The Low-Key Life of a Necromancer

Chapter 408 What is the truth

The long-awaited meeting with Theresa turned out to be quite awkward.

When Theresa said she wanted to drive away all the nobles, Li could only respond to her with a wry smile.

"Theresa, you know, the nobles are indeed a headache, but the resources in their hands are the key to the rapid development of the North..."

"I know! I understand everything you said."

Theresa interrupted Li, and then she took off her nun's robe and sat there in a thin shirt.

"Li, do you know what those nobles did? They negotiated privately and raised the prices of goods together."

Li sighed. He could imagine what Theresa described.

"Those nobles poached skilled workers from the factory at high prices and deliberately reduced product quality and production speed in order to seek greater profits!"

Lee nodded, taking off his own coat as well.

"Those nobles built bridges and set up checkpoints on key roads and collected reasonable tolls. No one could find fault with that."

Li, who had just finished his meal, felt a little hot. His forehead began to sweat and he could only wipe it with a handkerchief.

"Those nobles are still in contact with the kingdom. They sent the talents that the North has cultivated with great difficulty to the king!"

"This is too much!"

"And there's more! Didn't you ask me about that piece of land? I'll tell you now that the baron hired people to tamper with it at night. They spread slag on the newly leveled land, making it unsuitable for farming!"

Li slammed the table angrily, and the soup splashed all over the two of them.

Theresa looked at the soup stains on her clothes and glared at Li fiercely.

"How dare he do this! Doesn't the City Hall care?"

After hearing the truth from Theresa, Li was a little angry.

He wrote so many letters to his mother, repeatedly emphasizing the importance of sticking to one's heart, yet something like this happened.

The destruction of a piece of arable land may seem like no big deal, but once this practice is popularized, it will destroy the foundation of the North!

"Wait a minute, Lee. This isn't Aunt Rose's fault!"

Seeing Li going back to fight with her mother, Theresa quickly stopped him.

Li turned his head and looked at Theresa, wanting to see what else she could come up with.

"...Aunt Rose also wanted to punish the baron, but the local workers all supported the baron. They went to the city hall to urge him to build the factory as soon as possible..."

The vision of the lower class is limited; they can only see part of what is in front of them.

When building a factory can provide them with jobs, no one will care what the land was originally used for.

Moreover, there are large tracts of fields around Windmill River Bay, so there is no shortage of land to be used as farmland.

A piece of land is only used to grow food, and the food grown can only feed a few people.

If it is used to build factories, it can feed a lot of people!

"So, my mother was convinced?"

Theresa nodded helplessly, indicating that this was the fact.

"That piece of land originally had no owner. Whether it is used for farming or building a factory, the city hall will not suffer any loss. On the contrary, the profit from the project will be greater."

When everyone supports building factories, people like Theresa who remain sober can only become the objects of everyone's contempt.

Li deeply realized that this was not a trivial matter.

“…I understand. I will handle it carefully.”

Li picked up his coat and walked out of the church. The crowd gathered outside the door had dispersed at some point.

Li found the direction of the river bend and started moving towards that direction.

There was a clattering sound of footsteps behind him, and soon, Theresa caught up with Li.

The two walked side by side, neither of them spoke. At this moment, the two of them regained the tacit understanding they had when the village was attacked by the kobolds.

Next to the river bend, there is an area with a fence. Inside the fence, wood and stones that will be used soon are piled up.

The night wind blew the moisture onto the river bank, making people subconsciously hold their clothes tightly.

If you walk by the river late at night, the perceived temperature will drop a lot.

Lee put his coat over Theresa and squatted down to check the condition of the soil.

The originally fertile silted riverbed now has a lot of ash and iron slag mixed in the soil.

These things destroy the original balance of the soil, and it takes a lot of effort to restore it to arable land.

"Teresa, did you see with your own eyes someone secretly sabotaging at night?"

"I didn't see it with my own eyes. It was the refugees that the church helped who told me about it."

"…I want to meet that person, can you find him?"

"At this time... the refugees would gather near the factory boiler room and use the leaking pipes there for heating and water."

"That's it."

The knowledge that boiling water to drink can reduce the risk of illness has been widely spread in the North, so homeless people will go to the church to ask for hot water to drink.

But the church could only provide relief to a limited number of people, and homeless people could not stay on the streets at night.

The driven vagrants would squeeze into the corners of the factory area and drink hot water that smelled of rust from the heat circulation pipes.

Li wanted to say that this would also lead to disease, but the homeless had no choice.

"Lee, you don't have to make that expression. The goddess couldn't save everyone. What you did was already amazing."

Li didn't expect to get comfort from Theresa. He was actually a little afraid to look directly into Theresa's pure eyes.

Accompanied by Theresa, Li came to the nearby industrial area.

Theresa walked around the main gate as if she knew the way and found a dog hole half a person's height at the edge of the wall.

After entering, many poor people lying on the ground stared at the intruders silently.

They looked dirty, skinny and lifeless, except for their eyes that reflected the light and were round and scary at night.

Two men carrying bricks stood in front of Li.

Li didn't dare go any further inside, but Theresa entered without any hindrance.

There is also management among the vagrants, who are both protectors and exploiters.

They operate a set of internal rules and do not allow outsiders to break them.

Li saw from afar that Theresa was communicating something with a muscular man.

The man pointed at Li, probably asking about Li's background and whether he wanted to help Theresa teach Li, the uninvited guest, a lesson.

Theresa stopped the man's impulsive behavior, and after communicating for a while, she walked back to Li.

"how is the situation?"

"…Not so good. The homeless man who witnessed the noble's actions has been missing for a while."

"Missing?"

Theresa nodded, indicating that no one here had seen him.

"Could it be in another refugee gathering point? There should be more than one place in the factory area where people can hide."

"No, there are special channels of communication between refugees. If they say they can't find anyone, they definitely can't find anyone."

Unexpectedly, an important witness disappeared like this, and the timing of his disappearance was really clever.