Roger was assigned to a shack, which was just a large shop with little furniture.

He was told by the guard that with permission, he could pass through the stone wall gate and report to Heller's cabin under the close supervision of the guard.

But he was not allowed to pass the wooden wall on the other side of the col.

The guard pointed to the two hanging corpses: "Unless you want to be like them."

The houses in the valley may have been built for reasons of heat dissipation and ventilation, so they were not very airtight. For Roger's little ears, they were simply undefended.

Roger heard that the mine belonged to Viscount Margarito.

Roger knew this Viscount. He attended Roger's knighthood ceremony and swore allegiance to Roger.

However, Roger had always had a clear understanding of the Normans' oath of allegiance.

Just like his father's example, their oaths are only valid when the lord's strength is greater than theirs.

Roger thought that with his current situation, it was hard to guarantee whether Viscount Margarito would choose to disappear directly.

Heller, a Jew, was the supervisor entrusted by Viscount Margarito to manage the mine.

In name, Hayler is just a manager, but in fact he is the real owner here.

Heller never stayed here overnight. He came in the morning and left at night just like an office worker.

His family lived in a nearby town belonging to Viscount Margarito, whose castle was also there.

This town is not in the direction Roger came from, so Roger probably isn't very far away.

He thought that when Heller brought him here, it was obvious that he could take the main road, but he chose to wander around the mountains. It seemed that the sulfur ore deal might have been hidden from the Viscount.

The number two figure in the sulfur mine is guard captain Norton, the man dressed as a warrior. He leads a group of Lombard mercenaries to guard the place.

Norton was not hired by Viscount Margarito, but by Heller, which is why Heller is telling the truth here.

Roger's little ears heard Heller say there more than once:

"When you work for me, you are working for Viscount Margarito. Do it well. Whoever does it well will be recommended to him when the Viscount arrives and he will be his personal guard."

Some guards became energetic after hearing this.

Some guards whispered: "I've never seen the Viscount here before."

Roger is now also a person "employed" by Heller. He is still a middle-level manager, but he has no salary and cannot go out. He is worse than a Japanese devil.

But in the valley, Roger could move freely, and his status was only higher than that of the slave miners.

However, the guards were polite to Roger for Heller's sake. They treated him like Heller's dog, at least they would not beat or scold him casually.

There was another middle manager like him, a Greek translator named Christodulus, who was also his roommate, but that man seemed to prefer the company of the Greek slaves.

Next are all the miners' slaves. Most of these slaves are Arabs, and there are also many native Greeks. Others who come from unknown sources are also attached to these two groups.

Roger also realized one thing clearly. He found that his thoughts were incompatible with those around him, which made him very painful.

He found a slave miner and asked: "You are locked up here and mining all day long. Don't you feel bitter and tired?"

The slave said: "Isn't life just for suffering?

"Besides, it's much better now. It's not like before in the village where you had to do farm work for the village master first, and then you have to do the work in your own fields after that.

"You have to get up every day when the rooster crows, and you can't go to bed until it's dark. If you work all year long, you're tired."

Roger saw guards whipping slave miners with whips that were as sharp as windmills.

He asked the slave miner: "You were whipped by the guards. Do you hate them?"

"Don't hate me, I've been beaten by the master's people in the village before, so I'm used to it."

Roger also noticed that the stingy Heller only provided slaves with one meal a day, which was delivered over the stone wall by armed guards and distributed in front of the house where Roger lived.

He asked a miner who was receiving a meal: "You only have one meal a day. Can you be full?"

The man who received the meal said: "It's good to have something to eat every day. In the past, when God was unhappy and the harvest in the fields was not good, we couldn't even eat."

"The master who pressed for rent did not care, but continued to push the rent to death. Many people in my village starved to death. This is very good now. Thank you Master Heller for your kindness."

Roger thought that if a person thinks differently than he does, then maybe the other person is crazy;

If everyone around you thinks differently than you do, then maybe you are crazy.

He felt that his "madness" could be cured, and he was determined to make changes. He allowed himself to think about problems with the thinking of these slaves.

Then Roger found that he no longer felt pain. He found that he was actually very free.

He found that Heller was the least free.

When Heller was in the mine, he only moved between the two walls at the entrance of the col and never crossed the stone wall.

The guards are a little better than Heller, but they only pass through the city gate when collecting minerals and distributing food, and they only move in a small area near the door.

Compared to the entire mining area, the scope of activity of Heller and the guards is less than 10% of the mining area.

The slave miners were not allowed to cross the stone wall, but they could move freely throughout the valley and mine wherever they wanted.

The activity range of slave miners accounts for approximately nine-tenths of the entire mining area.

Statistically speaking, in this mining area, the slaves are much freer than Heller and the guards.

And Roger himself and another Greek translator were the freest in the mine.

They can cross the stone wall with permission, although they cannot get close to the wooden wall. However, the small area of ​​​​the wooden wall only accounts for 1% of the entire mining area.

Roger found that he could move freely within 99% of the entire mining area, so he was very free. He was much freer than Heller in the mining area.

Moreover, Roger's status in the mining area is noble.

He can talk to anyone, he can report to Heller every day, and Heller must listen to whatever he says.

He can also ask any slave.

But the status of slaves in the mining area is no less than his, so sometimes they don't have to answer him, or they can perfuse him by bowing their heads.

Similarly, as a person with status in the mining area, Roger could ignore the guards.

From the perspective of Roger, who has used "new thinking", those guards are inferior beings to slaves.

So when the guards told Roger, "Go away," Roger would nod to them if he was in a good mood, turn around and walk away; if he was in a bad mood, he would stay aside and lower his head and ignore them.

Therefore, whether he talks to the guards or not depends on his wishes.

Roger found a painless way, he was "happy", but sometimes he was too lazy to do it, so he suffered again.
Chapter completed!