Chapter 278: The Tin Knight and The Enchanting Demon (4)
Oliver was a diligent farmer.
More precisely, he was a farmer who couldn’t afford not to be diligent.
Unless one had enough wealth to treat farming as a half-hobby or outsource it to others, a lazy farmer was just right for starving to death.
Work, eat, work, sleep, wake up and work again.
If there was one joy in the grueling daily routine that repeated like a hamster wheel, it was the pleasure of watching his own flesh and blood grow up.
If the lord was the type to squeeze the people dry with harsh tax rates or unpaid overtime, the very existence of children would have felt like a burden, but that wasn’t the case.
The real owner of the territory, Marquis William Hemming, was someone who spent more time in the distant royal court than in the territory, and his representative was a person who held the idea of just doing the bare minimum.
Instead of passionately developing the territory, it was more like “as long as the account book doesn’t go into the red and no accidents happen in the territory, it’s fine,” so there was no reason to implement harsh oppression in normal times, except in emergencies. Such oppression itself would be the cause of accidents.
Therefore, Oliver could love his children with peace of mind.
Until just recently.
“…”
The sickle and plow, which should have been as familiar as extensions of his hands and feet, felt heavy.