When the Saint comes, she does not collect food

“Because I've been at Highfort for many years and don't know you all well, I'd like you to introduce yourselves. Tell me about your background, name, occupation, and family, starting with you!”

The morning after Holy Father's Day, the rain subsided slightly.

Standing in front of the hunter's cabin, Hohen stood akimbo, longsword in his right hand, energetically shouting to the villagers present.

The villager who was pointed at trembled all over, forcibly dragging his timid wife and son forward.

“My name is Beville, I'm 29 years old, and I'm a farmer, a registered peasant. This is my wife, Rachel, and these are my two sons, Little Beville and Little Dazov.”

Picking up a crude reed pen, Hohen wrote down the name on a piece of birch bark.

In the rural system of the Holy El Empire, registered peasants were essentially serfs.

They were on the tax rolls, could own private property, and wouldn't be bought, sold, manipulated, or subjected to private punishment like serfs.

However, registered peasants had to lease land from the lord and complete agricultural labor tasks.

Tossing him a wooden tag carved with two marks, Hohen didn't even look up. “Go over there and stand behind the wooden board with the same pattern as the tag in your hand. Move quickly.”

Dragging his family, Beville stood in the designated position. Little Dazov curiously reached out to touch the wooden tag but was slapped down by his mother.

“Okay, next.” Hohen finished recording and shouted again.

A burly man in a black cotton vest walked up. He took off his wool hat, pressed his hand on his wife's frail back, and bowed.

“Merciful Holy Grandson, my name is Rector Ironwater, I'm 35 years old, and I'm an armed farmer. I have a blacksmith shop at home. This is my wife, Solmi. We have no children.”

Taking a few more glances at Rector, Hohen continued to record on the birch bark.

Armed farmers were the wealthy peasant class in the imperial feudal rural system. They were mostly small and medium landlords and rich peasants who didn't have to pay any taxes, only provide their own weapons for military service.

However, since the end of the Hundred Years' War, most armed farmers no longer went to the battlefield but instead paid a shield tax, which the lord could use to recruit mercenaries.

But they were still the lord's lackeys, belonging to the middle managers of the rural order.

Tossing him a wooden tag carved with four marks, Hohen raised his head. “Okay, next.”

“Holy Grandson, I introduced myself yesterday. My name is Jeshka, I'm 31 years old, a vagrant, no family. I used to be a mercenary, now I mainly work as a mason.”

Hohen remembered this discerning one-eyed man. He should be the leader of the nearby vagrants.

Vagrants were a special group that emerged after the Empire promulgated the 'Runaway Slave Law.'

These people often lived in groups, operating in the wild to prevent capture by runaway slave hunters.

They wouldn't stay in one place for long, relying on odd jobs, begging, and even theft and robbery to make a living, and over time they became vagrants.

Hohen took out a wooden tag with only one mark and threw it to him.

“Next!”

For half the morning, Hohen was registering and assigning these villagers.

There were a total of 221 villagers, 39 households, on this hill, including 6 households and 44 people of armed farmers, 22 households and 137 people of registered peasants, and 11 households and 40 people of vagrants.

On one side of the cabin, four wooden boards had been erected in advance, each with a different pattern. Behind the boards stood people holding wooden tags with the same pattern.

Each board had about 8 to 10 households behind it. These villagers, familiar with each other, whispered, while those who weren't familiar sat down separately.

They looked left and right, looking around, and some didn't understand what was going on.

Tying the birch bark together with a leather rope, Hohen turned to walk towards the villagers.

Clearing his throat, he stepped onto a large rock in front of the villagers and spread his arms. “Believers, lambs, I have something to say, please listen quietly.

As the Holy Father said, demons are rampant and evil spirits are everywhere. You defeated the demon Barnett, are you proud? But there are so many demons, Barnett is just one of them, the rest of the demons are countless.

Think about it, even knights have turned into demons, doesn't that prove that demons are among us?

Perhaps some of you here aren't demons now, but what if someone is tempted by demons in the future? What should we do then?

Although I have the protection of the Holy Mother, you don't, so, in order to prevent this from happening, I propose that we implement the Holy Ten-Household System.”

Holy Ten-Household System?

Stretching their necks, the villagers of Red Mill Village turned to look at both sides, and they only saw doubt on each other's faces.

“Holy Grandson, what does this Holy Ten-Household System mean? Is it like the citizen's ten-household mutual guarantee?”

“Almost. The so-called Holy Ten-Household System, based on where you are standing now, divides eight to ten households into one group, with a ten-household head. Because the corruption of demons is contagious, if one person is a demon, the entire group is responsible. Only those who report demons are innocent.”

Like rustling mice, the villagers lowered their heads, a group of back of heads rising and falling like water surface leaves, whispering in low voices.

“I'm not a demon, why should I be responsible?”

“Anyway, my conscience is clear…”

“Keep your voice down, this is the Holy Grandson's instruction, be careful the Holy Maiden strikes you with lightning.”

Seeing the villagers discussing, Hohen didn't stop them. It's better to say what's on your mind than to keep it bottled up.

His establishment of the Holy Ten-Household System was a last resort. With the ignorance and blindness of these commoners, it was too easy to incite them. Yesterday's events were proof of that.

Hohen didn't have his own base to use as tentacles, so he could only use this method to obtain enough sources of information to understand the villagers' movements.

“Of course, this is just a suggestion.” Hohen put his hands behind his back, with a faint smile on his face. “I won't force you to do it. Those who disagree can leave their position now…”

Hearing Hohen say this, many people breathed a sigh of relief, straightened their clothes, put on relaxed smiles, and turned to leave.

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“But—” Glancing at the departing people's pace, Hohen smiled, “As the saying goes, 'Everyone has their own lord.' If you join the ten-household group, you are your own lord, then you automatically get rid of the registered peasant status.”

“Do you want to stand here?”

“Okay, I'll stand here.”

The people who had just stood up to leave immediately turned around, exchanged positions with the people next to them, and sat down again.

“Regardless of whether you are an armed farmer, a registered peasant, or even a vagrant, as long as you join the ten-household group, you will immediately receive fifty mu of land! If you already have it, it will be added on.”

Picking up a stack of bark land grants from his hand, stamped with a radish seal that read “Commissioned by the Holy, to Benefit Life and Death”.

Hohen confidently held up five fingers to them, “Don't worry about fulfilling it. The Church worships my Holy Mother as the main deity, and the servant's land is naturally the master's. The Holy Mother is also a virgin goddess, and only has me as a son. In the end, the Church's land will be mine sooner or later, and I can dispose of it however I want!”

Anyway, once the flood recedes, I'll run away. Where are you going to find me to fulfill it?

As long as nothing goes wrong before I escape.

Moreover, in order to obtain enough food from the forest, Hohen had to improve their discipline and organization.

Otherwise, they'd be startled at every little thing, and Hohen would have to personally micro-manage everything, which wasn't a good solution.

Hearing Hohen's words, many villagers' eyes lit up, as if they had opened a new world.

“Oh, right, the Holy Father doesn't have a wife, and the Holy Mother is a virgin goddess. This family is going to die out, no wonder they are adopting the Holy Grandson as their adopted son.”

“Then according to this, the world was created by the Holy Father, then the world will be our Holy Grandson's sooner or later.”

Seeing the villagers' logic fall apart, Hohen didn't stop or refute them.

After yesterday's baptism, he understood the cognition and ideas of these villagers.

They weren't intellectually inferior. On the contrary, from the time they deceived Jeanne to 'borrow' money, it was enough to see their shrewdness.

The blindness and stupidity they exhibited were only due to the limitations of their vision and knowledge, which prevented them from making actions that exceeded their understanding.

The ephemeral mushroom doesn't know the dawn and dusk, and the cicada doesn't know the spring and autumn.

Hohen could only communicate within their framework, otherwise, it would be impossible to communicate at all.

Continuing to put on a classic divine smile, Hohen clapped his hands proudly, interrupting their discussion. “I've finished speaking, who agrees, who opposes? Those who agree don't need to say anything, those who oppose please raise your hand.”

Saying this, Hohen deliberately waited for three to five seconds. The villagers either looked down at the ground or looked at each other.

“Since that's the case, then it's settled. You each elect your own ten-household head, and come to me for a meeting after lunch. I'll provide the food for lunch.”

ps adaptation is not random editing, there were also vagrant problems in real European history, see 'Research on the Problem of Vagrants in England in the Early Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries' for details