HTLCCBFT Chapter 71

Has The Lord’s Career Chart Been Filled Today? – Chapter 71

The sky soon brightened.

The period just after the sun rose was the most pleasant in terms of temperature.

Oliver observed through the window the people below, led by knights like Kane, running in a straight line along the ridges outside the fields. A strong sense of déjà vu washed over him.

…It was like a student who had taken sick leave, leisurely propping their chin in the classroom, smugly watching their classmates sweat and suffer through physical tests on the playground.

Having such a cheat-like physique and status was truly embarrassing.

Oliver thought with a cheeky grin.

After witnessing the formidable combat prowess of Fosse and the others firsthand, he felt entirely at ease with their training methods.

After all, he couldn’t offer much constructive advice in these areas… He certainly couldn’t have the slaves doing calisthenics or mimicking military drills.

Strengthening their bodies was only the first step.

Labor and exercise were entirely different things. Moreover, the slaves had long been subjected to excessive labor, and even though they had gained a little more flesh recently, they were still terribly weak.

Once their physical fitness improved slightly, the slaves would no longer be eligible for further training—no matter how much the knights obeyed his orders, they would never stoop to imparting all their skills to slaves.

It was already a great honor for commoners that the knights were willing to reveal even a fraction of the training they had received in their early years.

But the slaves themselves didn’t need to participate in wars between lords, so there was no need for them to learn combat skills.

Oliver soon shifted his gaze from the increasingly disordered running line and smiled at Fosse. “Fosse, accompany me to check on the prisoners.”

Fosse bowed willingly. “Yes, Your Highness.”

Just as Oliver was about to rise, he paused and added, “Bring Rebel and Farmur along as well.”

He had already reviewed the autumn plowing plans submitted by the two and returned them with some revisions.

However, when they had initially drafted the plans, he hadn’t asked them to include the reclamation of wasteland, which had been temporarily shelved due to a lack of manpower.

Now that conditions had changed, the scope of cultivation needed to be expanded.

Although this meant more work for Rebel and Farmur… who was he if not the “client” and the Lord?

Oliver naturally brought the two along without a second thought.

Two days had passed since the prisoners were confined to the wasteland enclosed by the stone fence.

While still some distance away, Oliver could already see the newly built houses.

Though crude due to poor craftsmanship and materials… they at least provided basic shelter from wind and rain.

After completing this task, the prisoners dared not act recklessly. They simply squatted in front of their houses, waiting for further instructions.

This was Rebel and Farmur’s first time visiting the area where the prisoners were held.

As the tall stone fence came into view, similar looks of astonishment appeared in their eyes.

Huh…

Farmur’s expression grew solemn, and his originally cheerful mood gradually turned heavy.

He had roughly guessed what the Lord expected them to do.

Many thoughts swirled in Farmur and Rebel’s minds. Soon, they came to a halt before the stone fence.

Huh?

Where’s the entrance?

The moment this doubt surfaced in Farmur’s mind, he watched in disbelief as the beautiful blond lord nonchalantly pulled out… a familiar pickaxe.

In full view of his companions and the prisoners inside, Oliver—with a brute force that starkly contrasted his elegant appearance and demeanor—neatly smashed open a section of the fence.

In the blink of an eye, he stored the broken fence piece into his bag.

Bathed in the prisoners’ fearful yet reverent gazes, Oliver smiled gently at his two stunned new right-hand men: “Come in.”

After his followers numbly stepped into the enclosed area, Oliver naturally retrieved the stone fence from his inventory and reinserted it into place.

To him, this was indeed very convenient.

And the calm he displayed—as if this was simply how such stone fences ought to be “opened.””

Farmur: “……”

After noticing Rebel’s dumbstruck, foolish expression beside him, he struggled to control his facial muscles, unwilling to appear so undignified before his lordship.

Oliver didn’t pay much attention to their state of mind either, instead redirecting their focus to the land beneath their feet.

The hoe in his game backpack currently appeared grayed out.

This meant that, according to the game system’s judgment, this land didn’t meet the “tillable” standard and therefore couldn’t be cultivated with the hoe.

Strictly speaking, the system’s assessment wasn’t wrong, because…

Oliver took the small shovel prepared in advance from Fosse and personally dug into the ground.

Under the butler’s intensely restrained gaze, he utterly naturally poured the handful of dirty soil into his palm and showed it to Farmur and Rebel.

Despite having been moistened by morning dew, this semi-damp soil remained quite hard. Unlike the dark brown of other fields, it held a pale yellowish-white hue.

Most noticeably, its surface was covered with a mottled, very thin layer of fine white powder.

…… It somewhat reminded Oliver of a caramel cake randomly dusted with powdered sugar.

This certainly wasn’t a proper soil profile sample—true profiles for scientific testing had strict specifications and needed to reach at least the water table depth.

But lacking other measurement methods, this direct observation would have to suffice for now.

“What do you call this type of soil?”

Oliver asked the two with some anticipation.

Farmur and Rebel’s hearts sank slightly.

After a moment of silence, Rebel finally provided the answer—one that would surely disappoint the man before them—with resigned respect: “Your Grace, this is soil eroded by the white demon. It cannot yield good crops.”

This vast expanse of ashen-white land southwest of the castle hadn’t gone untried by slaves—even commoners—attempting to cultivate it before.

But no matter how diligently they watered or how many different crops they tried… aside from a few inedible weeds, only spring wheat could barely survive here.

Even if they barely survived the spring and summer, if the crops failed to mature and be harvested during the early autumn period, they would quickly wither and die.

Over time, this land with its increasingly whitened surface was abandoned by everyone.

Contrary to the duo’s expectation of seeing disappointment or anger on his face, the blond lord smiled and nodded: “The White Demon?”

Such a classic saline-alkali land being described as soil eroded by the ‘White Demon’—salt—was quite fitting.

“O wise and brilliant Cat God,” Oliver said with feigned solemnity, “In His benevolence, to prevent His diligent followers from starving, He specially taught me in dreams the methods to purify this soil. And to spread the glory of His generosity, you, as the chosen ones, should devote yourselves wholeheartedly.”

If it were severely, or even moderately saline-alkali land, Oliver would be powerless with the current basic biological methods available.

But from his visual assessment, this large tract of saline-alkali land at the southwestern edge of Laina City—twice the size of all the cultivated land currently owned by Laina—was only mildly affected.

With proper irrigation and drainage methods, plus planting suitable salt-tolerant crops, this abandoned land could be reclaimed.

Seeing their blank expressions, Oliver deliberately asked with seriousness: “Can you do it?”

The two immediately snapped out of their daze, unable to conceal their surprise and excitement as they knelt and loudly replied: “Yes, Your Highness!”

Oliver was straightforward, directly promoting Farmur—assigning him the position to freely command over fifty prisoners within this stone fence, effectively making him the so-called “Prison Warden.”

Since Rebel was still a slave, Oliver had him officially serve as Farmur’s assistant until he made more significant contributions and could shed his slave status.

Given Farmur’s gentle demeanor toward people and strict approach to tasks, he was unlikely to give Rebel much trouble.

When working with slaves, Oliver often felt distressed by their hardships, finding ways to give them breaks, extra meals, and reduced burdens…

But when it came to using these prisoners who had once wielded weapons against Fosse and others, he showed no mercy.

Even though they ate much worse than the current slaves—barely enough to avoid starvation—it was still far better than the lives led by former Laina slaves.

After accepting their reality, the prisoners had no complaints about their treatment.

Most of those who remained were originally hired by merchant caravans and forced to join the bandit group midway.

The true profiteers—the soft-skinned merchants and their families—had long been killed by the bandits.

The remaining were mostly farmers who appeared capable of labor and handling weapons.

It was just working in a different place… From the day they were forced to join the bandit group, they knew that if caught, they would surely be hanged on the gallows.

Especially after witnessing the fate of their companions, they were quite satisfied just to be alive.

These prisoners suddenly sent to Laina, willing to work diligently, also helped solve Oliver’s shortage of manpower.

To improve the saline-alkali land, multiple approaches were necessary: implementing water conservancy projects alongside agricultural cultivation simultaneously.

The first step was to level the land to reduce surface runoff and improve the efficiency of subsequent horizontal drainage. During the leveling process, they needed to dig much deeper than ordinary farmland, bringing up the fertile subsoil to form a new cultivation layer while exchanging it with the heavily saline topsoil. The excavated subsoil clods were then broken up using harrow-like farming tools to disrupt soil compaction and reduce salt accumulation.

Regarding water management, considering the saline-alkali land bordered the Laina River to the west and south, they could utilize the downstream section of the southern Laina River as a natural drainage basin while diverting water from the midstream western section for salt leaching and irrigation.

The excavation of horizontal drainage ditches could only begin after land leveling and deep plowing were completed.

Such open-ditch drainage would be fast and effective, requiring almost no technical expertise—its only drawbacks being the heavy labor required and the tendency for ditch slopes to clog or collapse.

Labor was hardly in short supply anyway.

As Oliver patiently elaborated on the coordinated plan for drainage ditches and irrigation canals—even breaking down the seemingly simple “ditch digging” into five bewildering levels like “main canals,” “branch canals,” and “lateral canals”—not only did Rebel’s head spin, but even Farmur had to admit sheepishly that they could no longer keep up.

Though the beautiful divine messenger had so generously and selflessly shared such profound knowledge without reservation… they were simply too foolish to grasp it.

Farmur sighed in profound shame.

—Truly, this was the wisdom of God.

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