Chapter 855 - The Greedy Vampires Of The Land
Everyones expression was grim.
What should they do about this unyielding issue?
They looked at his majesty, hoping for an answer to this problem.
Landon drummed his fingers while lost in thought.
So it has come.
It was here in the Pyno continent.
But who the hell brought it over?
When he got the report, he was so shocked that he spat a mouth full of tea in his office.
Why now?
Well, since it was already here, then they had to act fast before it was too late.
And what exactly made him so worked up?
Many might think it funny, but it was a sort of grass or weed if one wanted to be all technical.
The culprit of his dilemma was none other than the Tumbleweeds.
That's right, the bouncy grass cliches in Western movies that tumble along the ground.
One might think that they look so harmless, but the reality was that they were actually quite dangerous.
So how did it start?
Just like back on earth, some travellers or merchants brought rare grain from Veinitta to Carona sometime last October.
But little did they know that some of their products would sprout into the infectious tumbleweed that was now their nightmare.
The thing with these troublesome weeds was that they could survive in dry-land places.
And they loved clear open fields like farms.
There, they made their territories and announced that they were here to stay.
And they wanted everyone to know it.
Because more than just basic weeds, they were alive and selfish.
.
Each tumbleweed starts as a tiny seed on an open landscape.
They sprout in late winter, putting their roots down, forming branches, opening flowers that nestled between their thorny leaves, finally birthing fruits in the beautiful circle of life.
And by summer, the plant takes its complete form.
But here's the thing, other plants typically allowed creatures like birds to carry their fruits away and dispose of the seeds anywhere else, allowing them to grow again.
However, the tumbleweed liked to take matters into its own hands.
So what does the parent plant have to do to ensure that her baby seeds survive?
Sacrifice herself, of course!
What great motherly love.
That's why come fall, she intentionally starves herself to death, allowing herself (the plant) and her fruits to get dried up.
However, the seedlings are still in there.
She catches the wind, breaks from her roots and tumbles away, bouncing along her journey while dripping her children across the fertile ground.
And then they take root, sprout, grow, and continue the whole circle of life that seemed very touching.
And at this point, many might think that it was a beautiful ending.
But they couldn't be far from the truth.
That ending is precisely the nightmare that caused many sleepless nights.
Why?
Because these plants were invasive vampire species that were unwelcomed by all.
Tumbleweeds stuck to each other, with one becoming two, two becoming ten, hundreds and so on.
It was a hellish dream for many.
.
Farmers loved farming in vast open land because they didn't want deadly creatures sneaking up on them from the woods or so.
This was good and all, but now they had to worry about the tumbleweeds that seemed to love their open lands.
And after these weeds took over massive empty terrain, a single windy storm can drown an entire village with tens of thousands of these troublesome weeds that all have overly sharp thorns that break off in their skins as well as their horse's skin.
Many-a-times, the roads, carriages, and even their times would get covered up with tumbleweed up to 2 floors high.
And clearing them out was both painful and annoying.
Tumbleweeds were both bouncy and sticky, so they have to be removed one at a time.
Some might try removing them with industrial machines, but the danger is that they are highly flammable.
They were dry, airy, and their branches were very dense, making them the perfect fire starters.
They lit up in flames like magic and burned hotter as well.
And even if one managed to clear the place of all tumbleweed, a single missed grain could start the whole cycle again.
But why exactly were they so bad?
That was because they were vampire weeds.
.
One should know that sticking on the farms, they stole and hoarded all ground nutrients for themselves before crops get planted.
What other times, they choked the poor crops to death instead.
In short, they refused to share and were greedy bastards.
Again, once they catch flames, the entire farms would flame-on as well.
Right now, farmers were losing 1/10th of their yields because of these invasive vampire weeds.
And what made them scared was how rapid these weeds had spread.
But was there any way to stop them?
Nope!
They could only control them.
The moment one tries to clear them from the farms and roads, thousands of seeds fall off from just a single one.
So it was easy to see that tumbleweeds were a tough nut to crack.
For starters, it was impossible to make tumbleweeds go extinct everywhere in the world.
Because provided a single seed found its way in, then that was it.
And the most annoying thing was that before a tumbleweed dried out, it just looked like an ordinary bush.
Of course, there were many variations of tumbleweeds, with some that showed their true nature before they dried out.
But many didn't.
So people couldn't tell that these seamlessly ordinary bushes were vampires in wait.
All they could do was control the matter.
.
"Your majesty, so they're called tumbleweeds?"
"Yes.
Our best course of action is to educate the farmers on what to do to save their farms.
Because if we don't control it, the results will be disastrous."
"I agree.
1/10th yield loss is already a big enough damage."
Everyone nodded in agreement.
Food was everything.
So how could they be willing to lose so much?
"Well, I can tell you all that the matter will undoubtedly spread to the other empires with time.
But, some places won't be affected.
"Eh?
Your majesty, what do you mean?"
Landon looked at them and smiled.
"Because of the terrain and weather in some places, the weed wouldn't dare to go there.
Terique should be completely fine.
But apart from the Northern territories in Arcadina, the rest should be troubled by it soon."
What?
The Arcadinian and Teriquen ambassadors were happy, while the Caronian ambassador and Baymardian officials looked at them with envy.
Lucky you.
.
The meeting went on for a bit, with everyone coming up with countermeasures against these tumbleweeds.
And after 45 more minutes, they were done.
"Meeting adjourned."
Landon left straight for the barracks for his next meeting.
He used the next few days to prepare for the mission alongside the soldiers.
Time went by in a flash, and soon, it was time for him to leave Baymard once more.
Time to put Henry on the Throne.