Steel and Sorrow: Rise of the Mercenary king

Chapter 325: Failing court

Chapter 325: Failing court

Things could not have gone worse, Prince Lechlian thought grimly, as he scanned the latest report from yet another disgruntled lord whose holdings had been ravaged by raiders. It was a familiar refrain—one that had been echoing relentlessly in recent months. Each letter, each dispatch, brought with it a new wave of bad news, dragging his already precarious position further into the depths of despair.

The peasants, once pliant and subdued, had risen in rebellion, striking at the very lifeblood of his princedom. Fields that should have yielded enough to stave off the impending famine now lay scorched or stripped bare. What crops remained were pitiful remnants of what could have been a modest salvation.

The barley and oats—those early harvests that typically sprang forth in June and July—were gone, stolen or trampled by the marauding mobs. They should have provided a crucial buffer, to placate the starving masses. But now, even the grain fields that promised sustenance for the year ahead had been looted or destroyed.

Lechlian clenched his fist, the brittle parchment crumpling slightly in his grasp. He knew the truth as plainly as if it were whispered by the gods themselves: this year's income would be a shadow of what it should have been. His coffers, already stretched thin, would dwindle to almost nothing.

The warehouse that contained weapons and armons were now empty , stripped of everything worth wielding or wearing. Every last sword, spear, and chainmail had been pressed into service to equip the army led by his eldest son. Even the ceremonial arms—once used only for pomp—had been conscripted to meet the desperate need.

The effort had borne a modest force: 650 footmen and 70 knights, hardly an overwhelming army, but enough to stake his hopes upon. It had been a monumental strain on his already-depleted resources, yet at least in that venture, he had not been disappointed.