novelraw Chapter 474: Who is Civilization, Who is Monster?
Chapter 474: Who is Civilization, Who is Monster?
Aris Province, Iris City.
The city that originally belonged to humans had now changed its banners.
Standing on the streets were Aola warriors from the wilderness. They were burly, clad in stern armor, their cold and fierce aura making every passerby tremble with fear, forcing them to lower their heads and walk by hurriedly.
This once prosperous city had now been officially taken over by the Aola Kingdom.
The once most bustling Violet Avenue had lost its former noise and floral fragrance, replaced by a kind of oppressive silence.
The bluestone pavement had been polished to a shine by the heavy footsteps and horseshoes over the past days, with un-swept dust accumulated in the cracks. The air was filled with the faint metallic scent of dust and friction, along with an indescribable atmosphere of killing.
The bard Caleb, holding his severely worn pearwood harp and wrapping himself tightly in his faded old cloak, walked slowly along the base of the wall.
His gaze was lowered, yet he couldn't help but secretly glance at this city that had changed hands.
The street scene was fragmented.
The familiar shop signs still swayed slightly in the wind, the bakery faintly wafted the aroma of wheat, but the ones standing at key positions were no longer the familiar faces of the Theo Kingdom guards, whether stern or lazy.An ogre warrior stood at the street corner like a weathered stone statue.
He was clad in heavy iron armor, holding a club studded with blunt spikes in his arms. His massive size and steel armament were intimidating.
The ogre's eyes were slightly closed, a faint, even breathing sound coming from beneath his faceplate, as if he were dozing off lazily.
However, whenever anyone approached within ten steps of him, those eyes would open a slit, their yellowish-brown pupils sweeping over indifferently, closing again only after confirming no threat.
Caleb was looked at by the ogre just like that.
He instantly felt a chill run through his entire body, his footsteps freezing in place, his heart pounding violently in his chest.
Countless terrifying thoughts flashed through his mind.
He was terrified that the ogre would walk towards him, grab him with those huge, fan-like hands, and then chew him up and swallow him down like a chicken leg.
This was a very likely possibility.
According to Caleb's knowledge, commoners like them from a ceded province had a status not much higher than that of slaves.
Even if the enemy were a human kingdom, its soldiers killing some civilians often wouldn't receive severe punishment.
Moreover, the other side was the wilderness monsters, notorious for their savagery and cruelty, rumored to eat raw flesh and drink blood.
Under the ogre's gaze, Caleb even hallucinated, as if seeing his long-deceased grandmother waving to him, childhood memories flooding his mind uncontrollably, cold sweat soaking the thin shirt on his back.
But this was just his excessive worry.
The ogre guard just glanced at him briefly, confirming this scrawny human had no weapons and didn't seem about to do anything dangerous, then once again slightly closed his eyes as if dozing off.
Eating raw flesh and drinking blood?
If the ogre guard knew what the bard was thinking, he would surely let out a snort of derision.
A country bumpkin who only thinks in stereotypes... Forget about him, even the ogres of his father's generation rarely ate raw meat directly unless during extreme food shortages on the march; at the very least, they would roast it first.
Eating raw flesh and drinking blood was a habit from the older wilderness days.
For the new generation, they didn't reject raw meat and would drink enemy blood on the battlefield, but this was more like a ritualistic tradition or sense of honor, not an everyday practice.
Their Aola ogres were already completely different from the originally scattered wilderness ogre tribes.
For example, the old ogres were big and burly but covered in fat, just bloated. The Aola ogres, however, were bursting with muscles all over, looking like iron towers.
It was like the difference between wilderness goblins and the goblins of the Matna Kingdom who could read, write, and even master alchemical technology.
Due to differences in education received, resources enjoyed, and environments they were in, although they shared the same appearance and race, their thoughts and behaviors were like two different species.
Wilderness creatures never actually lacked intelligence; it was just that environmental conditions didn't permit it.
When they gathered in the form of a kingdom, when a powerful emperor provided order, their development speed was jaw-dropping.
On the other side, after the ogre looked away, Caleb dared to move again only after taking three deep breaths to calm himself.
He continued along the street and saw many more Aola guards along the way.
Several werewolf patrols passed by with orderly steps, standard-issue curved swords at their waists, their fur neatly groomed; two ogre elites walked out of an alley carrying weapons, their heavy footsteps making the ground tremble slightly; in the distance, on a tower, the figures of centaur archers could be seen.
As time passed, the bard's nervous heart slowly calmed.
There was no expected burning, killing, looting, no wanton acts of violence.
Although the streets were quiet, a few shops were actually still open.
The Aola warriors appeared exceptionally restrained, possessing a crude yet distinct discipline, different from all the stories about monster city-sacking that Caleb had ever sung.
This made him reflect a little.
He also recalled in his heart the changes in the kingdom's previous reports on the Red Emperor, those newspaper headlines he had personally seen and heard in taverns, spinning in his mind like a revolving lantern.
[Red Iron Dragon Tyranny Teetering, Civilization Will Ultimately Triumph Over Barbarism]
[The Brutal Red Emperor Seizes Satellites, The Despicable Aola Kingdom Occupies Border Regions]
[Bad News, The Aola Kingdom Breaches Norton Pass]
[The Esteemed Red Emperor Arrives at Iris City]
The last headline had appeared recently, the notices plastered all over streets and alleys replaced overnight, as if yesterday's curses had never existed.
"Are my bad impressions of Aola based on my own genuine thoughts, or are they derived from the Theo Kingdom's previous propaganda?" Caleb silently wondered, a trace of confusion rising in his heart.
As a bard, he understood better than ordinary people how stories were woven and discourse was shaped.
But he never thought that one day, he himself would become someone swayed by discourse.
A few minutes later, as the sky gradually darkened and the twilight light cast long shadows from the buildings, the bard arrived at an open square.
This was also the destination of his risky outing today.
He heard food was being distributed here.
On the north side of the square, rough but sturdy long tables were set up, piled high with food.
Large quantities of slightly coarse but substantial buttered bread were stacked into small mountains; several large wooden barrels of cloudy jam floating with fruit pulp fragments emitted a sweet fragrance; there were even many large iron pots steaming with hot air, containing thick soup made from vegetables and some meat chunks.
Food was being distributed in an orderly manner.
And those standing behind the tables distributing the food were not humans.
For instance, at the long table closest to Caleb.
On the left was a serpent woman.
Her upper body was the graceful form of a human woman, long hair tied up with a blue ribbon, her face delicate but with snake-like vertical pupils; from the waist down was a long, powerful snake tail, deep green scales shimmering faintly in the twilight, currently coiled on the ground.
She was using her long-nailed fingers to hand bread and thick soup served in wooden bowls to a trembling little girl.
The most eye-catching one in the middle was a centaur.
Her tall, athletic upper body wore a simple linen shirt, sleeves rolled up to the elbows, revealing sturdy forearms; brown hair was braided into a thick plait hanging over her chest; her lower body was the glossy, sleek chestnut-colored body of a steed, four hooves fitted with simple horseshoes to prevent damage to the stone slabs.
She was using a huge wooden ladle to scoop jam from a barrel, spreading it evenly on slices of bread.
A bit further to the right, a female werewolf was tending to the soup pot.
She had grayish-blue fur, a large fluffy tail swaying slightly behind her, pointed ears alertly perked up, eyes scanning the queue, occasionally shouting in the common tongue with a slight accent.
"Don't push! There's enough for everyone! Line up properly!"
Those receiving food were mostly sallow and emaciated commoners, children, and the elderly.
Most didn't dare to look up, silently taking the food and hurriedly leaving.
But there were exceptions.
A boy of about seven or eight stared dazedly at the centaur woman's strong, beautiful horse body part that trembled slightly with her movements, almost forgetting to reach out for the jam-covered bread already handed to him.
Only after his mother pulled him anxiously did he snap out of it, grab the bread, lower his head, and run off.
Hunger ultimately overpowered fear.
The bard felt his dry money pouch at his waist, finding only a few pitifully thin copper coins inside, not even enough to buy a few pieces of the hardest black bread.
After much hesitation, shame was overwhelmed by the desire to survive, and he silently lined up at the end of the nearest queue.
The queue moved forward slowly.
When it was his turn, it happened to be the centaur woman in front of him.
She leaned forward slightly, this action lowering her upper body, which was much taller than a human's, to eye level with Caleb. Then, she handed over a large piece of jam-covered bread and a large bowl of thick soup, the rim of the wooden bowl still steaming.
Caleb raised his hands to receive them, his gaze inevitably meeting hers.
They were a pair of very large, deep brown eyes, with little white showing, gentle and bright, pupils horizontal ovals, like those of a real horse, yet carrying the unique expression of an intelligent being.
"Here."
Her voice wasn't as clear as a human woman's, slightly lower, with a certain resonant quality. Though also accented, her articulation was clear.
"Th... thank you."
Caleb took the bread and soup bowl.
The warm touch and weight of the bread made his throat move, the soup's aroma wafting straight into his nose.
Iris City was originally a wealthy city, but the war had still severely impacted it.
To cope with the frontline war, the Theo Kingdom had levied several special taxes, coupled with hoarding and profiteering by nobles and merchants, making life for the bottom-tier commoners very difficult, even destitute.
Caleb had no special talents, hadn't embarked on any extraordinary path.
For an ordinary bard like him making a living by performing, performance opportunities had sharply decreased, tips were pitifully small, and he had been starving for a while.
And those worse off than him were only more numerous.
Caleb took the food, turned to leave, but then paused.
He turned back, hesitated for a moment, then spoke up and asked, "Excuse me... why are you doing this? I mean, giving out food for free." He added, "It doesn't seem... like something conquerors would do."
The centaur woman was taken aback.
Her large hooves lightly tapped the ground twice in place, making a light *tap, tap* sound, as if thinking.
A few seconds later, she replied, "It's an order, an order from above."
She paused, recalling more specific wording, then continued, "They say conquest isn't just about planting flags; the most important thing is to make the conquered genuinely accept the new rulers in their hearts."
"We come from the wilderness, not very clear about you humans' preferences and habits."
The centaur woman's tone was very candid, "However, before the great Emperor Ignas established the kingdom and unified the wilderness, our ancestors all tasted the pain of hunger."
"The feeling of an empty stomach isn't pleasant; we all know that."
"Now, Iris City belongs to Aola, and you will also become part of us."
She looked at Caleb, her horizontal pupils reflecting the poet's gaunt face, "And we, the people of Aola, will never stand idly by while our compatriots starve."
"This is the most basic."
The bard was stunned, not expecting such an answer.
At the same time, the other serpent woman overheard the conversation. She turned her head, flicked her forked tongue, revealing a sly smile, and added, "After taking Iris City, the first thing the higher-ups did was to clean out the private storerooms of the major nobles here, levying public order maintenance taxes and order reconstruction taxes on them."
"The ingredients for the food you're receiving now were bought with that tax money."
The serpent woman blinked her vertical pupils, using a mocking tone to tease, "Those stingy nobles had plenty of grease to scrape. Skimming off a layer was enough to fill the bellies of all you commoners in the city. And this is just the first batch; there will be more later."
In reality, the lower-class commoners of Iris City had been suffering hunger for a long time, while those noble lords acted as if they saw nothing, taxes still rose as they should, and banquets were still held as they should.
Now, the Aola Kingdom had taken over Iris City.
The first thing the legendary monsters did wasn't bloody suppression, but rather plundering the nobles' wealth to fill the bellies of them, the commoners.
Who exactly was civilization, and who was the monster?
The bard, including others who heard these words, felt complex emotions.
Some showed looks of sudden realization, some lowered their heads in thought, and others had expressions of long-suppressed resentment towards the nobles surface on their faces.
Caleb's heart was also stirred.
He looked down at the warm, soft bread and fragrant soup in his hands, then suddenly raised his face, looking towards the three non-human women distributing food.
"Beautiful ladies, your mercy flows like a spring through a parched riverbed."
He released the harp he had been holding, letting it lean against his leg, freeing both hands to hold the food, and bowed slightly, "Please allow me to improvise a few lines of song for you, to express my gratitude."
Without waiting for a response, Caleb took a light breath and began to recite in a volume not loud but clear enough to reach the ears of everyone nearby.
"When twilight's cloak drapes the castle's edge, and strange guardians stand at posts of old."
"Their hands hold not torch nor blade, but wheat-ear and wooden spoon, bestowing warmth to trembling palms, infusing hope into longing eyes."
"Today's grain from yesterday's vaults of greed, today's order built upon past chaos."
"Ah, unfamiliar benefactors, may these humble lines return a moment's warmth to your side."
His improvised verses weren't complex, but they captured the scene of the moment and the feelings in many people's hearts.
A light, grateful melody he hummed casually, paired with the verses, actually had a comforting power.
When finished, Caleb bowed slightly again.
"Your poetry... is quite good, and your voice too."
The centaur woman smiled slightly, showing neat teeth, "Tomorrow at the same time, same place, we'll still be here distributing food. Remember to come, don't be shy; we don't eat people."
She made a small joke. Several commoners nearby who heard relaxed a bit, and some even let out low chuckles.
Caleb nodded, carefully holding the soup bowl and bread, then turned and left.
He found a stone step at the edge of the square to sit on and wolfed down this long-awaited full meal.
The hot soup going down warmed his entire body.
On the way back, at a certain corner, Caleb paused.
On a bulletin board plastered with various notices, he saw a newly posted piece of parchment.
The paper quality was good, the ink fresh, standing out conspicuously among the many yellowed, damaged old notices.
[Recruiting those skilled with words, bards prioritized, excellent remuneration, food guaranteed.]
It didn't specify what exactly needed to be done, only gave an address in the eastern part of the city, stamped below with the red seal representing the Aola Kingdom.
"This is... a recruitment notice from the Aola Kingdom?"
Caleb moved closer, reading carefully, "Not recruiting those powerful warriors or spellcasters, but instead recruiting bards? Why?"
He felt puzzled in his heart, yet also somewhat tempted.
The war had made Theo's taxes suffocatingly heavy; he was already penniless, and he didn't want to keep accepting charity either.
If he could earn money through his own skills and support himself, that would be a long-term solution.