Volume 6 Chapter 120 - Farming Isn???t As Good As Working (1/2)

Duke Windsor had a small party after leaving the manor, only having the housekeeper following him. He had changed into normal cotton clothing and rode a worn out horse carriage as he came out the back door, slowly moving into Canberra City.

It didn’t seem that different when he went through the streets, but if he looked carefully, he would find that there were less people out.

There were the sounds of people calling out in the streets, but there were less people shouting and there were less people who were willing to stop.

Looking at both sides of the road, a lot of the stores there had closed. There were even several stores that had closed in a rush and didn’t even close the front door, so one could see the empty place inside with several homeless people squatting inside, using them as temporary residences.

Seeing this, Duke Windsor couldn’t help slightly knitting his brows.

“Ricken, why do you think this is? Even if those other places had more business opportunities because of that damn Frestech Chamber of Commerce, that doesn’t mean that there’s no chance to earn money in our southern province. Why would these merchants just close their stores here?”

The middle aged housekeeper was the Ricken that Duke Windsor called for. He was different from others who were always respectful and scared of Duke Windsor. He was calm when he faced Duke Windsor and although he was still respectful, he wasn’t afraid of him.

Hearing Duke Windsor’s question, Ricken was silent for a bit before raising the leather whip and making the horse carriage change directions.

Duke Windsor and Ricken had grown up together, so he knew that this was his personality and he didn’t care that he didn’t answer his question.

But seeing that Ricken had changed directions, Duke Windsor knew that he had an answer in his heart. So after falling silent, he looked at the scene around him while taking this horse carriage that slowly went out of the city.

The horse carriage brought Duke Windsor and Ricken out the west gate of Canberra City and they continued two to three hundred kilometers, until they reached a village that had around a hundred families.

It was late spring right now and adding in the fact that the southern province was in the south, the wheat fields around them already had golden ears of wheat.

This should be the most important time where the farmers would go to the field to protect their mature wheat, but when Duke Windsor took a look, he found that there were only a few scattered farmers and they didn’t look busy at all.

Duke Windsor couldn’t help knitting his brows again.

“These lazy farmers, they’re still being lazy at such a critical time! Could it be that they don’t know it’ll be the spring harvest soon?”

Ricken turned to look at Duke Windsor before shaking his head, “Master, it isn’t that they are lazy, it’s just that there’s no one here.”

Duke Windsor was surprised, “What does that mean?”

Ricken pointed at the fields in the distance, “Please look, there are only old people in the field, there aren’t any young people.”

Duke Windsor seriously looked over the fields around them and found that it was indeed the case. He couldn’t help being even more surprised.

“Why is this? Where’s the young people? Could it be that they are lazing off? Or did something happen? Ricken, what do you know?”

Ricken shook his head without answering. He drove the horse carriage beside one of the fields and jumped off.

There was an old farmer who looked to be at least sixty in the field who was looking over it. After hearing this sound, he looked up to see Ricken who had jumped out of the horse carriage walking over.

“This old brother, why are you here alone? Where’s your family members? Where’s your son and his wife? Why didn’t they come?”

The old farmer looked at Ricken. Although the other side clearly had a different status compared to him, his tone was very friendly, so he put down his guard and said with a smile, “Them, they’ve all gone out to work and they’ve left this old man and woman at home to take care of the fields.”

“Word?” Ricken had a surprised look, “Where are they working? They can’t even do farm work?”

“They said that it was called…...A city called Niel something and they said the Frestech…..” After saying this word, there was a cautious look that appeared on the old farmer’s face and he gave two coughs before swallowing back his words.

Ricken acted like he didn’t notice this at all and asked in a curious voice, “You’re talking about the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, right? That Niel something, it should be Saraniel City, right? That place is in the Torea Province, it’s a little far from here.”

Hearing him mention the words “Frestech Chamber of Commerce” that was banned in the southern province without hesitation, the old farmer relaxed a bit and shook his head with a smile, “So what if it’s a bit far, it’s good if they can earn money. They can earn five gold coins a month if they go there and if they work a bit harder, they can earn over ten gold coins, it’s much better than staying home to farm. If it wasn’t for me and my wife not having good bodies and being unwilling to leave this place, we might have gone with our two sons to work.”

“Oh? Ten gold coins a month? That really is quite a bit.” Ricken looked up to look around before asking, “I see that it’s all old people like you in the field. Are the other families in the village the same? Did all the young people run off to work?”