Our family is in decline

After crossing the river across a stone bridge, Lance and his party finally arrived at the town of Hamlet.

Entering the small town of Reims, you can feel the depression here. Different from the city in memory, most of the town is crowded and short, simple wooden houses, and the roofs to protect them from wind and rain are only thatched.

There were not many people on the street in the early morning. The only ones were squatting or lying in the corners of the buildings. They were wearing old and tattered burlap clothes. They looked sallow and thin, with empty eyes. They had lost all hope and looked like they were waiting to die.

There are still traces of war in the town. Large areas of destroyed and collapsed houses are still clearly visible. The scorch left by the flames is still clearly visible. It is difficult to imagine how critical the situation was at that time.

As for the population, it is even more depressed. Some houses are empty, leaving only messy scenes. It is not clear what happened.

Lance could only curse in his mind when he saw this scene.

The ancestor is such a fucking waste, leaving such a mess for himself.

"Lord, what should we do now?" Disma also realized that this place was not easy to mess with.

"Let's eat something and settle down first, and then we'll talk after we get some rest."

Lance began to go deep into the town and found that the situation was actually a little better than he imagined. Although the buildings also had thatched roofs, their main bodies had changed from wooden to mud and stone walls, which at least looked a little stronger.

However, the ground was still mud, and some people even dumped their excrement directly onto the street, causing a stench to fill the air.

Lance had to carefully avoid the filth, and was mentally tortured every step he took.

The layout of Hamlet Town is very simple. It is more like a small fishing village than a town. You can only see a little of the town near the central square.

The past glory of the town can still be seen in the tall masonry buildings around the square, but time has passed, and today only dilapidation is left. All buildings have been damaged to varying degrees, and the power of war is fully reflected. .

"Let's go to the pub."

It was still very early at this time. When Lance opened the door of the tavern, he was afraid that the building would suddenly collapse. There was no one on the bar, only a young man who looked like a clerk was wiping the tables and chairs.

"Good morning, three customers!" the clerk shouted when he saw the three people coming in.

"What's there to eat?"

"In the morning there was chowder, potato stew, brown bread, chicken and fish."

Although he knew from the bandit leader that the mayor was raising food prices, Lance was still shocked by the price of food here.

Brown bread is made from various coarse grains mixed with bran, pea flour, etc. Due to fermentation problems, it will have a sour taste and taste like chewing sawdust, which is difficult to swallow.

In the city, one copper coin can buy two pounds of soft and sweet white bread, and one pound of beef only costs 3 to 4 copper coins.

Black bread, which is not even eaten by pigs, actually costs 1 copper coin per pound here, and pork is the same price as beef. As for beef, even those with some money can't afford it, let alone ordinary people.

"Three portions of chowder, three portions of fish, and a glass of ale for both of them."

The food was being served, and only then did Lance see Leonard's face under his helmet.

He had a thick beard and looked to be in his thirties, but his face looked haggard, his expression was sad and he felt inexplicably ashamed, but his eyes still lurked the blazing power of the Holy Light.

But now I'm really hungry, and Lance can't care so much. I'll eat first.

While they were eating, a man in ragged clothes and unkempt face walked into the tavern with a hunched body.

"Hey! What are you doing in here? The boss will be in trouble when he sees me." Seeing this, the clerk didn't bother to clean the table. He quickly got up and stopped the man, but he still couldn't stop the man from shouting.

"Please give me something to eat. I'll do anything."

Only then did Lance recognize that it was a woman from the voice, but she looked very weak.

The weirdo was quickly kicked out by the clerk, who quickly came over to apologize to several people.

"I'm sorry to disturb the guests. She is also a poor person. Please don't pay attention to her."

"Oh~" Lance suddenly became interested and asked, "What's going on with this guy?"

But before the clerk could finish, the sound coming from the door attracted Lance's attention again.

"What a fucking unlucky thing to see you so early in the morning, you bitch!"

A arrogant gangster at the door of the tavern was yelling and kicking him. The weirdo fell to the ground and curled up, letting his fists and feet fall on him.

Upon seeing this, the clerk hurriedly walked out. While enduring the insults from the gangster, he could still smile and praise him for a while before bringing him into the store, and the weirdo was able to escape.

The gangster pushed open the door and taunted the clerk with a dissatisfied look on his face.

"How could you do this, even like this..."

Before he could finish speaking, he seemed to notice Lance's gaze and shouted at them fiercely.

"What are you looking at!"

But after discovering that they were strangers, he became interested, not to mention that Lance was fair and clean, and his eyes showed greed, like a wild wolf seeing a fat sheep walking towards them.

"I am the police chief here. Now I suspect that you are bandits and let me investigate..."

He fell silent before he could finish speaking, because the gun in Disma's hand was already pointed at him.

Lance saw Disma holding a gun in one hand and eating with a spoon in the other hand. He didn't even look at the gangster, his disdain was palpable.

But the gangster froze on the spot and did not dare to speak. His survival instinct warned him that this person really dared to shoot.

"How could this happen, sir? They are just passing by here and will leave soon." The clerk broke the weird atmosphere and walked up the stairs to him.

"Where's the food? You want me to die for keeping me waiting for so long, don't you?"

At this moment, he could only vent his grievances on the store clerks and yelled and cursed a few times, but he did not dare to provoke Lance and the others.

"Yes, yes, come right away." The clerk smiled and immediately turned around and went back to take out the food, and quickly sent the gangster away.

At this time, the clerk immediately came to Lance and others to persuade them.

"He must have just come out of the brothel. You should finish your meal and leave quickly. If he calls someone over, you will be in trouble."

"Just right." Lance didn't care. He put a copper coin on the table and asked the clerk instead.

"We were passing by and found this town a little strange. I have something to ask you. As long as you answer it well, this is yours."

"Guest, just ask, and I will definitely answer." The clerk smiled flatteringly, his eyes unconsciously drifting to the copper coin.

This place is no different from the city. All he can get from working in a day is a full meal. He has never seen any money, but even so, there are still people competing for this job.

"How did this town become like this?"

"Sigh~ The town used to be okay, but some time ago the bandits..."

Soon Lance roughly knew the situation. Bandits attacked the town half a month ago, burning, killing, looting, and the town's population dropped sharply.