Don't Mess with That Dragon-Chapter 714 - 102: The Past (First Update for Subscription)

The Village Chief stood in front of the castle gates, watching as the figure of the child disappeared into the distance.

His gaze became incredibly profound.

In a trance, he seemed to see the shadow of himself as a child.

As a child,

born into a family of peasants at the bottom tier, childhood memories were dominated by hunger, the theme of an eternally empty house, with nothing but a thin layer of food in the jar. Every time his father and mother cooked, they meticulously picked out a small handful of beans, and boiled them with bark and wild vegetables collected from the wilderness to make a green paste.

Every few days, his mother would take out a cloth bag filled with yellowish-brown bitter salt from beneath the carefully hidden bed frame and lovingly sprinkle this precious bitter salt.

That was considered a feast one could eat once every few days.

As for the black bread made from wheat, that was a food only "wealthy people" or people who celebrated holidays could afford.

The food they ate was always the cheap beans boiled with tree roots and wild vegetables to make green mush.

As a child, Harvest Festival was the most anticipated celebration of the year for the Village Chief.

Because during that time, Lord would graciously allow them to rest for a few days and distribute a small amount of food as a celebration, while his mother would wake up early that day and solemnly take out the precious wheat stored from years of toil, and finely grind it using the village's communal stone mill.

Next, she'd scrape off every bit of powder from the mill onto a wooden basin, return home, mix it with water, knead it into dough, and then squeeze it into palm-sized gray-brown blocks.

Finally, she would steam these gray-brown blocks in a pot, and the fragrant aroma of wheat would permeate from the pot with the white steam.

During that time,

the young Village Chief would stay by the stove, constantly smelling the fragrance drifting out, his hunger awakened, drooling incessantly.

Looking back now, those black breads with unfiltered shells were indeed hard to swallow.

But back then,

they were delicacies that could only be tasted once or twice a year.

Fortunately, under the leadership of the great His Highness Austin, his circumstances have improved a lot, as he can now eat the white bread that only noble lords used to have the privilege to enjoy every meal.

Life is now at a level he couldn't have imagined before.

Everything changed,

just a few years ago.

Suffering from frequent natural disasters and wars, the crops grown in the fields weren't enough to pay Lord's taxes, when he saw the last remaining old mother getting ready to leave home late at night to live in the mountain woods, it was to save more food at home.

The semi-grown Village Chief pulled the old mother back, faced with desperate circumstances, the Village Chief made a resolute decision, under the old mother's terrified eyes, to harvest the barely mature wheat from his fields overnight, put them into a burlap sack, and fled away from the village with the old mother overnight.

Previously, the village had guards to prevent peasants from escaping.

But during that period, Lord was at war with another Lord, the remaining one or two guards couldn't watch over the entire village, resulting in the Village Chief and his old mother successfully escaped with the grains.

Actually,

living in the enclosed world of the village since childhood, the numb peasants, even if someone couldn't endure and escaped to the woods to become a fugitive slave, never thought about sneaking away with the grains in the field, the Village Chief's escape method was unprecedented.

It was precisely because of this boldness and meticulousness that Village Chief and his old mother eventually fled to the southern Kawa Great Forest, got accepted by the Blue Dragon Kingdom, and in subsequent training sessions, he was labeled as an advanced member and promoted to participate in learning.

Afterward, during work and study he was recognized and became a reserve civil servant.

Step by step, he became one of the pioneering grassroots officials digesting occupied areas, serving as the Village Chief of this village, responsible for reforming and restructuring the village.

Reflecting on these years, the experiences seem dreamlike.

The old mother, although left with a chronic illness during the escape process, is now living a lifestyle that was unimaginable before, akin to living like lords.

However, the old mother, having come from poverty, cannot stay idle, often going out to take on some factory-assigned odd jobs, bringing them home to do, earning little pocket money, although this pocket money is insignificantly minor compared to the Village Chief's income.

The children at home always waste food and are constantly sternly scolded by the old mother.

When chatting between home and neighborhood while doing factory-assigned odd jobs with nearby neighbors, the old mother could not hide her pride when speaking of her son.

Around were a few households that were mostly refugees who had escaped the turmoil.

Some were brought here to settle by the old mother's contacts back to their hometown after stabilizing.

The Central Earth Continent was becoming more chaotic, natural disasters were frequent, many poor families could no longer survive, fled south.

It was through their words that the Village Chief learned of the stir caused by his daring move after he left.

In front of the castle gates,

the Village Chief was slightly lost.

The child's silhouette had already disappeared in the distance.

Somewhat resembling himself as a child,

also living in a poor family, also driven by living constraints,

stepping forward to collect food in a situation where adults dare not,

a brave first time.

It was precisely because of similar living experiences in the past that the Village Chief felt connected to that child, for such a poor family at the bottom, three chunks of one-meter-high black bread, were precious like rare wealth.

In his heart,

some soft spot was touched.

Reality is far more brutal than what's reported in the newspapers!

Just hope that,

those reforms can be completed as soon as possible.

Thinking back to before coming here, seeing in the newspapers the determination of the Blue Dragon Kingdom's high-levels, the state of occupied regions now, and the boiling public sentiment in the country, many cooperative volunteer organizations, donating money and funds, determined to fight this battle.

The Village Chief's heart was more resolute.

"Let's endure for a while longer, soon, soon this can all be changed, henceforth you will no longer suffer the oppression of those noble lords, nor need to endure hunger and labor every day. Trust me, I will lead you toward a life of abundance and prosperity..."

The Village Chief stood silently in front of the old noble's castle gates, murmuring.

Flickering before his eyes were frail and numb silhouettes, those were the scenes of villagers appearing like refugees when he first came to this village...