Lord of Winter: Beginning with Daily Intelligence - Chapter 527 - 322: Orsus Calvin
Chapter 527: Chapter 322: Orsus Calvin
The time for annual resource distribution has arrived, but the Fierce Tide Square isn’t bustling with people.
This year, the city’s population is too large, and if everyone lined up, it would be jammed for three days and nights.
Therefore, Louis ordered that resources be delivered by the grassroots material officers, guiding teams to distribute door-to-door.
Pete and Jack were among them, pushing wooden carts, turning along the snowy path past the warehouse, entering the southeast corner of Red Tide City.
This area is slightly lower in terrain, with houses built in haste three years ago—semi-underground wooden huts.
But actually, they aren’t too simple, with thick straw and animal skins covering the top, windproof and warm, ventilation pipes emitting wisps of heat, conveying a sense of earthly stability.
Jack uncovered the frost on the burlap, revealing a list marked with household numbers, and introduced, “Most of the occupants here are refugees who followed the tide into the city six months ago. Coincidentally, Red Tide City needed workers, hence settling them here; otherwise, this place would be dismantled.”
Pete nodded, raised his hand, and knocked on the first wooden door.
“Who is it?” a hoarse voice answered from inside.
“It’s the Government Hall, winter supplies have arrived!” Jack shouted loudly.
With a creak, the door was pushed open.
A hunched middle-aged woman poked her head out, seeing a large package, incredulously asked, “Are these for us?”
“Yes, it’s Lord Louis’s order.” Jack placed the bundle at the door, “One per household, and this is just the first batch, with another distributed in half a month.
This includes wheat, dried meat, mushroom packets, salted meat, etc. Your house is marked with a blue label, so there’s a subsidy package.”
The woman was stunned for a while, her eyes reddened, squatting down to cradle the package, muttering continuously, “Life, it’s indeed getting better and better…”
She trembled as she turned back inside, causing a commotion, soon followed by several children poking their heads out, their clothes though old, eyes sparkling brightly.
They hippity-hopped, saying, “Thank you… thank you, Red Tide Territory… thank you, Lord Louis!”
“Thank you, Northern Territory’s Sun!”
Jack couldn’t help but grin, softly responding, “Following the Lord, better days lie ahead.”
Pete remained silent, just looked at those dirty little faces, suddenly feeling the package in his arms grew heavier.
Then they walked deeper, at each household, almost hearing a disbelieving exclamation: “These…all for our family?”
“This is not all? There’s a next batch??”
“Lord Louis, truly a Dragon Ancestor Envoy…”
Those sacks of grains, dried meats, medicine boxes, and animal skin wraps could take months of wages to buy a small portion elsewhere, yet here they are delivered cart after cart.
Even more shocking was Jack always emphasizing: “This is just the first batch. There’s a distribution in mid-winter and end of winter. You won’t go hungry.”
That one sentence always replaced each family’s eyes with relieved tears.
Pete watched, tumultuous waves surged in his heart.
Stepping into these homes, seeing people trembling as they received the rations, he realized again, under the background of post-disaster Northern Territory, a dignified life itself has become the most luxurious gift.
By the time they reached the seventh household, dusk had descended.
This was an old wooden house, where a woman in her fifties sat on the threshold, sunbathing with her eyes closed.
“Materials have arrived.” Jack shouted loudly.
The woman opened her eyes, seeing the Red Tide Emblem on the two of them, immediately rose tremblingly, “Is it…is it mine?”
Pete nodded, placing the material package at the door.
The woman squatted down, slowly opening the bag’s mouth.
Sunlight shone into the neatly packaged wheat, smoked fish, vegetables, and even a bottle of cold-repelling potion.
She froze for a moment, then her eyes reddened.
“I’ve lived for over fifty years… first time a Lord distributes food, not snatches it…” she murmured.
Her fingers trembled, carefully stuffing each item back into the bag, tightening it, and tying another layer.
“I don’t dare let neighbors see, otherwise if they snatch it away, I can’t snatch it back…well, is this not a dream?”
Pete saw this but couldn’t speak momentarily.
He suddenly remembered his mother, who, a few years ago, developed a fever from a cold.
Pete spent a lot hiring the Lord’s doctor for a house call, who only said, “It’ll pass.”
But she didn’t pass; if at that time, he could have got such a small bottle of potion…
Pete stood silent for a long time, feeling suffocated in his chest.
Suddenly, the woman raised her head as if recalling something, warmly asked, “I heard, the Lord’s child is about to be born?”
Pete nodded, but no words exited his mouth.
Jack laughed and replied, “Yes! Our future little master of Red Tide Territory, is about to be born.”
The woman looked at the ever-heavier snow sky outside, slowly raised her hand, sacredly forming an old gesture of Dragon Ancestor Faith on her chest.
“May that child be born safely, be as great as his father.”
…….
Night deepens, the Earth Tower Castle at the center of Red Tide City is illuminated by fires burning through the night.
Emily, ten months pregnant, belly bulging high, quietly leaned on the wooden recliner by the hearth.
She looked up at the roof, even though this room brought her the greatest peace, her eyes still held deep anxiety.
“He moved particularly frequently today.” She murmured softly, hand gently caressing her belly, “Is he feeling cold, or wanting to come out to see the world?”
Beside her, Louis wrapped in a cotton coat, looked less like a Lord, more like any ordinary husband accompanying during childbirth.
