Chapter 989 - 212: Knocking on the Door
Just like Constantinople, even the grandest cities have slums.
Carpenter Alley, next to the Hay Market, fits the characteristics of a slum in any city, with more than twenty taverns that used to be brightly lit even at night, but now have closed their doors to guests.
Most of the residents here are low-status workers, cooks, copper craftsmen, and prostitutes.
There are also a few "middle class" living here, mostly the homeowners who can rent out extra rooms and work as lower-ranked officials, tailors, and technicians.
Yet, this place is not on the fringes of the city but in the center of Saint Petersburg.
When Great Emperor Peter first founded the city, the Hay Market was an important area for commerce and trade.
This attracted a variety of people: small merchants, bankrupt farmers, laborers, the middle class, and young men dodging conscription.
Unless you see it for yourself, it’s hard to imagine how so many living people could fit into those cramped and narrow buildings.
Anna used to frequent the Hay Market, and the so-called black market was hidden there, but she had never been to Carpenter Alley, a place for the "improper" people referred to by her mother. Yet respectable families have already broken up; in these times, perhaps one has to walk crooked paths to survive.
Though it was late, Anna felt more alert than during the day.
She could hear the coughs of retired veterans, hear the pleas of a boy asking for another piece of bread, and sense the malicious eyes lurking in the darkness.
Some rooms lay deathly silent, and through a wall, Anna seemed to see the corpses of two frozen dead inside, along with their souls full of resentment.
Her coat stuffed with old newspapers still let the wind through, but she no longer felt a hint of chill.
When she subconsciously rubbed her hands and breathed into her palms, she realized her breath was cold as ice.
If she was extravagant enough to buy a mirror from the black market, Anna would find her face had grown exceptionally pale, her eye sockets deeply sunken, and dark circles resembling a gothic smoky eye.
She walked along the frosted nameplates, her gaze eventually settling on a standalone small building.
...
Carpenter Alley, Number 133.
Having arrived in Saint Petersburg just half a month ago, Ms. Natasha, now known as the "savior of the poor," had washed away the dust from her face and removed all disguises—a lady with short light chestnut hair, matching ears and tail, wearing gold-rimmed glasses.
Sitting beside her were her "miner brothers."
Outside the window, the sound of a small bat flapping its wings could be heard.
Blood mist entered the room, transforming into Furinjira wearing a miner’s hat.
The miner brothers chuckled and asked, "Furin’s back, how’s the harvest?"
Furin bowed slightly, wearing a smug expression as if saying "Praise me": "Indeed, there are a few good seeds with strong negative emotions. If we hadn’t found them, they’d surely become vengeful ghosts upon death."
Losa asked, "Can they handle your blood seeds?"
Negative emotions are a powerful force for dark creatures, strong enough to turn ordinary people into high-level ghosts, but this emotional power is also the easiest to lose control.
Even Losa had to be cautious of being influenced by the Giant Dragon’s bloodline, let alone ordinary people.
Furin was confident: "This is the method used by the Royal Court to train high-level Blood Servants, verified by predecessors. If you don’t count the Dragon Blood you added, I am fully confident they can manage."
Losa said helplessly, "It’s not that I insist on adding things, but the power of Blood Servants alone is indeed lacking."
Furin was somewhat puzzled, "Master, I still don’t understand why we’re playing these roles here? If it’s to complete the mission, we might as well take Nina’s approach and directly target the officers in the Capital Garrison."
Losa shook his head, "If it were just for the mission, we’d already be on holiday."
Tsarist Russia’s strongest First Fleet is nearly entirely gone, the air forces completely crushed by the Eastern Germany forces, and the main force in the Polish Region has been swallowed up. Once the internal strife begins, the Eastern Front’s conflict can practically be declared over.
But Losa still wanted to do some extra things.
Tasks unrelated to combat records, purely based on his own intentions.
In this world, Extraordinary Power is monopolized by the upper class, and those who can operate War Machines are mostly from civilian or small landlord backgrounds and are intellectuals.
Ordinary people are only fit to pull the bolt on the front lines, easily mowed down like wheat in the face of Armored Infantry and Land Cruisers.
Thus, the outcome of the war might be the establishment of a bourgeois government, or perhaps the feudal nobility supporting a new Tsar as a puppet, or Nicholas II purging political enemies and regaining control.
But it certainly would not be as it was in the past.
Losa hoped that this combat record would leave something more meaningful to the world.
Furin shrugged, "Alright, I don’t quite get it, but since you’re the master... But having Nia, a protector of the law, doing such rebellious things, aren’t you putting some pressure on people?"
Furin volunteered, "I think I could definitely be better.
"An unjust law is no law."
Losa spoke solemnly.
"Helping the poor, breaking the chains, I’m not against doing such things."
The judge lady smiled slightly, this now famous amongst the poor Natasha lady had a hint of melancholy between her brows, but not because of
"What’s the sense? When the poor obtain Power, they are no longer just poor, like floating duckweed; they become the new nobility, the new elite."
This is indeed true, pulling the ladder after climbing, burning bridges after crossing is human nature.
Moreover, with the existence of Extraordinary Power, great power concentrates on individuals, naturally creating nobility and inferiority.
"As long as they know that they are not divinely ordained, born noble, that if they act recklessly, one day they too will be dragged down by peasants like their ancestors were."
"When they forget their original intentions, just help the new people overthrow them again."
Losa was never an idealist, never hoped to fundamentally change these things.
Furin still didn’t find this meaningful, but since her master wanted to do it this way,
...
The Cossacks didn’t look too good, most Cossack soldiers were illiterate, even including a fair amount of low-ranked officers.
When not fighting a war,
"The Emperor has abdicated, which Crown Prince took over?"
"No more Emperor? How can that be, can a person live without a head?"
"Who should govern this country?"
"National Duma?"
"Equality? Does this mean we have to be equal to those farmers?"
"Heavens, how did the times become like this, is this the end of the Cossacks?"
"Now our own people are striking, fighting a civil war, and the Germans are advancing from Riga, landing at the Neva River Estuary. They won’t miss this great chance to attack Saint Petersburg."