My Magic Age

On the whole stone street, there were many homeless people lying quietly in the shade, starving to the point of being skin and bones.

They lay decadently on the stone slabs, letting their bodies slowly mold and stink.

Compared with those homeless people, the lives of the poor who own a small house seemed a little better.

At this time, the men had not finished their day's work and rushed back from outside. Most of the women were wearing tattered fishing nets and sitting under the eaves with pale faces.

A young woman was holding a swaddled baby in her arms, who was sleeping quietly in her arms. In front of her was a large bowl of water, with two shells floating in the soup in the bowl. Her thick lips seemed a little chapped, and her eyes were looking at the entrance of the alley, full of expectations.

Helena covered her mouth gently and complained in a low voice: "Why don't they go to the beach to pick up some food? Even if it's just some seaweed, there shouldn't be any problem filling their stomachs!"

Becky next to her also felt the same way and asked Joan: "Don't people here know how to go to the sea? Even if there is no white sand beach, aren't there shellfish on the reef? Look, the oyster shells on this wall are so big! Maybe you can catch some fish and shrimp in the shallow sea."

Joan pointed to the city wall in the distance and said: "Go over there and take a look, maybe you will find the answer you want."

Hearing what Joan said, Noah took the lead without hesitation. Knight Lant, who fell behind the team, hurriedly caught up and followed Noah closely. He put one hand on the hilt of the sword and vigilantly scanned the people around him.

There were too many poor and destitute homeless people on the street. Although they looked listless, Knight Lant still seemed very cautious. He was probably worried that there were some desperate people hiding among these homeless people.

Passing by a fish shop, I saw that this fish shop was the only one on the whole street. There was a row of stone slabs outside the shop, filled with various dried fish and salted fish, but there were not many fresh fish, and they were very small. Several small fish the size of a palm were placed on the stone slabs, emitting a fishy smell. A group of green-headed flies made a "buzzing" sound and kept circling around these stinky fish.

There was a group of children sitting by the wall opposite the fish shop. They were dark-skinned and skinny. Each of them had a big head on his thin neck. They squatted at the corner of the wall and looked at the dried fish on the stone slab eagerly.

The stall owner was a burly man. At this time, he was sleeping on a rattan chair in the shade, snoring like thunder. There was a three-thorn harpoon standing by the wall, and the blade was polished very sharp, so that the children did not dare to act rashly.

The group passed through the alley, as if being watched by countless pairs of eyes, those eyes were filled with some fear, some envy, and some hope.

Suddenly, a middle-aged woman ran out of the door with a young girl and stopped Knight Lant.

Perhaps in the eyes of this middle-aged woman, Knight Lant, who was tall and handsome, wearing a gorgeous magic pattern armor, was the most powerful one among us.

Knight Lant stood in front of the mother and daughter with a calm face. The woman's eyes were full of fear, but she still mustered up the courage and said to Knight Lant: "Sir Knight, please take my child away. As long as you are willing to give her a bite to eat, she will do all the housework for you."

The woman stretched out her cracked hand and gently wiped away the tears on the girl's face.

She said again: "The child has grown up and the family can't afford to raise him. Please pity us!"

The girl hung her head and stood by without saying a word. The woman pushed away the messy hair on her face, revealing a childish face. Except for her slightly dark skin, her face was very pretty and her skin was as delicate as brocade.

The woman said to Lant in a flattering manner: "She is so young, she just attended the coming-of-age ceremony last fall. She is very sensible and will not cause you any trouble at all."

Knight Lant seemed a little embarrassed. It was obvious that this upright knight was considering how to refuse. For him, refusing the request of a weak person was against the code of a knight.

Joan looked at Jacques for help and whispered in Jacques' ear: "Do you have a way to ask the knight to accept Janet?"

Jacques immediately shook his head and said to Joan: "Please give up this idea, Knight Lant will not agree."

"I came here to perform an important mission. I'm sorry, I can't give any help for your request." Knight Lant rejected the woman.

Noah watched the excitement with interest, constantly looking at the girl standing quietly beside the woman.

Shirley Newman quickly came to Noah's side, pushed him jealously, and asked Noah: "Do you want me to let that woman bring the girl to your arms?"

"Hehe, this... you know, I only like girls with fair skin. Ah, I remember, it seems that I haven't had dinner yet. I was wondering why my stomach started to growl. Let's go!" Noah immediately looked away and said to Shirley Newman.

For Noah's reaction, Shirley Newman gave him a sweet smile, stretched out her hand and gently took Noah's arm, and walked in front of the team together.

At this time, Joan immediately ran to the woman's side and whispered a few words of persuasion, so that the woman obediently took her daughter to stand on the side of the road, looking eagerly at Knight Lant and his team of constructed knights passing quietly.

Ying Li stood beside me in silence, with some confusion between her brows. I had never seen Ying Li thinking so seriously. Her teeth bit her soft lips, her eyes were always looking at her toes, without a smile, and the dimples on her face became very shallow.

Perhaps she had lived in a coastal city, and she could not understand the hardship of the civilians in Galapagos City.

Catalina and Kalancuo standing behind me looked indifferent.

Catalina was born in a poor family since she was a child, and she was accustomed to the hardship of the poor.

Kalancuo's life was also very rough. He not only caught up with the great famine of the orc tribe, but also suffered a lot in El City. Naturally, he would not be affected by the hardship of the poor here.

Jacques frowned all the way. I was very curious about what he was thinking about. It seemed that he had a lot of things in his heart.

Joan didn't seem to want to take us to see the scenery of Galapagos City. She just took us to wander around the slums. I don't think there are any good restaurants here.

Now she took us to the city gate. There was a restaurant next to the city gate. But at this time, the city gate seemed very lively. Many men returned from outside the city, carrying some harvests on their backs. Seeing their salty smell, their nets were full, and they were rushing home without stopping for a moment, I felt that the people here really had a hard life.

A man carrying wet seafood walked out of the crowd and stood outside the restaurant. He stretched out his net to reveal some fish inside. The net was really colorful, with seaweed of various colors, a few ugly sea fish, and some large and small shellfish.

The waiter standing at the door of the restaurant looked inside, reached out and picked out a few large conches, threw them into the wooden basin beside, and then took out a few copper coins from his purse and slapped them into the man's palm.

The man opened his mouth wide, showing his joy, excitedly waved his arms, tied up the net bag, picked it up again, and disappeared into the crowd.

It seems that many people who return from the sea will choose the best things to sell first, and only take the rest home.

It turns out that it's not that no one goes to the sea, but that the people who go to the sea are almost bursting the city gate.

Joan said to us: "If you want to taste some unique seafood in Galapagos City, please come to this restaurant. Other foods here are very ordinary, but seafood is the freshest."

Since Joan was recommended by the hotel owner before and is a friend of Jacques, there is no reason to refuse this restaurant.

After we entered the restaurant, Joan pointed upstairs and asked the waiter, "Is there any room upstairs?"

The waiter immediately came up to us kindly and led us upstairs.

Joan helped us choose a quiet corner, near the window. If it weren't for the high city wall blocking us, we could probably see the sea view outside. Now we can only see the noisy scene at the city gate. Maybe this is what a city should look like.

Joan introduced to us that there was originally a dock that was about to be abandoned outside the city gate, but there were a lot of reefs and rocks in this sea area. Many merchant ships that came here would hit the reefs if they were not careful. Over time, neither fishing boats nor sailboats were willing to anchor here. Slowly, the dock that was originally built here gradually became abandoned, and instead, many fish schools hid in the reefs nearby.

Many people who came back from the sea stood in line at the city gate. The guards at the city gate would check the net bags of every man who came back from the sea. Often the best seafood would be selected by them, and then they would let those people pass through the city gate.

Seeing a poor man carrying a net full of seaweed being stopped by the city gate guards, they savagely dumped the seaweed in the net on the ground, and found that there was not even a small fish in it. They couldn't help but get angry, threw the net on the man, kicked him several times, and drove him out of the city.

The waiter came over and asked us what we needed to order. Joan directly said a very convoluted name, and then waved him down to prepare.

I have never seen such a fast ordering speed. I even doubted whether Joan only ordered one main course.

However, our minds were no longer on dinner. Looking at the scene at the city gate, we were a little puzzled. The city gate guards treated these poor people too roughly, but it seemed that those people were used to such a life.

Joan said to us: "Isn't it a bit strange? What are those people waiting in line for?"

Noah and I looked at each other, and Noah said: "Is this paying taxes?"

Knight Lant and his companions at the table next to us also looked curious and looked at the city gate.

"Yes." Joan replied.

Then she added: "However, the tax here is a little bit special!"

Joan's words successfully attracted our attention, and she became the focus of everyone's attention at this moment.

She stood by the window, pointed at the people outside the city gate, and said: "These sea-hunters are roughly divided into three categories. The first category is civilians with tax vouchers. After they return from the sea, the city gate guards need to take out some seafood as tax, and the value of this part of seafood will account for about 30% of the total value."

I didn't expect the tax rate here to be so high, and the archon seemed to have considered that these people had no way to pay the tax, so he chose to use goods to offset it.

Just thinking about it, I heard Joan say again: "The second category is the poor who don't have tax receipts. Not only do they live in poverty, but they can't pay taxes, so they can't get tax receipts. So they need to pay half of all the goods after going to the sea."

Then Joan said: "The third category is the wanderers who don't have resident rights. They don't even have a fixed place to live. They are the beggars lying on the street. If they want to go to the sea, when they return, they have to pay 80% of their harvest to the city gate guards."

It is probably because of this reason that those wanderers would rather lie in the city and wait to starve to death than go out of the city to go to the sea.

After this kind of tax, I'm afraid there won't be much seaweed left.

"What do they want to do?" Noah knocked on the table fiercely.

It seems that the city's governor will bear a large part of the responsibility for the city's depression.

"They obviously didn't say that!" Jacques finally said what he had been holding back. "Damn, these despicable guys, how can they go back on their word?"

"They? ... Who are they?" Noah stared at Jacques and asked.

"Boris promised me that as long as I was willing to return to Illinas City, he promised me to open the coastline near the dock to these wanderers, and would send troops to clear the low-level sea beasts in the nearby waters." Jacques clenched his fists and said angrily.

"So you returned to Illinas City with a bad name?" Noah asked Jacques.

"But what else can I do? I originally wanted to help them and make their lives better, but I have no way at all! I can only go to Boris and ask him to relax the tax on the poor and wanderers. Boris clearly promised me!" Jacques said to us.

Joan on the side sneered and said: "You are really honest. If a dog says it has a bad habit of eating shit, would you believe it?"

"I think I should go to see Uncle Boris tomorrow!" Noah said. "Maybe I can change some of his ideas!"

The book friend wrote a book called "The Golden Avenue of Entertainment". It currently has more than 60,000 words and 30 chapters. If you like entertainment themes, you may want to read it. It's pretty good.