Bang! Bang! Bang!
Continuous knocking broke the serene morning.
Alicia groggily got up, holding her dizzy head as she moved to the door.
“Who is it! Disturbing my sweet dreams so early in the morning!”
“It’s me, Enlaike.”
Oh no! It’s Elder Lord Enlaike?! The girl jolted awake, most of her sleepiness and headache scared away.
She first looked down at herself—well, it seemed she had drunk too much last night and directly fallen asleep on the sofa, still in her clothes.
Then she looked back at the room.
Good heavens, it seemed that Lai En and his group had also drunk quite a lot, sleeping all sprawled out.
If Elder Lord Enlaike finds out that the lord spent the night at her place and was dead drunk, that wouldn’t be good…
“Miss Alicia?”
“Coming, coming!”
It would be a great discourtesy to keep the chief retainer waiting.
The girl quickly closed the curtain over the doorway to block the view inside, then tidied herself up a bit before opening the door with a forced smile.
Outside, Elder Lord Enlaike was draped in a thick fur cloak, with fine snow on his brim and shoulders.
His face, reddened by the cold wind, did not show the expected displeasure but was instead shrouded in worry.
“Miss Alicia, is His Highness… still inside?”
“He is, he’s resting…”
The girl’s face showed some embarrassment.
If this got out, the rumors about her and Lai En would probably flare up again.
“Should I wake him?”
“That won’t be necessary.”
Enlaike slowly shook his head.
He glanced at Alicia, then looked at the cold, empty street outside, and suddenly said, “Come take a walk with me, Miss. There’s something I want to discuss with you.”
What?
On this freezing day, you’d rather not stay warm at home and drag me out to freeze?
The girl clearly wasn’t keen.
But the elder lord’s tone carried a hint of pleading.
As a tiny low-level official, she shouldn’t refuse a superior’s request.
“I’d be happy to, but it’s freezing outside. Let me grab a coat first.”
A few minutes later, the girl followed Enlaike on horseback along a path outside the city.
Seeing her bundled up layer upon layer like a ball, Enlaike raised an eyebrow.
“It seems Miss Alicia is indeed frail and needs proper rest.”
“…You jest, my lord. I just dislike the cold.”
The girl shrank her neck, trying to keep the biting wind from seeping into her collar.
“Elder Lord, did you invite me for an outing so early in the morning just for this?”
“Of course not.”
The elder lord looked around.
No one was in sight in the wintry suburbs, so he felt relieved enough to speak.
“I must apologize for His Highness’s sudden visit last night. His Highness was indeed feeling quite troubled yesterday.”
“His Highness’s visit to my humble home is my honor.”
Alicia’s reply was proper and measured.
“His Highness often says you’re full of tricks—I mean, quick-witted. So, there are some matters on which I’d like to hear your opinion.”
What does he mean by ‘full of tricks’!
That Lai En is always slandering me behind my back!
“Oh? I’m all ears!”
“It’s like this…”
The elder lord again carefully scanned the surroundings before lowering his voice.
“This year’s autumn harvest hasn’t been good. Counting the previous years, that makes three consecutive years of poor harvests.”
Food is the foundation of everything.
The army needs to eat, craftsmen need to eat, lords and officials need to eat, and most importantly, the vast number of commoners need to eat.
Without food, all prosperity, stability, and loyalty would be castles in the air.
Consecutive poor harvests…
This was quite troublesome.
She wasn’t from an agricultural college; her knowledge of farming came only from some hardcore simulation games.
Although she had looked up relevant information, she couldn’t remember much.
There was only so much she could do…
“The Maximilian family’s domain tax is ‘Four-Tenths to the Lord,’ so most commoners can still get by. But the situation elsewhere might not be so optimistic.”
Not optimistic?
What did that mean?
Were the commoners unable to survive and about to rebel?
As they spoke, the two gradually approached a small village.
The sky was now fully bright.
They could see thick snow covering the thatched roofs of the simple huts.
A few thin trails of cooking smoke rose straight up from chimneys into the cold air, appearing especially lonely.
The village was eerily quiet.
No figures moved in the streets, no children’s laughter, no roosters crowing or dogs barking—only the wind howling mournfully.
“The grain stored in the city can last a while longer. At last night’s annual meeting, the lords were arguing fiercely over whether to attack Biluo’en Castle after spring.”
Enlaike turned at a crossroads toward another village.
“Some retainers believe that if we don’t take Biluo’en Castle after spring—or at least resolve Lord Lemeng’s problem—should a revolt break out, the Emperor would summon the lords to suppress it, giving them breathing room. It’s very likely the Maximilian family would split.”
The girl frowned.
“That makes some sense. But war consumes a huge amount of supplies. If Yang Pigu—I mean Xipuaisi and his men—burn their bridges and adopt scorched earth tactics, then even if we regain the territory, we’ll only end up with a lot more mouths to feed. The livelihood problems for the next year could become even more severe, right?”
“Mm.”
Lord Enlaike nodded slightly.
“So the current situation is very awkward. No one has absolute certainty that they can quickly defeat Xipuaisi and Lord Lemeng. Saxon City is also renowned as a strong fortress; taking it won’t be a day or two’s work.”
“But not fighting feels grudging. If Lemeng and his forces get a foothold, no one can predict the future situation, right?”
The girl held the reins with one hand and patted her forehead with the other.
“So His Highness Lai En, stuck in the middle, came to my place for a drink?”
“His Highness hopes to resolve Lord Lemeng’s problem after spring, but… I believe you also understand, Miss. Lord Lai En is soft-hearted, and Lord Lemeng…”
The elder lord sighed deeply.
“To settle it cleanly and decisively—it’s difficult!”
Alicia’s heart sank.
‘Cleanly and decisively’ probably meant killing Lemeng outright, ending the fraternal conflict.
For a moment, both fell into silence.
Only the sound of horse hooves treading snow and the howl of wind across the wilderness accompanied them as they continued through the cold, heavy winter morning.
Ahead, the outline of another village, silent in hunger and cold, gradually became clear.
“On this matter, I’d also like to hear your opinion.”
Elder Lord Enlaike’s eyes were intense.
The girl scanned the similarly desolate village.
She was glad she hadn’t seen any frozen corpses on the road.
“My opinion? Fight! We must fight!”
She answered resolutely.
“Xipuaisi is a traitor, Lemeng is a major threat, and the famine is an imminent crisis. These three things are essentially one thing—survival. If we don’t resolve them, we won’t have a stable rear and future to deal with natural and man-made disasters. After spring, we must resolve the northern problem as fast as possible!”
“Oh?”
The elder lord raised an eyebrow, clearly skeptical.
“But you also analyzed just now that the biggest constraint is supplies, especially food. I wonder what strategy Lady Alicia has?”
A good strategy? Not necessarily, but as for tricks, she had a few.
It could only be said that Lai En hadn’t misjudged her—she really did have plenty of tricks.
After patrolling several nearby villages, the two rode back together.
The girl explained her plan to Elder Lord Enlaike.
First was the food problem.
If things continued like this, the stored grain wouldn’t last long.
They had to combine existing food types and make full use of all edible meat, including animal offal, pig skin, and cartilage—things normally not given to people—to create a substitute meat or substitute food.
Furthermore, a comprehensive rationing system was necessary.
No one was allowed to profiteer by hoarding goods.
Meat, grain, salt, and hard currencies like gold, silver, and iron must all be held in hand.
At this point, she tactfully suggested that the elder lord put in a good word for her, so that Lai En would approve her plan to establish the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
If there were a dedicated force to supervise, it would be twice the result with half the effort.
As for how to improve farming, she had no solution for now.
She would probably need to seek advice from professionals.
Of course, all of this was just a concept.
She would have to return and compile it into a report document.
Such paperwork was really tiring and hard to show achievements—definitely a thankless task.
Alicia’s plan was to imitate Earth’s infamous Spam luncheon meat and create a similar, shelf-stable, cheap “convenient meatloaf,” and also use a process similar to compressed biscuits to create a “compressed bread” that was easy to carry, store, transport, and filling.
Of course, this world couldn’t produce high-end things like metal cans.
Considering they would use large amounts of salt for preservation, and the recipe included animal offal and a high proportion of starchy foods, the taste of these convenient meatloaves might be indescribable.
The compressed bread was the same.
Luxury items like honey and sugar would certainly not be used.
Even if a small amount of nuts were added, the main ingredients were still bean flour, rye, and oats.
These things would be made into batter, baked, dried, and pressed into solid bricks by an oil press.
The result might break teeth…
But taste and texture could be sacrificed in the face of survival!
These two items should solve the immediate crisis.
Working together, they could effectively relieve logistical pressure.
But such large-scale measures would probably make Lai En calculate stingily for a long time…
What the girl didn’t expect was that after reading her report, Lai En beamed, clapped his hands in praise, and then naturally dumped the work of manufacturing the so-called “substitute foods” onto Alicia herself.
According to her plan, Elder Lord Enlaike stepped forward to establish the Rationing Department and became its minister, selecting suitable personnel to assist the girl in the work.
Hey, wasn’t that wrong?
Looking at it this way, Alicia didn’t get any benefits this time?
Not so.
With Elder Lord Enlaike’s push, His Highness Lai En finally relented and decided to establish the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
Alicia, who had submitted the plan, naturally became the minister.
Of course, the existence of the Ministry was public, but its specific member list, detailed functions, office location, and daily operations were classified as top secret, known only to a very few core members like Lai En and Enlaike.
On the surface, Alicia was busy with the “convenient meatloaf” and “compressed bread,” completely a poor sod doing hard labor.
But in reality, an invisible and sharp “Shadow Sword” had quietly formed in her hands.