Published: January 4, 2026
While Henry, Oscar, and the prime minister attended to affairs in the Imperial Capital, I was heading toward Salaria Province.
Salaria Province was where revolutionary technology—and the mineral veins supporting it—were said to lie dormant.
This could drastically change the future of the empire and indeed all of humanity’s way of life.
After reassigning Margrave Gelt and turning Salaria into a directly governed territory, I decided to go there personally.
At present, I was on the highway heading there.
Dressed like the heir of a traveling merchant’s family, I had only one maid accompanying me.
That maid was Low Peiyu.
She was the daughter of a tribe that once challenged the empire militarily and lost. Afterward, I took in most of her clan, so she served me loyally as a maid.
Having not been a maid for very long, and unlike capable maids such as Evelyn or Zoe, she was an ordinary girl. I brought her along also as a form of camouflage.
By the way, her family had the unusual custom of placing the surname before the given name.
Peiyu carried a large load of luggage and was following me.
“Mas—Master,” she began, correcting herself hastily.
“Hmm?”
I turned to her as we walked. She seemed exhausted from the heavy load and perhaps wanted to rest.
“What kind of place is the desert?” she asked.
“I’ve never actually seen it, but it’s said that as far as you can see, it’s all sand.”
“All sand?”
“Have you ever seen the sea?”
“Yes.”
“Then it’s easy to imagine. It’s as vast as the sea, but all sand.”
“Th-That means no crops can grow at all! Probably not many animals for hunting either…”
Peiyu looked shocked, as if struck by a thunderbolt.
She clearly understood that crops wouldn’t grow in sandy soil.
“Yeah, it’s what you call a barren land, and it stretches endlessly. That’s why Salaria Province has become the largest province in the empire by area. It’s a region made up of wastelands unsuitable for farming or hunting.”
“I see… a desert, huh…”
Walking and gazing off into the distance, Peiyu seemed to ponder the concept of a desert.
After a while, a checkpoint came into view along the highway.
“Master, something seems off.”
“Ah… it smells like blood.”
Though still some distance from the checkpoint, the situation smelled so bad it was almost palpable.
In front of the checkpoint, things were noisy and chaotic.
Even from afar, I could see people grappling with each other.
“Let’s go. Stay close to me.”
“Y-Yes!”
Taking Peiyu who obeyed without question, we approached the checkpoint.
Getting closer, the situation became clearer.
A group dressed in commoner’s clothes was wrecking different parts of the checkpoint.
They weren’t using carpentry tools but hoes, wooden beams—crudely made tools.
Their efforts were inefficient, and demolition was slow.
Among them were officials and soldiers, but they were vastly outnumbered, already beaten, dragged aside, and groaning in pain.
“…”
I thought for a moment, then cautiously approached the group and addressed a man just as he was breaking down a fence.
“Hey you, what’s going on here?”
“Huh? Who are you… some rich kid?”
“Just a traveler. But explain this—why is this happening?”
“We’re doing a riot.”
“A riot…”
I’d heard the term but never seen it firsthand.
It was a form of self-help by the people, rising up against some injustice, smashing the houses or belongings of those responsible.
The basic principle was only to destroy things, not to kill or hurt anyone if possible.
Looking closely, the officials and soldiers lying defeated were groaning and immobile but did not appear to have fatal wounds.
“This checkpoint is terrible—you know how much toll they charge for passage?”
“How much?”
“Half the cargo.”
“Half?”
“Yeah. I deliver vegetables to the town ahead, but half always gets taken here.”
“So this is the result of people reaching their breaking point.”
I nodded in understanding and looked around.
The others vented their pent-up frustration by smashing the checkpoint with unfamiliar tools.