Azure City Tragedy (13)

Some time earlier.

Avak Viscountcy, Azure City.

In Azure City's residential district, the large communal apartment building constructed by Viscount Avak in those years had three floors. It could house sixty households, with more than two hundred people living there.

Most of them were young people from the countryside who had come here to work in factories, though some families who had not yet saved enough money to buy homes also lived there.

There was nothing bad about that.

Although using the toilet, bathing, and doing laundry in the communal apartments was somewhat troublesome, it was acceptable once one got used to it. The customs of Avak Viscountcy were quite simple and honest, and there were no shortage of people willing to help their neighbors. Some elderly residents even helped look after the children of young people who went out to work.

Unlike the Southern Ridge, which was still in its pioneering era, the Avak Region lay deep within the Western Frontier Plains, the Empire's rear territory that had been developed for who knew how long. Life there was quite peaceful.

There were no real opportunities to make a fortune, but people generally did not lack food or clothing. There was always work to be found, and there was always enough grain to eat.

Viscount Avak himself occasionally looked after his subjects, such as by designing cheap, durable communal apartments—after all, he understood very well that only by ensuring people lived comfortably could he govern with less trouble.

Furthermore, people on the Terra Continent had relatively limited means of obtaining information, and their ambitions and desires were not particularly great. Drinking some wine, eating some meat, and celebrating during holidays was enough to make them quite happy.

Usually, families simply lived their quiet little lives, bragging and chatting with friends,