Synopsis and Starting Chapter Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Chapter 58
Chapter 59
Chapter 60
Chapter 61
Chapter 62
Chapter 63
Chapter 64
Chapter 65
Chapter 66
Chapter 67
Chapter 68
Chapter 69
Chapter 70
Chapter 71
Chapter 72
Chapter 73
Chapter 74
Chapter 75
Chapter 76
Chapter 77
Chapter 78
Chapter 79
Chapter 80
Chapter 81
Chapter 82
Chapter 83
Chapter 84
Chapter 85
Chapter 86
Chapter 87
Chapter 88
Chapter 89
Chapter 90 - Light And Shadow>
Chapter 91
Chapter 92
Chapter 93
Chapter 94
Chapter 95
Chapter 96
Chapter 97
Chapter 98
Chapter 99
Chapter 100
Chapter 101
Chapter 102
Chapter 103
Chapter 104
Chapter 105
Chapter 106
Chapter 107
Chapter 108
Chapter 109
Chapter 110
Chapter 111
Chapter 112 - The Morning Comes>
Chapter 113
Chapter 114
Chapter 115
Chapter 116
Chapter 117
Chapter 118 - After The Storm
Chapter 119
Chapter 120
Chapter 121
Chapter 122
Chapter 123
Chapter 124
Chapter 125
Chapter 126
Chapter 127
Chapter 128
Chapter 129
Chapter 130
Chapter 131
Chapter 132 -
Chapter 133
Chapter 134 - Epilogue 1.3
Chapter 135 - Epilogue 2.1: Traces Of Life
Chapter 136
Chapter 137 - Epilogue 2.3
Chapter 138
Chapter 139
Chapter 140
Chapter 141 - Epilogue 4.1: Ever After>
Chapter 142 - Epilogue 4.2
Chapter 143 - Epilogue 4.3
Chapter 144 - Epilogue 5.1>
Chapter 145 - Epilogue 5.2
Chapter 146 - The Most Romantic Weekend>
Chapter 147 - Short Stories 1.2
Chapter 148 -
Chapter 149 -
Chapter 150 -
Chapter 151 -
Chapter 152 -
Chapter 153 -
Chapter 154 - Short Stories 3.1: Unexpected Things Happen>
Chapter 155 - Short Stories 3.2>
Chapter 156 -
Chapter 157 -
Chapter 158 -
Chapter 159 -
Chapter 160 -
Chapter 161 - Short Stories 5.1: The Man Behind The Mask>
Chapter 162
Chapter 163
Chapter 164 -
Chapter 165 -
Chapter 166
Chapter 167 - Short Stories 6.2
Chapter 168 - Short Stories 6.3
Chapter 169
Chapter 170
Chapter 171
Chapter 172
Chapter 173
Chapter 174
Chapter 175
Chapter 176
Chapter 177
Chapter 178
Chapter 179
Chapter 180
Chapter 181
Chapter 182
Chapter 183
Chapter 184
Chapter 185
Chapter 186
Chapter 187
Chapter 188
Chapter 189 (End)
Categories Genre: All, Completed, Fantasy Status: Completed ______
Total Chapters in book: 189
Estimated words: 290059 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1450(@200wpm)___ 1160(@250wpm)___ 967(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 290059 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1450(@200wpm)___ 1160(@250wpm)___ 967(@300wpm)
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LIST OF LAST 10 CHAPTERS:
Page No. 189 Page No. 188 Page No. 187 Page No. 186 Page No. 185 Page No. 184 Page No. 183 Page No. 182 Page No. 181 Page No. 180 Page No. 179 Chapter 99
Chapter 99:
After the thorough tour of the shelter, I headed to Lucretius’ personal office. When I got there, I realized a guest was inside already again, but the servant let me in without hesitation.
I walked in immediately.
What greeted me was like a déjà vu. Inside were Lucretius and the chancellor discussing something just like the first time I came into this room.
The white-bearded chancellor smiled at me kindly. “Long time no see, your highness.”
I bowed as well. “You as well, sir.”
Lucretius grinned and stamped the document with his royal seal. It was then handed to the chancellor.
“We will go ahead with this budget.”
“Yes, your highness.”
Lucretius turned to me and asked, “By the way, what brings you here, my wife?”
I felt a little uncomfortable with the chancellor in the same room, but what I wanted to discuss wasn’t something that had to be kept private.
“I visited the shelter.”
“Good. I’m glad, but you must have had a difficult time. You look pale.”
I shook my head. “It wasn’t difficult for me at all. It was frustratingly easy.”
Lucretius looked confused. “I don’t understand.”
He looked like he didn’t know what I was talking about, but I wasn’t sure if he was feigning ignorance.
It didn’t matter. I decided to be frank.
“Did you really send me there just to look?”
Surprisingly, Lucretius still looked confused. I realized he really didn’t know.
“You really wanted me to go and smile at the poor people then return here like nothing? You didn’t send me to find a solution to this problem?”
I couldn’t help but raise my voice. What I saw today was unforgettably awful. I stood in the room in shock as the emperor and the chancellor, the two most powerful men in this kingdom, looked back at me in confusion.
The chancellor asked me, “A solution? Was there an accident, your highness?”
Lucretius agreed with him and asked, “I don’t understand either. The shelter has always been that way. Is there a need to change it?”
The chancellor seemed to realize something.
“Oh, do you mean we should eliminate it…? I understand that your highness probably didn’t like how filthy it was, but… It’s realistically not possible.”
“Pardon?”
What was he talking about? Eliminate it?
“Emperor Kentius did try to push out the poor and the refugees out of Rombrook, but… It only lasted two or three years. They somehow always got back into the city like mold. Besides, we don’t have the money to make this happen at this time.”
I asked in surprise, “Kick them out from the city? That wouldn’t fix the problem. Shouldn’t we come up with an actual solution?”
Lucretius and the chancellor looked at me as if I had gone crazy.
I realized these men genuinely didn’t know what I was talking about.
Lucretius asked again, “Solution? I don’t understand. We are already doing all we need to do. We are running the shelter and providing them food. We also have the soldiers patrolling to make sure we don’t have any riots. What else is there for us to do?”
He was the emperor of this kingdom. He was responsible for everyone, yet how could he say something like this?
This was an odd situation. Did I really have to explain the obvious to them?
Well, I guess I did.
“Of course you need to do something. Having so many poor citizens is a problem for the entire kingdom. As a nation, taking care of everyone in it is an obvious responsibility. Those people need to be given jobs and to be taken care of, right?”
“Why?”
“…”
I finally realized the truth.
This wasn’t the 21st century Korea. If there were this many desperately poor in Korea, there would be a riot. Something like this would never happen there unless there was a war or a natural disaster. Bad harvest or epidemic would never cause this big of a problem.
In modern Korea, the government had a system in place to make sure something like this would never happen.
Suddenly, I remembered a movie I watched before I came to this world. In it, the main character managed to travel back in time and tried to use his future knowledge to change history. Unfortunately, due to the butterfly effect, the main character ended up not being even born and therefore disappearing from Earth.
After watching this movie, I wondered at the time
‘Would there ever be a situation where changing history can be justified?’
In truth, I didn’t believe in god or fate. When the priestess told me she wasn’t sure of the existence of god, I despaired, but I was also secretly relieved.
I felt that I was the one who got to decide my own future. This meant I needed to think carefully about what I should do about the shelter.
I could think of a few things that may improve the situation. I was by no means an expert in running a city, but if I explained how the 21st century Korea was run, I was sure the officials here could find some things that could be helpful.
However, would that be the right thing to do? Could my interference here negatively affect the natural course of history in this world? I was worried.
Of course, this wasn’t earth and that meant my actions wouldn’t change the future of my old life.
Did that mean I could do whatever I wanted?
I had no problem helping Lucretius fight against the dowager empress, but this kind of thing worried me. A political fight and power struggle here would whether or not I was involved. Changing the city system was a different story.
I couldn’t forget Lucretius’ confused expression. He really didn’t understand why he should help the poor. In the modern world, many would claim that some of the poor people deserved it, but if they saw a shelter in such a shameful condition, most would agree we needed to do something to improve the situation.
However, apparently, no one thought of it this way here.
Since Lucretius and the chancellor treated me with respect, I hadn’t realized how they felt and thought about the less fortunate.
Perhaps they treated me well because I lied to Lucretius early on that I came from a noble family in a faraway land.
Lucretius wasn’t a naïve man, so he probably didn’t believe me completely, but my manners and knowledge indicated I was educated at a level only noble families could afford.
He most likely assumed I was from a well-to-do family.
It wasn’t that I thought Lucretius and the chancellor were bad or wrong. This was just the way it was in this world. To them, maintaining the poor as they were at the moment was enough as long as there wasn’t any riot.
I wasn’t sure if they would understand the concept of human right. I supposed they wouldn’t, and I shouldn’t even try to convince them of it.
This was a reminder that I was indeed in a strange world.
‘This isn’t my home.’
I didn’t have the right to interfere, but… Did this mean I should just ignore what was happening outside the wall?
“…”
I wasn’t sure if my conscience would let me. I remembered the little girl I saw at the shelter. She was only about five or six years old. She looked up at me like I was a beautiful angel from the sky.
The girl had no shoes and had all her nails broken. She was holding a dirty bowl, waiting in line for a meal. I could imagine how I would have looked in my silk dress to such a girl.
If I was that girl, I would have been filled with jealousy and hatred. However, that girl… she looked at me with such innocence and wonder.
Sympathy and guilt.
I couldn’t help these emotions. I knew what I had to do.
Total Chapters in book: 189
Estimated words: 290059 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1450(@200wpm)___ 1160(@250wpm)___ 967(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 290059 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1450(@200wpm)___ 1160(@250wpm)___ 967(@300wpm)
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