Vol 2. Chapter 25: Side Story (Radaeri Fratara)
Fratara City.
Located northeast of the Five Lakes, it serves as a hub city connected by roads to Wheat Hill City to the north, West Gate City to the west, East Gate City to the east, and Iron Town and Telek Port City to the south.
Due to its nature as a trade hub, it has fewer producers and more merchants, innkeepers, and food vendors. The city relies heavily on imported food, with only about a third of its population able to sustain themselves through local production.
It’s said that if trade were to halt, most of the city’s population would starve—a town completely dependent on imports.
However, as the civil war worsened in recent years, Fratara City faced increasingly dire circumstances.
Even during wartime, trade caravans typically continued operating. While there were rules, such as avoiding direct routes between hostile territories, trade remained the lifeblood of the kingdom. Stopping it would slowly cause the entire nation to wither. For the first few years, caravans still came and went, business as usual.
But as the civil war dragged on, the number of caravans «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» dwindled.
The main reason was forced confiscations by desperate lords. With constant troop deployments, many rulers resorted to seizing the cargo of caravans without compensation. In some cases, merchants who resisted were stripped of all their belongings—or even executed.
Naturally, merchants began avoiding such territories. As a result, logistics broke down, forcing some lords into raiding wars to survive.
With battles spreading, civilians also suffered. Starving soldiers often turned to banditry, making safety impossible to guarantee. At that point, even civilians fled, abandoning their homes to seek safer lands.
This cycle repeated across regions, gradually erasing trade routes and isolating territories. Wealthier cities could organize protected caravans, but the costs made them unsustainable. Cities like Fratara, dependent on imports, faced the worst outcomes.
Despite its struggles, Fratara City fared better than most.