Chapter 45: Refugee Recruitment (1/2)

The peasant burrow outside Wickidor City.

It was not the first time Leah came to this place, but she would frown each time she saw the rundown straw huts and the seemingly lifeless refugees staying within.

Most of them were refugees from Lovenia, Tierra’s former capital. Being the nation’s former princess, an indescribable dejection would arise in her heard when she saw her former subjects fall to such wretchedness.

While Wickidor’s mayor did not allow the refugees into his city, he forked out some resources to help them so that they would not stir trouble.

Still, those scraps of food given out every passing day would not fill the refugees’ stomachs. Most of their faces were a deathly gray and despairing, and they waited in their broken huts for death to come.

As hunger and cold tormented them in every waking moment, it was a blessing for them should death claim them in their sleep.

“So? How are you planning to recruit the refugees to become believers of the God of Games?” Leah asked Marni who was sitting in front of the carriage, trying her best to not be concerned with their misery. “Are you preaching in the refugee camp and give food to anyone who becomes a true believer?”

Leah noticed the many rations inside Marni’s carriage when she hid inside. There was also a fragrance of grilled wheat.

“No way. Wickidor’s city guards would come for me in less than a day if I do that.”

Marni smiled feebly. Although he found that Leah had a maturity unfitting for someone of her age, he found her still naïve in thought after spending some time with her. If it was not for the ‘Yakaran’ name of the former Tierra imperial family above her head, anyone would think that she was a village hick instead of a cold, calculating princess. “After all, now’s not the time for the church of the God of Games to go public…”

“There is that…” Leah sighed and sank into the carriage again dejectedly.

“I plan to use the excuse of hiring labor to whisk away some of the healthy youths first, and then talk to them about the God of Games on our journey. It would be fine if they don’t want to become believers—we could just have them actually become laborers since we need help with building the town. We just have to make sure they don’t spill the beans to other churches.”

For his own part, Marni did not hold back and explained everything he was planning. “Actually, it’s alright if they flee and spill the beans too. As long as it’s not an entire crowd reporting us, those churches would not care about some refugees who hardly have any status.”

Moreover, with the generous rewards from the God of Games, there probably wouldn’t be anyone who would betray him for some paltry profit.

“Just the youths…” Leah murmured.

“Ah, that’s a misunderstanding,” Marni paused for a moment before explaining. “After my time serving in the Valla Kingdom’s Lacquered Plate Army, I understand that there’s going to be problems if there’s a major disparity between gender…”

With those words, he lifted his eyes and took a long look at the gloomy skies as if remembering the days in his distant past. “Don’t ask me how I know if you don’t mind.”

Leah did all she could to swallow her own retort.