Chapter 72: The Abandoned City, Ventoris (III)

The Empire was a monarchy with a severe wealth disparity and intense class conflicts. Among all citizen classes, the commoners were at the bottom of the power hierarchy. They had to pay heavy taxes, serve in the military, and fulfill various obligations imposed by local noble rulers without compensation.
For the commoners, their currency might remain at the copper level throughout their lives. Golden coins were almost as precious to them as their own lives. For example, Old Roy, the farmer who had helped Jiang Zhe for free, those twenty gold coins might have been his entire life’s savings. Yet to the nobles or merchants, those coins seemed insignificant and worthless.
But have they ever thought that somewhere in the Empire, there are people living in even worse conditions than commoners—no, far worse!
The glory and pride of their ancestors, contrasted with their current miserable situation, was undoubtedly a thorn in the hearts of the Serlanders. But compared to the severe shortage of food and water, the glory of their ancestors no longer seemed so important…
What angered and saddened the Serlanders even more was seeing their cities crushed by the royal knights’ armored forces and children who were emaciated and sickly.
“Serland used to be one of the most glorious nations in the world. It was once so magnificent, but now it has lost its vitality… It’s a place without a future!” The famous bard Alec Rendell once described Serland in this way. But the Serlanders clearly didn’t want to pass on such a fate to the next generation. They were determined to change, even if it meant taking risks and opposing the vast Empire.
Perhaps all they needed was a few pieces of bread, a small cup of homemade beer, or the innocent and happy smiles on their children’s faces—things that Serland no longer had…
Nothing!
When Vif’s woman brought out what they called food, Allen was disappointed. The girls seemed disappointed too, but Allen had no regrets. This was a transaction, and coming from a merchant family, he knew that while gold coins were important, credibility was far more crucial. Besides, he didn’t think his twenty gold coins were wasted. At least he had had a good conversation with that bearded man, Vif, right?
Merchants from Operios pursued interests that went far beyond mere wealth!
Still, Allen couldn’t help but sigh at the food laid out on the only table there.

“Wow…”
“Hehe,” Viv said with a faint smile at Allen, her tone mixed with mockery and sarcasm. “I swear on the great Theland that this is food… What? Don’t you want to try it?”
“Um, this…” Allen glanced at the girls, whose expressions looked rather unpleasant, shrugged, and said, “Alright, then. Food worth two gold coins!” With that, he reached out and lingered his hand on the basin-like container holding the ‘food’ for a while before finally taking a small piece of meat.
Hesitantly putting the piece of meat in his mouth and chewing, Allen’s furrowed brows gradually relaxed. He looked at Viv in surprise and said with a smile, “It tastes pretty good… What kind of meat is this?”
Viv gave Allen a peculiar look and said with a half-smile, “What do you think, kid?”
Staring deeply at Viv, Allen wore a strange expression and said awkwardly, “It can’t… it can’t be human meat, right?”
“You!” Viv was utterly exasperated and snapped, “Do you think we Thelanders are barbaric cannibals?”
“As long as it’s not,” he chuckled. Under Viv’s mocking gaze, Allen picked up another small piece of meat, chewed it thoughtfully, and nodded. “It’s really good! Does this taste… like chicken?”
“Chicken?” Lisa looked curiously at the food in the basin.
Perhaps because she was upset that Allen was enjoying the food alone, or for some other reason, the young man named Komi crossed his arms, leaned against the wall, and sneered at Allen and the girls. “Tastes good, right? This rat meat?”
“Mm-hm, not bad…” As he spoke, Allen suddenly stopped moving. He turned to look at the young man who had spoken, his eyes wide in disbelief. “This… rat meat? Rat flesh?”
“Disgusting!” The girls, who had regained their senses, stepped back two steps, covering their mouths in disgust as they gagged. Even Ravia, who came from Altak, couldn’t help but react—clearly, girls had an innate aversion to certain furry creatures that lived in the darkness.
The atmosphere in the room instantly turned tense.
“Rat meat?” Allen glanced at the Theland children gathered around the table, looking at him expectantly, then at the three young men—Ban, Pa, and Komi—and finally at Viv. Then, under the astonished gazes of all the girls, Allen reached out again, picked up a small piece of meat, chewed it, and said with a smile, “I never thought those horrible creatures would taste so good… Um, it’s a bit like chicken!”

“Hahaha!” After a silence of two or three seconds, Vif laughed heartily, patted his thigh, and looked at Allen with approval before nodding. “Kid, you’re a really interesting kid… Though maybe I’m not qualified to say it, I believe your father must be proud of you. You can become a friend of us Theralanders!” With that, he turned to his woman and said in an unyielding tone, “Ram, give him back those gold coins!”
“Vif…” The woman covered her mouth, stepping back while shaking her head pleadingly at Vif.
“Give them back, Ram!” Vif repeated.
“Brother?”
“Brother Vif, what are you doing?” The three youths said in surprise and confusion.
“Hey hey,” interrupting the argument among them, Allen looked at Vif and grinned. “Though I really don’t want to admit it, maybe I’ll end up becoming a merchant… Want to challenge the glory of a merchant, you bastard?!”
Staring at Allen in disbelief for a long time, Vif suddenly laughed, nodded, and sighed slightly. “I used to think only the children of Theralanders could be the best… You’ve won. You can gain the friendship of the Theralanders, Allen!”
“Hey!” Grinning, Allen glanced at the children gathered around the table and pointed at the iron basin. “That meat… um, and those things that look like tree roots—what are those?”
“They’re not just like tree roots; they are tree roots. There’s a tree here called Vals, and its roots can be used to fill one’s stomach. They’re a bit hard, but the taste is okay. You can give it a try!” Now, Vif’s tone was much nicer than before.
“Wow,” saying this, Allen picked up a small piece of the Vals tree root and took a gentle bite. It was clear that the root was very hard and chewy, and it took him a lot of effort to swallow it. Licking his lips, he said with a pained expression, “Um, it’s a bit sweet, but with just that, I think I can chew on it for a long time!”
“That’s what Vals tree roots are like!” Smiling at Allen, Vif glanced at Jiang Zhe and the girls and said jokingly, “Aren’t you guys going to try any?”
“I definitely won’t!” Lisa shook her head repeatedly. Next to her, Ravia looked at the meat slices in the iron basin with disgust and muttered, “What a joke!” Then, with polite courtesy, she smiled faintly and said, “Thank you for your kindness, sir. We still have some bread as food!”

“Is that so? That’s too bad,” said Vif without any surprise. He stood up, walked over to the table, then turned to look at Jiang Zhe, who was standing by the wall, and said mockingly, “What about you? Won’t you have any? Dear Mr. Mage?”
Jiang Zhe gave the iron basin a emotionless glance and replied indifferently, “No, I’m not hungry!”
Surprised by Jiang Zhe’s expression, Vif smiled slightly and teased, “It’s obvious—if a person is truly starving, they wouldn’t care whether the food in front of them is chicken or rat meat. Of course, I have no intention of teasing you; this is the best food here!” His last words carried a strong sense of sincerity and deep sigh.
Vif wasn’t lying, as he had given those so-called foods to the children in the room first. Watching the children happily chewing on the rat meat, Vif, his wife, and the three young men simply chewed on the roots of the Valus tree, which was probably their most common food.
With soft footsteps, Lavia and a few other girls returned from outside—they brought the last pieces of dry bread from the carriage.
“Sos!” Lavia walked over to Jiang Zhe, took a piece of bread from the bag, and handed it to him. Then she went to Allen and handed him bread, saying, “Allen, could you help us carry that bucket of water upstairs later?”
“Of course, Lavia!”
Although it was just a piece of dry bread, this bread made from high-quality wheat flour still caught the attention of the two children. After all, in this place where food was scarce, children got very little to eat, and adults even less.
Staring at the bread in Jiang Zhe’s hand for a long time, a child who seemed to be three or four years old timidly asked, “What is this? Can I eat it?”
After glancing at the child, and with Vif’s surprised expression, Jiang Zhe handed the bread to him and said softly, “You can give it a try!”
Hesitantly looking at the bread with its tempting aroma, the child licked his lips greedily, stole a glance at Jiang Zhe, carefully took it, put it to his mouth, and took a bite. After chewing for a while, he suddenly grinned and happily asked Jiang Zhe, “What is this?”
“Bread!”
“Bread…” he repeated softly. Then the child suddenly picked up a small piece of the Valus tree root from his small bowl and hesitantly said, “Can I exchange this for it?”

Bending down to look at the child, Jiang Zhe nodded. The child excitedly handed him the Valus root and then ran back to join his siblings to share this food called bread.

Giving Jiang Zhe, who remained expressionless, a deep glance, Vif stood up and walked over to him. Pulling a self-made cigarette from his pocket, he leaned against the wall and said in a low voice, “May I borrow a light, esteemed magician?”

Glancing at Vif briefly, Jiang Zhe raised his right hand and pointed at the cigarette in Vif’s mouth. Immediately, a red glow appeared at one end of the cigarette.

“Thank you!” Vif took a deep drag. He glanced at Allen, who was joking with a few girls, then at the Valus root in Jiang Zhe’s hand and said softly, “How is it?”

“I haven’t tried it yet,” Jiang Zhe replied indifferently. He put the Valus root in his mouth and took a bite, then said while chewing, “It’s hard!”

“Hehe,” Vif smiled, took two more puffs, and said softly, “I thought only that little brat Allen would get along well with us…”

“He can get along well with anyone!”

“Even commoners?”

“Do you think I’m a noble?”

Looking at Jiang Zhe in surprise, Vif exclaimed, “Aren’t you a noble? Good heavens, in my opinion, you’re the one who most resembles a noble among those kids…”

“What do you mean?” Jiang Zhe glanced at Vif and said calmly, “Do you mean I didn’t cater to you? Didn’t choose to try that rat meat? Hmph, I never cater to anyone!”

“I can see that,” Vif nodded with a half-smile. Glancing at the Valus root Jiang Zhe was chewing, he shrugged and said, “But you can still gain the friendship of the Theralanders!”

“Thank you!” Jiang Zhe rolled his eyes and replied irritably.

As they were talking, the child ran back, holding another piece of Valus root. Looking at Jiang Zhe shyly, he said, “May I exchange with you again?”

Frowning at his child, Vif said softly, “Smee!”

Glancing at the group of children not far away who were staring at him expectantly, Jiang Zhe shrugged and pointed at Ravia, who was talking with Allen. “I don’t have any left. Go ask her!”

The child looked shyly at Vif, who was frowning.

“Go,” Jiang Zhe said softly.

“Mm!” Perhaps the temptation of bread outweighed his father’s strictness. The child named Smith quickly shoved the Valis root in his hand to Jiang Zhe and rushed over to Lavia.
“I’m very sorry…” Vif said with a sorry smile.
“It’s nothing. Just a few pieces of bread. With your gold coins, you can buy enough bread for these children!” Looking at the two Valis roots in his hand, Jiang Zhe felt troubled. To be honest, the taste wasn’t great.
“Hehe, I hope the Gallics will sell it to us… In fact, when we go to other areas, we never reveal our identities…” Vif glanced at Jiang Zhe and asked earnestly, “What’s your name? Little mage?”
“Thos!”
“Thos? That’s it?”
“That’s it!”
As soon as he finished speaking, a call came from near the wooden ladder.
“Thos?” Lavia stood there, stunned, surrounded by several children, looking at Jiang Zhe in confusion. Then, seeing him shrug as if he understood something, she glared at Jiang Zhe irritably before distributing the few pieces of bread in her bag to the dozen or so children. But from her expression, it seemed she wasn’t very willing to do so, if it weren’t for Jiang Zhe.
“Thank you…” Vif said softly, throwing out the extinguished cigarette butt on the ground and stepping on it.
Glancing at Vif, Jiang Zhe threw the small piece of Valis root into his mouth and chewed hard, his expression unchanged as he said, “There’s no need!”
“Dad,” a child ran over and tugged at Vif’s sleeve, whispering, “I’m so thirsty…”
Sighing slightly, Vif looked at his wife and said, “Ram, go get some water!”
“Okay,” the woman hurried inside and then ran back out, wiping her sleeve and saying awkwardly, “There’s no water left. Should I go get some from Zak?”
“That will take a long time.” Pouting, the child turned around, pointed at the large bucket of steaming water, and blinked in confusion, “Isn’t it there?”
Vif knelt down, gently placed his hands on the child’s shoulders, shook his head, and said firmly, “Ili, expecting too much—that’s not our Theland tradition!”
Just then, a hand suddenly reached out, holding a bowl of hot water, and someone whispered to Vif, “It’s okay! If it’s just water to drink, I think I can manage…”
“Dia?”

He glanced up at the blue-haired girl in front of him. Vif nodded and said sincerely, “Thank you!” Then he patted the child’s shoulder, and the child giggled before happily drinking from the bowl of hot water.
“Be careful it’s hot!” Dia reminded him with a smile as she stepped beside Jiang Zhe, speaking with a hint of emotion, “I thought my family’s situation was bad enough…”
“Hah, your father is at least a lord, right?”
“Yes,” Dia said, casually stroking her hair in front of her forehead before letting out a soft sigh. “Hungry, Sos?”
“More or less,” Jiang Zhe replied with a smile, holding the root of the Valus tree in his right hand and saying teasingly, “Want to try?”
“Hmm… okay,” Dia said with a smile as she took the root from Jiang Zhe’s hand. She bit into it gently, then frowned and said, “Wow, it’s so hard…”
“Hehe!”
Meanwhile, over there, Lisa was reluctantly giving the water she used for bathing to the thirsty children, pouting. She quietly patted Lavia’s shoulder and said, “She’s so gentle…”
Glancing at Jiang Zhe and Dia, Lavia lowered her head and said in a strange tone, “I don’t want to hear this, Lisa!”
“Okay, okay,” Lisa sighed slightly, touching her slightly curly hair before saying, “It’s like taking a bath… Never mind, let’s wait and see what Galic says!” As if sensing something, she tilted her head and looked at the child holding up a root of the Valus tree in front of her.
“Here, take this to change the water…”
Blinking curiously, Lisa took the root and bit into it.
“Wow, it’s so hard…”
This small incident improved the relationship between Jiang Zhe and the others and the Theralanders in the house for a long time. Late at night, everyone went to bed in their respective rooms, leaving only Vif sitting alone on a crooked stool, seemingly lost in thought.
Suddenly, a faint noise and a few muffled horse neighs caught his attention. He stood up, walked through the door that hadn’t been closed even at night, and frowned as he saw several Theralanders surrounding Jiang Zhe’s carriage. He said quietly, “Rafs, what do you guys want?”
“Brother Vif?” The leader of the group looked at Vif awkwardly and stammered, “These two horses… we want to…”
“Absolutely not!” Vif interrupted them in an unyielding tone. “Those kids have won my friendship; they’re my friends. I won’t allow you to do this!”

“But Brother Wei… food…”
“Sigh,” Wei sighed lightly, shook his head, then nodded and said, “Everything will get better. We’ll have enough food…”
Seemingly remembering something, the young man named Rafe said cheerfully, “Did Brother Wei agree? Did he agree to help Brother Tami?”
“No,” Wei replied instinctively, then sighed deeply and shook his head. “I’m still thinking—it takes me a whole night to consider this properly!”
“Oh, okay… Then we’ll follow Brother Wei’s advice and go back first… Brother Wei, Brother Tami is right. We Theralanders need to change!”
“I know…” Wei nodded worriedly.
For the first time, Jiang Zhe and the others spent the night in a backward city called Ventoris.
The conditions were terrible. At least, aside from Jiang Zhe, none of them—especially the girls—could sleep peacefully in such a horrible environment.
Actually, the girls were still in a better situation. After all, their room had a creaky bed. Though they were worried it might collapse under their weight at any moment, at least they had a place to lie down. In contrast, Jiang Zhe and Allen were in a worse plight—they didn’t even have a proper bed.
Fortunately, there were no creatures here that would make the girls scream. Maybe they had been extinct, but even so, the girls kept tossing and turning in bed or chatting. It took them an hour or two before they finally fell asleep drowsily.
That night was extremely short—so short that Allen felt it was just as soon as he closed his eyes as day broke.
Glancing at Jiang Zhe, who was sleeping with his head bowed against the wall, Allen curled his lips in annoyance, stood up, and stepped out of the room across the creaking floorboards.
Suddenly, loud arguing voices from downstairs caught his attention…
Just like last night, Wei sat on a lopsided stool, chewing on a self-made cigarette, and said in a deep voice, “Calm down, Tami!”
“Calm down? How dare you tell me to calm down?” Tami Sampford, who had met Jiang Zhe before he entered the city, paced furiously back and forth in the room, pointing at Wei angrily and shouting, “Those elders are too old. They no longer have the courage to fight against the empire… Wei, I thought you’d help me!”

“…” Taking a long sigh, Vif frowned at the burly man before him, shook his head, and said, “I’ll help you, Tami, but not in that way. I’ve thought about it all night: if we do that, it will surely anger the Empire again. They’ll send their royal knights to kill our brothers and fellow citizens once more. Ventoris will fall back into war, with the old, women, children… Anti-Ventoris will once again be crushed under the Empire’s iron heel… torn to pieces! And that’s something neither you nor I want to see…”
“Stop making excuses!” Tami shouted, pointing directly at Vif. “You’re a coward, Vif! Can you really stand by and watch our brothers and fellow citizens die of hunger right in front of you? Huh? The elders are too cowardly, but you…” With that, he slammed his fist against the wall.
“Tami!”
“Brother Tami?” The others in the room rushed over to persuade him.
“Shut up, everyone!” Tami roared angrily, waving his hand at those who came forward to intervene. Then, he stared at Vif again, speaking in a pleading tone, “Vif, can you really bear to do this?”
“Calm down, Tami. We’ve seen just how powerful the Empire’s royal knight army is many times over in Serland. I don’t want to bring immeasurable disaster to Ventoris because of this!”
“Being killed by those damned royal knights is better than dying of humiliation from hunger. At least that’s what I think! Before those bastards kill me, I’ll impale them on spears until my last drop of blood is shed! All we Serlanders have is our own lives—we’re never afraid of death!” Tami clenched his fists, his eyes filled with indomitable anger.
“But some problems can’t be solved with brute force alone! Do you know magic? Huh? Have you seen its power? I have. Those kids yesterday were all apprentices of magicians—a little girl could conjure water from thin air, and another kid could create fire out of nothing. You know, just kids in their teens already possess such great power. So what about real magicians?”

“All of this is an excuse, Vif! You coward! I’m asking you again—will you help me or not? Even if you don’t help, I’ll go alone and seize all that food!” Walking around the room a few times, Tami licked his lips and said with fervor, “I’ve done some preliminary research. Ghalik’s payroll convoy is guarded by two thousand knights—not royal knights, just ordinary soldiers. As long as we plan carefully, there won’t be any problems. Who knows Theland better than us? Besides food, there are also plenty of weapons. I heard that a rebellion broke out in Jacosenbu, and to avoid affecting Ghalik, the empire sent a batch of weapons there—those are exactly what we need…”

“But have you thought about how this might anger the empire? By then, not to mention the empire, we won’t even be able to withstand Ghalik’s army!”

“I don’t care about that! All I know is that without food, our elders, brothers, children, and women will starve to death. Without weapons, we can’t do anything—just rely on those few knives we have? It’s ridiculous, Vif! Even thieves wouldn’t use such small knives. How could they defeat royal knights? We need food! We need weapons!” Tami shouted angrily, his already weak walls becoming more damaged as he smashed them around.

The next moment, he suddenly fell silent, as if sensing something, and turned his head in shock toward one direction. Similarly, Vif and the dozen or so middle-aged and young people in the room also turned their heads in the same direction—the direction of the wooden ladder. On the ladder stood a boy with light yellow hair, staring at them in disbelief.

“Good heavens… Are you planning to rob Sassen’s payroll convoy heading to Ghalik?”