Chapter 142: A Place Where the Heart Returns
By Earth’s calendar, it’d be around the end of November or the beginning of December, I guess.
Right now, Midford was being hit by heavy snowfall.
In places like the Slums, several dilapidated shacks, which had become like illegally constructed Jenga towers, had collapsed, and people caught in them had died.
The Church and the Slum dwellers led by Hookclaw are doing their best, running soup kitchens for the starving people, but well, it feels like a last-ditch effort, you know?
There’s that saying about how it’s better to teach someone how to do Fishing rather than just giving them a fish… and while soup kitchens might be a good thing, I think they’re ultimately futile.
Still, the weak who are starving and cornered—in other words, the “Invincible People”—are genuinely scary because you never know what they might do. So, to reduce the number of such Invincible People, I do make some donations, though.
Count Missgancia, the Lord, gives a certain amount of money to the Church, so it seems they’re doing some relief work for the weak with that.
…That whole area is another complicated issue, though.
The Church will help the weak to some extent, provided they are followers who obey the Church.
Hookclaw will help any weak person as much as possible, as long as they don’t cause excessive trouble for others.
There’s a sort of classification like that, huh?
…But both fundamentally lack the money and power entirely, so many people are starving, suffering, and dying…
I wonder if this can only be saved by a fundamental change in the Social System.
And here’s the important part: the money and power needed to fundamentally change the Social System are completely lacking even in this entire country ♡
It’s not a laughing matter, but it’s laughable, really. There’s seriously no money anywhere.
So, shall I tell you why the people of this world don’t work towards changing society for the better, why they don’t all strive together to gain money and power?
It’s because they can’t…
To put it bluntly, in this world, things like land surveys haven’t even been done.
Look… if you’re Japanese, you’d get it, right? Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the Taikō surveys, and the standardization of units. And maybe the sword hunt too?
What does that mean? It means the public authorities don’t know what or how much their own land can produce. It’s like a country not knowing its own GDP.
It’s the same with the fields. They’re all convoluted, and it’s impossible to tell whose land is whose.
But that’s due to all sorts of long-standing vested interests, and it’s not something you can just fix because you want to. Eh? Sounds stupid, you say? Then why don’t you try unifying the countless boxing associations?! You can’t, right?! There are all sorts of barriers! That’s the kind of situation it is.
So, in a country where they don’t even know what’s being produced where or how much, things like ‘Democracy!’ or ‘Industrial Revolution!’ are just utterly ridiculous.
That kind of stuff relies not only on fundamental production levels but also on advanced unification, standardization, and efficient division of labor.
If I intervened, maybe I could do something about it… but I have no obligation to.
Even if you work hard for others, nothing good comes of it.
Doing it just for your own family is probably about right. At least, that’s the size of my capacity, I think.
“Mmm… Dru, you really like talking about difficult things, don’t you?”
Yep.
I was talking about that stuff while hugging Shio on the sofa.
Ahhh, dark skin and rock-hard abs!
So gooood~!
“Ahaha! That tickles!”
I couldn’t help but rub my cheek against them.
Her abs are just too good…
Even in this season, the heated room seems hot to her. She’s got quite a bit of muscle, so her metabolism must be good. Shio’s dark skin was damp with a little sweat.
Her scent isn’t exactly what you’d call completely fragrant, but it’s a sweet aroma that appeals to instinct.
Yeah, women are good.
My heart feels at ease…
“Dru, you work hard, so isn’t it okay for you to do whatever you like? You know, I’ve decided I’ll follow you, Dru, even if you say you don’t want me to! You can do anything!”
And then there’s this innocent trust.
So warm, so warm…
This world is the worst, but it’s easy to live in, so I like it…
You can’t expect anything from anyone, which means you don’t have to expect anything from anyone. Conversely, you don’t have to worry about others expecting things from you.
For me, this is ‘salvation’.
On top of that, if you have money and power, you’ll be respected and esteemed endlessly. What a wonderful world.
You can live as you please and die as you please. Is there any greater happiness than this?
Excessive freedom certainly leads to chaos; a life like the Chaos route in Megami Tensei would probably be tough for ordinary people. But for someone like me, who has money, power, and knowledge, this way is far easier to live.
In a chaotic world where power is everything, if you possess power, even such ridiculous self-indulgences as a “Slow Life” are permitted…
No, really.
A Slow Life in a medieval fantasy world! That’s like…
To use a modern Earth analogy, it’s like building a huge mansion in some Middle Eastern or African region with the worst public safety—where starving children with bellies swollen like hungry ghosts are forced to be soldiers carrying AK rifles, and women are raped and treated like objects—and then flaunting your life, surrounded by women, playing around every day.
It’s the worst kind of sarcasm, completely oblivious to the situation, the lowest kind of act.
Doing something like that means I’m not a decent person.
Even though I could make the world better, I’m just a scumbag who does nothing more than toss around some spare change.
But now, any ingrained sense of upper-class obligation, the kind that fulfills the responsibilities that come with power, has long since faded.
Right now, I just want to be like this…
Drowning in the bosom of the girl I like.