Once capital development began in the Southern Continent, it could not be stopped.
Just like the world's renowned Victorian era, it is touted as a golden age of development, but in essence, it was a period of capitalist take-off built on the bones of the people.
After the Southern Continent's council made further probing attempts, and the Pale God remained hidden, they completely unleashed their power.
The coal mining industry has expanded continuously with the development of technology, railway transportation has been built continuously with the growth of demand, billowing black smoke rises from major factories, and as time goes by, progress in thermal power plants and other areas is also increasing day by day.
From the perspective of human civilization, this was indeed a glorious era.
General Electric's technological advancements have brought humanity the great light bulb that illuminates the night, the telephone that enables short-range communication, and the phonograph that can reproduce sound effects.
Steel smelting technology has brought about entirely new industrial products: steel trains, more powerful weapons, and even everything closely related to daily life.
Steam engine technology was widely adopted, not only for trains but also for ships, thus enabling ships to completely break away from sail power and become steamships.
The entire Southern Continent is changing rapidly, evolving at a rate that changes almost every year.
The Vampire species has also contributed an unimaginable number of scholars to the scientific community of the Southern Continent, which has led to their rapid technological progress.
But for ordinary people, it was an unimaginable disaster.
Who is the real Vampire?
Abraham could hardly believe that one day, after experiencing the Papal State, the Blood Court, and the oppression of His Majesty, he would ask such a laughable question.
But he really can't laugh now.
He felt he had failed the title of the Vampire True Ancestor.
Compared to the people from the Southern Continent, he felt he was incredibly naive.
As the moonlight shone on his face, Abraham's day began.
At three in the morning, as was his custom, he went to the palace to pay his respects to the Pale God Norton.
However, His Majesty has not made any moves in the past two decades, so after paying his respects, he has ushered in his moment of freedom.
Usually at four in the morning, he would leave the Holy See in his Church uniform. At this time, the workers from the Southern Continent who were sleeping on rope beds would also wake up one after another and prepare to start work.
Now, twenty years later, the Southern Continent is no longer the harmonious scene it once was under the rule of the Pale God.
In today's inflation, a piece of black bread that can barely feed a woman costs 3 rupees. The daily wage for a low-level coal miner is 15 rupees, and that's considered a fair price. This is because many illegal coal mines pay by weight. If the weight mined in a week doesn't meet their set standard, not only will they not be paid, but they may even have to repay the mine owner a certain amount to compensate for the owner's losses.
Therefore, in order to feed these lowly workers, shops selling black bread would add a considerable amount of sawdust to the bread, so that the workers could feel full.
In order to survive, these workers have to work sixteen or even eighteen hours a day to ensure that their families do not run out of food.
But food was only the smallest expense. The wooden house where twenty workers lived together cost 8 nos a day to sleep on a bed. Sleeping on the floor cost 5 nos, and even a rope that could be stretched out to allow someone to sleep half-standing cost 3 nos.
After Abraham had enjoyed the daily breakfast dessert of blood from three races provided by the Holy Empire government, it should generally have been six o'clock in the morning.
By this time, the children of these working-class people should be waking up.
This era is not lacking in working-class people, nor is it lacking in orphans. In fact, most of the working-class people are orphans because their parents mostly do not live to see them grow up.
Therefore, whether it's for self-reliance or just to eat, these children need to rely on themselves.
Children with parents go to work in the coal mine with their parents. After all, the coal mines are dug deeper and deeper, and their children can open small doors in the middle of the tunnels for them, or go down into small gaps to carry out excavation work.
Their pay was less, around 80 cents a day for working 12 hours, but it was still more than what the match girls earned.
If they don't want to work in the coal mines, they can also do classic fireplace cleaning work, earning a living by taking advantage of their small size.
After Abraham had enjoyed a full day of luxurious living paid for by the Holy Empire government, he would return to the Holy See at midnight to say goodnight to His Majesty and then lie down in his coffin to sleep. This was also the time for the workers to rest.
Such oppression and such a desperate life deeply shocked and moved Abraham, even though he had witnessed the lives of the people in the Papal State.
The Papal State don't just starve; they're literally using people to the point of death!
"Your Majesty, it is too painful! The lives of the people in the Southern Continent are now extremely miserable, a world apart from the time of your reign."
In the past, this old servant thought Your Majesty was cruel, tyrannical, and utterly tyrannical, but only today has this old servant realized that Your Majesty is truly noble, kind, and virtuous!
In the pitch-black night, Abraham, having spent the entire day out fooling around, squandering the wealth of the Holy Empire's royal family to satisfy his own selfish desires, returned in a daze, sighing as he greeted Norton.
This old man has had his fun all day, and now he's starting to play the good guy.
Norton's pale body lay back on the soft sofa, his full head of white hair cascading over the sofa and around him. His exquisitely perfect face was adorned with a single pair of glasses commonly used by scholars. As he looked at the thick book in his hands, he appeared somewhat strange.
Hearing Abraham's sorrowful lament, Norton's gaze, which had been fixed on the book the entire time, finally softened slightly and turned to look at Abraham standing at the door.
"So, Abraham, you ate a cake made from the blood of three races—yellow, white, and black—at a huge expense by the Holy Empire's royal family this morning, listened to storytelling at a tavern all morning, drank blood worth nearly three million Noles, and then spent the afternoon fishing with a pure gold fishing rod under the service of three hundred people, tasting fresh young girls' blood all afternoon. Now that you've come back from all this, is that what you're saying?"
Norton put down the book in his hand and sighed with extreme disappointment, "Can capital really corrupt people like this?"
Having said that, Norton threw off the golden silk quilt that he had been covering himself with, which was worth ten million Nortons and had been brought back from the distant East Continent with great effort. He sat up from the sofa, his dark eyes fixed on Abraham was already sweating.