Quick Wear: Random Cheats

Chapter 92: The Burned Earl Witch (4)

Less than two hours after Butler Hansen returned, City Lord Chris sent his own butler over and implicitly told Ding Shui that they were aware of the matter and would help cover it up.

At the same time, remind Ding Shui to remember to tidy up the beginning and the end.

The higher church might send someone to investigate.

These words really confused Ding Shui, who thought his identity as a witch was confirmed. Is the city lord so obedient that he doesn't even care that he is a witch?

"Is anyone in Floating Light City discussing me being a witch?"

Ding Shui asked immediately after seeing off the city manager.

“No, sir, the people who know about this are mainly those in our castle and a few farmers living near the castle. Others dare not come here rashly.

After all, the castle and the land around the castle.

It's all your private territory.

It seems that your cousin and the priest of the church did not publicize it widely, so not many people know about it.

Most of them have also been planted with red lotus by you.

There were probably only a few women and children at home who hadn't left the house. They should have known about it, but they didn't show up, and you didn't put the lotus flower on them. But they certainly didn't have the guts to talk nonsense, so no one discussed it."

When this was mentioned, the butler Hansen finally reacted.

After the death of Kalman and the others, only the family members knew that their countess was a witch. For example, it was definitely true that all the people in the castle were servants of the count. To be precise, the peasants near the castle could not be called peasants at all, but serfs.

They have no land of their own.

Just farming for Earl Fuguang.

Hundreds of hectares of land nearby belong to the earl. Only further out are there some self-cultivating farmers, and only those self-cultivating farmers can be called farmers accurately.

They enjoyed certain human rights. As for serfs, no one would care unless too many of them died, and they dared not resist.

"No wonder they're so easy to talk to. So, as long as I keep a low profile, nothing will happen. I won't be besieged and wiped out by the Holy See's army of paladins, right?"

Ding Shui's main focus had been on absorbing the Sun's essence and transforming it into the appropriate Five Elements energy to transform his organs. Naturally, he couldn't spare much energy to keep an eye on Kalman, and he wasn't fully aware of their actions.

She was ready for a tough battle.

I didn't expect that she was just thinking too much.

It seems nothing happened.

"It's definitely going to be fine. Not to mention the Red Lotus you planted on us, we wouldn't dare betray you. And those who haven't been planted with the Red Lotus are mostly serfs who never leave their homes. Some don't even have clothes to wear when going out. They wouldn't dare to talk nonsense.

Even if we take a step back.

No one believes what they say!"

Butler Hansen could guarantee this, because he knew very well that people were different, and their right to speak was also different. Some people could decide life and death with a casual word, while others might not be believed even if they swore an oath and pledged their entire family's lives to tell the truth. They might even become annoying if they said it too much.

It's normal to be kicked to death.

As for serfs, it was difficult for them to even contact people with a say, let alone report that the count was a witch.

"I understand. Then you go and clean up the mess to ensure that there won't be any problems when the higher-level church sends someone down to investigate." Ding Shui continued to give direct instructions.

"Yes, my Lord.

My idea is to replace all the timid servants and maids in the castle, as well as all the nearby serfs who might know about the situation, and also replace those who are devout in their faith, to prevent the higher-level church from sending people to investigate and let them know.

Or I will report you even at the cost of my life."

The butler knew full well that he had now boarded the Earl's pirate ship, and betraying the Earl would undoubtedly lead to his own death. Kalman and his men had been a lesson in this. If the Vatican attacked and annihilated the Earl, even if he was lucky enough to survive, he would most likely be burned at the stake as a heretic.

He has boarded the witch ship Dingshui.

No one believes me even if I say I am a devout believer!
Therefore, the best way now is undoubtedly to help the Earl conceal the truth as much as possible, so he naturally has to plan carefully:

"Currently, only some serfs closer to the castle may know about this, or may have witnessed you being burned to death and then resurrected. The serfs farther away are most likely unaware of this, so we should swap the serfs closer to the castle with those farther away.

This should be able to avoid the problem of serfs leaking information.

After all, it is impossible for the priests sent by the higher church to interrogate all the serfs. At most, they would ask those who are close by and transfer those who are unaware.

I can’t ask anything.”

"The same principle applies to replacing a group of timid servants and maids. The former requires caution and a low profile when replacing serfs, while the latter can even be more high-profile, publicly announcing that it's not a replacement, but rather the hiring of a new batch of servants and maids.

After all, the city lord's steward just said so.

A plague broke out here, and the priest, along with the preachers and paladins he brought with him, were all infected and died, while no one in our castle died. It really doesn't seem right.

It is just right to say that the servants and maids were replaced.

They all contracted the plague and died.

As for those who have been replaced, they can be sent to remote farms and allowed to stay there temporarily.

Bring them back when things calm down and resolve.

Recruit them back on the grounds of staff shortage.

I think they should be able to understand."

Hearing this, Ding Shui felt that there was nothing wrong with the idea proposed by Butler Hansen, and even if there were some flaws, they were minor ones, but he still thought it was too troublesome and immediately said:

“If the priests who came down to investigate asked the newly moved serfs nearby when they came here, and asked them if they knew what happened some time ago, or if they knew if there was a plague nearby, and they said they just moved here, then everything would be exposed.

It's too troublesome. You can just tell others that some people also died of the plague in our Earl's Castle.

Don’t worry about the rest and don’t bother!

At worst, I can change the memory of the person who came here."

If this were a Western magical world, Ding Shui might choose to adopt the advice of Butler Hansen out of caution and fear that the God of Light really existed, but in an ordinary mortal world, there was no need to go through so much trouble.

Making large-scale changes to multiple people's memories is a bit difficult.

But changing the memories of a few people is easy.

Why bother with our own people? Just go back and deal with the superior church priests who came down to investigate.

Butler Hansen was stunned at first, but he immediately understood what Ding Shui meant. He looked at Ding Shui in horror, then immediately lowered his head to show that he understood.

There were some cultural differences, after all. He understood memory alteration to mean the ability to manipulate souls at will, a technique similar to that of demons and devils in hell in their legends. It could be said that in his mind, Ding Shui had already upgraded from a flame witch to a flame soul witch, or even a devil witch.

But there is no negative impact.

It just makes him more loyal.

After everything was arranged, seeing that it was getting late, Ding Shui immediately sent someone to notify the cook to prepare dinner.

Half an hour later, when Ding Shui finally sat down at the table and saw his dinner, he couldn't contain himself. It was awful. While the bread wasn't black, and didn't look like it had any sand or pebbles in it, it was nothing like the soft bread Ding Shui had imagined.

It feels not even as good as a solid big steamed bun.

It's so dry and hard that once you put it in your mouth and chew it for a few times, you start to question your life. Is this kind of life meaningful? Isn't the Earl's taste too bitter?

I took another sip of the milk; it tasted fishy, sweet, and strange.

It's so sweet, it seems like spices have been added.

As for the remaining rosemary stew with a bunch of basil leaves, the salted fish pizza that was still hanging on to its end, and the mushroom soup with a lot of spices and butter, it was really hopeless.

The cook here is the real witch!
Ding Shui, who had no interest in testing the poison one by one, stood up and said, "Take me to the kitchen!"

"Sir, are you not satisfied?" Hansen was a little puzzled. They had been eating the same things before, and the quantity had not decreased. The cook must not have skimped on the ingredients!

Just follow past practice and leave some scraps.

However, Ding Shui did not explain anything and still asked to go to the kitchen to take a look. Naturally, the housekeeper Hansen could not continue to stop him, and soon led Ding Shui to the kitchen.

Then Ding Shui's eyes went dark.

It was horrible. Not only was the kitchen awful smelly, but it was also littered with kitchen waste and grease stains. The cook and the servants were completely unhygienic. Their hands were pitch black, and their hair hadn't been washed in ages, clumping together. They were currently dipping black bread into soup.

It's the little bit of stew broth left at the bottom of the pot.

There was some leftover cream of mushroom soup on the side. Those who often order takeout might feel similar to Ding Shui's current mood when they suddenly see online a restaurant they eat at every day exposed for not having anything up to standard in the kitchen. The only thing to be thankful for is...

She only took two bites in total.

Seeing Ding Shui and the housekeeper suddenly rush in, the cook was really scared and hurriedly said that she would never dare to do it again. She thought that it was because she always left some soup base for herself when she made soup, which alarmed Ding Shui.

Ding Shui turned around helplessly and asked:

"Is your family already so poor?"

"The cook can't even eat plain white bread?"

Ding Shui had seen poor families before, and she didn't think that eating meat was the right thing to do. She also knew that in an era of underdeveloped productivity, ordinary people had a hard time, and even small landlords could only eat meat a few times a year.

I don’t even dare to eat dry food or rice every day.

But he was a small landlord, with only dozens or hundreds of acres of land at home. His original farms and wineries combined owned nearly three hundred hectares of land.

That is nearly 30,000 acres of land.

Not to mention the annual tax revenue from the fiefdom.

With this kind of income and treatment, not to mention the rights, the annual income alone is at least comparable to that of a local wealthy family, not to mention that there are not many people in the family. It’s okay for ordinary servants to eat ordinary food, but how come even the cook eats so poorly?
In Ding Shui's opinion, white bread is just white flour steamed buns! It's not as delicious as white flour steamed buns, and black bread is not even as good as steamed buns. It's just vegetable steamed buns.

Even if the chef can't eat delicious food or drink spicy drinks.

It's impossible for the food to be so bad.

"Sir, only nobles like you are qualified to eat white bread. We don't deserve it. Kanali just ate a little greedily. Please don't punish her!"

Hansen's answer was completely irrelevant.

He probably thought Ding Shui was being sarcastic?

"Sir, I promise I will never leave any soup base again!" The cook Kanali hurriedly promised loudly.

It's not easy to find a job where you can eat enough every day.

She absolutely did not want to be fired.

Ding Shui was indeed somewhat helpless. She really wasn't being sarcastic, but at this moment she could only sigh helplessly and say:
"I don't mean to blame you, get up.

Clean up the kitchen, make it clean, wash your hair, especially your hands..."

Before Ding Shui could finish his words, the cook knelt down in fear again: "Sir, the priest in the church said that only dirt can protect us from the demon plague. Please spare me, I really don't want to die!"

"you……"

"Well, whatever you say." Ding Shui was genuinely having a headache, but she was too lazy to argue with the cook about this or force her to do anything, so she gave up. Then she took the butler away and went to the study, which had only a few books, and asked him to report on the financial situation.

It's probably about how much assets the family has left.

How much cash and how much food are in stock.

Butler Hansen also reported honestly:

"There should be over a thousand gold coins, five thousand silver coins, and over thirty thousand copper coins. Various jewelry and hand ornaments are basically all in your room. As for food, there are over two thousand kilograms of wheat, over thirty thousand kilograms of rye, and over a thousand kilograms of quinoa and over eight hundred kilograms of oats.

More than 500 kilograms of dried meat, dried fruit..."

"Alright, alright, forget about all the little bits and pieces. Our family has been around for nearly three hundred years, is this all we have left?"

"There's too little food!"

The original body didn't know much about the family's financial situation, but Ding Shui knew exactly the same thing as the original body.

But based on her own understanding, even if an ordinary landlord owns tens of thousands of acres of land, his family should not have so little assets, let alone less than 40,000 kilograms of grain in stock. Don’t they have the habit of hoarding grain?
Aren’t you afraid of starving to death during famine or disaster?
At this time, Hansen had no choice but to reveal the truth:

“Miss, two years ago, even if our family’s assets were not ten times what they are today, they were still seven or eight times as much. However, in order for you to inherit the title smoothly, the old earl took out a large amount of gold and silver coins, as well as rare treasures purchased with gold and silver coins, to bribe Prince Ikach.

The king's mistress and the princess also received money.

Help to intercede and smooth over relationships.

It is precisely because of these advance efforts that you were able to obtain the title so smoothly and so quickly."

"Also, you should know that the old patriarch went to the capital this time to arrange a marriage for you, with the illegitimate son of Duke Bor as his wife. The old patriarch had already discussed this with Duke Bor before. This time, he is not going to discuss this matter, but to finalize it.

So he brought a large sum of gold and silver with him when he went.

It was considered as the betrothal gift for the Duke's illegitimate son to marry into his family.

All the things added up are worth about 50,000 silver coins, but as you know, the old patriarch died of plague on the way to the royal capital, and the things worth 50,000 silver coins disappeared without a trace.

I once tried asking.

The person who brought back the old patriarch's ashes said that if we continue to ask for silver coins, the old patriarch was not infected with the plague, but colluded with the devil and was killed by the bishop.

Everyone will be purified by then.

Therefore, I didn't dare ask any more questions, let alone tell you about it, for fear that you might cause trouble again in a fit of impulsiveness."

If Ding Shui hadn't asked why there were so few things, Hansen probably wouldn't have mentioned it. But now that Ding Shui had questioned him, Hansen was genuinely worried that Ding Shui would think he'd taken things. So he immediately told Ding Shui everything he'd previously kept from his original self.

"So, all the family money was poured into ensuring that I could inherit the title smoothly. Also, there must be something fishy about my father's death. Perhaps he was murdered for his money?

It seems that the fight between me and the Holy See will never end.

There was only the witch thing.

Now, there is also suspicion of revenge for the murder of my father."

Although Ding Shui was angry, he was able to control his emotions. He just said something harsh and continued to ask:

"Is there anything else you are hiding from me?"

"Probably not, but I have done a lot for the old master, and there are indeed many things that you, young lady, don't know about. However, most of those things are not important. If I were to go into detail one by one, it would be difficult to explain clearly..."

He talked about the more important events that happened recently, but he really didn't know where to start with the other things.

"Forget it, I'll watch it myself!"

Anyway, Hansen already knew that she was a witch and could modify other people's memories, so Ding Shui was too lazy to bother and simply checked his memory directly.

Of course, Hansen was still very frightened during the process.

It felt like being stripped naked and bullied.

But he had no choice but to accept it passively.

Ding Shui relied on his Yang Shen to easily and smoothly obtain Hansen's memories of the past fifty years. He not only gained a deeper understanding of this world and their family, but also gained more knowledge about the social rules and other aspects of this world, at least not like his original body.

He knew nothing about the affairs of the lower classes, and as a result, he knew little about the conflicts between the nobility and the Church.

Certainly, some of the things Hansen has done in the past.

Including some little thoughts and the like.

Ding Shui also understood everything.

For example, when Kalman led the Paladins into the castle to capture the original body and slandered the original body as a witch, he initially wanted to quickly get the Earl's Succession Edict issued by the King to make them retreat, but the original body hid the edict a little secretly.

He searched for a long time but couldn't find it.

He just claimed that his original owner was a count and that they had no right to judge him. The paladins did not believe him and beat him up.

Then he shut up.

But we can't say he was wrong for being prudent and self-protective. We can only say that he was not that brave, not that fearless, not that loyal, and not that willing to sacrifice his life for his master.

Of course, none of this really matters.

The important thing is that Ding Shui discovered through Hansen's memory that when their family was much richer than it is now, they also ate these things. At most, her father was still alive at that time, so the quantity was slightly more.

Furthermore, the nobles didn't bathe, leaving manure everywhere. Their diet was a mess, and their water sources were severely polluted, forcing them to rely on wine for hydration. The average wheat yield per mu was 80 kilograms, and rye yielded less than 200 kilograms. They lacked millstones, relying on manual husking and stone crushing for flour. This was no less disloyal than Hansen's.

With this level of productivity, there were still aristocratic kings. If there were no silk and iron, people would believe that it was a primitive society.

She came here to endure the tribulation and suffer!