Chapter 652: Accommodation, Tending to the Horses, and Reinforcing the Carriage Canopy

Jier carried the unconscious Bata'er Jiaoshi through the spacious carriage corridor and entered the inn's backyard from the side. The shop assistant guarding the corridor did not even dare to look up at Jier as he walked past.

In the backyard, Xueya Site was leaning against the carriage, waiting for the two of them.

"It's really lively out front, but is everything alright? Jier."

Xueya Site looked worried, as he had heard a rough account of what had just happened. Having caused such a huge scene not long after leaving Montoka City, he was terrified that Jier, a teenage Knight Attendant, would be unable to handle the situation.

If he were a Knight, it would be fine; he could rely on absolute force to dictate how the situation developed, but Jier was not yet a Knight, after all.

While carrying the man, Jier saw that the horses had already entered the stables and were drinking fresh water from the trough, making slurping sounds.

"Whether it's alright or not, things are already like this." Jier patted the Bata'er Jiaoshi on his shoulder armor: "Honestly, I originally thought he wasn't the type to dare to act, but I didn't expect him to actually be able to release a blessing ability on the street just now. Haha, I think the experiences in the coming period will be quite interesting?"

"You need to be alive for it to be interesting."

Xueya Site curled his lip. He felt that these two young men were truly crazy. Jier was a reckless guy who didn't fear trouble, and this Village Priest of the Agricultural God Church in his twenties, who had previously looked refined and somewhat melancholic and fragile, now appeared to have the personality of a teapot that gets hot-headed.

Once the heat goes to his head, the lid blows off.

"So, are we still going ahead with what we discussed earlier tonight? Modifying the carriage canopy and such?"

"Of course. You watch our carriage first; I'll arrange a room for the unconscious Priest to lie down, then I'll come to relieve you. You take the money and go out to buy the necessary leather, canvas, and sewing tools. We two will take turns guarding the carriage tonight and modify it."

After making the arrangements, Jier walked toward the back door of the inn building, while Xueya Site jumped onto the driver's seat of the carriage, leaned against the seat, and began sharpening a Dagger with a Whetstone.

With a loud bang, the back door of the lobby was pushed open with force. The people in the lobby were startled, and as they subconsciously turned their heads to look, they subsequently quieted down.

The originally noisy lobby became extremely silent.

Merchants who had been drinking heartily froze in place, their wine cups held in mid-air, and the male and female servers of the inn were also startled, the words they were composing stuck in their throats.

"What's wrong? Someone come and arrange two rooms."

Jier walked nonchalantly into the middle of the lobby, the unconscious Priest on his shoulder particularly eye-catching.

"Oh, this companion of mine just released a god-given blessing Divine Art and fainted; I need to find a soft bed for him to get some good rest quickly."

Jier said with a hum. Many people secretly curled their lips; it was clearly you who knocked your companion out in such a bizarre way, don't act as if everyone didn't see it.

But the inn Steward was still secretly pushed forward by his subordinates to lead the way: "Guest, what kind of rooms would you like? We have two superior rooms used by Noble lords, and several medium rooms used by traveling merchants. Which kind do you need?"

Jier's combat boots stepped across the wooden floor of the lobby, emitting creaking sounds, clearly due to the pressure of the weight.

"Medium rooms will do, two of them."

"But I heard from my shop assistant that there are three of you?"

"Oh, don't we still have to leave someone to watch the carriage at night? He's asleep, and the other one and I will take turns guarding the carriage."

While speaking, the two of them stepped onto the relatively spacious wooden stairs and went upstairs.

This was a newly built three-story building with wooden floors in the Human style. The guest rooms were all on the second and third floors. The best rooms, intended for traveling Nobles, were all on the second floor, which had the most suitable height, occupying at least half the area, while the other half consisted of rooms for merchants, each of which was significantly smaller.

"Hmm, arrange a medium room for me that faces the street so I can see it. No problem, right?"

"No problem, no problem, look at what you're saying. We all saw the great good deed you and this Priest just did; it was truly amazing. The great Agricultural God is watching over everyone; my grandmother often told me that when she was alive. I didn't believe it before, but now that I think about it, it was just because I was a mere mortal. Only Knights like you and your companion, who is a Priest, can truly see clearly and genuinely influence and change this world."

The inn Steward was a middle-aged man with a handlebar mustache, and he had been spouting flattery since just a moment ago.

"You sure know how to talk, heh."

Jier responded casually.

It was not until the two who had gone upstairs disappeared from the sight of everyone in the lobby that the entire inn lobby regained its vitality.

The merchants silently clinked their glasses again, then each drank their tasteless wine in silence. Some were calculating whether to take their luggage and leave this inn now, while others were calculating whether to go up and get to know these two, as they seemed to have an extraordinary background and their destination was unknown—perhaps there was money to be made?

The male and female servers began to chatter again, some carefully watching the numerous Refugee from the Southern Province on the street outside, who had separated and were no longer blocking the way, and were discussing and exchanging god-given food among themselves.

They were terrified that those people would storm their inn because of these two young men with backgrounds.

"Should we use the dining tables to block the main entrance? Or close the windows that let in light?"

Someone suggested this, but the boss was not in today, and the Steward had followed the guests upstairs to attend to them. They couldn't make up their own minds, so they had to send some people to guard the entrance while the others dispersed to attend to the guests.

If the Refugee stormed the inn, they would have to quickly block the main entrance, close the doors and windows, and then escape from the back door of the lobby into the courtyard.

The inn wasn't their property anyway, so it wasn't worth risking their lives for; just fooling around and dealing with it simply would suffice.

The inn Steward found Jier two medium rooms opposite each other, one facing the street with a window, and the one across from it without a window.

"However, there is an Oil Lamp prepared inside with high-quality Lamp Oil. Once lit, the smell won't be unpleasant, and there won't be much smoke either. The room also has a vent that exhausts smoke into the corridor, so it's no problem even if you light the Oil Lamp all night!"

Facing the inn Steward's boasting, Jier gave a perfunctory smile.

He settled the Bata'er Jiaoshi in the room facing the street with a window, lying him flat on the bed filled with soft wool, and took off his boots and put them aside. He kept his equipment on, while the Hupo Changzhang was unslung from behind the Priest and leaned against the wall at the head of the bed.

Walking to the window, Jier looked out carefully and found that the Refugee were no longer gathered on the street. The soldiers at the checkpoint saw that the risk of a gathering or riot was gone, so they left a few people to monitor and notify, while the others, led by the Soldier Captain, returned to the military camp inside the checkpoint.

And the behavior of the Refugee also put Jier at ease.

Things had not slid down into the terrible Abyss. Perhaps these people who thought about fleeing their hometowns under bad circumstances were not brave enough, or were somewhat cowardly, but at least they didn't think about joining those Bandit or defeated troops to act as accomplices and bring disaster to the countryside. Instead, they fled the dangerous areas and came to the safer Western Province.

They were all ordinary people who couldn't be called bad. It was not their original intention to have the majority gathered in this small checkpoint and be trapped, but that was the current situation. The local Noble did not want to let too many people from other places in, thereby disrupting the local order.

Perhaps, through Jier's observations all the way from Kewen Territory to Mengtuoka Territory, he felt that perhaps the local Noble who controlled the Baishi Chengqiang Guanka also had the reason of not wanting to provide enough cheap labor to the Kewen Territory, which was upgrading its animal husbandry industry?

After all, one cannot bear to see one's brother suffer, and even less can one bear to see one's brother get ahead.

Jier understood this principle. Kewen Territory and Mengtuoka Territory were neighbors. Kewen Territory had always provided cheap primary animal husbandry and agricultural products, while Mengtuoka Territory utilized its better trade and transportation status to earn the price difference.

It could be said that they had heavily suppressed their brother territory.

In this way, no matter how things developed in the future, Kewen Territory would never be able to surpass Mengtuoka Territory, as the lion's share was taken by others.

But now, an opportunity had appeared before them. Kewen Territory could potentially use the abundant cheap labor to upgrade its agricultural product processing industry. Although dried and air-dried meat jerky was not as tender and delicious as live livestock, it could be sold much further away!

Previously, they could only be exploited by Montoka City, which used its advantageous transportation position to take the lion's share of their sales revenue; the actual livestock transit trade was controlled by the various Merchant Guild of Montoka City. But now, with Kewen Territory's products changing to cow and sheep hides, wool, and shelf-stable meat, they could cooperate with larger Merchant Guild from afar to sell products throughout the entire Kingdom, and even to other small kingdoms in the south.

Montoka City would no longer be able to occupy the advantage in trade and take the lion's share of trade income; they could only earn a small amount of road tolls and taxes.

Based on the idea that money I didn't earn is a loss, Jier thought that Montoka City would inevitably block the Baishi Chengqiang Guanka exit tightly. They would rather let all the current and future Refugee rot in this checkpoint than easily let more people pass through.

After all, there were not many Refugee who could afford the fifty-fold crossing tax. With just this small number of people, the Mengtuoka region could digest and accept them itself, and there was no need for the Refugee to suffer and run to Kewen Territory.

As his thoughts returned, Jier saw the inn Steward still standing at the door of the room with a cautious look, not having left.

"What is it?" Jier asked.

"The room keys, look, these are the keys for the two rooms." The Steward took two keys that had already been selected from the key ring on his belt, deftly removed them, and handed them to Jier while bowing.

"This one is Medium Room No. 7, and the one opposite is Medium Room No. 16. Please keep them safe. I won't disturb your rest any further. Both I and our attendants are in the lobby; whether it's for washing up, eating, horse grooming, running errands, or repairing clothes, you can find our people. Of course, you only need to pay a small amount of coin."

"Hmm, you may go."

Jier took the keys. Seeing that Priest Bataer would likely not wake up for a meal for another hour or two, he took a folded piece of paper from the leather bag hanging on his metal belt, then took out a charcoal stick stored in a small, long wooden box. Jier wrote a note explaining the situation for Priest Bataer, placed the paper on the priest's chest, walked out of the room, and locked the door.

Jier kept the keys himself, of course. He opened the room opposite to take a look and found it was also a single room; the furnishings were unremarkable, but at least it was clean and had no odor.

After locking the room again, Jier went downstairs.

"Here, Medium Room No. 16 on the second floor, this is the key." Jier tossed the room key to Xueya Site.

"You go to the lobby to have dinner first, then go out and buy the things you need as soon as possible. Although it's almost the same at night as it is during the day here at the checkpoint because of the White Stone City Wall, the shops won't stay open forever. Buy the things and come back before they close. Bring the things to me, then you go rest for a while, and by the way, see if the priest has woken up; I locked him in the room across the hall."

Jier said all this in one breath, and Xueya Site patted his chest and agreed to it all.

Once his companion had left, Jier climbed onto the carriage and dove into the carriage canopy.

The bows, crossbows, and the long, heavy Metal Double-Edged Long Spear that had been on the horses' backs were all here; he didn't know how Xueya Site had managed to move all these things in by himself.

Ignoring that, Jier entered the lady's dream directly. By the Memory Water Pond, he removed his full set of Metal Armor and changed into his ordinary clothes. He left the axe in the dream, and on his newly changed leather belt, he hung the Hunting Sword on the left and the Heart Fire Magic Dagger on the right.

After staying in the canopy for a while longer, Jier came out and jumped off the carriage. He tied the curtain of the canopy tight with a rope, then picked up a bristle brush in the stable to brush the four horses, patting off dust, feeding them, cleaning their ears, and checking their teeth and the condition of the horseshoes on their hooves.

The order for caring for the horses naturally started with his primary horse—Tianxuecao.

Brushing not only straightens the horses' hair, but also untangles hair that has knotted together due to the saddle and leather straps.

From the affectionate posture of the horses each time, it was clear that they liked humans doing this.

Furthermore, brushing is also an effective means of clearing parasites from the horses' skin.

After finding horse lice on the brush, Jier crushed them directly.

After brushing, Jier used a piece of Linen Cloth to pat the body of each horse one by one, knocking off the dust they had picked up after a day of running.

If one doesn't want to spend more time washing the horses, patting off the dust like this is also acceptable.

Next was feeding. Jier went to the Shop Assistant who was taking care of other guests' horses nearby and asked for the bucket of dry beans and bundles of dry forage promised by the inn.

The dry beans were, of course, for his Tianxuecao to eat, but Jier also secretly grabbed three handfuls of beans when Tianxuecao wasn't paying attention and snuck them to the other three horses.

"Shh!"

When feeding the other horses the beans, Jier saw them trying to stretch their heads over to nuzzle him, so he made a quiet gesture and sound so as not to expose his act of stealing food to feed the others.

The main food, of course, was the dry forage. This forage, specially planted in pastures, is rich in nutrients and is a feed that all kinds of livestock like to eat. Of course, livestock will eat other plant tissues, but one must consider efficiency and scale.

Forage is easy to use and high-yielding, so in places where conditions allow, people try their best to feed this to their livestock.

In other areas without open pastures, they naturally feed them whatever is available. Wheat Straw, green grass, tree leaves, shrubs, etc. —what cows and sheep can generally eat, horses can eat too.

Many plants that humans can eat, livestock can naturally eat as well.

To the livestock, this is still nutritious, fine-quality food!

However, while feeding the horses, Jier thought of the many Refugees before the checkpoint who had to worry about food every day, either selling their portable valuables locally at a low price for money, begging for food, or finding work as manual laborers, all just to scrape together a meal for themselves and their families to avoid starving to death.

Some people might even choose to band together and, while they still had the strength, take risks to steal from or rob the locals or merchants.

"Sigh, if they could eat their fill, most people wouldn't be like this, right?"

Xueya Site's voice came over: "I don't think so."

Jier placed the dry forage in his hand into the manger, let them eat slowly on their own, and walked out of the stable: "What's your take?"

"What take?"

"On which path they would choose if their lives were still decent."

Jier came to the side of the carriage and took the several large rolls of de-haired thick cowhide handed over by Xueya Site.

These things weren't cheap, but they weren't particularly expensive either.

Besides these, there was also a large handful of Iron Nails and reinforced, sturdy long wooden strips; these wooden strips were for reinforcing the inside of the carriage canopy.

There were also thick metal needles and a roll of sturdy fine Linen Cloth thread specifically for sewing leather goods. Although it was called fine Linen Cloth thread, it was actually mixed with many kinds of plant and animal fibers and hair, making the specialized thread created by twisting it together quite tough and reliable.

"How about it? I bought these from a few shops with a good reputation locally. It's a good thing I've been here before, so I still have some impression of where things are sold."

After speaking, Xueya Site helped Jier cut the thick cowhide with a small knife while answering Jier's question. As it turned out, although the knife was sharp, it was still very strenuous. Jier took out the Magic Dagger from his belt and, with a strange laugh, used this expensive magic weapon gifted to him by Kendall Baron to easily cut the thick cowhide.

Although it didn't look very sharp, it miraculously could easily slice through the thick cowhide, and the edges of the cuts were faintly scorched.

"I actually think that even if everyone's life were peaceful, those who should do evil will still do evil, because the benefits of doing evil are too great. Kind-hearted people always accept losses in the process of being bullied, while those who do evil gain more benefits. At this time, one must rely on just laws and law enforcers to punish the evildoers."

Jier narrowed his eyes: "Law enforcers? The Soldiers on the street outside who charge fifty times the checkpoint tax? If that counts as law enforcers, then don't find it strange that bandits are rampant everywhere. They are completely useless."

"At least they can clear out bandits in various places? And they make those lawless bandits and horse bandits afraid to approach town areas. In places with good security, like the Mengtuoka Territory here, even the rural areas are very safe. Isn't that largely thanks to these 'useless' Security Soldiers?"

"Hilarious. Where do bandits come from? Young people who commit crimes and do evil in the city run outside, or don't even need to run outside, and directly join some bandit groups. You say they are effective at clearing out major evils, such as those bandits. But major evils themselves are accumulated and transformed from minor evils."

Xueya Site couldn't win the argument against Jier, so he stopped speaking and forcibly steered the topic toward reinforcing the carriage canopy.