PS: Today's second update!
The next morning, Raymond and the others followed Bono into the city. Obviously, the serf did not take Raymond and the others in for no reason. At the very least, Raymond, who had a full meal, and his old mother and younger brother, Thomas, helped him carry a basket of vegetables. There were tomatoes, carrots, broccoli, corn, and many other vegetables. There were also soybeans and black beans, which were good quality horse feed. According to Bono, these vegetables were very popular in the city. Nowadays, many freedmen were no longer satisfied with bread for three meals. They wanted different kinds of vegetables.
The few of them walked towards Gene Town. The road was full of pedestrians and traffic.
"Oh my god, are those dwarves?" Raymond was carrying the vegetables. He noticed a few dwarves on the road wearing somewhat funny thick clothes and carrying tools on their backs.
Raymond had never seen a dwarf before. Among the serfs, there were only legends passed down by word of mouth that dwarves were stingy and cruel creatures. They would pour molten iron down the throats of humans and force them to reveal their secrets.
"Yes, they are our dwarven friends." Bono was already used to it. The serf said loudly, "Count Laing's greatness lies here. The dwarves in the mountains are willing to be his friends. The elves in the forest are also willing to be his friends."
"Elves?! Oh my god, I only saw elves when I was a child. I was ordered to go out shopping. " The old mother muttered to herself. After a good night's rest and a full meal, she had more or less recovered.
The pedestrians on the road were weaving together. Everyone was talking about the recent events. The serfs were curious about what had happened in the north. Otherwise, why would a large number of runaway slaves from the north come to Count Laing's territory recently?
The serfs were curious but not panicked. They seemed to believe in Count Laing and his army. Any powerful enemy would fall in front of the Count. This was not an inexplicable confidence, but a heartfelt trust and recognition of Count Laing.
"Five years ago, the Holy Grail Knight, the Lady's Chosen Champion, His Excellency the Count, came here. He promulgated a new law and proposed a new slogan. To be honest, we didn't quite understand what he meant before." Bono carried a basket of vegetables on his back and said to Raymond, "But there was one sentence that captured our hearts. Our Earl said that he wanted all the hardworking people in the territory to be able to eat chicken once a week!"
"Ah!" Raymond's mouth was wide open. He thought to himself, there's actually such a lord?
"Five years have passed, and our dreams are gradually coming true. Now, my family still can't eat meat once a week, but once a month is still possible. We are no longer hungry, and we have some food at home. We eat less black bread, more oatmeal and fish, and better barley bread. Life is getting better and better. We sincerely thank the Count for everything he has brought to us. Bono said very seriously, "Whoever opposes our count, I, Bono, will be the first to disagree!"
"Everyone says the south is good, but is the south really that good?" Raymond could only sigh. Along the way, he didn't see any drunken idlers on the side of the road, nor did he see any sallow and emaciated serfs. Everyone's faces were brimming with confidence and vitality. Some serfs even wore new clothes and ate until their faces were rosy.
Those were fine linen clothes. God knows how much a set of clothes would cost.
The merchants drove the carriages. The goods inside the carriages were unknown, but they made rumbling noises. Occasionally, a patrol would pass by. They were in high spirits, lined up in an orderly manner, and their steps were neat.
There was also a group of pointy ears! These wood elves wore unlined clothes even in the late winter season, with only an animal skin cloak on the outside. They escorted a large number of goods and mingled with the human team. Raymond even noticed that some merchants took the initiative to greet them, and the proud elves responded enthusiastically.
Heavens! Heavens! Didn't they say that elves were a group of cruel and ruthless higher creatures? Raymond's family would break out in a cold sweat whenever they heard the word elves.
The pointy ears enjoyed special privileges. The humans avoided their team, and the wood elves' carriages quickly disappeared in front of them.
"Heavens, this is the first time I've seen elves. They don't seem to hate us …" Raymond whispered to Bono.
"These elves are called wood elves. They have bad tempers and don't like to communicate with people. But if you ask me, they're not bad people. Last time when I was sick, the medicine I used to treat my illness was traded by the wood elves. It was very cheap, and the wood elves would occasionally buy medicine from us. Whoever has stock can take advantage of the opportunity to make a small profit. From this point of view, these pointy ears aren't bad." Bono also whispered, "Of course, the count has ordered us to speak less in front of them. It won't be good if we're seen as provoking them."
"Of course, of course," Raymond said with a lingering fear.
There were many signs on the side of the road, pointing in the direction of the labor camp. The count seemed to have taken into consideration that most serfs were illiterate, so the road sign was a strange cartoon.
In the cartoon, a serf was hard at work while another serf was hard at work. Then, the knights were holding bread and porridge in their hands and giving the serf food. Then, two very simple words were written below, "Work" and "Bread".
Such a simple cartoon, even the most ignorant serf could understand. It was nothing more than work in exchange for food. Raymond's family saw this and calmed down a little. Work in exchange for food. It was very fair, and also what they wanted.
The meaning of serfs' existence was to work for the lord in exchange for food and the right to survive. At the same time, the lord would also provide military protection for his subjects. This rule had been in place for thousands of years, and it would continue in the future. Count Laing wanted these runaway slaves to work in exchange for food, which proved that he needed them.
If he needed them, he definitely wouldn't casually execute or exile these poor people.
Serfs never rejected hard work. What they were afraid of was working hard and then starving to death.
After walking for several hours, Raymond was somewhat numb to the novel sights and sounds.
In the distance, the towering city walls and city gates appeared in front of Raymond, standing above the earth like a god. The five or six meter high city walls blocked the sight of travelers. When they saw the city gates, the count's family coat of arms and the statue of the Lake Fairy also appeared in front of them.
In the middle of the red and white coat of arms was the image of a golden Holy Grail, followed by a sword piercing through a book, and two ribbons surrounding the coat of arms. Below the coat of arms was a family motto that the serfs couldn't understand.
The city gates were crowded with carriages and people who wanted to enter the city. Serfs, freedmen, merchants, dwarves, wood elves, and many knights came to seek guidance. Some of them were expeditionary knights in pursuit of their own Holy Grail, while others were ranger knights who wanted to serve under Laing and become his subordinates.
The wood elves, dwarves, and nobles were obviously the first to enter the city.
But today, the situation was a little different. Serfs, freedmen, merchants, knights, nobles, elves, and dwarves all made way for a female knight and her attendants to enter the city first.
This was a very beautiful female knight. She had long golden hair and a valiant figure. She had an unrivalled beauty and a perfect figure. She rode a warhorse and slowly entered Gene Town under the reverence of everyone. As she entered the town, cheers rang out incessantly. Everyone was shouting "Greetings, Countess Sulia!" and "Greetings, Lady Sulia!"
"Kneel!" Bono hurriedly signaled Raymond and the others to kneel. Everyone watched as the female knight slowly entered the town.
"That is?"
"That is our countess! She is the daughter of Duke Winford, the fiancée of the count, and the future countess! The countess is a very good person! Everyone loves her! "Bono hurriedly kowtowed and said in a voice full of admiration.
"Oh, oh!" Raymond had seen the knight's wife before. She was a woman who spoke in a strange tone and was tricky and mean. She liked to tease the serfs for fun, and all the serfs in the village secretly hated her.
It seemed that the situation here was different, Raymond thought secretly.
After waiting in line for a while, the group entered the city. Part of the sky disappeared behind the towering city walls, and they saw many stalls. Peddlers and shopkeepers were hawking at the entrance. There were vegetable sellers, meat sellers, and clothes sellers. There were so many different kinds of stalls that it was too much for Raymond and his family to take in. There were neat two-story houses on both sides of the street, and many of them were beautifully decorated.
Raymond's mother was the most surprised. She was the only one in the family who had entered the city when she was young.
There was no horrible stench as she had imagined. In her memory, the city was always full of stench. There were human feces, chicken and duck feces, and countless garbage on both sides of the road. The residents at the edge of the city had to live with garbage all day long. "This place … seems different."
"You mean garbage? Times have changed. " Bono obviously understood this very well. "The count and his courtiers taught us to use feces to irrigate our fields. If you ask me, the effect is really good … It's a little smelly, but overall, it's still acceptable. Ever since the first brave fellow's family's fields increased in yield, feces has become a hot commodity. Everyone is fighting for it. Human feces, pig feces, horse feces, they are all treasures to us commoners."
"Now there are toilets everywhere in the city. People relieve themselves in there, and then the feces will be transported out of the city. Everyone wants their fields to produce more. Give enough to the count, and the rest is all yours!"
"Hey, we're going to part here!" Bono pointed to a large crowd in front of them. "That's the labor camp."
"Okay!" Raymond put down the basket of vegetables and tried his best to squeeze his family into the large crowd.
There were too many people, perhaps more than a hundred, and almost all of them were escaped slaves from the north. The crowd was squeezed together, and there was a strong smell between them, like rotten meat.
But this was still within the acceptable range of Raymond and the others. They squeezed hard to the front of the crowd.
There were more than a dozen fully armed soldiers in the labor camp. In addition, a man who looked like a sergeant stood on a high platform. His arrogant and bossy appearance reminded Raymond of many knights.
Behind the platform were many merchants and shop owners, and even dwarves. They were all here to recruit workers.
"Outsiders! I'm Denny! I have good news and bad news. Which one do you want to hear first? "
"Bad news!" A runaway slave shouted. He looked very young, with a buzz cut and no beard.
"The bad news is, recently, many escaped slaves from the north have poured into the town. Many of you who want to be apprentices to the dwarves and work in the textile workshop have to hurry!"
"Then … then what's the good news?" A runaway slave shouted.
"The good news is, we have countless jobs here and farmland to be cultivated. There are only jobs that you don't know how to do, and there are no jobs that we don't have!" The sergeant took out many pieces of paper from his pocket. "Then, tell me, brothers, who wants to eat their fill?! Who wants to work in exchange for lunch and dinner, and a glass of barley wine after work?! "
"Me! Me!! "The crowd went crazy and squeezed forward.
"Who wants to work hard for the count? In exchange for the right to settle here? "
"Me! Me! Me!!! " Hundreds of runaway slaves in the labor camp had red eyes, and their shouts shook the sky. They stretched out their hands and reached for the sergeant.
"Then let's begin!"
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