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Book 7: Chapter 124: Occupied forever is good

The cold wind came from the north and entered lieutenant Nokomo’s clothes by the neck. He couldn’t help giving a shiver before tightening his clothes and shrinking in.

Looking up, the cloud that was over their camp had already become much bigger and hung over their heads like a patch of cotton that hadn’t been harvested yet.

“It seems like it’s about to snow.” Lieutenant Nokomo let out a breath that created a patch of mist in front of him.

It was already the middle of November and for the central region of the previous Falk Kingdom, which was in the north of the middle of the Sines Continent, for Greenweit Town, it wasn’t strange to snow.

Lieutenant Nokomo was a local from a village near Greenweit Town and had lived here for more than a decade since he was young, only leaving to join the Falk Kingdom army, so of course he was used to the weather here.

“Hei, team leader, it’s this kind of damn weather, why do we still need to patrol?” A Falk Kingdom soldier following behind lieutenant Nokomo complained, “Even rabbits aren’t willing to leave their homes in this cold, I don’t believe that those Lampuri Kingdom people will attack us in this weather.”

Lieutenant Nokomo turned to glare at him before giving a cold snort, “Close your damn mouth Makan. This is an order from above, do you have the courage to not follow it?”

The soldier who was called Makan spat out before muttering, “It’s not our Falk Kingdom chief’s orders, why do we have to listen? Those fellows from the Marlow Empire only send us out to do these dirty jobs, they can do it themselves if they have the skills.”

Lieutenant Nokomo knitted his brows as he looked at the other members of the patrol squad. He found that they all had the same looks as Makan, having looks of discontent on their faces. He couldn’t help giving a sigh.

This wasn’t strange.

Not to mention his subordinates being discontent, even he wasn’t feeling happy.

Although with the help of the Marlow Empire, their Falk Kingdom government in exile and the army under them were able to reclaim some land that was captured by the Lampuri Kingdom and the Drake Duchy, because the Marlow Empire had an overwhelming position in their allied army, the Falk Kingdom soldiers were always sent to do dirty work. Moreover, they didn’t exist when it came to calculating military merit, so naturally the Falk Kingdom soldiers were dissatisfied.

But lieutenant Nokomo, as a military officer, knew more than these normal soldiers, so he understood that there was no other way to deal with this situation.

If if wasn’t for the help of the Marlow Empire, the Falk Kingdom would have been destroyed a few months ago and there wouldn’t have been a chance to fight back.

If it wasn’t for the Marlow Empire breaking the unwritten rule to send out the Arch Magi, the Marlow Empire wouldn’t have been able to do anything to the Lampuri Kingdom and the Drake Duchy. There was no hope for the Falk Kingdom to reclaim their country with their own power.

So in the end, it was the Falk Kingdom completely depending on the Marlow Empire, so how were they qualified to talk about their positions?

Lieutenant Nokomo could understand the complaints of the soldiers, but on the other hand, although he was a bit dissatisfied, he was also grateful.

If it wasn’t for the help of the Marlow Empire, it might have been very hard for him to return to this familiar land in his life.

Since a few months ago, after Falk Kingdom and the Marlow Empire armies were repelled by the attack of the Lampuri Kingdom and Drake Duchy armies and Greenweit Town had been given over, Lieutenant Nokomo had completely lost contact with his family in the nearby village.

But half a month ago, after the Falk Kingdom and Marlow Empire allied army took Greenweit Town back from the Lampuri Kingdom, lieutenant Nokomo was able to take a trip back in his free time and reconnect with his family.

It was because of this that lieutenant Nokomo had a bit of gratitude to the Marlow Empire.

But thinking of what happened after he met his family, lieutenant Nokomo felt that the gratitude he felt for the Marlow Empire wasn’t as strong……

After seeing his family again, he didn’t expect that his family not only was not tortured under the Lampuri Kingdom army, but rather they were glowing with health and looked very spirited. Other than being a bit worried because they lost contact with him, their lives were better compared to before.

When mentioning the Lampuri Kingdom’s occupation, his family didn’t have any complaints about the Lampuri Kingdom and they were even filled with praise. After the Lampuri Kingdom occupied this place, they eliminated most of the heavy taxes that the normal villagers would pay each year and sent out a team of agricultural magic machines to help them with the fall harvest. It made their fall harvest this year exceptionally easy.

Because of this, lieutenant Nokomo’s parents and his little brother who had become an adult had time to go work for a few months in the businesses the Lampuri Kingdom companies had set up in Greenweit Town, earning more than thirty gold coins during this time because of it.

This situation came as a surprise to lieutenant Nokomo and he even had a bit of doubt in his heart.

Greenweit Town used to be the private territory of the Falk Kingdom’s Count Green. When this land had been governed by the Falk Kingdom, the Falk Kingdom citizens had to pay large amounts of taxes to Count Green, leaving just some food to fill their stomachs with.

Even if Count Green was one of the few lords that was a bit kind and willing to care for his citizens, almost all the people in his territory, including lieutenant Nokomo lived very worrisome lives and it was normal that they would starve.

After the area around Greenweit Town fell under the control of the Lampuri Kingdom, they got rid of most of the taxes that the citizens would pay and the lives of the citizens had greatly changed.

Not to mention anything else, just lieutenant Nokomo’s family had harvested around one thousand and three hundred pounds of wheat this fall harvest.

If this was before, eight hundred pounds of this would be turned over to Count Green and then putting aside another part to plant, they would only be left with around four hundred pounds.

Other than lieutenant Nokomo who had enrolled in the army, his family had five people and to rely on this four hundred pounds of wheat to survive until spring of next year would definitely be difficult.

But after this place was seized by the Lampuri Kingdom, based on the new policies that the Lampuri Kingdom announced, only three hundred pounds of this one thousand and three hundred pounds were taken away. The rest was all left for Nokomo’s family to use.

A thousand pounds of wheat compared to a trivial four hundred pounds, this was more than double. Naturally the lives of Nokomo’s family were much better than before.

Moreover, after Lampuri Kingdom occupied Greenweit Town, there were several companies from the Lampuri Kingdom, the Drake Duchy, and the Rudson Kingdom that came along and started developing Greenweit Town. They hired a lot of the locals and helped many people find jobs. These citizens were able to earn several dozen gold coins that they never imagined before.

With these gold coins, Nokomo’s family lived very comfortable lives.

Because there was a lack of food, each winter was the hardest for Nokomo’s family. But this winter, Nokomo’s family was not only able to eat their fill, they were able to buy two new cotton coats from the Lampuri Kingdom’s Armani Chamber of Commerce for each member of the family with the wages his parents and little brother earned, so they were no longer as cold as before.

Thinking of how his little brother and little sister showed off their new coats to him, lieutenant Nokomo couldn’t help looking down at his own clothes.

As an officer, the clothes that he had been provided with was much better than a normal soldier’s, but it was only a light padded leather coat that was almost worn down.

There was no need to touch it to feel how light this jacket was. He could even feel the cold wind penetrating the jacket, which showed how lacking the quality of this jacket was.

However, even if it was this poor jacket, when he was provided with it, three gold coins were taken from his officer’s wages.

It had to be known that as a lieutenant, his yearly wage was only fifteen gold coins.

Thinking of this, lieutenant Nokomo couldn’t help revealing a bitter smile.

In the past, his yearly wage of fifteen gold coins was a big supplement to his family and could make his family’s lives a bit better than the other families in the village. It also gave him preferential treatment when he went home each time.

But now, just his brother going to work for the businesses the Lampuri Kingdom had set up in Greenweit Town had earned more than ten gold coins.

Adding in the income of his parents, his fifteen gold coins weren’t that important.

When he talked to his little brother about this, he even said with a look of disdain that he shouldn’t be a soldier, but rather he should work for the Lampuri Kingdom’s factories.

Because he heard that if you did well, it wasn’t strange to earn fifteen gold coins a month in those factories.

Other than this, there was still something else where there was a clear difference.

The clothes that his little brother and little sister wore were very warm and good looking, it only cost them forty silver coins for one jacket when they bought it from the Armani Chamber of Commerce.

If they bought two, there was even a ten silver coins discount.

Compared to this, the light jacket that he wore wasn’t worth anything.

But lieutenant Nokomo found it hard to complain because whether it was in the past Falk Kingdom or in the Marlow Empire over the past few months, the price of cotton goods were still very high.

Just this thin cotton jacket could be sold for two gold coins without any problems.

Only god knew how that damn Armani Chamber of Commerce could sell it for this cheap. Were they not afraid of losing money?

But thinking about it, it was reasonable that the Falk Kingdom rejected the Armani Chamber of Commerce’s request to enter their markets.

If the Armani Chamber of Commerce entered, the merchants of the Falk Kingdom who relied on selling cotton jackets to get rich each winter would have gone broke.

However……how was this related to the normal citizens?

As a commoner who couldn’t even help carefully spending even one silver coin, who wouldn’t want to buy the cheaper, warmer, and even more attractive new cotton jackets?

“Big brother, it would be good if this place was forever occupied by the Lampuri Kingdom.”

Thinking of the naive words his eleven year old little sister had said with big wide eyes, the bitter smile on lieutenant Nokomo’s face had become wider.

These words were naive, but wasn’t it the innermost thoughts of his little sister? Wasn’t it even the thoughts of his parents, his little brother, and even all the citizens that lived around Greenweit Town?