"Hmm~~"
The next morning, Linde, who had a good night's sleep, got out of bed and stretched his muscles.
It has to be said that this bronze-level physical fitness is indeed incomparable to that of ordinary mortals. Sleeping in the armor, he didn't feel any discomfort the next day.
Linde straightened his clothes, then pushed open the curtain and came out of the tent.
What came into view were soldiers busy in the camp. The items that had been cleared from the fortress yesterday had not yet been thoroughly sorted. Now, the soldiers were classifying these items one by one.
At that moment, Aster walked over.
"My lord, I have something to report."
Linde frowned and asked:
"So, is it bad news?"
Astaire said, "Yes... sir, we found this among the confiscated items."
As he spoke, Aster presented an item: a troll banner.
The troll banner was decorated with striking patterns that seemed impossible for a troll to draw.
"This is... a tribal flag?"
"Yes... sir, I'm afraid this troll and goblin tribe migrated from another large tribe."
Linde frowned. The presence of a tribal flag meant that there was at least one king and one great shaman in the tribe.
You must understand that in the continent of Tiel, a place where racial conflicts are commonplace, weaker races can only survive by banding together for warmth.
Barbarian races like trolls and goblins, who aren't very bright, have no advantages other than being able to reproduce. They often hide in the mountains or remote places to develop their power in secret.
Once their numbers exceed a certain threshold, some powerful individuals will inevitably emerge from among them, such as the Goblin King or the Troll King.
This is relatively easy to handle, since compared to strength, these things are only at the gold level and that's the limit.
What's truly troublesome are the shamans, whether they are troll shamans or goblin shamans. Although their strength is at most silver level, they can greatly enhance other goblins and trolls through some ritual or magical means.
Once they have a sufficient number, they will begin to spontaneously attack other races in the surrounding area, mainly targeting ordinary human villages to obtain food and equipment.
Therefore, human lords would frequently lead their soldiers to clear out the nearby mountains and wilderness to prevent this from happening.
Honestly, the lords here are much busier than the medieval lords on Earth. They have to fight cultists, barbarians, not to mention monsters and undead.
"For now, since they migrated here, it means that this group of barbarians is still some distance away and is not a threat. However, we still need to be careful."
With Linde's current forces, if it were just a Gold-rank and a Silver-rank, he would be quite confident of taking them down head-on, but he would inevitably suffer heavy casualties.
Linde didn't want to take such a risk right now. Everything in the territory was still under construction. If he were to squander most of his wealth now, and something else happened, he would be finished.
"Leave half of the ordinary soldiers to patrol near the village, and send the other half to meet the serfs. Make sure to bring the serfs to the village today."
"yes!"
Time flew by, and by afternoon, Alice led the serf caravan to the village.
With the arrival of these 2,000 people, the once deserted village was instantly brought back to life.
Under Linde's arrangement, the serfs were organized in an orderly manner, and no chaotic incidents such as looting occurred.
The busy day passed quickly, and in the evening, Linde ordered his men to summon the serf chieftain, Edmund.
He was instructed to have his men cultivate the land along the river on the west side of the territory, including the abandoned fields left by the previous lord, to cultivate a total of about one square kilometer of land.
"Approximately how long will it take to clear the land?"
Linde asked the old man.
"My lord, the reclamation has taken too long and it won't be ready for spring planting."
The old man spoke in a trembling voice, not daring to even look at Lin De as he spoke.
"Sigh... If it's just about cultivating the previously abandoned fields again, how long will it take?"
Things were not as simple as Linde had thought. The previous lord had not cultivated such a large area of land. He probably focused on building fortresses and did not properly develop production except for the necessary land.
"If it is an old, abandoned land, you only need to clear the weeds and plow the land again. It can be restored in less than a week."
"Alright, I'll leave this to you. Make sure it's completed within a week. Use any extra manpower to cut down trees in the mountains and expand the village."
The village was originally quite small, estimated to have only a little over 1,000 people. This time, many serfs were crammed into the same house, and many more had to set up tents on the roadside, indicating a severe shortage of housing resources.
"Yes, sir, thank you for your kindness."
"Go."
Lind sighed as Edmund left.
"It's not easy for anyone."
Linde isn't too worried about food right now. He's acquired a lot of grain along the way, and even if the old count's grain convoy doesn't arrive on time, with the current grain reserves, he should be able to make it to the end of the year if he's frugal.
By then, this year's food supply will be sufficient to last until the end of winter.
Linde came outside the tent and looked up at the two rising moons overhead. Against the backdrop of the stars, the two moons shone like the sun in the night.
"It's getting late. We'll probably be going out to explore territory tomorrow, so let's get some sleep."
With that, Linde turned and walked into the tent.
Out of the corner of his eye, Lin De spotted a dark jar in the corner.
"Um?"
Linde stepped forward, squatted down to examine it, and found that it was the same jar of honey that had gone missing a couple of days ago. He had seen it before when the maid poured honey on him.
"oh?"
Linde narrowed his eyes, stood up, and returned to the tent as if nothing had happened.
As usual, he placed his personal short sword under his pillow, tightened his armor, and lay down on the bed.
As soon as he lay down and closed his eyes, Linde used the bio-activity sensing of the activated aura to check the entire camp.
But after circling around a few times, they didn't find anything strange. Astaire was snoring, and Alice was fast asleep in the tent... Her sleeping posture was a bit off.
The entire camp was perfectly normal.
"Strange... Am I overthinking it?"
Linde only noticed the anomaly when he brought the activated senses back to himself.
At this moment, Lind himself was fine, radiating vitality and shining brightly.
But in the shadows beside him, a catgirl radiating silver light was stretching!
"Holy crap!?"
Linde was shocked. He opened his eyes slightly and looked at where his shadow was, only to find nothing there.
This gave Lind a real fright.
Linde probably didn't notice the catgirl hiding next to him immediately because his own aura was so bright.
Now, only one word lingered in Lind's mind.
ah?
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