Chapter 313 Sunset at Blood Harbor
"So, will you let them get the bolt-action rifle from you?" The mother-in-law looked at the young man opposite with interest.
Erwin chuckled, "Of course not."
"Giving them gifts is one thing, but if they are plotting against our weapons, that is another matter. However, the prince should find out soon enough."
At this point, Erwin asked with a little curiosity: "Mother-in-law, I heard that you are a researcher. I don't know much about these things. Lord Hughes gave them the bolt-action rifle. Is there really no problem?"
Grandma looked up and pushed her glasses: "I remember you joined the patrol team at the beginning, and you haven't been to the factory much?"
"Yes, Master Alexi selected me in the first batch, and I became a soldier before the factory was built - there were not even Skitarii at that time."
Granny nodded slowly, understanding: "I see. Then do you know what is needed to make this bolt-action rifle?"
"Uh, coal? Steel?"
Granny casually picked up the rifle that Erwin was standing beside her, pulled the bolt open skillfully, pushed it back and swung it down, glanced at the receiver and chamber, and said leisurely, "To make this bolt-action rifle, you need 60 parts, 200 processes, a special rifling production line, milling, heat treatment, a whole set of chemical processes to produce gunpowder, 17 factories to cooperate in manufacturing and assembling it, and 11,000 literate industrialized people."
"In short, it takes the entire island of Castell to produce it. It's a miracle of industry."
Granny placed the bolt-action rifle on the table and gently pushed it toward Erwin.
"Want to imitate it? Nini can't do it even if she uses fossils to turn into mud, not to mention cognitive interference."
Erwin swallowed, and for the first time the sturdy man felt awe at the gun in his hand.
It is a product of industry, but its complexity has long exceeded human beings' poor imagination.
I wonder what kind of despair the craftsmen of the Principality of Tis felt when they saw it?
The sophisticated parts were piled together to form a weapon that they could not understand at all. The only thing they could figure out was how to pull the trigger.
However, this bolt-action rifle was not the strongest weapon in Castel, and it was not even ranked. Even though Erwin did not have a strong worship for it, he did not think that this bolt-action rifle was anything big.
The Lord was too lazy to give it a name and simply called it a bolt-action rifle.
But in the Blood Port of Tis, this rifle has caused so much covetousness and conspiracy.
Erwin understood Hughes's thoughts - Castel just needed friends.
There was no one here worthy of being his enemy.
Alvin suddenly felt a little bored. Tis... Blood Harbor... was nothing special.
They are of no use to Caster. There is no point in being here. He can just pick up Connor and go back.
Somewhat boring.
The door opened and closed again.
Erwin was stunned for a moment before he reacted and greeted her, "How was your fun, Zoe?"
Zoe rarely spoke. She took off her muddy boots at the door, picked them up in her hands, and walked into the house wearing only her socks.
The room was covered with carpets, and she didn't want to get them dirty, so she put her shoes at the door.
When she turned around, facing the concerned eyes of everyone in the room, Zoe pursed her lips.
"I just went to the slums. Actually, it's not really a slum, it's just the lower city area of Blood Harbor."
"I, I actually didn't go out much before. I was always a maid in the mansion, first in the Duke of Cohen's territory, and then in Castel. I mean, I didn't see these poor people much."
Zoe raised her head and looked at everyone in the room with sharp eyes. She grabbed the corner of her clothes and her voice trembled a little.
"I want to ask, are all the people at the bottom suffering so much, or is it only the case in Blood Harbor?"
The room was quiet for a while.
Most of the people in Castel fled here from nearby places and had to endure pirate looting once they arrived on the island. It was only after Hughes came that they were able to get out of this quagmire.
My mother-in-law, as a moth chasing after fire, has been displaced all her life and has seen countless hardships.
In the whole room, Zoe was the only one who had little contact with these lower levels.
"Always."
"Poor people have always been like this. Whether it's Rhine or Jewel Bay, they are struggling in the quagmire of despair. It has never changed."
Mother-in-law said softly.
Zoe clutched the corner of her clothes, bowed, turned and ran away.
She locked herself in the room and ignored anyone who called her. The only sound coming from inside was the rustling sound of the pen tip scratching across paper.
The people in the room looked at each other, and the atmosphere became inexplicably heavy.
Erwin looked at Zoe's closed door, stunned for a moment, and suddenly looked around.
This was a separate mansion, which the prince had allocated to the people of Castel for them to live in.
The mansion was beautifully decorated, even luxuriously. The house was covered with wool carpets with hidden patterns. These carpets, produced in the North, cost tens of rios per square foot, enough to feed a family of fishermen for two months.
And this is only the most insignificant decoration in this mansion. The portraits hanging on the walls and the candlesticks inlaid with silver are all exquisite and luxurious objects.
But if you walk out of the mansion and go two streets further, you will reach the downtown area where Zoe went to stroll.
Before coming here, Erwin had heard that Blood Harbor was in great chaos, with cultists rampant and people living in misery, but he had not experienced any of that. There was not even any noise on the streets, and the guards patrolling day and night would kill anyone and anything that should not be here in the lower city.
Blood Harbor is the largest port in Tiss, with a full 20,000 people living nearby, and there are also thousands of people in the core area near the port.
These thousands of people lived, worked, struggled, and died here without disturbing the people in the mansion at all.
It's as if they don't exist.
Erwin represented Castel and lived in the mansion with the prince. They exchanged elegant moves, mocked the winner and regretted the loser. All of this had nothing to do with the thousands of people struggling to survive outside.
Erwin stood up at some point, and he suddenly realized that he seemed to be no different from the nobles he once hated. He did not even notice the existence of those poor people - he was also fishing on a boat a few years ago and worried about food every day.
He was even worse than Zoe, the innocent little maid, whose boots lay by the door, stained with the mud of the lower city.
Erwin stared blankly at the sunset outside the house. The afterglow of the sunset fell on his face, on the bodies of millions of people in Blood Harbor, and equally spread over this huge, chaotic, prosperous, yet corrupt port.
(End of this chapter)
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