Chapter 375 – The Cotton Field
The inside of the guard barracks was a completely different place from yesterday. No dried mud, no smelly horse dung, no rolling bottles.
It was to the point where I was reluctant to enter with mud-stained feet as the floor was polished to the point that a fly would slip on it.
However, such hesitation was short-lived, and I went in, rubbing my mud-stained shoes on the clean floor at the nasty look of the guards following me.
“Captain of the Ten! Where is the captain of the Ten!”
“Hey, here you go!”
At my call, the captain of the tens jumped out of the inner room. Unlike yesterday, her hair and clothes are neat.
“Isn’t there anything to do?”
“Yes? What is that all of a sudden… ?”
At my question, the Ten Commander rolled his eyes and put on a stupid expression. Disgusted with that appearance, he pointed at the guards coming in after him.
“That’s it. That!”
“Are you talking about an escort?”
“Okay! Since last night, they’ve been chasing me wherever I go! I’ll be offended and die!”
“For the Sheriff’s safety…”
“Fuck safety! Give it to me, the exploding bastards will protect my body? Don’t give a damn!”
To my irritation, the Ten Commander shrugged his shoulders. He is like a tortoise with his head inside his shell.
The Ten Commander stammered his words, tucking his neck into his shoulder.
“That, for the sake of the safety of the wives next to us, it is better for us to act as bodyguards…”
It is truly shameful to have to admit this, but I have no choice but to admit it. Natalya, Roin, and myself are incomparably stronger.
And it became even more difficult to forgive the leader of the Ten, who made him admit this shameful fact.
You insulted me
“Safety? Did you say you were guarding for safety?”
“Yes.”
“Safety from what?”
“Yes? That’s it, of course…”
I cut off the words of the Ten Commander who was stupidly trying to make fun of him.
“Shut up. And he’d better think and answer. Why were you sent to this village? What were you sent to this area for?”
To my question, the captain of the ten men licked his lips and answered slowly in half a beat.
“… It is for stabilization of the region.”
“Okay. Although you showed me negligence yesterday, considering the fact that you have a high crime rate, it may be true that you worked diligently and diligently as the village chief said.”
“It may be hard to believe that we showed our shameful side, but we can really say that we have performed our duties diligently and diligently without any shame!”
The Ten Commander raised his hand to his chest and shouted proudly. Seeing this, the guards inside the barracks also stuck out their heads and glanced at us.
“Okay? If you guys diligently and diligently carried out your duties, you wouldn’t have to worry about the security of the village, would you?”
“Uh, yes?”
At my question, the captain of the ten made another dumbfounded expression.
“Right? Your mission is to stabilize the security of the region. But you just said that you are diligently carrying out your duties. Now, this town must be a very safe place, right?”
“That, that…”
“Are you going to deny it? So, is the town a dangerous place?”
Even if it were true that the town was infested with criminals and that it was a dangerous place, the captain of the guard would have no choice but to deny my question. If you affirm it, it’s like admitting your negligence.
As expected, the ten captain shook his head reluctantly at my question.
“No. The town is safe. There is nothing wrong, please rest assured.”
“Then what are the guards going to protect me and us from in this safe town?”
“That, that…”
Can’t answer Of course. The conversation so far has driven him to a cliff. Answering something in this situation is just an option to bungee down the cliff.
If he had pushed him to this extent, even the captain of the ten would have accepted it and stopped escorting him.
It’s obvious why these kids are chasing me and bothering me in the first place.
It must be to make up for the negligence you showed me yesterday. He seems to be doing it because he wants to leave a good impression, but he’s not really interested. If I set this town on fire, I’ll be content with that.
“Stop following me around and escorting me unnecessarily. Okay?”
“Ha, but…”
“Huh?”
Of course I expected you to say yes to my instructions, but what? Do you still have anything left to say?
“Of course we are diligently carrying out our duties, don’t you know? Crime is accidental! You can’t stop crime from happening any more than people can stop rain from pouring down! So, how can you not understand our desire to protect the Sheriff’s body in order to deal with such an contingency!”
“This bastard…”
Externally, I came to thank you with the title of sheriff, but the flattery of the captain of the Ten went too far.
This bastard, his ability to wash his face is at the level of going away from the bidet.
“Attach two escorts for me to patrol without wasting manpower! Isn’t that the right thing to do to stabilize the public order in the area?!”
“The safety of our guests is our top priority!”
I don’t know why I’m so obsessed with my personal safety, but I can’t stand it anymore!
“You fucking bastard! It’s an order! Stop escorting me immediately! I will regard this ideal as a protest and strictly rule it! Okay?!”
“Keugh… All right.”
The Ten Commander reluctantly nodded.
“Whoa… It’s natalie Roin. Let’s go.”
As I turned around and tried to leave the guards’ barracks, I met eyes with the guards chasing me from the village chief’s mansion.
“Don’t even dream of coming after me. Move!”
Filled with annoyance, he slapped the guard on the shoulder and passed by.
I left the guard barracks behind and walked along the road. When the guard barracks were quite far away, he hugged the shoulder of the old man next to him.
“Aren’t those bastards coming after you?”
“Huh. I don’t feel any signs of it. Since you said it so strongly, I don’t think there will be any annoying chasing anymore.”
“If you’re still chasing me like this, you’re really crazy.”
“Are you going to the warehouse?”
“Is that so? Let’s go to the warehouse and look around freely.”
Unlike yesterday, there is no leader of ten people or village chief, so you will be able to look around freely in earnest.
“Let’s go around the outskirts of town this time.”
“That wouldn’t be bad either.”
Nodding my head at my opinion, I followed the old man in the lead.
Although it is the outskirts of the village, it is not clearly defined. When private houses disappear moderately and traces of human touch begin to disappear, that is the outskirts of the village.
And when I reached the end of the private house, I saw a white cotton field not far away.
I could see people walking between the paths of cotton that grew in line with the rows of cucumbers for a good harvest. It is probably the slaves who are cultivating the cotton we talked about yesterday.
“Don’t you think the village chief is pretty amazing?”
In the midst of admiring the cotton field, the old man threw such a question.
“What is great?”
“I mean slaves. I have never seen such a person.”
“You mean you’ll let me go if I work for money?”
“It’s like that, and it’s like giving away the house.”
Seeing the old man praising the village chief makes me grumpy.
“Joy. That’s the result of tapping the calculator. It was said that it was cheaper to do so than to force slaves. It’s not like he’s a particularly great personality.”
“Wooheung? What, are you jealous that I praised another guy?”
“What is jealousy of an old woman who has grown old?”
Even at my explanation, the old man smiled and put on an expression as if he knew everything.
“Hmm… Come to think of it, it’s a bit strange. What happened to the houses for the slaves?”
At Natalia’s sudden question, he turned his head while holding onto the old man.
“Hmm? What are you talking about?”
“The guards did the same yesterday. The village is inhabited by a mixture of slaves and residents. Even in the morning, the chief said that he would provide private houses to the slaves.”
Certainly that’s what I’ve heard. But I don’t know what’s strange about it.
“However… ?”
“The folks. With the exception of the village chief’s mansion, most of them look similarly worn out, so there don’t seem to be any newly added buildings, right?”
“Oh, that’s for sure…”
This is the impression I felt from the first time I came to this town. Most of the buildings, including the barracks of the guards, were old and worn out.
“Most of the private houses seem to have been used for a long time, but if the private houses were provided to the slaves, where did the original residents go?”
“Hmm… ?”
As Natalya asked.
I would not have given an inhabited house to slaves. If you provided slaves to the villagers, it would be understandable for the slaves to live with the villagers.
However, the village chief said that he would provide a home for the slaves and give them a chance to get out of slavery. In other words, the house must be empty to be given to slaves.
If so, does this mean that there are more houses than people living in this village? There were so many vacant houses that slaves were provided free of charge?
No, that doesn’t make sense
In a rural village like this, there must have been as many houses as there were households. But the fact that there are empty houses means that people have evaporated?
