Plague and Famine

On New Year's Day, the 8-Day Plague arrived in Gadreel. A woman was found with a black mushroom sore on her arm in the refugee Isolation Camp.

When the other refugees found out, it caused a panic. Refugees began fleeing their tents in fear. Many began begging on the city walls for immediate shelter.

When Will received the news, he rushed to the battlements on the wall. He saw hundreds of panicked people beating against the wall for support. Kurosawa ran up next to Will.

Kurosawa shouted down to the panic crowd, "You fools! Why did you leave your tents? Due to your recklessness now none of you may enter. If you had only stayed in your tents and allowed us to handle the matter, you could have gained entry in a few days," Kurosawa shouted down angrily at the mob.

"We don't want to die let us in?"

"Please save me, children!"

And other shouts filled the air.

"Bubba, quickly relay my announcement to the other Isolation Camps. Remind them not to do something as idiotic as this camp," Kurosawa said frustratedly.

"Do they think we don't want to save lives! Do they think we want to let people die?" Kurosawa yelled out loud to himself.

"Kurosawa, I know you're passionate because of how you grew up, but don't let your frustration overwhelm you," Will chastised.

Just as Will said those words, two airships came into view on the horizon. The airships floated lower than usual; Will could only guess greedily what that meant.

Without realizing it, Will's eyes filled with greed. Will quickly left the wall and headed to his property to greet his victims…guests, yes, his guests.

The airships parked not far from his gardens. He graciously greeted the Albanian nobles with two squadrons of guards and more than 60 porters.

After all, the return trip had taken almost two weeks, and zero deaths were reported by carrier birds. Even better the short messages estimated the total wealth on board each ship.

As the guest disembarked, five chests of gold, jewelry, art, and other luxuries were presented to Will. After another five chests of gold were presented, the Albanian nobility was escorted to a sumptuous feast and then their new homes.

During the feast, all Will could think about what counting the gold coins. When the guest left, Will hurried to his study and showered himself in gold and jewelry.

While Albanian gold was not legal tender in Fermion, Will had no problem transmuting Albanian currency to Fermion. After all, Will had never stopped practicing his Arcane Blacksmithing.

Pre-pandemic, Albanian tourists were common in Gadreel. Tourists would exchange currency at his bank before heading to gamble at the casino or racetrack, visit the auction house, enjoy a show at the theatre, or go on a shopping spree in Savile Row.

When the bank had an overabundance of Albanian gold, Will would transmute the gold to Fermion currency. It was all legal. Every noble had the power to make currency. However, all the gold Will transmuted was stored in the bank's vault. Will had no desire to inflate his local economy.

Years of practice gave Will a steady increase in his blacksmithing ability. Will called up his status screen to see how much his attributes and abilities increased.

Race: Human

Rank: 2 (Viscount)

Title: Lord of Games/ Gaia's Champion

Class: Merchant

Sub Class: Spellsword Knight

Attributes:

Constitution—80

Strength—78

Dexterity—70

Intellect—92

Charisma—17

Ranks Skills: Management (87), Diplomacy (74), Accounting (91)

Class Skills: Appraisal (100, 100), [Radar]

Abilities: Master Swordsmanship (5, 75), Master Terramancer (6, 75), Gaia's Blessing (multiplies your spell strength x2), Journey Blacksmith (37, 50).

After checking his screen, Will opened a spatial gate and hid his new gold and treasure in his vault.

After he was finished, he went to find Elizabeth and his children.

Elizabeth became frantic when she heard the first case of the 8-Day Plague arrived in Gadreel. Will knew Elizabeth was worried about their children's lives. Will felt the same, it would be unbearable to lose a child to this disease.

Will found his family praying in the chapel. The chapel in his manor was small and had a cozy feel. Will saw his children sitting in pews, while Elizabeth prayed at the altar to Gaia.

Will waited until she was finished praying and hugged. This was the comfort she looked for in her prayer.

"Will, how much longer shall this tragedy last?" Elizabeth asked wanting a decisive answer.

"Only the divine has such knowledge," Will replied.

"Then how shall we endure?" Elizabeth wanted to know.

"Like this, together," Will hugged her.

The pandemic arrived in Fermion in New Year, the pandemic terrorized Fermion and Albania for three years.

During those three years, Will checked on Elizabeth daily. Elizabeth found comfort sitting and knitting in Will's study while he worked. Elizabeth sat in on his staff weekly meetings, never speaking, but always listening. When pressed with the unknown, knowledge can be a comfort.

Three years of plague brought countless deaths, famine, and rebellion.

In the first year, hysteria and paranoia were equally as detrimental as the plague. In Gadreel, thousands of refugees stampeded out of control. The city guards fought refugees as they tried unsuccessfully to cross the golem bridge.

When the refugees failed, hundreds of thousands fled northward entering the woods to bypass the military base. While many become food to the wolves, several also crossed into southern Fermion.

By year two, granaries were emptied. Dying of starvation became as prevalent as the 8-Day Plague. Parents sold their children for food. Rumors of cannibalism became common.

Migrants who fled northward found to Yorkshire found stores emptied of food. Even, Will's granaries could not feed the exploding population by the end of the second year. Yet citizens were still thankful to receive rations.

What separated Gadreel from other cities experiencing the plague and famine, was the citizens trust. The citizens trusted their city lord and his administrators.

Will had gone through crises before. Several times in his life on Earth, some recession, depression, or catastrophe would threaten his business. And each time he came out the other end bruised but not defeated.

Will increase the information pipeline to his citizens. What he knew, he told them. He was forthright. His public safety policies were enforced.

There are times when citizens prefer dictators to democracy, and plagues and famine checked that criterion.

To help families who lost their wages during the quarantine, Will allowed his citizens to borrow small loans (less than 350 coppers) at 1% APR.

The eventuality plague seemed to pass over Gadreel, thanks to Will's authoritarian decrees. Gadreel's 1% mortality rate was extremely low compared to most major cities.

One percent equaled 15,000 plague victims. Most of the victims died in the isolation camps outside Gadreel.

To commemorate the loss, Will built an Ancestral Hall. Bishop vont Omar even consecrate the building, and the ashes of the dead were housed inside behind a plague with their name, birth date, and day of death.

The Ancestral Hall covered four city blocks. Will modeled the hall after the classical Chinese architecture of the Confucius Temple and Cemetery, and it housed a crematorium in the sub-basement.

The interior of the Main Hall was immense, Will created enough space to house several hundred generations. Outside the building, the temple was a large arboretum filled with cypress and apricot trees, a rock garden, and a koi pond.

Inside, the building had a wide beautifully decorated main hall, millions of unclaimed plaques lay along the walls. Perpendicular to the main hall were more unclaimed plagues, but there was also a chapel, gift shop. At the gift shop, families could buy incense, candles, or flowers.

At the intersection of the main and perpendicular hall sat a mausoleum for Will's family. Will built a domed pentagonal mausoleum, which matched the same French Renaissance style as his manor.

The mausoleum had a decagon base. On top of the mausoleum stood the primordial gods, and on each vertex was a different god. The door to the mausoleum resembled the Gates of Gadreel.

In the third, year riots and rebellions occurred. Due to mass starvation and death, the peasants revolted. Feudal lords who depended on peasants' cheap agriculture labor, now faced rebellion.

The 8-Day Plague decimated agricultural towns and villages in Albania and Fermion. Peasants were fed up with their incompetent and abusive lord.

Nobles were killed, their homes ransacked for food and revenge. Peasant revolts swept through the country demanding greater rights and liberties.

Peasants were upset. The death rates from plague or starvation were imbalanced. And with pitchforks, swords, cleavers, rakes, hoes, and spears, they looked to right the imbalance.

In Fermion, entire towns and villages were abandoned in search of food. Some villages and towns saw between 50% to 70% of their population die from starvation or disease. Their ancestral homes and communities were destroyed.

Like dominos, the abandoned towns, and villages, buckled Fermion's agriculture economy. The shortage of farmers meant fewer hands to harvest crops. The chain reaction brought an exponential increase in the demand for wheat.

In every pandemic, there was a silver lining and soon, wheat became worth its weight in gold.

While few could afford the exorbitant price of wheat, many lords were willing to pay if it meant selling a peasant rebellion in their fiefdom.

The shortage of crops pushed up the prices of grains every day. Necessities such as vegetables, wheat, barley, and oats were the most expensive to buy.

After the pandemic, Gadreel was the first fief to return to normal. Moreover, Will also paid Savage Wolf to grow crops in the Wolf Clan. Will already owned one of the largest fields in Fermion, but with the addition of the Wolf Clan territory, Will was able to quadruple his output of grain.

Not willing to let this golden opportunity slide, Will used his irrigation channels, waterways, and his spell casting to triple the harvest. In the fourth year, after the pandemic struck, Will stood to watch over a golden field of grain.

Will was not ashamed to say, the famine made up for the loss of revenue from the pandemic. He made a profit. The only hindrance Will faced, came from King Remus Albus who greatly constricted the amount of grain Will could trade with Albania.

For example, a kilogram of poor-quality buckwheat sold for 50 coppers, a 330% increase. A bushel of regular wheat sold for 10 gold a kilogram. Some lords even asked Will to buy fodder to feed their peasants and animals.

Large shipments of buckwheat, wheat, barley, oats, maize, potatoes, and rice traveled across Fermion. To meet demand, Will imported rice from the Bear and Tiger Clans.

For a year, Will became the largest exporter of grain and commodities in two kingdoms. Will's influence began to spread further and further. Some lords even feared Will would usurp the throne.

With the rumor beginning to spread, Will knew good times don't last forever. Crown Prince Roland ordered price quotas beer and put a ceiling the price of grains and commodities.

Initially, many merchants and tradesmen balked at the price quotas. However, when Will began selling them at the price, they began selling as well. After all, no merchant wanted Will to have a monopoly.

With the quotas firmly in place, the price of a bushel of buckwheat dropped from 330/kg to 100, wheat dropped from 10 gold/bsh to one gold, rice dropped from 60 silvers to 12 silvers, barley dropped from 20 gold to 5 gold, oats and maize from 40 silvers to 12 silvers.

Even though Will still made a profit, he missed the exhorted profit margins.

With price fixes in place, Crown Prince Roland Godwin wrote a thank you letter for his support. Will also was invited to the King's Privy Council.

Then to Will and Elizabeth's surprise, the regent wrote the king was in a coma. The king was dying. Likely due to the state of the kingdom, it caused too much stress for the king to bear in his fragile state. They were summoned to capital within a forthright.

The regent wrote, the news of the king's imminent death was leaked. It led to looting and pillaging in Yorkshire and hundreds of lords' homes being burglarized.

Finally, he thanked Elizabeth for the work of Gaia's Purse. Gaia's Purse was a great help during the pandemic and famine. It helped poor families from murdering for crumbs, and parents still abandoned or selling their children to fend for themselves.

Elizabeth looked at Will curiously and said, "I had no idea Gaia's Purse was so active this whole time?"

"Well don't let others catch on" Will smiled back.