The viscounty of Avelra did have some people. But they weren't residents.
Just beggars or travellers finding thier way of living.
So truthfully speaking, the viscounty was empty. And it had to be fixed by someone. Not me, I never studied politics. Kairon did.
Kairon with his fellow and loyal companion, Varn, stood at the top of a hill whence they could behold the sight of the not-so-magnificent viscounty.
"You see Varn, this place," he directed at the number of small vacant houses placed in a line along the muddy road. "Will be soon lively, just like Oshied"
Varn turned his head and stared at Kairon. He then calmly spoke.
"Listen here you little fu-"
"Huh?"
"I mean, master how are you going to do that?"
Kairon stared at Varn. He then brought his face closer. His expression worsening with every movement.
Suddenly he was interrupted by Elira."What the heck are you two doing here?"
"Mind your business, witc-" A stone flashed besides Kairon's head.
'Scary...' Varn's expression did not change. But his thoughts did. And so did kairon's.
"I apologise."
Elira heard it, got happy, and left.
"You really shouldn't play with her" Varn advised him.
"True". Kairon sighed.
"So... How were you gonna change this into Oshied?" Varn now raised the important question.
Kairon knew how to do it. But not how to convince them to.
What he knew was going to happen in the future, not right now. He was hesitant to tell them about it, but not scared.
"Hey Varn, do you know about the rumor about mass migration from the East."
Varn thought for a few seconds trying to remember if he had forgotten something but nothing came to his mind.
"No, I have not. Where did you even get that information?"
"What?!!" He grabbed Varn's shoulders with both his arms and started to shake him. "You don't even know about that? How are you reliable? Are you stupid? Even I, as a busy man have knowledge about that and you don't?"
Varn was finally freed from Kairon's torture and hesitatedly asked, "Are you sure? I didn't hear anyone talk about it."
"Are you doubting me?"
Varn went silent. "Yes?"
"Don't."
....
After a lot of thinking and doubting. Varn finally accepted the statement. He then turned his head to look at the state of the town.
"I don't think anyone would want to live here" He said, and Kairon heard it.
Kairon put both his hands on his waist and let out a chuckle.
"A beggar never rejects a coin"
Varn didn't say anything.
---
They were both now standing in front of one of the houses on the road. It was vacant, a little broken down, with no electricity or anything close to modern tech. It was still a house.
Kairon knocked on the door, knowing fully that not even ghost was living in that place. He and Varn both carefully entered the house.
The house was quite normal. To the left was a dirty dining table with four chairs surrounding it. They were dirty, but not broken. After that, behind the wall of that dining room, was a kitchen. A normal kitchen, with a stove, a couple rusty utensils and no grains or food in sight.
Just to thier right, was a door.
"The bedroom, I suppose?" Kairon looked at Varn.
"My best guess too." Varn said, opening the door and seeing his guess come true.
The bedroom was once again, quite normal. The bed didn't not have sheets yet it was in great condition, right next to it was a window and just besides an almirah.
Kairon opened the almirah just to find nothing.
He then turned around and saw a large mirror with broken glasses on the ground. It was a about 100 or so centimeters tall.
They both then left the house.
While standing outside the house, Kairon brought up the conversation.
"It's not great but people can live in it." He said, biting into the carrot he took out from his pocket.
"Would they want to?"
"They wouldn't have a choice. Also, we will need to find work for them. The only way to flourish a city is by having a earning population."
Varn once again went silent. Then he spoke.
"Fine. Let's check the other houses too"
And time passed. They went through every house in the whole viscounty, and not to their surprise. They were all vacant. But there was something that caught Kairon's attention. As they were walking through the the same town, he started his talk.
"There's about 346 houses in the whole viscounty, and as for this town only, there's about 72 houses. And their structure is almost similar except for few things more or less in the utensils or other stuffs."
"That's because your father, Mr. Hedin Elshade, made them like that," Varn then added, "After your brother, Auren Elshade and your sister, Mirael Elshade, went for their studies to Oshied. The greedy nobles were easily able to steal and leave while we were focusing on their leave."
At that moment Kairon paused. His thoughts entangled like a yarn. "Brother and sister... Is this another coincidence. The fact that "Kairon" has a brother and sister while "I" also had them. Wait now that I think about it. I wonder how they are doing"
"My elder brother, was much older than both my sister and I. It's been 4 months from then. I think he must have gotten that promotion in the job he was talking about. As for my sister, she was doing her finals of middle school. I guess she's a highschooler now..."
Varn waved his hands infront of him. "Get out of the imaginations, your parents aren't dead. They were simply exiled. Elira was quite fond of them, she usually goes to find them whenever she gets the time you see"
"I wasn't thinking about my parents. Rather, have my siblings heard of our condition? If so, why haven't they helped?"
"They haven't. We were too focused on trying to fix everything and didn't have that much money to send a carrier there."
"I see. But as soon as we get some money, try to make contact. We might be able to get some help from them."
"We wi-"
"HELP!!" Before Varn could finish his sentence, a man's cry had interrupted him. It wasn't strong, but full of emotions. He was carrying a little child one hand, with another child, about 7 in age, tugging his pants. The two children looked in bad condition, but the man was in even worse. It was as if he hadn't ate for days. Besides his was a woman, probably his wife who was also malnourished.
The man approached Kairon and fell to his knees, hugging his little child close to his chest. "Please! Sir.. Sir. A loaf of bread. My children and wife are hungry.. Si..sir.."
Kairon was not prepared for this. He knew people would come. He knew they would be hungry. But... He never knew how sad they would be. It was his first time seeing a man in such a state in real life.
Although his hands shaked, he put them onto the man's shoulder and hesitatedly smiled. "Don't worry. You will have more than just a loaf."
"I will make sure of it"