The grand inauguration devolved into absolute, grotesque chaos.
Hundreds of people scrambled frantically, clutching their stomachs. The lucky ones made it to the tavern latrines or the dark alleyways. The unlucky ones simply collapsed in the cobblestone streets, groaning in sheer, humiliating agony.
It was a total disaster.
I turned away from the stage. I kept my head down, letting my blonde hair shadow my eyes. I had to bite the inside of my cheek until it bled just to stop myself from laughing out loud.
"Hahaha... look closely, Leonard," I cheered wildly in my mind. "This is the price of making me your enemy. On Earth, I had to play by the rules and bite my tongue. But here? Here, I will tear your life apart piece by piece!"
I allowed a dark, predatory smirk to flash across my face for just a fraction of a second. Then, I instantly wiped it away.
I turned to Roberts. The giant fisherman was completely pale, looking around at the groaning masses in pure panic.
"Roberts!" I shouted over the noise, grabbing his massive arm and feigning a look of deep concern. "We need to leave! Now! Whatever plague has struck this city, we cannot risk bringing it back to our people!"
Roberts nodded frantically. We pushed our way through the suffering crowd, sprinting toward the stone staircase and fleeing back to the safety of our village.
High up on the hill, inside the sprawling mansion, a different kind of chaos erupted.
*Crash!*
A priceless Ming-style vase shattered against the stone wall.
"I will kill them! I will skin them alive and feed them to the dogs!"
Baron Leonard was completely unhinged. He stomped around his lavish bedroom, overturning heavy mahogany tables and tearing silk tapestries down with his bare, fat hands. His face was a horrific shade of purple. Veins bulged violently on his forehead.
He locked himself inside his quarters, refusing to speak to anyone for the rest of the night.
But the nightmare had only just begun.
The very next morning, the entire settlement of Balan woke up to an even more devastating shock.
Every single stalk of wheat in their expansive western fields was dead.
The once golden crops were reduced to withered, black husks overnight. A massive, unnatural infestation of aphids and strange pests had completely devoured the harvest.
Panic spread faster than the plague. Desperate whispers echoed through the markets.
"The curse," an old woman muttered, clutching her holy symbol. "The curse from across the river has moved!"
"It is a divine punishment," a merchant whispered to his terrified clients. "The heavens are punishing Lord Leonard for his immense greed!"
Balan was officially branded as the new cursed land.
As a direct result, the traveling merchants who had set up camp for the festival immediately seized the opportunity. Recognizing the sudden, catastrophic drop in supply and the desperate, skyrocketing demand, they tripled the price of whatever grain they had left.
Inside the mansion, Leonard received the reports from his trembling head butler.
The Baron sat perfectly still in his ruined bedroom. The explosive rage from last night had morphed into a cold, terrifying realization.
A sabotaged inauguration. Forged ledgers. A sudden, untraceable pest infestation.
This was not a coincidence. This was a highly coordinated, flawlessly executed attack. And there was only one person capable of pulling off the field sabotage.
"Zael," Leonard hissed through his teeth. His small, piggish eyes widened with pure malice. "That shadow rat betrayed me. He allied himself with that new foreign Chief."
Leonard slammed his fist onto the armrest of his chair.
"Guards!" he bellowed. "Go to the village clinic! Drag Zael's sick brat out of her bed and lock her in the dungeon! I will torture that child until he begs for death!"
The butler swallowed hard, taking a fearful step back.
"M-my lord," the butler stammered, bowing so low his forehead nearly touched the floor. "The guards have already checked. The girl is gone. She was smuggled out of the clinic before dawn yesterday."
Leonard froze.
The absolute totality of his defeat finally crashed down on him. He had been outplayed on every single front.
"Damn you..." Leonard whispered. His hands shook violently. "Damn you, you filthy foreign bastard! You think you have won? You have no idea who you are dealing with!"
He looked up at the butler, his eyes completely bloodshot.
"Summon the Knight Commander!" Leonard screamed, spit flying from his lips. "Tell him to arm every single soldier in our barracks! We are going to march across that river and burn that miserable village to ash!"
Three days later.
The atmosphere in my village could not have been more different.
The sun shone brightly over our expansive, golden fields. The harvest was so incredibly abundant that we had entirely run out of space. The stone icebox was packed full of fresh fish and oysters, and the wooden warehouse was literally overflowing with sacks of premium wheat.
We were not just surviving anymore. We were thriving.
I stood near the edge of the fields, watching the villagers work with genuine smiles on their faces.
A little girl with pale skin and messy black hair ran past me, chasing a butterfly. She was laughing, her cheeks flushed with healthy color.
A tall man in black robes stepped up beside me, watching the girl with soft, tear-filled eyes.
"I cannot believe she is actually running," Zael murmured. "The medicine you bought from the traveling merchants... it worked miracles. She is completely healed."
The shadow assassin turned to me and dropped to one knee right there in the dirt. He bowed his head deeply.
"I owe you everything, Lord Fragha. The plan was an absolute, terrifying success. The citizens of Balan completely despise Leonard and his cronies now."
I smiled, gesturing for him to stand up.
"It was your flawless execution that made it happen, Zael," I praised him.
And it was true. We spent the next few minutes debriefing the specifics of his mission. It was a masterpiece of stealth.
In the dead of night, while the entire city was distracted by the festival preparations, Zael had slipped into their main granary. He used his Shadow Stealth to remain completely invisible, lacing the festival flour with the potent biological laxatives we had prepared.
"There was one close call," Zael chuckled darkly. "When I slipped out of the granary, the heavy wooden door creaked. Two guards turned around instantly. But they only saw an empty breeze."
After that, he had infiltrated the Baron's private study. He bypassed the complex locks, swapped the real inauguration speech with the damning tax ledgers, and vanished without leaving a single footprint.
His final act was the most devastating. He went out to their unguarded, sprawling wheat fields and unleashed jars filled with rapidly breeding, aggressive pests. By the time the citizens were groaning in the plaza, their entire food supply was already being eaten alive.
"You are a terrifying genius, milord," Zael said, his voice laced with profound awe. "You predicted their movements perfectly. I swear my absolute loyalty to you for the rest of my life."
"You flatter me too much, Zael," I laughed softly, shaking my head.
Zael hesitated for a moment. He looked down at his hands, his expression shifting into something slightly conflicted.
"But, milord... I know many of the people in Balan are cruel. They mocked us and starved us for years. But... destroying their entire food supply? Poisoning them? Perhaps it was a bit too ruthless for the innocent children living there."
I looked at him calmly. I placed my hands behind my back, the sea breeze catching the edge of my white tuxedo.
"You are right, Zael," I said smoothly. "I am not a monster. I do not intend to let innocent people slowly starve to death."
Zael blinked, clearly confused by my sudden shift in morality. "You do not?"
"Of course not," I smiled, a sharp, capitalistic glint in my eyes. "Look at our warehouses, Zael. We have a massive oversupply of premium wheat. It will go bad if we just let it sit there."
I turned my gaze across the river, looking toward the high walls of Balan.
"Since they are currently experiencing a tragic, unforeseen famine," I continued calmly. "We are simply going to be good neighbors. We are going to sell our surplus wheat directly to them."
Zael's jaw dropped. He stared at me in complete disbelief.
"Sell it to them?" Zael asked. "But how? Leonard will execute any merchant from our village the moment they step through the gates!"