An entourage of knights followed closely behind Kent. After Kent inspected the conditions of where the new classes would be held, Kent decided that he would also spend a bit of time inspecting the western region of Hestanar.
The West Side of the city was known to be richer than their Eastern counterpart. This was due to how cities were formed. All cities sprang up smaller settlements. Towns were formed when villages expanded to a population above 1,000. Towns were also made along popular trade routes or any rare resources to facilitate trade.
Due to this organic growth process, cities often have these 'rings' of districts. The Old District was the remanent of the past village buildings. The Northquater and Westway Districts were added later when the Old District was too small to fit its growing population.
Thus, there was this imparity with the living conditions felt between the citizens that lived in the separate zones.
Kent was roaming about the narrow alleyways in the Westway region. It was weird for Kent, but it was the first time the young lord has ventured to the commerical hub of Hestanar. Compared to the Red District, which Kent inherited plenty of memories of, Westway was still quite foreign to him.
Poor city planning, improper construction techniques and antique public infrastructure had been long left uncared for. Mud laid streets decorated with countless weeds and such from the side of the road. Large, disjointed housing structures also threaten to snap under any heavy force. Kent noticed this reoccurring pattern throughout his investigation.
But whilst Kent was observing the Westway District, the knights failed to notice the anomaly in their surroundings.
Hidden away between the shadows of alleyways, there hid a pair of glistening eyes, hawking the group's every movement.
Kent was being followed.
However, the knights failed to notice the follower's presence.
There were several close calls, but whenever the knights found something suspicious, the shadowy figure always hid well to avoid the knight's attention.
Sometimes, the shadow hid behind the poorly constructed housing walls, other times the shadow hid on the rooftops, jumping across building to building to closely follow Kent's movement. The knights never saw it coming.
The assailant had been following the group ever since they entered the southern region.
The wealthy Kent (compared to the citizens) wore extravagant clothing that made him stick like a sore thumb. When compared to everyone else that wore simple clothes and were lucky to have more than one layer of the garment.
Kent wore such an attention-grabbing outfit that screamed from head to toe: 'I'm rich, please rob me!'
How could the passersby not get jealous of his wealth?
It was a rare occasion for a wealthy person to walk through the city with only a light amount of protection. Normally, all people of such high status would avoid travelling to places avidly. The dirt and smudge that were outside the confines of their estates often made the wealthy too disgusted to venture away from their housing.
More importantly, Kent was only accompanied by 4 knights, with Kent, the main protagonist, escorted in a diamond formation: 1 at the front, 2 at both sides, and 1 to cover his flank.
How could the assailant miss out on such an excellent opportunity?
Normally, big shots like Kent would take at least dozens of guards to act as their escort. If not for Kent's low number of protectors, the assailant wouldn't think of doing anything to him.
If the assailant could get their hands on a single piece of Kent's clothing, that would feed them for at least a month. If they could get their hands on Kent's entire outfit, that would be enough to cover half a year of basic living expenses for ordinary peasants.
The assailant was certain, Kent would be their next target.
And they would get their hands on those goodies, one way or another.
There was no other choice…
.
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'The conditions throughout the city is far worse than I could imagine. Improving the city's fundamental construction and architectural style should be prioritised.' Kent thought in his mind.
As the city lord advanced through the narrow alleyways, observing his surroundings in an ordinate manner. He was busy taking notes in his mind to find areas where he must prioritise on his to-do list. This list included inventions/technology he wished to bring to this world.
Currently, two things were already wiped off from the very top of the list:
· Establishing a new educational system,
· Introduce modern-day military training.
Right now, what Kent most worried about was the hygiene and sanitation in his city. Specifically, the treatment of human and animal waste.
Kent knew very well in history, there were numerous cases of epidemics caused by a lack of hygienic routine that caused numerous deaths in medieval times. The worst of such diseases was of course the Black Death, which began ravaging Norway in 1349, and struck again in later outbreaks up until the 1600s.
Hundreds of million people died fighting this plague but in the end. None of the people that got the plague survived, with most of those infected destined for doom.
However, Kent knew that the Black Death was a plague primarily driven by the transmission of infected fleas bites to humans. If the past medieval city had better sanitation, the Black Death could have never been as deadly as it was.
Better hygiene and sanitation were detrimental in preventing any plague symptoms from spreading in his city. But not only would leave infections hard to transfer to other humans, but it would also reduce medical costs overall, fewer days lost at work illness, and promote a better quality of life.
So far, Kent has an idea to tackle this issue.
He wants to introduce a law that makes people have mandatory cleaning obligations. Following his predecessor's method, every citizen must ensure the cleanliness of the street in front of their residence. This would make sure the citizen do not just dump their load on the street whenever they felt like it.
This law was enacted in 14th century England so Kent was certain this policy would also work charmingly in Hestanar.
Fines would be also handed out be handed out to people who didn't follow the new law. It would also be illegal to pollute rivers or ditches, and corresponding fines would be handed out on the severity of the violator's action.
Kent also wanted to direct the money made with these fines to fund a new job: street-sweepers. These street-sweepers would be tasked to collect garbage on a regular schedule and haul the garbage to somewhere outside of Hestanar.
As for the human waste that the street-sweepers would collect, he wanted them to gather it and store them for the Upper Plain's usage. It would serve as manure for the farms. He couldn't be wasteful of natural materials like these.