Chapter 791 (2/2)

“I know,” said Kabbalah. “If it was easy to handle, I wouldn’t have come looking for you.”

“Obtaining warmth is a big problem. I’m aware of this. But to help all the poor people safely tide over this bitter cold, a great amount of fuel is needed anyhow. We don’t produce coal here, so we can only use wood. But extensive cutting down of trees for firewood would mean conflict with the Druids in the forest…” said Baron Dahl. Shaking his head gently, he said, “With our strength, even if we can win against them, we will still suffer a great loss. It’s just not worth it.”

“It’s for the sake of the people’s lives, so there’s nothing such as worth it or not,” Kabbalah advised.

“The poor people’s lives are lives, the soldiers’ lives are also lives,” Baron Dahl said very earnestly. “Bishop Kabbalah, I’ll do away with all that empty talk and courtesies and get straight to the point. Those soldiers were selected and trained at a great expense. They have always been loyal and brave, and this territory under my rule depends on them. I can’t risk their lives just to protect the poor people from the cold.”

Bishop Kabbalah frowned and said, “But don’t soldiers exist for the purpose of protecting the people? If the soldiers don’t protect the people, then do their existence hold any value at all?”

“It’s not wrong of you to say that, but I can’t be telling them things like ‘the poor people need firewood to keep themselves warm, so they need to cut down many trees. But there are Druids in the forest, so you guys have to deal with the Druids and leave the cutting of trees to the poor people’… is it possible to say such things to them? Even they themselves will not say yes!”

Kabbalah went silent. After a while, he sighed again and said, “Where on earth did those Druids come from!”

This was not a question; it was merely Kabbalah expressing his sentiment.

Since last fall, Druids had been seen in the forests near Baron Dahl’s territory. They were not the typical religious sect that emphasized the harmony between man and nature, as well as the balance of nature. They were more like a sect that went to the extremity of blindly protecting nature with the belief that all humans should return to nature. This sect protected the natural ecosystems in the most unscrupulous manner and prohibited all acts of destruction of nature in an extremely strict way. This included, but was not limited to, clearing wasteland, cutting down trees and making roads in the forests. Over the past few months, they already had several confrontations with the adventurers of Dahl Hill. Although neither had lost any lives yet, there had been many cases of injuries.

Under this situation, even if the weather was cold, the civilians would not dare venture into the forests to cut trees, lest they meet with attacks.

For the ordinary civilians, even if they did not cut down trees, they could still purchase coal or the likes of it for heating purposes. Or they could simply save up on firewood and wear thicker clothes. So long as they were more or less warm, they would be just fine. But the poor civilians could neither afford to buy coal nor did they have thick clothes to wear. If they even had to lack firewood to stay warm enough, the number of people freezing to death this winter was truly going to unimaginable!

Bishop Kabbalah certainly would not allow this cruel thing to happen right under his own eyes. So he brought his clergymen for a round of negotiation with the Druids.

The outcome of their negotiations was clear, so he had come to pay the lord a visit at his mansion. He was hoping that Baron Dahl would send troops to help him “convince” those Druids and thus, help the poor people to pull through this winter.

However, Baron Dahl was unwilling to deploy his soldiers. Regardless of the fact that he too, was a follower of the Church of the Void Mask, he simply could not bear to lose any soldiers for such a matter.

In this regard, Bishop Kabbalah was also at his wit’s end. The so-called goodness meant that one could sacrifice one’s own interests when there were people in need, but it did not include sacrificing the interests of other people to help those in need.

He was a good person, so he could not convince himself to force Baron Dahl to send troops.

So things were now at an impasse, and they were already into the third day of their discussions. No matter how the Church of the Void Mask tried to plan and redistribute as comprehensively as possible, the firewood reserves for the slum areas were nearly used up—and this even included the large amount of firewood obtained from the reserves in the Baron’s mansion that had been taken out to help the poor.

With things escalating to this situation, Bishop Kabbalah was also at a loss. Just as he was pondering whether he should or shouldn’t go to the merchants in this territory to seek financial assistance in whichever way possible, he suddenly heard a voice coming from the bottom of his heart.

That voice was deep and vigorous, and it carried a sense of sacredness that gave him extreme happiness.

Don’t worry, I’m on my way.