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.
