Chapter 41 More Debt, No Worries! Triangle House
When the first group of servants and their families arrived in the Land of Sin, Shu Xin arranged for them to build a magic workshop.
Even though the flower fairies don't eat much, they are not allowed to eat for free; those who do not work do not get to eat!
Doing the same work and eating the same food as the slaves, the flower fairies were quite used to it. When drinking the thick bone broth with wheat husks floating on top, they even seemed happier than the slaves.
The servants of the Flower Castle would share their share of mutton soup with the newly arrived flower fairies, and the flower fairies were overjoyed after drinking the even thicker and more delicious mutton soup.
Every time Shu Xin looked outside, she could see one of the flower fairies flying around working in the air suddenly start happily spinning in circles, dancing and singing—
Some of the flower fairies stopped to applaud, while others joined in the dancing and twirling. Many more flew away while singing a song as if to accompany the music. Once they finished singing and dancing, they went back to work as if nothing had happened.
Only Shu Xin couldn't help but feel embarrassed for others. It wasn't until Xi came in and saw her that Shu Xin realized that while she felt embarrassed, she couldn't help but smile.
At that time, Xi was very interested in the new flower fairies. She even came back to complain to her, saying that these flower fairies had become stupid from eating fruit all year round. They all believed that the soup they drank was so delicious because it must have been blessed by the Flower Fairy. They even seriously discussed what kind of fruit the pieces of mutton and the cartilage in the mutton soup were, and how they could taste so good when cooked in the soup.
To be honest, if the Land of Sin weren't so desolate, with hardly any wildflowers or fruits, Shu Xin really thought these new flower fairies would have tried cooking the fruits to eat...
The bitter wheat soup in the Land of Sin was indeed so bitter that it was hard to swallow, but the food of the flower fairies outside the Land of Sin was not particularly plentiful or delicious either.
Flower fairies eat raw white rice cakes day after day, year after year, while flower fairy nobles also eat raw red rice cakes year after year. However, commoners who cannot afford rice cakes have a slightly more variety on their tables, but it is still just various kinds of wheat rice and wheat soup with all kinds of fruits.
Shu Xin genuinely suspected that a large part of the reason why the flower fairies were so small was because they couldn't get enough to eat—magical creatures needed magic power, and the amount of magic power that the flower fairies ate was probably less than half a red rice fruit!
Shu Xin believed that the flower fairy civilians seemed to adapt well to the fact that the food provided to them contained enough magic, given that the land of sin was far poor in magic compared to other territories. Many flower fairies even had much shinier hair after eating bone broth and mutton soup for a few days.
After the second group of servants and their families arrived in the Land of Sin, Shu Xin realized that there was a significant discrepancy between her understanding of the flower fairy population and the actual situation, and she promptly adjusted her plans—
All the flower fairies stopped building the magic workshop and began constructing the triangular house.
The name "Triangle House" was something Shu Xin came up with on her own. She had been researching how to build a house for the flower fairy servants as well, because she couldn't let them sleep in the underground warehouse forever.
After much deliberation, Shu Xin set her sights on the straw boxes, which was her original plan: to transform an entire straw box into a small house suitable for flower fairies to live in. After all, with so many straw boxes, she could give one to every flower fairy servant.
Unexpectedly, the flower fairy servants brought so many family members, but the total number of straw boxes was only about a hundred!
It was impossible to give one to every flower fairy, so Shu Xin had to scrap her previous idea and start from scratch. In the end, she actually came up with a solution—since the most needed material was building materials, she would just turn the straw boxes into building materials!
Cut all six sides of the straw box into triangular shapes, and then assemble it like a triangular tent. With just three pieces of straw and a little white clay, you can build a sturdy triangular house on the ground.
Even the densest straw mats will let in the wind, and if it rains, it will definitely rain heavily outside and lightly inside. But the Land of Sin has neither wind nor rain, and every day is sunny, which is perfect!
The straw, thoroughly dried by the sun, was smooth and dry, and some even emitted a fresh and pleasant grassy scent. At least in this land of sin, Shu Xin couldn't find a more suitable material to build houses for the flower fairies.
In this way, even if there are only about a hundred straw boxes, the cut triangular straw weaves are enough to build several times more triangular straw houses, which can provide enough dwellings for the flower fairies.
If we're talking about problems, there are some. The straw boxes used to store magical materials are all somewhat worn, and their shapes vary in size. Naturally, the triangular straw cuts also have varying degrees of wear and tear, and their sizes differ. As a result, the triangular straw houses that are assembled vary in size, some are damaged, and some are intact, all in different conditions.
However, Shu Xin felt it wasn't a big problem. The intact houses would be for those with good magical talent, and the damaged ones would be for those with less magical talent. If someone's magical talent wasn't very good but they performed exceptionally well in their future work, Shu Xin could simply use repair magic to fix the damaged parts for them later—there was definitely no time to worry about that now.
In addition, the flower fairy servants brought varying numbers of family members, so the larger ones could be assigned to the flower fairies with more family members, and the smaller ones to the flower fairies with fewer family members. As for the specific arrangement of beds, let them negotiate internally; Shu Xin couldn't care less about that!
As time went by, more and more flower fairies came to the Land of Sin. The flower fairies who came first could sleep in the underground warehouse of the Flower Castle with excitement and fear, but the flower fairies who came later could only sleep in the wheat field like the servants before them.
Not only was Shu Xin troubled by the dramatic increase in the number of flower fairies, but Nuonoli and Pengpengan also approached Shu Xin with heavy expressions and told her another painful truth—
Slaves are the property of their lords and therefore do not need to pay taxes. Servants serve their lords and lose their freedom, but they also receive a reduction in magic tax. However, commoners are different; every commoner needs to pay magic tax.
Strictly speaking, the magic tax is a collective term for three types of taxes. Specifically, commoners need to pay a poll tax, a house tax, and a land tax. If the harvest from their land is insufficient to cover all the taxes, commoners often have to sell their land and even their houses to make up the difference. However, once they lose their land and houses, they become slaves.
Therefore, in order to avoid becoming slaves, commoners either chose to become servants of nobles to obtain a reduction in magic tax, or they chose to join patrol teams to obtain an exemption from magic tax. Yes, joining a patrol team, although it would be life-threatening, could also obtain a large amount of magic tax exemption. Therefore, in a commoner family, some members would become servants and others would become members of the patrol team.
The former has a very high threshold; even if a flower fairy can become a servant, she will lose her freedom and will no longer be able to provide labor for the family. The latter has virtually no threshold, but flower fairies are likely to be crippled in battle, or even more likely to die. Ultimately, the result is that ordinary people are unable to afford the magic tax and eventually become slaves.
The more Shu Xin learned about the system of the Kingdom of Garnar, the more she felt it was rubbish. She couldn't understand the king's purpose at all—it couldn't be that he wanted to turn all the flower fairies into slaves as tiny as mosquitoes!
What Nonori and Pengpengan wanted to tell Shuxin was that the amount of magic tax that the territory had to pay was directly related to the number of civilians in the territory. Previously, there were no civilians in the Land of Sin, so it didn't matter whether or not taxes were paid. But now there were so many flower fairies, all of whom were free citizens, so the amount of magic tax that the Land of Sin had to pay had increased significantly. Under these circumstances, the patrol officers would absolutely not allow the Land of Sin not to pay taxes.
In other words, the Land of Sin not only needs to pay magic tax, but also a very large amount of magic tax!
Shu Xin: "We'll talk about the future later!"
Having too much debt means having no worries! The urgent matter right now is how to deal with these waves of flower fairies flooding into the land of sin!
In order to save time, Shu Xin arranged for the flower fairies to build the triangular straw houses, but only the outer walls were built. The outer walls were solid and had no doors or windows. Now all the flower fairy servants who went out have returned with their families, and the construction of the triangular straw houses is complete.
Looking down from above, the triangular houses resemble delicate straw-woven rice dumplings with pointed corners scattered on the ground.
Under Nonori and Pengpengan's constant scolding, the flower fairies gradually quieted down, and the colorful stream that originally flowed across the yellow earth turned into quiet clouds.
Taking a deep breath, Shu Xin spread her wings and flew out of the Flower Castle.
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Author's Note: Thank you to all the little angels who voted for me or watered my plants with nutrient solution between 2024-07-10 20:59:39 and 2024-07-11 20:58:18!
Thank you to the little angels who watered with nutrient solution: Luweng and Mingtong (1 bottle each);
Thank you so much for your support! I will continue to work hard!
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