In the evening before the sun set, after a few hours of census the village, where a lot of houses rejected us, but some of the houses accepted us to interview for it. We went back to the Inn. On the way to the inn, I looked at Cail. He was writing a lot about today, and it seemed he wrote it in his memo. I looked behind to see Aldea and Louis' faces, Aldea seemed not happy and grumbled about today, and Louis just kept his straight face.
We arrived at the inn, took steps into the inn, and saw Elpis and Darryl already in the tavern on the first floor. We came over to them, and they noticed our arrival..
Elpis saw Aldea's face and asked, "~My~ I thought you would be happy with your highness, so I chose Darryl, and now I see you have a grumpy face. What's the matter with your grumpy face?"
"Are you talking about this face?" Aldea pointed to her own face and said, "I was angry because her highness kept getting rejected to interview the people.."
Elpis turned her face to Cail. "Is that really that bad? I knew that her highness would be getting rejected by the people, but is that really so bad?.."
Cail turned pages in his memo and answered, "Well, it is really that bad; a lot of houses rejected us. It's not even reached a quarter of the total that accepted us…So we only had a little bit of information about the people in here.."
"~My~My~ That is really so bad.." She turned her face to me and said, "But it seems your highness has not felt anything about it; your face is not showing any bad state or bad feeling about this.."
"Ahahahaha," I just kept laughing in my thought, "I have felt this in my previous world; I kept getting rejected by the people because they hated the civil servant who gets paid from the taxes; even they cursed us.."
"So, your highness, with the little information about the people, what are you going to do next?" Cail asked me..
"First, we need to take a seat because we are exhausted from walking and doing the census."
Louis pulled the chair for me; I took a seat in that chair, and he pushed a little to near the tables. Everyone had already taken a seat.
Cail took out the book that was used for the census, showed it to us, and asked me, "So what are we going to do with this little bit of information, your highness?"
"Well, this information could not tell us all of the situation of the village very well, because it's just a small portion of the people, but there is something odd in my view.."
Cail asked, "What is that?"
I pointed to one of the sections in the Cail book, "This…"
Everyone looked at it, and Cail asked about it "What is odd about this, your highness?"
"For me, this is so weird; in the last year, a lot of houses had more people than this year, and the person who went away is the oldest daughter of the house.."
"So what is wrong with that?" Louis asked..
"And the reason for that was that they went away to the county capital to do work, but their parents didn't know what their daughter did in the county capital, and all of that was linked to the count and Rudyard..They were the ones who persuaded these families to work in the county capital…"
I saw their faces seemed not convinced by my reason; it seemed in this world these things were normal..
"*sigh* So what did these daughters do in the county capital? That makes the family not know what they do in the capital…Even the family earnings are still the same as last year.."
"Of course they are working there, your highness.." Louis answered.
"What type of work?"
"Does that really matter, your highness?" Elpis asked.
"Of course it is; they are my people, my subjects, and I want to know about their conditions.…"
Cail said, "But your highness, for me, it is completely normal; the oldest children of the family usually come to the county capital or the nearby city to find a little bit more earning than the village they came from.."
"Yeah, it's normal that it's called urbanisation, but the one that I felt was not normal is the one who persuaded the family to let the oldest daughter work at the county capital.."
Louis raised his hand and asked, "Wait a moment... Your highness, can you tell us what urbanisation you mean?"
"Urbanisation is where people from rural or rural villages migrate to the city; usually, they want to find steady job or a bit of earning in the city…the opposite is counterurbanization, where people from an urban or city migrate to the village, usually because they want to find cheap land or peace away from the city.."
"~My~ I don't know if there is a term for that.."
"Yes, there is a term for that... but let's go back to this top—-"
Suddenly there was a voice from behind "I think I know what your highness is looking for.."
I turned my body and saw that it was Aalis who leaned her head at me and said it. I saw her with Ame and with some paper bags in their hands; maybe it was the clothes that I asked them..
I asked her, "What do you mean you know what I am looking for?"
Aalis and Ame took a chair from the table beside, brought it to the table, and sat on the chair with the paper bags below beside them…
Aalis said, "Because we experienced it.."
"What do you mean by experiencing it.."
"Like your highness knew, I was from this village, where Miss Bellamy introduced us to you…the truth is, my family got responsibility for a big estate in this village so we got the title of Laird…"
Aldea suddenly raised her hand and asked, "What is Laird?"
"~My~ As always, you ask everything…..Cail, explain it to her…"
Aldea's face became more grumpy..
Cail explained to Aldea, "Laird is a courtesy title but no formal status in law or noble court, it belong to the family who have or have responsibility large estate or land, the rank itself is below the rank of baron, usually the estate they occupy is the estate or land from the highest noble, like duke, prince, or king, where they got responsibility to maintaining the estates."
"So Aalis is a noble." Aldea said..
Aalis said, "Former noble, but the title itself doesn't mean anything…"
I realised something "Wait a second…you said big estate, but the only big estate in this village is—"
"Yeah, like your highness thought, the big estate is referring to the baron residency right now…my family was given the responsibility to maintain the estate…The truth is that estate belongs to the royal family, not the baron.."
I became more confused "Wait…wait…wait…I don't understand how the estate that belongs to the royal family can become the baron residence."
"From the beginning, that state did not become the baron's residence but belonged to the royal family, especially her majesty the queen Isabeu, who was the owner of the estate and gave the responsibility for maintaining the estate to our family."
"So that estate belongs to my mother.."
"Yes.."
Cail asked, "If that estate belongs to the queen, how can that estate become the baron residence? Where someone not from the royal family occupied it without any approval from the royal family, that is treason it is a big crime; you know it right?"
"Our family knew it would be a big crime for us, but we didn't have any choice but to give the estate, and we kept it secret for a long time.." Her tone became more sorrowful..
Cail said, "I see, so your family kept it secret to avoid the punishment from the royal family for neglecting your duty.."
I looked at Aalis; her face was so sad and guilty about this estate thing. I reached for her hand on the table and held it..
I asked her with a low tone, "So that's why, when I invited you to come to this village as my personal maids, I sensed you had something unpleasant about the place, and now I know why…It's alright…if you want to tell me or not, and I will try my best to make my subjects feel protected and happy, which is most important, I will do anything to defend you if this problem is brought to the royal court.."
"Thanks for encouraging me, your highness…"
"Take your time, If you don't want to tell me now, you can tell me in another time, anytime, anywhere…"
Aalis looked at Ame beside her; her left hand held Ame's right hand, and she said to me, "I think this is the right time to tell your highness about everything that happened in this village.."
"Are you sure, Aalis? You can try at another time, anytime, if you want.."
"I am sure, your highness.."
I said, "Alright then, but wait…" I whispered to Louis, who sat beside me, "Can you take a look around outside the inn? After that, lock the entrance door and say to the owner lady, 'There are some matters from me, that I need the tavern and inn to stay closed until I tell her to open.'."
Louis just nodded at me, immediately stood up, and did the task I had given him.
"Let's just wait until Louis comes back, and for Aalis, I know that what you will tell is hard for you; maybe it can lead to your family being engraved as a crime, and for everyone in here, keep everything that comes out from Aalis's mouth as secret as possible…because it may be a treason to the kingdom, so everyone needs to be prepared."
Elpis asked, "Your highness, is it okay for you to meddle in this?"
"What do you mean? Of course it's okay for me.."
"But your highness needs to know that the queen is the one who could not be offended in anything as possible."
"My mother?"
"Yes, if the queen is being offended or being taken by what she has, it will be a big mistake…she is the reason why the empire could not enact this kingdom to the empire; her stubbornness and her temperature are on a different level…if she finds out about this one, I don't know what fate will do around us.."
"We can think about my mother later.."
"Alright, if your highness wants that.."
After a few moments, Louis came back to his seat and took a seat..
I said "Now, everyone is in here, except Zoe, but it's okay…now you can tell us about the truth.."
Aalis began to talk "Well, the story began—"