Ben, theres something that Id like to discuss.

Yelena called for Ben with a serious expression on her face.

Ben arrived at Yelenas summons with an expression that said he was already aware of the situation.

It seemed that the maid had been quick to report.

If its about the matter that you encountered, thats already been settled.

What?

Annas mother is currently taking classes on herbal medicine sponsored by the castle. She was actually attending one of those lessons today.

Herbal medicine?

In the near future, we will be attempting a trial run of a dispensary that supplies herbal remedies to the people of our fief for free. Because we have a lot of herbs leftover from the Marezon Household.

Yelena froze.

The meaning behind Bens words was plain to see.

Are you planning to have Annas mother work at that dispensary?

Yes. She will of course be receiving wages for it as well. It might be because she made a living in her previous fief foraging and selling medicinal herbs, but shes quite a fast learner. If it goes on like this, we might be able to open the trial dispensary within a month.

Having said this, Ben added.

As it happens, she and Hans mother have been taking turns to attend the classes. For Hans mother to not have been able to look after Anna today, it seems that Hans must be ill.

This meant that it would usually be a rarity that Anna was left alone without a guardian.

After a short silence, Yelena asked, Herbal remedies are quite expensive, arent they?

Thats right.

So if they are being distributed for free, that will attract a lot of people.

That should be the case.

We wont be able to satisfy the desires of everyone.

Those who are truly in need will be given priority, while the rest will be divided fairly.

It seems that the people who decide on this division will have quite the important role.

If its those two, then theyll do a good job of it.

Wont there be objections?

Ben shook his head.

Even if there are, its pointless.

Ben had quite the assertive attitude as he said, If protests are raised against them on the grounds that the two of them are immigrants Well, so what. In any case, though they may have arrived at different times, half of the fiefs residents are actually immigrants.

He was telling the truth.

The population of the duchy had exploded after the monster problems had been resolved.

Estimating the percentage of migrants at around half was actually downplaying it.

Because the number of immigrants was still increasing even now.

Whats more, the earliest immigrants had even received subsidies to settle here.

So considering this, it would be hard to argue that Anna and Hanss case was all that special.

Thats right. They were only being harassed because they were seen as weak.

Although they were harassed because they were immigrants on a subsidy, that was mostly just an excuse.

It was all because they were seen as easy targets. As a pair of single mothers, they were persecuted because it seemed like there wouldnt be any consequences for doing so.

A frown crossed Yelenas face, but it soon left.

Anna and Hanss families were no longer weak victims.

If there continue to be voices of opposition, then we can just announce that we are considering closing the dispensary because of them.

Hm, thats a good idea. That should silence them immediately.

No one would want the free herbal remedy dispensary to disappear.

If that happened, the people who spoke out against it would have dropped a stone on their own foot1.

Feeling refreshed, Yelena laughed lightly.

Everything has worked out.

Even if Anna and Hanss families had grown in influence, they werent the type to make use of this power.

If they were that type, Ban wouldnt have entrusted them with the dispensary in the first place.

And we can trust them because theyre the mothers who raised Anna and Hans into becoming people who were willing to sacrifice their lives for others in the future.

However, even if the two of them didnt make use of their influence and instead sat on it, their situation would change on its own accord.

Because it would all get taken care of for them.

The moment that the dispensary opened, there would be far more people trying to curry favor with the two families than there ever were harassing them.

When conflicts broke out within a community, then it was natural for the side with the least amount of support to suffering.

The residents of the fief would find that all of the suffering and harassment that they had inflicted on the families of Anna and Hans until now would be returned to them.

Weve really managed to get a lot of leather from killing Incan.2

For the herbal medicines sent by the Marezon Household to be used like this.

Despite having just condemned someone to death, Yelena smiled brightly.

Seeing Yelena appear so cheerful, Ben asked, If you dont mind me asking, your ladyship, may I ask why you have shown so much care for Anna and Hans?

With a smile on her face, Yelena replied, Its a secret.

***

Yelenas gaze lingered absentmindedly on Kaywhins profile.

Having been subjected to his masters gaze for so long, the pupil finally spoke up.

Am I doing something wrong? Kaywhin asked in an uncertain voice as he attempted to paint an apple onto the blank canvas.

At the sound of his voice, Yelena snapped back to reality.

Ah, thats right. For a moment there, she had forgotten that there were in the middle of a painting class,

Today was the first day of Yelenas lessons on teaching Kaywhin how to paint.

Footnote:

1 An Asian idiom that is similar in meaning to the English idiom, hoisted by their own petard.

2 This is a repurposing of the Korean idiom: Getting leather after killing a tiger. It has a similar meaning to every cloud has a silver lining, in the sense of something being an unexpected benefit.

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