Chapter 44: The Paradise of Hypocrisy (Part II)

When Ann Li and her sister finished breakfast, the vegetable and meat soup for fifty people in the big iron pot was also cooked. So www.biquge.infoAnn Li went out to a longhouse that served as a dormitory across the road, called the uncle of the short-term worker she had recently hired, and the two of them worked together to carry the heavy soup pot onto a wooden cart and put the black bread distributed to the laborers into the body. Then, Ann Li sent her uncle to work in her vegetable garden, and she creaked and pushed a cart along the gravel road to the entrance of the village, bringing breakfast to the laborers who had gathered outside the village.

As soon as she walked out of the house, An Li felt the bustling noise. Since its founding, the village of Kahn has never seemed so crowded. The roadside of the village is full of construction sites, and the newly harvested trees and freshly fired bricks are piled together in a mess.

Although many houses have been repaired and repaired recently, the village is still full of people. Every newly built longhouse was crammed to the brim, and a considerable number of villagers even vacated the spare rooms in their homes for rent, and a few of the blackest of them even stuffed their bunks into the aisles of the houses and any other gap to collect money, and even sent refugees to sleep in the stables. But even so, many of the recently arrived poor people have neither the money to pay their rent nor the time to find a job, so they have to camp out in tents on the streets – and there is practically no place for them in the village until the new houses are completed. Fortunately, it's early summer, so as long as you don't get caught in the rain, you won't be at risk of freezing to death even if you sleep in the open air.

An Li had also thought about whether to use her house to attract a few tenants to earn a rent. But her family's house was not big, and there were only two weak women left, so it was really unsafe and uneasy to let strangers live at home, so she had to give up in the end.

In this way, she pushed a heavy cart of soup pots and black bread around the tattered tents and shacks, and the construction sites that smelled of wood, to the edge of the village, which had expanded several times.

Here, a big fat cat is lazily lying on the watchtower next to the entrance of the village, its body is clumped into a ball, squinting at Anli who is slowly approaching, and then raising its paws to say hello, "...... Good morning! The little girl is very energetic early in the morning! ”

“…… Good morning! Mr. Cat! Ann Li also smiled and beckoned, for the inhabitants of Karn Village were no longer surprised by the initial surprise of these little cat people who were able to speak and even stand up and walk.

Ever since the Great Wizard of Ainz became the sanctuary of the area, his cats have been a frequent haunt of the village, serving as guards and rangers, sometimes playing with the village children, telling them stories, teaching them arithmetic, and even performing healing spells on the wounded and sick...... Whether it is the aborigines of Kahn Village or the new refugees, they all love these cute and enthusiastic little things.

- In the eyes of the natives of Karn Village, the foreign knights, who are also humans, slaughter themselves with impunity, but these little cute cats save themselves, and maintain the safety and order of the village in the current chaos, and even use all kinds of magical magic to improve their daily lives...... It's really hard to hate a "good partner" like this.

So after getting acquainted, the villagers' wariness of kittens can be said to be almost completely eliminated. And another more adorable creature, the winged goblins, with their cute and cute appearance, petite and harmless size, and fantastic and gorgeous magical spells, have long established themselves in the village and become an indispensable existence in the village. The vast majority of women and children welcome these little ones to their homes.

- Although they have a fanatical nature of mischievousness, they bring a lot of naughty children and make parents feel a lot of headaches.

As for the newly arrived refugees, now they are newcomers, and most of them are alone, empty-handed, and they have to rely on the Great Magician of Anz for food, clothing, housing and transportation, so they naturally dare not talk nonsense, and they are not willing to offend the "magic pets" under him.

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After walking out of the village, the girl was greeted by a vast field, dyed green by the thriving wheat, swaying in the breeze. Ann Li felt like she was pushing a cart through the fields, as if she was soaking in a green pool.

By this time of the year, the tops of the wheat have swelled up and will eventually turn into a dazzling golden color as the harvest approaches. Although the wheat fields dyed with a golden color are the most desirable harvest in the minds of farmers, the field work such as hoeing and pest control before this is extremely difficult and troublesome, and there is absolutely no negligence, otherwise the harvest will fail.

After the previous massacre, several families in Kahn Village have been wiped out, and their wheat fields are left untended, and most of them will gradually fall into natural ruin, if nothing else. However, the situation immediately changed as the Grand Wizard of Anz moved here with a large number of refugees, in order to provide food for the new population. The middle-aged housekeeper, Sebastian, selected fifty people from among the refugees to form a farm team, which not only took over the village's wheat fields, but also cultivated several new fields in the vicinity and planted some fast-growing vegetables and potatoes - because of the delays, it was almost impossible to plant more wheat.

And Angelie is now in charge of cooking and delivering food to those of them who work in the fields. Further afield, the lumberyards, quarries and brick-burning factories were farther away, because the number of people who needed to eat was higher and the distance from the village was greater, so they hired full-time cooks to cook and cook on the spot.

When she came to the field panting and pushing the cart, she found that the fifty farmers had gathered in the open space at the edge of the field, waiting for breakfast to start work. Seeing Ann Li pushing a cart loaded with hot soup and bread, the farmers immediately cheered.

“…… Oh! Little sister Ann Li, breakfast has finally been delivered! I'm starving! How are you going to compensate my brother? ”

A young man said this with a hippie smile, but before An Li could have a seizure, she was immediately slapped from behind by another middle-aged man, "...... What are you yelling about? Something to eat that can't stop your mouth? Hurry up and line up for dinner, there's still a lot of work to do! ”

So the peasants lined up noisily, took their bowls and spoons, received their own hot soup and brown bread, and sat down on the ground and snorted and ate. After distributing the food, An Li turned around and dragged the empty car and walked back to the village slowly.

A fresh breeze blew through the wheat fields, mixing with the scent of blades of grass and earth, and wiped away the heat and sweat that had accumulated on her skin.

At the same time, the wind brought the noise of the distant forest to Ann Li's ears: the crunch of metal pounding against rocks, the sound of the horns of everyone working in coordination, the sound of explosions of unknown origin, and all kinds of indistinguishable noises. Looking up, you can faintly see one towering ancient tree after another being cut down, and black smoke of burning bricks, lime and charcoal wafting in the sky.

Ann Li knew very well that it was someone from the construction team who was collecting building materials from the forest. In addition to building houses for the refugees who poured into Karn Village, their more important task was to build a mansion for the Grand Wizard of Ainz to build here. At the junction of the forest and the grassland, a kilometer away from the village, a large mage tower has been standing majestically, and several tall figures like giants can be faintly seen busy outside the tower.

- The rock and metal golems sent by the archmage of Ainz to help with the work.

With the exception of a handful of adventurers who hunted and guarded, and farmers who could grow the fields (since there were only a hundred people in the village, and there were not many fields that had been cultivated in the village), almost all of the young men who had now gathered in Karn Village had joined the construction team of the Grand Wizard of Ainzi. But with almost all the work to build a town and a mage tower from scratch, and all the preparation from logging, quarrying, brick burning, and lime burning to the ground up, the village of Karn was still understaffed.

Thankfully, after listening to the complaints of several foremen, the Grand Wizard of Ainz soon sent dozens of rock golems and metal golems.

As we all know, the golem is a super good employee who has no chance of fatigue, and will silently carry out orders whenever they are asked, and has a power that humans can never match. Although this thing is not very agile in its movements and logic, it is not able to give them some delicate construction work, and can only do some rough work such as digging stones, laying foundations, cutting trees, hauling stones and wood, etc. But even so, the addition of these big and stupid guys has accelerated the progress of the project at an incredible rate. Relying on the sleepless day and night work of these golems, in Anli's opinion, the magnificent mage tower that needs to be built in years, as well as the magnificent palace-like annexes around the mage tower, which are also built with huge stones, have been preliminarily completed in less than a month, and now only some bits and pieces of external decoration and interior decoration remain.

By the end of last month, the walls defending the entire village had broken ground and were wider and stronger than the villagers had expected.

In short, in the village of Karn in recent times, there have been new changes almost every day, and every day will welcome new travelers.

Perhaps, in the autumn, your hometown will really turn from a rural place into a city, right? An Li thought wistfully.

Of course, like any densely populated city, Kahn, whose population has increased dozens of times, is no longer self-sufficient in terms of food supply. Although there is 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 keep so many people from starving to death in Karn Village is to procure food from the outside world.

And in the midst of the undead and the desolation of agriculture. In the kingdom of Yestija, food prices are already prohibitively high, and it is difficult to ensure the safety of grain convoys. The only place where a large amount of grain can be procured at the moment is the Bajas Empire on the other side of the border.

-- When Ann Li came to the entrance of the village with an empty cart, she saw a long load-bearing carriage slowly driving into the village, and the cart was full of all kinds of large bags and small barrels, attracting countless idlers to watch.

“…… This is...... The caravan is back? An Li's eyes lit up, and she quickly squeezed to the front of the crowd of onlookers, and then beckoned to a familiar figure in the caravan, "...... Long time no see! Grandpa Andrew! What did you get back this time? ”

In a certain load-bearing carriage, one was escaping from the fortress city. After Lantil, Andrew, an old businessman who accepted the employment of the "Great Magician of Ainz", turned his head and smiled when he heard this, "...... Oh, it's Ann Li? Of course, the car is full of food! These are all wheat, beans, bacon and dried fish, wine and beer, which Lord Ainz bought from the Bajas Empire at a high price! Enough for everyone here to eat until next year! By the way, don't forget to take your sister to the entrance of the village to line up later, Lord Anz has ordered that this food will be given to everyone in the village! ”

“…… Oh! That's a lot of generosity! I don't know how to thank this adult for his kindness! The girl Anli suddenly smiled happily, "...... May the gods bless this kind and merciful Lord Ainz so that he can protect this land forever......"

“…… Yes, it is the first time in my life that I have met such a kind and merciful Excellency. Andrew nodded heartily in agreement.

However, the dragger escaped with his mouth. What Andrew didn't know was that some of the coins that the "kind and benevolent" Grand Magician of Ainz purchased this batch of food came from the fortress city. In the city of Lantil, a small vault in the cellar of his house......