Raymond, Lily, Jonathan, and the two other Silver Rank knights walked steadily along the dry, dusty road extending to the east of the town. The two frail guide men led the way, their thin figures wobbling precariously with every step.
To Raymond, it genuinely looked as though a sudden gust of the strong, arid wind sweeping across the wasteland might blow them clean off their feet.Looking at their struggling, hunched backs, Raymond felt a genuine pang of pity.
He quickened his pace, his new physical conditioning as a 5-Star Bronze Knight allowing him to close the distance effortlessly. Within seconds, he was walking side by side with the two guides.
Hoping to ease the tension, Raymond struck up a conversation, keeping his voice gentle.
"What are your names?"
The two men were visibly startled by the sudden approach of their lord. They cast quick, nervous glances at each other, clearly unused to a noble addressing them so casually.
The man walking on the right was the first to find his voice. "My name is Harlan, your Lordship," he muttered, keeping his eyes lowered.
Harlan possessed a deeply lined, leather-like face that seemed permanently etched with exhaustion. His posture was severely hunched, and his hair was a patchy, dry grey that looked like dead grass.
The second man, walking slightly to the left, cleared his throat feebly. "And I am Gideon, my Lord."
Gideon was exceptionally thin, his cheekbones protruding sharply beneath pale, yellowish skin. His eyes were dull and bloodshot, and he lacked several teeth, causing his jaw to appear sunken and hollow.
Raymond smiled warmly at them, nodding his head encouragingly. "Harlan, Gideon. Tell me, how long have you been living in the Althoff Barony? Were you born here, or did you migrate from another part of the Solaria Kingdom?"
Harlan offered a small, weary smile, though he kept his head bowed. "We are natives of this soil, my Lord. We were born and raised right here in this territory. We have been here for thirty years."
Raymond nodded slowly, rubbing his chin in deep, thoughtful silence. He let the information sink in before asking his next question. "And how long have you been working as farmers? Captain Boris explicitly mentioned that you two are the absolute last individuals left in the entire barony who possess any real agricultural knowledge."
Gideon took over the explanation, his voice raspy as he stared down at the cracked earth beneath his worn leather sandals. "We have been trying to farm this land for about ten years, your Lordship. A few years back, although the Zulor Region was still considered a barren exile zone, there were at least a few scattered plots of land where the soil retained enough moisture to grow basic tubers and hardy grain. But now... now everywhere is barren to the absolute bone. The air is so dry that if you were to pour water onto the ground, the heat would dry it up completely before the evening even sets in."
Raymond remained silent, listening intently to the grim reality of his territory. But as he repeated their words in his mind, he suddenly froze mid-stride. A weird, shocking realization slammed into his brain.
He quickly turned his head, staring at Harlan and Gideon with wide, stunned eyes.
"Wait... wait a minute," Raymond stuttered, his voice laced with pure disbelief. "You just said that you have been in this barony for thirty years, and you have been attempting to farm for ten years. If that’s the case... doesn’t that mean..."
Harlan noticed Raymond’s shock and let out a dry, bitter chuckle. "Yes, your Lordship. Your math is entirely correct. The two of us are currently in our early thirties."
"Then why do you look..." Raymond couldn’t even finish his sentence. His voice trailed off as he stared at their heavily wrinkled faces, their grey hair, and their completely deteriorated bodies.
Back on Earth, a man in his early thirties was in the absolute prime of his physical life. Yet, the two men standing before him looked like elderly grandfathers well into their sixties or seventies.
"Why do we look like old men waiting for the grave?" Gideon finished the question for him, his tone dripping with deep, historical bitterness. "It is because of the severe, unending drought and the absolute hunger of this place, my Lord. It has been more than a full year since either of us has seen a proper, nutritious meal. All we have to fill our stomachs are dry tree barks ground into dust, and whatever stale moisture we can squeeze out of desert weeds. Didn’t you notice when you walked through the town earlier? Because of the chronic starvation, even the little children have gone entirely bald, their skin wrinkling up until they look like aging old men before they even hit puberty."
Harlan shook his head, his shoulders drooping further. "Previously, we at least had a small reserve of food resources hidden away in the community granary to feed the weak, but then..."
Harlan abruptly cut his own words short. He froze, his eyes widening in sudden panic as he realized what he was about to say. He stopped talking instantly and cast a sharp, fearful look directly at Raymond.
Raymond didn’t need him to finish the sentence. He immediately understood that look. The community food reserves hadn’t vanished due to bad luck; the previous, degenerate Raymond had forcefully confiscated every single scrap of the peasants’ emergency grain to sell to foreign merchants just to fund his private supply of cheap wine.
Walking a few paces behind them, Lily’s big blue eyes dimmed, and she immediately dropped her head exceptionally low, her small hands clutching her baggy uniform in profound shame for her master’s past actions.
An uncomfortable, heavy silence instantly enveloped the entire traveling group. The only sounds remaining were the eerie howling of the dry wasteland wind and the synchronized, crunching sound of their footsteps clicking against the cracked, parched ground.
A moment later, realizing the severe danger of offending a noble, Harlan broke the silence. His entire body began to tremble violently as he realized he had technically just blamed the lord to his face.
"My Lord! Please, forgive my friend!" Harlan cried out, his voice cracking with pure terror. "He didn’t mean to offend your noble ears by implying such things!"
Harlan frantically reached out, grabbing Gideon’s arm and pulling him down. Without a shred of hesitation, both men dropped heavily onto their knees right in the middle of the dusty road, their bodies shaking as they braced for a brutal beating from the knights.
The entire group came to a sudden halt. The three towering Silver Rank knights stood like immovable monoliths, their hands resting calmly on the pommels of their greatswords, waiting for Raymond’s command.
Raymond stood perfectly still, looking down at the two kneeling men with calm, expressionless eyes.
"My Lord, please show mercy! Forgive my loose tongue!" Gideon pleaded, slamming his forehead directly into the dry dirt, his voice muffled by the dust.
Raymond didn’t yell. Instead, he slowly stepped forward. The deliberate crunch of his boots against the dirt made the hearts of the two kneeling men skip a violent beat.
They squeezed their eyes shut, fully expecting a heavy, armored boot to cave in their ribs.
But the expected violence never came. Instead, Raymond reached down with both hands. He gently patted Harlan and Gideon on their frail shoulders. Using his newly acquired physical strength, he firmly but carefully lifted both men by their arms, forcing them to stand back up on their feet.
The two men stood there, completely stunned. They blinked away the dust from their eyes, looking at Raymond with profoundly confused, bewildered expressions.
Raymond did not display a single trace of anger. Instead, his facial muscles shifted with absolute mastery.
In an instant, his features collapsed into an expression of deep, crushing melancholy and profound self-blame."Do not beg for forgiveness, my subjects," Raymond began, his voice dropping into a somber, shaky tone as he initiated another highly calculated speech. "You have spoken nothing but the absolute, painful truth. I know exactly what I am. I am a piece of trash. An incompetent, selfish idiot who arrived in this land and did nothing but make your lives an absolute, living misery."
Harlan and Gideon’s eyes widened. They looked at each other rapidly, their brains completely short-circuiting at the sight of a high Baron openly degrading himself before common peasants."P-Please, your Lordship, do not say such things..."
Harlan stammered, shaking his head frantically in a panic.
"No, I must say it," Raymond interrupted, his eyes welling with illusory, tragic tears as he looked at their emaciated faces. "You, your families, and every single citizen in that town have every single right to utterly resent and hate my name. It is entirely my fault that you look like old men in your thirties. It is my fault the children are starving. I squandered your lives for my own selfish comfort. I am the one who should be kneeling and begging for your forgiveness."
Raymond then took a sharp, deep breath, his expression suddenly shifting from sorrow to an unyielding, burning determination.
He locked his gaze directly onto their dull eyes, his voice ringing with absolute clarity. "But hear me today, Harlan. Hear me, Gideon. The useless, drunken fool who ran this barony is officially dead. I have changed. From this exact moment onward, I swear upon my bloodline that I will become a better lord for my people. I will not allow a single one of you to suffer or starve under my watch anymore. If I cannot feed this town, I am not fit to hold this title!"
A few paces behind him, Lily’s big blue eyes turned entirely teary. She clutched her oversized apron, looking at Raymond’s back with a mixture of intense awe and profound emotional devotion.
The three Silver Rank knights remained completely silent, but their grip on their swords tightened, their loyalty metrics locking in even further as they witnessed their master’s supreme charisma.
Harlan and Gideon stood entirely frozen. Raymond’s words were so raw, so filled with a bizarre, noble humility they had never experienced in their entire lives, that the deep-seated hatred and negative ninety percent resentment inside their chests began to violently fracture.
For the first time in over a year, a tiny, fragile spark of real hope flickered in their hollow hearts.
Before Raymond could even drop his dramatic pose, a sharp, golden system notification abruptly popped up directly in his field of vision, flashing with an intense brilliance.
[ Ding! ]
[ Congratulations Host! The public targets ’Harlan’ and ’Gideon’ have experienced an extreme psychological shift! ]
[ Target Harlan Loyalty: -100% ➔ 53% (Trusted Subject) ]
[ Target Gideon Loyalty: -100% ➔ 50% (Trusted Subject) ]
[ Ding! Milestone Achieved: First Civilian Conversion! ]
[ Mission Evaluation: C-Rank! ]
[ Congratulations! You have received a Hidden World-Building! Reward: Item Locked. ]