The Romantic Trials Of A Transmigrated Empress-Chapter 285: A nut revolution.

Sigrid took another bite into the blue berry and listened with relish.

Duke Thorin took a sip of wine, exhaled and continued, "One day, the prince...oh sorry...he was no longer the prince because the title was stripped from him when he was cast out of the royal family, You see, Alexander did not sleep with just any other ordinary woman, he slept with the wife of the crown prince.

She got pregnant and had a son. As it turned out the boy was Alexander’s child. When his brother Odin found out he accused Alexander of planning to usurp the throne. From what I heard, the grand plan was to kill off Odin and have Alexander’s son named the new crown prince and next emperor."

"Wow...what a great plan. I like this Alexander already." Sigrid gushed.

"Of course you do." Roland rolled his eyes. His wife had a liking for the darker things in life.

"Shhh!" Sigrid kicked him on the ankle.

Roland groaned in a bass and his face twisted as his body registered the pain form the kick but he made no attempt to take his foot away. ƒreewebɳovel.com

This all entertained the servants very much. They were also keenly listening to the story of Alexander Ridley. Jesting for one was very impressed with Alexander’s debauchery. It took guts and a lack of morals to sleep with your own brother’s wife and get her pregnant deliberately.

"What happened to the crown princess?"

"Of course she died." Roland spoke up. "Any woman from a royal family that has an affair must be put to death, and rightfully so. In other families, this is a simple matter and divorce can settle it but for a royal family, it is the kind of thing that results in wars over who gets to be emperor. The woman and the child must both be killed."

Sigrid bit into the blue berry. Her bite was smaller this time round. She hoped that there would be no more letters from the knight she had no memory of or else she might be accused of having an affair and her baby would die with her.

"Will you people stop interrupting me." Duke Thorin exploded.

"Apologies grandfather." Sigrid said slowly.

"Mine too." Roland added.

Duke Thorin looked at Elarin.

Elarin was flabbergasted. "I did not say a word, why do I have to apologize?"

"Do you want to hear the story or not?" he asked.

Elarin sighed. "I apologize." she said with sarcasm.

Satisfied, the duke continued with his story. "So, the secret to Alexander’s..."

"Was the child killed?" Sigrid jumped in.

Duke Thorin stood up in a huff. "You do not deserve my story, I am done."

Roland and Elarin gave Sigrid disbelieving looks meanwhile. Why? Why? Why do this? Their eyes asked.

Chuckling, with her shoulders dancing, Sigrid continued nibbled on the remaining half of the blue berry. She knew her grandfather, the man would not be satisfied if he left the story unfinished. She was right because he sat down again with a sullen look.

"I am giving you one last chance Sigrid."

"Thank you grandpa." She answered coquettishly like a spoiled princess.

Duke Thorin cleared his throat, and he started his tale again from where he had stopped. "Desperate for survival, Alexander who was a very well trained knight formed his own group of outlaws that would loot food from the soldiers. Some of the food would be distributed to the commoners which earned Alexander’s group good will and fame among them.

The tactic earned them the protection of the people. They could not rely on the emperor but they could rely on the outcast prince.

He used his knowledge to teach the people how to cultivate flowers that are used as medicinal herbs like moonlace, shadowthorn, emberpetals, sunflowers, beetroot and even roses and oranges. Within a year, the North turned into the biggest region in the empire when it came to provision of those things.

The commoners earned some money and it eased their lives a little. They were not wealthy but every family was guaranteed at least one or two meals a day."

He paused and took a sip of water and then a sip of wine. After clearing his throat, he continued, "He untied all the outlaws under him and gained control of every city in the North. This made other nobles in the region uncomfortable. They sent their servants to secretly burn down the fields and threaten anyone cultivating flowers. They even started cultivating these flowers themselves and saturated the market to the point of making them worthless.

Alexander did not let that discourage him. Instead, he risked his life by going into The Mystic grove to find something else that the people could use to make a living and he found a nut." He whispered the word out, drawling on as if it was magical.

"A nut." Sigrid repeated after him.

He nodded. "That’s right, a nut. To be specific an Embernut."

Everyone in the room had tasted embernuts before. They were smoky with a fiery crunch. They could be eaten boiled, roasted, fried or pounded and turned into soup. Sigrid had even asked Mauve to turn them into peanut butter and the taste did not disappoint.

He started growing them secretly and taught a few trusted commoners how to cultivate them. They pretended that they were still growing flowers but secretly grew nuts instead. They mixed nuts in with flowers.

One day, the embernuts flooded the market and they were what Sigrid likes to call a hit. Alexander and his people increased the growth, they even found a mage that sped up cultivation to a fortnight. The commoners grew rich and Alexander’s influence grew stronger.

This again angered the nobles. They stormed into his fief and onto his nut fields, demanding control. But he faced them without fear and told them to go into the Mystic grove and do what he had done. You see, he had risked his life to find the nut.

If he was not afraid to be killed by the beasts in the forest, he was not afraid to face the nobles. He told them that even if they ruined his nut fields, he would just find something else to grow and then another and another. Eventually his father the emperor would take notice and the nobles that had ruined a type of food that could feed the people would suffer the consequences."

"Let me guess, the nobles backed down." Roland said.

The duke nodded. "Outcast or not Alexander was of noble blood. The outcast today could turn out to be the crown prince tomorrow. When it comes to royal families things are always changing."

The statement was simple and yet heavy at the same time. It was of the duke was speaking to them directly, telling them to remember this always.