Serfs Up 1/2
1461 Words
"Hello there, Your Majesty... What could I be of service this evening? Still troubled by the dreams that you had mentioned to us back then? One thing, Your Majesty, how do I look like in the future?"
I was greeted by Eagle the moment I reached the windmill area where Eagle and some of the men would normally assemble if they have somethings to discuss as well as to standby for the carrier pigeons to bring in some news from some towns.
"Not as much as before, Eagle. Once I had to heave it off my chest, I felt somewhat relieved at this moment. Besides, you look old when you are in the future. Hahaha. Of course, you may look old and not younger right?"
We both laughed heartily as I sat in some sacks that were against the wall of the windmill. I still remember the time when Eagle first came to this town along with Marcel when he heard that our village needs a mill to grind those grains into flours.
It was as if the memory was still fresh and was still etched within me.
"Well, want can we do for you, Your Majesty? You won't be coming over here if there's something in your mind that needs a personal point of view from me, am I right?"
I looked at Eagle from where I was sitting and I nodded and snickered at the same time. This Bishop Levingstone really could read my mind. What could I say since he was my teacher back in uni, right?
"Gwen had approached me regarding setting up an Adventurers Guild. A place where a group of adventures would be seeking their thrill and objectives when we set up a few tasks at hand."
"The rewards would be compensated to them according to the information and resources that they had brought back to us. What say you, Eagle?"
"Do you think its a good idea or having such a guild and employing these rookies to gather information for us?"
Eagle sauntered down from the rafters he was sitting and came down and joined me, picking a sack and sat down while facing me.
"An Adventurers Guild, eh? It sure sounds very intriguing and I am up for it 100%. So you won't need the Shadows to be part of the escort member for the adventurers if they were to be out there in the plains for their tasks?"
"What kind of tasks do you wish to have those Adventurers from the Guild to partake?"
Eagle was all piqued up when he heard about the suggestion made by Gwen. Not only this would not involve the Shadows to be running around without any aim to find out information and resources but it was also one of the motivational factors for the community to work with one another.
"At this moment I do not have any specific task yet since the Adventurers Guild would first need to be set up and then the group of adventurers need to register themselves as part of the Guild."
"It would be like a having some Shadow units to do some reconnaissance work for us in the foreground. Furthermore, these tasks would not involve them to be engaged in some kind of confrontation."
"Frankly, I do have some tasks in mind but it would only be feasible to discuss when the time comes."
"How about increasing the population based on Serfs and peasants that had been abused by their Lords and had no one to rely on or complain to and simply left to their own devices?"
"Their mentality is quite simple and straightforward, don't you think so, Eagle? They have a place to live, a living condition which would be much better than what they would be living in."
"They get to work in the fields and they get to be paid accordingly. But they would not be upgraded to brick homes, but would make up the citizens on the westernmost cluster."
"It may sound like we are differentiating the first and second class of citizens but they would no longer be termed as serfs and peasants but would be mainly be referred to as labourers."
"Unlike our current residents with temporary residency awaiting for their permanent one in the future, these labourers would be the main workforce for the westernmost cluster."
"When the children of these labourers had upgraded themselves through school and proper education, there would be a possibility for them to upgrade their homes by then. It would by then takes at least 6 years down the road."
"What we need are workers to fill in the blanks at the moment."
I emphasised the issue at hand, killing two birds with a heavy rock where one would fill in more citizens and the other one to improve on its productivity.
"So, in the meantime, the westernmost cluster would be thatched houses until the plan to have them upgraded to semidetached duplex brick houses, am I right, Your Majesty?"
Eagle spoke up after I had gone silent for some time and he had absorbed what I had mentioned earlier and understood my intentions well. Besides, I don't require the community to pay any taxes and also not required to put in extra hours in the factories et cetera.
Boisterous laughter erupted from Eagle as he pointed something vital to me which was the working days between the Serfs, peasants and out citizens. "Your Majesty, these Serfs and peasants worked 150 days a year and that excludes birthdays, Public Holidays and medical leave. Our community worked more than 240 days a year...! Hahaha...!"
I jumped from where I was sitting as Eagle related to me the truth that had been shrouding the community and so far no one had raised a question nor complains about them working nearly twice as hard as the Serfs and peasants from other towns.
"Hahaha... Maybe I've become one of the Lords that hard-pressed the labourers to toil in the fields and the factories. Hahaha. By the way, how much does a serf or peasant gets per month?"
I asked Eagle as I took out my handy journal from my small pouch that I always carry they contained a quill and a portable bottle of ink.
"6 coppers per day, Your Majesty. They work from dawn to dusk, and only lunch is provided to them. The lowest-paid would be a gong farmer like what Andy Cole used to be at 2 coppers per day."
"It's quite pathetic from that amount, don't you think so? On top of that, the serf or peasant was required to pay tax to the Lords after they had been paid per month and what is left for them? Almost nothing and they sometimes pay through food since most serf and peasant is not paid for their hard work at all."
"A peasant is still not in a bad position as a serf because they are if a higher stature among the two but a serf... It is more like a slave and they had no freedom whatsoever."
"Once a serf's family is able to fend for himself or herself, likely to be 4 years of age and above, they were put to work. Can you imagine their living and work conditions by then, Your Majesty?"
I sank down on the sack that I was sitting earlier as the realisation and truth really hit me hard. I didn't know that the truth was much uglier than I imagined.
"Did my father treated his subjects the same way as others treated Serfs and peasants?" I was hard-pressed at the moment and suddenly I thought of how my father had ruled his Town before during his reign.
"Darlington was based in a hierarchy ruling system. The Old King was the top of the monarch followed by the Lords and then the Knight. Below the knights were the peasants and right below them would be the Serfs."
"Gwen, Frank, Crystal, Ben, Kayla and Jack were considered as artisans because they had their own trade and profession. They do not toil the fields but had their own specific roles and duties."
"But the Serfs and peasants were almost non-existant because when Darlington was built up, they didn't have such lands like the one we have right now. You had done a better job than what The Old King had done and if he was alive today, he would definitely hail you as someone who had better foresight than him."
When I heard that compliment, I could feel my head seemed a bit inflated since I had never got any compliment about the effort that I had placed so far in this town, only I myself would pat my own back. Hahaha.
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