At the first sight of the wine cellar's wreckage, Field nearly despaired.
But heaven leaves a door open. After searching only a few spots, Field found an unopened cask.
"Knock-knock~"
He rapped the barrel lightly; a low, dull thud answered from within. Field's heart skipped a couple of beats, joy springing to his brow — though, afraid of getting his hopes up for nothing, he feigned calm. "Open this cask. I hope it's full of fine wine, not tentacles."
The gray mist only corrupted living things; dead matter generally didn't turn into monsters — provided the wine was properly sealed.
A guard pried the cask open with effort. With a pop, a rich, mellow wine fragrance spread freely.
To catch the scent of a top-grade wine amid a winery full of rot and monsters — the surreal experience was on par with finding a shrimp in a latrine.
"This is it! The Black Pearl wine that's gone out of production across the Empire." Field was thrilled, pumping his fist. To the wine-hungry guard beside him he ordered, "Fetch my steward, Kao. Have him tally how many drinkable casks are down here."
Seeing Field lost in delight, Ashina cautioned gently, "My lord, even fine wine should be drunk in moderation."
Many a lord had been ruined by drink, lingering all day in taverns and pleasure houses.
"Don't worry, Ashina. I won't be drinking this."
Field preferred iced tea or cola to wine anyway.
"These vintages, discontinued for ten years, are all liquid gold. Ship them to the imperial capital — no, to any city nearby — and they'll bring us a flood of gold coins."
As for exactly how much they were worth, that depended on how much wine was here.
But Field was certain those high officials and nobles would trample one another for a famous wine.
"Oh~" Ashina pressed a slender finger to her lips, looking thoughtful. "Since Black Pearl wine is so precious, we could brew it ourselves — the Starnight Grand Winery is in our hands now, after all."
"You're right. But that's something to consider only once our safety's assured."
Leaving the cellar to Kao, Field finally had time to survey his domain.
With the winery as the center, about the area of an elementary-school playground — that whole circle was the land Field held.
So long as the gray mist didn't cover it, people could move about on it; that counted as true territory. As for what was on the land, it didn't matter for now, since it was all corrupted plants and creatures, and could only be considered once they'd been cleared.
"Now the real challenge begins."
Field walked a full circuit of the outer edge. The corrupted creatures in the field-paths had thinned out considerably thanks to his people's clearing; the place finally looked a little like the human world.
His people shoved the deformed corrupted creatures into a single heap. These monsters had no fighting ability, but their very existence was contamination. The broken timber cleared from the winery made fine waste-not fuel; tossed onto the monster heap and set alight.
Shrieks like cats in heat rang out without pause, accompanied by a sizzling roast, great clouds of gray smoke billowing from the monsters' bodies.
"Heavens — Valkyrie above, these devils' minions are finally cleaned out."
A maid patted her chest and exclaimed in exaggerated tones.
The female slaves at work cast envious glances her way.
To come and go from the castle, to eat the noble lord's leftovers, and to have luxurious rest time besides — enough to make a slave's eyes go red.
"Scissors, I need you to do something."
Having toured his domain, Field meant to meet his servants before issuing new decrees.
"My lord, do tell..."
The maid Scissors' smile vanished at once, like a katydid startled mid-chirp; even her loud voice cut out. Weak and foolish as Field had always seemed, he was still a being the common folk looked up to.
These past two days Field had been busy with pioneering and had overlooked a great deal. Now he realized this world held an enormous class divide.
He recalled an anecdote about his good-for-nothing father.
A rival noble had planned to ambush the family's merchant caravan, but a farmer happened to spot the ambush site, so the farmer rushed to the castle and told the count of the enemy's scheme. The count then turned the plan against them and routed the foe in defeat.
By rights the farmer should have been rewarded with money — yet after the count returned in victory, he had the farmer hanged for public display.
The reason: the disgusting dung and mud on the farmer's lowly shoes had left lowly footprints on the count's carpet.
In a noble's eyes, the people of his land were a heap of dung, and slaves were worth less than dung.
Field was no saint; he wouldn't overturn his own nature, nor would he fully go native and become a thoroughly feudal noble.
"I'll just give my people a good life," Field thought. "Obedient people, of course."
"Scissors, gather everyone who serves me. I've a few things to say."
"Yes, my lord." Scissors hiked up her apron at once and went off at a trot.
The steward arrived first; among the household servants his standing was highest, so naturally Scissors notified him first.
"My lord, the cask count isn't finished yet. It'll take at least two days." Kao came panting up. He looked frail, hardly an ounce of meat even on his thighs; life seemed to have been hard on him.
But his wage was the highest in the whole domain — five silver and fifty copper a month — and matters like procurement and accounts all fell to him; with a little cleverness he could multiply his income several times over.
Ordinarily, one imperial copper bought one black bread loaf — that is, black rye-bran bread, with even sawdust and bark in it. Unlike the bread modern people imagine, black bread was hard as stone; bite it raw and you'd crack a tooth. The proper way to eat it was to soften it in hot soup, then dip it in coarse salt thick with impurities.
It had neither the fragrance of wheat nor any sweetness — only a bitterness inside the salt.
Yet even for trash food like that, many couldn't earn the price of two loaves in a day's work, and ended up slaves in the end.
Maids, manservants, and cooks all earned a daily wage of fifteen copper — four silver and fifty copper a month.
Before long Field had assembled his servants: two maids, one manservant, and a cook.
In modern society, having two or three servants was an extremely impressive thing. But in a medieval world, Field was only a destitute noble. His sister — the woman who'd sent cavalry to try to ride him down — had twenty manservants alone, for chopping vegetables, mincing meat, leading horses, even trimming nails.
Field's god-given eyes swept over each of them; they all lowered their heads, avoiding eye contact with their lord, for that was a rudeness.