Chapter 44, The Paradise of Hypocrisy (Part 2)
When Enri and her sister finished breakfast, the vegetable and meat soup for fifty people was also cooked in the big iron pot. So, Enri went out to a longhouse across the road that served as a dormitory, and called the uncle who had recently been hired as a day laborer. The two of them worked together to lift the heavy soup pot onto a wooden cart, and then put it in the cart and distributed it to the workers. brown bread. Then, Enri sent the day laborer to work in her vegetable garden, while she pushed the cart creakingly along the gravel road to the entrance of the village, delivering breakfast to the workers who had gathered outside the village.
As soon as she walked out of the house, Enri felt the bustling atmosphere. Since its establishment, the village of Kahn has never seemed so crowded. There are construction sites everywhere on the roadside in the village. Recently felled trees and newly fired bricks are piled together, making it look a bit dirty.
Although many houses have been repaired recently, the village is still full of people. Every newly built longhouse was packed to the brim, and a considerable number of villagers even used the spare rooms in their homes to rent out. Some of the most evil-minded guys even stuffed floor mats into any gaps in the corridors of the house. For money, they even sent refugees to sleep in stables. But even so, many newly arrived paupers still have neither money to pay rent nor time to find a job, so they can only camp in tents on the streets - and there is actually no place for them in the village until the new houses are completed. Lived. Fortunately, it's early summer now. As long as you don't get caught in the rain, you won't be in danger of freezing to death even if you sleep in the open air.
Enri had originally thought about using her house to attract a few tenants to earn a rent. But her house was not big to begin with, and there were only two weak girls left. It felt unsafe and unsafe to let strangers live in the house, so she finally gave up.
In this way, she pushed the heavy cart filled with soup pots and black bread, bypassed the tattered tents and shacks, and the construction site that exuded the fragrance of wood, and arrived at the edge of the village that had expanded several times.
Here, a big fat cat was lying lazily on the watchtower next to the village entrance, its body rolled into a ball, squinting its eyes as it looked at Enri who was slowly approaching, then raised its paws and said hello, "... Good morning, meow! The little girl is very energetic early in the morning!”
"...Good morning! Mr. Cat!" Enri also smiled and waved. Regarding these cat people who can speak human words and even stand up and walk, the residents of Kahn Village, after getting over the initial surprise, arrived. Now it is no longer strange.
Ever since Archmage Ainz became a powerful protector of this place, the cats he raised have often appeared in the village, serving as guards and rangers. Sometimes they would also play with the children in the village and provide food for them. They told stories, taught them arithmetic, and even performed healing magic on the wounded and sick... Whether they were the aborigines of Kahn Village or the newly arrived refugees, they all loved these cute and enthusiastic little things.
——In the eyes of the natives of Kahn Village, the foreign knights who were also humans still slaughtered them without restraint, but these cute little cats saved themselves and maintained the safety and order of the village in today's chaotic situation. , and even use all kinds of magical magic to improve their daily lives... It's really hard to dislike such a "good partner".
So after getting to know each other well, the villagers' wariness towards the kitten people can be said to have been almost completely eliminated. Another kind of cuter creature, the little goblin with wings, has already established a firm foothold in the village with its cute appearance, petite and harmless body shape, and dreamlike and gorgeous magical spells. An indispensable presence in the village. Most women and children welcome these little guys as guests.
——Although they have a fanatical nature that likes to play pranks, they have led many naughty children into mischief, and caused parents a lot of headaches.
As for the new refugees from other places, they are new arrivals, living under the shelter of others, and mostly alone. They have nothing to offer, and they have to rely on the Great Magician Ainz for food, clothing, housing, and transportation. Naturally, they do not dare to say anything, let alone offend his subordinates. "Magic pet".
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After walking out of the village, the girl saw a vast field, dyed green by the growing wheat, swaying in the breeze. Enri felt like she was immersing herself in a green pool while pushing the cart in the fields.
At this season, the tops of the wheat have swelled faintly. As the harvest season approaches, the wheat will eventually turn into a dazzling golden color. Although the wheat fields dyed with a golden color are the most anticipated harvest scene in the minds of farmers, the field work before that, such as weeding and pest control, is extremely difficult and troublesome, but it is absolutely impossible. Don't neglect it, otherwise the harvest will fail.
After experiencing the previous massacre, several families in Kahn Village have become extinct, and their wheat fields have no one to take care of them. If nothing happens, most of them will gradually become desolate. However, as Archmage Ainz moved here with a large number of refugees, the situation immediately changed in order to ensure food supply for the new population. The middle-aged housekeeper named Sebastian selected fifty people who had done farm work from the refugees and formed a farm work team. Not only did they take over the wheat fields left by the extinct families in the village, they also cultivated several nearby ones. A new field was built and some fast-growing vegetables and potato crops were planted. Since the season had been delayed, it was basically impossible to plant more wheat.
And Enri is now responsible for cooking and delivering meals to those who work in the fields. As for the logging camps, quarries and brick-burning factories further away, because there were more people who needed to eat and they were further away from the village, full-time cooks were simply hired to cook and start meals there.
When she panted and pushed the cart to the field, she found that fifty farmers had gathered in the open space beside the field, eagerly waiting to have breakfast before starting work. The farmers cheered when they saw Enri coming with a cart filled with hot soup and bread.
"...Oh! Little sister Enri, breakfast is finally here! I'm almost starving to death! How do you plan to compensate me, my brother?"
A young man said this with a playful smile, but before Enli could get angry, he was immediately slapped from behind by another middle-aged man, "...What are you yelling about? You have something to eat and you can't stop your mouth? Hurry up! Order to queue up for dinner, there’s still a lot of work to do next! ”
So, the farmers lined up noisily in a long queue, carrying their own rice bowls and spoons, receiving their own portions of hot soup and brown bread, and then sat on the ground and started eating. After distributing the food, Enri turned around and dragged the empty cart back to the village slowly.
A breeze blew through the wheat fields, carrying the smell of grass and earth, and wiped away the heat and sweat accumulated on her skin.
At the same time, the wind also brought the noise in the distant forest to Enri's ears: the crisp sound of metal hitting rocks violently, the sound of people working in coordination, explosions from unknown sources, and all kinds of... Indistinguishable noise. Looking up, you can vaguely see towering old trees being chopped down one after another, and black smoke from burning bricks, burning lime and burning charcoal is floating in the sky.
Enri knew very well that these were people from the construction engineering team collecting building materials from the forest. In addition to building houses for the refugees who poured into Kahn Village, their more important task was to build a mansion for the great magician Ainz. At the junction of the forest and the grassland, one kilometer away from the village, a large mage tower has stood tall, and several tall figures like giants can be vaguely seen busy outside the tower.
——Those are the rock golems and metal golems sent by Archmage Ainz to assist in the work.
Although except for a few adventurers who are responsible for hunting and guarding, and farmers who can cultivate fields (because there were only more than a hundred people in the village originally, there were not many cultivated fields in the village), the people gathered in Kahn Village now Almost all the young adults joined Archmage Ainz’s construction team. But faced with the amount of work that almost requires building a town from scratch and a mage tower, and all the preparation work from logging, quarrying, burning bricks and burning lime has to be done by oneself, so the manpower in Karn Village is still very large. insufficient.
Fortunately, after listening to the complaints of several foremen, Archmage Ainz quickly sent dozens of rock golems and metal golems.
As we all know, golems are a kind of super good employees who are not prone to fatigue. As long as they receive orders, they will execute them silently, and they have power that humans can never compare with. Although the movement and logic capabilities of this thing are not very flexible, it cannot be entrusted with some delicate construction work. It can only do some rough work such as digging stones, laying foundations, cutting down trees, and hauling stones and wood. But even so, the addition of these bulky guys accelerated the progress of the project at an incredible speed. Relying on the sleepless work of these golems day and night, in Enri's opinion, the magnificent mage tower that needs to be built on a year-by-year basis, as well as the majestic palace-like ancillary buildings around the mage tower that are also built with huge stones, cost only It was initially completed in less than a month, and now only some fragmentary work of exterior decoration and interior decoration remains.
By the end of last month, the city wall protecting the entire village had broken ground, and it was wider and stronger than the villagers expected.
In short, during the recent period, Kaen Village has seen new changes almost every day, and new travelers have been welcomed every day.
Perhaps, in autumn, my hometown will really transform from a rural place into a city, right? Enri thought with longing.
Of course, like any densely populated city, Kahn Village, whose number of residents has increased dozens of times, is no longer self-sufficient in food supply. Although there is plenty of fertile wilderness around that has not yet been cultivated, even if new fields are cultivated, there will be no harvest until the crops grow. The only way to prevent so many people from starving to death in Kahn Village is to purchase food from the outside world.
And in a world where the undead are raging and agriculture is deserted. In the Kingdom of Yestij, the price of food has been staggeringly high, and it is difficult to ensure the safety of the food transport fleet. Right now, the only place that can purchase a large amount of food is the Bajas Empire on the other side of the border.
——When Enri pushed the empty cart to the entrance of the village, she saw a long line of dusty carriages slowly driving into the village. The carriages were filled with various large and small bags, barrels and buckets, attracting countless people. A crowd of idlers gathered around to watch.
"...Is this...the caravan back?" Enri's eyes lit up, and she quickly squeezed to the front of the crowd, and then waved to a familiar figure in the caravan, "...Long time no see! Andrew Grandpa! What goods did you bring back this time?”
On a certain loaded carriage, a man was escaping from the fortress city. After Lantier, the old businessman Andrew who accepted the employment of "Great Mage Ainz" turned around and smiled, "...Oh, it's Enri? Of course the car is full of food! These are all Ainz-sama's flowers. Wheat, beans, and bacon bought from the Bajas Empire at high prices And dried fish, as well as wine and beer! Enough for everyone here to eat until next year! By the way, don’t forget to take your sister to the village entrance later. Lord Ainz ordered that these foods will be given to everyone in the village. Give one to everyone! ”
"...Oh! This is so generous! I really don't know how to thank this Lord for his kindness!" The young girl Enri suddenly beamed with joy, "...May the gods bless this kind and kind Ainz My lord, let him protect this land forever..."
"...Yes, this is the first time in my life that I have met such a kind and benevolent Sir." The old businessman Andrew nodded heartily in agreement. However, this man escaped with his family. What Andrew, the old merchant of Lantier, didn't know was that some of the coins used by the "kind and benevolent" Archmage Ainz to purchase this batch of food came from the fortress city. In Lantier City, the small vault in the cellar of his house...