Dimensional Codex System: I'm really not a cultist!

Chapter 1662 - 1660: The Price of Kindness

Fang Zheng took Meiyin away from the temple, went to the inn, and then gathered the Priestess of the Goddess and the others to talk about the temple orphanage. After listening to Fang Zheng’s description, the Priestess of the Goddess was quite surprised.

"Is the environment there really that bad?"

"I remember you seem to be from an orphanage too? How was the environment on your side?"

"Well......"

Faced with Fang Zheng’s inquiry, the Priestess of the Goddess felt a bit embarrassed.

"Although life was very poor, everyone could accept it...... but no matter what, such a thing could never happen......"

"Then what are we waiting for!?"

Megumin was already restless, and at this moment, she jumped up and ran towards the door.

"Let’s go there to rescue those kids, and then blow up that life-taking temple! Just right, I haven’t used my Burst Magic today, just give me one shot......"

"Calm down for a moment."

Fang Zheng quickly grabbed Megumin by the collar and pulled her back into the chair. In fact, he was not surprised by this situation. As mentioned before, the temple of the Priestess of the Goddess and the others was backed by powerful figures. In other words, these temples received donations from believers, so they could naturally be maintained.

But the temple where Meiyin was located is just a political institution, without a real deity to believe in, so of course, there wouldn’t be any believer donations. In fact, Fang Zheng used "Ratziel" to investigate while returning, finding that the temple’s funds were completely reliant on allocations from the Lord and donations from the nobility. In short, there is no free income, entirely dependent on financial allocations.

And a large sum of money was embezzled by the High Priest of the Temple...... in such a situation, the fact that the kids in the orphanage can even survive is already a miracle.

Thinking of this, Fang Zheng looked at Meiyin. At this moment, Meiyin’s little face was still extremely pale, which was normal. To be honest, even a gentle person like the Priestess of the Goddess, or a chuunibyou patient like Megumin, might be shocked or indignant at such a scene, but they could understand and accept it. After all, they live in such a world, even if they hadn’t seen similar things, they’ve probably heard plenty.

But Meiyin is different. After she was reborn into this world, her life was poor and very inconvenient. But no matter what, she could grit her teeth and get by. Although medieval civilization is not very advanced, at least the necessities of life are available, which is way better than surviving on a deserted island.

Living habits might change, but a person’s worldview doesn’t change so easily.

For Meiyin, who lived in a modern society with abundant resources, stability, and peace, the scene in the orphanage before was enough to leave a shadow in her mind.

Saying her worldview was completely shattered might be too much, but it was close.

"I can save them, that’s no problem."

Fang Zheng spoke.

"But Meiyin, what’s next then?"

"Huh?"

"I can save them, sure. I can also arrange for them to live in the manor... the castle, no problem. What next? We don’t know how many people are in the orphanage currently, but let’s assume it’s thirty. Thirty children need food, drink, and waste management every day, how many resources does that take? Where does the money come from? How do you plan to support them? How will the manor rotate its resources? You wouldn’t think this is the Red Cross charity headquarters, just seeking to give without needing any return."

"I......"

Upon hearing Fang Zheng’s inquiry, Meiyin seemingly realized the situation, and bit her lip.

So it’s said, students are naive. This type of thing needs the harsh lessons of society before they understand that kindness isn’t justice, nor is it free of cost. Being kind is good, but you also need to consider your own capability. Otherwise, you’re just asking for trouble.

Even the many Cursed Children Fang Zheng supports rely on resources from other worlds to maintain their current lives. But even so, Fang Zheng didn’t promise to support them for life, instead encouraging them to start being self-sufficient.

"Moreover, there are more orphans than just these. Now we’ve accepted them, what about later? Orphans continue to emerge, it’s not possible to say that this year there are orphans, next year there won’t be any. What should be done then? Also, with what you’re doing, it’s equivalent to robbing the temple’s business, have you thought about how the temple might react? How are you going to handle these issues?"

"I......."

Upon hearing Fang Zheng’s string of questions, neither Meiyin nor Megumin could speak anymore.

Saving a little kitten indeed is a loving act, but love requires action; a kitten that hasn’t weaned needs to be fed every few hours overnight and its excretion needs attention too, not any less than caring for a baby. But that’s just the beginning; if you’re going to adopt it, you need to take care of it, which requires time, effort, and money.

After all, cats need food, and if they get sick, they need veterinary care, all requiring money.

People who rescue dogs from cars think they’re just, kind, until they see the veterinary bill for several hundred dogs and then run away faster than their shadows.

Kindness and justice may be satisfying temporarily, but the cost is long-lasting.

And not to mention, people are even more troublesome than dogs and cats.

"This is the assignment I leave to you; today I’m off to the castle to supervise the repairs. Once I return, tell me your answer."

Saying this, Fang Zheng stood up, glanced at Meiyin.

"Better hurry up; you know those kids won’t hold out much longer."

Fang Zheng isn’t really heartless, but he knows very well that many things aren’t resolved by sheer passion alone, for the orphanage, he let the Priestess of the Goddess, Ais, and Megumin deliver some food there.—as donations. But for now, this is all Fang Zheng can do.

After arranging these affairs, Fang Zheng returned to the Ancient Castle to become... a supervisor.

"If only the workers worldwide were as obedient."

Looking at the Magic Servants busily working inside and outside the Ancient Castle, Fang Zheng whistled. The Ancient Castle is nice but needs large-scale repairs and renovations, and even requires an increase in energy supplies, including the management of water systems and more. Even an engineering team would need several months to complete.

But as a Mage, Fang Zheng has his own methods.

Just summon Magic Servants directly!

No need to eat, drink, sleep, no fatigue, fear of danger, it’s simply the best labor assurance for capitalists!

For caution, not all materials used here are sourced from the Heavenly Dao Palace, but rather things Fang Zheng picked up conveniently while traveling other worlds. He doesn’t even intend to connect this place with the Heavenly Dao Palace network, to avoid Chaos spreading through various forms. Currently, only Fang Zheng’s personal terminal can communicate with the Heavenly Dao Palace, while Meiyin’s personal terminal can only contact him and cannot access the Heavenly Dao Palace’s network information.

With the help of Magic Servants who don’t fear hardship or fatigue, the renovation of the Ancient Castle naturally finished in a few days, not only faster than the renovation team but also with better quality... Hmm, if Fang Zheng were to return to his world as a contractor now, he might just crush the construction market.

After all, Magic Servants cost nothing!

And after confirming everything was in place, Fang Zheng finally returned to the city, and at the same time, received the "homework" Meiyin handed him.

"Is this your idea?"

Flipping through the "homework" in front of him, Fang Zheng raised his head and glanced at Meiyin.

From the content, Meiyin indeed considered these issues. For instance, the funding aspect—there are no child labor protection laws in this world, and children have to work after their baptism at age seven. Meiyin’s idea is to use the manor to set up a paper-making workshop to improve this world’s paper industry, but...

"Why paper-making?"

Fang Zheng pointed at the "homework" in his hand, looking at Meiyin, which made her a bit nervous. For some reason, it instinctively reminded her of the fear during graduation defense...

"Be-because paper is quite expensive in this world, and the quality is not very good. Normal people simply can’t afford it, thus can’t afford books either. So I want to promote the paper-making industry, so everyone can afford to read books!"

"Good reason."

Fang Zheng recalled, though he hadn’t paid attention to this world’s paper situation, remembering that the paper used for Adventurers’ Association commissions indeed wasn’t high quality.

"However, you should understand that paper-making is not an easy task, and it might also conflict with existing industries. Have you considered resolving this issue? Also, do you have the paper-making technology?"

"I have a cooperative relationship with a merchant guild, they are willing to help me solve this issue. As for the paper-making technology... I’ve seen it in books before, as long as I can find some information, it should be fine!"

"Oh?"

Fang Zheng looked at Meiyin.

"You have connections with a guild?"

"Yes, I previously sold them a shampoo formula and hair accessories by chance... that’s how I earned some money."

"I see."

Hearing Meiyin’s response, Fang Zheng nodded. A girl is a girl, even a transmigrator the same. Fang Zheng recalled the online novels he read before, rarely seeing protagonists starting with shampoo... Indeed, it’s a blind spot.

Most transmigrators are male, who would pay attention to things like shampoo and hair accessories!

Even Fang Zheng himself never cared in the Main World.

"So your idea is to collaborate with that guild, let appropriately aged children make paper to earn money... Hmm, it’s a way. What else?"

"If possible, I hope Miss Ais and others could help train some children to become adventurers... somehow they could protect themselves. Also, I can ask my sister and friends to take these children into the forest to learn fruit picking and hunting, at least they won’t starve if they can’t buy food."

"You’ve considered quite comprehensively for your part."

Fang Zheng closed the homework and nodded. Seeing Fang Zheng’s expression, Meiyin relaxed a bit.

But Fang Zheng’s next comment stunned Meiyin directly.

"However, you’ve considered too simply."

"Eh?"

Looking at Meiyin’s confused face, Fang Zheng shook his head. Students are students, she doesn’t understand the implications of her actions. Lowering paper costs means greatly enhancing the circulation of knowledge, and enhanced circulation of knowledge conflicts with the nobility’s idea of controlling knowledge, preventing common people’s access.

Just look at America, although many can attend college, truly attending prestigious colleges are rich people and political elites. Most, even attending college, can only go to community college. Some even graduate without grasping arithmetic, hence their cultural level naturally prevents high-level jobs.

As for fun learning, it’s clearly deceiving commoners. Any high-class elite’s child receives rote education from an early age, fundamentally no different from China’s extensive exam preparation. In other words, China’s extensive exam students enjoy America’s nobility elite education model.

Quality education and fun learning are just for fooling the general public.

Since once you’re behind at the start, your whole life you’re only fit to be a slave. Your happiness in learning is your business, failing to find appropriately qualified jobs is also your business, and having to sweep streets is likewise your business.

This is similar to the world where only nobility can learn literacy, while commoners simply don’t write.

Even if all beings are equal, if you’re illiterate, you can’t do jobs that require literacy.

Thus you can only be a slave.

This is an invisible chasm, crueler than so-called discriminatory recruitment. For nobility, most being illiterate clearly benefits ruling. While Meiyin hopes more read books, discover their charm, in essence it’s literacy... this plainly contradicts the nobility’s thought.

However, this is good, the circulation of knowledge aids the development of order, for Fang Zheng, it’s a huge benefit without harm. As for potentially shaking the ruling class in this world, he just doesn’t care. Moreover, transmigrators, coming to a world, if not stirring it dramatically, wouldn’t fulfill their identity, right? Since Meiyin has such ideas, let her pursue it. In case of incidents, he’s there to watch.

"Keep thinking, this is the next homework."

Looking at the puzzled and confused Meiyin, Fang Zheng shrugged.

"Next, inform everyone, the castle’s renovation is complete, they can move in."