They knew?

Brows knitted slightly, Alaric put down his fork as well and looked at the suddenly serious Barnett.

"Our region's financial state?" He tilted his head, "What about it?"

"Ah, I'm sorry. I shouldn't ask about such matters." As if just realizing that he had said something inappropriate, Barnett Blicra hurriedly apologized and continued his words. "I was just momentarily curious. It seems that you are paying close attention to the financial condition of the state even on a trip, so I thought maybe there is a problem in Poqlen county. I guess today and this place is not the proper time to talk about such matters... Neither do I have the right to question you about your state's condition."

"..."

After staring at the man in a daze for a few seconds, Alaric formed a soft smile and picked up his glass.

"Of course, we can talk about those matters whenever you want. After all, the Duke of the south is our protector and benefactor." Alaric shook the glass in his hand and took a sip. "However, it might be better to discuss this matter at another time and place as you said."

Barnett Blicra nodded his head as a response and started to eat his dessert. They resumed their conversation regarding novels and different authors they knew.

'The financial state in the dukedom is not good?'

Barnett clearly said 'Are there also some problems with the state of Poqlen's financial state?', the word 'Also' implies a lot of things.

It either means that the dukedom is facing some problems, or that there are other regions besides the dukedom that are having trouble regarding their financial states. It can also mean that both the dukedom and other regions have these kinds of problems.

'Well, it's kinda natural to gradually face these problems at this point in time I guess. The drought is just around the corner, and there are sparks of war all around the continent...'

But the thing that surprises me is the fact that the house of the duke of the south has already noticed the changes in the continent. As they are in the south, they are one of the first regions that were hit by the drought. The drought would then affect the upper areas and the west, which our county was one of them.

However, that would happen about a year and a half later. Furthermore, in none of my previous lives did the dukedom or the other regions do anything about the drought before it actually struck them. In a few rounds when Alaric survived and The Revolutionaries helped people out, the citizens in the regions who faced The Great Drought survived, and in some of the rounds they managed to at least save a portion of them, but all of the actions were done after The Great Drought happened and nothing was prepared beforehand.

'Can it be that there were people who knew about the drought but did nothing about it? Or maybe they couldn't do anything about it? It can also be that they didn't know that the clues they had were related to a drought...'

Different thoughts and possibilities flashed in my mind as I stayed motionless in my place as if I was a statue.

In none of my previous lives was there a situation where young master Alaric started to talk about a favorite novel with Barnett Blicra, so there were no invitation for dinner and nothing like a small slip of the tongue about the dukedom's financial state, so there was obviously no chance for me to know how much the dukedom knew about the situation.

'Hmm, should I do anything about it?'

If I want to, I can somehow inform this son of the duke about the drought in a way that he won't suspect me. Then I can sit back and watch how the future will change and how the events will unfold in this round... I can also do other things to help them prepare for the upcoming disaster... It'd be interesting to see a different route in this round that the other ones...

However... I'm too lazy to do that.

'Just dealing with Alaric is enough for this round. I don't want anything else.'

I had a firm resolve to tolerate nothing but Alaric in this life and also laze around as much as possible. After all, there weren't many times when I got to love as luxurious as I'm doing right now.

"Well, I hope I can meet that author one day!"

Barnett said with rare anticipation in his eyes and slight excitement. Alaric nodded his head at those words with a similar expression.

"Same here, my lord."

They were already done eating and the meeting was about to end. They exchanged a few other words about how Alaric liked to read more and how Barnett looked forward to their next meeting, and just like that, they stood up to bid farewell.

"Phew!"

Alaric heaved a deep sigh as soon as the door to Barnett Blicra's room was out of his sigh.

"It's finally over! I think I aged three years in two hours!" He nagged as he walked down the stairs with a slightly slumped stature. "Especially when he started to talk about that financial stuff! I was preparing anything I know about the wheat to throw at his face if he asked anything, but that ended pretty nicely! Phew!"

I said nothing and only listened to his words while also moving down the stairs.

"That weirdo just kept spoiling me the books! I would've punched him in the face if he was not a son of a duke! Tsk! How could there be spoilers even in this place-"

"Sir, please! Please! It's just one night! I won't ask you for anything else!"

Suddenly, Alaric's voice was cut off by a loud plea of a woman that was coming from downstairs.

"We'll just sleep on the ground. In here, on the floor. Please, don't kick us out!"

Following the woman's voice, the husky voice of an aged man was heard.

"Look, Eleen, I've repeated this many times already that I won't let you stay here anymore if you cause any problems."

"B-but-"

"I accepted you tonight and let you sleep in even though we had some honorable guests, and this is how you repay me? By clashing with those nobles' guards?"

'Clashing with the guards? There was a conflict here?'

Alaric had the same puzzled face as me as he fastened his steps and moved down the stairs. He stopped moving once he reached the first floor and could see what was going on. I was also standing beside him, watching the scene.

An old man and a young woman were standing beside the entrance door with the old man blocking the door and not letting the woman enter the inn. The old man was the owner of the inn, but the young woman was a face I had never seen before. She had long light-brown hair with looked to be soft as silk, smooth eyebrows, brown and round eyes, and a rather beautiful face and pale skin. Her facial features were not really special but combined with each other, they formed the gentle and innocent-looking face of the woman.

"I'm sorry! Please! We'll leave first thing in the morning! Sir, look we only-"

"Stop begging for him!"

This time, it was the woman's voice that was cut off by another louder one. The second voice belonged to a man from outside, a deep and rather angry voice.

"We don't need this geezer's shady inn. We can sleep outside in the jungle."

The gentle and innocent-looking woman suddenly twisted her head towards the voice and almost yelled.

"You can sleep in the jungle, brainless bull, not me! For the god's shake shut that mouth of yours!"

It seemed as if the man actually shut his mouth as no words were heard from him after that.

"Let's go."

I sensed a tug on my sleeve before I saw the figure of Alaric moving away from the gathered crew and heading to his room. The soldiers who were surrounding the old man and the woman were the other nobleman's guards and not ours, so the problem was none of our business.