After a few hours, while I was in my office, two knocks coming from the door caught my attention.

"Come in"

I said. Saying that, the door was opened, and Oliver appeared in front of me.

"I have returned, Ren-sama"

Said Oliver as soon as he entered, but he looked serious.

(These two siblings are very serious when it comes to work, I thought, as I had a wry smile on my face)

"So, how did it go?"

I asked.

"They said they will start work immediately"

Oliver said. The subject we are talking about is the deforestation we will do in some areas to start the plantations. Of course, after we cut down the trees, we will plant them all again. While I was thinking about this, Oliver looked a little confused about something. It was clear enough for me to notice, even though his normal expression was stiff and professional.

"Is there something bothering you, Oliver?"

I asked curiously. Hearing my words, Oliver seemed to think about something for a few seconds and soon replied.

"It's no big deal... and it's just that... I'm a little intrigued by the method of afforestation mentioned in the document you gave me. That, and it's really a genius idea"

Listening to Oliver's words, I could easily see why he was confused about this. In this world, they probably never thought about replanting the trees they cut down, so that's normal.

"Well, I just thought it would be a shame to cut down all this territory"

I said with a soft smile on my face as I looked at the swaying trees outside.

(By the way, classes should be back soon, right? I wonder how everyone is doing, I thought)

***

While Ren was managing his territory, a boy was locked in his room. Far from being modest, his room was probably one of the most luxurious on the continent. Every painting and cloth in his room would cost at least a few dozen gold coins. But even surrounded by all this luxury, the young man was tucked under the covers in his room.

On the floor, it was possible to see several broken drink bottles. His dignity had been completely shattered. The kingdom he believed to be superior to any other was defeated. He couldn't even show his face. As he lay in bed on the covers, two knocks from the door caught Edward's attention.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

"Your highness, you need to leave the room; his majesty is worried about you"

Said a male voice coming from the other side of the door.

"I WANT TO BE ALONE"

Said Edward, shouting.

"B-But your highness..."

"YOU DIDN'T HEAR ME?"

Before the man behind the door could even finish speaking, Edward cut him off with another shout. Afterward, Edward heard no more voices coming from the other side of the door.

(Why is this happening to me? I was born to rule, I have beauty, intelligence, and nobility. How did things end up like this?)

Edward's mind was no longer able to process concrete information, his mind was in an eternal loop of disagreement.

"Where did it all start to go wrong? Why is this happening to me?"

Unfortunately, that was an answer that Edward would be a long time coming.

***

After my orders had passed a few days, currently I am together with Oliver on the way to the place we chose to cut the trees. After a few minutes of walking through the trees, at some point, the number of trees started to decrease until, at some point, there were no more trees around.

The area was totally free of trees, and the ground was extremely flat without any undulations. This was the place we had chosen for the plantations. As the residents here didn't know much about plantations, I roughly explained to them how the place where we were going to plant should look, and so we all chose this place.

"Ren-sama"

As I looked around, a voice caught my attention. As soon as I looked at the location of the voice, a gentleman who was not so old but not so young either came into my field of vision. This gentleman was something like the leader of the people of this place. Although it is nothing official, the people seem to trust him, so I kind of named him that.

"Brad-san"

I said as soon as I saw him. Since I arrived, Brad was the only person among the villagers that I could have a decent conversation with. Not that the other villagers didn't talk to me, but what I felt while talking to them, and that they were kind of distant. Thanks to Brad, nowadays most of the villagers talk to me almost without reservation.

"I see you guys are done with the area"

I said as I looked around.

"Yes, just as you ordered, we have finished cutting down the trees in this location and will be replanting them in another location"

Brad said. Objectively speaking, even though they were working to improve their daily conditions by having more food options, I was still paying them for their hard work.

"All right, now we will start plowing this site to prepare it to receive the crops"

I said as I observed the soil. The size of this place is quite large, so we could put a total of three fields. As this place doesn't have many inhabitants, this should be enough for a while.

"We'll start by planting wheat, potatoes, and..."

Before I finished what I was saying, I showed a grain that was in my possession to Oliver and Brad. As soon as they saw what was in my hand, both Brad and Oliver showed confused expressions on their faces.

It was apparent what they were both thinking, but I couldn't blame them. What I had in my hand was a small grain of rice. A few days ago, a merchant came here, and with him, I bought some grain to plant.

The merchant himself didn't know what these grains were, so I managed to buy them for a very low price since he was probably afraid he wouldn't be able to sell them. Well, that would work well for me.

I think I could probably monopolize rice on this continent since the people on this continent don't usually consume it. Probably the man who sold me the grain didn't even know it was possible to grow it.