Then one of the male slaves noticed a thick layer of crust in the pot. He had never seen this before. The slave was curious about the rice crust, so he grabbed some with his hand and sniffed it. It seemed to have an attractive scent. He eventually failed to block the temptation to bite it.
The moment he tasted it, his eyes brightened, and he quickly took a second bite. Since the pot wasn't small, there was a large amount of crust. A single person naturally couldn't finish all of it by himself, so the slave passed around the crust to everyone else. Before long, the slaves started to make a second pot of rice.
Eva, Ash and Meg , in fact, had been standing by the hut door, watching the slaves. The moment they saw the slaves making rice for the second time, Ash immediately went out to them and said to the slaves. "I think that you will need another pot for soup. Although eating rice is good and well, some soup would be good too. You can't just survive on rice, you're going to need some vegetables."
Hearing what Ash said, the slaves knew that he had been watching them, and they couldn't help but feel a little embarrassed. But still, they moved according to what Ash told them. They were very grateful to him.
A lot of these people were on the verge of crying, because they had never eaten something so delicious.
The slaves weren't stupid. Almost all of these people knew how to cook. Previously, the slave owners would casually pick two people to make food for the rest of the slaves. So they weren't new to cooking.
Plus, making this rice was very simple. The slaves soon had another pot of rice going, and then covered it with the copper basin that Ash had given them as a lid.
But the slaves didn't know how to make soup. The slave owners would only allow them to eat something like rice bran, and even moldy rice. Precisely because of this, everyday in the Continent there would be a lot of slaves that died. But for slave owners, they wouldn't care about those deaths, because they could just go out and buy more slaves.
Ash gave Meg a puzzled look. "With this kind of large pot, why should there be so little salt? I was just thinking how much our Anderson clan was so weak that we could only give them simple food to eat. After we have money, we should let them eat meat."
The moment he finished speaking, he felt the eyes of everyone staring at him. He was confused, so he whispered to Meg, "Did I say something wrong?"
Meg looked at Ash. Although the Anderson clan had slaves, before they were exiled by the Empire, Ash had never come into contact with the slaves. Naturally, he didn't know what kind of life they lived. So she whispered to him to explain about the slaves living conditions.
Ash was listening like a new born learning about this world. His ideas about how these people lived were so far away from Meg's. It was like something out of the olden days, like in the White-Haired Girl opera. It was difficult to resonate with because he didn't have the same kind of experiences. How could he understand it when he didn't have any personal experience to compare with.
Everyone waited until Meg finished explaining. Ash then turned and looked at the slaves, his eyes full of sympathy. He sighed and said, "Rest assured, I will do whatever it takes. Sooner or later, I'll let you eat meat everyday. This I swear on the name of the Anderson clan."
Ash was a good person. Even though, in his past life, he was a timid person that didn't have much interpersonal skills, that didn't mean he was sick. He was just an otaku that couldn't understand the darkness of the world, so he chose to shut himself off. He was that kind of person.
But in the Atlanta Continent, Ash's status had changed. He was now a noble with his own territory. He had a hundred slaves whose lives he was responsible for. His words and actions would decide the life and death of these people. All of this gave Ash a sense of responsibility. He believed that it was his duty to give everyone a better life, so he was bent on developing his territory.
The slaves excitedly fell to their knees. Like a sea, they all bowed down as one. "Master rewards us!"
Although they had nothing to give back, this sentence was enough for Ash. The nobles on the Continent had a strange tradition. They do not easily swear. Even under normal circumstances, they would never use their family name to swear. Because swearing would put you under oath before God and on behalf of your family. An oath was a promise that you should never violate.
It was because of this that the slaves believed in Ash's words. They believed that since he said an oath under his family name, that he would one day realize this dream of eating meat everyday.
Meg opened her mouth, but she didn't say anything. For the past few days she had been managing the slaves so, to be honest, she was very sympathetic to them. She didn't object to Ash's words.
Just then, Eva's voice came from a distance. "Master, it's time to eat."
Inside the hut, Eva had already made some pancakes and soup. Ash actually wanted to eat rice, but one look from Eva told him that there was no hope.
The hut only had four chairs, enough for every. Although the table wasn't as big as the one in the castle's dining room, it was still big enough for all of them.
After everyone sat down, Ash pulled out some knives and forks, and began to eat the pancake. In fact, he didn't want to use a knife and fork, but unfortunately, Eva didn't agree.
The pancake didn't really have much flavor, but the taste was okay. Ash slowly ate dinner. After everyone finished and Meirin cleaned things up, all of them went outside. By this time, the slaves had finished eating as well.
The pot was still there, but it had been cleaned out. The slaves seemed very full, and there was even one sitting with a spiritual look.
Ash knew that after eating dinner, people would become sleepy, and these slaves were the same. He didn't make them get up and allowed them to lay on the ground.
Looking at the garbage, Ash didn't want the space to be dirty, but these things could be left for later. He then looked up at the sky, and although it was a little hazy, fortunately he didn't see any black smoke floating up there. Even though they had lit a fire, it was a good thing that the space wasn't small.
Ash then turned to Eva and said, "Grandma Eva, let them rest. They just had dinner, so they're sleepy. Let them have a break."
Eva eyed the slaves and only nodded her head. "Well, then we should take a break too."
Ash led the four back into the hut. He then sat on the bed and opened up the screen. Once he touched it with his hand, the screen lit up, and the icons appeared.
Everyone was surprised when they saw the screen. It was truly remarkable.
Ash pressed the camera icon, and a three-dimensional view of the castle appeared. There were a lot of little green dots.
Pressing one of the green dots immediately switched the screen to show the castle square.
The screen could only display a radius of one hundred meters from the spot where Ash entered the space, and although that range wasn't small, it was still too far away to show the entire castle square. The square that the screen displayed wasn't very big, only showing the inner courtyard, the part closest to the castle. Even so, they could still clearly see a snake-like spirit beast and an undead humanoid on the screen.
Everyone was paying attention to the situation on the screen, and from what they could see, they couldn't help but freeze for a moment.
After awhile, Eva said, "Is this the castle square?"
Zhao nodded. "Yes, this is the square. It seems that the spirit beasts are not gone yet, so we can't go out."
Even after hearing that, Eva was excited. "But this is a good thing. With this, Master, you can be safe. You don't need to be afraid of the enemy."
Ash gave a wry smile. No matter what, Eva's first thoughts were always the issues concerning his safety.
After looking through a radius of one hundred meters, Ash returned the screen back to the three-dimensional map, then he turned to Eva and said, "Grandma Meirin, the situation outside is dire. We'll have to rest in the space for a few days. Right now all you can do is teach everyone how to read and write."
Eva nodded. "Master need not worry, I know how to do this."
Since that was settled, Ash continued, "Grandma Eva, tomorrow morning, tell everyone to clean up the garbage and pile all of it into one place. So when we leave this space, I could just take out all the garbage in the same process.
"Yes, Master. I'll take care of it."
"And Grandma Eav," Ash said after looking around at all the furnishings, "if I organize this room a little, I think I can fit in another bed, then you won't have to sleep outside."
Eva shook her head. "No, Master. Resting outside is fine."
Ash saw that Eva absolutely wouldn't budge on this issue, but a part of him already knew that it was impossible for Eva to rest inside this room, so he said, "Then at least let me get some beds from the barn and put them outside. Yes, I'll move them next to the hut so you and the others can sleep close by."
Eva had no objections this time. She felt that it was nice to sleep in the open air. But do not forget that this was a closed space. Being crowded around a hundred slaves makes it hard to sleep.
Ash decided that he was going to take out some wood and make two separate rooms on the side of the hut. Although he couldn't make a roof, he could at least make it so that people wouldn't be able to look inside.
After everything was finished, Ash taught the slaves to read for awhile, then they made arrangments to go to sleep.
The temperature in the space was very appropriate. Not too cold, not too hot. Spreading out the blankets, the slaves got a good night's sleep.
At midnight, a tone chimed, waking Ash up. The radish and wheat have matured, and he had to harvest them.