Lord: Starting with Biological Modification Chapter 55 - 51: The Human Predicament

Inside the office, the fla of the oil lamp flickered and shrank under an invisible pressure.

"...And that’s the situation." Barrett’s right fist was clenched so tight that his coarse leather bracer groaned under the strain. "The settlers will only farm their own subsistence plots, and not an ounce more. As for those Hunters from Gray Mist Village, they’re a hopeless case. They’d rather wander around the woods than touch a hoe!"

Old Walker’s gaunt body was hunched over, his deeply lined face scrunched up. His voice was hoarse. "My lord, my people are used to hunting for one day and resting for three... Making them tend to the land is worse than killing them."

"Worse than killing them?" Barrett spun toward Old Walker, his one eye blazing with fire. "I say they’re lazy! The settlers work their fingers to the bone digging irrigation ditches, and your people turn right around and use them to wash their feet! They nearly ca to blows over water the day before yesterday! Walker, get your people in line!"

"Captain Barrett, you can’t say that!" Old Walker’s temper flared. "It was your people who first called us ’lazy bums who only eat and don’t work’!"

"And aren’t they?"

"Enough."

Velin’s calm voice wasn’t loud, but it instantly dissipated the explosive tension between the two n.

His expression was blank as he stared at the vast, white, saline-alkali land on the map, then at the faces of Barrett and Old Walker, now flushed with sha.

The air was suffocatingly heavy.

"My lord, give the authority to enforce the law!" Barrett’s head snapped up, a fierce glint in his one eye.

"In the Fifth Legion, we had plenty of ways to deal with those slippery good-for-nothings! We’d assign task areas every day, in teams of three, to supervise each other! If a team failed to complete their task, their entire group’s rations would be cut in half! Anyone who dared to incite shirking would be whipped in the public square!"

"I’ve seen it with my own eye. Even the toughest man will be on his knees begging for rcy after three lashes. rcy only breeds a pack of ungrateful wolves you can never satisfy!"

This was the ironclad rule he, as a veteran, believed in most: fear is the best motivator.

"And then?" Velin finally spoke.

"You use the whip to force them to reclaim ten acres of land, and then you use more whips to force them to reclaim a hundred."

His voice was soft, but it made Barrett flinch. "When their resentnt overcos their fear of the whip, what do you plan to do, Barrett? Hang them from the town walls and have the three of us farm this land ourselves?"

Velin turned to Old Walker, who was wringing his hands in fear. "And what’s your solution?"

"Well... my lord, what about using rewards?" Old Walker suggested cautiously. "Whoever reclaims the most land gets more food..."

"Food?" Velin cut him off. "Are they short on food right now?"

"No... no, they aren’t. That batch of Sea-Salt Potatoes you catalyzed last ti is enough to last them until next year."

"Then we’ll reward them with money. Copper Leaves?" Velin pressed.

"Yes, yes! Copper Leaves!" Old Walker clung to the idea like a lifeline.

Velin smiled, but the expression sent a chill down Old Walker’s spine. "Excellent, Walker. Tell , here in Newly Town, what can one of our people buy with ten Copper Leaves you’ve rewarded them with?"

"He can buy... more Sea-Salt Potatoes?"

"He’s already full, and eating too many will give him a stomachache," Velin said calmly.

"Then... cloth?"

"They have clothes to wear, and they can weave their own linen."

"Buy... buy tools?"

"I’ve already provided them."

Velin took a step forward, staring into Old Walker’s cloudy eyes.

"Tell , Walker, besides the things I’ve given them, what else can they buy with money? What is there that they dream of having but can’t obtain?"

Old Walker’s mouth hung open, unable to utter a single word.

The stick and the carrot. Both paths were blocked.

The root of the problem ran far deeper than they had imagined.

This wasn’t a problem that could be solved by swinging a sword, like facing down a Magical Beast or an enemy.

This was about people’s hearts, about human nature, about the inertia and limitations ingrained in their very bones over hundreds of years.

Barrett, a battle-hardened soldier, and Old Walker, an experienced elder, were both at a complete loss. They looked in unison at the young face before them. What solution could this lord, who always seed to work miracles, possibly have this ti?

Managing the hearts of n was a thousand tis harder than killing a Gray Swamp Giant Crocodile.

Velin sighed to himself. ’To deal with human nature,’ he thought, ’I’ll just have to resort to the evils of capitalism.’

"Barrett," he asked suddenly, "would you rather have a pair of ’Peilin Boots’ or a vial of ’Oil of Speed’?"

Barrett was taken aback. "The Oil of Speed..." he said instinctively. "It must be more valuable than the boots."

Velin smiled and turned to Old Walker. "Would you rather have a bowl of hot at soup or a cup of Elven Fruit Tea?"

"Elven... Fruit Tea?" Old Walker’s cloudy eyes were filled with confusion.

Velin slamd his hand on the table, the loud BANG making both n jump.

"That is precisely the problem!" His voice suddenly rose. "Barrett, ’Peilin Boots’ are custom-made combat boots for the Royal Capital Guard, fashioned from Sub-Dragon hide! They’re worth a hundred gold and are a symbol of status! Yet you chose a consumable worth less than two gold! Walker, Elven Fruit Tea is a beverage only the ladies of the nobility can enjoy. A single cup is worth enough to buy an entire bull!"

He looked down at the two of them and said, enunciating each word, "Our people are not lazy, they are poor! Poverty has killed their imagination! In their lives, the only difference between being lazy and working hard is the difference between ’being full’ and ’being stuffed’—that kind of desire is far too cheap!"

His words struck them like a bolt of lightning, cleaving through the fog in their minds.

They finally understood the root of the problem—it wasn’t laziness, but a lack of exposure.

What Velin had to do was reawaken the beast of desire, put a bridle on it, and then use it to turn the grindstone of all of Newly Town.

’And,’ he thought, ’it can’t be a simple offer. I have to change ’do a little more and earn’ into ’do a little less and suffer a huge loss.’

A plan, one that could subvert the managent model of every territory in this era, fully ford in his mind.

"I have a solution."

Velin’s voice was not loud. He stood, walked to the window, and pushed it open. The cool night wind rushed in, dispelling the oppressive atmosphere in the room.

A solution that would not only make them willing to clear the wasteland, but would even make them fight each other for the chance to work.

Fighting to work? Barrett and Old Walker looked at each other, a shared sense of utter absurdity on their faces. That would only happen when the sun rose in the west.

Velin didn’t explain further. With an irrefutable, absolute confidence, he issued his command.

"Relay my orders. Tomorrow, we will hold a general assembly for all our people in the town square."

"I am going to announce a new law... one that will completely change this place, change you, and change the fate of everyone here."

...

The order quickly spread to every corner of Newly Town.

Beside a bonfire, a settler who had just finished his Sea-Salt Potatoes wiped his mouth and said to his companion, "A general assembly? Don’t tell he sees we’re well-fed and wants to raise taxes. All lords are the sa."

Another villager from Gray Mist Village, lying back lazily, scoffed. "Change our fates? Easier said than done. What’s he going to do, make us nobles? I’ll think about it after I wake up tomorrow."

None of them knew that tomorrow, a storm called "Points" would utterly shatter the world they knew.