Chapter 271 Your God Only Allows You to Eat Bread

“Your Majesty Noah, the number of refugees received by the Voyager Port has exceeded 100,000.”

The news from the eastern coast became more and more serious, and the problems that followed were also placed before Noah.
“The refugees are in urgent need of various daily necessities, and the Church of Light requests our assistance.”

“Give them aid.”

It is impossible for Noah to refuse to help the refugees, even though these refugees are basically believers of the Lord of Light, and it seems likely that this god is behind it.

However, the reason why these refugees were able to come across the sea, in addition to the many clergy who believed in the Lord of Light, was also due to the help of the holy knights.

Therefore, even though he knew there was a problem, Noah could not reveal any moral flaws. After all, the paladin was only asking for assistance with the basic supplies necessary for survival.

Providing food is not a big deal, except that the transportation cost is a bit high, but that can be solved. The real problem is the subsequent resettlement.

According to the investigation of the dragon fairies stationed at the harbor, the refugees who wandered here for shelter are basically believers of the Lord of Light, and the vast majority of them are quite devout in their faith.

Especially after this wave of cross-sea escape, they truly felt the divine revelation from the Lord of Light, which led them to the safe continent of Zealandia, and their devout faith was even more unshakable.

With such a large number of devout believers gathered together, there would be too many problems.

No ruler could tolerate a gathering of more than 100,000 devout believers, unless it was a theocratic state where royal power was completely suppressed by divine power.

“God’s revelation has come true!”

“All this is a gift from God!”

“O merciful and glorious Lord, your glory is everlasting!”

When the first batch of food aid from the Holy Dragon Territory arrived at the Harbor City, there was a burst of warm cheers and celebrations around this harbor city that was full of refugees, filled with bad luck and had simple facilities.

“Are these guys out of their minds?”

Standing on the lighthouse of Harbor City, the dragon fairy in charge of managing this place, with a delicate face decorated with golden dragon scales, twisted slightly.
“The food they eat is clearly provided by our Holy Dragon Majesty out of mercy, but they are thanking the Lord of Light!”

“They are devout believers, so there is nothing wrong with them thanking the Lord of Light. The Glorious Order stationed in Elisim City also took the initiative to ask for assistance from our Majesty. Moreover, the trade route connecting to Harbor City was originally discovered by a pioneering group funded by the Glorious Order.”

On the lighthouse, the dragon fairy who was responsible for guarding this place with them was in a good mood and comforted his companions with a smile.

“So what? Both the land they stand on and the food they eat belong to our Holy Dragon Majesty. They should be grateful to our Majesty for taking them in and providing them with food!”

The Governor of the Harbor spoke in a sonorous and powerful tone, and the fanatical expression flashing on her face was exactly the same as that of the believers of the Lord of Light below. There was no essential difference between the two.

“It’s useless to tell them this. No matter what they get now, as long as it can improve their current conditions, they will regard it as a gift from the Lord of Light, including our help to them.”

“Then let them realize that they were able to find this place alive because of the revelation of the Lord of Light they believe in, but they can have enough food on this land because of the mercy of His Majesty the Holy Dragon!”

The Governor of the Harbor looked down at the gloomy group of refugees who were setting up tents around the simple harbor city. There was a cold flash in his golden vertical pupils, which was cold and ruthless.

As a dragon fairy, she had never seen such a bad city layout since she was a child. In the territory of His Majesty the Holy Dragon, even the poorest villages and towns were ten thousand times better than this.

This was exactly the kind of scenery that should be seen in the slums that can be found in major cities outside the Holy Dragon Territory. No, it was even worse than that.

There is not even the most basic sewage treatment facility here. Although Harbour City has built corresponding facilities, it did not anticipate that it would need to provide living assistance to 100,000 people in such a short period of time, and there is no time for construction.

In fact, if there had not been a considerable number of clergy among these refugee groups, malignant infectious diseases such as plague and malaria would have broken out long ago.

Diseases can be suppressed, but the garbage and excrement generated by production and life will not disappear out of thin air. Therefore, the scene around the Harbour City is now quite unsightly.

Those refugees seemed to have gotten used to and adapted to such a filthy living environment, but as an elf who grew up in Elisim, also known as the City of Flowers, it was completely unbearable.

In the Holy Dragon Territory, hygiene is one of the evaluation criteria for officials’ performance.

“What do you want to do? Don’t do anything rash, they are all believers of the true God!”

The goblin who was the governor’s deputy immediately reminded.

If hundreds of thousands of devout believers make a collective sacrifice, it will be no problem to summon down an incarnation of the highest level god.

Of course, no god would be so extravagant unless it was the most critical moment. Even a powerful god would not make such a decision. The soul of every devout believer is the most precious currency of the gods.

“I know. I just want them to feel the kindness and mercy of His Majesty the Holy Dragon.”

Human desires are endless. When people are hungry, their only need is to be full. After being full, they will think about how to eat well, live well, and dress well.

The followers of the Lord of Light who fled to Harbor City soon discovered that, thanks to the grace of the Lord of Light, they had endless pancakes to eat every day and did not need to worry about food or hunger.

But the only thing they could offer was a piece of hard-baked bread. It was filling, but it was really not tasty.

Originally, it would have been fine if there were only bread. After all, they were refugees. What could they choose? It was good enough to be full. But when the opportunity to choose was presented before them, the tenacity of their mental will could not overcome the thirst of their bodies.

A dragonborn profiteer with dragon scales on both sides of his cheeks appeared in the refugee camp. At first, no followers of Glory paid any attention to him because he was here to recruit workers, and the compensation he offered was silver coins with a dragon head printed on them.

However, the merchants who appeared in the refugee camp the next day quickly exchanged the seemingly useless metal coins for hard jerky.

The attraction of pickled meat was much stronger than metal currency that had no place to be spent. The refugee camp soon caused a sensation and the merchants successfully recruited a large number of young and strong laborers.

What awaits these young and strong laborers is an endless supply of hard labor, including felling trees, reclaiming wasteland, digging ditches, chiseling rocks… Each task has to be done from morning to night and can squeeze out a person’s time and energy completely.

Of course, although these hard labors that do not treat people as human beings are so hard, the quality of life of these glorious believers who have obtained jobs has obviously improved compared with their compatriots. They no longer have to eat hard bread, and can give themselves and their families rice porridge mixed with minced meat every day, and they also have clean and decent clothes.

Such clear and intuitive rewards made these glorious believers who got the job work harder. With their hard work, the originally simple port city began to gradually cover the refugee camps, and those ugly rags and tents were also cleared one by one.

More and more businessmen appeared in the Harbor City, hiring these Glorious believers who were willing to work. After all, these guys had ridiculously low requirements. As long as they could fill their stomachs, they were willing to work hard for a day.

Where can you find such a good thing? In the Holy Dragon Territory, providing food and accommodation is a necessary standard for recruiting employees. Even if the employees do not need it, they have to exchange it for a corresponding amount and make up for it in their remuneration.

But now, in this port city far away from the Holy Dragon’s land, they can act with impunity. Just by providing two full meals and some pickled meat strips that even dogs are too lazy to touch in the Holy Dragon’s territory, they can recruit a large number of hardworking young and strong laborers.

The key is that there is no relevant law enforcement department to supervise and punish them. Although the goblins are in charge here, the goblin governor is happy to see this situation and turns a blind eye.
This made the merchants who came here even more excited. When they looked at those glorious believers, their eyes were glowing green. These were walking humanoid mining machines!
However, as the number of merchants increased, the originally large number of Glorious believers became insufficient to share, even though whole ships of believers continued to arrive.

Because the Holy Dragon Territory has not stopped supplying food here, free cakes are still distributed every day. This has led to a number of Glorious believers who are quite devout and do not have sufficient material needs, still immersed in devout prayers to the Lord of Light, and not pursuing worldly things.

Their ultimate goal is to ascend to the Kingdom of Light after death, share the glory of the Lord of Light, and become immortal with the gods.

Of course, that’s what we say, but the body’s instinctive desire for meat is hard to suppress. This is an instinctive need as a living being.

So, on what would have been an ordinary morning, angry shouts and confident arguments rang out on the dirt road where ditches had just been dug.
“This is a gift from God to me! Why are you taking it away from me?”

The middle-aged man who was pinned to the ground by a burly man struggled hard and roared sharply, attracting many people who were preparing to go out of the city to work.

“Fuck you. I gave you two fish cakes a few days ago because I felt sorry for you. Do you think this place is a welfare home? You come here to steal every day, but you dare to rob me today. Do you think I am made of clay?”

Seeing more and more people gathering around, the fish cake stall owner couldn’t help but curse loudly, and punched the old guy twice in the eyes, his face full of gloom.

He traveled thousands of miles to come to Harbour City because he heard that there were business opportunities everywhere and he could make a fortune by doing anything. His former neighbors had all set up shady factories here and made a fortune.

He was jealous and followed along, then set up his own fish cake stall. However, he ran into this old guy on the first day of his stall, and he was staring at his stall eagerly.

He saw that the old guy looked pale and thin, and looked very pitiful, so he threw two fish cakes to him. However, after the old guy got the fish cakes, he didn’t thank him, but thanked that damn Lord of Light instead.

However, he also knew that the Lord of Light was a true God, so he just cursed in his heart and didn’t think too much about it, just as if he was throwing fish cakes to a dog.

However, he didn’t expect that the old guy would come to his stall again the next day to guard it. He was too lazy to pay attention to him, but the old guy stole seven fish cakes when he was not paying attention.

This happened repeatedly over the next few days, which really pissed him off. He was so angry that he even apologized to the dog. The fish cake was thrown to the dog and eaten by it. The dog would wag its tail at him the second time it saw him, but after feeding it this thing, the dog was not only not grateful, but also bit him back.

Today he waited for the old man to come over and catch him on the spot. He couldn’t let him go no matter what. The fish cakes he stole were not worth much, but they were too disgusting.

“What is stealing? What is robbing? These are all revelations from the Lord to me!”

The believer who was caught on the spot immediately stiffened his neck and argued back emotionally.

“I wanted to eat meat, so the Lord gave me fish cakes, and I deserved it.”

“If you want to eat meat, go work in the factory. Who cares about you? Why do you always steal from me?”

The fish cake stall owner was furious.

“Does the Lord you believe in be a god of thieves?”

“How dare you slander the great Lord of Light?”

At this time, not only the old thief who was pinned down by the fish cake stall owner, but also the passers-by around him, had changes in expression.

“What are you doing? Why are you arguing so early in the morning?”

A golem engraved with sword and shield patterns descended from the sky. The golem, like a steel giant, entered the scene with great deterrence, instantly calming the originally somewhat abnormal atmosphere.

“Sir Patrol Officer, I caught a thief!”

The fish cake stall owner, who had just realized that he had said the wrong thing, straightened his slightly hunched back the moment he saw the golem enter, and reported loudly.

“I’m not a thief. I’m a devout believer of the Lord of Light. I just don’t want to eat bread anymore. I want to eat meat…”

“But your gods only paid for you to eat bread!”

A clear and pleasant voice rang out from the Iron Golem. It was the fairy that was controlling the Golem.

“If you want to eat meat, then go to work. Only those who work hard can get more!”

“This is unfair. I pray to God every day. Why should I be inferior to those traitors who disregard my faith in God?”

“So you admit your theft?”

“That’s not theft, it’s a reward from my Lord for my devout faith!”

“But I didn’t receive the money paid to me by the Lord of Light.”

Seeing the old thief still trying to be stubborn, the fish cake stall owner retorted.

“According to the law, if the amount of stolen property is less than one gold coin, the penalty is fifteen lashes!”

(End of this chapter)