Chapter 301: Ch-301: Inside the Territory

"Indeed, ordinary citizens have the most difficulty surviving. The Duke overtaxes them, which makes them barely able to afford necessities, and many resisted, who were killed. The only way to escape the tax is to become part of their army. This is a vicious ploy to increase the size of the Spark army," Grace said with hatred.

Suddenly, as the ship was flying, a man sharply looked up.

"Commander Morrison, something wrong?" one of the soldiers looked towards the red-haired man in a military uniform.

"Nothing, I thought I saw something." Morrison, who was the commander of the army of the Spark Duchy, frowned as his eyes kept moving around the sky. His instinct told him something was there, but he could not see anything. Even with his detection skill, he could not find anything, and he retracted his skill, thinking he was hallucinating.

"That guy was sharp. I thought this ship was built to be undetectable," Amber, who was beside Victor, mumbled, which caused Victor to shrug his shoulders and reply, "But he still could not fully detect the ship, you know. It was just an instinct of danger, nothing else."

"Anyway, everyone, put your disguises on. We’ll store the ship, and we can walk," Victor said as everyone on the ship nodded and changed their clothes to torn rags.

"Ugh, disgusting." Both Amber, Rina, and Amanda’s faces crunched with repulsion. They had always worn clean and expensive clothing; when did they ever wear such apparel meant for destitutes?

Victor rolled his eyes and put the white Faceless mask, which was the "Mask of Loki," on his face, and his facial muscles started to wiggle. His handsome face was replaced by an average face, though even back on Earth, he would still be considered handsome.

The others also changed their appearances, especially the girls. They used their own treasures to change the shape of their bodies and faces. Many families, especially nobles, had their disguise techniques or items for this kind of situation.

Victor looked at his girls and the princess. If previously they had faces that could cause wars between nations and bodies so seductive that even the holiest sage would break their vows, now they were completely ordinary, with below-average bodies and faces.

"Ugh, I absolutely detest my new look," Amber grumbled in disgust as she saw her reflection in the mirror, and she was even more disgusted when she saw her face was full of pimples.

"Stop complaining. This is what disguises are for. This appearance won’t draw any attention to us," Victor said, which caused Amber to pout.

"Hehe," Rina, seeing this, chuckled and asked Victor, "Are we going straight to rescue the captives?"

"Yes, you two should know where they kept your tribe members, right?" Victor asked, looking at Watson and Grace, who had also changed their appearances.

"Yes, we can guide you," Grace said immediately, looking at Victor.

"Good, then lead the way," Victor said calmly, and Watson nodded as the couple started walking.

As they walked through the streets, Victor and the others saw many people lying on the ground or resting with their backs leaning against the walls of some old houses. All of them were wearing dirty clothes in poor condition, while the putrid smell coming from their bodies was practically unbearable, which signaled that they did not even have access to a proper shower.

The eyes of these people did not even sparkle, and they seemed to have lost all hope as they awaited the arrival of death.

"What a horrible situation..." Rina could not help but frown.

Although she might not care about these people as individuals, as a human, it was impossible not to feel bad for her own race in general. Even if humans were despicable by nature, for better or worse, Rina was part of them.

Victor observed everything with a seemingly indifferent gaze. However, only he knew if his inner heart was as calm as his outer one.

Women of his age who would be enjoying a beautiful and fun college life back on Earth while forming unforgettable memories were selling their bodies. But in fact, the condition of these women was paradise compared to the men... Because the women could sell themselves to get at least a piece of bread, while the men could only eat their own fingernails.

Old men who should be peacefully enjoying their final years at this point were as thin as a toothpick while looking up at the sky as if asking what they had done wrong.

Just a glance at the miserable state of these people would make anyone realize that they had not eaten properly for a long, long time and were barely surviving, their existence as weak as a candle flame in the middle of a storm.

"The situation is way worse than I imagined here... that bastard Dane," Amanda gritted her teeth in anger. Even if these people did not belong to her, they had once belonged to the Eindrik Family, and being a bit soft-hearted, she was extremely pissed and angry, but then sighed and muttered, "Before the evolution, even the nobles exploited the commoners. They were still restrained in their actions, but now..."

"This is nothing, Princess. Our people and the ones the powerful people in this place take a liking to become slaves and are subjected to unimaginable things," Grace said with red eyes.

"Compared to this hell, the Silvernum Territory is heaven," Watson said in a low voice.

In Silvernum, even the lowest citizens enjoyed three meals a day, an old house but with the necessary comforts to live in, and were even given the opportunity to work for a better living.

Compared to these survivors, the lives of the people in Victor’s faction lived on cloud nine!

In the Spark Duchy, people were starving to death, but they were not causing trouble despite how miserable their lives were. Even though they would be happy to work, no one gave them such an opportunity.

Ding Ding

Just as the group was about to advance deeper into the area to go further into the center of the territory and finally reach their destination, several bells began to clang noisily all over the place. The noise was conspicuous enough to be heard from a fairly considerable distance.

"What is that?" Amber frowned slightly. She realized that those bells were cleverly placed so that at every certain amount of distance, there was one to amplify the sound.

"That... The sound of that bell means that the government is starting to distribute the relief rations for today..." Grace replied in a complicated tone of voice.

Watson took a deep breath to suppress his anger and said, "As you know, all the jobs, especially the military, have been filled with nobles or people loyal to them. The others are left without jobs, and the Duke did not kill them but gave them... well, if it could be called food, to help them survive so that the population does not fall too much, or the Akashic Records might not recognize this place as a Duchy."

Victor frowned and then stepped forward.

"Come on. Let’s go see what these rations are like." A thought flashed in his mind, and without hesitation, he began to walk in the direction of the nearest bell.

With Amber and Rina at his side, they walked through the streets. A large number of survivors were rushing from everywhere, with this place as the central gathering point.

They also saw many other survivors farther away hurrying to other bells. The look in the eyes of those survivors was similar to that of a wild tiger or a hyena that had not eaten for several weeks and had finally found a wounded and lonely gazelle in the savannah.

After two or three minutes, the group of four finally arrived at a large open square in the open air, with a few stands set up at various points. Behind each wooden table were two people who were delivering the relief food.

The commoners were in complete disarray. There wasn’t even a single line, and the situation was a mess; it looked like it would only be a short time before they started beating each other to death to get through first and receive their portion.

A fat man of around 26 or 27 was holding a large spoon as he stood next to a pot. When a survivor approached with their bowl or any other receptacle, the fat man would take the contents inside the pot and casually throw them into the receptacle in the hands of the survivor before moving on to the next one.

Victor moved a little closer and saw the contents inside the pot.

To say that what was inside the pot was gruel would be disrespectful to gruel. Basically, there was nothing but white water in there. It would be more correct to say that instead of gruel, the contents inside the pots were actually a heap of rice soup where water dominated 99%.

"This is what people eat here? Isn’t that just water?" Rina could not stop her voice from escaping her lips.