Has The Lord’s Career Chart Been Filled Today? – Chapter 35
Oliver, of course, did not hear the silent response from the distant divine realm.
After he had finished talking to himself, he contentedly placed the statue he had been using as a hugging pillow back in its usual spot by the head of the bed.
He lay down on the bed but suddenly thought of something just before closing his eyes, sitting up abruptly once more.
Perhaps from petting the chicks too much, he couldn’t help but grow curious about… something he had never considered before.
Even though he was alone in his bedroom, Oliver felt a guilty conscience as if he were doing something wrong and cautiously glanced around.
Strange—it was just a statue, after all.
He would only take a quick look, just in case… well… he had always subconsciously assumed it was a male cat, but what if it was a Cat Goddess?
Oliver convinced himself and then, as if guided by some unseen force, cupped the Cat God statue with both hands, lifting it slightly, then a bit higher.
The Cat God: ……?
Pure as a blank slate, the newborn deity was utterly unable to comprehend the strange curiosity that had suddenly sprouted in the “wicked cat slave.”
Oliver quickly set it down.
Was it a female cat? Or a young male cat? Or perhaps the cat statue was destined to have no gender?
Oliver couldn’t be sure.
Pretending to be serious, he glanced at the stern-faced golden cat, which held up its right paw as always, and taking advantage of its inability to react, he smiled and said, “Goodnight, dear Cat God.”
Thin eyelids covered the clear, translucent blue gemstones, and in Oliver’s field of vision, the game system’s settlement panel popped up almost instantly.
The stagnant [Fishing] skill had finally reached Level 3, unlocking the recipe for the “Crab Pot.”
Crab Pot: Fisherman, do you wish to reap without sowing? Then try the Crab Pot. Simply bait it and place it in a body of water. The next day, you may find fish or shrimp—or perhaps just algae or trash from the currents.
Oliver only glanced briefly at the materials required to craft a Crab Pot before instantly losing interest—it actually required 2 silver ingots! How extravagant!
He had been in Laina City for over half a month now, and so far, he had only obtained one silver ingot from the Cat God.
How could he possibly squander such scarce silver resources here, just for a few river shrimp?
With little interest, Oliver shifted his gaze to [Farming], which had also leveled up by 1.
The higher the professional skill level, the more experience points were needed for further upgrades, and the more advanced the unlocked items became.
Oliver had calculated earlier that the experience points from harvesting the remaining corn in the fields were far from enough to raise [Farming] from Level 4 to Level 5.
Fortunately, petting the newly purchased chicks had also provided him with a small amount of experience—just enough to level [Farming] to 5, granting him a permanent buff: “Crop selling price increased by 10%.”
Though it seemed quite good, it was of no use for the time being.
Only when Laina City truly had a surplus of grain could he consider selling a batch during this period of soaring food prices to improve the city’s financial situation.
No need to rush.
Oliver sighed silently, closed the settlement interface, and allowed himself to sink into a deep dream. From the second day onward, while the second batch of corn in the fields had yet to ripen, Oliver fully embraced his role as a chicken-caressing maniac—he quickly discovered that the system’s standards for the “petting” action were set remarkably low. Simply brushing his palm swiftly over the chicks as they huddled together for warmth was enough to fulfill the requirement.
Of course, Oliver wasn’t heartless enough to leave Lucy alone to manage the entire brood. He allowed her to personally select two serfs as assistants.
This was both an aid to Lucy and a form of training and testing for her.
In his plan, once the first batch of chicks matured and began laying eggs and brooding, the scale of the poultry farm could be expanded. By then, these two helpers could be reassigned to officially begin their duties.
Though Lucy hadn’t keenly discerned the Lord’s intentions, she was deeply humbled by this show of trust.
She would rather die than disappoint the Lord—so after being granted this authority, she approached the selection of her assistants with far greater caution than anyone could have imagined.
In the end, the chosen ones were Jonathan and Ziken[mfn]like ‘chicken'[/mfn], both former freemen who possessed some basic literacy.
Oliver had expected Lucy to choose the neighborly aunt who had previously helped her, so he was surprised to see two dark-skinned, stern-faced middle-aged men. Curious, he asked, “Why did you choose them?”
Lucy’s face flushed instantly, and she replied nervously, “Honorable Lord, may the Cat God protect you today as well! It’s like this… they were the first to gather the courage to ask me about raising chickens, and when I was burning wood, they observed most attentively and learned the fastest.”
At the very least, this proved they possessed some aptitude and demonstrated seriousness and initiative toward the work.
“Hmm.”
Oliver gave her an encouraging, gentle smile. “Well-reasoned and justified. Good.”
Before an overwhelmed Lucy could express her gratitude, he slightly turned his head toward the two anxious serfs. “These chicks are very important to Laina City… I hope you will not disappoint the Cat God’s protection nor miss Lucy’s expectations.”
Jonathan and Ziken knelt on the ground, bowing deeply. “Yes, Honorable Lord.”
Indeed, anyone could see how much importance the Lord placed on these chicks.
Not only did he visit the chicken coop daily, his fair, slender fingers gliding over each lively chick like strings of an instrument to check their condition.
He also periodically had adjustments made to the coop’s structure and interior additions, changed the bedding to control humidity, and meticulously oversaw the duration and angle of daily natural light exposure, along with the chicks’ food and water intake.
No serf dared neglect their duties; instead, they worked diligently every day, fearful of being unable to answer the Lord’s questions.
Oliver was quite satisfied with their work ethic and the progress of the chick-rearing.
Lucy was exceptionally diligent and eager to learn, with high comprehension that rarely required him to repeat instructions twice.
The chicks grew robustly at a visible pace, many already developing primary wing feathers of varying colors.
Even the few listless young cockerels from their first days had quickly regained health under Lucy’s attentive care. They were now pecking and moving about normally.
Although the coop housed two hundred chicks, it was spacious enough, well-ventilated, and maintained in excellent hygienic condition.
The downy feathers, warmed by the summer sun, carried a pleasant scent of sunlight and were not unpleasant in the slightest.
The chicks, with their soft yellow down and plump, round bodies, were inherently adorable creatures that lifted one’s spirits.
After confirming that Lucy was becoming increasingly proficient, Oliver gradually reduced his time in the chicken coop—only making a brief appearance each day, purely to pet the chicks for the experience points.
Compared to the still unremarkable chicks, the hens he personally petted showed a stark contrast when set against the few he had gifted to Lucy.
In the years before Laina City was cursed with frequent changes of lords, commoners occasionally had some spare money to buy a few hens from merchants, providing their households with fresh eggs.
Under normal circumstances, hens that had endured the hardships of long-distance travel with merchant caravans would not lay eggs or even peck at food for the first few days after arriving in Laina City.
Yet, the twenty speckled hens petted by the Lord began laying eggs the very next day.
In sharp contrast, the five large hens that had not been touched by the beautiful divine favor recipient but were directly gifted to Lucy, though equally plump in appearance, took four or five days to gradually start eating and laying eggs.
This was a divine miracle visible to all!
Unbeknownst to Oliver, this small comparative experiment quickly spread among the slaves in private.
After patiently observing for a full seven days, he finally confirmed that the hens he had petted not only showed significantly better appearance and mental state but also increased their egg-laying frequency from the normal every-other-day pattern to one egg per day.
Once the experiment was complete, Oliver ceased treating them differently. Each time he visited, he would casually pet the five hens gifted to Lucy as well.
The reason was simple—no matter how small the experience points seemed, they were still experience points.
Since it was effortless, he considered it a way to accumulate little by little.
Of course, the focus of Laina City’s farm was to rely on scientific breeding methods and not depend solely on him petting chickens every day.
But Oliver did not know that his actions made it clear to everyone—the five hens belonging to Lucy, once petted by the Lord, also began laying eggs daily from the very next day!
“As expected of His Highness, blessed by the great Cat God.”
“How enviable those hens are.”
“Haven’t you heard? Their lives are truly luxurious. They eat crushed dried corn kernels, their living space is cleaned every two days, and they drink clean river water filtered through gravel.”
“The Lord is truly remarkable, even raising chickens with such meticulous care.”
“But after following the Lord’s teachings, the results are indeed far better than our previous haphazard methods… Before today, I never would have believed that so many chicks could survive without a single loss!”
“Sigh, if I had been touched so gently by the Lord’s hand, I wouldn’t want to die either.”
“By the Cat God above! What nonsense are you spouting? I think you want a taste of the guards’ clubs!”
“Don’t mind that lunatic—he’d never dare say such things near the guards.”
“Anything touched by the Lord, whether crops in the fields or birds running on the ground, grows faster than anything else…”
“That is the divine favor granted only to our benevolent Lord by the great Cat God! Oh, mighty Cat God, please protect our wonderful Lord, protect Laina!”
The plump, glossy-feathered hens strutting proudly through the cornfield would often see those strange two-legged creatures staring at them, muttering among themselves before inexplicably bursting into prayer songs.
After eyeing them warily with their dark, beady eyes for a moment, the hens would eventually strut away disdainfully.
Time flew by, and soon it was the 21st of Summer.
Tomorrow marked the end of the Summer Market, and all the vendors would pack up their goods to begin their journeys home over the following days.
To their deep disappointment, the Lord—whose beauty surpassed their meager imaginations and whose nobility shone brightly—had not returned to the market since that day.
This meant the expensive goods they had specially brought were likely doomed to remain unsold, making their trip a wasted effort.
Of course, they had considered seeking an audience at the castle by offering gifts: with other greedy noble lords, this tactic always worked without fail.
Unfortunately, it proved futile here—everyone was turned away by the stern, imposing steward with an icy demeanor.
Oliver truly had not visited the market again.
After the summer farming tasks were temporarily completed, he divided his attention mostly between raising chicks and fishing while waiting for the second batch of corn to ripen.
He had no choice but to do this… simply because Laina City was too poor.
Oliver thought helplessly.
Unless he dipped into secret funds, browsing the market would only make him covet things he couldn’t afford for now.
