Although there is still a week until [Midwinter Festival], a festive atmosphere has already begun in big cities like Jishui City.

The calendar system adopted by Corell has 12 months in a year and a total of 360 days. The extra 5 days are specially reserved for festivals. In almost all civilized cities, they are days for rest and celebration.

Midwinter Festival is also known as the Winter Feast. According to tradition, local lords will hold this feast before the end of the year to form and renew alliances with other lords and exchange gifts.

For the common people in the kingdoms, this is the "Day of Dead Winter" because the harsh winter has just passed halfway.

But from another perspective, it also means that this is the coldest time of the year.

In the past, most water collectors who were in the "off season" at the port would choose to spend their meager savings from this year to buy something for the upcoming Midwinter Festival after getting off work from the port, workshop, shop, etc.

Ingredients for a decent dinner, and following the example of their lords, they also buy a gift for each of their family members, relatives and friends. This is also a common custom among the city-states in the North.

But this year's situation is a little different.

Due to the emergence of Hogg Workshop, the fox fur snow boots produced by Hogg Workshop have become the most affordable and high-quality gifts in the eyes of everyone in Kaishui City!

As long as you spend a silver coin to become a black iron member of Hogg Workshop, you can get free gifts. Then you can buy a fur coat at the same preferential price lower than the price in Jishui city to give to your wife or reward your hard work.

In this year, I no longer suffer from the cold wind in this cold winter.

As for the weapons and armors that have been highly speculated by merchants, it is said that if you buy one at the membership price and then resell it after spring, you can make a free profit.

But for the vast majority of people living at the bottom, it is not a game that they can afford to participate in based on their current conditions.

Because the higher the level of membership, the more favorable the base price can be. If you don't have a certain amount of wealth to enter the market, you won't be very competitive at all, and the risk on your hands will be too high.

Even a standard long sword priced at 20 silver coins is not affordable for most civilian families, because after a year of hard work, they may have just saved such a sum of money.

On the other hand, middle-class families in the South District and above the trade area will choose to buy one for self-defense, and it is also a good decoration to hang on the wall.

So even though this winter is extremely cold, the long queue in front of Hogg's workshop has not stopped since it opened, which can be regarded as a unique scenery in Kishui City.

However, this situation only applies to civilians and above.

But for the poorest people at the lowest level in the port area of ​​Jishui City, it is a completely different scene.

Especially for some special vulnerable groups.

Angus is one of them.

He was not supposed to be here originally, but was a yeoman farmer living near the Moon Forest of the Silver Moon Federation. Due to the pressure on the population and farmland of the Silver Moon Federation, there were not a few people like them who defected to the Silver Moon Federation.

Unfortunately, half a month ago, the residents of that area were attacked by a gang of slave traders. Almost all the adults who posed a threat to them were slaughtered, including his parents and the area that protected them.

A moon elf couple from Earth.

Those are Luo Jiali's parents.

"I don't know how Luo Jiali is doing? I hope she is okay."

He remembered that before he captured her, Luo Jiali seemed to have never appeared, and he didn't know if she had escaped. Then they were loaded into the cabins of two 'cargo ships' and drifted down the river.

After arriving on the ship, the leader used a cold red crystal to name them one by one on their foreheads, as if to confirm something, but nothing seemed to happen.

Before dawn the next day, they arrived at a relatively remote port in the city.

Originally, they, the children, naively thought that the awes patrolling the port in Jishui City would save them from the misery. However, they saw the leader of the slave trading group stuffing a money bag into the guard's pocket, and the guard put them in.

Living people are included in the 'goods'.

Just like real goods, they were sold in batches to the gray forces in this prosperous port city.

Among these people, the children who were trafficked are named:

paparazzi.

From now on, they no longer have everything as human beings

Including the most basic dignity and personality.

After they were packed into several carriages from the port, they were sent to a sewer in the port area.

In that stinky environment, they were gathered together and artificially screened.

Yes, filter.

Just like picking an animal, use your hands to roughly open your mouth and check your teeth.

Good-looking children will be singled out and sent away.

Angus didn't know what fate they would face next, because by that time, their remaining children had already been ruled by the darkness and cruelty that followed.

They have no time to care about him.

Soon, some children who were born weak and cried violently were dragged out on the spot. They would break a leg or even gouge out their eyeballs on the spot.

Because lame and blind people are easier to control and gain people's sympathy.

According to what those people said, these children will be sent to the South District or the Trade District respectively, as a begging tool for them to take advantage of people's sympathy.

Angus was extremely frightened at the time, and the screams and cries of his passing companions deeply shook his mind.

Fortunately, he is one of the relatively healthy ones.

At this time, the children, who were too frightened to cry or speak, were asked to perform a set of coherent movements according to their postures.

This set of movements is very flexible on the body, especially on the fingers.

So a large number of them were screened out and taken away. No one knew what they would face and how they would be arranged by this group of villains.

And Angus was 'lucky' to be one of the chosen children.

In the next few days, Angus finally knew their intentions and roughly guessed their identities.

They should be the thieves guild that my parents once mentioned. They are a group of people who live in the dark areas of various cities and engage in various smuggling, slave trading and a series of other criminal activities.

At this moment, they are trying to train him to become a qualified thief.

The training of a thief, both in terms of harsh methods and training intensity, is also far beyond ordinary people's imagination.

He was assigned to a female thief.

Angus seriously suspected that this ugly female thief was a sadist, because she not only liked to use the whip in her hand to inflict pain on these children.

At night, they would also be asked to step barefoot on barbed wire, sharp corners, or broken glass, and sit in a circle singing some kind of religious song and dancing, while the female thief waved the whip in her hand.

Beat them.

Angus didn't know how he persisted. Maybe he was just afraid of falling into the fate of those children who were eliminated.

Originally, according to the established track, his closed training cycle would last for at least two to three months. Then, under surveillance, he would go to the trade area to complete a successful theft without being discovered or escape smoothly. After experiencing

After an initiation ceremony, he will be accepted as a thief at the lowest level.

But the emergence of Levi and Hogg's workshop was like a dragon setting off a hurricane, throwing the fate of many people in the city off its original trajectory.

Angus is one of them.

Four days ago, while he was training, like many children, he was recruited by the block boss.

They were given a silver coin and something called a membership application form, and were given a temporary task.

That is to take this silver coin and the application form, queue up in front of the Hogg Workshop, and then purchase a membership to the Hogg Workshop and receive a pair of fox fur snow boots for free.

The application form was drawn using magic and was equipped with [Common Language Recognition Technique], so even Angus, who had not received much education, could read the content without any hindrance.

Although there are not many types of products in Hogg's workshop, Angus couldn't help but feel envious when he looked at the dazzling array of products, especially those long swords with cold light and shining armor.

He once dreamed of becoming a knight, wearing a sword and armor, and fighting to protect his family.

But now, he has nothing to protect, and even his personal freedom and destiny are in the hands of others.
Chapter completed!