Chapter 195 (1/2)

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio  Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

When they spoke of poaching, they meant that they were hunting in the woods that belonged to the nobles. According to the traditions in the world, the feudal lord noble possessed the ownership of the entire manor, including the land and the things that grew on the land.

As for man-made items, or other things, like crops, that required manpower during growth, the labor would be able to shared, with parts of the profit being given back to the workers. However, the majority of all profits still belonged to the feudal lord.

In the woods, regardless of whether it be a plant or animal, since these things were not man-made, nor was anyone contributing manpower to their growth, they belonged to the feudal lord entirely. Thus, no one could attempt to invade such areas.

In other words, besides a hunter, who must first have received permission from the feudal lord and have paid a hunting tax, any other hunting activities would be considered as robbing the feudal lord’s wealth. This sort of hunting was a crime, accompanied by severe punishment.

In fact, the very lightest punishment would be the chopping off of one’s hand or the digging out an eyeball! The most commonly seen punishment was death by hanging.

It was heard that there were some powerful feudal lords, who would even hire mages to cast magic on the farmers that hunted illegally in their lands. All in all, hunting was considered as being something very dangerous, something that courts death. Hence, people that didn’t have a death wish better not get involved!

Sui Xiong, of course, didn’t want to die, but he still just couldn’t watch the others starve to death before him. The famine victims were severely lacking food, and he knew that there was a wealth of food sources in the mountain. Moreover, he just so happened to be able to borrow a crossbow that was not too shabby…

What else should I do? Isn’t the answer quite clear?

Having grown up in a democratic society since his birth, he never thought that it was right and proper for the noble to possess everything on his manor. On the contrary, the ideal of “serving the people above all” was infused into his blood. You could say that it basically had become that patch of redness in his inner marrow.

So, he convinced the pub boss to join him, bringing along the crossbow, as well as a few other men, each of whom would give their lives to feed their families. This small ragtag group then entered the mountain together.

The poor harvest didn’t seem to have affected the numerous wild animals in the mountain.Thus, they were able to shoot several deer dead.

“Look, even the deer has fat on its body, while the humans here are skin and bones from starvation…” Sui Xiong complained, while he carried the deer back with the others, who were all quietly sneaking away from the woods.

It was quite a strong buck (male deer), which was most likely seven to eight hundred catties (one catty equals to 0.5 kilograms). From its body, they got about four hundred and fifty to sixty catties of edible resources, including skin, flesh, bones and some inlets.

These things go well, when added with some edible wild herbs! As such, this haul should be able to feed the few families of the men for about half a month’s time!

Although antlers and some other items might be able to be sold for a high price, Sui Xiong was very careful with everything, choosing to bury such things deep underground, not daring to yet bring them out in the light. He knew that, if the news spread and the feudal lord found out about their recent hunting expedition, they might die!

But, there isn’t a wall in the world which hasn’t a crack in it. Two to three days later, the other famine victims found out about their little adventure, and the spoils it profited them. As these people were suffering from extreme cold and hunger, they couldn’t be bothered by the feudal lord’s law. Hence, they came to look for Sui Xiong for help.

Sui Xiong helped them all to hunt for deer in the mountain woods. The news of this, of course, travelled very quickly.

During noon, after about ten days of this, the feudal lord’s head of guards brought ten soldiers to the pub. Sui Xiong, of course, tried to escape. Relying on his quick response and decent stamina, he dashed out from the pub, then ran towards the entrance of the town.

As he ran, a feather arrow flew across the sky, hitting him in the back. He staggered, but continued to flee. Then, he took a second arrow, and a third arrow…

After a while, Sui Xiong was caught, and his body was hung on a tree at the entrance of the town. He had six arrows shot into his body, and his blood soaked straight through his clothes.

After a while, before the sky grew dark, the other few people that were involved in the poaching, were captured and hung alongside him. Some died after being hung up alive, while some were killed and hung up later, making an example to the public of what punishment awaited any who disobeyed the laws of the land.

The sky grew dark, and the winter night was cold. During the night, lightning struck the tree that was being used as the gallows. The entire tree was burnt to ashes, along with the dead bodies that were hung on it.

The commoners couldn’t see that there was a huge jellyfish floating in the air, while all this was happening. The jellyfish was deep in thought, sighing with emotions.

“As a God, I really don’t pay enough attention to the commoners’ world!”

The jellyfish mumbled to himself. “Back then, when I heard about the church of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest having conflict with the church of the God of Wealth, and of its suffering a loss, I found it interesting. I didn’t know that, behind the interesting bits, there was such a heavy-hearted tragedy!”

Then, he returned to the theme park and commanded the Void Mask church to help the famine victims, utilizing all of their efforts and resources.

“Food will be a big issue.” Rhodes immediately raised up the problem. “We are not able to take out an adequate amount of food that would be sufficient to aid the victims of a whole country!”

“I will figure out a way,” Sui Xiong replied in a low voice.

“Also to consider, are the logistics,” Rhodes said. “To transport food to each corner of the Gold Coin Federation, is far beyond our capability. As for aiding the victims of the Dhaka Commercial Association, it is totally impossible!”