Reincarnated with the Country System-Chapter 171: Post-war situation (1)

Fam is the capital of Duke Farl, it is also the largest city in Farlstone.

Although this region was not invaded by Latvia, it has still been under a lot of pressure. Because many refugees from surrounding regions have come here to take refuge. Due to this, its population is under a lot of pressure.

You will see many people lying in the city squares and streets. Their condition is very deplorable.

The agricultural lands outside the city were cut off prematurely. Because they were made into temporary refugee camps.

The fields are now covered with tents and huts. Land that was cut off from cultivation prematurely has now become a temporary shelter for thousands of displaced souls.

But this makeshift camp has dragged on for months, and the camps have now become slums. The people here live in poverty, their lives limited to a daily struggle for survival.

Christia, Duke Farl's eldest daughter, walked through the camps.

She is clad in armour. The horrors of war are no stranger to her, but what she sees here also tests her resolve. The people here are not soldiers; they are farmers, artisans, mothers and children—ordinary people caught up in a conflict that has nothing to do with them. Their suffering is a silent indictment of the true cost of war.

The conditions in the camps were deplorable. Food was scarce, and what little there was often sparked violence. The refugees were living on the edge of starvation, their bodies wasting away from hunger. Many had not eaten in days, their stomachs gnawing at their insides like a relentless beast. Children with sallow cheeks and hollow eyes stared at Christia as she passed.

The old were weak, their strength sapped by hunger and disease. sapped by hunger and disease. The camps were a breeding ground for despair, and despair, as Christia knew all too well, was a fertile soil for chaos.

The lack of food had turned the camps into a powder keg. Fights broke out daily over scraps of bread or a handful of grain. Soldiers tasked with distributing rations were often met with desperate mobs, their hands clawing for whatever sustenance they could grasp. Theft was rampant, and there were even reports of people killing each other for a meager portion of food. Christia had increased patrols in the area, but the soldiers were outnumbered. Many lives had been lost in the fighting, and those who survived struggled to maintain order.

There is a saying: *Deprivation corrupts nature, and hunger turns men into beasts.* It was a truth he had witnessed time and again in the camps.

Hunger stripped away the veneer of civility, reducing people to their most primal instincts. It was not that they were inherently cruel or selfish; it was that survival left no room for morality. When the choice was between stealing a loaf of bread or watching your child starve, there was no choice at all.

But hunger was not the only enemy. Disease had taken root in the camps, spreading like wildfire through the malnourished and weakened population.

The war with Latvia had killed many people. The death toll was so high that there was not enough space to bury them, and the disposal of these bodies became a crisis.

Graves could not be dug fast enough, and the cemeteries were filled to capacity. The only solution was to burn the bodies, a practice that was both practical and deeply unsettling. Pyres burned day and night, their smoke rising into the sky like a grim signal.

Cremation was a necessity, but it came with its own problems. The practice was seen as sacrilegious by many, a violation of the sacred rites of burial. It deepened the sense of despair among the living, who saw in the flames the final indignity of their loved ones. But the alternative was far worse. Left unburied, the bodies would have become a breeding ground for disease, spreading infection through the already vulnerable population. The stench of decay would have permeated the air, poisoning the water supply and attracting vermin. The risk of a full-blown epidemic was too great to ignore.

Christia thought about the lives of these people, the families they left behind, and the dreams they would never be able to fulfil.

As she walked through the camp, she encountered a scene that made her blood boil. A group of soldiers were distributing food, but the process had descended into chaos. A crowd of desperate refugees surrounded the soldiers, their arms outstretched and their voices a clamour of pleas and curses. The soldiers, overwhelmed and outnumbered, struggled to maintain order. A scuffle broke out at the front of the line, and within moments, the situation had escalated into a full-blown riot.

Cristina stepped forward, her voice cutting through the chaos like a whip. "Enough!" she shouted, her tone so authoritative that it silenced the crowd for a moment. "This is not the way! We are all suffering, but we will not survive if we turn on each other!"

The crowd hesitated, their anger turning to shame. Christia took advantage of the calm and turned to the soldiers. "Double the rations for today," she ordered. "And set up additional distribution centres."

Then an officer on duty said, "But, my lady. Our...

Christia stopped him, "Do as I say! Don't forget, I am your superior!"

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The soldiers nodded. Although Christia had ordered double rations today, it meant that these people would receive fewer rations the next day. So that they could keep their supplies steady.

Christia knew that this was only a temporary solution, but for now, it was all she could do. Because—the lack of food—was beyond her control. The region's farmland had been destroyed in the war, and the aid coming from neighbouring countries was like a drop in the ocean compared to the need. If they didn't act now, the country would soon be destroyed.

This scene was now prevalent all over the north. These people needed more than food and shelter; they needed hope. And hope, she knew, was the hardest thing to come by in times like these.