My portable grandfather refreshes every week

Chapter 272 Observations on the Northern Border

"Hmm? What's that noise?" Xue Daoli lifted the carriage lid and saw the direction of the Demon Beast Forest. There seemed to have been some movement just now.

"It's probably the wind." He ignored it and silently returned to the carriage, where the books and pen floated around him and began to write automatically.

……

Although the Holy Kingdom is a unified human territory that encompasses the entire world, its land area is not large.

The distance from the far north to the far south is less than 800 kilometers, while the distance from the far east to the far west is only a little over 1200 kilometers.

This area probably occupies less than one-tenth of the entire continent; the rest of the land is filled with unimaginable primeval forests and mountains, providing habitat and breeding grounds for magical beasts.

Although this area is not large, it occupies the most fertile plains carved out by the rivers of the entire continent, making it the most suitable place for farming.

However, this land, most suitable for farming, did not belong to ordinary people, but to gods and nobles.

Yes, all the land in the entire theocracy belongs to the gods and nobles; ordinary people have no right to cultivate it.

During the journey, Xue Dinglu could see a large number of expressionless, dead-looking people planting crops in the fields. These were the units used by the divine nobles specifically for farming.

And all of this food will become food in exchange for the baby.

Xue only hired a carriage, not a driver, because he only needed to give the horse a command to carry it out.

The carriage stopped by the roadside, and Xue Dinglu got off the carriage and saw those people working like corpses.

He stepped forward and then realized he didn't need to go any further.

Those farming fellows were not human, or perhaps they were once human, but upon closer inspection, Xue discovered their true nature beneath their masks.

Plant monsters are similar to the 6 million monsters in the parallel world. They work like tireless robots. Xue's Law can even see plant monsters sticking their hands into the mud. The next moment, the seedlings in this land grow rapidly in the naked eye.

He looked up into the distance and saw that the densely packed farmland was filled with these monsters on guard. They stood eternally in their fields, killing birds and insects that tried to cause trouble, just like preying on plants, to feed themselves, while simultaneously cultivating their own fields.

Like a scarecrow that can move in a rice paddy.

“Xerylus, those in the rice paddies are… Deadpools? No, why are all the people in the paddies Deadpools?” Lan Lin’er stared blankly at the mechanically moving figures in the rice paddies, her face full of shock.

"Are you very familiar with these things?" Xue asked knowingly.

“Ugh…that’s my father…no, someone I’ve seen in my family, called a Deadpool. But all the people I’ve seen in my family are combatants. Does that mean all the fields we’ve been through have been planted by Deadpools?” she asked blankly.

Xue Dinglu nodded.

A gentle breeze rustled the white robe, and seedlings were visibly growing in the distant rice paddies. However, the scene lacked any vitality; instead, it depicted a bizarre cycle of plants nurturing new plants.

"Then... the land has been planted by the Dead Servants, how do ordinary people survive?" Lan Lin'er asked an extremely foolish question.

It's such a stupid question that she, as a local, didn't even know.

"Have a baby." Xue Luding turned around and left the place.

"Huh?" Lan Lin'er was stunned for a moment. She stared blankly at the lifeless fields, which stretched as far as the eye could see, all flat farmland.

A gentle breeze stirred, and she hugged herself tightly, as if only in this way could she dispel the chill in her heart.

Why is everything I see completely opposite to what my mother said? My mother said that humans would cultivate the land, harvest food, and that it would be the same every year, with birds singing and children singing in the fields.

But now, everywhere you look, there is no sign of life.

What is Father doing? What does he want to do?
She knew that these Dead Servants were trained by her family, but what she didn't know was why her father was doing this.
Would he feel happy to see the hellish human world?

For the first time, she felt doubt and anger towards her stern and unsmiling father.

If one could deceive oneself by blaming the birth factories and slums of the capital city on the nobles and branch families, then here, she felt the strongest doubt about her father, who was always talking about righteousness and the world.

Why does my father say one thing and do another?
Once this seed is planted in your heart, it's like opening Pandora's box, constantly taking root and sprouting.

……

Rosmar, on the northern border.

The carriage finally arrived here; in fact, this border region is only a few hundred kilometers away from the capital.

On Earth, it would probably only take a few hours to get there by simply stepping on the gas.

But here, even at such a short distance, there's a chill in the air—a climate and environment completely different from the capital.

"We've arrived in Rosmar. This is the last stop on the fertile land. Further north lies frozen soil unsuitable for planting," Xue Dinglu said quietly, referring to the environment he had learned about through human geography.

The imperial region south of Rosmar has a temperate climate, while the area north of this border has a subarctic climate.

Furthermore, because of its proximity to the sea, the humid monsoon brings air from the sea level, resulting in a lot of humid air in the north. However, as soon as the temperature drops slightly, it will snow heavily here.

But further north lies the icy plains, the territory of magical beasts. It is said that a large number of these beasts inhabit that region, frequently attacking humans or utterly annihilating entire villages near the border. Therefore, Rosmar is also a border fortress. In the angel's memory, she once established border walls and outposts in this territory for a very long time, and bestowed upon the people of this land the protection of the cold.

Although the protection was weak, only enough to prevent the soldiers here from freezing to death or suffering frostbite in winter, she had indeed put a lot of effort into this border area. After all, she was born in primitive times and knew better about the disasters caused by northern monsters that could not survive the cold winter and came south to prey on them.

Therefore, under her rule, the area was generally peaceful. The brave warriors who were blessed by her and were not afraid of the cold guarded the northern border of the Papacy for generations. In the original Papacy of the Angels, they also had a very glorious title.

Known as the "Wild Hunt Warriors," they are among the most elite members of the Papacy's Twelve Warriors, having received numerous honors and even being personally commended by the Pope.

But now, Xue Dinglu saw the distant city walls and outposts, and everywhere he looked, there was only ruin.

The defensive line that once resisted the monsters has been completely reduced to ruins, and all the outposts and beacon towers that were responsible for transmitting messages have collapsed.

The once glorious Vatican and its warriors, along with the Wild Hunt, have all vanished into the annals of history.

Perhaps those who were blessed by angels and possessed cold resistance have all perished. Then who are the people left in this border fortress?

How did they fight off the monsters, and how did they survive in this place?
Xue's Law suddenly came to mind with a lot of thoughts.

Lan Lin'er got out of the car as well. A crystal snowflake landed on her head. It was the first time she had ever seen snow. She even caught the snowflake like a child and then secretly licked it when she realized that Xue Dinglu wasn't looking at her.

But the snow had already turned into water before she could lick it.

A large group of children left Rosmar on the road, seemingly heading towards the capital. This unusual behavior caught Lanlin'er's attention, and she asked, "Are you heading to the capital?"

The group of five or six children looked around, and then one of them, who seemed to be the leader, said, "Yes, we are going to work in the capital. We heard that you can eat your fill there without working, so we decided to go and make money."

This leader had long, ice-blue hair and was dressed in leather armor, giving her a rather heroic appearance.

In the capital city, a woman of this age would probably be a mother of several babies by now, but here on the northern border, she doesn't look like she's ever given birth.

With measurements of 82-62-79, she has a very healthy figure, so healthy that you can even vaguely see her abdominal muscles through her leather jacket. People who have given birth, especially those who have had many children, definitely don't have such a healthy figure.

Xue's Law silently thought to himself.

"No, here, the thing about receiving money for giving birth..." Lan Lin'er said.

"You mean those people tried to buy our tribe's children with money? We would never do that, but I heard that some other ethnic groups were planning to do the same thing. However, after handing over their children, they had their subsidies withheld, and they made a huge scene, which made us all laugh at them." The leader of the group said casually.

In the northern border region, they did not seem to rely on childbirth subsidies for survival, which instead brought a glimmer of light to Lan Lin'er's eyes.

Yes, this is the normal human world that my mother was talking about, not that hell where you can survive by giving birth.

As if she had found her own Eden, she asked impatiently, "If you don't rely on having children to receive subsidies, how do you survive?"

The blue-haired leader smiled, pointed to herself with her thumb, and said, "Of course, it's killing and eating magical beasts!"

"Huh?" This surprised Lan Lin'er.

All the farmland was controlled by the divine nobles, and the northern border did not rely on having children to receive subsidies; instead, they mainly made a living by killing magical beasts.

This lifestyle, which seemed to have returned to the primitive era, even made Xue Dinglu listen attentively.

"Come on, tell the noble lords of the capital our achievements. I've killed 148 magical beasts." The leader proudly pointed to herself with her thumb.

"I've killed 31!"

"I've killed 28!"

"I killed 19!"

"I...I only killed 6..."

The boy who killed six magical beasts immediately drew ridicule from his companions.

"Alright, let's not bother the noble gentlemen from the capital. We need to get to the capital before dark and find some work to make a living," said the leader of the group.

"Wait, don't go! You can live peacefully by killing monsters, why do you want to go to... the capital?" Lan Lin'er almost said "hell" before correcting herself to "the capital."

"Because a lot of people starve to death in winter, and the monsters are also skinny and ferocious in winter, making hunting extremely risky. At the same time, the beast tides that may occur in winter also cause monsters to swarm together, making them difficult to hunt. So every winter, a large number of people go to the capital to work, and it is said that they can send back a lot of money." The leader said, "I just don't know why, but none of the people who go to the capital come home."

"We also want to go to the capital to make a lot of money."

"Ha, someone who has only killed 6 magical beasts shouldn't talk big."

The boys and girls were playing and laughing, but Lan Lin'er was so anxious that she was about to cry.

What kind of jobs could there be in a place like the capital city that doesn't produce anything? Only birthing factories!
Seeing this healthy, cheerful, and energetic border girl going to work in that hellish place, Lan Lin'er felt nauseous just thinking about how this girl would be given large amounts of veterinary drugs to induce arousal, and then, under the influence of hormones, become like a sow, and then be turned into a machine that kept breeding like a pig.

Those of your clansmen who originally went to work in the capital may never come back!
They've all become pigs, relegated to the breeding factory...

Don't go! I'm begging you, that place is hell!
She finally understood what the slave-catching team in the birthing factory was for. She guessed that her capture was just a side effect. The professional slave-catching team of the birthing factory in the capital was there to capture these children from the countryside who had come to work in the capital.

(End of this chapter)