Chapter 186 : 186: The Chosen Children
And the surrounding neighbors also cast envious and jealous glances, several of them getting angry and sighing at their own children, wondering why they weren\'t chosen.
After all, if even the nobles attached great importance to this "selection", these commoners were even more so.
It could be considered one of the traditions of the Mage Nation.
Although the magical talent of the commoner children was obviously much lower than that of the nobles before, this was very normal. Except for a very few who truly had innate talent, the proportion of most "white" or "blue" talents was largely determined by acquired nutrition and education.
But even if the proportion was low, the base number of commoner children was far greater than that of nobles. It was not difficult to recruit fifty. Among them, there was room for manipulation.
Now, Reji and Trite were standing at the door of a commoner family. The detection token emitted a white glow on a little girl, indicating that she met the minimum standard to became an "energy".
The parents of this family were also stunned at first, then overjoyed. Even the mother burst into tears of joy. From their appearance, the father, a carpenter, was also extremely excited, his calloused hands trembling non-stop.
But now, the faces of these parents showed a worried expression because Trite told them that although the little girl passed the test, if they wanted her to be selected...
Pay money.
Although the benefits from commoners could not compare to those from nobles, even a mosquito\'s leg was still meat. Taking the opportunity to squeeze some value from these commoners was also one of the components of the "executor\'s" benefits.
This "bribe" money was obviously a huge amount for this already not wealthy family, as could be seen from the carpenter father\'s tightly clenched fists.
And the little daughter of this family also seemed to see her parents\' difficulty. She looked at Trite with some fear and then said softly to her mother, "Mom, I... I don\'t want to go. I want to be with Dad and Mom..."
Unexpectedly, the mother suddenly became extremely flustered. She first hurriedly glanced in Reji\'s direction. Seeing that the Executor seemed not to have heard, she breathed a sigh of relief, then quickly took her daughter to the inner room.
Then...
Slap!
Although the door was closed, Reji could see with a little perception that the mother inside had slapped her daughter, scolding her with an extremely angry expression for having such thoughts.
-"Do you know how rare such an opportunity is?!"-
-"If you dare to say such stupid things again, I\'ll tear your mouth apart!"-
-"When you go to the Upper Senate, you better obey the lords there and study hard. Strive to become a real senator, do you hear me?!"-
Perhaps she was too harsh on her daughter. The mother softened a bit and comforted, -"Nana, be good, don\'t cry, and don\'t blame Mom for being harsh. This opportunity is really once in a thousand years. Nana has such potential. Mommy also hopes that Nana can be better. That way, in the future, we can live in a big house, eat cream bread every day, and have toys.
Nana can buy whatever she wants. So be good and obedient."-
-"Remember, when you go out later, you must never say what you just said in front of the Lord Executor again. Do you hear me?!"-
Afterwards, the mother and daughter came out, and the father had also made a decision.
They were going to sell this house in the city and exchange it for a small wooden house in the suburbs. This way, the money squeezed out could be given to Trite, so that their selected daughter could be taken away by Trite.
As for the little girl who was obviously still aggrieved, had tear stains on her face, and was reluctant to part with her parents, Trite didn\'t care and directly had his followers throw her into the carriage.
It could be seen that in this large carriage, there were already more than a dozen children curled up in a ball. Some of them might be excited or curious, but in fact, the vast majority, after all, were young. Suddenly leaving their parents, most of them, like this Nana, were very unwilling, very scared, very terrified, and full of confusion.
But Trite didn\'t care.
It didn\'t matter if these children were willing or not. As long as their parents paid the money, it was fine. And when it was time to deliver the goods, it was obviously not important whether the goods were willing or not.
Later, Trite even "educated" Reji.
Parents like Nana\'s just now, who sold their houses to send their daughters to them, were not few in number.
When he took office as an executor before and inquired about his peers, he had seen the most desperate parents even go to the black market to find organ traffickers and raise money by cutting flesh and bleeding, just to send their children in.
"If these commoners who are selling everything they have knew that their \'selected\' children are only being used to build a wall, I wonder what their expressions would be. Tsk tsk..."
Trite seemed to be sighing, and also seemed to feel a little pity for them.
However, while sighing, Trite was still secretly glancing at Reji. In fact, he had been secretly observing Reji, this villain who not only robbed him, but also wanted to occupy his official position.
As a result, he found that this villain did not enjoy fame and fortune, and did not seem to be very interested in the money and benefits they had collected. It was as if he was completely detached, giving him a feeling of... a higher-level observer?
Incomprehensible.
In fact, Trite felt that such people were the most terrifying, because you didn\'t know what they really wanted.
But according to common sense, what villains valued most should still be money. Perhaps it was just that the current amount of money had not yet caught the eye of this villain.
Thinking of this, Trite still had to harden his scalp and softly explain to Reji in advance, just in case.
"My lord, we can\'t take all this money. We have to leave a portion and the goods to be delivered to the Crown Prince\'s governor. Only then can we keep our official positions."
"The governor also takes a cut?"
"Yes my lord. I don\'t even have the heart to take money from those commoners, but there\'s no choice. If we give too little to the governor, we\'ll all suffer!" Trite still had to create a kind persona for himself.
"So how much does the governor\'s side take?"
"A 30-70 split." Trite quickly said.
"30%? That much?"
Hearing Reji\'s words, Trite was a bit sweaty. He hurriedly shrank his neck and said softly to Reji, this villain, "30% is ours, and 70% is the Lord Governor\'s."
Reji laughed when he heard this.
"So after you went through so much trouble to buy this official position, it was just to help others collect money?"
Although Trite was very dissatisfied, he still had to say in a conciliatory tone, "Yes, but my lord, you don\'t know how many people are fighting to come to this position."
Trite\'s implication was obviously that 30% was not bad.
Reji didn\'t come here for money.
He didn\'t say more to Trite. In the carriage compartment, in a place Trite couldn\'t see, a certain shadow moved. The Shadow Demon Reji had sent out earlier had brought back the intelligence.
Previously, Reji had let Trite maintain the original state and continue the executor\'s mission, going around to find children. This was actually to attract attention and release the news.
And now, Shermen, who was monitoring the entire city of Stoneheim, had found the hidden teleportation array built in Stoneheim City.
This array should be the way for the Crown Prince\'s "governor" to come and collect the goods.
It seemed that seeing Trite\'s side collecting children and having collected enough, Shermen had just sent a message that there were fluctuations in the teleportation array. That governor was about to arrive.
Reji looked up at the darkening sky as the sun set.
Hmm, just in time.