the sword. They spared none, save the Marquis himself.”

Simon nodded. “A fitting end for a band of traitors.”

“Indeed, after the invasion, the third beastmen revolt was swiftly ended by the now united armies. It reduced the beastmen population to a third of what it had been before the war and left many villages in ruins. Once the status quo was restored, the Grandlarc Kingdom washed its hands of the entire affair and passed off the responsibility of dealing with the mess to the new Marques.”

“The current restrictions were upheld, and some new ones were added. Most notably, a decree was issued stating that any village unwilling or unable to pay the special tax was to be captured and sold off to whoever would buy them.”

“I thought slavery wasn’t legal?”

“It’s not, at least as far as I’m aware. Officially, the villagers are rounded up as debtors and brought north into Grandlarc property, then sold there. A clever workaround by the Marquise to be certain, but expensive. They sell only the ones who are deemed valuable off. They simply send the rest to the mines to work until they die.

“So, that brings us to the current state of things,” Kuro said while letting out a tired sigh.

“I see. That explains the lack of walls surrounding the village, but what about the plague? When did it appear?”

Kuro strokes his chin thoughtfully before speaking. “We received word of the plague one, no maybe, two years ago from one of the neighboring villages. A messenger arrived, asking us for any food we could spare. Unfortunately, we were forced to turn him away. The Kingdom had recently collected our taxes, you see. We weren’t even sure if we had enough food left for ourselves, much less for a neighboring village.”

“So you sent them nothing?” Simon stated matter-of-factly.

Kuro’s face briefly contorted in rage before seeing Simon’s uncaring expression. and quickly composed himself. “The harvest that year had been poor. Because of the special tax, they expect a set number of barrels worth of harvest to be collected. In fact, they actually number each of the barrels. They recorded these numbers on a ledger carried by the tax collector and checked off one by one as we load the barrels onto the carriages sent by the Capital. After all the barrels are loaded, they dispatched a second wagon containing empty barrels and seeds for the next year’s harvest and collection.”

Simon shakes his head in disgust before speaking. “So, the special tax is a percentage in name only. It’s actually a set amount that must be met, regardless of what, if anything, is left for the village.”

“Aye.”

“So, when did the plague hit this village?”

“Last year, shortly after, we received the new shipment of barrels from the capital.”

Simon’s hazel eyes closed for a moment as he pondered the situation. A set tax with a dwindling population. Yearly collections and a slow-spreading plague? Ah. That’s it.

His eyes opened slightly before speaking. “Does the capital usually send any seeds in the barrels?”

Kuro raised an eyebrow at Simon’s question, “They used to, else we wouldn’t have survived. Every year they’d deliver us new seeds to plant, mainly potatoes and barley. Occasionally, they’d send something else out as a test crop. However, for the last few years, we had received nothing. Thankfully, though, last year they finally delivered us another two barrels of seeds to plant. We might have made it, but then this damn plague hit.”

Simon let out a sigh. “Kuro, was that barrel numbered at all?”

“No.”

Simon shakes his head dejectedly while collecting his thoughts. “Do you still have the barrels? Can you show it t-” a villager suddenly interrupted his speech, frantically banging on the door.

“Kuro! Bandits!”

The two men quickly glanced at each other before swiftly bolting out the door.