The Liberomancer [Isekai Progression LitRPG]

"How are things when it comes to food, by the way?" I asked Granny Qi as I took a seat. I had been particularly worried about her and the rest of her family when it came to that.

"We should be alright, don't worry about us," she said, waving her hand. "Are they feeding you properly?"

"Too much honestly," I said with a light chuckle. "Actually I think should be giving some of it out to other people but…" The thing was, I knew that most of the Rank Three Liberomancers had stores of food at home, or the capital to buy food even at the inflated rates they were currently going for in the market. Still, the city rationed out food in such a way as to make sure that they were fed entirely on the city's dime.

Granny Qi shook her head. "If you don't eat, you can't fight. How strong are you compared to a normal person?"

I had heard random figures thrown around, but it was said that in an open field, someone like Zeke was the equivalent of five thousand ordinary soldiers. If such were the case, I'd probably rate myself worth somewhere around two or three thousand soldiers at most.

To feed one person fully who could fight as well as three thousand or to feed three thousand people; the answer from a logistics perspective was obvious. Not to mention I was punching way above my weight when it came to the dryads thanks to that little Tyrant Arachnea combo I had developed.

But, that was only if you took cold, hard logic into account and took the human factor out of it. To feed someone like me when there were children who were certainly going to be malnourished… society may have judged my worth to be far greater than them - but there was something about the whole thing that twisted my stomach.

I lent Granny Qi a hand with dinner, and as expected she gave me an offer I couldn't refuse - asking me to stay for dinner.

"Won't you stay for dinner?" Granny Qi asked me as I tried to head out the door fifteen minutes later. "You're the one who helped cook some of it… and I'm sure the kids would like to spend some more time with you..."

The little kids were eyeing me with curiosity - I had met some of them, but that had only been for a while during the Spirit Festival. Naturally they had all sorts of questions such as what was going on, how it was like to be fighting on the wall, etc.

Basically, she was threatening me with how disappointed they would be if I left.

Granny Qi - this was an extremely dirty tactic to try to get me to stay!

I wanted to leave because I didn't want to strain her house or resources any more than they already were, but she had basically checkmated me with this final move.

"Alright, alright," I said.

Dinner was very crowded - her table could not seat all of us which is why I sat down on a mat somewhere else. I was offered a chair multiple times - likely out of deference to my title - but I had to refuse.

This made me late for where I was going next, and I hadn't wanted to be rude by knocking on the door so late at night, but I was left with no choice.

This matter had to be taken care of today, regardless of how late it was.

I was at 'my rented house' which I hadn't lived in for several days by this point. I knocked on the door and someone opened it up - I couldn't remember his name at this late hour.

"Oh, Master Liberomancer - you've been away for so many days-"

"Yes, I wanted to check up on things, I hope you don't mind," I said, opening the door myself and letting myself in.

"Oh, sure - things have been fine…"

I walked around the place, cognizant of all the eyes who were now watching me.

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I then cleared my throat - I wasn't speaking to anyone in particular, but I wanted to make sure that they all heard me loud and clear.

"I had invited ten of you into this house," I said. "Why do I count fourteen people here then?"

They all looked at each other, no one really seemed ready to fess up.

"I want you all to know one thing," I continued. "When I first came to this city, I had nothing but the clothes on my back and my shoes - which I had to sell at that point so I could eat. I had wandered the streets for several days like that until I was lucky enough to get some help, get back on my feet, and attain the title I have today. I've always been grateful to the person who made this possible, Granny Qi, and in order to repay her kindness I allowed you all, members of her village, to shack up in here. It went against the rules, but I decided to bend them to give you all a chance. However, I do not appreciate you all taking advantage of that kindness and inviting even more people behind my back." There was pin drop silence after I finished - my anger was evident in my words and in the way I was glaring at them. Their eyes were filled with fear almost immediately - no one, especially commoners like them, wanted to enrage a Liberomancer.

Several of them opened their mouths to give justifications, but I held up my hand. "I'm assuming these other people you invited are also your friends and family, or members of your village whom you couldn't bear to see on the streets. Believe me, I can understand that - I would not want anyone to be thrown onto the streets either. And if this was my house, I would have no issues with such - as long as one of you had informed me beforehand, of course. If I had the time and the money, I'd build up houses for everyone in the city so no one would ever be homeless. But none of you told me - however, I would be okay with even that. The issue is that this is a rented house, not my own, and the Guild already was overlooking me housing ten of you."

"This however, was the equivalent of flagrantly disregarding their rules and spitting in their faces," I continued. "Those are not my words, they are the words of a guild representative who I spoke to this morning. They were going to send soldiers to come here and throw all of you out - they only stopped because of my title, but clearly stated that if this were to continue, all of you would be chased out, and I would have my privileges of renting out a house like this revoked by the Guild," I said.

If I had been a normal Rank Three Liberomancer and these had been normal times, they would have likely not even asked before doing all those above steps.

But, I was a Master Liberomancer, and these were not normal times, so they decided to give me a chance.

Drake had also helped me out here by stepping in and asking if the guild could overlook it this once.

"We cannot overlook this breach in regulations," the representative had said. "But, if you should wish, we are prepared to give you time to resolve this on your own terms. The Guild would of course wish for things to be resolved without having to resort to litigation. However, should this situation continue, Master Liberomancer, your privileges to rent out a house will be revoked, potentially permanently, and you will also be fined for any repairs or cleaning that have to be done."

"I understand, don't worry, I'll take care of it," I had told the representative. "Thank you for giving me some time to settle things."

Drake had then given me yet another lecture on how it was a problem to be too kind - something he thought I had a problem with.

I had been wondering why he had bothered sticking up for me like that, to which he simply said, "I feel like I owe you one for that incident in the restaurant last year." The fact that we had bonded over the defense of the city probably helped.

My opinion of him had greatly improved following such.

"So," I continued. "I don't know what the issue is, and quite frankly with everything going on, I can't be bothered with the details. But no more than eight of you should be here next morning when the Guild sends their representative- wheresoever the rest of you go, I wish I could help you find another form of shelter, but I cannot. If that doesn't happen, I will step aside and let the Guild toss you all out- and in such a case you will be treated as trespassers, which I can guarantee you do not want to happen. Am I clear?"

I got various reactions after that. Several of them started bowing, others were in tears, and many of them asked if I couldn't do something to help them all.

"I'm sorry, but I can't house any more of you," I said with finality. I had just become a Rank Three Liberomancer after all, and hadn't built up a massive business empire that it looked like some of them were assuming. "Here- I know that the rations from the city aren't enough, I was able to buy some rice which should last you all a while."

I carried two sacks that I had asked the guild to purchase on my behalf which I had picked up on my way here into the house and left them there.

I then turned around and went back to the palace, all the while trying hard not to burst into tears. I absolutely despised what I had just had to do. It made me regret the whole scheme I had started to help out even eight of them in the first place.

If I ever decided to stay in Libraria long-term, there was a business I knew I couldn't get into- and that was renting property out. Because I would never find in myself the heart to evict them.

Same for when I went back to Earth. I was not going to become a landlord, that was for certain. Any investment, but not that.