Chapter 3: The Upper Plain
The city of Hestanar was divided into 5 main zones: , Northquater, Westway, the Red Gate, the Old District, and The Port
But really, "zones" was just a fancy word for areas separated by the age of the buildings. It would more suitable to call them districts.
Northquater, Westway, and the Red Gate are the only locations to have gates that exits the humble city of Hestanar. It is the gate that allows people to exit the city by road.
The Northquater holds numerous key buildings of military purpose, including the castle, barracks and even the soldier's training grounds.
The Old District encompasses roughly 1/3 of the entire city and it holds a few places of importance such as the marketplace, crafters' streets, and the holy church. It is named much for the people to remind themselves on the city's old history, the legacy, and the first architecture constructed.
The Port, as hinted by its name, is a district that connected the entire city with the waterfront. Meaning that if you arrive at Hestanar by boat and you wish to see the lord of the city, you must go through the The Port before entering the castle.
In Westway, much of the zone consists of residential houses, but a few odd buildings may pop up here and there. Taverns and Inns could be found as the zone directly connects the Westway gate to the ope sea, whereby almost all travellers, merchants, and wealthy patrons arrive by. It is also the commercial hub of the city, and is where places like Crafter's Street and the Marketplace is location.
As for the Red Gate, the district's speciality is hinted much in the name. Especially the colour allocated. Synonymous with his stained reputation, the district's business strived under the regular patronship of the young Lord Alfhard.
Outside of the city's mighty walls laid the farmland, often regarded as the Upper Plain.
The Upper Plain is situated just outside the northern city wall. Here, farmland stretched into the distance, covering the vast flatland. If one was to count the number of farms here, it is well into the hundreds.
This is where Kent is at, he is just on the outer skirt of the Upper Plain. Looking at the huge farmland, the first thing he felt wasn't awe, but discouragement. Despite the large farmland, only a few dozens of men were on them doing any sort of work.
Kent walked towards the nearest cluster of farmers and called them out. "Farmers, could I ask you some question?"
The group of farmers turned to look at the person who called them out. Seeing the well-decorated tunic and the near spotless shoes, they immediately recognised the men approaching them as someone of power. Fear lingered over them.
No farmer dared to answer.
Kent sensed the awkward atmosphere, but he asked a different question. "Could you tell me why so few farmers are working on the Upper Plain?"
"The land's… it's… it's cursed!" One of the farmers finally dared to answer, albeit in the shakiest tone.
Kent: "Cursed? But that's ridiculous."
The group of farmers that heard Kent's statement all secretly shook their heads. They had all seen the yield decreasing yearly, they were the farmers that worked on these lands daily. They knew their farms best.
Another one of the farmers, seeing that the noblemen in front of them had yet to punish them, spoke up. "It's true sir, harvests had been lower and lower, winter after winter. Last winter, all the crops died,"
"Please sir. In all honesty, I see no purpose cultivating this barren land."
Kent smiled: "You have all worked on this land for years, just try this one last time. I promise you. I will solve the issue."
The Farmers were stunned, they wanted to ridicule the men in front of them. No one knew the farm better than them. "Who are you?" A farmer asked.
"The Lord of the City."
The farmers couldn't help but jump back in shock, they never expected to see the city lord, especially talking to commoners like themselves. Kent's reputation as a scoundrel always made them believe that Kent would be messing around in the castle, never bothering with mundane people like themselves.
Kent was half expecting their reaction.
The lord didn't converse with the farmers anymore. He has already gotten the majority of his questions answered. Instead, he walked to a faraway corner of the farmland.
He was going to conduct a little investigation.
Kent grabbed a handful of soil from the ground, to understand its characteristics. He observed the colour of the soil, it was dark brown in colour.
With the soil in hand, Kent compressed it in his fists. The soil maintained its structure for a while before breaking apart. The soil was soft, but not overly soft that it will fall into pieces.
Next, Kent dug a hole into the farmland before pouring some water into the hole. The water was quickly absorbed by the soil and sunken into the ground.
'That's odd... '
Kent didn't know much about farming, but from the limited knowledge he learned whilst he was a middle schooler, he could tell there was nothing wrong with the soil. Whether it was the soil density, moisture, or fertility. Everything seems perfect for farming.
The curse? Kent didn't believe in anything as such. Curses were just things made up by people to explain supernatural pheromones people couldn't understand.
This left Kent with only one more possible reason why the Upper Plain couldn't grow any food: A lack of nutrients and organic matter. But just to make sure his assumptions were correct, Kent observed the hole he dug for a while more.
Not finding what he was searching through, Kent sifted through some nearby sections of soil just to make sure.
The result told him as such.
Kent was looking through the soil for one specific organism – earthworms.
The fact that not even one earthworm or any organic matter could be found confirmed his theory. The Upper Plain is severely lacking in nutrients, which caused many of the crops planted to die out or never sprout.
But this lack of soil nutrition couldn't have happened overnight. This could only happen gradually; years of improper management caused the Upper Plain unable to bear crops.
If only the people knew the function of fertilizer.
But the thing is, this sort of problem wasn't too uncommon in this world.
A lot of other settlements also had troubles with harvest season as the crop yield always wasn't up to expectations.
But their problem wasn't as severe as Hestanar, where entire farmlands failed to grow anything at all.
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