Chapter 96 Strike
Jack didn't remember how long he struggled in the nightmare. When he finally woke up sweating and groaning, he was facing the increasingly gloomy face of his second brother Esk.
At first, Rabbi Esq did not quite believe his little brother's dreams about a train full of corpses heading for the sea, but soon the expression on his face changed.
"You mean, the leader was killed by the Knight of the Silver Helmet, and then the Queen ordered the shooting of all the workers who participated in blowing up the tracks?"
Jack, curled up in a blanket in a corner, nodded silently. He was now in a crowded, narrow tower, but the sea breeze rushed in without restraint from the open window. Flocks of white birds circled in the sky, and the people coming and going were pickled with a wet, salty smell.
"'Beheaded Queen' Esmerel, hum." A cold snort drifted into Jack's ears on the sea breeze. He looked in the direction of the sound and saw a red-haired girl sitting on the windowsill, one foot propped up and the other dangling outside the window, as if she was not afraid of falling at all.
She turned her head, her wheat-colored cheeks dotted with freckles, her red curly hair was fluffy like flames, and her green eyes were like wheat fields in early spring.
She was dressed like an ordinary farm girl, but her eyes were particularly resolute and bright - the farm girl's forearms and hands were not wrapped in a layer of faint blood-red bandages, and the protruding joints were as broad and strong as a man's.
"Marchlin," Jack heard his second brother call her. "The Crucible is dead. It seems the royal family is determined to violently suppress the local union in Black County. What should we do? If this continues, the brothers cooperating with the strike at the docks will be unable to hold on, and we will be in trouble too."
"I don't think so," the red-haired girl grinned at him. "Just wait a little longer, just three days."
"Those people are too arrogant. They always think that they can achieve their goals by killing a group of people." She jumped down from the windowsill, and seeing Jack staring at her blankly, she simply walked up to him and rubbed his head.
"Hello Jack, Ask told me that he has a younger brother named Jack and a younger sister named Nina." The red-haired girl laughed heartily, without any shyness that an ordinary girl would have. "I'm Marcyline, just call me Marcyline."
Jack was just about to blush, after all, the other party could be considered pretty - but this girl who looked younger than his second brother turned out to be much stronger than he had imagined. In just a few strokes, she rubbed him all over the place, and his scalp was numb.
"You'll be safe at Skua Wharf," said Marceline. "We'll find you a job, but you and your sister Nina can't run away from our territory—there are a lot of bad guys in Kasa Strait who will catch kids like you and eat them."
"--I'm twelve years old! I'm not a child anymore!" Jack couldn't help but blush as he defended himself.
"You're still just a kid." The red-haired girl shook her head distrustfully. "Don't look at me like that. I'm actually forty-two years old!"
Jack stared at her with wide eyes for a while, and it took him a long time to realize that she was joking with him. His annoying second brother sneered at his stupid expression.
In fact, Ask Rabbi had also been fooled by this nonsense. One day, this little girl who looked like she was still wet behind the ears suddenly appeared out of nowhere and defeated all the gangs in Skua Wharf with just her fists, including the local mercenary association, the seamen's union and the street gangs.
"From now on, I will be your boss. If you don't want to get beaten, just listen to me!" The other party threatened them like this, but apart from dealing with a group of real scum and asking them to pay attention to collecting information from the outside world, she did not interfere too much in gang affairs. Instead, she began to teach the children of gang members to read and help them when they clashed with dock officials.
It's not that no one objected to having a young woman on top of him, but the blood on his fist wasn't dry yet.
As one of the leaders of the Seamen's Union, Ask tried to find out the identity of this guy, but the red-haired girl told him sincerely that she was a warrior, 42 years old, who chose to retire at Jaeger Wharf, but she looked younger.
If Aix had not been shocked to find out after asking around that the other party was just the seventh of twelve children of an ordinary fishing couple in the Casa Strait - well, it seemed not so ordinary - he would have almost believed the other party's nonsense about the "secret to maintaining youth".
Marceline left the tower. The wind was moist, carrying messages from the ocean current. Not far away lay the sea, stretching toward the horizon. White flashes, shattered by the waves, danced merrily on the horizon. Many skuas were making a racket on the dock; it seemed a fishing boat had arrived. These greedy creatures would occasionally swoop down, trying to get a piece of the action—and there were no crows in the sky.
The red-haired girl shrugged somewhat disappointedly.
She couldn't leave the Casa Strait. She had to let the two people who might also go back to the past know where to find her and keep a meeting place for the three of them.
Unlike those two, who were plagued by bitter hatred and forced to scramble for survival, Maxine's childhood was remarkably warm and normal. Her only worry was having too many siblings, constantly stepping on one another, never having enough clothes to wear, and never having enough to eat. Furthermore, as the only girl of the three, the fool Orel took extra care of her, unwilling to let her take any risks, and requiring her to maintain a safe home for everyone.
As for Azuka? Most of the time, no one knew what he was thinking. He would just quietly ask her where she wanted to go, and a few days later, she would always run away for no apparent reason.
Maxine lowered her head, looking at her right hand. The seal of the Ocean God Odileus on the back of her hand was hidden by a bandage. The wounds on her joints had burst open from overtraining, but she clenched her fist even tighter, as if she felt no pain. This young, tender body was far from the peak form of her previous life, but Maxine was still a warrior, a fighter eager for battle and victory.
"...Now I really hope that Orel can kill all those bastards." The red-haired girl muttered softly, picked up the sandbag that a passing porter accidentally dropped on the ground with one hand, and threw it easily onto the cart in the other's horrified eyes.
Events did not develop as the royal family had hoped. The disappearance of their compatriots did not shock the people of Blackshire. After a brief silence, there was a larger and more thorough outbreak.
The entire Black County was completely shut down. No one was working, and the streets and taverns were full of idle people. This time, the strike was not just coal miners, but also textile workers, iron foundries, coachmen, night soil collectors... Even local thieves and prostitutes announced that they would no longer steal or engage in prostitution.
The news could not be suppressed no matter what. The stocks of traditional mining industries in Black County plummeted. The archbishop of the diocese stood up and accused local officials of inaction. Priests took to the streets to pray for the striking workers and distributed holy water for free to the injured and sick.
The Protector Company, which had successfully acquired a 30% stake in the Silver Flower Mine, announced in the newspaper that it would hire all skilled coal miners at one and a half times the current market rate. However, the local union rejected this offer, stating that they would not yield for such petty gains. The Blackshire people would continue their strike until the Crown intervened and passed legislation ensuring that all workers in high-risk occupations received the proper protection and treatment they deserved.
Mr. Nova, who had recently gained fame in Baita Town, also published an advertisement in the newspaper to support the general strike of the people in Black County. What shocked and shocked the public the most was that he directly exposed in the "People's Daily" that a massacre of workers by the regular army had occurred in Black County.
No one knew where his information came from, or even how he had obtained those bloody photos—but in an era before the concept of photo-editing, the photos were irrefutable evidence. The uniforms of the regular soldiers in the photos were so glaring that the Silver Iris Empire's troops were pointing their guns at the civilians they were supposed to be protecting.
The people of Black County were thoroughly enraged, and the strike quickly spread to other areas, even developing into demonstrations within the region. Forced to bear the brunt of the situation, Black County officials were left speechless. After all, they hadn't publicly disclosed the Silver Helm Knight's existence—indeed, they might as well have. That way, they could easily claim the royal family had received a tip-off, concluding that the workers were merely saboteurs and enemy spies. Now, would they dare to shift the blame to the royal family, claiming the King and Queen had ordered the workers' execution?
Azuka was also curious about Mr. Nova's source of information, as the other party had never left Baita Town from beginning to end - fortunately, he could ask him directly.
"I put a portable two-way photo stone in the purse I left for the rabbi's family - it was quite expensive, and it used up all the gold coins you stuffed into my wallet." The professor said casually as he worked.
"There's also a note inside, asking the blacksmith to lead his family to the Kasa Strait and cross Black County. If he encounters anything unusual, please activate the photo stone, and I'll get the image. In return, I swear to the Okansele River that regardless of whether he captures anything valuable, I will do my best to clear the injustice and shame of his eldest son, Rabbi Madel, whom he's so proud of, in front of everyone."
The black-haired young man paused for a moment before continuing, "I didn't expect the blacksmith to actually capture something so important. Initially, he just wanted to take some photos to report on the strike. It was just an excuse to make them accept the compensation with peace of mind."
Azuka stared at him with an indecipherable expression. Even though he believed that he was almost inseparable from the other party, he couldn't help but feel a chill on his back because of this man's meticulous planning. A kind of extremely familiar horror suddenly made his heart beat faster.
"...How did you know that there would be a riot in Black County in the near future?" he asked softly.
"A letter from a reader." Nova frowned and looked at him. He always felt that there seemed to be something wrong with the other person's expression, but he couldn't tell what it was.
He simply nodded at the pile of letters that seemed to be growing every moment and almost covering the desk. "The Black County Coal Miners' Union's 'Furnace' has written to me several times. It's easy to tell from the way he writes."
The black-haired young man was silent for a moment, then turned his head away slightly: "He's dead, but I didn't try to persuade him."
——He is destined to die, I can't save him.
—Besides, I need his death, the death of a hitherto nameless revolutionary.
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