My Weekly Refreshing Mentor Spirit-Chapter 291 - 271: The Country Folk’s Lament

Lan Lin’Er now realized she was at a loss for words. She desperately wanted to stop these boys and girls from going to the Divine Capital to work.

Because if they really went to the Divine Capital, the only outcome would be that if the boys had talent, they’d become forever exploited seed machines, and the girls would be injected with aphrodisiac beast drugs, turning them into swine.

If they had no gift for magic, they wouldn’t even wait for the day of exploitation; they’d be hung on a tree with millions, becoming good brothers.

But the harsh reality was unknown to these cheerful, optimistic country children who had beautiful imaginations of the future. They only knew that going into the city meant they could work and earn big money, and their families and villages wouldn’t have to rely on hunting demon beasts for survival.

"What’s wrong with you? Why are you crying? Let’s be clear, we haven’t bullied you." The bossy girl looked at Lan Lin’Er, who was on the verge of tears, and immediately had her companions step back a pace.

Xue Dili and Lan Lin’Er looked like the Eldest Princess and the Young Master from the Divine Capital; common folks like them couldn’t afford to offend them. She actually stayed to chat to get closer and find out where in the Divine Capital there were jobs that paid well.

If the noble lords revealed some information, they might find a job like taking care of horses for the noble lords, which would be delightful.

Even though taking care of horses was exhausting and dirty, it didn’t matter. For these villagers living on the edge of the frozen plains, having regressed to a primitive tribe state, they had raised earth dragons and various livestock. Raising horses was incredibly easy for them.

"No, no, don’t go to the Divine Capital; it’s Hell. If you go there, you’ll all be tormented... Don’t go... It’s Hell..." Lan Lin’Er could only repeat these sentences; she was truly at a loss for words, not knowing how to explain, at a complete loss.

"If you want to become livestock kept for breeding in cages, then feel free to work at the Divine Capital." Xue Dili, on the contrary, said directly without reservation.

"Mm, huh?" A few children were dumbfounded, even doubting if they heard right.

"The only way to make money at the Divine Capital is by having children; apart from that, there is no other way. If you’re harboring the delusion of going there to make big money, then go, daydreaming about drowning yourselves in pig cages." Xue Dili directly unveiled the cruelest truth; he already told them the truth, and if they still wanted to die, nothing could save them.

A few children were left in a daze; they never imagined the truth would be something like this.

They wanted to open their mouths to retort, but seeing Xue Dili’s face, they suddenly didn’t know how to counter argue.

Xue Dili’s face, coupled with the white robe, seemed to possess magic power, laden with dense persuasiveness, as if anything he proclaimed had the power to convince everyone.

"Then, those of our tribe who went to work at the Imperial Capital before..." The leader of the children asked angrily, clenching her fists.

"Became livestock that can only breed." Xue Dili ignored them further, turning away and boarding the carriage.

"But... Sir, if we don’t go to the Divine Capital, we won’t survive..." The leader, with her head lowered in despair, looked begrudgingly in the direction of the Divine Capital, tightly clenching her fists, biting her lips.

Actually, those saying they were going to work at the Divine Capital were mainly those their tribe couldn’t support anymore...

Just relying on hunting could support only a limited number of people, with irregular meals, especially as winter was approaching, after which the demon beasts would go mad and gather to form south-moving hunting tides.

At times like this, they would huddle in the city and not dare to go out hunting, as stepping outside meant death.

They could only endure until the beast tides passed and hope to be lucky enough to find corpses left by the tides, but that was rarely seen, as corpses were quickly devoured by the surrounding demon beasts.

So, every winter, all the tribes would gather and check each tribe’s surplus grain and recount the population. If the surplus wasn’t enough, the elderly would leave the city on their own, heading into the endless ice fields to end their lives, reducing the tribe’s food consumption.

But if all the elders were gone, and food was still insufficient...

Then some people would have to go to the Divine Capital, trying to find another way of living.

And they were those people, unable to survive, lacking food to get through the winter, faced with either starvation or going to the Divine Capital to seek a livelihood.

This is their survival path.

It’s also why the Divine Capital doesn’t care if borderland people don’t adhere to the birth-centric approach, because the land isn’t in their hands. How many could they sustain through hunting? People they couldn’t sustain would surely come to the Divine Capital.

Once they came to the Divine Capital, the only outcome was becoming endless fertilizer for the Divine Tree, adding more corpses hung from the tree.

This was the Divine Capital’s siphoning effect on all borderland areas, ultimately because all arable land was in the hands of the divine nobles; they had to follow the structure of the divine nobles to survive.

As for resistance?

How many warriors could the border tribes who lived by hunting muster?

Those divine nobles could cultivate farmland across the world through "Deadpool" like plant creatures, and when the Deadpool stopped farming and gathered to slaughter, they were immensely powerful.

Not to mention the divine nobles having the entire Mage Academy at their disposal, even backed by the Divine King, for the world’s natives, the Heart Stealers who wield part of the world’s authority were the truly unopposable Divine Kings, and how could these frontier tribesmen resist.

The greatest resistance they could muster was sneakily pilfering some of the City Lord’s gold coins.

That’s the sad song of these country people.

The carriage slowly advanced toward Rosmar, which was once the hometown of the Wild Hunt Warriors, an area that nurtured the elite corps of the Church Court, but now, it lies in ruins.

The vines and the city walls are already marked by the passage of time, with numerous collapsed breaches.

The high walls, which originally resisted the northern demon beasts’ tide from plundering southward, have completely lost their original function. As for the tribes living here, when the beast tide arrives, they hide, the city gates close, allowing the beast tide to head south.

After all, the beast tide going south also destroys other cities or devastates the fields planted by the divine nobility’s deadpool in Winter Valley.

Deep Purple Red heard that, at the most outrageous times, the beast tide almost reached the Divine Capital.

The Wild Hunt Warriors, who once resisted the beast tide in the wind and snow, are no longer there; their glory is gone, leaving only the struggling border tribesmen.

I wonder what the Angel thinks, Xue Dili looked at the Frost Signal Halberd floating behind Lan Lin’Er, in fact, in older stories, the Wild Hunt Tribe here was the second tribe the Angel conquered. She promised to give the Wild Hunt Tribe glory and a future, while the tribe was to guard the north forever.

I wonder what the Angel thinks now.

But the Angel did not speak; she might be regretting, angry, or remembering the old covenants and vows, but over time, all of this seems buried in this ice field.

"At least the Wild Hunt Warriors did not betray me." The Angel’s voice came through.

"Hmm."

"It is my fault for not protecting them well, for not giving them the future they deserved."

"Hmm."

Xue Dili responded with just a simple word. Behind the carriage, the children preparing to work in the Divine Capital were downcast, some hiding their faces to cry, feeling only confusion and fear about the future.

They could only follow the carriage numbly, not knowing where else they could go.

"Xediles," Lan Lin’Er’s voice sounded.

"I am listening."

"Do you think my father... No, the divine nobility really did the right thing? Why is everything I see different from what is described in the books?" she voiced her puzzling question.

"What do you think?" Xue Dili did not answer directly but asked in return.

"They were wrong, terribly wrong. This world should not be like this; humans should not be a race that has to survive this way. Even though my mother spoke of a glorious civilization and culture, why do I only see suffering and despair now..." she said, as if she had to find someone to vent her suppression.

Xue Dili smiled because, at this moment, she was truly contemplating the reasonableness of this world, wondering what this world should be like.

Now she is like the Angel once was, looking up at the sky in the tribe before ascension.

When the Angel was just a little girl wrapped in animal skins in the tribe, she thought the world should not be this way. Why must tribes fight each other, even though the threat from demon beasts wiped out many tribes? Why can’t they unite?

Now Lan Lin’Er also had similar thoughts, and it was not a viewpoint enforced by Xue Dili but her own genuine beginning to think about the unreasonableness of life-based principles.

"Then what do you think is reasonable?" Xue Dili asked.

"God should not interfere with the mortal world; God should only be responsible for favorable weather, maintaining balance between humans and demon beasts. As for everything else, the rise and fall of dynasties, societal changes, God should not interfere; that’s what is normal, not like now..." She couldn’t continue.

Because she realized that the root of all suffering was her own father.

She gripped the Frost Signal Halberd tightly, suddenly feeling an illusion of endless power.

It was an illusion of being able to resist her father’s power.

"Then go do what you think is right," Xue Dili said plainly.

"Hmm, I understand."

She immediately lifted the curtain and said to the people following behind the carriage: "We need to check out the situation in Rosmar; we need guides and attendants, with food and lodging provided, the price around 1 gold coin, are you willing?"

Her words left the children behind stunned.

gold coin?

Xue Dili covered his face; the Eldest Princess truly doesn’t know about the prices. 1 gold coin for the people of this world could support a family of three in the Divine Capital for more than a month; for this remote border, it could probably feed a family for over two months.

"1 gold coin a month," Xue Dili said, although it wouldn’t take them a month either.