Chapter 258 (2/2)

Of course, if someone saw him and wanted to take his food away, he’d swallow all of it whole!

Fortunately, no one noticed him by Ye Lang’s side. They were split into two groups: one still taking food, the other eating the food they snatched!!

“Come, have some water. Tell me, what happened?” Ye Lang gave the person a bottle of water. He was interested in what happened.

“We’re the villagers of the Gomera district. There has been a drought in recent years, our wheat fields haven’t had a good harvest at all. This year was the driest in a hundred years. We couldn’t harvest a single grain!” he said with a raspy voice, still chewing his food slowly.

“I see. Didn’t the authorities do some sort of crisis response?” asked Ye Lang curiously.

“Crisis response? Hmmph, why would they care about us? They only know how to enjoy themselves, they never cared about us,” he clenched his jaw, as if ready to eat someone.

There was another story here!

The villagers once revolted against the Lord of Gomera but they were repressed by the authorities. Some escaped, but many lost their lives!!

“Doesn’t Ai La’s emperor care?” asked Ye Lang, frowning. Did the empire’s emperor not care about such a serious crisis?

If that were the case, then this empire would fall apart very quickly!

“Of course he does! But it’s useless! The emperor allocates funds for disaster victims every year, but the gold coins never reached our hands. They’re all swallowed by the corrupt officials!” he was still clenching his teeth.

Sigh, it didn’t matter the year, the place or the world, there would always be people like that around!

They said a person who killed a hundred people needed a lifetime to pay for their crimes. These people probably killed hundreds of thousands of people, a hundred lifetimes might not be enough to pay for their sins!!

“Isn’t there the fucking law?” cursed Ye Lang.

“What can the law do about them? Even if the emperor knows, they’d only be mildly punished. Worst case scenario, their property would be confiscated. They’re aristocrats, they’d still live fine!!” the person spat, his voice filled with hatred.

Aristocrats. They were a very frustrating problem- not only for the commoners but also for the authorities. Even if they wanted to eliminate the aristocrats, they couldn’t because they needed them.

The ones in power could only hope the aristocrats would be a little more civilised, that they’d act like an aristocrat!

Of course, under usual circumstances, these aristocrats were aware of what they had to do. No matter what, it was still for their own future, for their family’s future. However, there were still rotten apples among them, and there were many.

About the matters of aristocratic property-- even the authorities might not be able to interfere under normal circumstances. In simple words, the aristocrats owned their land, they were basically a small king.

Take this problem in Gomera. Ai La’s emperor might ask a few questions, help them out a little, but never interfere with the internal politics of the district as long as it wasn’t in chaos.

Of course, if the problem was severe enough, and the Gomera district authorities didn’t care, it’d affect the nearby districts too. Then they’d have to deal with this problem.

However, how many of these villagers would still be alive when that day came? How many would have to die?