When the Saint comes, she does not collect food

Chapter 602: This village head is called Henderson

"More, more." Adrian poured the wine into his mouth wildly and pulled Bryson's sleeve, "You're drunk after just a few drinks?"

Bryson sat at the long table, helplessly and cautiously dealing with the knight: "Sir Knight, you are drunk."

"Nonsense, let me see, let me see if you are drunk?" Adrian pressed half of his body on Bryson's shoulders, making him breathless.

Ansel had been looking out the window frequently and impatiently. He thought he was just going to have a simple meal, but he didn't expect that he hadn't finished it in two hours.

At this moment, seeing Adrian finally fall drunk in Bryson's arms, Ansel finally breathed a sigh of relief.

While he asked the butler to carry away the overly enthusiastic knight who had not seen a stranger for a long time, he walked to the window of the restaurant to get some fresh air.

The sun burned the earth, and the hot air evaporated the fragrance of marigolds under the window lattice.

Ansel looked into the distance and saw groups of cold trees, like a gray city wall made of iron.

It was a cold winter in the forest, but a hot summer in the manor.

The estate is a vast expanse of land situated between a wall of woodland and low hills.

It is surrounded by a rough wooden fence, and occasionally you can see a vine fence that is leaning due to disrepair.

The land within the fence was divided into several plots by shrubs bearing small crimson berries. About three-quarters of it was farmland, and the rest was pasture.

A narrow irrigation ditch meanders beside the farmland and ends at a small pond with thick green duckweed floating on it.

Through a stone-paved path, in the shade of several old elm trees, is the knight's main house where Ansel lives. It is built with gray-brown stones and covered with thick sloping wooden boards as the roof.

Under the eaves, Ansel saw several dried wolf skins and dried meat with a strong fishy smell.

Through the gaps between the wolf skins and the dried meat, one could see a group of low wooden huts lying close together, cramped and messy, below the towering mountain walls.

From Ansel's perspective, the thatch on the roof was mostly yellowed, and some of the roofs even had exposed wooden beams.

At noon, the valley was quiet, with chickens and ducks running around all over the ground.

It has to be said that the mountain people's poverty is their own business. No matter how simple the knights' living quarters are, they are still better than those messy wooden houses and huts behind the warehouse.

Looking at the quiet village, Ansel suddenly felt something was wrong. It was already afternoon, didn't the villagers have to come out to work?

"Bryson, take care of the knight and let him sleep first, then come outside to meet me immediately." As if he had thought of something, Ansel suddenly said this impatiently and ran out the door.

When he pushed open the wooden door, the glaring sunlight forced Ansel to block his eyes with his hands.

But he did not slow down. Instead, he jogged around the main house and ran to the back of the warehouse.

As he turned the corner, he suddenly stopped and stood beside the stable with a grim face.

Just behind the stables of the main house, in a scorching knight's parade ground, hundreds of male and female villagers stood in eight rows under the scorching sun.

The sun was shining directly down from overhead, and many people's faces were red. Their clothes were soaked, as if they had just been fished out of the water, and they kept complaining.

Several weak mountain people were staggering, and if it weren't for the people next to them holding them up, they would have almost fallen several times.

The cries of babies could be heard at the back of the team. Women frantically fanned themselves with pieces of cloth, but to no avail.

"Oh, you're here so early." A tired voice sounded, "I thought you were going to be late."

Ansel turned around and saw that it was Henderson, the head of the farm under Adrian and the armed farmer, who was talking.

He was holding a piece of hay in his mouth, hiding under the shade of the only tree next to the clearing with several other armed farmers, and was now looking at Ansel with a smile.

"What's going on?" Ansel suppressed his anger and turned to glare at Zhuangtou.

"Master monk, they are here to listen to your instructions. They are all waiting."

“When did you start waiting?” Ansel asked, his voice a little higher than he realized.

"From the moment you came into the house to eat." The head of the village answered lazily, with the hay swaying up and down in his mouth.

"Who told them to stand?"

The village head deliberately raised his voice: "Didn't you order me to do that? I just followed your instructions. Aren't they very happy?"

Ansel's eyelids trembled as he heard a baby crying.

"Ansel!" Bryson's voice came from behind.

Ansel turned around and saw him rushing over with anxiety on his face.

"Calm down, calm down." Bryson advised in a low voice, "Don't make trouble with the village head. He is Knight Adrian's uncle. Give the Knight some face."

Ansel's eyes swept across the standing villagers. Although it was the first time he saw them, there was already a hint of resentment in their eyes when they looked at him.

It was a bad start. He smoothed his hair on both sides back and whispered, "Wait until the knight sobers up and tell him about this." Bryson nodded hurriedly.

Ansel took a deep breath, turned around and walked towards the small platform at the edge of the open space, but he could feel the burning heat of the ground under his feet.

Before he even stepped to the front of the stage, he could hear the mountain folks below whispering and casting disgusted and malicious looks at him.

"As expected of a monk, you are so arrogant."

"Don't talk, or he'll blow your head off with his devilish wind."

"Oh my, I'm so scared."

From their perspective, it was this monk who had asked them to come to listen to the sermon in advance, but he was late because he was drunk, forcing them to stay out in the sun for nothing.

If it was someone from Pingyuan County, they might have just kept silent, but the mountain people had such a bad temper that it seemed like they were just too drunk to speak.

"My fellow believers," Ansel spoke loudly, suppressing the whispers from the audience. "The weather is too hot. I didn't expect you to be waiting here so early. This is my mistake. I apologize to you all."

After saying this, he bent down and bowed deeply to the standing crowd.

The villagers were silent and did not respond, but many of them looked surprised.

A farmer in a tattered straw hat muttered, "This is the first time a monk has apologized to us."

"Hypocritical!" However, someone still whispered.

Ansel stood up, glanced around, and continued, "I was going to tell all the believers about our Thousand Valley Order, but the weather is too hot. If you can't stand it anymore, go home first. I will visit every household later. If there are still those who are interested, you can stay and listen."

Before he finished speaking, he heard the idle armed peasants in the shade of the trees shouting, "Let's go!"

After saying that, he stood up and ran towards the village.

The crowd immediately became agitated. The women supported the elderly and the young men waved their arms. Within three to five minutes, they were all gone.

Of the only two people left, one had a disabled leg and the other had poor eyesight. They had no time to walk and could only walk slowly towards the village.

Ansel was not angry, but just strode up to the two men.

Seeing Ansel coming over, although they were in a hurry to leave, the monk had already come, so they could only stand there and pray that Ansel would finish the conversation quickly.

"There are only two of you, so there's no need to bother standing here and listening." Ansel looked at them with a smile, "Shall we go talk under the shade of the tree over there?"

…………

The sun sets in the west, and the red light of the setting sun falls into the smoke from the cooking fires.

To everyone's surprise, after the commotion at noon, Ansel did not continue to communicate with the villagers. Instead, he stayed obediently in the village church and did not go out for the entire afternoon.

In a dusty old wooden house at the entrance of the village, the village head Henderson was sitting on a chair, drinking beer lazily.

Seeing an idle man with a thin beard walk into the house, he asked, "What did the lame man and the blind man say? What did they talk about?"

The idle man scratched his head and said, "We didn't say much, just some family matters. We asked where we lived, how old we were, how much the land rent was, and who was rich and poor in our village."

"What about the perpetual lease?" Henderson asked coldly.

"We did, but not much." Another person said, "We explained it in advance, but the villagers are afraid of being implicated in the future counterattack by the Leia people and the church, so they won't listen to them."

Henderson sneered and shook his head. "You still want us to sign a perpetual lease? Dream on!"

"I'm just worried that the township sheriff will ask about it. What should I do?" someone asked worriedly.

"Town sheriff? Why does he have the right?" Henderson sneered even louder. "It's not that I don't want to, it's the villagers who don't want to. Look, who wants to pay attention to him, right?"

After learning the news, Henderson informed the villagers in advance.

Something like "People from the next-door parish signed it, and as a result, all the land became the church's." "If we sign the agreement, Leia will come back and massacre us."

The villagers have been worried during this period, and the excessive exposure to the sun has exacerbated this feeling.

The mountain folks have a small circle and are inherently xenophobic. They don't trust the stranger Ansel at all.

"But this is not a solution. What if he calls the army to monitor our implementation?" Another armed farmer raised his hand and asked.

Henderson sneered, "How can the army have the time? Besides, he is so young and has a bright future. I have the time and means to waste time with him. They have a heavy workload in the Hundred Household District. If they waste so much time, they will be annoyed."

At this point, the village head smiled proudly and said: "If the army really comes, I will just pretend to admit defeat and sign the perpetual lease. Once they leave, I will collect the contracts with me.

When the patrolling monks come, show them the contract, and then put it away when they leave. Even if they find out, without evidence, can they still call the army every time?
The mountain folks are on our side, and there are so many manors in South Mound County. Can the despot control every corner? He couldn't control it before, but he can control it now? That's enough!"

After taking a sip of cold beer, Henderson leaned back in his chair, narrowing his eyes slightly. "Remember to remind me to contact Bryson. I think this priest is a soft-hearted one. If the younger one is gone and the older one is in his place, won't this thing be done?"

(End of this chapter)