Chapter 419: 396 Refugees Without Relief
"What is this...?"
When the scene outside the carriage came into view of everyone inside, not just Reiger, but even Gel and Fannie showed surprised expressions.
This was because, right in front of the carriage, a group of people was blocking the main thoroughfare.
They were not thieves.
Their clothing was ragged, bodies covered in filth, soot smeared all over them, making them look incredibly unkempt, just like homeless beggars on the roadside.
They were close to indistinguishable from vagrants.
Because right now, those people were all on their knees in front of the carriage, repeatedly kowtowing and loudly pleading.
"Please give us something to eat!"
"We beg you!"
"We haven’t eaten for many days!"
"Just a little bit, we only want a little, please give us some food!"
"I, I don’t matter, but my child...!"
"Wah, wah, wah!"
The extremely noisy yet deeply compassionate waves of pleading and crying assailed the entire carriage, causing not only Liz to show a flustered expression but even Reiger and the others in the carriage to freeze.
"Refugees?"
Reiger’s brows had already deeply furrowed.
Gel was no better off, his face showing a look of shock and doubt.
"Although I’d heard that beyond the rampant bandits in the Meipros domain, there are also many refugees living rough, I had not expected to see so many."
Gel’s words caused Reiger’s brows to furrow even more.
He had not anticipated encountering a group of refugees in such numbers on the main road, the numbers were astounding, and if the wailing babies were included, there could be over a hundred people.
These numbers far exceeded those of the bandits they had previously encountered.
And when the refugees saw that Reiger and the others’ carriage had stopped and not passed by, as if clinging to some hope, the cries for help and weeping became even more intense.
Hearing those voices, it wasn’t just the visibly distressed Fannie, even the usually stoic Reiger felt a twinge of discomfort.
"Doesn’t the Meipros Domain provide any relief to these refugees?"
Reiger uttered the words almost subconsciously.
"How to provide relief?" said Gel, seemingly expressing some emotion, "At first, the Meipros family did manage the situation, but as time went by and the number of refugees grew, even the noble family, being the Marquisate, found it hard to support all the refugees, and thus they had no choice but to ignore the situation."
It’s not that they didn’t want to help, rather they couldn’t, and this situation was undeniably the most troublesome.
This also revealed a piece of information.
"...The number of refugees has grown to the point where even the lord of this land can’t manage them?"
Reiger murmured to himself.
"There’s no helping it, who would’ve thought that this place borders the enemy country that is currently at war?" Gel spoke with a highly complex tone, "Although the main battlefield between the two countries is in the Neutral Zone, for victory, the Leiblu Kingdom has continually sent agents to infiltrate this domain and cause wanton destruction."
Just like in the world of Overlord, where the Slane Theocracy, for the life of a single Gejiev Storunov, did not hesitate to use the innocent villagers near fortress cities as bait to entice the enemy and then carry out a brutal massacre, the people from the Leiblu Kingdom would not mind causing havoc here, creating chaos for the lord of this domain.
Moreover, this world was one where the use of Magic in warfare was extremely prevalent, unlike the world of Overlord, where Magic Singers were a minority and wars relied mostly on warriors and knights as the main forces. Here, magicians would appear on the battlefield at any time, wielding militarized area-of-effect Magic, hammering enemy forces as well as the territories of enemy countries with relentless bombardment.
Especially the Tactical Level Magicians and Strategic Level Magicians, with one grand spell, they could drastically alter the terrain.
Therefore, it was quite easy to wreak havoc on enemy territories. If it weren’t for the magic detection systems in major cities and systems that defended against large-scale magic attacks, people would have to worry that they might suddenly perish from the enemy magician’s spells at any given day.
Naturally, the only places capable of such defense were the major cities; smaller towns and villages were unable to resist in the same way.
As a result, in such border regions, the poor who couldn’t afford to live in big cities would inevitably become embroiled in the aftershocks of warfare, either becoming casualties of devastation or being forced to flee their homes, ultimately ending up as destitute refugees.
"..."
Reiger fell silent.
He thought of the capital, Yeluv, the resplendent honey wine restaurant, and the market that catered exclusively to nobles and wealthy merchants.
The privileged few in the capital undoubtedly lived lives of extreme luxury, at least compared to these refugees.
But their affluent and lavish lifestyles did not bring contentment, instead, they divided into factions like the Royalist and the Ducal ones, consumed with intrigues for power, utterly indifferent to their country still being at war with its neighbor.
Had they paid a bit of attention to the plight of the refugees on the frontier, and directed a fraction of their energy used in their internal squabbles towards these refugees, wouldn’t they be able to establish a comprehensive welfare system?
If a Marquisate couldn’t support this many refugees, couldn’t a nation ranked among the top four on the Akashic Continent do so?