''My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge! There isn't any other explanation for this,'' I fumed, wishing to grab my father and give him a good slapping.
I always knew that people tend to be superstitious, especially those living in villages, near forests, and mountains. Still, not once in my short life have I witnessed such lunacy! They have to be stupid, there can't be any other way.
''My people are stupid,'' I repeated, trying to understand what I was reading. If you haven't guessed already, the foolish peasants of this damned barony of mine believed that planting crops must be done only once every year. If that wasn't crazy enough, they offered 25% of their yield to the spirit of the forest or something. What kind of spirit is this I don't know but what the hell is wrong with them? They thought that burning each fall a part of their yield would bring them good fortune and health...
''THIS IS OUTRAGEOUS'' I spluttered, trying to keep some of my cool yet failing miserably.
Reading, again and again, Nathan's report regarding our agriculture and the superstitions of our folk only made me lose my temper faster.
''They cry for food and shortages, begging for scraps and trading their valuables to that shady trader all the time only so they could waste their harvest like that'' I scoffed, wanting nothing more than to beat some sense into them.
''Even that shady trader makes more profit than all our lands combined,'' I raged, wondering about the details of the said contract with our barony.
Despite having good soil in some parts of our barony, sadly, due to the irrigation problems combined with the contaminated water, our lands were doomed. Thanks to our lovely neighbours I may add, our crops were barely edible.
The crops the peasants produce are mostly wheat, rye, and corn.
It is barely enough to feed themselves and their animals yet despite all that, they are forced to hand over 50% to our barony as taxes along with two silver coins every two months. Considering the other baronies along the kingdom, my father was quite generous when it came to taxes. Most, if not all Nobles, charge at least 70% of your yield along with at least double the coin.
It is laughable that despite all that, they still sacrifice what is left of their harvest to imaginary gods and spirits.
''Some people just need that mental comfort,'' I shrugged, keeping in mind to put a stop to this waste the moment the opportunity appeared.
Reading the parchment only made me more disappointed regarding the illiteracy of my subjects.
They don't even know the concept of fertilizer, thinking that with plenty of water and tribute to their spirits, their harvest will become bountiful.
It is painfully obvious to me that the farmers don't even know how to enrich the soil, much less get a good yield out of it, I lamented.
''It Looks like the farming industry in this world is not even in its medieval stages. The crop rotation method hasn't even been introduced, and studies on maximizing your harvest are left for the peasants to figure out on their own.
To add insult to injury, instead of cultivating barley which is plentiful in this area, they decided to use it as a cheap material for their roofing tops.
'' THEY ARE WASTING GOOD BEER PROFITS'' I screamed, trying to vent some of my anger to whatever God or spirit was listening, probably even laughing his guts out.
'' Who even taught them to do this? who is this ''genius'' who thought it was a good idea to put barley instead of, I don't know, grass maybe, as insulation for their roofs?''
''At least it can't get any worse than this'' I cried, trembling with the thought of reading the rest of the report.
''Don't set red flags, idiot'' I whimpered before smacking myself.
''Let us see what else is there, with a bit of luck we can salvage this situation'' I encouraged myself before continuing reading.
''You have to be shitting me.....'''