HTLCCBFT Chapter 38

Has The Lord’s Career Chart Been Filled Today? – Chapter 38

Such an infectious song would move even a person with a heart of stone.

This was even more true for Oliver.

Suddenly feeling quite embarrassed, he subconsciously glanced at Fosse, the butler. He blinked, a little at a loss, and pursed his lips, a shy, adorable smile gracing his features.

It almost melted the iron-willed butler’s heart.

“Ahem.” Oliver coughed lightly, a little uncomfortable, and feigned nonchalance as he walked toward the entrance. “Hearing such a song, the great Cat God will surely be pleased as well.”

As he spoke, he continued toward the outside, and the footmen hurriedly pushed open the castle’s main gates.

The moment the great gates swung open, the sight that met their eyes left everyone in the castle stunned.

Flowers.

So, so many flowers.

Besides the sunflowers planted by the Lord’s own hand, all sorts of unknown wildflowers had been carefully picked and placed on the open ground and steps before the castle gates.

The path the Lord had walked upon had converged into a sea of colorful blossoms.

Oliver stared, speechless, suspecting they had picked nearly every wildflower from half the forest.

No one knew when the slaves had slipped away, or where on earth they had found so many wildflowers.

Aside from the planned logging, Oliver had essentially granted those under him the right to use the various resources in the forest, and he had the guards secretly watch for any signs of misuse.

But it turned out his worries were for naught. Having been poor for so long, the people were exceptionally careful and cherished the power they had suddenly obtained.

The vast majority of people who entered the forest would only gather the small amount of firewood and wild fruits they needed, not looking at or taking anything else.

And the wildflowers that bloomed everywhere had once been a favored and important source of food that the famished slaves were allowed to gather for themselves. Although they did little to sate hunger and didn’t taste good, at least most of them were not poisonous.

Yet on this night, the citizens of Laina City had tacitly chosen to pick fresh flowers and pile them before their golden-haired Lord, who was far more beautiful than the vibrant blossoms themselves.

When that beautiful figure appeared at the castle gates, everyone couldn’t help but straighten their backs and proclaim loudly, “May the great Cat God forever bless you, Your Benevolent Highness!”

Oliver looked at the sallow, emaciated faces that were nonetheless brimming with hope and happiness. He then lowered his gaze to the beautiful fresh flowers covering the ground.

Those were probably not flowers, but offerings of devout and humble hearts.

Under everyone’s bated breath, the Angel Duke, who possessed golden hair as brilliant as the morning sun, let the corners of his lips curve upward, slowly revealing a dizzyingly beautiful smile.

He took off his straw hat and, before a protesting Fosse could stop him, bent down and picked up a small, pale yellow flower from the ground.

His fair, slender fingers gently stroked the small petals of the flower, which was now the object of envy and jealousy for countless people.

The sight of the delightful beauty gently caressing the fresh flower was as exquisite as an oil painting that could be hung in a royal court, to be admired with reverence by the most noble of people.

The next moment, everyone heard the angelic Lord, who symbolized all that was good in their hearts, say with a smile: “— And may the great Cat God forever shelter all you hardworking and kind people.”

Of course, Oliver couldn’t possibly accept such a vast number of flowers.

After saying something that made everyone almost faint with joy, he gave an instruction for everyone to take two flowers each from here and bring them home.

“Take them,” the Lord said leisurely. “This is a blessing from the benevolent Cat God to his believers.”

The serfs, who had been anxious, now shyly pushed and jostled their way forward to pick up the flowers and take them home.

Oliver put his straw hat back on and, carrying this wonderful mood with him, went down to the fields to continue harvesting corn.

What truly made him happy wasn’t actually the serfs’ act of repaying his kindness, this gesture of heartfelt devotion.

Everything he had done up to this point, although originating from sympathy, had always been in accordance with his own heart.

Since it was an endeavor from which he himself derived joy and satisfaction, he wouldn’t go out of his way to demand gratitude or future repayment from those who benefited.

What pleased Oliver was that, through the serfs’ act of offering him flowers, he could see that the people living in Laina City, who had endured so much suffering over the years, had not yet become completely numb inside.

Perhaps their feelings had merely been suppressed, or perhaps they had been slumbering and were now awakened… The people had not yet given up on their pursuit of happiness and beauty, and they had their own aesthetic concepts.

In their eyes, pure and beautiful flowers were the only things they could obtain that were worthy of being offered to a god.

And for ordinary people, the beauty of life was the curling smoke from a chimney, the steaming hot food in a pot; it was the firewood piled high by the door, bringing warmth in winter; it was the reward of a bountiful harvest after shedding drops of sweat in the fields.

As long as they hadn’t lost the drive to pursue a better life, everything was fine.

For the entire afternoon, a greatly encouraged Oliver spent his time in the cornfield, tirelessly picking one ripe corncob after another.

But no matter how fast he was, by the time he had gone through all eight hundred-plus corn stalks, the sky had already turned completely dark.

Only at Fosse’s insistence did the Lord, who was engrossed in picking corn, reluctantly tear his gaze away from the sunflowers and return to the castle with everyone.

After a simple dinner, Oliver took a short walk around the castle to aid his digestion, then eagerly made his way to the chicken coop.

The tasks he had scheduled for himself for the day were not yet finished.

When that familiar figure appeared at the end of the stone corridor, Lucy and the two others, who had been leaning against the wall waiting, quickly stood up straight and knelt in salute. “May the almighty Cat God bless you, Your Highness.”

“Mm.”

At first, Oliver had found it a bit strange, but now he was completely used to the superstitious practice of the people here, who constantly mentioned the “xx Cat God.”[mfn]xx can be any positive adjective.[/mfn]

After all, the very first time he had gone down to the fields to pick corn, he had discovered that the serfs, who already believed deeply in the Cat God, would recite prayers with immense piety, whether they were begging for fertile land while irrigating the crops or praying for a sick child at home to recover.

If it were just reciting prayers and singing hymns, it would at most leave Oliver, the only one who knew the truth, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. But when he saw with his own eyes how they earnestly placed the rations they had deliberately saved into the fields, intending them as offerings for the Cat God, he realized this trend had to be corrected as soon as possible.

So, he urgently issued an oracle in the name of the Cat God: “No personal offerings will be accepted.”

With the Cat God’s oracle, the phenomenon stopped overnight.

What concerned Oliver the most at the moment were the chicks in the coop, which had completed their weaning from supplemental heat and were ready to begin training before being let out to range. “Is everything ready?”

“Everything has been done according to your instructions, Your Respected Highness,” Lucy said with the utmost respect.

After the training of the past few days, she was no longer the girl who cried easily, but had become much more mature and steady.

She, along with Jonathan and Ziken, had strictly followed the Lord’s instructions. Several days in advance, they had placed feed troughs in the designated free-range area—a small patch of the cornfield enclosed by small wooden frames covered in bean vines.

Still not entirely at ease, Oliver personally inspected everything one more time before nodding in satisfaction. “You’ve done very well.”

The normal age for letting chicks out to range was actually around 30 days.

There were two main reasons why Oliver was preparing to release the chicks when they were just 21 days old.

One was the season; the other was that close observation had consistently shown the chicks’ growth rate and excellent physical condition surpassed the norm.

One of the greatest advantages of brooding chicks in the summer was the simplicity of keeping them warm: the temperature difference between the inside and outside of the coop was small, and there was ample sunlight.

The chicks didn’t need to wait until they had developed full resistance to the cold before they could adapt to the outside temperature.

Over the past few days, Oliver had mainly tasked Lucy and the others with two things.

One was to gradually increase the duration of natural light exposure to acclimate the chicks to the outdoor environment. The second was to add small amounts of minced green grass and insect larvae, which the slaves had been made to catch, to their feed, gradually increasing the proportion until it made up half of the total feed.

This way, it would ensure that the chicks could quickly recognize wild food sources after being placed in an unfamiliar environment.

Of course, considering that the chicks would inevitably experience stress when first moved to the free-range area, might be afraid to venture out, and their digestive systems couldn’t adapt immediately, Oliver had Lucy and the others place some wooden basins in the cornfield to make it convenient to add feed and water daily.

This was to prevent the chicks that couldn’t find a food source in the wild right away from going hungry.

Upon receiving the Lord’s praise, Lucy couldn’t help but break into a joyful smile.

“For the next seven days, you must observe them carefully,” Oliver instructed sternly. “Feed them three times a day. For the first five days, the free-range feed should be prepared according to today’s formula. After that, gradually reduce the proportion of crushed corn kernels, and aim to complete the transition within the following ten days. But if you find their crops are too empty, you’ll need to readjust the frequency and amount of supplemental feed.”

Lucy’s smile vanished, and she nodded seriously.

After confirming that Lucy had received his instructions, Oliver softened his tone and said with a smile, “Then let’s begin.”

The most suitable time to move the chicks from the semi-enclosed coop to the free-range area was on a warm, clear, and windless night when the chicks were relatively sluggish. To give the fragile chicks plenty of time to adapt, and also to prevent them from being snatched by wild animals or wandering off on their own, the initial ranging area Oliver chose was the small, specially fenced-off cornfield closest to the castle.

Lucy and the other two carefully caught the chicks one by one from the brooder, placed them into temporary wooden cages, and then transferred them to the new, simple coop built beside the cornfield.

These 256 little chicks, which had already grown rudimentary wing feathers, were no longer the same weight as when they were first bought.

They were visibly several sizes plumper—hefty little orbs that could no longer be described as light and fluffy.

By the time the transfer was complete, Lucy and the other two were drenched in sweat, though it was hard to tell if it was from exhaustion or nerves.

“Very good.” Oliver smiled in satisfaction. “Don’t be in a hurry to let them out tomorrow. Wait for me.”

Once they started ranging freely, the only way to quickly pet all the chickens would be before they were let out for the day—and, of course, to wait until the sunlight was ample.

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