The quarantine wall has been torn down. From today, Innsbruck is officially out of quarantine.
Ironically, this is not good news for most of the city's citizens.
In the past, compulsory conscription was only conducted outside the city. Because of the epidemic in the city, recruiting a sick person into the barracks would likely infect other healthy soldiers in the same dormitory, so the recruiting officers tacitly did not recruit soldiers in the city.
Compared to the hell on earth in the quarantine zone, the citizens within the city walls outside the quarantine zone, although running the risk of contracting the disease, are spared from the harassment of forced conscription. In the short term, it is not clear whether they have gained or lost.
It was not until the walls of the quarantine zone collapsed that they realized that their previous lives were not bad, at least they would not be forcibly conscripted. For a time, there was even a certain saying in public opinion:
The disease is protecting us from going to war.
Of course, such exaggerated statements only come from the mouths of some extremists, but no matter how recruiting officers preach about defending the country, most people still hold an aversion and resistance to forced conscription.
Especially at this time when Christmas is approaching.
The inn where Cang Qing Zhi Jian lived gradually attracted more and more guests. The innkeeper was grinning from ear to ear every day. Booming business was a good thing after all. Besides, he was too old to be drafted into the army, so he was full of praise for the end of the epidemic.
Then I was really drafted into the army.
"Wait, sir!" The innkeeper clung to the door frame, trying not to be dragged away. "I'm already over fifty years old. My old bones can't go to the battlefield. Please spare me!"
"Shut up." The guard said coldly, "If you can't go to the battlefield, you can be a logistics worker in the service camp. The higher-ups said that anyone under 60 is eligible for conscription. Come with us!"
So the innkeeper was dragged out.
I heard that many citizens pretended not to be at home and ran to the hotel to pretend to be outsiders in order to avoid being conscripted, and these guards came to search.
Just as they were about to go upstairs, they saw Eleanor coming down after hearing the noise, and their eyes first fell on the sword at her waist.
"Female mercenary?" One of the guards was about to step forward, but his colleague next to him pulled his arm and said, "Lord Alfred knows her. Don't cause trouble."
The three guards avoided Eleanor and trotted up the stairs.
Eleanor walked into the living room and stared at the open door of the hotel.
"My husband was taken away by them." A voice sounded behind him.
Eleanor turned around and saw a thin woman standing at the steps leading to the cellar.
This was the innkeeper's wife and also the cook who prepared meals for the guests every day. Eleanor had chatted with her for a few words, but now she couldn't say anything.
"I told him a long time ago that he should leave the city to seek refuge, or go to Bohemia if things really don't work... But he just wouldn't listen, and he couldn't bear to leave this inn passed down from his ancestors... Now that everyone is gone, what's the point of keeping the inn..."
The cook kept mumbling to herself, her eyes blank and unfocused, and then she seemed to come to her senses and said softly:
"Would you like something to eat, sir? There are some steaks and bacon in the cellar..."