HTLCCBFT Chapter 70

Has The Lord’s Career Chart Been Filled Today? – Chapter 70

After briefly explaining to Jonathan, Oliver left with Noel.

Jonathan stood dazedly in place, facing the direction they had disappeared, rooted like a crude wooden carving.

He didn’t know how much time had passed before he moved again… he slowly knelt down, pressing his hands hard against his face.

But no matter how much force he used, he couldn’t stop the tears that kept rolling from his eyes.

How incredible, Jonathan thought.

He had believed his tears had long dried up—either during those years of enduring famine, or when he was forced to sell all his remaining property just to obtain a little grain from the second Lord’s granary.

After falling from commoner to slave, he not only faced scorn and contempt from his former peers but also endured countless beatings for his “arrogance”—qualities that set him apart from ordinary slaves.

When the vicious steward first rained blows upon him, he would try to dodge and secretly resent… But as it happened more frequently, he grew completely numb.

If even the lower-class commoners in Laina were struggling to survive, who would care about the lives of slaves?

And with famine everywhere, food prices soared rapidly. More and more people voluntarily sold themselves into slavery just for a mouthful of food.

The Lord didn’t care if the number of slaves in his territory decreased.

After all, if there weren’t enough, he could easily buy more new slaves from elsewhere at a small cost.

The only belief that kept Jonathan going was that if he worked harder, and harder still, he might leave a little more food for his family before he exhausted his strength and died.

Though rationally he knew that his frail wife and crying children likely wouldn’t last long after his death… he was truly at his limit.

He never dreamed that this cursed city would welcome an angelic Lord, bringing a miraculous turn in his fate.

The wicked steward who had unjustly whipped him was severely punished; slaves’ lives improved, their bellies now eighty percent full; the fields yielded an incredible harvest so quickly; and when he gathered the courage to approach Lucy, he actually got the job of raising chickens.

And now, even more…

“Great Cat God,” Jonathan murmured through sobs, slowly removing his scarred hands and no longer trying to hide his tear-streaked face.

“I am willing to offer all my faith and life, only praying that you protect that kind and wonderful Lord.”

The Lord had lit the path ahead for him, giving him a gift of hope…

He was finally living again like a true human being.

Meanwhile, the one to whom Jonathan was so willingly dedicating everything had returned to the castle and was deep in thought over several densely written pages.

It was the next quarter’s farming plan submitted yesterday by Farmur and Rebel together.

By candlelight, Oliver pondered while unconsciously gently shaking the quill in his hand, circling some minor oversights they had made.

Seeing Oliver so dedicated to Laina City’s affairs, Noel felt both a pang of heartache and an indescribable sense of pride.

This was the young lord he served.

—An extraordinary young lord!

At Oliver’s signal, he did not remain in the hall but stood guard loyally and silently at the door.

However, he hadn’t been standing guard for long when he saw the butler Fosse, dressed in formal attire, descend the stairs and approach him at a measured pace.

Noel couldn’t help but freeze.

He and the Lord had been so careful, yet Mr. Fosse had still woken up?

Fosse wore his usual stern expression, as cold and emotionless as ever toward anyone other than the Lord.

Even when facing Noel, the only change was a slight relaxation in the tightness of his thin lips.

As soon as Fosse gave a slight nod toward him, Noel immediately understood: he was being dismissed.

Though feeling somewhat disappointed, Noel obediently nodded and quietly took his leave.

Meanwhile, Fosse raised his right hand, pressing his palm slowly against the cold wooden door. After a long moment, he spoke in a deep voice, “Your Highness, may I come in?”

The person inside clearly recognized his voice at once and seemed somewhat surprised, letting out only a brief “Ah.”

Fosse, who had long been granted permission to enter the master’s chambers without formal announcement, pushed the door open without hesitation upon receiving confirmation.

He smiled.

And then… he froze on the spot.

“Your Highness, what is this?”

Seeing the scene before him, Fosse was uncharacteristically puzzled.

Oliver, who held an exaggeratedly large azure broadsword in his right hand, offered the suddenly arrived butler an awkward yet elegant smile.

He slowly sheathed the sword and explained in a low voice, “……A fly flew in through the window just now. It was rather noisy.”

He thought that if the Cat God truly existed, it could certainly bear witness for him.

This was the absolute truth.

In the halls where nobles resided, there were plenty of luxurious ornaments and expensive incense, but one would never find something as practical as a fly swatter.

As the summer night temperatures rose, the annoying insects inevitably grew more numerous.

Although the castle where Oliver lived was close to vast farmlands, its height was sufficient, and Fosse always meticulously prepared insect-repelling incense. Unless he was working in the fields, Oliver was rarely bothered by insects.

Until just now.

He had been immersed in his thoughts when he was disturbed by the sudden, unmistakable buzzing.

After enduring it for a while, he found it persistently lingered and could bear it no longer.

Just as he was about to send the uninvited pest to heaven, he frustratingly realized… he couldn’t possibly find a suitable “weapon” here.

While weighing the options of “calling in the knight captain guarding outside to drive away the fly,” “rolling up these farming plan papers as a temporary weapon,” or “thinking of another solution,” Oliver chose the last one.

—After failing to find any weapon, he directly summoned the [Cat God’s Sword], which had a wide attack range and sufficient lethality.

He aimed at the moment the reckless fly approached him again and swung the sword without hesitation!

A dazzling blue light flashed, and the fly was instantly killed.

What puzzled Oliver next was that as the annoying buzzing abruptly ceased, he distinctly heard a clear “thud” in his ears.

At the same time, a small pink object replaced the fly’s corpse and quickly fell to the ground.

Oliver instinctively stored the soft-looking item into his game backpack and was about to examine it closely when Fosse’s voice happened to ring out.

Witnessing the scene before him, confusion flickered through Fosse’s deep green eyes before they turned sharp in an instant.

The well-trained former knight captain rushed to the windowsill in one swift movement, his entire body taut like a fully drawn bow, ready to strike at any moment.

Though he couldn’t detect any suspicious traces, he still frowned deeply and cautiously inquired: “Your Highness, was there an enemy intrusion through the window just now?!”

“Yes.”

After Oliver’s straightforward reply, he offered an slightly embarrassed smile to the butler who was treating the situation with utmost seriousness: “…It was a fly.”

Fosse: “…..”

Oliver gradually relaxed and even playfully winked at the stunned butler.

Using a great sword to kill a fly… The extent of this overkill was even more exaggerated than using a cannon to kill a mosquito.

But it had to be said, the [ Cat God’s Sword ] was truly incredibly useful.

—Oh, dear Cat God, all-powerful meow-meow, I shall love you forever.

Oliver thought cheerfully.

Even the experienced butler fell silent for a long moment upon realizing his young master’s extravagant waste of such a divine artifact.

He then calmly summoned the manservant Johan and instructed him to place additional insect-repelling incense by the window.

Reminded by the fly and the “Cat God,” Oliver couldn’t help but ask Fosse: “Fosse, aside from livestock, are there any small animals like cats or dogs in the territory?”

He originally wanted to ask about ‘pets,’ but recalled that even during his time in the royal capital’s court, there were no memories of playing with pets.

After petting that golden cat-eared youth so many times in his dreams, he had genuinely developed a desire to keep a real cat.

After all, when he was still a cat servant in modern times, those majestic, agile fluffballs at his home… would never allow a fly to survive in the room for more than a minute.

“Cats?” Fosse, still immersed in the shock of witnessing “the young master wielding a divine sword to kill a fly,” paused for a moment before responding: “Does Your Highness mean those nocturnal beasts that hunt mice and birds?”

Hearing such a lengthy and awkward description of cats for the first time, Oliver also froze momentarily before nodding slightly: “Yes.”

Fosse faintly furrowed his brows and glanced toward Johan.

Johan, feeling incredibly honored, widened his eyes and hurriedly answered: “Honorable Highness, when even the last bird no longer chooses to fly over Laina’s skies, and the land can no longer grow new crops, causing the rats to disappear… cats gradually ceased to appear as well.”

Without grain, rats simply couldn’t survive, let alone larger domestic animals.

—Those that had narrowly survived during the early stages of the famine were soon cornered by slaves with green-tinged eyes from hunger, who instinctively used water to flood their burrows, scooping out every piece of meat inside.

This was the impact of a suddenly broken food chain.

Noticing the clear disappointment in his young master’s eyes, Fosse immediately declared without hesitation: “If Your Highness desires one, I shall immediately send someone to Gregor City to purchase one.”

Known as the largest city in the southern part of the kingdom, Gregor City was bound to have them.

After brief consideration, Oliver nodded: “Alright, let’s buy a few more.”

As the grain in the fields increased and temperatures rose higher, the mouse population would likely surge rapidly.

Although this wasn’t the true Middle Ages and it was unknown whether plague existed here, having more mice was definitely not a good thing.

Hmm…

Oliver didn’t dare take that risk.

Whether for his personal desire to pet cats or for Laina’s sake, reintroducing the feline species would undoubtedly be beneficial and harmless…

Meanwhile, in the divine realm, the newborn deity froze upon capturing this thought from his beloved believer’s mind.

Golden pupils dilated in stunned silence as the long tail enveloped in luminous tendrils slowly curled inward.

……

…… Oliver……

…… wants to…… get other……

…… cats? ……

……

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