Things about the female knight in black stockings

Three sweet and beautiful nuns sat in the rescue site and dozed out of boredom, surrounded by large amounts of fresh wheat flour bread, fried chicken nuggets and vegetable-wrapped steaks, as well as boxes and boxes of clean new clothes that no one had ever worn.

These are relief supplies that you can receive free of charge as long as you admit that you are poor and pray for a moment in front of the nuns and sisters to prove your faith.

On the inner streets of the slum not far from the Sun Church rescue site, a group of people could be clearly seen gathering.

This group of people were all dressed in rags, some of them could even be described as half-clothed, and their bodies were also very thin. At first glance, they looked like they had not had enough to eat for a long time.

Their eyes were full of longing as they looked at the food and clothes at the Sun Church's rescue site, but no one came forward to receive them. They would rather nibble on the hard bread in their hands.

This is so strange.

"What's going on with those people? Why don't they accept help from the church?"

Tia was so surprised that she couldn't help shouting, but then she seemed to think of something again immediately, and her expression became even more unbelievable:

"Wait a minute... The condition for accepting church assistance is to abide by the law and have faith in the goddess. Are the people in this slum all criminals or cultists?"

"Of course not."

Ilana looked at this slum with complicated eyes. After all, she had lived in France for decades before. When she first came to America, she was surprised to see the slums in various big cities.

Even though she already knew the reason, Ilana's tone was still a little weird when she explained it to Valencia and Tia:

"Of course there are fugitives and cultists living in the slums, but they are only a very small number...The remaining poor people voluntarily refuse to accept church assistance because of a decree of the Chamber of Commerce."

"The decree of the Chamber of Commerce?"

Valencia frowned.

America's full name is America Business Federation, and its legislative and executive body is referred to as the Business Federation. It is the official government of America.

It is not a feudal monarchy, but it is not as advanced as capitalism. It is a special political system between the two, and its reputation among the people has always been good.

"Well, the decree of the Chamber of Commerce."

Ilana shrugged:

"That law stipulates that all Americans who have received free assistance from the Church of the Sun will be subject to certain restrictions on consumption... For example, they cannot enter high-end restaurants, purchase high-end clothes, purchase alcohol, or enter custom shops or provide services. Places like taverns with custom service.”

I understand, it’s just about limiting high consumption.

Valencia nodded thoughtfully and asked:

"Then the people in the slums are unwilling to receive assistance from the Sun Church because they dream that one day they can become prosperous and live a prosperous life?"

"Is such that."

Ilana expressed her affirmation and spread her hands playfully:

"So the people you see in the slums are not lawbreakers or cultists, but mostly law-abiding and inspirational people."

"So that's how it is..."

Valencia pondered for a while and guessed:

"The Business Federation has no reason to go against the Sun Church, and they don't dare to, but they still enacted this very strange law. There is only one possibility... They are doing it to protect their own interests.

Considering that the business associations are controlled by some big chambers of commerce and big families...could it be that the church's free aid has affected their business? "

"more or less."

Ilana shrugged again:

"The most important needs of an ordinary person in their life are nothing more than food, clothing and housing... If everyone can easily get these for free, what should those in the catering industry, clothing industry and real estate business do? We can't completely control America. Businessmen should all go into the entertainment industry and open casinos and custom shops, right?"

Chapter 42 Self-rescue of the catering industry and clothing industry

The problems Ilana mentioned actually exist in France as well.

Since the Church of the Sun distributes basic daily necessities free of charge and in unlimited quantities, businesses such as food, clothing, and housing are indeed much more difficult to do than in Valencia's previous life. After all, the demand is smaller.

So how does Flange solve this problem?

France is a feudal kingdom. It will not directly issue decrees to ensure the interests of merchants like America. It can only carry out macro-control through some guidance.

In the catering industry, it is a food culture led by the Food Association.

The free food at the Sun Church is very good, although it is large and sufficient. The fresh and soft wheat bread and various animal meats, poultry and fish are definitely not unpalatable, but like the big pot rice in the cafeteria, the taste is always the same. You can eat it every day, morning and evening. Tired of eating.

In addition, France is very rich in food resources and has a variety of delicacies. Most people are still very willing to spend money to improve their food life. Except for people with really difficult economic conditions, almost only French people with stable incomes I would only eat relief meals two days before my salary was paid every month.

This is also the reason why the Chinese cuisine in Valencia can quickly become popular among the public... The price is cheaper than mid-to-high-end cuisine, but the taste is better than ordinary popular cuisine. It can be said that it is the first choice for ordinary migrant workers to spend money to satisfy their cravings.

To put it simply, the way for the French catering industry to save itself is to improve quality... As long as all kinds of delicious folk snacks bloom, people will still be willing to spend money to enjoy the food instead of going to the Sun Church to receive relief meals every day.

In the clothing industry, businessmen in France have almost completely given up on the low-end market. They rely on two words to make money: trend and boutique.

To put it simply, if you just want to keep warm and cover up your shame in Flan, it’s very simple, just wear the clothes distributed for free by the Sun Church.

But if you want to dress with charm, style, and handsomeness, and wear something that attracts the attention of the opposite sex or the same sex, you have to be willing to spend money.

For example, when Valencia was an adventurer in Serkin Town, she had high-quality tasks that Melina gave her priority. Her income was already pretty good among adventurers, but why was she still so poor?

Apart from spending money at the Dimension Hardware Store, the biggest reason is that the clothes are expensive... After all, Valencia is a noble lady. Even if she is down and out, she can't dress like a civilian girl, right?

Even the black stockings, which are like consumables, are discounted for close to one gold coin each, which is about 300 yuan when converted into the currency of Valencia's previous life. This is just entry-level high-quality black stockings.

For famous works like Ms. Dana, a pair of pantyhose usually costs about 50 gold coins, and a set of underwear costs more than 200 gold coins.

It can be said that France's clothes with high-quality or trendy titles are all luxury goods.The main customers of the flange clothing industry are people with middle income and above, and most of them are aristocrats.

By taking this high-end route, Flan's clothing industry has successfully saved itself.

But the real estate industry cannot do that... Strictly speaking, there is no concept of real estate industry in Flan. Most villas and residences are sold in shopping malls. Residences in Flan can only be regarded as one of the many commodities in the retail industry. kind of.

Because the cost of construction in this world is so low, experienced earth magic architects can build a building in a few days with almost no building material costs, and they only need to pay people a salary.

Of course, the price of goods is determined not only by cost, but also by demand, supply and demand, etc. However, the real estate industry also has no advantages in this regard.

The population density of most cities in France is less than one-tenth or even one-twentieth of the big cities in Valencia's previous life. There is simply not that much demand for housing. How can housing prices be so high?

That is to say, the housing prices in the royal capital are more expensive, and it feels a bit like the big city in Valencia's previous life... So when Valencia saw Frigia's spell to create rooms in the shadow, she used this technology. The plan is to make a fortune from real estate in the royal capital.

However, after learning more about the relevant technologies, Valencia had already given up on that plan... Residential space expansion technology is still too difficult and costly for today's humans.

All in all, although Flan's real estate industry was also sunk by the Sun Church's nearly on-demand rescue measures, Flan's catering industry and clothing industry were both successful in self-rescue.

As for America... In the clothing industry, you may be able to learn from Flan's method to save yourself, but there is absolutely no way in the catering industry.

Because America's food resources are far less abundant than those of France, its food self-sufficiency rate is only 70%, and the variety is quite poor, so there is no way to develop a food culture.

There are indeed a lot of ingredients sent from France to America through maritime trade, but in pursuit of profit, merchants bring almost all mid- to high-end ingredients, which are simply not affordable for ordinary people.

Although America is extremely rich in mineral resources and has a very high production of magic crystals, the shops in the streets and alleys are filled with all kinds of fun magic props.

However, people always have to eat well before they can pursue other aspects of enjoyment.

This makes it difficult for America's popular catering industry to survive, and even requires the Chamber of Commerce to issue a decree to force people to spend money to buy food, instead of just living on the free food provided by the Church of the Sun.

From the perspective of commercial interests first, Valencia can barely understand this decree, but it is still a bit unacceptable.

Seemingly reading Valencia's thoughts from Valencia's expression, Ilana smiled:

"Although these are the main reasons, what really made the Chamber of Commerce decide to issue the decree was the famous incident in America's history... Our Sun Church actually has it in the database, but it's just the history of France. The class is rarely covered.”

"What happened?"

Valencia asked quickly, and Tia blinked her crimson eyes curiously.

"That was...well, probably almost a thousand years ago. As you all know, when the Church of the Sun came to the continent of Frenoa, it was Fran that first logged in, and later it spread to America, so at that time America’s perception of the Sun Church’s strength is not accurate.”

Ilana smiled:

"To put it simply, the big businessmen at that time joined forces one year to increase food prices through various means such as monopoly and hoarding, hoping to suck a sip of wealth from ordinary people.

The result... was naturally destroyed by the free and unlimited relief meals provided by our Church of the Sun to the people. The food stored by many big merchants ended up rotting in the warehouses, and they lost all their money.

It was that incident that made the people of America fully realize the grace of the goddess, and also allowed the light of faith to truly illuminate every corner of America. "

Chapter 43 The bigger the city, the bigger the slums

"You actually have to deliberately hoard goods and raise prices for the food that people rely on for survival? The conscience of those businessmen is really being eaten by pigs... They deserve to be killed by the church and bankrupted, huh!"

Valencia curled her lips and snorted, then asked again:

"So it was after that incident that the Federation of Commerce issued a decree that anyone who has received church assistance cannot enjoy high consumption?"

"Enjoying high consumption? Well, this word is quite suitable... Little Shasha, you can still say some interesting new words from time to time."

Ilana smiled and hugged Valencia again, gave her facial cleanser, and then shook her head gently:

"Of course it won't be that simple... The merchant association at the beginning was completely frightened by the Church of the Sun's free and unlimited distribution of food. They seemed to think that their business system would be shaken or even destroyed by the Church of the Sun, so they The initial choice was war... They actually wanted to use violent expulsion to drive the Church of the Sun out of America."

"Someone really dares to declare war on the Church of the Sun?"

Valencia was stunned. Having grown up in France, she could not imagine how courageous or ignorant people must be to openly declare war on the Church of the Sun.

There is no need to ask about the outcome of this battle... In the current universe, there is no existence that is the opponent of the Sun Goddess, and there is no existence that can bully her believers.

"So."

Ilana shrugged again:

"After seeing what God's grace is like, the Americans have seen what God's power is like. Although our Church of the Sun has a rule not to interfere in the country's internal affairs, we will fight back if war is declared.

It was a meaningless one-sided crushing battle... However, our church did not kill all the merchant associations, but only made a few of the most greedy and powerful families disappear.

It is said that the Sun Goddess even personally performed a miracle and created a miraculous golden sun tree in Alant, and ordered all the family members to be hung on the tree like fruits for more than half a year.

In the end, many believers said in their prayers that the corpses on the tree always frightened children into crying, so the goddess took back the wonder and burned all the corpses with the power of the sun's flames.

Since then, the Business Alliance has become extremely well-behaved and very cooperative with any request from our church.

But they have not given up... Although they dare not go against our church anymore, they have been trying various methods to save the catering and clothing industries.

After successive generations of continuous optimization, the current law came into being... Any American who has received assistance from the church will no longer be able to enjoy the high consumption in the future.

If there is only this law, it may not be very effective, but there are also various promotional entertainments intentionally guided by the business federation.

For example, there are various stories in the streets and all kinds of popular novels among the people. Many of them are legendary stories about starting from scratch and eventually acquiring astonishing wealth... Well, just like the kind of killing powerful monsters and wild beasts that are popular in France. It’s similar to a knight novel in which a commander marries a noble lady.

With these desirable stories, if the Business Federation truly promotes a few characters whose life experiences are like the protagonists in the novel, and continues to publicize their legendary successful experiences, many young people will naturally want to imitate them.

As a result, many young people have left the countryside and small cities to start businesses or look for opportunities in big cities like Arante or Gondia, dreaming of becoming famous and rich overnight.

But it’s not so easy to successfully replicate a legendary experience... There are people who have become famous, but more people still fail to start their own businesses and are penniless or even in debt.

Some of the losers were disheartened and chose to go back to their hometowns and live on the church's relief, but more losers would not give in. They chose to sign up for a group to stay warm and wait for the opportunity. Over time, slums in big cities emerged.

That's right, there are no slums like this in the countryside or small cities. They can only be found in big cities like Gondia and Arante...and the bigger the city, the larger the scale of the slums.

Moreover, the people living in these slums are not the kind of uneducated and lazy people. On the contrary, many people are quite capable, but they are reduced to this due to bad luck or being tricked.

so……"

When Ilana said this, she hesitated for a moment before continuing:

"If you need to hire help for something, maybe you can try going to the slums. People with vision and luck can find treasures there, and the price is much cheaper than the formal employment platform... It's not just the slums. The fees are low, and more importantly, there are no handling fees.

Of course, for some unimportant things you can go to the slums and try your luck. For really important things you can ask your brothers and sisters in the church for help. "

"Are the slums here mostly filled with talented but unlucky people..."

Valencia pondered thoughtfully for a moment, and suddenly her eyes lit up:

"Then can I issue a commission in the slums just like I issue a commission in the Adventurer's Guild? How to do it?"

"of course."

Ilana smiled and nodded, a little curious:

"Little Sasha, do you want to issue commissions in the slums?"

"um, yes."

Valencia chuckled and said:

"I have been looking for a special ore, and I have issued a commission in France. There is no need to bother the brothers and sisters in the church with this kind of thing. Maybe we can give those who have failed in entrepreneurship a chance?"

"Little Sasha, you want to find some kind of ore? Then coming to America is definitely the right choice for you!"

Ilana said without hesitation:

"Just like no one knows the ingredients better than the hunters and chefs in France, no one knows the minerals better than the Americans! There are really few ingredients here, but there are also really many minerals... As long as little Shasha The ore you are looking for does exist in this world, America must have it!"