Chapter 2068: Jealousy and Rage
Taiso, this small dwarf, continued to sneak around.
He was slow by nature, so he couldn’t move much on his own. Fortunately, he was small, had a passively low sense of existence (all dwarves were like this, but Taiso’s was particularly skilled), and had an aura-minimizing cloak in his space.
With these things, he managed to sneak (and roll) into beast carts, hoping that they were heading in the direction of the gate. Sadly, after three switches, there was no sign of heading out of the gate.
Beast carts were all over the city, and not many of them actually went out of the territory. Rather, unless you were a mercenary, it was very rare to leave the city at all.
A city was very, very big—equivalent to tens of towns combined. Naturally, modes of transportation were also frequently seen here and there, and only within the city.
The poor dwarf had to hang under several carts until it reached the plazas near the gates. This way, he had better choices of beast carts to choose from.
At least in this area, unless they had just arrived, most beast carts parked here were preparing to leave!
It so happened that a caravan was heading out, and it was not too far away from him. With his small steps, he managed to get there within a few minutes while people were busy loading their things.
Before diving under the cart and hanging on there, he couldn’t help but look at the signage.
[To Alterra]
...
While a caravan from Bleulle was heading to Alterra, a large company from Ester town arrived at Bleulle.
Ester Town did not have a particularly amicable history with Alterra—mostly because of conflicts between the citizens, i.e. Cassandra and Gill—but it had a very close relationship with Bleulle.
Their industries were very closely tied together, after all, with Ester town providing the papyrus base needed for the blueprints.
They covered just one part of the process, with finishing works happening in Bleuelle, but what Ester handled was one of the most cumbersome tasks that was usually not worth the effort unless one had the right infrastructure and techniques.
It was the kind of business that would 100% earn a loss for at least a decade. Papyrus that could handle the aether in the blueprints naturally wasn’t typical. Each strand was artisan-made, and each strand was coated with special formulas.
With the supply of Blu dwindling, the number of people wanting to compete or take over this business had practically dropped to zero.
The Lord of Ester town was wise enough to secure his monopoly by giving a lot of advantages to Bleulle. They also safeguarded their methodology well—and this involved killing their own family members if they had to.
The monthly caravan coming in from Ester was massive, numbering hundreds, though people had their own purposes. The caravan was set to return after one week, and if a citizen didn’t join in, they could just hire their own guards or wait for the next caravan.
The caravan separated those doing business in the market, going on tours, visiting relatives, and those involved in the papyrus market. The latter headed straight to the papyrus processing area.
The papyrus processing area was also done in Bleulle, which also produced its own special papyrus by stealing a few artisans and experts in the towns that developed them.
The two workshops were right next to each other, so they could be guarded much more easily.
The group from the other side was bringing out a cartful of ashes out from the Blu workshop. The Blu workshop was one of the most guarded places there and was also very large. It had large tunnels, processing equipment, and so on.
Amidst all of these, some workers couldn’t help but sigh at the black soot they had to wheel out. "How wasteful. We didn’t have this much waste before."
"Didn’t they even bother learning the whole methodologies before dealing with the Golds?"
"They tried and succeeded to a degree. Unexpectedly, the material the Golds used had already been refined before certain processes. The current method of refinement is incomplete."
"Damn."
"Why don’t they just kidnap the Golds? Aren’t they just in that Alterra place?"
"Yeah, I heard about that. Many people went to look."
"Did you?"
"How can I? We’re slaves to this work."
"My cousin went. The Golds are living well there. Even that girl from Jacoba is there. Heard she even gave birth to a daughter."
"Jacoba? Who?"
Even if they were from cities, they were still very much connected to their associate territories. Commoners had a high degree of interaction, and the level difference wasn’t that high (since townsfolk who dared go to cities generally had high levels in their towns), so news still flowed between them.
Even the servants and the slaves, if they had adjusted well enough or were lucky to have gotten decent masters—and as long as the topic didn’t relate to their masters—were no exception.
The juicy gossip spread out best. One of the most talked-about gossip in their region lately?
It was the scandal related to the deaths of two people from the younger generation, including the heir to Ester Town.
After all, it caused Jacoba and Ester Town—two towns that had once been allies—to go to war!
"Wait, wait, wait! You mean the princess who was supposed to get married to the dead Ester heir?"
"Cassandra, right? I remember she was quite close to Lady Olga back then." They were once employed under the Golds, and most of them still harbored admiration for the family.
"You’re telling me that she’s alive? How?"
"No idea. The question is: If true, then do you think the supposed ’death’ was planned?"
Silence passed over and everyone’s eyes brightened in gossipy light. Wow!
At this time, some of the slaves from Ester town delivering items to the workshop, overheard their words. Their bodies froze as if paralyzed, faces pale, seemingly drained of color.
They were gaunt, filled with bruises, and one could tell they had gone through a lot.
"Hey! Stop dawdling!" The slave driver behind them yelled, and the two flinched, moving forward.
The two had no choice but to continue their job, but their minds were reeling from the news they had heard.
This was none other than Cessi and Casso, Cassandra’s half siblings!
Their current appearance was a far cry from the glorious and arrogant look that they had back then.
Was that gossip real?! Just the thought of it made them teeter in rage.
That war changed their lives! It directly pushed them down from nobility to slavery!
In this state, they were actually already better because their mother traced where they were and bribed the guards. At least now, they didn’t get whipped. Their lives until a month ago were torture worthy of death. They would never forget the humiliation they had suffered then.
They had cursed Cassandra for dying at the time, and every time they suffered from then on.
At the time, they thought: If she had just been obedient and served that bastard, wouldn’t they all live well?
But she went ahead and ’died’, even getting the other heir killed!
Now they found out that bitch was alive and was living well instead?!
How could they be reconciled?!
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