Ice Vapor Goddess

Chapter 74 Relief
Xilun instructed that some of the food and winter clothes that had just been loaded onto the truck be unloaded to make some space on the cart, and then turned around to join the refugee resettlement work.

Green overestimated himself. The three thousand-plus people were in complete chaos. When he tried to take an old man lying on the ground out, he was opposed by the strong men around him and even took several punches, leaving him bloodied and staggering on the spot.

Kyle and several knights, armed with guns, guarded several boxes of supplies that had been unloaded.

Seeing Green covered in wounds, Xilun sighed and cast a Holy Heal.

He originally intended to put those who had difficulty walking onto the cart and then distribute some of the food and winter clothes from the supplies.

He was just worried that some people would pretend to be sick in order to take a ride, thus taking the place of those who were truly unable to walk. Therefore, it would be best if someone with authority could select all the injured and sick without explanation.

After all, in the freezing cold, selecting these people who can't walk is more likely to mean abandoning them than letting them ride in a vehicle.

Once Xilun has loaded them onto the vehicle, it will be too late for the others to feign illness and board.

Unfortunately, Green's prestige was far from sufficient, and the burly man thought he was going to abandon his mother, which angered him so much that he almost beat him to death.

"Come here." Xilen grabbed Green and pulled him out of the crowd. "Do you have any more men?"

"Huh?" He thought for a moment in a daze, then shook his head.

Xilun glanced at him helplessly. After leading the refugees for so long, hadn't he even managed to develop a few trusted confidants?

"Go to the back and help them move things," he said.

By this time, a considerable amount of supplies had been unloaded and divided into ten piles.

Siron shouted, "Are there any knights, mages, or clergy? Stand up next to the train!"

His voice was largely swallowed by the wind and snow, so the knights joined in shouting orders.

A dozen minutes later, about twenty people arrived in front of the train, mostly apprentice knights, as well as an apprentice mage and two seventh-rank chanters.

"Two people each, stand in front of a supply pile," Xiren instructed. "I'll have the refugees line up to receive their supplies later. Each person will receive a winter coat and a meal, understand?"

"Understood!" they replied, their voices filled with excitement and exhilaration at having just seized power.

“Once this matter is completed smoothly, I will give you all positions when we arrive in Speyer. You can serve as my acolytes, mage advisors, and members of the Knights. But if I see any of you firing extra shots or missing shots—” He raised the shotgun in his right hand, “I will shoot you all immediately, understand?”

"Understood!" they replied resolutely.

“The rest of you—” Siren turned to his men, “go and tell them to line up, and then maintain formation.”

But the actual operation is more difficult than imagined.

People in this era did not have a strong concept of queuing and order, and even communication was difficult.

Siren's pronunciation was standard Florentine seminary style, with a broken Lundinian accent, but this was the North, the relatively wild and cold North of Albion, and the fierce and husky northern accents of the people made it very difficult for him to understand.

It took him almost half an hour to get some people to understand what queuing for things meant. As a result, a few clever people queued up several times and even fooled the clueless guys in charge of distributing the things.

He had no choice but to make a temporary fix, telling those who had received their items to wait on the other side.

Just as things were settled there, rumors spread that "winter clothes would be given to people who didn't have them," causing many people to take off their coats and nearly freeze to death in the snow wearing only thin clothes, all just to get an extra layer of winter clothing.

Xilun finally managed to explain that everyone had one, but several had already frozen to death.

In an attempt to grab a few more clothes, someone tore off all the winter clothes from his family, resulting in the elderly man and his wife freezing to death. Their stiff wrists were still gripping his leg before they died.

With a stern face, Xilun dragged him out. The man tried to resist, but Xilun raised his gun and shot him in the chest, shattering his chest.

This was his first murder. Hot blood, steaming and splattering, splashed onto him and the cross. His muscles were taut, but he forced himself to endure the discomfort and shouted again, "Everyone has clothes and food! Anyone who tries to harm another will suffer the same fate!"

The blood and death silenced the scene for a moment, and the light that had just appeared in some people's eyes quickly returned to numbness.

The disaster relief efforts continued, and sporadic gunshots could be heard from afar every now and then—that meant troublemakers had been encountered.

Before deciding to provide disaster relief, Xilun felt that his plan was already well thought out—ten teams, one person at a time, and even left a redundancy to prevent people from looting supplies, so that everyone would receive a set of food and clothing regardless of whether they needed them or not.

But when he actually put it into practice, he found that everything was more complicated than he had imagined.

In the area where people were waiting after receiving their clothes, several incidents of violent looting of food and winter clothing occurred. After being suppressed, these incidents turned into deception and private transactions.

Some threatened, "Give me the food, or I'll deal with you later," while others secretly agreed to sell themselves in exchange for food.

Because they provided a wide variety of food, including meat and bread that were too hard to chew, and only vegetables that were edible, people were busy exchanging food, which caused many problems and oppression.

In the queuing area, theft and loss of items occurred. Many people were afraid that if they arrived late, the items would be gone, so they rushed to queue without bringing their own shopping carts. When they returned, they found that all their items were gone.

Then came the issue of the injured. Xilun instructed the people distributing supplies to pull out any people who were unable to move and put them in another area. This caused some husbands and wives, parents and children to be separated, and cries and shouts echoed across the snow.

Moreover, those who truly needed food and winter clothing, and those with mobility issues, were placed at the very back of the line, while the strongest and most robust individuals were placed at the very front.

From the back of the line came the sound of wailing. A man knelt on the ground and said that his mother had frozen to death. Many people were cutting in line ahead of him, and they couldn't keep up.

Xiren wanted to keep the line unchanged and move the distribution point to the back of the line, but there were not only strong people at the front, but also many mothers with children and thin refugees. It was unfair to them, so he hesitated for a long time and still did not give the order.

It wasn't until noon the next day that they completed most of the disaster relief work. More than a hundred people who were completely unable to walk and seriously injured were placed on flatbed carts. People temporarily set up some wooden frames and stuffed the injured inside, making it look like a morgue's drawer for corpses.

But this is at least much better than trekking through the snow.

More than sixty people died, including twenty-eight who were shot dead on the spot for causing trouble, and the rest who froze to death or died in fights.

Xilun felt as if all his strength had been drained, every nerve screaming with exhaustion, and he leaned wearily against the tractor.

Mathilde walked over, her face showing undeniable fatigue, but she still smiled and asked, "How are you feeling?"

“It’s terrible.” Xiren didn’t even look at her, looking up at the gray sky, too weak to turn his head. “But I’ve also come to understand some things.”

"What?" she asked.

“Universal love is indeed an illusion,” Xiren sighed. “I’ve forgotten his name… Anyway, when I shot that man, I wanted to kill him again.”

“You did the right thing,” Mathilde said, leaning against the tractor, then slowly sliding down to sit on the ground.

She hasn't had a break for almost three days, working tirelessly since leaving Speyside early the day before yesterday.

But a divine healing aura fell upon her, instantly dispelling her weariness.

She stood up with a wry smile: "You're just like a harsh overseer."

“But the overseer is working too.” Xiren sighed, and Holy Light fell on him. “Let’s go back to Speyside first, and then get a good night’s sleep.”

"Has your Holy Healing become more effective?" Mathilde asked, because she felt that the drowsiness she had developed from staying up all night had almost disappeared, something that several Holy Healings couldn't achieve before.

Xilun nodded, and four complete sacred sites unfolded behind him.

(End of this chapter)