The panic did not last long. When it was time to eat, they soon received the treatment appropriate to their status.
Each person got two fist-sized potatoes and a ladleful of vegetable soup. That was not even enough for one person.
Pregnant women and children received slightly better treatment: an extra slice of black bread and a small piece of dried fish, with a few droplets of oil floating atop their vegetable soup.
Such obvious unequal treatment made it clear to any intelligent person that they were deliberately being kept from eating their fill.
The real serfs had no particular reaction. Hunger had long been a normal part of life. They had barely eaten a full meal since childhood, but this was miserable for clergy members like Mike and Hatcher, who had blended in among them.
Though they occupied the lowest rung of the Church, they were still part of the ruling class. Their fathers had all belonged to the Church, so filling their stomachs had never been a problem.
Mike and Hatcher had it relatively better. As illegitimate children, they had never received much attention growing up, so they could still enjoy potatoes and vegetable soup.
Instead, some clergy members from better-off families stared at the food in their hands, momentarily at a loss.
What they did not know was that this brief lapse had already exposed their identities.
In the blink of an eye, the exposed clergy members were dragged away for isolation and interrogation, terrifying Mike and Hatcher into trembling.
Given the relationship between the Church and the Alpha Kingdom, ordinary serfs might not be held accountable, but clergy members like them would definitely be targets for reckoning.
Just as they had expected, several wooden poles soon appeared in the camp, with those unlucky people whose identities