Chapter 41 - Oath
The slaves weren"t stupid. Almost all of these people knew how to cook. Previously, the slave owners would casually pick two people to make food for the rest of the slaves. So they weren"t new to cooking.
Plus, making this rice was very simple. The slaves soon had another pot of rice going, and then covered it with the copper basin that Zhao had given them as a lid.
But the slaves didn"t know how to make soup. The slave owners would only allow them to eat something like rice bran, and even moldy rice. Precisely because of this, everyday in the Continent there would be a lot of slaves that died. But for slave owners, they wouldn"t care about those deaths, because they could just go out and buy more slaves.
Now the slaves were looking at the vegetables and oil in a daze. Daisy certainly understood their feelings, but since she had also been a commoner, she knew some simple dishes.
Daisy went to the empty pot that Zhao had brought out, and poured the oil into it. This oil came from a yellowish colored fruit that had a very high oil content. It grows in many places in the Continent, so it was very cheap.
Once the oil was hot, Daisy then put in the vegetables and simply stir-fried them. Finally, she added some water and threw in a little salt. After the water came to a boil, the soup was done.
This was the simplest way to make soup. There was almost no technical details or seasoning, only a little coa.r.s.e salt.
On the Continent, salt wasn"t cheap. The n.o.bles generally used very refined salt, like the salt on Earth. But the slaves only get coa.r.s.e salt, which was cheap with a lot of impurities.
Even so, if a slave owner gave the slaves a little salt every three days, then that owner would be considered very generous. But in general, slaves only get salt once a week, and the number of slave owners who gave them that much wasn"t a lot.
Seeing Daisy working on the simple soup, Zhao sighed. Meg was standing beside him. "Master, is there a problem? Should we have given the slaves less salt?"
Zhao gave Meg a puzzled look. "With this kind of large pot, why should there be so little salt? I was just thinking how much our Buda clan was so weak that we could only give them simple food to eat. After we have money, we should let them eat meat."
The moment he finished speaking, he felt the eyes of everyone staring at him. He was confused, so he whispered to Meg, "Did I say something wrong?"
Meg looked at Zhao. Although the Buda clan had slaves, before they were exiled by the Empire, Adam had never come into contact with the slaves. Naturally, he didn"t know what kind of life they lived. So she whispered to him to explain about the slaves living conditions.
Zhao was listening like a new born learning about this world. His ideas about how these people lived were so far away from Meg"s. It was like something out of the olden days, like in the White-Haired Girl opera. It was difficult to resonate with because he didn"t have the same kind of experiences. How could he understand it when he didn"t have any personal experience to compare with.
Everyone waited until Meg finished explaining. Zhao then turned and looked at the slaves, his eyes full of sympathy. He sighed and said, "Rest a.s.sured, I will do whatever it takes. Sooner or later, I"ll let you eat meat everyday. This I swear on the name of the Buda clan."
Zhao was a good person. Even though, in his past life, he was a timid person that didn"t have much interpersonal skills, that didn"t mean he was sick. He was just an otaku that couldn"t understand the darkness of the world, so he chose to shut himself off. He was that kind of person.
But in the Ark Continent, Zhao"s status had changed. He was now a n.o.ble with his own territory. He had a hundred slaves whose lives he was responsible for. His words and actions would decide the life and death of these people. All of this gave Zhao a sense of responsibility. He believed that it was his duty to give everyone a better life, so he was bent on developing his territory.
The slaves excitedly fell to their knees. Like a sea, they all bowed down as one. "Master rewards us!"
Although they had nothing to give back, this sentence was enough for Zhao. The n.o.bles on the Continent had a strange tradition. They do not easily swear. Even under normal circ.u.mstances, they would never use their family name to swear. Because swearing would put you under oath before G.o.d and on behalf of your family. An oath was a promise that you should never violate.
It was because of this that the slaves believed in Zhao"s words. They believed that since he said an oath under his family name, that he would one day realize this dream of eating meat everyday.
Meg opened her mouth, but she didn"t say anything. For the past few days she had been managing the slaves so, to be honest, she was very sympathetic to them. She didn"t object to Zhao"s words.
Just then, Meirin"s voice came from a distance. "Master, it"s time to eat."
Zhao turned around and nodded in her direction, then he looked back at the crowd. "Meg, Daisy, Ann, it"s time for dinner."
Daisy and Ann wanted to stay here and eat, but Zhao"s look told them that they would be going along with him to the hut, followed by Blockhead and Rockhead.
The moment they went into the hut, the slaves became more relaxed. Although Zhao had been very good to them, but for the slaves, Zhao was their master, so they felt uncomfortable with him around.
Inside the hut, Meirin had already made some pancakes and soup. Zhao actually wanted to eat rice, but one look from Meirin told him that there was no hope.
The hut only had four chairs, so Zhao took out three more from the barn. Now they could sit seven people. Although the table wasn"t as big as the one in the castle"s dining room, it was still big enough for all of them.
After everyone sat down, Zhao pulled out some knives and forks, and began to eat the pancake. In fact, he didn"t want to use a knife and fork, but unfortunately, Meirin didn"t agree.
The pancake didn"t really have much flavor, but the taste was okay. Zhao slowly ate dinner. After everyone finished and Meirin cleaned things up, all of them went outside. By this time, the slaves had finished eating as well.
The pot was still there, but it had been cleaned out. The slaves seemed very full, and there was even one sitting with a spiritual look.
Zhao knew that after eating dinner, people would become sleepy, and these slaves were the same. He didn"t make them get up and allowed them to lay on the ground.
Looking at the garbage, Zhao didn"t want the s.p.a.ce to be dirty, but these things could be left for later. He then looked up at the sky, and although it was a little hazy, fortunately he didn"t see any black smoke floating up there. Even though they had lit a fire, it was a good thing that the s.p.a.ce wasn"t small.
Zhao then turned to Meirin and said, "Grandma Meirin, let them rest. They just had dinner, so they"re sleepy. Let them have a break."
Meirin eyed the slaves and only nodded her head. "Well, then we should take a break too."
Zhao shook his head. "Grandma Meirin, Meg, Blockhead, Rockhead, follow me into the hut. I have something for you to see." He opened the door to the hut and walked in.
Meirin and everyone didn"t know what Zhao wanted to show them, but they followed him inside.
Translator Notes: If you want to know more about the White-Haired Girl opera, then here"s a WIKI LINK
Translator Notes #2: This chapter was edited from an MTL. Please leave a comment if you"ve spotted anything that looks wrong.