Chapter 39 [The Situation in the Northern Territories]
After having breakfast early in the morning and putting down her knife and fork, Mela said she had to go out again.
Silas didn't even look up, continuing to bury his head in the half-eaten mushroom pie.
Lex, on the other hand, wore a thoughtful expression after Mela left with the basket.
He asked Silas, "Have you noticed that Mela seems a little off these past couple of days?"
"Mmm?" Silas responded, chewing on his pie.
Having spent so much time together, Lex probably understood that it was asking Mela what was wrong.
“She’s been going out more often.” Lex rested his chin on his hand, his thumb unconsciously rubbing the side of his face a few times, looking thoughtful.
Like Silas, Mela mostly prefers to stay indoors and is too lazy to move. The only thing that can get her to overcome her laziness and go out is something that attracts her, such as a certain herb that has reached its ripening period and will be missed if it is not picked soon.
Although Mela did bring back a basket of flowers and plants when she went out these past two days, Lex still felt something was off.
"What's wrong with this?" Silas finally swallowed the food in his mouth and asked in return.
It thinks Mela is perfectly normal.
"Don't make such a fuss, maybe Mela is preparing a surprise for us?" Silas reassured Lex.
surprise?
Lex chewed on the word with a strange expression.
How could he forget that Mela was also exceptionally enthusiastic when doing bad things?
If she really did prepare something for them, it would probably be a shock rather than a surprise.
*
Unaware that Silas and Lex were secretly talking behind her back, Mela was on her way to meet Grind and Gwentil.
Although she rejected their offer to team up the night before last, that didn't stop Mela from sneaking over to chat with Gwentil these past two days and listen to her talk about what was happening outside.
Gwentil and Grind's campsite was near the woods where they had met Mela, who kindly reminded them that it was much safer to rest in a tree than to keep a fire burning to protect themselves from wild animals.
At least there were only snakes in the tree, but Grind was clearly outnumbered, not to mention he also had to protect Gwentil, who didn't seem to have much fighting ability.
Upon hearing about the snake, Gwendile surprisingly remained calm, likely because she had encountered a similar incident during her long journey from the Northern Territories to the Dark Forest.
However, Mela also said that as long as one of them stayed up to keep watch, the snake wouldn't be much of a danger to them.
Gwentil and Grind exchanged a glance and accepted Mela's offer.
When Mela came to see Gwentil today, she was surprised to find that Grind was not there.
Doesn't he worry about Gwentil being left alone here?
Gwentil explained on behalf of Grinker, "Grinker said you should be here by now, and told me to wait for you here. He was planning to go somewhere further away to find more food."
After all, with just the two of them, Gwentil was almost completely useless in finding food, relying entirely on Grind. Even though the Dark Forest was richer in resources than they had imagined, they still had to spend time carefully searching for edible food.
Nevertheless, Gwentil was completely oblivious to the fact that she was a burden.
"After all, if it weren't for me, Gwentil would probably have been captured by the lord's men long ago," Gwentil proudly snorted.
"Arrested? Isn't he a civilian? How could he be arrested?" Mela lifted the handkerchief covering the basket, revealing two apples hidden underneath, and gave one to Gwentil.
Gwendi took the apple, took a big bite, and felt the rich juice filling her mouth. For a moment, she felt a long-lost sense of happiness. Counting the time, she realized that she hadn't eaten such sweet fruit for almost two months.
“The situation in the Northern Territory is far more serious than you Southerners think,” Gwentil said.
Since Mela said she didn't come from the Northern Territories, Gwentil naturally assumed she was from the Southern Territory.
Mela didn't refute it, letting Gwentil continue to misunderstand.
“In our area, starting around July, there were sporadic slave escapes,” Gwentil recalled.
Generally speaking, slaves could only live on the lord's manor, while commoners were free to roam outside.
But after slaves repeatedly escaped, the lords, for reasons unknown, began openly sending men to randomly arrest civilians in the streets, claiming they were slaves who had escaped from the manor.
Among the men sent by the lord was the steward of the manor, who identified the face, saying that he could not possibly mistake it for one of his slaves.
"I think things can't be that simple, can they?"
Mela fell into deep thought. "Leaving aside how those captured civilians will escape, their neighbors, relatives, and friends should all be able to serve as witnesses and easily prove their identities. The kingdom's laws stipulate that the number of slaves within a territory can only be one-fifth of the number of civilians. Arbitrarily increasing the number of slaves—unless your lord has gone mad?"
Regardless of what the king who enacted this law was thinking, the kingdom did indeed protect many civilians through this law; otherwise, given the ruthless methods of these lords, there would probably be very few civilians left in the entire territory.
The latter part of the decree also stated that if the number of slaves exceeded that of commoners, even by just one extra person, the king could immediately order that someone else take over the lord's seat.
The treatment one receives as a lord is vastly different from that of one's younger brother or nephew.
Therefore, most lords who wanted to obtain more slave quotas had to painstakingly govern their territories and increase the number of commoners, rather than simply and crudely arresting people and claiming them as slaves.
When did these lords of the northern territories gain the confidence to challenge the king?
“So,” Gwentil spread her hands, “the lord said that witnesses are unreliable, and if you want to prove that you are not a slave, you have to produce evidence.”
"Oh? What evidence?"
"Give one-fifth of your property to the lord."
Oh, now Mela understands. This is just a way for these lords to find a new pretext to make the common people pay taxes.
But it must be said that this evidence is truly irrefutable.
Witnesses may lie, but in the kingdom, only commoners and nobles above the commoner level can own their own property. If you cannot produce property, the lord will say you are a slave, and even if the matter is taken to the king, he will not find fault.
As for whether you suffered a sudden accident that caused you to lose your life savings?
The high and mighty lords wouldn't care about your affairs; they would never bestow their already meager compassion upon a commoner.
Thinking about it more deeply, Mela began to suspect that the so-called slave escape was probably just a pretext deliberately put forward by these lords. Otherwise, how could those emaciated slaves, starving and pale, have escaped from the watchful eyes of tall, strong guards and successfully fled from the heavily guarded manor?
"What about Grining? What's wrong with him? Does he not have the money either?" Mela brought the topic back to the beginning, to the matter of Grining.
"Yes, when he met me, he didn't have a single penny on him. I traded two gold rings for him from those people."
"I didn't realize you were so generous," Mela said, giving Gwentil a meaningful look.
The fact that she could readily take out two gold rings to save someone suggests that Gwentil comes from a relatively wealthy family, which explains why she developed such an innocent personality.
Only the poor are meticulous and thoughtful.
However, Meera suspected that something major might have happened to Gwentil's family, otherwise she wouldn't have ended up in this situation, forced to flee alone.
“When my father was still alive, what did two gold rings mean? Such simple, unadorned jewelry was kept in a jewelry box, and I was too lazy to even wear it.”
Sure enough, Gwentil couldn't hold back and blurted out all the changes she had experienced recently.
It turns out that Gwentil was born into a very wealthy family. Her father was a wool merchant and her mother was the sister of a tax official. They had saved up an enormous dowry for their only daughter, Gwentil.
Two months ago, Gwentil's mother was startled by an accident while going downstairs and fell. She died before the doctor arrived, while Gwentil's unborn brother was still in her belly.
Gwentil's father was plunged into deep grief after suddenly losing his beloved wife and youngest son. While taking a coachman to a friend's house for a party, he and his coachman tragically plunged off a cliff.
Now Gwendi has not only lost her father and mother, but has also become an orphan who can be bullied by anyone.
Her uncle's family took this opportunity to move in openly and had Gwentil's servants running around like madmen.
Because she was unmarried, Gwendi had no way of getting a penny from her father's inheritance, except for the jewelry she already owned. She could only watch helplessly as her uncle's family squandered her father's fortune.
Fortunately, evil people will always have their own evil people to deal with them.
As it happened, because she inherited her father's estate, Gwentil's uncle was targeted by the lord and imprisoned. Only his eldest son could use the money to get him out.
Unexpectedly, the lord's appetite could not be satisfied with such a small amount of money, and in the blink of an eye, Gwentil's cousin was also arrested.
While her family was in chaos and overwhelmed by two consecutive events, Gwentil secretly ran away with a box full of jewelry.
She always felt that the lord wouldn't let her uncle's family off the hook unless he took all the money. Even if he saved her cousin, she still had two younger cousins.
Of course, since the money would never end up in Gwentil's hands anyway, she figured it would be nice if it could make her uncle's family suffer a bit.
Consider it as her paying the lord's men to teach her uncle's family a lesson.
However, Gwentil ran away on a whim, but when she actually set off alone, she was completely clueless and almost got scammed.
Fortunately, she rescued Grining on the way. Out of gratitude, and because news of drought was spreading throughout the territory, Grining suggested that she grit her teeth, move south, and return after the drought was over.
Seeing Gwendi's hesitation, Grindke urged her harder, saying that as long as she wasn't caught on the way, even if she came back and was asked by others, as long as she insisted that she had hidden somewhere else, who could possibly expose her?
Not to mention her uncle's family, who were barely able to take care of themselves.
Gwentil thought about it and agreed with Grind, so she followed him through various remote and sparsely populated places, and they made it to the south relatively smoothly.
However, Gwentil and Grind had no idea that the situation in the south was not much better than in the north. The prices of food and alcohol were exorbitantly high, and there were people specifically assigned to guard the wells.
Moreover, strangers like them are easily targeted if they enter a town.
Gwentil was fast asleep when suddenly a pair of hands covered her mouth and nose in the middle of the night. If she hadn't struggled so hard, and had Grind, who had also been attacked at night, rushed over from the next room, she probably wouldn't have seen the sun rise the next day.
After this ordeal, Gwentil and Grindl dared not linger in the town any longer, so they decided to hide in the Dark Forest.
No wonder Grinkel said they were at their wits' end; that's what he meant.
A look of understanding appeared in Mela's eyes.
"However, you could have just stayed on the outskirts of the forest. Why did you have to venture so deep into this place?"
The deeper they went into the forest, the greater the danger naturally became. Logically, the best option for Gwentil was for Grind to take her and stay cautiously on the outskirts of the forest.
“I wanted to too,” Gwentil said, sounding almost tearful. “I got startled by a rabbit and accidentally got separated from Grinning. When I calmed down, I wanted to go back the way I came to find Grinning, but as I searched, I found that it was getting dark.”
As darkness fell, the Dark Forest was plunged into complete darkness. Gwentil cautiously looked around before taking each step to avoid another accident.
Now that things have come to this, she has no choice but to follow her memories and keep going, hoping that she might be able to get out of there.
As for the result, the fact that Gwentil is still here tells us that she must have failed to leave the Dark Forest.
The only saving grace was that Gwentil reunited with Grinkel, and the two of them, together, changed direction and headed towards the place where the moonlight was shining through.
Where there is light, there always feels a bit safer in the darkness.
As she spoke, Gwentil was left with only a fruit pit in her hand.
Reluctantly, she dug a small hole in the ground with her hands, put the pit in, and then filled the hole back in, hoping that the pit might grow into a tall apple tree in the future.
"Speaking of which, where did you pick these two apples from?" Gwentil, having finished eating the apples, looked at Mela, remembering she should ask her about it.
At this point, Mela only had one fruit pit left in her hand. Upon hearing this, she replied without hesitation, "I forgot."
"Forgot?" Gwentil looked at Mela suspiciously, wondering if this was just an excuse.
Seeing this, Mela raised her eyes with a half-smile, "You can forget how to get back the way you came, but I can't forget where I met the wild apple tree?"
Gwentil awkwardly looked away. Well, the Dark Forest is so vast, it's normal to forget!
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