The Extinguished Kindling

"Another Noble Lord?"

"Oh? He's a marquis?"

"Which is more powerful, the Marquis or the Earl we killed?"

"Is she going to arrest us for mining too?"

Upon hearing these words, the serfs immediately began to murmur amongst themselves, creating a noisy commotion.

Spark was immediately terrified – he knew that the elite Hobgoblin infantry present were enough to slaughter everyone here, and he didn't want his comrades who had risked their lives with him to die here in vain.

Spark steeled himself and stepped forward.

"Lady Darena, is there something important you need?"

Darena replied, "Of course, it's to bring the kingdom's goodwill. You've done a great job."

"My goodwill?"

Spark was momentarily stunned.

Darena covered her mouth and chuckled, then continued, "Of course, you are the vanguard in the fight against the corrupt rule of the the North, and even Lord Lang Pu has heard of you."

"He also personally mentioned you at a meeting and gave you verbal praise, highly affirming your activities."

Spark was somewhat puzzled, but still asked nervously, "So... what arrangements does the kingdom have for us?"

Under the dual pressure of an elite army and his marquis status, he had Lieutenant General placed himself in a subordinate position.

This also brought a hint of smugness to the depths of Darena's eyes.

"The kingdom has made the arrangements."

The main event is finally here! Spark held his breath.

Seemingly sensing their unease, Darena smiled reassuringly, "Don't worry, the kingdom will not mistreat anyone."

Darena took out a document from her bosom and said calmly, "Warriors of the Kindling, you will be granted Kingdom Citizen and will be assigned to factories in various cities, where you will have stable and fulfilling jobs."

"Then—will we be able to get some food?"

A serf mustered his courage and raised his hand to ask.

"Certainly."

"In our Embers of the Burned Kingdom, everyone has an ample supply of food, and no one dies of hunger. It's not even a problem."

Darena answered casually, even nodding slightly to the serf.

"How is that possible?"

"Even those free people might not be able to get enough to eat!"

"No one starved to death? My God, does such a place really exist?"

The serfs were once again in an uproar. Everyone was well-fed, which was an unbelievable scene for them, who had suffered from hunger since childhood. It was a scene that only existed in heaven and in their dreams.

"Will we have clothes to wear?"

"Won't they freeze to death in winter?"

"Can I avoid getting beaten up?"

"Do we have a place to stay?"

The serfs seemed to have opened a floodgate of questions, eagerly raising them and fantasizing about the "good life" they would have in the future if they could survive.

These questions, which seem most basic or even ridiculous to ordinary people in modern times, are like the Garden of Eden to them.

"The kingdom's clothes are of good quality and inexpensive."

"The kingdom's spellcasters can ensure that the city remains warm at all times."

"Intentional injury is a violation of the law, and even a duke cannot violate the Kingdom Law."

When faced with their questions, Darena was not impatient; instead, she patiently answered them one by one, making the serfs feel as if they were bathed in a spring breeze.

"That might not be clear enough, so let's show you something more intuitive."

"Smack."

She clapped her hands gently, and the guards on either side immediately handed her a wooden box containing a Magic Crystal.

Darena pressed the crystal, and a semi-transparent image immediately appeared in the air. The serfs looked up in astonishment and exclaimed in surprise.

—In the video, a worker with a serf brand on his neck is working on an assembly line. The surrounding environment is clean and tidy, in contrast to the dilapidated and dirty farmhouse.

His job was simply to check product quality and engrave qualified labels with a machine, which seemed extremely easy and required almost no effort.

"Is this what our future work will be like?"

"This... this is what you call working?"

"He eats so much, but he only uses this little strength?"

The serfs exclaimed in surprise. They had been working like cattle and horses since they could remember, pulling plows and digging ore were commonplace for them, and they had never seen such easy "work".

Seeing the astonished faces of the serfs, Darena continued to coax them, "These are the kingdom's workers, enjoying generous treatment and only having to do the easiest work."

However, she deliberately omitted the requirement of "at least fifteen hours a day".

"This marquis is a good man!"

"Yes, it's amazing that they could assign us such a job."

"Such good conditions."

"She even answered me personally, completely unlike those Noble Lord from the the North!"

The serfs discussed it with great interest, already quite fond of the marquess, but they neither realized nor cared that this was the result of her deliberate manipulation.

"I want to be a worker in the kingdom."

"Chai Gun," he said haltingly.

His expression was full of longing and admiration.

Spark looked around, listening to the serfs' hopes for the future, hearing them use the title "Master" again, and seeing their deep respect for Marquis Darena, and felt a pang of unease.

"The world shouldn't be like this."

Spark thought to himself.

He had just led these serfs to break free from old and rotten shackles, but they seemed about to be bound by invisible, heavy chains.

But does he have the right to stop the serfs from pursuing a "better life"?

Does he have the ability to lead people to build a world without oppression in Anzeta? The answer is no.

This is also a completely open and aboveboard scheme.

The members of the Kindling will be dispersed to various cities to become ordinary workers in the kingdom, and the name "Kindling" will disappear over time.

The Kindling may have already been extinguished.

After a long silence, Spark asked them, "Everyone—is this what you all think?"

"Yes."

"It's so nice to be able to eat my fill every day and not get beaten up."

"Yes, it's like a dream."

"I'm tired of fighting and killing anyway."

The serfs answered all at once, discussing their future lives, and had no objections to the kingdom's arrangements.

Darena maintained her kind smile and nodded slightly to Spark, as if in acknowledgment.

"When these serfs are scattered throughout the the North, my reputation among men will be even greater."

"We must maintain this political image and pretend to be the representative of human interests in the kingdom in order to climb to a higher position."

This Pureblood Snake People, who always disguised himself as a human, thought to himself.

The serfs had been completely swayed by the kingdom's propaganda. They abandoned their months-long resistance and began to follow the orders of the Marquis Darena, cooperating with the Hobgoblin army to take over the Dena City.

Spark, however, stayed away from the excited crowd, lost in thought, seemingly pondering something.

Nick, who had been the first to follow him, patted him on the shoulder and whispered something.

"In the South, there are still many oppressed people, and slavery may not have been abolished there. We can rekindle the Kindling there."

Finally, Spark clenched her fist, looked at the distant horizon, and said firmly, "Okay, then let's go south."

"The Kindling will never be extinguished."

However, he was unaware that Marquis Darena had just spoken with Nick and specifically told the core members who did not want to give up the "Kindling" to go south, to the Fadlan region.

There, they can freely realize their ambitions and let the Kindling burn brightly.