Work Prophet
Chapter 84 - 45 Conditions

Chapter 84: Chapter 45 Conditions

After securing Ireya’s promise, Li Yu discussed some of the details further with her.

Having reached a consensus, Li Yu quickly left the castle and returned to the midst of the lizard people.

Although he had been gone for less than an hour, the lizard people outside the city had been eagerly awaiting his return. When they saw him come out, they buzzed around him, all with eager eyes fixed on him.

Seeing this, Li Yu didn’t beat around the bush and said directly, "From today on, you are subjects of the Arias family. Ireya has allocated two pieces of land near the swamp to the church and has allowed the followers to settle there on Saturdays."

Upon hearing this, excitement showed on the faces of the lizard people.

Of course, they weren’t living in the swamp because they liked it. According to Onund, it was unknown where the first group of people who entered Great Swamp and decided to live there came from.

Some said they were farmers who couldn’t bear the heavy taxation by the lords, others said they were cornered bandits, and there were those who said they were nobles pursued by their enemies...

In short, no matter their former status, they all had one thing in common: they couldn’t survive outside the swamp and had to venture into it seeking a way to live.

However, the cost of this path to survival was steep. Most of the first group who entered soon died, and for the small remainder, the nightmare had just begun.

"This swamp is full of malice towards outsiders, with poisonous insects and animals everywhere, a severe shortage of food, clean water, and other essential survival tools, and various invisible and intangible diseases called curses by the lizard people—let alone the dangerous predators.

Under such harsh conditions, it was only logical that they would worship Sosokus, who could not be killed."

Even though subsequent generations managed to make the place slightly more comfortable, living there surely wasn’t as good as on the land outside.

Some of the younger lizard people had started to imitate the way Li Yu pronounced his words, chanting "Saturday, Saturday." Now, they were thoroughly convinced that this man who claimed to be the Prophet was indeed Saturday, or rather, that Sosokus had sent him to save them.

But Onund remained calm in all this.

When the noise had died down a bit, Onund asked, "What are the terms? How much tax do we have to pay to that Rabbitman every year? Are our warriors to be driven by her to fight to the death against her enemies? What about the women and children—are they all to become her slaves?"

Li Yu looked at Onund again and realized that this large and strong lizard person had a prudence and attention to detail that didn’t match his appearance, no wonder he was chosen as their leader.

"Ireya is your lord, and she has her own name. From now on, don’t call her ’that rabbit person’ anymore. You have a place to settle because Saturday sent me to save you, and also because of her tolerance and mercy.

"Just a short while ago you killed many of her subjects and warriors, and for her to let go of the hatred and accept you, you should at least give her some respect."

Li Yu paused and then continued, "Of course, there are conditions. Firstly, and most fundamentally, from now on, you will have to feed yourselves with your own hands. You can’t harm other people on the territory anymore."

"What about the people outside the territory?" a lizard person asked the burning question.

"..."

"Not even those outside Ireya’s territory," Li Yu said. "All the lands in the west have their owners. If you go out and plunder others, their lords will come to Ireya to question her, and it might even lead to war. Don’t trouble her."

"What if someone else comes to provoke us?" another lizard person asked.

"Detain them and wait for me to deal with it," Li Yu said succinctly. "For now, that’s how it will be. Later, I will establish a Judgement Court to handle these matters specifically."

"Just remember this principle: if someone is polite to you, you should be polite back. If they are not polite to you, reason with them first. If they refuse to listen and start a fight, detain them. Ensure your own safety and try not to kill anyone."

Since they lived within the Red Lion Empire’s borders, they must, of course, abide by the Empire’s laws.

However, the "Imperial Code" was so thick that Li Yu hadn’t yet had time to read it, let alone show it to these lizard people. Fortunately, for now, Li Yu did not intend to let the lizard people have too much interaction with the outside world.

According to his agreement with Ireya, these lizard people could not leave the Church’s territory, and the nearby populace generally feared and hated the lizard people. For no good reason would they approach this group of plague bearers.

Miss Rabbit’s territory was very poor, with nothing more than carrots and some other subsistence crops, so few outsiders would make their way there without reason.

Li Yu could well begin by spreading the commandments before implementing the law.

After looking around and seeing that no one else had questions, Li Yu continued, "As for taxes, since this land belongs to the Church, Miss Ireya will hardly impose agricultural taxes here, nor will she assign corvée labor. However, in return, when she faces difficulty, you must answer her call to arms and fight for the Arias family."

The faces of the lizard people showed surprise; they seemingly did not expect that the Rabbitman lord would be so generous.

But this was actually an unwritten rule of the Red Lion Empire; the Nobles who granted lands would not tax the commoners living on those lands, effectively handing over the management rights to the lesser lords in exchange for their loyalty.

Whether the lesser lords profited or lost was of no concern to them, but when war came, the lesser lords were required to provide their own weapons and provisions, leading their own troops.

The Arias family was no different; their ancestors had pledged loyalty to the Figrola family, and in exchange, they received Green Field.

Of course, the greater lords would later collect some taxes from the lesser lords under various pretenses.

Some particularly cash-strapped lords might concoct all sorts of strange reasons to fleece their lesser lords, even to the point of bankruptcy, but such actions would naturally ruin their reputation, and severe cases might even incite rebellion.

Unless absolutely necessary, families would generally not resort to this.

After discussing taxes and military service, Li Yu’s voice grew somber, "Furthermore, the Arias family insists that you hand over the murderer who killed the Trinidad Knight and his family."

Li Yu had thought this last demand would be the most difficult, but to his surprise, the lizard people accepted it quite readily, with three individuals standing up voluntarily.

Though their expressions carried a trace of reluctance, there was no struggle.

This in turn made Li Yu feel even more conflicted, as he realized this was the group consciousness formed by the lizard people after living in extremely harsh conditions for so long.

For the survival of the tribe, any individual could be sacrificed.