"Delicious, where did you find these foods, Brother Derek?"
Derek distributed the food in the backpack to the miners present. One of the ones who ate the most was his former follower. Derek didn't know his name, so he just called him "Little Bug".
"It must be those people in green clothes! I've seen them! I've been given this kind of food!"
Some miners who had received aid from the Celestial Empire seemed a little excited. They might be regretting not getting on the car and following the other party, otherwise they would not be mining in this dark place.
"None of this matters, just listen to me!"
The reputation that Derek had accumulated in the slums in the past came into play here. Basically half of the miners present knew Derek, and the other half had heard of his name.
With the addition of food, Derek instantly became the center of the crowd, and they all looked at Derek.
Derek had long been accustomed to the feeling of being watched by everyone in the death arena. The difference was that before in the death arena he relied on his own strength to conquer the audience, but this time Derek was going to try using words.
"Don't you think that life nowadays is abnormal?" Derek said in a deep voice to the miners present.
"Brother Derek, the Death Arena has been shut down now. If you want to eat, you can only work in the Black Flame Mine."
Xiao Chong was chewing a steamed bun in his mouth when he spoke, so his voice sounded a little unclear, but he didn't understand what Derek was saying at all.
"What do you get for working in this mine?"
Derek asked, looking directly at Xiaochong's dirty face. He was the thinnest of all the miners and was only about twelve years old.
"I can have a meal of porridge every day and a place to keep warm." Xiao Chong said while biting a steamed bun and counting his fingers, "But if I have to work all day until night, I feel like my hands are about to break. But here I don't have to worry about freezing to death."
Derek fell silent when he heard this. He felt the suspicious gazes coming from all directions, and suddenly realized that the "abnormal person" in this mine was him, not these miners.
In this world, it is natural for them to be enslaved by the nobles, because these miners may not know anything except mining. Only the nobles are literate and qualified to manage these minerals. Correspondingly... these miners are satisfied with just getting food every day.
They have no expectations for their future life and should not have any expectations at all.
"Derek, please go away... this is not the place for you."
The adoptive father saw that Derek was different from the past, something had changed him, and he pushed Derek's back with his hands covered in coal dust, trying to get him to leave this damn place.
"Father! Why don't you understand? There is no difference between nobles and us. As long as we learn literacy and swordsmanship, we can become knights and scholars!" Derek turned and said to his adoptive father.
"Then can you defeat the spellcaster?" Derek was stunned by his adoptive father's words.
Spellcaster... Spellcaster, the most unequal existence in this unequal world.
Because if you want to learn magic, you must have an inscription, which is the mark on the back of your hand. Only those who bear the mark are qualified to learn magic.
This is also the biggest difference between slaves and nobles. Noble families are almost all families of spellcasters, because those who don't know magic are weak in this world, and the offspring born of noble blood have a high probability of inheriting magic inscriptions.
"Derek, we are just a group of ordinary people who know nothing. We don't know swordsmanship and we can't read. It's good enough that we can work here. Those who can't hold the manuscripts are freezing to death on the streets. Those people in green clothes seem to be very nice to you, so go away quickly and don't bring back any more food." The adoptive father stuffed the steamed bun that Derek gave him back into Derek's hand.
Of course, the adoptive father had eaten this kind of steamed bun in the camp, and it tasted very good. But when he thought that he would never be able to eat it again after Derek left, he felt very upset... and even lost his appetite.
Derek clenched his hands tightly and wanted to say something, but he couldn't say it.
Because it is a fact that it is difficult for ordinary people to defeat spellcasters, and the law that only nobles can become spellcasters is deeply rooted in everyone's heart.
"Brother! Father Tangji, I...I actually...have an inscription."
Xiao Chong, who was eating a steamed bun at the side, wiped his nose and suddenly said.
"What nonsense are you talking about, kid!" When the adoptive father heard Xiao Chong's words, he walked up to him and wanted to hit him.
"Really! Those red wolves are gone." Xiao Chong wiped the back of his left hand, on which there was a scarlet inscription.
The inscription was very simple, with only an upward triangular arrow, but the dim light emanating from the surface of the inscription told everyone that this was a real magic inscription, not one drawn by anyone.
"Where did you find the things to paint on it?" The adoptive father was unwilling to believe it.
"This is really an inscription, Brother Derek! But I don't know how to use magic." Xiao Chong was so anxious that the bun in his mouth fell out.
"Father! Since he has the inscription, ordinary people like us can also become spellcasters as long as we learn the knowledge!"
Derek saw hope as soon as he saw the inscription on the back of Xiaochong's hand. Xiaochong had the potential to become a spellcaster, and Derek was sure that this guy was definitely not a descendant of any noble family.
In fact, Derek remembered that one or two of his childhood playmates had awakened the inscriptions, but they were soon taken away by the nobles, and he never saw those two playmates again.
Over time, the rule that only nobles are qualified to be spellcasters has become deeply rooted in the minds of the common people in this world.
"What do you mean by knowledge or not? If those people knew you could read, they would beat you to death!" The adoptive father didn't beat Xiao Chong this time. He walked up to Derek and hit him on the back with a stick. "Get out of here! The guards may have noticed the noise here. Get out now!"
Literacy among civilians was allowed in this country, but it was illegal for miners and serfs like him, or even slaves who were treated like objects, to learn to read. If they were discovered, flogging was the most basic punishment.
The wooden stick in the adoptive father's hand hit Derek, but Derek's strong body did not feel any pain. His eyes were burning with flames as he stared at his adoptive father.
"Why should we be afraid of them?" Derek whispered this.
"They have swords and magic! They can chop off your head with one sword! Do you understand, kid?" The adoptive father shouted to Derek, somewhat exhausted.
"Those nobles don't have that many people now! I remember that when I left, they had less than a hundred soldiers. There are only six guards at this Black Flame Mine, but we have hundreds of people." Derek said.
"That's you, not us! You are going to die! Don't call us." The adoptive father wanted to raise the stick in his hand to hit the unfilial son again, but he found that he no longer had the strength to do so.
"Being enslaved by those nobles like this is no different from being dead. Don't you want to be free..."
Derek shouted to the other miners, but still no one responded to him.
"Derek... we can only live like this. Even if we kill the nobles in this mining area, we will be caught by the city guards of Skare and sent to the gallows. Even if we are lucky enough to escape from Skare, this winter will kill us in just one night."
The adoptive father knew that he couldn't persuade Derek by beating him alone, so he could only reason with this stubborn adopted son.
"There's no need for us to run away. We are much stronger than them. They are the ones who should run away!" Derek said loudly.
"Damn it! Are you going to disobey the king's orders?"
When the adoptive father heard this, he realized how outrageous Derek's idea was.
"The current ruler of Skarre is not the King at all, and I have no intention of becoming an enemy of the King. I just want to use this method to fight for the rights and freedoms we deserve!"
Derek's political ideas were still very naive, but the stories about foreign countries like the French Revolution and the Glorious Revolution that Niu Shan told him made Derek yearn for them very much and realized that "the power of the people is invincible."
"You are making an enemy of them! They will kill you if they catch you!"
When his adoptive father was saying this, a scene that made him somewhat desperate appeared. The door of the house was suddenly opened, and two soldiers in armor suddenly walked in.