39 – Enable internal cheat (1)

A common misconception about hygiene in the Middle Ages is that people in the Middle Ages did not pay attention to hygiene.

But in fact, people of that era also cared about hygiene to some extent.

It’s just that each city lacked administrative ability, and they didn’t pay much attention to hygiene like they do now.

Because of that, I didn’t clean it up because it was annoying to clean it up unless it was a place where not many high-ranking people lived, and it wasn’t a place where you had to clean up the excrement.

As a result, people got used to the streets piled with shit and urine, and it became the dirty medieval city we know.

As I recalled the history of sanitation in Europe in the past, soldiers entered my room with the heads of city officials before I knew it.

As soon as the officials in charge, the inspectors, entered my room, they put on serious faces and waited for my mouth to open.

In order to answer their expectations, I started talking without even saying a word.

“There have been reports of people and animal excreta being piled up in the slums and smelling. I am very serious about this matter. Therefore, I would like you to investigate the sanitary conditions of the city immediately, except for the few who are on urgent business.”

The officials who heard that questioned me with a puzzled look on their faces, as if they did not understand what I was saying.

“Your Excellency, it is very natural for the poor to live in a place that stinks. Because they don’t have the ability to clean up dirty things. Of course, it’s not good for the smell to come into the castle… but it can’t be helped, can it?”

“… It’s not that the foul smell comes from the slums, but that the foul smell from the slums comes up to this castle?”

“Yes, it is. If you check it out…”

Hearing that, I quickly double-checked the report I had on my desk.

Here’s what I checked again:

‘People who live on the outskirts of the fortress walls are suffering from the smell of excrement from the slums of the fortress.’

The slums must already be overflowing with garbage and excrement, so it is not strange even if an epidemic is circulating.

Right now, we are lucky that no epidemic has occurred, but it is already a time bomb that does not know when it will explode.

So, before this time bomb explodes, I’ll have to go to the slums to see what the situation is and act quickly.

If you go in after it explodes, at least a few hundred people will already die.

And now my officials don’t know about the severity of the sanitation problem in the slums, so they may not do as much research as is necessary…

In the end, I will have no choice but to go myself.

“I will go to inspect the site myself, so officials who do not have urgent work should each follow me with writing utensils to write reports. The situation is urgent, so hurry up.”

Upon hearing this, the officials frowned at the fact that they had to go directly to the stinky slums, but when I said I was going, they followed me with a rotten look on their faces.

As usual, “Are you guys still going to be with me?” He might have shouted, but the slums of this era are dangerous, stinky, and dirty places for aristocrats like the Inspector General to enter, so…

I pretended not to notice and hurried my steps.

**

I had never been to the slums since I became possessed by Ciel von Kreutel, but I never thought it would be this dirty and complicated.

Dog and human excrement were densely strewn with the bare dirt on the streets, and the poor people living there were walking on those streets calmly.

Even the walls of the tightly packed houses had such excrement attached to them, and various flies and bugs scurried about to eat them.

I felt like I was going to vomit at the more dirty sight than I thought, so I signaled to the official next to me to step back.

And not long after, I vomited, unable to overcome the foul smell that vibrated throughout the slums.

“Wow…”

Seeing me like that, one official said with a clicking sound.

“No, Your Excellency. So why did you come here for no reason…”

I brought you all here because you don’t know the seriousness of this matter, but why can’t this bastard catch the mood here?

I’m already angry because of Count Schwein, but I calmed down the feeling that I wanted to hit it, and I shouted loudly instead.

“What nonsense? Have you outlived me, and haven’t you seen the record of epidemics starting in these filthy slums? Didn’t you write that even in the record 20 years ago, it started in the slums and gradually spread to the upper floors where the knights live!! Where do you live with concepts?”

Upon hearing that, the official looked at me and knelt down on the dirty floor.

“sorry. Your Excellency… but…”

“It’s okay, because I don’t have any intention of reprimanding you anymore. Instead, work straight if you don’t want to die.”

“Yes, thank you…”

Then I looked at the officials gathered behind me and ordered in a loud voice.

“Form the entire group into two groups. Let one group know where the poor live and the sanitary conditions of the poor people’s bodies, and another group to know the sanitary conditions of the streets and buildings! I will disguise myself and speak directly to them! You guys should go back immediately and organize the officials under your command, starting the investigation tomorrow!”

When the officials heard that, they responded with a choked voice as if they couldn’t help it.

“All right! dismissal.”

“dissolution!”

**

The next day, as I told the officials, I disguised myself and visited the slums.

A shabby cloak with a hole in the middle, a shabby shirt with one sleeve torn off, pants that are almost rags, and even a little bit of dirt on your hair to look dirty on purpose…

Sergeant Mark, who was born in the slums, inspected this outfit, and anyone can see that it looks like a perfect beggar.

I wonder if a knight who didn’t recognize me on the way gave me two fairy tales for doing ‘good deeds’…

As I was walking through the slums, brooding over the subtle feelings I felt when I received the money, a toothless grandfather saw me and started talking to me.

“Hey, are you the new guy?”

“Yes, it is.”

Hearing my words, this grandfather looked at me as if he was dumbfounded, looked at me with questioning eyes, and asked,

“For a guy who came here, he has a nice way of talking. But it’s dangerous to use this tone here… It looks like a bastard kicked out of a noble family… If you look down on me here, you never know when you’ll be attacked from behind. There are quite a few beasts hungry for good desires over there too…”

As soon as I heard that, I felt goosebumps rising.

Being raped from behind literally means that a man rapes a man…

No matter how medieval and ghetto this place is, why would you think of doing it with muscular guys?

… I did have ‘guards’ disguised near me in case of this, but…

“Is that so? Elderly, hehehehe..”

“By the way, a nice boy who used to speak the same way as you did a few months ago. Yes, if you are here for the first time, you should start by saying hello to the elders. Come follow me.”

And the old man took me to a more remote corner of the slums.

The further into the corner, the stronger the smell of animal and human excrement, and the smell of rotting food.

The disgusting smell made me want to vomit, but I fought the urge.

After about 30 minutes of going into the corner, the smell started to fade.

And we arrived at a place like a royal house located in the very corner of the slums.

Then the old man laughed and whispered something to the two men standing in front of the house, and then the two opened the door.

Upon entering, the sight unfolded there was luxurious, incongruous with the slums.

Luxurious, at best, there were pork hind legs and sirloins hanging from the walls that looked a bit decent, and oak barrels that smelled of all sorts of cheap liquor.

Upon seeing such a scene, I looked around in amazement, and the old man, as if he thought I was surprised, tapped me on the shoulder and said,

“How are you surprised? Well, I would have never thought that there would be a space like this in the slums.”

To put it bluntly, even among the knights, a family with some power would be able to gather this amount of food and supplies.

Therefore, just by looking at the items and food here, it was possible to guess the extent of the king’s power.

To put it a little exaggeratedly, the king here must have more influence than the average knight…

“Yes, I was surprised.”

When I obediently acknowledged it, the old man nodded in agreement with me, then pointed to the man who was sitting at the desk in front of me and said:

“The person over there is the king. Well, you got a ball today because you slept. Let’s just go in today.”

**

And the old man took me and led me to the house where he was staying.

The place where the old man was staying was a small house that looked only about 3 pyeong, and there was another man inside.

For a moment, the man and I had a tight snowball fight, and then I approached first and smiled.

“It’s Ciel. First time here. I think I’ll live just fine. I came here because I thought it was better than other slums. How is it?”

One of the men who heard that answered with a smile.

“At least compared to other slums, it’s worth living here. At least once a week, the church gives me a porridge made of barley and wheat.”

“It’s better at least.”

“At least the sound of freezing to death, this is heaven compared to other slums. If you go somewhere else, they don’t give you anything, let alone die in church. And there are some things to do here, so even if you go out to work, you won’t go hungry.”

…. I have to remember this. Due to the trickle-down effect of the increase in food, the number of poor people dying of starvation has decreased.

“Thanks to that, it’s a problem that there are too many people here… but thanks to that, there were people who just threw away because there was no place to bury shit and pee. can’t figure out what Because it’s better than starving to death. is not it?”

As the saying goes, people can live in dirty places, but they can’t stand starvation.

Seriously, from the beginning of the Industrial Revolution to the 20th century, did people move to the city even though they knew that they had to live in a dirty and narrow place if they went to the city rather than the countryside?

I went because I had to move if I didn’t want to starve to death.

And I smiled and said to the man in front of me.

“yes? If so, how much do you get paid for it? He said he would not starve.”

“Why, do you do that too? Well… If you work all day, you get three bowls of wheat and barley mixture. If you work for a month, they give you a little more to feed your family, but…”

“I see… then. What if someone gave you wheat porridge and a salary instead of cleaning up and cleaning up the feces on the street?”

The man who heard that looked at me with an expression that he would not have a wish if that was the case and said.

“Then there would be no wish. Less smell from these fucking streets, more food…”

“That’s right. Okay…then I’ll go out to get some fresh air.”

“Yes, be careful.”

After that, I came up with a solution and left with a smile.

Yeah, come to think of it, there was a way, right?