Chapter 124 - Reconstruction Plan
"Look! The Queen is here! The Queen is finally here to see us!"
The commoners exclaimed the moment they spotted their Queen appearing atop the palace walls and peering down at her subjects.
At this moment, outside the palace gates, both commoners and nobles have filled the streets. The only gap that could be seen, formed a line that separated between the two.
When the Queen appeared, the commoners wanted to move closer to catch a better glimpse of her appearance.
"Don't touch me, commoner!" An Earl backhanded the commoner that accidentally stained his clothes with their dirty hands.
The slap was powerful, and the commoner immediately spat blood with broken teeth sent flying. The Earl was immediately displeased for dirtying his own hands. He took out a white cloth to clean it before looking at the commoner coldly.
"Mercy, my lord! I was pushed!" The commoner cried.
Similar situation happened along the dividing line when the commoners behind pushed them forward into the nobles.
The crowd became rowdy with the sudden rise of disputes. None of the nobles thought they were heavy handed for punishing the commoners.
They even prepared to lash out more vicious blows to make the commoners understand their place.
However, when the Earl raised his foot to kick, he realized the surrounding had become silent.
Elizabeth with one hand raised, was all that was required of her to command silence from the crowd.
The nobles placed aside their displeasure to hear what the Queen had to say, while the commoners could only swallow their grievance silently with clenched fist. If they had strength, they would teach these haughty nobles what it means to be human.
The commoners were like helpless lambs without direction and purpose when they lost everything. They were satisfied if they have a place to sleep and food to eat with their remaining family.
Humans were curious creature, whom like to make sense of the unknown. The commoners naturally also would like to learn the matters of the crawlers and the underground, but their inquisitiveness wasn't as strong as the nobles.
They hoped that the reclusive Queen would step out of palace to relieve the worries and here, she was, standing before them.
All eyes trained on Elizabeth as she made a sweeping glance through the citizens and saw through their myriad of emotions; anticipation, confusion, doubts, fear, anxiety, grievance and sadness.
"Citizens of Crawford, you have suffered. My condolences to you and your families. The calamity that struck our kingdom was not one that this Queen had hoped for. The royal family will see to it that you will have a place to sleep and food to eat until your homes are rebuilt. The palace guards will lead you to where the camp will be set."
Elizabeth spoke with a clear but powerful enough voice that reached all the people's ears.
"Now you might be wondering what the creatures that have attacked our Capital are. These are insects called spiders. Like the animals from before the Cataclysm, they have mutated and evolved into terrifying monsters compared to their ancestry."
"The Human Domain was never a completely safe haven for humans with all these insects roaming under us. It never was and never will be… unless! These creatures are completely eradicated!"
"The royal family had always been secretly fighting these creatures to keep the lands safel. However! Due to the vicious plot of the Four Great Family, they have unleashed these fiends upon our lands. They are sinners of humanity and have paid the ultimate price for their crimes."
"While there were losses, there are also gains. We have finally emerged victorious against these vile creatures and completely eradicated them! Let us strive forward to become stronger, such that a tragedy like this will never repeat itself again. Towards that end, the royal family will be teach everyone how to become strong!"
The crowd felt their blood boiled and cheered. They were especially excited with lit eyes at the opportunity to cultivate. Under the Queen's eloquence, their spirits were ignited with the hopes of striving for a better future, albeit with many details left out.
In a few words, Elizabeth had completely shoved the blame on the Four Great Family and did not mention the other kingdom's role in their calamity. Their kingdom wasn't ready to be openly hostile with the other kingdoms without fully grasping the situation.
The crawlers were also eradicated, but only from the first underground floor. The underground world runs deeper than they think, and they were stronger and more terrifying creatures lurking deeper in the darkness. This was certainly true, otherwise the Hero King and Old king would not have gone missing after venturing deep inside with their Transcendent Realm cultivation.
However, the commoners did not need to know this yet. they were simple people and easily influenced by Queen's words without further thoughts. Only the nobles were skeptical.
From the Queen's words, the benefits only targeted the commoners. There weren't many benefits for the nobles apart from the free cultivation technique the Queen had promised. But for a cultivation technique to be widespread, it can't be a high level one.
In fact, the nobles have guessed correctly. After Leon consulted with his mother, what they would spread is not a cultivation technique for awakeners but divine practitioners. It was a basic Tempered Body-level breathing technique that didn't take long for Leon to write down on paper.
With the scarcity of spirit energy, the commoners would not be able to achieve a high level. However, it would be no problem to reach the first layer after a week's worth of cultivating, and the third layer after three months.
To progress further or faster, they would have to rely on spirit-rich resources. This was Leon's and the Queen's intention. The introduction of cultivation had to be a gradual process. If everyone was able to gain strength quickly, greed and ambition would corrupt their minds and chaos would be ensured.
Thus, it was not possible to teach fifty thousand people awakening cultivation due to its nature. If there was an influx of fifty thousand awakeners that cultivated like hungry wolves without restraint, it would turn the Capital and the surroundings into a wasteland.
When elements lose all its essence, stones would become sand, metal would become metal dust, water would dry, fire would not burn, and trees would die.
But since most would awaken the earth element, it would become a bigger problem than a wasteland. If the foundations of the Capital grow soft, the Capital would sink into the underground world.
After the Queen finished her speech, the nobles and Upper District resumed their normal businesses, and the commoners followed the guards to a grassy plain on the outskirts of the Capital to pitch up tents and campfires.
When the commoners were finally able to relax after the long night and day, the felt extremely famished. The commoners were fed with beast meat stew for their meal as it was simplest meal to cook in large amounts.
Moving onto the reconstruction plan, Leon shared his own ideas with his mother. The outer walls were gone and apart from the exposed rift in the east side, the sealed rift in the other three directions were like covering up a deep ditch with a thin wooden plank.
Leon proposed to remove them and reopen the rifts and transform them into entrances to the underground, while metal bridges will be built over the rift to connect the Capital and the outside. The first floor was rich in minerals. He wanted to establish a giant mine and settlement, maybe even turning it into an underground district in the future.
In any case, the commoners were jobless, and the mines would provide a lot of work opportunities for the commoners. In addition to hiring miners, they would hire construction workers and other related labor force to rebuild Lower District.
The hired workers would be moved to a separate camp and be provided with better treatment of three meals a day. It was much better than the minimum one meal a day that would be provided in the temporary camp.
But to some commoners, one meal a day was already really good as they were used to going on some days without food because they couldn't earn enough to put the bread on the table. Nevertheless, most commoners were eager to sign up when the recruitment notice came about.
These people were also given the opportunity to be the first batch of commoners to learn cultivation. A stronger body would provide for higher work efficiency and faster progress.
The Queen was happy to see these changes and implement them. It had nothing to do with favoring the idea simply because it came from her son. She genuinely thought they were great ideas after she decided to move forward with the kingdom and forgo the Crawford teachings.
However, good plans don't mean anything without good execution and management. For the construction plan, Leon recommended the Cromwell family to take charge of the matter. Elizabeth naturally agreed as construction was the Cromwell's area of expertise.
Seeing that everything was heading in the right direction, Leon thought it was finally time to fetch his lovers and bring them to meet his mother.. He was starting to miss Lynne after not seeing her for so long and he couldn't allow Aria and her family to stay within the temporary camp.