5 – Exploited Lands, Windheim (2)

There was really nothing in Zachry’s house that he visited.

They seemed to have given us the best room, but it only had two beds and a mat.

Ah, the blanket is a piece of thin fabric made by roughly stitching a sack that has been used for about 10 years, and the pillow is…

All he had to do was take some hay out of the haystack and tie it with string.

And in one corner of the room, there was a fireplace, a hearth in the middle to eat, and a ladle to scoop up the food.

The rest of the room was so shabby, I even thought that I would rather be homeless after picking up what I said.

However, if you do not collect the right information here, you may lose the opportunity you barely got.

And considering the sincerity of the serf Zacri, who arranged as much as possible in 30 minutes and gave me the best room, it would be better to just stay.

Let’s get information thinking that we are taking pictures of the scene of life in the Middle Ages as a master’s master’s student who has learned history.

While I was making up my mind, Zacri brought food and drinks as I ordered.

Looking at what they had brought, Zacri and the coachman had brought 13 chickens, rye and wheat bread, soup, and cold beer over boiled beans.

It looks much better than the one I ate at the inn, so I think I served the best food available in this town.

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Maybe that’s why, Balt is also nodding his head with a satisfied expression.

Zacri and the coachman set down the food and handed me the money.

“I brought it. And here is Chapter 4 of the change fairy tale.”

“Yes, thank you.”

“thank you.”

Then, I looked at Balt and asked.

“Yes, Balt. Is this enough? tell me if it’s not enough I will ask you to buy more.”

“Enough! young master. By the way, are you really going to feed the coachman and Mr. and Mrs. Zacri over there?”

Other times I don’t have to stay here and give them food I bought with my own money.

But right now, Balt and I have to form as close a relationship as possible with Zacri, and then we have to dig up information about Baileef Mars…

Asking Zacri and the coachman to eat together would be more advantageous for achieving the goal.

Rather than talking about dignity, achieving the goal is the most important thing right now.

“Yeah, of course not. I came all the way here to hear their stories, but you can’t discriminate by food. And when you eat at a place like this, it tastes better when everyone shares it.”

Balt said with a resigned expression, probably knowing that he couldn’t break my will.

“Me and the young master can’t eat all of that. All right.”

Hearing that, the coachman and Zacri began to smile with the anticipation of being able to eat unexpectedly delicious food.

“hurray!”

“How long has it been since you’ve eaten this meat! Thank you so much! ”

“Thank you, young master… You gave meat to a serf woman like me…”

That’s how we shared the same food and dug up information from Zachry in a friendly atmosphere.

When Balt got drunk, he seemed to have accepted everything beyond resignation, and showed a relatively close side to Zacri.

“You are in a lot of trouble. Yeah, because of baileef… I could barely eat a bowl of porridge a day… I lived like that when I was a serf… ”

“Is that so? Hearing that he was a knight who won the tournament, I thought he was a different noble from me.”

“I became a mercenary after my family starved to death, and then I accidentally participated in a tournament and won. And I came to serve the Bocchan. That’s why I know the hearts of hungry people like you… So, what is the bailiff doing? I’ll listen to your complaint.”

Balt succeeded in extracting all sorts of information from Zakri naturally.

**

And through Zacri’s story, I learned more about the cruel life of serfs in this era.

First, in the case of villages where serfs gather, unless there is a good year, about one out of 100 people will die from lack of food when winter comes.

In general, the target of death is a child or the elderly, and sometimes, when the head of a family starves to death due to a bad year, the whole family is said to sit on the street.

Then the man becomes a beggar or criminal in the slums, and the woman becomes a prostitute and sells herself.

Originally, to survive, each household needed at least 500 kg of wheat or rye per year, but with the current agricultural productivity, one serf family (approximately 5-6 people) produces 800 kg.

At first glance, there seems to be no problem, but in reality, 60% of the harvest is paid in taxes, so in reality the food is short of 180 kg every year.

In other words, even if they collected taxes normally, they would have no choice but to starve.

If corruption enters into this, the serfs are doomed to starve to death.

Bayleef Mars exploited his serfs more than he could have imagined.

First, the keeper of the watermill here collaborated with Bailey Fran and took 10% of the grain he processed every time he used the waterwheel while hitting customary drip on the serfs.

And the rental of farm equipment was free of charge in principle, but the great baileif here was charged with a whopping 3% tax.

In addition to that, in our territory, various miscellaneous taxes were paid based on almost private provisions.

The death tax for receiving a cow when a serf dies, the tax paid at the time of marriage, symbolized by the right to first night, etc.

As a result, in fact, each serf could only eat 200 kg of grain per household.

This must have resulted in a person like the low-level worker I met at the inn who escaped the farmland.

Because if you sit still, you die.

Having grasped this reality, I kicked a stone in front of my innocent eyes to relieve my anger.

“Damn it, damn it. Because of these circumstances, the people of the territory are in danger of survival, so abandon the place where you have lived and your master!”

Well anyway, I think I now understand why the Baron Kreutel family was ruined.

Externally, it was inevitable that the count who served was incompetent, so it was inevitably ruined, but internally, he did not see through the corruption of lower-ranking officials and simply handled the administration as it flowed.

Such administration produces results that are as bad as not doing it.

However, since the baron and other officials have found the duck that was not found… With this, I can say that I have some of the necessary capabilities as a ruler.

Their unfaithfulness has been a blessing to me, then now…

“Bocchan, why are you kicking a stone in such a dignified manner?”

Balt was standing in the direction the voice came from.

“Bald, I was given a chance to prove my abilities… No, I get angry just thinking about how a guy named Bailey could be like that.”

Upon hearing that, Balt smiled and replied.

“But, young master, you succeeded in finding the bad guys.”

“Who knows? The question is, why did you leave it like that? If those crazy things do it like that, no matter how good my father or I do and give it to the serfs, it won’t work.”

As the saying goes, even if I send 100,000 won from a Korean bank to my mother, if I enter the wrong account number or the transfer fails for some reason, my mother will not be able to receive the money no matter what.

Even if the lord cuts taxes and treats them humanely, it is meaningless if the officials eat them all up in the middle.

It’s like doing nothing.

“It is not. No, think the other way around.”

“On the contrary?”

Balt said with a serious expression.

“Now that you’ve discovered it, I won’t let you do this to the bailefs. Punish and ban. Then there will be no serfs starving to death.”

For a moment I couldn’t understand the words.

No, after hearing the story of people dying because they are exploited by this ridiculous corruption, what…

“Yes, even if you go to another territory, there is a difference in degree, but they are ripped off at the same level. Even in the village where I lived before, when I farmed, I took 80% of the harvest for one reason or another.”

Balt’s face as he said that was a dark expression that was the complete opposite of his usual lively expression.

Yes, as if a person who had lost a family member miserably recalls an old tragedy.

“Because we took so much, even though we worked day and night, the famine came and my family starved to death. At that time, except for me as a child, both my mother and father died of starvation. Shit, somehow I thought I was lucky because I picked a lot of berries and fruits for the two of you on the way back that day.”

“…”

“Well, so don’t be so downhearted. young master. And Zacri is looking for the young master, and he said that he made his house’s secret soup for breakfast. It seems that Bocchan feels comfortable. To serve the breakfast that serfs eat. I couldn’t even imagine it at the time.”

“Looks delicious, let’s go eat.”

**

The next day, after having breakfast with Zacri, I was about to hit the road.

At that time, Zacri handed me three wooden boxes as I was about to leave.

“Brother, this is a gift from me. I don’t know where you’re going, but eat on the way. This is the lunch box my wife made after waking up early in the morning.”

“Thank you, Zachry.”

After accepting the lunch box Zacri gave me, I set out to prove my abilities by revealing the corruption of Bayleaf.

At the same time, he harbors resentment toward Bayleaf, who exploits the people of Windheim and starves them to death.