Chapter 343: Refugees
Just over a month since the Saberclaw Raptors crossed the Lorren, the final convoys of refugees from the South-West Province arrived at their ultimate destinations.
Even with the generous compensation offered, not many ordinary civilians wanted to travel so far from their original homes; the only exceptions were the citizens of Redwood Town and the poorest of the poor from the Baker County.
The people from Lucas’ hometown need not be mentioned, as it was only natural for those who deeply respected and owed so much to the Newtons to follow them to the South-East Province.
As for the slum dwellers from Herald City and those from its destitute outer settlements, they had also experienced what kind of lords and leaders Sasha and Celestina were, so they too were willing to take a risk and join them on this long-distance immigration rather than continue to be exploited by negligent nobles like the Bakers and their ilk.
Other than from these two places, those related to or in the employ of the Moore Family also made up a significant number of migrants. They were still far fewer than those from Redwood Town and Herald City, but it was a testament to the Moore Family’s popularity that so many stuck with them.
As for the rest, there were naturally some attracted to the large amount of Gold coins being offered, some who were looking for a fresh start in a place where nobody knew them, some who thought there would be better opportunities living under the rule of a powerful Marquess, and some who were simply seeking adventure.
All told, the South-East Province ended up accepting a little less than 14,000 refugees.
While this number might seem small compared to the 200,000 evacuees that the explosion disaster had created, the South-East Province actually accepted the third most refugees, only falling behind the Royal and South-West Provinces.
The 20 refugee convoys that set off from the South-West were each assigned to one of the 8 major cities in the South-East Province, with Martin and Misty City accepting the majority of these immigrants.
This was arranged by those in charge of coordinating the evacuation operation in an effort to spread the burden as evenly between the individual territories as possible; after all, a city designed to house 30,000 couldn’t suddenly accept the same number of settlers as one that had 200,000 inhabitants.
With the Rockwell Kingdom’s farms being quite fertile, and with the abundance of hunting grounds and fishing spots dotted throughout the land, feeding these new refugees wasn’t much of a problem, especially considering each family was given at least 5 Gold Coins to help them rebuild their lives, but shelter was a different story.
As a stopgap measure, almost all of the refugees were temporarily being housed in the city garrisons.
Many soldiers in these garrisons had their own private homes, so there were generally plenty of extra beds available in the barracks, as well as all the necessary facilities meant for thousands of people to use like toilets and kitchens.
It wasn’t the most comfortable of living spaces, but compared to sleeping out in the cold streets, it was a much, much better option.
Another benefit was that the local garrisons could monitor these newly arrived refugees, just in case some less-savoury figures had managed to blend in with the fleeing crowds.
No one wanted to suspect poor civilians who had just been forced from their homes of being criminals, but precautious were always necessary; after all, human nature was inherently unpredictable.
Even the most upright man could become a murderer if put under enough stress.
Despite all the planning that had gone into this operation beforehand, though, when it came to actually moving so many civilians across the kingdom, then into temporary housing, many issues came up.
Illness, heavy rainfall, conflicts between locals and foreigners, embezzlement of funds, scammers cheating people of money and goods, and so on and so forth.
Basically, if you could think of a problem, it happened during the course of the migration, keeping the soldiers and bureaucrats in charge of handling these issues extremely busy, Lucas included.
On top of that, once spring arrived, construction would need to begin on more permanent housing for these new settlers.
Expansions to cities, towns, and villages needed to be planned out and budgeted for, sites for new pioneer settlements throughout the South-East Province needed to be scouted, construction materials of all kinds needed to be produced in massive quantities...
Needless to say, after his short ’vacation’ traveling from Iron Rock to Misty City, Lucas was again swamped with work.
However, the boy knew this was going to happen, so while he would grumble frequently about how busy he constantly was, and the thought of just dumping this responsibility onto someone else was constantly in the back of his head, Lucas persisted.
He felt that since he was the one who proposed all this chaos in the first place, it was his duty to see it through to the end.
On many occasions, others would try to convince Lucas that it wasn’t all on him, that he had already done enough to ensure the safety and security of the refugees, but the young boy couldn’t bring himself to agree with them.
During the day, with the help of a horse, or a tartan, Lucas would visit the various cities to check in on the refugees, making sure they had what they needed and that the local administrators were doing their jobs.
He also oversaw the transfer of funds and supplies from the various nobles and merchants to cover all the resettlement’s necessary expenses, making sure that no one who had followed him to the South-East Province was going without basic necessities.
It was a level of dedication and effort that earned Lucas an enormous amount of praise from the civilian population.
Amongst the nobles and leaders of the South-East Province, Lucas’ name also become quite famous during this period.
Originally, when those in power in the South-East Province learned that Marquess Balfour had accepted the young son of a blacksmith from a countryside town as her First Disciple, they had been extremely surprised and skeptical, wondering just what kind of cultivation genius the boy was to have so caught Celestina’s eye.
When the reports came back that Lucas was just a Third Step Body Tempering Realm child who didn’t seem particularly talented in cultivation, the same people were shocked and confused.
Some of the more pompous individuals, especially those among the younger generation, were even angered. Why could some hick-boy from a no-name town become Celestina Balfour’s Disciple while they were ignored?
Those among the older generation, however, weren’t as foolish as their descendants.
If Celestina had taken Lucas as her True Disciple, there had to be something special about him, and after a month or so of interacting with Lucas, most had figured out what that was.
Lucas was righteous but not in the usual youthful, idealistic way. He saw the world differently than them, in a way that was both brilliant and terrifying to the point that calling him a freak or anomaly was probably apt.
Negotiation with the Marquess’ new Disciple made many of these century-old aristocrats feel like they were dealing with another Allina Crest, but somehow even trickier, less comprehensible, and with a broader array of knowledge.
Lucas’ cultivation and Innate Talent might not be anything noteworthy, but his mind was like an endless night sky, so dark they couldn’t see the end of it, but also bright enough to illuminate the entire world below.
Then, of course, there was the sense of maturity and responsibility that Lucas exuded.
Many times, the old foxes who were more interested in securing benefits for themselves than helping the poor subjects they ruled over felt ashamed after bargaining with the boy.
This shame didn’t just come from a moral failing on their part, however. Much of the embarrassment these people felt was a result of Lucas proposing innovative solutions to age-old problems they had either failed to solve or outright been ignoring.
Most shockingly of all was that Lucas’ proposals were never one-sided or detrimental to their interests. He always seemed to have a way to make the world better as a whole, both for the wealthy and the poor, the nobles and the peasants.
It was true that most of these plans would require them to change some of their longstanding policies, or to invest significant sums of money in the short-term, but these experienced rulers could tell that as long as things were managed properly, the long-term benefits they gained would greatly outweigh these initial expenses.
Why hadn’t they ever thought of these solutions?
Was it simply because they weren’t smart enough?
Or was it because of their limited perspective?
Was it just that they failed to see the status-quo as a problem?
Whatever the case, through his dedicated attempts to care for the South-West Province’s refugees, Lucas had made a deep and profound impression on the powerbrokers of the South-East Province.
Not all of these impressions were good, of course. In fact, many saw Lucas as a busybody, or as a nuisance stepping on their authority without having the necessary personal strength, status, or heritage.
There were even a few who saw Lucas as dangerous, a threat to age-old traditions or their personal positions and wealth.
However, as the end of the year approached, no one with any kind of influence in the South-East Province dared to openly disparage or disrespect Marquess Balfour’s First Disciple.
Lucas had established himself as a force to be reckoned with, and only a fool would believe he wasn’t going to become a terrifying existence in the not-so-distant future.
When faced with the rise of a monster, one either went all out to strangle it in the cradle or did everything in their power to establish friendly relations with it.
Since trying to destroy Lucas was basically impossible, as that would mean completely offending Celestina Balfour, most tried to ingratiate themselves to the young boy while the rest tread carefully so as not to form enmity with him.
The end result was much more cooperation from the local nobles and bureaucrats than he was originally anticipating, making Lucas’ work go more smoothly than expected.
Lucas wasn’t a fool, of course, so he knew why everyone of means was so eager to assist him, but since this worked out in his favour, he wasn’t planning on complaining.