I, The Dragon Overlord Chapter 62 - Exchanging a Few Tons of Wheat to Play with Elves?

After asking Marches few questions, Louie learnt a little more about the food situation in San Soliel.

When he first saw the buildings of what was once Central City, as well as the manner in which its inhabitants were clothed, he estimated the cultural level of the place to be around the Medieval Era.

In the end he was absolutely right. It seemed that the average level of productivity here was quite poor. Marches and Sisna had reacted so strongly to his plans to share the wheat with the populace because it broke all norms of how the common peasantry was supposed to live.

Processing wheat, particularly in the Middle Ages, was an extremely labour intensive task. Scores of workers would often be required to strip the bran off of the wheat by hand, in contrast to the mechanical techniques for doing so on Earth. Because of this, in San Soliel, refined wheat was a luxury only the nobility could afford. The majority of the populace had to make do with black bread.

How bad was black bread exactly? Taste - which was decidedly unpleasant - aside, it was extremely hard. So hard in fact, that numerous semi-plausible tales of homeowners using it to kill burglars often percolated through villages. It had the firmness of a brick!

Although black bread existed in modern society, it was definitely not the same as that of the Middle Ages.

The bran on the other hand, after being separated from the wheat, was given to pigs on Earth. In a sense, even Earth’s pigs ate better than San Soliel’s peasantry, as the leftovers they would be fed from time to time at least had greater nutritional value than the average San Soliel diet.

Naturally not all levels of nobility could enjoy refined wheat to the same degree. The lower caste would often consume black bread, but would use refined wheat to treat honourable guests.

As a result, the royal families nicknamed white bread as ‘fine, sacred bread’. As for bread made with cream and other ingredients, only the most powerful of nobles and royalty could afford to eat it often, if at all.

With the cons

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