novelsite Chapter 55 Inspection
Chapter 55 Inspection
Chapter 58 Inspection
Gangwon walked slowly down a gravel slope toward the town at the foot of the hill.
The castle was built on a raised rocky outcrop, overlooking the entire territory.
On both sides of the slope were clumps of gray-green weeds, which were being blown about by the sea breeze.
After walking for about 15 minutes, the gravel road under our feet turned into a compacted dirt road, and low houses began to appear on both sides of the road.
They were called houses, but most of them were just sheds made of rough stones and wooden planks, with rags and dry straw on the roof for wind protection.
The town unfolds before our eyes.
Jiang Yuan's appearance quickly attracted attention.
Several emaciated commoners squatting at their doorsteps were the first to see him.
The messy hair is a local gray-brown and ginger-yellow color.
Their initial bewilderment gradually turned into confusion, and then, as if recognizing something, they abruptly lowered their heads, no longer daring to look directly at each other.
Some people quickly pulled their heads back from the window, while others stood at a distance, secretly observing him with a mixture of curiosity, awe, and unease.
A skinny child wearing open-crotch pants stared blankly at him, then was pulled into the house by his mother, who slammed the wooden door shut.
They didn't recognize the face, but they recognized the imposing figure descending from the direction of the castle.
The news of the new lord's appointment had already spread like wildfire throughout the small town of just over three thousand people.
"Looks like I need to change into some clothes from this world," Jiang Yuan thought to himself.
His clothes are too conspicuous here.
We'll have to order a few more to order.
As for the clothes left behind by the former Marcus, not to mention whether they fit his body, he would never touch them simply because they had been worn by others.
Continue walking in.
The dirt road underfoot was full of potholes.
An old man, hunched over, trudged from a distance, clutching a small, coarse cloth bag tightly in his arms, the bag stained with faint white marks.
That was the wheat flour we just received.
The old man's lips trembled, his eyes were red, and he muttered to himself.
The little bit of food he carried was probably enough to sustain him and his family for the next few days.
"The quantity is a bit small" — Jiang Yuan's gaze lingered on the shriveled little bag. "This little bit of stuff is barely enough to keep us alive."
He looked in the direction the crowd was coming from and saw Tissa.
She was overseeing the distribution of grain in a relatively open area in front of her.
In front of me was a simple wooden table with an open booklet spread out on it and several bags of wheat flour that had already been opened stacked next to it.
Two knights stood not far behind her, their hands on their swords, scanning the queue of people with expressionless faces.
The common people lined up in a crooked, long queue, their heads drooping, not daring to make a sound, only occasionally glancing out of the corner of their eyes at the food on the table that determined their life or death.
Jiang Yuan walked straight over.
Tissa was sketching something in her notebook when she suddenly seemed to notice something. She looked up and met Jiang Yuan's gaze.
Her body stiffened slightly, her expression shifting several times before she finally nodded somewhat hesitantly: "Lord."
Her voice wasn't loud, but it was loud enough for several people around to hear.
The civilians were stunned at first, then turned around abruptly and saw Jiang Yuan. Shock and fear instantly appeared on their faces.
The news spread outwards in circles, causing a stir among the queue as people turned to look.
"My lord—"
"Is this the new lord?"
"I heard it was this new lord who ordered the distribution of grain—"
A murmur of discussion arose, most of the voices filled with awe, some even bending their knees as if to kneel.
But not everyone is like that.
Jiang Yuan keenly noticed that on the outskirts of the crowd, several relatively muscular men, though also keeping their heads down, had a cold, scrutinizing gaze filled with distrust.
Their lips were tightly closed, and their eyes flickered, as if they were on guard against something.
Who knows what tricks this new lord is up to?
Jiang Yuan could almost read the subtext from their expressions.
These people's vigilance is not without reason.
In this barren territory, the first thing a lord who suddenly appeared did was to distribute grain, which in itself was strange.
Having grown accustomed to being exploited and oppressed, they felt an instinctive unease at the sudden act of kindness.
Jiang Yuan ignored the complicated looks from the others, simply nodding to Tissa and saying, "Well done. But there's way too little food; how can that be enough for one person?"
Tissa's mind was in complete turmoil.
After Jiang Yuan left, she worked in the room for half a day, sorting out the account books, rosters and various messy records accumulated over the years in the Cape Territory, and then neatly summarized them.
However, Jiang Yuan was nowhere to be seen during this time.
She didn't dare to go looking for him rashly.
He finally couldn't resist leaving the room and ran into Marin, only then learning what had happened the night before.
On the night she fell asleep without realizing it, this man, all by himself, killed the governor, the captain of the knights, and their confidants.
Three second-tier knights, just like that, they died?
All her previous calculations, the handle she had used as a shield, suddenly seemed ridiculous.
If he really wanted to do something to me, could I refuse?
They probably won't even have a chance to resist.
These thoughts were tangled up in her mind like countless knots of yarn, so when she heard Jiang Yuan say "too little," her grievances and annoyance surged up almost instinctively.
He lowered his voice, but the resentment in his tone was still palpable: "There's not much food left in the warehouse, and the people in the castle need to eat too. Even if we only keep this much, it'll only last seven or eight days!"
Three thousand is a lot, three times more than the Frostclaw tribe—Jiang Yuan glanced at the sallow, emaciated faces around him, silently calculated for a moment, and said, "I will naturally take care of the food issue. But since we've already done it today, let's release more tomorrow. This quality wheat flour is too poor."
"This is considered bad?" Tissa's eyes widened, then, as if realizing something, she whispered a word of advice: "Are you planning to ask Duke Leodor for grain? Absolutely not! If he sends someone to deliver grain, someone will come here and find out you're an imposter—"
"You're overthinking it —" Jiang Yuan turned to the two knights standing with their hands on their swords and ordered, "You two finish distributing the remaining grain."
The two knights immediately bowed and accepted the order.
Jiang Yuan looked at Tissa again: "Come with me."
Tissa's heart jumped again.
She involuntarily gripped the hem of her skirt, her voice tense: "What, what are you going to do?"
Jiang Yuan said without turning his head, "You forgot the introductory guide to magic I asked you to compile to teach me magic?"
"————" Tissa breathed a long sigh of relief.
The two retraced their steps, climbed the hill again, passed through the castle's entrance hall, and arrived at the lord's study.