“I couldn’t, right now you must be very busy.” He said and waved in the direction of the fields. Understanding his meaning, the two quickly said their thanks and bowed for a long time before finally returning to their areas and busying themselves with their work. This was the most frequently asked question he’d heard in the last month. No matter how often he preached so, they would always take the trouble of coming to ask him again, fearing that His Highness would decide to cancel this policy in the blink of an eye.
Not much further down the road, he was once again encircled by a group of people, “Hello, Sir Sirius, after drying the wheat harvest, do we really only have to pay seven-tenths?”
Hearing the question, Sirius cried within his heart. This question’s frequency was second only to that of the “the free person promotion”.
“During the first year, this is indeed the case, and from then on it will only become less and less. If you’re promoted to become a freed person you will only have to turn over two-tenths, we have already repeatedly stressed this point.”
“As if I will ever be promoted,” a tall man said while touching the back of his head, “That remaining three-tenths of wheat, can we—”
“—Can only be sold to His Highness, or used for your food, or be kept as seeds.” Sirius clapped his hands, bluntly calling all the surrounding serfs to come over, “Everyone listen well, Border Town prohibit anyone from privately selling food. It doesn’t matter whether it is sold to local townspeople, or to foreign businessmen, it is a violation of Border Town’s law. If you do it, not only will your income be confiscated, you can also be imprisoned.
“What should we do if the Lord only offers a very low price?” The tall man muttered.
“It’s only natural that there will be that kind of circumstance. The acquisition of food by His Highness is to stabilize the market price, so no matter if you have a poor harvest or a bumper harvest, it is unlikely to cause a substantial change in the price. Therefore, you don’t have to hold wheat back in fear that you don’t have enough to eat after selling it. You also don’t have to worry about harvesting too much and being unable to sell, or of only being able to sell at a low price.” Sirius emphasized again, “There is only one place in the whole Border Town where you can sell food, that is the convenience market, and that market falls under the management of our City Hall.”
“In the end, the price will be…?”
“Rest assured, His Royal Highness himself will announce it before he starts the acquisition.”
Looking at the serfs dispersing in groups of twos and threes Sirius licked his dry lips and continued to check on the crops. He did not know how many of them would keep his words in mind, but Sir Barov had made it clear that His Highness would drive a hard-line in case he discovered any people smuggling food, punishing them severely.
At that time, a young serf broke away from the crowd and turned back, “Sir,” he gasped, “I would like to ask you a question.”
“Yes?”
“Do you know where Miss May and Miss Irene have gone?” He hesitated. “Recently there haven’t been any plays performed in the central square, so I wanted… to ask you about their situation, whether or not they fell ill.”
This was a new and exciting question, Sirius couldn’t refrain himself from raising the corner of his mouth. If he hadn’t seen them in the City Hall going through the formalities, he would have been unable to answer it, “They went to Longsong Stronghold.”
“Ah,” the other side showed a disappointed expression, “Don’t tell me that they no longer intend to stay in Border Town?
“They merely went to the stronghold theater to perform,” he shrugged, “Furthermore, the weather is so hot nowadays, no one would have the heart to see them standing under the sun and drenched in sweat, right? Wait until fall, they will come back and perform a new show in the square.”
“It… It is actually like this… thank you Sir!”
Looking at the back of the perfectly contented young man who was leaving, Sirius couldn’t help but think of himself — from a knight to a captive, then from being a prisoner to a City Hall officer, the experience of the past few months could be described as a series of ups and downs. He no longer wanted to return to his home in the Wolf territory, there he had nothing besides his shabby house and a flaky piece of wheat field. The reason why he had become a Knight was to break away from his father’s lifestyle as a farmer.
Not every Knight was as well regarded as Morning Light, who as the Duke’s personal knight had the best territory and also his own entourage. His yearly salary now was more than he had ever gotten while being a knight, and there was still vast room left for growth. Perhaps it was finally time to bring his parents to Border Town, then marry a girl and start enjoying life.
Border Town’s finally welcomed its first day of harvest.
