The Minotaur lived this long always being considered a clumsy fellow who only knew how to use strength; he had never received so much attention and expectant gazes from so many people as today.
Moreover, today the noble Lord kindly and gently said many things to him, not showing any disgust at his appearance at all. At noon, she even generously shared with him a small piece of pure white bread.
The Minotaur had tasted bread before, but it was black bread mixed with barley bran and grit, hard as a rock. Without soaking the black bread in water to soften it, it was very hard to swallow, sometimes even breaking teeth.
But the bread the Lord gave was very soft and fluffy, smelling of wheat and milk. It was the type of cake baked by the female cook from the finest wheat flour reserved for nobles, the most delicious food the Minotaur had ever eaten in this life.
Tasting that piece of bread, the sweetness still lingering on the tip of his tongue, even if he died today from overwork, the Minotaur felt that he had no regrets in this life.
So the Minotaur today felt lightheaded as if walking on clouds, but he still remembered his important mission.
Hearing someone ask with suspicion, he hurriedly nodded repeatedly to affirm to everyone, his booming voice full of excitement: "The Lord hunted a very large wild boar today; she said she wanted to share the prey with her subjects, everyone will have a share."
After speaking, the Minotaur secretly added a sentence full of pride: "I also helped make that meat soup; I put the meat into the pot with my own hands."
He was responsible for using his strength to chop the hard pig leg bones into suitable sizes, then putting them into the large pot of boiling soup.
Although it was just a small task in the eyes of others, for the Minotaur, it was something to be proud of, a great honor, enough for him to brag about for a lifetime.
Perhaps later when old, he could tell his grandchildren about helping the Lord make meat soup, standing in the kitchen with the Lord; that would surely receive absolute admiring looks from the little grandchild.
Receiving a definite answer from Angus, the crowd of slaves bustled, whispering chatter spreading across the yard.
That was meat soup, real wild boar meat, something people like them dared not dream of in a lifetime, not even seeing in dreams.
The new Lord just arrived at the territory on the very first day and was willing to share such precious food with lowly slaves like them.
"The Lord is truly a kind and benevolent person; she is a messenger of the gods." Unknown who it was, someone emotionally spoke out the inner voice of everyone.
Thinking of the meat soup soon to be tasted, the slaves whose bodies were originally weary and limbs weak seemed to be injected with more strength, their spirits visibly lifted.
They hurriedly scattered around, digging through the pile of rubble for suitable sharp stones, then returned to learn from the Minotaur how to use stones to plane and hollow the hard wood block into a bowl.
The sound of stone grinding against wood rasped everywhere.
Currently, Jasmine's manpower was not much, professional craftsmen were non-existent, and it was impossible to produce three hundred wooden bowls from thin air before dinner, so she could only use this crude method to let the slaves make bowls for themselves.
After all, she didn't require the slaves' craftsmanship to be excellent or the bowls to be beautiful; as long as the wooden bowl made had a deep bottom and didn't crack or leak soup, it was fine.
Following the orange-red setting sun that hadn't completely set, Jasmine stood on the stone steps not far away quietly observing the crowd of slaves hard at work.
She observed carefully and discovered that among this crowd of slaves of hers, not all were normal humans.
Besides Angus, the Minotaur with curved horns, there were two Dwarves with thick beards and short but sturdy limbs, a tiny Goblin with pale skin and large bulging eyes, and a Half-Elf girl with characteristic pointed ears peeking from behind messy hair; even the dirt on her face couldn't hide her delicate and elegant features.
For a Count's territory located at a distant border, with a number of slaves less than three hundred, a desolate location, this number of demi-humans was considered quite large and diverse.
It should be known that Jasmine traveled all the way from the magnificent Royal Capital to here, passing many bustling towns on the way, but didn't see a shadow of any demi-human; they usually hid very carefully or lived in separate lands.
Unexpectedly, after arriving at the territory, among the slaves under the name of her property, there were suddenly five demi-humans belonging to rare fantasy species.
It could only be said that this place lived up to its reputation as the former territory of a mighty giant dragon, right? Heard that in the deep forest there were ferocious Gnolls specializing in looting, and in the gloomy Withered Forest, terrifying undead creatures were wandering looking for life.
But Jasmine hadn't seen the latter two dangerous things with her own eyes yet, only heard vaguely when the Old Butler introduced an overview of the territory's dangers.
Jasmine curiously looked at those few demi-humans a few more times to evaluate.
The Half-Elf's sense of touch and hearing were the sharpest; she very quickly detected Jasmine's attentive gaze directed towards her.
This startled her; she hurriedly used her dirty and messy hair to cover her pointed ears, lowered her face, her shoulders trembling in fear, afraid that the newly arrived Lord would discover her abnormality and punish her.
For a Half-Elf holding the status of a slave, that half-noble bloodline coming from the Elf side could not help them live well or be respected; on the contrary, it could become a life-claiming charm because their beauty often caught the eyes of evil people.
She had heard that some Half-Elf slaves, after being noticed by lecherous nobles, were taken away and disappeared inexplicably.
When discovered again, those unfortunate Half-Elves had mostly become a dry skeleton in the cold wilderness, or were tortured to death.