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“Perfect.
We’ll bring some wine to sell — I’ll slap a ‘rare treasure’ label on it, which isn’t even a lie, and pair it with a good story.
It’ll fly off the shelves.”
“Like treasure from a dragon’s hoard?” Ashina said, only half following.
Field snapped his fingers.
“Exactly.
Even a boot becomes a dragon-guarded boot if you found it in the right lair.”
“And we’re not technically lying.
Those wines really were guarded by powerful corrupted creatures.” Ashina covered her mouth, giggling.
“Never mind that the corrupted creatures couldn’t have cared less about wine.”
“Good.
The carpentry can wait.
Priority one: clear all the trash out of the grand winery.
Rotted equipment, rubble from the cave-ins — haul it all out and scrub the place clean.
I’m estimating three days.
Finish that, and each of you gets 20 copper coins.”
“My Lord, you are too generous!”
Field’s generosity had become common knowledge throughout the territory.
Outside the Nightfall Fief, a Freeman working a full month might not clear 20 copper, and these were slaves.
Not that Field was worried about the cost.
Every coin he scattered would find its way back to his purse soon enough.
Honestly, he was eager to see the slaves become Freemen.
Freemen could marry, have children, and more importantly, Freemen paid taxes.
He was still turning that over in his mind when something invisible poured into him.
Not strength, exactly.
More like a shift in the way things felt.
He knew immediately: he’d advanced to First-Rank Lord.
It made sense.
Forming a contract with a Chosen One opened the door to becoming a Lord.
Field had always carried a Lord Talent.
This was simply the river finding its course.
This world held more than transcendent knights and mages and Chosen Ones.
Lords had their own ranks.
Just without much in the way of killing power.
What a Lord could do was see the state of his territory.
Name: Field
Class: Lord
Territory: Starry Night Grand Winery and surrounding farmland
Contracted Chosen One: Ashina
Population: 217
Development: 1 (Destitute)
Happiness: -32 (Despair and Oppression)
Environment Value: -89 (Saturated with corruption, uninhabitable) Find the original chapter at g.com.
Chosen One Appearance Probability: One in a hundred billion
Lord Talents: Mini-Map (detects surrounding creatures, exclusive talent) / Panel (materializes creature attributes, exclusive talent)
Prosperity Domain (Dispels the Death Smog within territory boundaries; accelerates dissipation of corruption’s effects)
Chosen One Bonus Talents:
Fierce Beast Taming, within the territory, war beasts are easier to breed.
(Provided by Ashina)
Knighting, advance 50 Wolf Riders to First-Rank.
(Provided by Ashina)
Field’s eyes lit up.
He couldn’t have stopped the grin if he’d tried.
He laughed, openly, freely, with his whole chest.
“My Lord?” Ashina tilted her head, scratching at her ear.
“What’s so funny?”
“Nothing.
Just thought of something.”
He ordered the territory’s Fog-Repelling Lamps extinguished.
That sent a visible ripple of alarm through the crowd.
Several people exchanged wide-eyed looks.
A few looked like they were wondering whether their Lord had quietly snapped.
“Relax.
I’m not trying to kill you.” Field spread his hands and smiled.
“I’ve mastered my Lord Talent.
We don’t need the lamps anymore.
The territory will hold.”
Skeptical faces all around, but no one dared argue.
Then Field extinguished the lamps, and not a thread of fog crept through.
The Death Smog held its distance like it had been slapped back.
The tension left the crowd all at once.
Then came the noise.
Nearly everyone erupted.
The celebration was immediate and unrestrained, and why wouldn’t it be?
The Fog-Repelling Lamps had maybe a month left in them.
If the Lord ran out of coin to buy more from the Church, everyone died.
Simple as that.
But now, now they had actually, truly planted themselves in the Nightfall Fief.
“Extra rations tonight,” Field announced over the noise.
“Meat soup and two loaves of bread for everyone.”
One saved lamp: 25 gold coins.
He did the mental math and smiled.
That was a quarter million black bread loaves’ worth of profit.
“Huzzah!”
The maid Scissors let that enormous voice of hers rip: “This is the best news I’ve heard in my life!
No wonder I dreamed about my grandmother smiling at me last night.
Lord Field, you were born to this, there’s a Lord’s blood in your veins if there ever was one!”
Field, caught off guard by the sheer enthusiasm of it, felt his ears go slightly warm.
“Give the maids, manservants, and cooks an extra serving of honey cake.”
“Heavens, Master!” Carl clasped his hands in dismay.
“We have very little honey cake left!
The maids already eat your and Lady Ashina’s leftovers, that’s already the finest food in the entire territory.
There really is no need, ”
Scissors was grinding her teeth, CREAK CREAK, hard enough that you could hear it.
Her hands flexed.
She looked one bad word away from launching herself at Carl’s face.
The maid Sparrow almost never spoke.
She was furious all the same.
“That’s enough.” Field waved a hand.
“It’s a good night.
Scissors, go to the storeroom and bring out the cakes.”
“Long live the Lord!” Both maids lit up at once, delighted as a pair of sparrows, and went bouncing and skipping off toward the storeroom.
Carl sighed and quietly went back to tallying the territory’s dwindling supplies.
To the southeast of the Northern Border Province lay the Morning Wind Province, home to Field’s deadbeat father.
To the southwest was High Fort Province.
Push north past the Northern Border and you were in Beastman territory.
Field had decided to visit High Fort Province: five Count-level territories, mostly mountain country.
He settled at the wooden table.
The broken window creaked in the draft, and he frowned faintly before smoothing it away.
He opened a book with the careful attention its price demanded, 10 silver coins, written by the Empire’s celebrated scholar and explorer, Lucas.
The title read: Grey Fog and Death.
He plucked a wedge of apple from the plate in front of him and bit into it as he read.
Twin Moons Calendar, Year 147, September 1st.
Today should have been the Awakening Day celebrations across the Empire.
But for the Empire’s future, I, Lucas!, have resolutely entered the abandoned and cursed land: the Northern Border Province.
I did not come alone.
Two royal Chosen Ones accompany me, along with the fallen noble Darren and his Chosen One daughter.
The apple was sweet.
Field’s spirits rose a notch.
He kept reading.
With three peerless beauties as company, this journey is sure to be full of delight.
The royal Chosen Ones may be terrifying Fifth-Rank fighters, but that’s no reason I can’t enjoy the view.
The three outer baronies of the Northern Border Province: Cloudfall Fief, Nightfall Fief, and Dawnfall Fief.
I visited them in my youth.
Wonderful places, full of fine wine and beautiful women.
Now they’re overrun with corruption.
One creature attacks us with particular frequency: hideous bat-women.
My working theory is that they were corrupted from women of a certain profession, on the grounds that their limbs still bear traces of distinctive tattoos and jewelry.
My guard Steel Fork captured one of the bat-women and proceeded to test the waters.
What a brave, fearless, and adventurous spirit the man has.
May the Goddess bless him.
“Pfft—”
➤ Next: Bloodbath!
The Nighttime Attacker