Wearing black silk for a foreign woman

"According to the order of Guillon IX, the son of the great Duke of Aquitaine Guillon VIII, you have not completed your mission as subjects. From today on, you will no longer be subjects of Guillon IX. You are limited to one day to leave the territory of Vicro, and you are not allowed to take any grass or trees on the land!"

Chapter 389: Refugees Expelled Again

When Guillon IX's subordinates announced this order to the serfs, the serfs did not have any special reaction. They just stayed where they were in silence, staring at the knight who issued the order with cloudy and numb eyes.

Guiyang IX ordered the serfs to leave his territory within one day and prohibited them from taking anything with them.

The serfs were powerless to resist such an order. The serfs had experienced the same thing at least once before, and many of them had already noticed that food was decreasing day by day.

The knight who gave the order was sitting on his horse, looking down at the serfs in front of him. Seeing that none of the serfs moved and stared at him blankly, the knight immediately became furious.

"Did you hear that? You lowly creatures!" The lifeless eyes of the serfs made the knight angry. Serfs could not look directly at nobles. "King Jiyang IX has already expelled you! He even mercifully gave you one day to leave! Why don't you get out of here!"

"Didn't you promise to give us a place to live, fields to farm, and protect us?" Not all serfs remained numb and silent. A young man around fifteen or sixteen years old, who was not confused, shouted loudly to the knight.

"That's how you fulfill your duty as a subject to your lord!" The knight shouted at the man. "Who else allowed you to stand up?"

"But you didn't even give us land, and now it's almost winter, how can we fulfill our obligations as rulers?" the young man continued to shout unconvinced.

"How dare you question the lord's decision!?" The knight was immediately furious, not only because the lowly serf actually dared to question the lord's orders and openly questioned the lord's decision, but more importantly, the knight noticed that other serfs were getting restless because of the young man's words.

"I see! You must be a cultist bewitched by the evil god!" The knight drew his sword, pointed at the young man and shouted. "In the name of the Lady of the Lake! I will punish you now!"

"What!? My lord, I don't know any evil god! Ah!" The young man was confused and loudly denied the knight's accusation against him, but the next moment, the knight rushed over on his horse and separated the young man's head and body with a sword.

"Humph!" The young man who led the group was killed with one sword. The knight held up the bloody sword in his hand, raised his head proudly, looked at the other serfs and said loudly: "Who else is a cultist?"

The remaining serfs all lowered their heads, and no one dared to step forward.

"You have until noon to leave here." The knight snorted coldly, shortening the original day to a morning. "Vile things..."

In Batoran, the farmers in the territory had to hand over 90% of their harvest to the Knight Grandpa, and then when the farmers were starving, the Knight Grandpa would return part of the food to the farmers in the name of alms.

With such high taxes, it is impossible for the peasants not to resist. However, every time a peasant uprising broke out, the knights never thought that they had collected too high taxes. Instead, they thought that the rebellious peasants were unreasonable, and then killed all the rebellious peasants without leaving a single one.

Since the founding of Batoran, the knights and peasants have been living this way, and it has never changed. Unlike the Holy Empire next door, Batoran has never changed this system since its founding.

The knights left, leaving only some knights' attendants. The knights' attendants held their weapons and looked at the serfs who were ordered to be driven away with disgust. The serfs looked at the bodies of the young men, stood up silently, and walked towards the forest.

If they don't leave, they will become a cold corpse like this young man, but even if they leave, it will only move the time back a bit.

If they wandered in the forest at this point, their chances of surviving the first winter would be slim. But if they didn't leave now, they would soon become corpses.

The driven serfs left Velro with blank eyes. After several days of hunger, the serfs were staggering.

The serfs who had not yet been driven out were all terrified, worrying that they would join them at some point.

There were about 300 serfs driven away, and there were about 600 left in Velo. These 300 serfs could only walk silently into the depths of the forest, silently praying to the goddess of mercy, Lesaya.

The official belief of Batoran is the Lady of the Lake, and no other beliefs are officially recognized, but among the people of Batoran, civilians generally believe in the goddess of mercy, Lesaya.

The carrying capacity of the forest is far less than that of farmland. If more than 300 people were gathered together, they would soon starve to death due to the severe shortage of food. Not long after they started walking, the serfs spontaneously split into several different groups and built simple camps in different locations in the forest.

The serfs were divided into several groups and built several simple camps in the forest. Relying on hunting and picking wild vegetables and fruits, the serfs began to survive in the wilderness with difficulty, just to survive the first winter as much as possible.

As for what to do after surviving the winter, the serfs were not qualified to think about such extravagant things.

"Dad! I'm back!" In one of the camps, a skinny and small boy ran excitedly into his family's simple hut made of dead branches. "Dad, look! I brought you something good!"

The boy's father was extremely weak due to days of hunger. When he heard his son's words, he opened his eyes weakly and was shocked.

In the son's hand was a large piece of bread.

"Where did you get it from?!" The father forced himself to sit up, almost snatched the black bread from his son's hand, took a big bite, and returned about two-thirds of it to his son.

"I found it on the road!" the son answered while happily eating the black bread. "Don't worry, Dad, I kept it hidden in my clothes. No one saw it."

The bread was quickly devoured by the hungry father and son. After eating the bread, the father finally realized that he had picked it up on the road! ?

"Where did you pick it up?!" The father looked at his son with a horrified look on his face.

"It's hanging on a tree not far north of the camp."

"...When you came back, did you find that someone was following you?!" The father became nervous.

"Ah?" The son was stunned.

Just as the father and son were meeting face to face, there was a sudden commotion outside the camp.

The father and son ran out in a hurry, and then they saw a horrifying scene: a large number of beastmen had surrounded the camp.

"Okay, it's time for dinner." The leading female wolf beastman grinned ferociously.

Chapter 390 Engineering Department

The New Dundalk territory has been very busy recently. The lord has issued new construction tasks, and many new citizens have come here.

The news that Linde had robbed a ship not long ago quickly spread throughout the entire New Dundalk Territory. The news of the ship quickly spread throughout the camp like wildfire. Ilufa once thought about whether to order a blockade of the news, but Linde suggested not to do so. Many people had seen the ship, and it was impossible to block the news.

Ilufa was worried that the people would want to leave Aiwozhen Island and return to the Holy Empire after knowing the ship appeared. If it was before, Linde would also be so worried, but the camp is now quite large, and the large-scale use of cement makes the whole camp look different every day. You can tell without asking that not many people are thinking about returning to the Holy Empire.

Why would I go back to the Empire? I have enough food and clothing here in New Dundalk, and I live in a stone house. Would I have the same treatment if I went back to the Empire?

In addition to the ships, the newcomers were also dispersed and incorporated into the original work team. After thinking it over again and again, Lind still suggested that they follow the process when the camp was just started to build, adopting a points system, which can be regarded as free labor for one or two years to a certain extent. If they don't do this, the old people in the camp may have opinions.

The newcomers were from Batoran, and the people in the camp knew what happened on the island after a brief chat with the newcomers.

Then in the following time, more and more people came.

"Your Highness, I'm back." The leader of the wolf beastmen, Fenrir, walked into Lind's new cement house office and reported his gains to Lind. "I brought back fifty human refugees from the woods."

"Well, thank you for your hard work." Linde nodded to Fenrir with satisfaction. "Go and rest first."

Fenrir nodded, then turned and left.

"Another fifty people..." Alyssa, who was sitting next to Linde, looked worried after Fenrir left. "Another fifty. How many hundreds of people have come here during this period?"

"Including the one hundred people the young master brought back personally, there are a total of four hundred people." Efit gave the exact number.

"Just as Ranna speculated, Ji Yang IX has indeed begun to abandon his subjects." Linde said with a proud smile.

Ranna's battle plan is not complicated and can be summarized in one sentence: cut off the enemy's food supply and then continuously weaken their combat effectiveness.

From a knight's perspective, it was extremely shameless and not at all upright, but Linde didn't care. Ilfa was a woman and there was no need for morality, so he finally adopted Ranna's plan.

It was still Ranna's speculation. Based on Ranna's understanding of the Batoran Knights, when food was scarce, Jiyang IX would most likely drive some of the serfs into the forest and leave them to fend for themselves. The development of the matter was completely consistent with Ranna's speculation. Not long after, Jiyang IX began to expel the people.

All these people who were regarded as garbage by Jiyang IX were accepted by Linde. Linde immediately sent his beastmen to bring food to bring back these people who were driven out.

"With so many people suddenly added..." Elisa frowned. "Will there be trouble?"

"Are you worried about food?" Lind asked.

"No." Elisa shook her head. "The problem of food is not that big. After all, with the power of the Mother Earth, we have accumulated a lot of food through shifting cultivation, and you brought back a whole ship of food."

"What I'm worried about is that these people are from Batoran, and their culture is different from that of the Holy Empire." Alyssa said seriously. "We have finally managed to turn the original residents of New Dundalk into hardworking, law-abiding citizens, and now so many of them have come..."

"That's why I broke them up." Linde smiled. "Don't worry, they are all people with two legs and one mouth. If the people of the Holy Empire can do it, why can't the people of Batoran?"

"And weren't you worried that the new beastmen would break the rules of the camp? What about now?" Lind spread his hands. "As far as I know, some new beastmen have married humans."

"That's different. You are the son of the New Beastmen. They all listen to you." Alisa retorted. "But if humans marry New Beastmen..."

Speaking of this, Alisa blushed. Just yesterday, Alisa accidentally saw a male human and a female new beastman having sex outdoors, which had a strong impact on Alisa's not-so-young mind.

"Don't worry, everything will be fine." Linde consoled with a smile. "As long as they are given work and enough food, they will integrate into New Dundalk."

"By the way, how is the research on the new weapons going?" After finishing this topic, Lind asked Elisa another question.

"My mother and I have designed several plans for the magic runes and have sent them all to the engineering department." Alisa waved her hand. "Which one will be effective? You'll have to ask Mr. Linus."

"And where did you get this weapon from?"

"I figured it out," Lind said casually. "Has it been sent to the engineering department? I'll go take a look."

After saying that, Lind left the office excitedly.

After leaving the office, Linde walked excitedly to the engineering department. The so-called engineering department was a new department that Linde suggested Ilufa to establish after the successful design of the magic energy machine. According to the specific mission requirements, the power of magic runes was used to manufacture magic rune machines.

The current director of the Engineering Department is the magic rune craftsman Linus Caso. Although it is nominally an independent department, there is actually only Linus and a few laborers doing manual labor.

The engineering department is located next to the steel plant, which is also for the convenience of obtaining materials nearby. When Linde walked to the entrance of the engineering department, he heard the sound of bronze bells ringing and Linus's devout prayers.

"Ring the bell once! Close the rune! Activate the magic rune!"

"Ring the bell twice! Input magic power! Activate the magic machinery!"

"Ring the bell three times! Praise in unison! O~silo~"

Listening to Linus's high-pitched and pious words in the engineering department, Linde was speechless. This scene was like consecrating a server in the computer room.

This was the first time that Lind had heard the complete prayer ceremony of the Mechanical God Ocelot, and it was quite fresh. Just as Lind was about to knock on the door, a sudden gust of air burst out from the room and blew the door directly out.

Lind reacted in time and avoided the sudden attack of the door, and Linus was blown away along with the door.

"Ahem~ The machine spirit hasn't been appeased, has it?" Linus said puzzledly.

Chapter 391 Special Weapons for Knights

There was an explosion in the engineering department, and the blast wave pushed open all the doors and windows.

The explosion only caused air waves but no flames, so it was probably just wind magic going haywire, and the power of the explosion was not that great. The people around just took a look, and after seeing that the cement house of the engineering department was still intact, they went about their business.

Linde stood behind the wall with lingering fear, looking at the people around him who seemed to be used to it, with a frown on his face. Has something similar happened here more than once?

"Cough cough cough~" A figure flew out from the main gate and stood up coughing. This person was the director of the Engineering Department, the magic rune craftsman Linus. Linus stood up from the ground and didn't seem to be injured. He walked back while muttering.

"Strange, isn't the machine spirit appeased enough?" Linus muttered to himself in confusion as he walked.

Linus was so focused that he didn't even notice Linde standing next to the broken door. He walked straight into the engineering department. It was not until he tried to close the door that no longer existed that he noticed Linde standing next to him.

"Sir Linder!" Linus said in surprise. "You are here indeed!"

"You knew I was coming?" Linde was a little surprised.

"No, I just thought it was about time for you to come." Linus scratched his head awkwardly.

"Your sense is spot on, Sir Linus." Linder chuckled. "How is the design of the thing I requested going?"

"Well... come in and talk about it." Linus' face showed an awkward smile that Linde was very familiar with, the smile of someone who still hadn't completed the materials required by the teacher by the deadline.

Under the guidance of Linus, Linde walked into the engineering department. The engineering department was large, but it seemed very crowded. Various things that Linde recognized and didn't recognize were piled everywhere. At first glance, it felt like a garbage dump.

As soon as he entered the door, Lind saw a piece of paper pinned to the wall opposite the door. This was a letter of appointment written by Ilufa herself. To summarize the content briefly, Linus Castle is hereby appointed as the Minister of Engineering of New Dundalk and is conferred the title of Lord for Life. This letter is from Ilufa Ainzi, Countess of New Dundalk, Holy Empire, dated October 3, 485th year of the Holy Empire calendar.

At the signature position, there is a red wax ring pattern with the initials of Mrs. Ilufa's name.

That's right, when Ilfa appointed Linus as the Minister of Engineering, he also conferred him the title of Lord, which is the lowest level of non-hereditary nobility.

According to the rules of the Holy Empire, commoners cannot be officials. Only nobles can be officials. The title of lord, which cannot be inherited, was created to solve this situation.

Due to the lack of paper, there were no official documents when Linde and Efit were enthroned. Now that papermaking has been successful, the documents have been supplemented.

Lind also had this letter of commission, which conferred him the title of baron, but unlike Linus, he did not hang the letter of commission in a conspicuous place. He just put it away as an ordinary document.

By the way, other people may not be able to see it, especially those who don’t understand the rules of the nobility, but in Lind’s opinion, there are big problems with the letter of commission written by Lady Ilufa.

First of all, the title, Ilufa used the title of Countess, not Countess, which is not a big problem, after all, most of the time the two are interchangeable, and there is no need to distinguish them clearly, but combined with the following question, it is wrong. Ilufa was canonized in her own name, not in the name of her husband, and there is an essential difference between the two.

Then finally, the surname Ilufa used was her maiden name before marriage, not her husband's family name after marriage.

Madam is trying to cause trouble, Linde is almost certain.

But this is not the point now. The point is Linus’ research results.

"You seem very proud of your lordship." Lind said, looking at the letter of appointment.

"Of course." Linus puffed out his chest proudly. "Those self-righteous nobles looked down on me all day long, saying that I would never become a noble in my life and could only work illegally under their command. Now the Countess has taken a fancy to me and made me a lord. From now on, I will definitely show this letter of appointment to those who looked down on me!"

"Yeah, you're right." Lind agreed casually. "So what about the things I asked for? Is it ready?"

"Um... of course!" Linus paused, then agreed. "Please follow me! Lord Baron!"

Under the guidance of Linus, Linde passed a pile of things that looked like a garbage dump and came to a small compartment.

"You should clean up this place." Lind complained as they walked. This place didn't look like the new Dundalk's scientific research center at all.

"I'm very sorry that the accident just now made such a mess here, but I promise you that it will be brand new in a few days." Linus said confidently.

"I hope so." Lind shrugged.

"We are here." Soon, Linus took Linder to the compartment and showed Linder a few things on the table in the compartment. "Please take a look, sir."