Migration (Part 1)

In June, the sunlight grew ever more scorching. At the bustling coastal port, many workers went about their tasks in silence. Their faces were clouded with confusion, their complexions sallow, their bodies thin, their expressions uneasy—a succession of scenes steeped in misery and hardship.

This place lay far from Far-Sail Town. Even at the fastest pace, it would take at least ten days to reach Teta Xiao's Viscount Fief. This port was the lifeline of a small nation currently caught in the Demon Calamity. Since most of the country was plagued by demons, its people generally lived in bitter poverty. Only the port region was somewhat peaceful, yet even the people living here struggled greatly.

Part of the reason for this was the outbreak of the Demon Calamity. The other part was the shortsightedness of the local lord.

Before the Demon Calamity broke out, blinded by the port's prosperity and profits, the lord had ordered much of the farmland converted to commercial use. Tavern after tavern, inn after inn, garden after garden had been built. Not a single inch of the entire port town had been left for growing crops. Once the Demon Calamity erupted, the port town's business plummeted off a cliff, and now it could only survive on its old savings.

The people here had normally relied on dock work to make a living. But now that the Demon Calamity had spread across the continent, how could the Royal House and the great nobles still care about opening new sea routes or protecting old ones? Even the existing navy had been thrown into the land war.

Without the navy's protection, pirates at sea gradually grew more rampant. Whenever a merchant convoy passed through, it was forced to pay exorbitant tolls. Otherwise, both people and ships would meet their