Chapter 15
** The Strange Lord**
**<Winter Preparation 1>**
**Content:** A harsh winter is approaching. As lord, you must prepare so that your people can spend the winter warmly and safely.
Secure sufficient heating resources and food, as well as measures to prepare for unforeseen accidents.
Give your people a warm winter!
**Conditions:**
– Secure Blackwood (charcoal) (3.195 / 100,000 t)
**Rewards:**
– Territory experience: 50
– Lord experience: 50
– Unlock Winter Preparation 2 quest
‘Oh, it’s a chain quest!’
Cliff’s eyes lit up.
He had never imagined this before.
Then he just needed to proceed like this.
Cliff opened his mouth.
“How many more of these kilns can you build?”
“It depends on how much time you give us. If we work together with the people we coordinated with this time, building one kiln… this time, about 8 days should be enough.”
8 days per kiln?
No good. That was just the construction time. The time for a kiln to produce charcoal was about the same.
‘There’s not enough time.’
Winter preparation must be completed before winter arrives, after all.
And this was Winter Preparation 1.
And there was also a Part 2.
There might even be a Part 3. He didn’t know how many there would be, but he wanted to succeed at all of them.
‘The time until winter is roughly 50 days.’
Let’s burn through everything in those 50 days.
To do that, he first needed people to build the kilns.
“If the current team leader takes charge and assigns men to each team, how many can you build?”
“The first time we built one, it took about 11 days. But since we’ve already done it all before… a fast team could do it in 7 to 8 days, and even the slowest within 9 days.”
“9 days, you say…”
Cliff’s eyes sparkled.
They were short on time right now.
For reference, the current ‘team’ consisted of a total of 9 people, excluding Anton who was speaking.
‘10 teams.’
How many people should be mobilized for each team?
When he had recruited soldiers, over a hundred able-bodied men had come forward.
And now, the harvest was also coming to an end. He needed to call them all and put them to work.
“Nigel.”
“Yes, Acting Lord.”
“You, and the mansion’s servants and maids, have all seen how charcoal is produced in the kiln, right?”
“That is true, but…”
Nigel looked as if asking why he would ask that.
Cliff’s eyes sparkled.
“Then I will leave these kilns to you. They must not rest. To produce as much charcoal as possible, the kilns need to keep working hard continuously.”
This was a simple but arduous task.
Above all, because they had to watch over the kilns without sleeping.
“And have the soldiers go out now and each bring back three or four able-bodied men. We’re going to put them to work, and during that time, they’ll be fed well. Not only during the work, but after the work is done, each will receive a bag of wheat.”
In this era, a lord had the right of conscription.
He could call upon the people and order them to perform labor. There was no need to pay wages to the laborers, nor to provide them with food.
Truly absolute power.
They had to come when the lord called, work, and buy their own food or bring their own lunches.
‘It’s truly unfair. From my perspective, it’s good, but after all, all of this is to save people.’
He was willing to provide rations even without the labor.
In the first place, if he didn’t, people might die from the intensity of the labor. The people here were all malnourished.
‘If only I could give them meat as well…’
Unfortunately, that was difficult.
Still, it was fortunate.
Thanks to the trade with the merchant Tom and the subjugation of Beluman, the territory had enough food. Also, since there were no taxes this year, each household should be more affluent than usual.
A large-scale public project in place of taxes.
‘Before that…’
Cliff examined his status window.
The largest status window was the territory status window.
—
**[Elimeas Territory (Lv. 3)]**
**[Economy (Lv. 1)] [Military (Lv. 1)]**
**[Culture (Lv. 0)] [Environment (Lv. 1)]**
**[Mana (Lv. 0)] [Special (Lv. 0)]**
**[Diplomacy (Lv. 0)] [Education (Lv. 0)]**
**[Remaining Points: 1]**
—
‘First, shall I look at Environment?’
The Environment category level had increased automatically.
Thanks to that, he gained skill points.
—
– **Fertile Land (Lv. 0):** Improves soil quality, increasing crop growth speed and quality.
– **Resource Regeneration (Lv. 0):** Slows the depletion rate of resources such as forests and rivers.
– **Quarantine (Lv. 0):** Reduces the occurrence rate of epidemics and pests.
– **Climate Immunity (Lv. 0):** Grants creatures resistance to heat and cold.
—
‘Oh!’
There wasn’t a single one he didn’t desire.
Still, he excluded number 2 for now.
‘I don’t yet feel the depletion of resources.’
With the current number of people, that was out of the question.
He needed more people.
Only then could he feel the consumption of resources.
‘So from a purely immediate perspective, Climate Immunity is correct…’
An increased chance of surviving the cold winter.
It wouldn’t make them warm in winter or cool in summer, but it would increase their resistance to heat and cold.
Nothing was more important than this for winter preparation.
‘For now, skill points are 3.’
He had to invest at least one of them.
So his choices were Climate Immunity 2 and Quarantine 1.
Again, he did not choose Fertile Land.
‘There will be another chance to raise it later.’
First, preparing for winter came first.
Colds are also an epidemic (?), so Quarantine might be right.
And the remaining one point he invested in Military.
‘This time, physical training!’
Physical strength could be increased just by training hard.
But as expected, there was a limit to how much it could increase through training alone.
He intended to put even the soldiers into the labor force. Truly a mobilization order for the entire territory.
There were no exceptions, not a single one.
“Here.”
When the work began, Cliff handed Theobald a shovel.
For a moment, Theobald seemed to think about Cliff’s intention.
He took the shovel offered to him.
“We’re going to dig the ground.”
“……Am I doing this too?”
“Of course. Did you forget that you’re the finest labor force in our territory?”
Theobald frowned.
‘Finest labor force, my eye. He truly thinks of me as a slave.’
But he had no choice.
He picked up the shovel. And as Cliff said, he headed to where the workers were gathered.
The person who had become the team leader was giving instructions on what to do.
First, the task was to flatten the ground.
“Our team finishes first!”
The team leader was full of ambition.
Naturally.
He was also a slave. Originally captured by Beluman, he was later owned by the lord.
He had been able to avoid leaving his hometown, but instead became a slave.
That was the situation of most of the workforce who had built the first kiln.
So Cliff declared.
“The team that finishes first, I will grant them freedom. How about that?”
Of course, this did not apply to Theobald.
“Even if the others become free, they’ll still become my people, but you’re different, aren’t you?”
Cliff explained the reason like this.
Because Theobald was someone who would leave soon.
Theobald gripped the shovel and took a stance. But instead of starting to work, he stopped.
‘What is this?’
He saw an unbelievable sight.
And it wasn’t just him. All the workers were the same.
“A-Acting Lord?”
What lord in the world would be among them holding a shovel?
“Why are you just standing there staring? Not moving your hands right away? You don’t intend to treat me, a noble, as a spectacle while you laze around, do you? This territory is truly strange. When a superior works, isn’t it normal for the inferiors to work with their hands moving so fast they’re a blur?”
Cliff chided them and began shoveling.
At his words, the people couldn’t stop him and picked up their shovels. The team leader, who had been subtly giving orders, also grabbed a shovel.
Only one person wasn’t moving: Theobald.
“……Master, you’re working too?”
“Of course. If you’re the best labor force in our territory, then I’m the second best. For the work to be finished even a day sooner, you and I need to shovel quickly. More than that, your master is working like this, and you, a servant, aren’t resting a bit too much?”
Cliff.
He had been a suspicious person from the start.
But today, rather than suspicious, he looked fascinating and even made Theobald laugh.
‘The best labor force…’
It was a strange feeling.
He had heard the same words before. But back then, he had sneered, thinking he was being treated as a slave rather than a knight, but now it felt heartwarming.
He felt recognized.
That was the feeling.
It reminded him of the moment when, as a child, he had received praise from his master.
“Don’t worry. I, the territory’s finest labor force, will surely not do less work than you, Master, even if I rest a little.”
“Oh, really? Shall we make a bet?”
“What kind of bet?”
“If you win, I’ll let you bathe in warm water today. Hey, team leader. You’re the judge.”
Cliff resumed working as he spoke.
At Cliff’s attitude, Theobald laughed once more.
“Fine. I accept that bet. It seems I’ll be bathing in warm water today for the first time in a while.”
“I’ll throw in some slime, too.”
“Then I really cannot lose.”
The two who were the territory’s finest labor force.
That statement was not wrong.
In less than a few hours, the leveling work was all finished. A task that had been estimated to take up to two days was completed not even in a single day, but in half a day.
“……I lost, I lost.”
Cliff raised both hands.
Because work had started late, it was already evening.
It was time to stop working now.
“Everyone, disperse and get plenty of rest. So you can work again tomorrow. Good work.”
Cliff dismissed the laborers.
“Let’s go. I’ll let you bathe, as promised.”
—
* * *
Cliff kept his promise.
However, it was in a way Theobald could never have imagined.
“……Are you fond of men?”
“No way.”
“Even if it’s not true, such a rumor will spread.”
Right now, two men were in the bathtub together.
Cliff chuckled and spoke.
“The fact that you refused flowers and called a man means it’s that serious.”
“Who cares? And even if it were true, no one would dare spread such a rumor. Your face is terrifying enough. If they don’t want to die, how could they gossip about you and me?”
Crack.
Something about the way he spoke was unpleasant.
But one thing was certain.
‘He’s truly an unfathomable person.’
Acting Lord Cliff.
He was curious.
Why he went through such hardship.
“Why… why are you going through all this trouble, even using your own body? Even without doing this, this winter wouldn’t pose a threat to you or the lady, would it?”
“Hmm. That’s true, but… living alone is no fun, isn’t it?”
Cliff answered after a moment of thought.
“I want to save everyone. I don’t have a hobby of looking at corpses. When I see people who seem destined to die in droves this winter if left alone, how can I just stay still?”
Because of that thought, he personally picked up a shovel and joined the worksite?
He truly was a strange lord.
Yes, truly an idealistic lord.
