Chapter 119: The Cost of Survival

Chapter 119: The Cost of Survival

Two months of fighting along the eastern defensive line had begun changing Caldris.

The northern, central, and southern fortifications still stood, and royal proclamations continued describing their survival as proof that the kingdom had not been broken.

Behind those defenses, however, the cost of sustaining the war was spreading through every remaining province.

Villages that once sent taxes and grain to support the army now offered able bodied men as well.

The first Imperial Edict had already taken many of the strongest young laborers, and the additional quotas issued after casualties worsened reached deeper into communities that had already given sons, brothers, husbands, and fathers to the war.

The effects appeared first in the countryside. Farmland that had once been worked by entire households now depended on older men, women, teenagers, and children trying to accomplish the same work with fewer hands.

Some families concentrated their remaining labor on the most productive fields and abandoned distant plots because there were no longer enough workers to cultivate everything.

Repairs were delayed across rural districts. Fences remained broken, irrigation channels filled with silt, and livestock wandered through areas that had once been maintained carefully.

A missed repair created additional work the following season, steadily reducing the amount of food each village could produce even when the land itself had never seen a goblin soldier.

The crown’s demands increased at the same time agricultural output declined. The defensive army required enormous quantities of grain, salted meat, vegetables, fodder, cooking fuel, and other supplies every day, and military depots received priority whenever civilian demand competed with the needs of the front.

Merchants who had previously purchased grain for town markets increasingly found government agents offering fixed contracts or compulsory purchasing orders directly to producers.

Some farmers received coin immediately, while others received written promises from provincial administrations already struggling to collect enough revenue to cover their obligations.

Food still reached the cities, though less of it reached ordinary markets. Prices rose steadily as merchants accounted for shortages, military requisitions, longer travel times, and the risk of moving goods through a kingdom necoming les and less safe.

Bread became noticeably more expensive in provincial capitals. Poorer households reduced portions and replaced meat and good grain with cheaper food whenever they could find it, while families that had once been comfortable began tracking every purchase more carefully.

Shortages spread beyond food because nearly every useful trade had been drawn into the war effort.

Blacksmiths received orders for spearheads, arrowheads, horseshoes, armor repairs, and engineering tools, leaving less time for plow blades and household equipment.

Leatherworkers produced belts, harnesses, boots, and armor for soldiers while civilian shoes became harder to replace.

Carpenters who once repaired homes and carts were contracted to build wagons, barracks, palisades, and supply crates.

Textile workshops produced uniforms, blankets, tents, and bandages in quantities they had never been asked to make before, consuming wool and cloth that would otherwise have entered ordinary markets.

Continuous conscription worsened the shortages because local officials could not always distinguish between replaceable labor and skills that had taken years to develop.

Apprentices, wagon drivers, mill workers, craftsmen, clerks, and laborers all appeared on recruitment lists when provincial quotas had to be met.

A blacksmith might continue working after losing one apprentice, yet losing two could cripple his output. A mill with fewer laborers could still operate, though shorter hours created delays that affected entire districts during planting and harvest seasons.

Small businesses disappeared first. Workshops whose owners lost sons and apprentices simply closed, while family merchants abandoned routes they could no longer staff safely.

Some surviving businesses combined resources with former competitors because neither possessed enough workers to continue independently.

Empty storefronts gradually appeared in towns far from the battle. Market squares remained open, though fewer stalls appeared each month and many merchants carried smaller inventories because replacing anything sold had become increasingly difficult.

Trade between provinces also slowed under the weight of military movement. Troop columns and army wagons received priority on major roads, leaving merchants waiting at bridges and checkpoints until military traffic passed.

Journeys that once required several days could take much longer when roads filled with reinforcements moving east and wounded soldiers traveling west.

Secondary roads became increasingly dangerous as local watchmen and guards disappeared into the army. Merchants responded by traveling in larger groups or abandoning less profitable routes entirely, which raised transportation costs and left remote communities with fewer regular deliveries.

The shortage of horses magnified many of these problems. Caldris had lost large numbers of cavalry mounts during the defensive campaign while simultaneously increasing its need for animals to pull wagons, carry messages, transport officers, and evacuate wounded soldiers.

The crown began requisitioning civilian horses wherever military requirements justified it.

Farmers lost draft animals needed for plowing, merchants lost wagon teams required to move cargo, and provincial travelers discovered that hiring fresh horses had become increasingly expensive.

Caldris was demanding greater resources from an economy producing less of almost everything.

Provincial tax collectors began reporting villages unable to meet old assessments because harvest projections had fallen, trade had slowed, and fewer working adults remained available to earn or spend coin.

Some communities paid larger portions of their taxes in grain or livestock when currency became scarce. Others requested delays, arguing that full collection would leave families without enough seed or food to survive the following season.

The crown could not easily reduce its demands. The army required increasing amounts of money and supplies, forcing the royal government to pressure governors to maintain taxation despite visible signs of exhaustion.

That pressure spread downward through the administration. Some local officials quietly reduced collections to prevent their districts from collapsing, while others enforced royal quotas harshly to protect their own positions.

Wealthy households sometimes bribed clerks or officials to shield sons from conscription, leaving poorer families increasingly convinced that they were supplying a disproportionate share of the soldiers.

The existence of the goblin threat kept most communities aligned with the kingdom, yet fear of invasion did not prevent people from noticing unequal sacrifices.

Rural villages complained that cities avoided the harshest recruitment quotas, while city residents accused nobles of protecting retainers and household servants.

The human cost of the edicts became increasingly difficult to ignore. Many families that had surrendered one son during the first conscription round received another notice months later demanding a second eligible man from the same household or village.

Young husbands disappeared shortly after marriage. Fathers left children who barely understood why they were leaving, while elderly parents watched the sons expected to support them march toward training camps.

Death notices arrived with increasing frequency. Some households received official confirmation weeks after a soldier died, while others waited months for information that never came because records had been lost during continuous fighting.

Widows became common in towns and villages. Children grew up in homes missing fathers and older brothers, and farms expected to pass from one generation to another faced uncertain futures because intended heirs were dead or serving somewhere along the defensive line.

Certain villages suffered heavily enough that the absence of young men became visible during ordinary gatherings. Festivals grew smaller, weddings became less frequent, and some homes stood partially abandoned after surviving relatives moved together simply to maintain enough workers under one roof.

Continuous recruitment also encouraged resistance. Families hid eligible sons, recruits disappeared before reaching training camps, and names vanished from local rolls after wealthy households paid officials willing to accept the risk.

Desertion increased among men who had already seen wounded veterans returning from the east. Some deserters attempted to return home secretly, while others disappeared into forests or remote districts where royal authority had weakened as local guards were redirected toward the war.

The crown answered with stricter enforcement. Patrols searched for deserters, villages became responsible for reporting missing conscripts, and local officials faced punishment when recruitment quotas remained unfilled.

Crime expanded alongside the enforcement problem. Roads with fewer watchmen attracted bandits, food warehouses required additional guards, and theft increased in towns where shortages pushed desperate civilians toward decisions they would not have considered before the war.

Some deserters eventually joined criminal groups because returning openly to civilian life would have meant arrest. Their presence forced already weakened local administrations to divert scarce manpower toward policing communities that had once required far fewer guards.

Refugees created additional pressure in provinces already struggling to support their own populations. Families displaced during the earlier northern, southern, western, and central campaigns moved toward areas considered safer, occupying crowded neighborhoods and competing for food and employment that had become increasingly scarce.

The major cities resisted deterioration longer because they possessed larger markets, deeper reserves, and greater government support. Eventually the same pressures reached them as bread prices rose, public construction stopped, and poorer districts became more crowded.

Military hospitals expanded into buildings once used for civilian purposes as wounded soldiers arrived continuously from the defensive line. Medicines, bandages, and trained healers were redirected toward military care, leaving civilians waiting longer for treatment and paying higher prices for supplies that had previously been easier to obtain.

Rural communities suffered heavily from the loss of medical personnel. Experienced healers were transferred toward field hospitals or major towns, leaving childbirth, illness, and serious injuries to people with less training and fewer resources.

Schools and government offices also began losing staff. Teachers disappeared into military administration, scribes were reassigned to recruitment centers, and minor officials spent increasing amounts of time managing quotas, requisitions, casualty records, refugee lists, and military transport.

Court cases accumulated, property disputes remained unresolved, and tax records became less reliable. Local projects were abandoned as labor, coin, timber, and administrative attention shifted toward military survival.

Religious and cultural life changed as well. Temples that once organized festivals increasingly hosted prayers for soldiers, funerals, and gatherings for families waiting for news from the front.

Communities shortened celebrations because elaborate ceremonies became difficult to justify while casualty lists arrived every week. Weddings still occurred, though many were simpler, while funerals became so common that some towns struggled to provide enough labor and materials for traditional burials.

The defensive line demanded nearly every resource the kingdom possessed. It consumed men, food, horses, weapons, cloth, leather, timber, metal, medicine, and money, and every shipment sent east removed something from civilian society.

Reports describing the deterioration eventually reached King Aldren alongside the military dispatches. His ministers warned of falling tax revenue, reduced harvest projections, labor shortages, rising prices, desertion, weakened trade, declining local security, and increasing complaints from provincial governments.

No simple solution appeared among the documents covering the royal council table. Reducing conscription would ease some pressure on the economy while leaving the defensive line without enough replacements, and continuing the current quotas would preserve military manpower while accelerating the damage spreading through Caldris.

The next round of recruitment orders went out anyway because the goblin attacks had not stopped. Across the kingdom, new lists appeared in towns and villages that had already surrendered men several times, and families discovered that previous sacrifice did not exempt them from future demands.

Along one rural road, another column of conscripts marched east beneath royal banners while nearby fields were worked by women, old men, and children.

A shuttered workshop stood beside a market where food had become more expensive, and a government wagon loaded with grain passed civilians waiting to purchase what remained for their own households.

Hundreds of miles away, the defensive line still stood against the goblin armies. Keeping those fortifications occupied was steadily stripping workers, food, wealth, skills, and stability from the kingdom behind them, leaving Caldris increasingly capable of continuing the war only by weakening the society the army existed to defend.