Morris had discovered she was pregnant last June. Overjoyed, Fatty Shi — while the caravan was passing through the capital of the Andinak Kingdom, the former imperial capital — had summoned Bodfeng,
On February eighth this year, in Kobe City, on a night of driving rain and snow, Morris gave birth to a fat baby boy for Fatty Shi.
He remembered how everyone had gathered around to congratulate Fatty Shi. Lorist, wearing a smile that boded no good, had suggested that Fatty Shi name his son "Shnubi." The unsuspecting onlookers had cheered enthusiastically, thinking it a wonderful name. But Fatty Shi, upon seeing the look on Lorist's face, had refused without hesitation. Years of friendship had taught Fatty Shi to read Lorist well — whenever he wore that particular smile, he was always cooking up some mischief or prank. This left Lorist feeling quite disappointed...
Even lying in bed, Fatty Shi still fretted over the relocation of personnel, the transport of supplies, and the development of the wasteland. Lorist patted his hand and said, "Rest easy. I'll take over the matters outside. Just focus on recovering your health. I'm giving you a month's leave — spend more time with your wife and child..."
It sounded simple enough, but once Lorist fully took over Fatty Shi's duties, he realized just how tedious and overwhelming they were. Reports on matters great and small poured in all at once, each requiring Lorist's final decision and approval. He was run ragged. It took three consecutive all-nighters before things finally settled down.
No — Fatty Shi had brought this exhaustion entirely upon himself. He was practically a cross-world Zhuge Liang, micromanaging everything down to the smallest detail. During the caravan's northward journey, having him oversee everything had been unavoidable, but now that they had reached the family territory, continuing to use the caravan system was just asking for trouble.
Lorist understood Fatty Shi's predicament — newly arrived, with no time to acclimate, he had been thrust into the role without warning. Too polite to order around the family's veteran staff, he had resorted to the caravan system as a stopgap, and ended up working himself into unconsciousness.
As the lord, Lorist had no such reservations. Having already spent three consecutive nights working until his eyes were red, he was now eager — desperate, really — to lighten his own burden. He ordered that Steward Hanske,
Lorist got straight to the point with those assembled. "Today, the Fengle Plains Development Committee is hereby established. All of you present are now committee members. Several departments need to be formed, and I will announce the heads of each. Steward Hanske will serve as head of the Statistics Department. All planned allocations of personnel, materials, and funds must first be reported to him for verification before approval can be granted for their transport."
"Steward Speer will serve as the overall supervisor of all warehouse stockpiles, materials, and funds, responsible for the storage and distribution of supplies and assets."
"Steward Kodan will serve as Personnel Supervisor. The staffing arrangements for every resettlement village fall under his jurisdiction. Additionally, Steward Kodan will be responsible for clearing and registering household records, and maintaining proper personnel files and archives."
"Butler Boris will oversee all general matters for the development of the seven districts in the wasteland — arranging construction, allocating supplies, cultivating farmland, and so forth. In short, he will serve as the overall field commander for development."
"Setterkamp will conduct inspections on my behalf of the three stewards' work and the progress across all seven districts. Furthermore, any criminal or illegal activities arising during the development process will be adjudicated and executed by him according to family regulations, with the exception of death sentences, which must be submitted to me for approval. All other matters he may decide and dispose of on the spot."
"As for those administrators from the caravan who served as Fatty Shi's deputies, they will now be assigned to the relevant departments based on their original areas of responsibility. I'm giving you three days to get each department properly organized, and then carry out the wasteland development plan as Fatty Shi originally laid it out."
Finally, Lorist clapped his hands and encouraged everyone to work hard. Once the Fengle Plains development plan was complete, a bright future and promising prospects awaited them all. First, each of the seven districts would establish a district office, with positions such as district chief to be recommended by the department heads and then appointed by Lorist. Second, a select group of outstanding civil officials would be granted the honorary title of knight, making them members of the nobility. Third, Lorist would score the civil officials based on their performance, and at the end of each year, their bonuses would be determined according to their accumulated points.
Faced with Lorist's three great incentives — official positions, honor, and bonuses — every person at the meeting was galvanized with enthusiasm. They all declared that they would devote themselves wholeheartedly to the great cause of the family's revival, sparing no effort until their dying breath. They would tackle any obstacle that arose, and if none existed, they would create one just to tackle it. They assured the lord to rest easy, and so the meeting concluded successfully.
Lorist went back and slept for a day and a night. After waking, he spent half the day reading and drinking tea to pass the time. In the afternoon he returned to his office, only to find another massive stack of parchment documents piled on his desk.
The first document was submitted by Steward Kodan. It stated that if they were to compile household registrations and files for over five hundred thousand new settlers, the family simply didn't have enough parchment, and the cost would be astronomical. Therefore, a subordinate in Steward Kodan's personnel department had proposed an alternative: producing a batch of uniformly sized thin wooden tablets for registration purposes, with the records to be copied onto parchment later when conditions allowed.
In the document, Steward Kodan recommended a reward of five gold Forde coins for the person who had come up with this idea, and attached an estimate for establishing a wooden tablet workshop — the required number of carpenters, the costs, projected at one hundred gold Forde per year. He submitted this to Steward Hanske's Statistics Department for review.
Steward Hanske deemed the proposal sound, verified the costs, and affixed his seal. But he didn't dare make such a decision on his own, so he forwarded it to Lorist for final approval.
What was there to deliberate? One hundred gold Forde per year could buy at most five thousand sheets of parchment, while this workshop could produce fifteen thousand writing tablets per month. The choice was obvious. Lorist wrote "Approved" on the document, signed it, and stamped it. One matter resolved.
The next several documents dealt with what Lorist considered trivial matters of little consequence. Some had already been handled and were brought to him merely for record-keeping, while others had been kicked up to him by their respective departments when the supervisors couldn't reach a decision. Though there were far fewer than the past two days, Lorist still found processing these documents exhausting and tedious.
"Damn it, how is something this important buried at the bottom?" Lorist was furious.
It was a joint report from Ross Josk and his party, who were clearing beast packs from the wasteland. The report stated that they had currently cleared up to the Third District, killing a great many beasts, with their carcasses piled into mountains — estimated at close to ten thousand head. However, most of these were herbivorous magical cattle, magical sheep, and magical antelopes. The report requested that the beast carcasses be disposed of as quickly as possible, lest the increasingly warm weather cause them to rot and go entirely to waste...
What were called "magical beasts" were, in Lorist's view, nothing more than wild animals. Perhaps in legend they could breathe fire and summon wind from their feet, but with the decline of magical civilization, these beasts had long lost their once-magical instincts. After thousands of years of evolution, they had simply become more ferocious, tougher-skinned, and more aggressive.
The reason they were still called "magical beasts" was precisely their aggressive nature. Forget the carnivores — even the herbivorous wild cattle and wild sheep would launch attacks the moment you entered their territory. That was why they were called magical cattle, magical sheep, and so on.
"Reidi, get me the three stewards," Lorist commanded, clearly angry.
The three stewards quickly arrived at Lorist's office. He tossed the report at them and demanded, "What's going on? How has such an important report gone unprocessed until now?"
"My lord, none of us had seen this report..." the three replied.
"Hm?" Lorist took the report back and checked the date, only to realize he had made the mistake himself. It was from three days ago, before the three stewards had even established their departments. It was perfectly normal that they hadn't seen it. He had been so busy working three consecutive all-nighters that it had slipped through the cracks.
"Fine. So how should we handle this now?" Lorist hastily deflected from his own oversight.
"My lord, we should immediately assemble people with butchery skills and send them to the Third District to process the carcasses. We should also dispatch women skilled in tanning hides, making smoked meat, and preparing sausages to process all that beast meat. It can serve as our food reserve and supplementary rations," Steward Hanske suggested.
"Good. All three of you, get on this immediately. Compile the personnel lists and material allocations, and dispatch everything to the Third District as quickly as possible. Have Setterkamp take charge of this for now," Lorist nodded.
"My lord, we may not be able to spare family armed forces for an escort..." Steward Kodan said.
"It should be fine, right? The First, Second, and Third Districts have been mostly cleared already. There shouldn't be any beast packs left," Steward Speer said.
"I'm worried about stragglers. These people won't have the nerve to face magical beasts. If they run into even one, it'll be chaos."
"Fine. Send orders to Baisha. Have her lead the women's garrison to escort these people to the Third District. Right now her unit is the only one without duties. She's already a Silver Two-Star, so as long as she doesn't run into a fiend-class beast, there shouldn't be any problems. Once they've finished with the Third District, have them continue to the districts below. There are four more to go — they're vast, and there are plenty more beasts." Lorist gave his orders.
"Yes, my lord."
Early the next morning, Lorist arrived at his office. He had barely begun reviewing a few documents when Bodfeng came calling.
"My lord..." Bodfeng performed a knight's salute.
"Oh, it's Bodfeng. By the way, has the supply transport been completed?" Lorist looked up and was delighted to see him.
The supplies Lorist referred to were still piled up at Count Spencer's transit depot. The critical provisions, valuables, funds, and personnel had long since been brought into family territory through
While they were called "miscellaneous," many of these items were actually quite valuable — for instance, the furniture stripped from the Grand Duke's mansion and that enormous bed large enough to sleep five or six people, painstakingly crafted by master artisans. They had simply been left for last because they were difficult to transport.
"My lord, about another month. Right now there are only two squadrons — a thousand men — and nearly a thousand horse-drawn carts left over there. At two round trips per day, it'll take at least a dozen more trips to finish," Bodfeng replied.
Full alert status. Though nearly a hundred thousand people had already been sent to the developing wasteland, the remaining four hundred-odd thousand migrants were placing enormous pressure on the heavy armor corps, which numbered fewer than ten thousand.
"Did you come because something happened?" Lorist asked.
"Oh, no, my lord. The migrant camp and supply transport are both going well — very smoothly, in fact. I came to ask how we should handle the territory nobles and knights captured during the last battle." Bodfeng placed a thick stack of documents on the desk.
"God, another huge pile of documents..." Lorist groaned, flipping open the topmost one. A familiar name appeared before him — Count Spencer.
"By the way, Bodfeng, what's the story with this old man? Why did he suddenly decide to oppose our
"We questioned him, my lord. The old count claimed he acted out of justice and the honor of the nobility, answering the call of the Northland Grand Duke. He even volunteered to be the first to attack our Rock Fortress, losing around four hundred of his garrison soldiers in one fell swoop. After that, he became a toothless tiger — everyone in the lord's coalition bullied him. In the end, humiliated beyond endurance, he took his remaining troops back to his territory, where we wiped him out completely," Bodfeng replied.
"For the honor and justice of the nobility? Who'd believe that!" Lorist said dismissively.
Bodfeng chuckled as well. "In the end, his steward revealed the real reason. My lord, didn't you hang a baron named Farrad on charges of murdering our messenger?"
Lorist nodded. "That's right. I did."
"The steward said that Baron Farrad had always been very respectful toward Count Spencer. The old count had even wanted to marry his widowed daughter to Baron Farrad. Then you went and had Baron Farrad hanged. Count Spencer was furious — he believed you had no right to execute a territory noble of the same rank over the deaths of a few messengers, which was no big deal. If it hadn't been for the fact that the forces you dispatched at the time were more than he could handle, the old count would have launched an attack right then and there."
"So the moment Duke
"How many people are there?" Lorist flipped through the stack of documents like a deck of cards.
"Sixteen territory nobles and one hundred and twenty-three knights."
"Where is Count Spencer's family?"
"They're locked up together with him. The old count has two wives, a daughter, and a son. The daughter is widowed, twenty-five years old. The son is from his second wife and is fourteen. He had one family knight who was killed in battle at Rock Fortress." Bodfeng provided detailed information.
"How do you know all this so clearly?" Lorist was curious.
Bodfeng's face reddened slightly. "His daughter is very well-mannered. Even in captivity, she's done her best to take care of her parents and little brother. I've seen her whenever I've gone over there..."
"Oh..." Lorist's face lit up with understanding, and a knowing smile appeared on his face.
Lorist reached out and tugged the summoning bell by the wall. Reidi entered.
"Reidi, go fetch Steward Kodan. I have something for him to do."
Steward Kodan soon appeared before Lorist.
"Steward Kodan, you'll handle this matter." Lorist handed him the stack of documents, then picked up Count Spencer's file. "Go ask this old man's daughter if she would be willing to serve as a lady's maid to our knight Bodfeng. If she agrees, I can release her parents and brother and let them return home..."
Steward Kodan smiled as well. "Congratulations, Knight Bodfeng."
Bodfeng broke into a profuse sweat and thanked Lorist rather sheepishly. "Thank you, my lord. But the old count and his family won't be able to go home — because his castle and town walls have all been demolished by us. Everything has been stripped bare, and the settlers have all been taken away..."
"What? We tore down his castle and walls? Who did that?" Lorist could understand taking the possessions and the settlers, but demolishing the castle and walls left him genuinely astonished.
"It was Setterkamp. He said that since you needed to build seven towns, you'd require a great deal of standard cut stone. He figured the soldiers garrisoned in the count's territory had nothing to do anyway, so he ordered them to tear down the count's castle and walls and haul all the stone back... Now it's all been reduced to flat ground." Bodfeng looked rather sheepish — he felt the whole affair had been rather underhanded.
Damn, Setterkamp was even worse than Fatty Shi now!
"Never mind. Steward Kodan, go tell the old man's daughter that if she agrees, we can provide her family with a residence within Rock Fortress, and offer the old count's family a yearly pension of one hundred gold Forde as compensation. When conditions allow in the future, we'll either build them a new castle in their territory or reassign them to a new, prosperous holding. That's the best I can offer," Lorist adjusted the terms.
"My lord, there are several other lords whose territories were destroyed when our caravan passed through..." Bodfeng reminded him.
"Let those paupers get lost. Why keep them locked up wasting food? For the rest, have them pay their own ransom. If they don't have money, goods will do. Wrap this up quickly. Bodfeng, go with Steward Kodan so you don't accidentally pick the wrong person," Lorist said with a smile.
"My lord..." Bodfeng's face reddened again.
Steward Kodan bowed respectfully and took his leave.