Chapter 91: Work
It has been two months since I got a promotion to a Duke and got myself a mistress. A reincarnator mistress. A power user mistress. A weak power but useful nonetheless. Hell, in her time here, Eli already thwarted ten merchants that came here trying to fool us.
Let's just say that they were thrown away from the city and marked as a bad type of merchant that we need to watch out for. They can come back, but The North will see them suspiciously, and we will sell our goods at a higher price than before.
It was a merchant from another country. Let me tell you the nightmare that is the southern merchant. Like their counterpart of a noble, they have the same pride that is too high for their own good.
They think that because of their connection to some Count and Marquiss in the south, they can take our goods at a lower price than what we sell to our fellow northern noble. They did not see my newly acquired promotion to Duke making their connection to the count, and Marquiss is useless because they are a lower noble than mine.
Because of this, My fellow northern noble and I have a meeting in Sea Dragon City and decide it is time to separate the north and the south. The south has already harassed our merchants for a long time, and we have enough.
We decided to make a fort on the main road that connects the north and the south. This fort will become the place that rejects the arrogant merchant who decides to test their luck in our land. Not only that, but this fort also became the only place the merchant could take to the north because the other road is a thick forest.
Building a massive wall that separates North and South will take a long time and a massive amount of money. To buy the stone, pay the worker and pay the guard to guard the worker and ensure no one steals the material.
That is why, in the Northern Meeting, we decide to grow a thick forest that separates the north and the south. After growing the tree, I create a simple barrier that gets anchored into the trees. This barrier will back anyone who tries to walk through the forest feeling uneasy and has a strong compulsion not to take the forest road.
If someone decides to try it anyway, the barrier will alert the people that live in the forest. Who are the people that lived in this forest? The Dark Elves.
After the Capital city meeting, I thought they would bring fifty people to immigrate, maybe a hundred, but I never thought they would bring more than a thousand people. Around one thousand five hundred people.
And their condition makes me want to destroy something. Most of them have malnutrition, and some of them even look like skeletons. When I ask them why this is happening, they said that the Holy Light Empire's people see them as third-class civilians. Just above slave.
With the civil war that is happening in the empire, their situation is even worse. The only reason why they can arrive here immediately after I arrive in the north is that their elders who have a massive amount of mana reserve sacrifice themselves to teleport them here.
If I reject them, the Dark Elves don't know where they will go because they are the pariah even among the Elves Race. Luckily, the north did not see them as such. Hell, all elves who work as healers here volunteer to heal the Dark Elves from their injury.
It takes two weeks and three days of daily potions and food to make their body healthy enough to work. It was long enough for the village to be built in the newly grown forest for them to stay. While they are great hunters, they are willing to become farmers. Hell, some of the older Dark Elves even cry. I still remember what they say to me when I ask them why.
"My lord. We have been oppressed since the time of our Great Grandfather. What we cultivate will always be given to the local lord. If we did not fulfill their demand, they will torture one of us and tell us that it will happen to us if we did not fulfill their demand."
"And here you are giving us your land for us to cultivate and even let us keep it and only take a little bit of our harvest. You already heal us. You already give us a place to stay and grow. We are content if you take more than half of our harvest if you want. But hearing you decide only to take ten percent of the harvest makes me know that you are a Lord no one will ever see. You are a lord who cares about your people. As long as you live, we will serve you even when the world becomes your enemy. We will still follow you."
When the Dark Elves leader says that, I don't know what to say, so I only smile at them and nod at them.
So, now they become protectors of the Neck, as all of us decide to call it. The main income they have is through farming and husbandry. Their duty is to become the guardian that captures and kills anyone with bad intentions to the north.
Not only that, but they also have a duty as a reinforcement in case a pirate decides to come and take the woods.
In the North Meeting, we also decide to increase our standing army. With a bigger land, we also need a bigger army to defend it. The land that we got alone has more than three hundred bandits that, for some reason, have a magician among their rank.
It takes a week of massive search across the land to eradicate the bandits. We use all of the soldiers and my magic to search and kill all the bandits. Some of them become bandits to feed their families, but all the bandits get beheaded because of the King's Law.
The only thing I can do is to make sure their children did not follow their father's path by giving them a brighter future.
Because of my new position as the North's Ruler, as the king calls it, I need to attend the beheading. Let me tell you, beheading a few hundred bandits takes a long time.
Speaking of my position.
"My lord, another noble from the east, offers their daughter as your mistress."
"Richard… Please reject all the marriage offers, please. Even when the king in the East offers his daughter, reject them."
"Of course, my lord."
Because of the news of me getting a mistress, the other noble in the east thought that I would accept another mistress; it really gives me a headache. I don't know how many times I explain to them that I don't want another mistress. They did not understand.
"Is there anything, Richard?"
"Yes, my lord. There is a letter coming from the king in the northern continent asking for an alliance."
"Oh?"
"Yes. Here you are."
I take the letter and begin to read it.
"Instead of asking, I think they are more of begging, my lord."
Richard is correct. The letter is coming from the King of Lazuli Kingdom. A rather small kingdom on the edge of the Northern Kingdom. They only have two cities, and all of them are port towns. They did not have many populations because of the condition of their kingdom.
"Why do you think they are begging for this alliance?"
"Food, my lord."
"Food?"
"Yes. It looks like the famine Lady Elizabeth predicted is not only happening in this continent but also happening in the other continent."
".... They cannot afford to buy a large batch of food from us, is that right?"
"Yes. The Lazuli Kingdom did not have many sources of income. They have some gold mines, but they do not have too much gold in them. The same happened to their iron and bronze mine."
"And the only source of food is through hunting and fishing."
"That is right."
While I don't think there is anything they can give over to us, I'm curious what they will say. While our corps can produce a huge amount of food, it needs time to grow. If I force the land to grow the plant, even more, it will destroy the soil and make it barren. While we cannot afford to sell them a large amount of food at once, we can sell them a small amount of cheap food periodically.
"Please invite them here to discuss this alliance."
"Of course, my lord."
I nod at Richard and continue working. With my promotion, there is also an increase in my paperwork. By declaring me the Ruler of all North, the king gave me massive paperwork that needed my attention.
Damn you, idiotic King.
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