Raymond stood perfectly poised at the dry earthen entrance of the town, his soaked silk pajamas clinging heavily to his frame as water steadily dripped from his chin onto the parched ground.
From every narrow alleyway and crumbling residential block, more scrawny townspeople rapidly began to gather around him from all sides, their numbers swelling within minutes into a massive, dense crowd of hollow faces.
Every single one of them possessed a profoundly shocked and utterly confused expression as they stared back and forth between the bone-dry dirt beneath their own sandals and the hundred drenched laborers who looked like they had just been fished out of a deep river.
Raymond let out a soft, low cough to command the attention of the growing assembly, cleared his throat with absolute aristocratic elegance, and immediately launched into a grand, sweeping public speech.
"My dear people, look upon these brave laborers and do not let fear or confusion cloud your hearts today!" Raymond’s booming, resonant voice echoed clearly off the dilapidated red clay walls, carrying a profound weight that demanded absolute silence from the crowd.
"I stand before you to declare that your days of absolute despair are finally drawing to a permanent close, and in exactly one month’s time, every single family in this barony will finally have an abundance of fresh food to eat! I have personally knelt and offered our collective suffering to the glorious Goddess of Life, and in her infinite mercy, she has officially chosen to bless our outer farmland basin! Not only has she split the heavens to grant a torrential rainstorm directly over our crops, but she has also explicitly placed a holy blessing upon the earth, dictating that every seed we have planted today will become fully grown, ripe, and entirely ready for harvest in exactly one month!"
Yes, Raymond was fully intending to pin the upcoming, logic-defying effect of his Time Acceleration Card entirely on the Goddess of Life once again, using her divine name as a flawless shield to hide his true cheat.
According to the system description, the powerful temporal card would forcefully override the natural laws of botany, causing every variant crop buried in that fifteen-hectare basin to reach complete, rapid maturity within a thirty-day cycle regardless of its traditional seasonal lifespan or species requirements.
To these primitive, uneducated peasants who don’t have any idea about the system, an accelerated growth cycle of that magnitude would be viewed as nothing less than a supreme, reality-shattering miracle.
By attributing this upcoming agricultural phenomenon to a widely revered deity, Raymond was perfectly structuring a narrative that would allow him to claim a divine mandate without raising a single trace of suspicion from external forces or religious institutions.
The massive crowd of scrawny townspeople all stared intently at Raymond, their dull, yellowed eyes blinking in a state of utter, paralyzing bewilderment as they looked at the water pooling beneath the boots of the three silent, giant knights.
They were genuinely having an exceptionally hard time believing the words coming out of their lord’s mouth, as the entire concept sounded entirely too absurd to accept at face value.
However, the hundred drenched laborers who had actually stood inside the basin during the emerald storm didn’t remain silent; they immediately began turning to their neighbors, frantically whispering and shouting about the terrifying thunder claps, the sudden appearance of the massive seed sacks, and the thick, mana-infused rain they had just witnessed with their own eyes.
The sensational news spread like wildfire through the ranks of the gathering crowd, sparking an instant, chaotic wave of hushed arguments, frantic murmuring, and deep psychological friction among the citizens.
Predictably, while some of the more desperate peasants instantly started to believe the wild testimonies due to the sheer physical evidence of the water, a large portion of the town remained deeply skeptical, outright refusing to believe a single word.
In their minds, this notorious trash lord of theirs must have simply used his terrifying new knights to brutally threaten the hundred laborers, forcing them to spread artificial lies to improve his public image.
As for the ridiculous detail of them being completely soaked to the skin while the town remained entirely dry, the cynical cynics reasoned that the deadbeat lord must have simply staged the entire thing, forcing his guards to dump massive barrels of well water over the workers’ heads just to pull off a elaborate, pathetic stunt.
Even with this heavy layer of public distrust remaining, a sharp digital chime suddenly rang inside Raymond’s skull as a series of small, transparent blue system notifications popped up across his field of vision.
[ Ding! ]
[ Target Civilian Sector ’A’ Loyalty: -90% ➔ -60% (Hatred Cooling) ]
[ Target Civilian Sector ’B’ Loyalty: -90% ➔ -45% (Skepticism Rising) ]
[System Note: The overall public resentment has decreased slightly due to the visual anomaly. However, the core populace
still requires tangible proof before granting full synchronization.]
Raymond looked out over the murmuring crowd and noted the numbers, completely unfazed by the fact that the loyalty increase wasn’t exceptionally massive yet.
He knew that true, fanatical devotion couldn’t be built overnight among people who had been systematically starved for such a long time, but this subtle shift was still a highly productive start.
He raised his hands, clapping them together twice with a sharp, resonant sound that instantly cut through the loud murmurs of the crowd.
"I know that many of you are currently having an exceptionally hard time believing my words, and that is entirely natural given how heavily I have failed you in the past!" Raymond shouted, his face adopting an expression of profound, sympathetic understanding.
"But the truth does not fear investigation, my people! If you want absolute, undeniable proof of the Goddess’s grace, you do not have to sit here and listen to rumors; you can simply walk out to the eastern basin farmland right now and take a look at the soil with your own eyes!"
The townspeople looked back and forth at each other with their hollow eyes and pale faces, but despite his open invitation, the vast majority of them still didn’t budge from their spots, completely paralyzed by their lingering fear and deep-seated suspicion.
Raymond let out a soft, internal sigh, realizing that the psychological trauma inflicted by his predecessor ran far deeper than a single visual trick could cure.
He thought hard for a brief moment, his brows furrowing slightly as he analyzed the long-term risks of his situation.
He was incredibly anxious to force the loyalty metrics of these twelve hundred peasants up to the absolute hundred-percent maximum as quickly as humanly possible, because he understood that a hungry, resentful population was a literal ticking time bomb.
Back on Earth, Raymond had read enough history books to know exactly what happens to incompetent, selfish leaders when the common populace is pushed to the absolute edge of survival.
The historical results were never pleasant, usually involving sharp pitchforks, public execution blocks, and castles burned to the ground.
If he wanted to guarantee his personal safety and sleep soundly every single night without keeping one eye open in constant fear of a peasant uprising, he absolutely needed these twelve hundred people to become his fiercely loyal, fanatical defenders.
There’s no real need to rush or force the issue manually, Raymond thought to himself, a calm, cold calculative smile flashing deep within his eyes as he looked over the crowd.
I don’t need to aggressively push them today; I just have to patiently wait out the thirty-day cycle, and these skeptical peasants will automatically transform into absolute loyalty fanatics in no time. I just have to wait for the system’s math to finish the job.
Besides, it was not like these starving people would be able to hold out against his narrative for very long anyway.
With the passionate assistance of the hundred drenched laborers who had witnessed the emerald rainstorm firsthand, the miraculous rumors would continue to circulate through the slums day and night, gradually eroding the town’s skepticism.
The more the people talked about it, and the more they analyzed the visual anomaly of the localized storm, the fabricated rumor would eventually become an undeniable truth in their minds.
Furthermore, Raymond realized he didn’t even have to wait a full month to make these stubborn citizens cave in completely.
Since they still possessed a hard time believing his words, his brilliant new strategy was to simply start rotating the entire town’s population through the farm work settings.
According to the operational rules of the Descent of the Verdant Rain card, the localized weather anomaly wouldn’t just vanish; the high-density mana storm was locked into the territory parameters, meaning it would automatically pour down over that specific fifteen-hectare basin for exactly one hour every single day at the precise time of its initial deployment for the next fifteen days.
By systematically rotating the one thousand twelve hundred citizens and sending fresh teams out to the fields every day, every single person in the barony would eventually be forced to stand inside the localized downpour while staring at a perfectly sunny horizon.
Once they witnessed the supernatural, rapid growth rate of the Tier II variant seeds, watching green stalks sprout and multiply by inches with every day, it would be a complete piece of cake to make the entire population cave into his divine narrative.
Raymond’s eyes lit up with pure, unholy glee as this comprehensive logistical loop fully solidified in his mind.
He turned his gaze back to look at the massive crowd before him, his eyes shining with an intense, burning light.
To his modern, corporate-trained mind, these one thousand twelve hundred scrawny, malnourished peasants were no longer a terrifying liability or a hostile mob; they were a massive, pristine field of ripe leeks waiting to be systematically harvested for massive system points and attribute level ups.
"I genuinely wonder what kind of legendary, game-changing milestone reward the system will drop into my inventory once the loyalty index of this entire town reaches the absolute hundred percent maximum," Raymond muttered silently under his breath, the mere thought alone caused his heart rate to race with excitement and his mouth to practically water with anticipation.
He quickly shook his head, forcing his wandering thoughts back to reality and clearing his throat to regain his composed demeanor.
He solemnly looked down at the silent townspeople, raising his right hand to deliver a short, final closing speech.
"Return to your homes for now, my beloved people, and tend to your families," Raymond declared with an elegant, comforting smile. "The castle will continue to distribute food rations every morning to sustain your strength. Rest your weary bodies, for tomorrow we begin the great labor of carving our new future out of the dirt under the protection of the heavens!"
With that final, inspiring statement issued, Raymond turned around smoothly, signaling his inner circle to move out.
Together with little Lily, Captain Boris, and his three massive Silver Rank knights standing guard around him, he made his way steadily back up the main road toward the castle mansion.
The crowd of townspeople automatically parted like the Red Sea, creating a wide, respectful path for him as his elegant figure slowly disappeared up the hill.
They were left standing behind in a massive, silent cluster, dozens of skinny, twig-like people staring blankly at one another in the middle of the dusty street, completely shattered by the bizarre events of the day.