It seems that the villain is targeting me.

The cat-eared kid immediately exploded: "Who are you calling a kid?"

Gwyneth heard the noise, came out of the house, and asked in confusion, "What's wrong?"

Her eyes fell on the half-human child she had never seen before, and her gaze was unconsciously attracted by the notch on the other's ear.

"I'm Qiya, who works for Butcher," the cat-eared child shouted. Although he was a little short of height, he had the aura of at least 1.8 meters. "I heard you had something to ask him, so I came to take you to the Prime Minister's Office!"

This half-human child named Qiya has bright eyes and looks very energetic. She looks nonchalant towards the Tudor family, one of the most powerful families in the country. She really has some of the style of a shrike.

It has been almost a week since the dinner that day. During this time, Gwyneth has been paying close attention and has heard many rumors about Prime Minister Butcher.

Therefore, when Gwyneth saw the small, half-human child in front of her who spoke in a sardonic tone, she was not too surprised. She just complained a little in her heart: Why does this shrike let a little child do the work?

After what happened that night, Gwyneth naturally developed a liking for people who had a relationship with Xiao Niao.

She lowered her head and asked Qiya patiently, "Are you sent by the Prime Minister?"

Qiya's cat ears on the left side fluttered, and her expression was a little guilty, but she still pretended to be calm and answered Gwen's words: "Of course, of course, Butcher and I are very familiar with each other!"

Little Qiya is a little bit square.

This little cat spoke half truths and half lies: she did know Xiaoniao, but the latter did not send her to the Duke's Mansion to pick her up - Xiaoniao did not send anyone at all.

Qiya came over on her own initiative after hearing the adults' conversation at the dinner table.

The older official looked at her suspiciously and asked, "Why would the Prime Minister send a child like you here?"

Qiya: Good question, I want to know too.

She had already begun to regret running out on impulse.

Both cat ears folded back in frustration, sticking limply to the head, which made Gwen feel itchy and she really wanted to touch them.

Gwyneth actually realized that the kitten had probably gotten into some trouble, and she didn't think that Prime Minister Butcher would send such a child to be their guide.

But she did not expose Qiya immediately, instead she felt a little curious.

From the half-human child's clothing and conversation, Gwyneth could tell that she was not a noble like herself.

Because of this, she found it incredible: a commoner child, or even a half-human child of common origin, could speak so clearly, and did not look stupid, nor did he have the sallow and thin complexion that was common among the lower class. Although he was short, his face was rosy.

This is not out of prejudice, but it is the norm in this world that ordinary people live in rags and go hungry all year round.

Gwyneth had seen too many skinny civilians.

Those people never had enough to eat when they were growing up. They were short and hunched all their lives. There was always a fierce green light in their eyes when they saw food. They always seemed clumsy when they spoke. Their thinking was dull because of insufficient nutrition in their brains. They were more like livestock than humans and were completely different from people of noble birth - they were even like two completely different species.

If civilized people in modern society traveled back to that era, it would be difficult for them to identify those civilians without identity and assets as the same as themselves.

In that era, the stupidity and ignorance of the lower classes were not entirely a slander of the aristocracy.

Without education, medical care, or even food and shelter, they cannot become intelligent.

Even the "ability to communicate normally" that modern people take for granted is only a lingering feature of the rich peasant class and above.

Those low-level self-employed farmers who struggle all day for food and water know nothing and are as stubborn as donkeys. It's difficult to explain a single word to them.

But from what the kitten said, she seemed to work in the Prime Minister's Office. Gwen secretly guessed that maybe it was because Butcher was particularly generous to his subordinates that she was so healthy.

Qia had no idea of Gwyneth's complicated mental activities. Her pointed ears had been folded into airplane ears, her body movements had become awkward, her eyes were evasive, and she was visibly thinking about which direction to escape.

Seeing the adorable look of the kitten, Gwyneth couldn't help herself and put her hand on Qia's head.

She felt the furry ear flapping hotly against her palm. The half-human child tilted its head back in fright, and the notch on the ear scratched her index finger, causing a slight itch.

Gwyneth smiled and said, "Since the Prime Minister sent you, please lead the way for us."

Qiya immediately became happy.

She thought: 'I didn't expect that the eldest daughter of the Duke's family is so easy to fool.'

Qiya patted her chest and said to Gwyneth with a very reliable look, "No problem! I grew up in the capital, no one knows it better than me!"

Chapter 21 Children of the Downtown District

Since the agreement had been made, they set off. The three younger children sat together in the main carriage, while the clerk and several other deputies who were going to the office together took a more spacious carriage.

The strong horses pulled the cart slowly along the specially designated lanes, their horseshoes hitting the bluestone road with a clattering sound.

Qia said she would lead the way to the Prime Minister's residence for them, but was coaxed into the carriage by Gwen in a daze. The child felt very sorry and thought that perhaps she could tell these outsiders from Highgarden about the situation in the capital.

At this time, they were passing through the downtown area where the poor lived. Qia lifted the curtain of the carriage so that Gwyneth and Lucas could see the scene outside.

"That's the market in the lower town," Qiya explained to the brother and sister across from her, pointing to a neatly arranged row of stalls along the road. "They sell mostly products from farms and workshops, but some people pay to set up their own stalls."

Lucas had never been to places where civilians gathered since he was born. His mother was always reluctant to let young children in the family get close to those places.

In a medieval city, places where the lower classes gathered often meant dirt and mess.

The residents there were often infested with lice, and the probability of contracting dysentery was 100%. A noble child like Lucas, who had grown up in a clean environment, would easily die from dysentery - not to mention that there were kidnappers with bad intentions roaming around in those places all the time.

Therefore, everything here was very new to Young Master Lucas. He clung to the window frame of the carriage and looked outside with great interest.

When Gwyneth was young, she followed her father to see many exiled refugees, and she also knew that the lower-class people in most places lived in mud puddles. The more so, the more shocked she was when she saw the scenery outside the car window.

The ground outside was not black. Apart from the lanes reserved for carriages, the roads on both sides were paved with gravel, not dirt roads. There was no disgusting stench caused by the fermentation of human feces, urine, dead cats and dogs, and even dead bodies.

Most people on the street were in a hurry, as if they had something to do, and there were no idle people wandering around the streets and alleys.

These people don't look like they have been hungry for years. Although their clothes are old,

, but most are clean.

What surprised Gwyneth even more was that she didn't see a single beggar along the way.

Gwyneth directly asked the question in her heart: "Don't you have any beggars here?"

Qiya was obviously very proud of this. She quickly replied, "Yes, we don't have beggars here, because there are job openings everywhere. Young people with hands and feet have to go to work. In the past, there were some hooligans who really didn't want to work, but later, Lord Shrike captured them and made them work in the mines."

It was just as Qiya said. The market outside was in good order and the patrolling guards looked disciplined. Gwyneth thought that the security in the capital was indeed exceptionally good.

"Oh, yes, and the kids from downtown."

Qiya, who was once a child, had a soft look in her eyes when she spoke of this: "You know, a few years ago, there was still a war, and many people in the lower city became orphans. The Prime Minister hired them all as workers. My mother is still alive, but she's in poor health, so Lord Butcher also gave me a job."

Qiya counted on her fingers, counting the days one by one for Gwyneth to hear: "We only work half a day, and the rest of the time we have to study, but we have three meals a day to eat, a place to sleep, and we get candy and snacks on holidays."

In modern society, Xiaoniao's behavior of employing child labor would undoubtedly lead to him being punished, but here it is purely a charity.

Gwyneth thought: the orphans are of varying ages, and what kind of work can those four or five-year-olds do? If Butcher wants to take care of these children, he will have to keep paying money year after year until they can become independent when they grow up.

Gwen also heard a word from Qiya's words that she was particularly interested in: learning things.

Gwyneth recalled the various courses she had taken under the guidance of the tutor hired by her father: Latin, theology, debate, aristocratic etiquette, and her personal preference for chivalry and classical literature.

Are these inner-city kids learning anything? What are they learning?

Could it be that the shrike is teaching these civilians in the lower city to read?

Gwyneth had too many questions in her mind. In the past few days, she had been asking her father in secret and had also inquired about the rumors about the Prime Minister in Black from many sources. However, her understanding of the bird did not increase, but she became more and more confused.

What a mysterious person, Gwyneth thought secretly.

Fortunately, Qiya came today, so she might be able to learn more about the matter before meeting that person.

But before Gwyneth could ask all her questions, her brother, who was sitting next to her, excitedly banged on the window frame: "Sister! Sister! Look! There's a quarrel outside!"

Gwen just felt helpless.

His father was extremely strict with Lucas, and he rarely had the chance to go out except for attending classes and practicing swordplay. This was out of concern for his safety, as well as a recognition of Lucas's ability to get into trouble.

So the young master of the Tudor family was extremely excited when he saw ordinary people quarreling. Lucas stretched out his hand to shake the handle of the bell to signal the driver to pull over, and then he begged his sister to stop for a while so that he could see the fun.

This action caused the kitten sitting opposite to complain.

Qiya thought to herself: It turns out that children raised in aristocratic families are so ignorant.

Seeing that it was still early, Gwyneth couldn't resist her brother, so she agreed unhappily: "Just five minutes, to give the horses a little rest. Also, don't get off the carriage. Don't forget the job your father gave you."

Lucas nodded quickly, fearing that his sister might change her mind.

After getting permission, the young master of the Tudor family leaned over the car window and watched the excitement attentively like a groundhog with its neck stretched out.

The excitement he was watching was not some exciting scene like knights fighting in groups, but something extremely ordinary: a conflict between a butcher and a hunter.

The hunter was a sturdy man with a waist that was a whole circle thicker than the butcher's. The two probably had some conflicts over the purchase of prey. The hunter said that the money you gave him must be too little, and the butcher said bullshit, it's just thirty-five copper coins, take it or leave it.

They had obviously had an argument before and were temporarily separated by people around them trying to stop the fight, but it was obvious that neither of them was willing to give in.

If it was just an ordinary quarrel, there would probably be nothing special about it. But at this moment, a child - probably the hunter's child, suddenly stood up and said something in a gibberish to his father, and then said the same thing to the butcher.

Then the two adult men with scary bodies actually stepped aside at the same time to make room for the child.

The hunter's child rummaged through the cloth bag hanging on his body and took out a sand table.

He took a handful of grain from the stall of a man selling millet and wheat nearby, poured it on the sand table, then squatted on the ground and started to carefully scratch it with his fingers.

Gwyneth was also staring at it in a trance without realizing it.

She had very good eyesight and could vaguely see the extremely strange pattern drawn by the child with his hands: it was vertical with a horizontal line, and some strange symbols were written above and below.

At first glance, those symbols look strange, like graffiti.

But after looking at it for a long time, I feel that those rounded lines have a kind of wonderful beauty.

They are arranged up and down in an orderly manner according to certain rules, and gradually take shape as the child's hands move.

"I figured it out!" the hunter's child shouted. "14 plus 17 plus 7 makes 38 coppers!"

Some curious people nearby came forward to take a look and said, "Oh, yes, this guy's calculation is correct."

The hunter boy suddenly became more confident and pointed at the butcher and yelled, "Dad! He didn't pay you enough!"

The burly man clearly believed his son's words and immediately rolled up his sleeves: "You idiot, you dare to lie to your grandfather!"

The butcher, whose seniority had been demoted several times for no apparent reason, also changed his previous arrogant demeanor and apologized repeatedly: "Brother, brother, calm down--"

In the carriage, Lucas was still staring outside with great interest, while Gwyneth, who was standing beside him, was already in turmoil.

day.

What exactly is going on?

In a place like downtown, is it possible that anyone you pick out knows how to count?

She was vaguely aware of the terrible impact this incident would have on the aristocracy.

But due to her limited experience, Gwen only had a vague idea and did not realize exactly how strong an impact this would have.

Butcher, the half-human Prime Minister of the Empire, the butcher bird hiding in the shadow of imperial power - how many more surprising things will he do?

Gwyneth couldn't help but recall the man's soft and delicate eyebrows.

What is that person doing now?

Chapter 22: Here Comes the College Student Village Official

"I've told you so many times! Keep it simple and clear, with more pictures and less words! Forget about rhyme and aesthetics! Make sure even a monkey can understand it!"

Xiao Niao angrily slammed the ninth draft of "Teaching the Imperial Common Language (Draft)" on the table.

She looked at the Grand Secretary in front of her angrily: "Didn't I give you all the corresponding phonetic symbols? How could you make the final version so complicated?"

The Grand Secretary felt very miserable.

He thought: Prime Minister, those are all weird notations you gave me. Latin is a subject with a long history and profound background.

If I dare to write down those weird things you gave me and publish them on paper, those old scholars will tear me to pieces!

Xiao Niao seemed to have seen through his thoughts, and stared at him with ferocious eyes, as if thinking about where to bury him and let him ferment.

Under the kind gaze of the little bird, the Grand Secretary felt like a quail with its throat strangled.

He suddenly felt that historical background was not that important. It was only a few dollars a month, so why should he work so hard? Thinking of this, he felt that his whole life became clear.

The Grand Secretary, having been enlightened, responded with a quack: "Hey! I'll go back and revise it!"

Xiao Niao nodded reluctantly.

The Imperial Prime Minister looked at the Grand Secretary in front of him with distrust, wondering whether he should find someone else to do this.

She thought for a moment and shouted outside the study: "Hongyue, come in."

As soon as Xiao Niao finished speaking, a knight wearing light armor and looking heroic pushed open the door of the study and walked in.

Perhaps to ensure flexibility, the Red Moon Knight did not wear heavy armor today, and naturally did not wear a helmet.

She looked to be around twenty years old, with slightly curly bright red hair that looked like burning wildfire. Her eye sockets were sunken under her handsome eyebrows, as deep as a blue lake. Her nose was straight and well-proportioned, her lips were plump and full, and the lines of her jaw were so beautiful that it looked as if Ahaishana had painstakingly carved her for a month. Even when she was wearing a common linen shirt and chain mail, she was still so beautiful that it made people's heart beat faster.