After the war ended, Ronin did not rejoin the main army. Instead, he rode the Giant Dragon back to Wubei Territory alone.
Four days later, the Giant Dragon folded its wings and landed on the "landing pad" behind Swamp Castle.
"You’re free to go. I’ll call you if I need you."
After watching Carlos depart, Ronin walked into the courtyard.
The entire courtyard was eerily quiet, with no one in sight. If not for the spotless grounds, devoid of even a single fallen leaf, he might have thought the place had been abandoned.
"Where is everyone?"
Ronin called out, "Erin? Black Tiger?"
Black Tiger had the keenest nose and was always the first to greet him, but today, he was nowhere to be seen.
"Lord, you’ve returned!"
Finally, a head poked out from a corner of the courtyard. It was the maid, Bella, wiping her hands on her apron as if she had been in the middle of washing sothing.
"Lord, you’ve finally returned!"
She excitedly hurried over and curtsied.
There was no master in the castle. After the esteed Transcendents like Elron and Jenny had departed, the servants didn’t know who to serve and could only find things to do to keep themselves busy.
Fortunately, with the recent collection of the autumn harvest tax, the servants, led by Civil Affairs Chief Wilson, had been helping store the grain in the warehouses, so they weren’t completely idle.
"Ah, Bella."
Ronin smiled as he looked the maid up and down.
He realized it had already been a year since the maid joined the castle. Compared to before, Bella was no longer thin and frail; her complexion looked quite healthy.
As for her figure, it looked quite shapely, even under the maid’s uniform.
Joining the castle as a personal maid had been a stroke of luck for Bella. Not only did she eat and dress well, but her friends and family were envious when she went ho. So even asked if she could perhaps beco the Lord’s lover.
’Unfortunately, the esteed Lord didn’t seem to be interested in won.’
Being scrutinized by the Lord like this, Bella couldn’t help but blush. Flustered, she quickly asked, "Lord, what do you need to do for you? Shall I prepare hot water for you to wash up, or have the kitchen prepare lunch? Or..."
Ronin waved his hand. ’Who takes a bath in the middle of the day?’
"Have the kitchen prepare lunch. Also, go find Gallon and tell him to bring Wilson, Chahar, and the others to see ."
"Oh, right. Where’s Erin? Why isn’t she in the castle?"
Bella’s tension finally eased. ’The Lord hasn’t changed; he really isn’t interested in us,’ she thought with relief.
"Miss Erin must have gotten too bored. She rode Black Tiger to Purple Fruit Village a couple of days ago. Oh, and Lord, Miss Erin said she has beco an Interdiate Mage!"
Ronin’s eyes lit up. He hadn’t expected that so soon after Jenny beca a Senior Mage, her daughter would have a breakthrough as well.
"This is truly wonderful news. When Erin gets back, I’ll host a banquet to celebrate her breakthrough."
’An Interdiate Mage at fourteen,’ he mused. ’Her talent is every bit as good as Bretton’s.’
’If she trains diligently, she’ll likely beco a Senior Mage before she’s twenty.’
As Bella went to notify Gallon and the others, word quickly spread. Soon, all the servants in the castle and all the officials of the territory knew that their Lord had returned.
"Lord, welco back!"
Gallon was the first to arrive. Ever since Chahar had been transferred to the role of Finance Officer, the duties of a steward had gradually fallen to Gallon. The forr personal attendant was now facing an opportunity of his own.
"It’s been a while, Gallon. I’ve called you here to handle sothing for ."
Ronin pointed to the rice stalks laid out on the flagstone floor. "This is a type of grain called ’rice,’ similar to wheat and barley. I need you to thresh the grains, then dry them, pack them in linen sacks, and store them in a dry place to be used as seeds."
The flight from the front lines to Swamp Castle would have taken only a day at Carlos’s speed.
The reason it had taken him several days to return was that he had made a detour into the swamplands to harvest the fully ripened wild rice.
"You can leave it to , Lord!"
Gallon assud it was a special type of grain Ronin had brought back from the front lines and didn’t press for details.
Ronin gave a few more instructions. This small harvest of wild rice would yield a hundred pounds of seed at most. To cultivate it on a large scale in Swamp Town, they would likely need several years of planting and selective breeding to obtain more seeds.
That was why he had also summoned Wilson—to have him arrange for workers to develop a section of the swampland into a rice paddy.
For Wubei Territory, rice was a novelty. Its cultivation thod was completely different from that of wheat.
If they were to have any hope of growing it, they would have to rely on Ronin’s own amateur-level knowledge to make the attempt.
Ronin only knew the basics, but he figured that no matter how bad his attempt was, it couldn’t be worse than its natural environnt in the wild.
’This rice can grow and mature in the wild,’ he reasoned. ’There’s no reason it should die if we give it a better environnt.’
"Lord, the autumn harvest work is now complete."
Civil Affairs Chief Wilson was reporting on the autumn harvest: "Under your guidance with cultivation techniques and fertilization thods, Lord, this season’s average wheat yield per mu has increased from the original 105 pounds to 178 pounds!"
He couldn’t help but marvel. In all his years, he had never seen such a bountiful harvest.
During the harvest, nearly every farr was grinning from ear to ear. The words always on their lips were either praises for the Lord’s wisdom and greatness or phrases like, "Follow the Lord, and you’ll eat your fill."
Ronin nodded slightly.
’A yield like that would be considered terrible in modern tis,’ Ronin thought, ’but that’s only thanks to the widespread use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides.’
’A yield of 178 pounds per mu is already excellent.’
’Wubei Territory planted over thirty-four thousand mu of wheat this spring. At this yield, we’ll harvest over six million pounds of wheat this year!’
’And on top of that, there are still over thirty-eight thousand mu of barley fields left to harvest...’
’Perhaps Wubei Territory’s total grain output this year could exceed ten million pounds!’
Ronin smiled. "It’s a bountiful year!"
"Yes, Lord! If we could have a harvest like this every year, Wubei Territory could earn a lot of Gold Coins just from grain sales!"
Ever since taking on the role of Finance Officer, Chahar thought about money constantly.
"Lord, this year’s yield per mu has increased, all thanks to the techniques, tools, and plow oxen you provided. I feel the castle should collect its share of this increased profit. So, should we raise the tax rate?"
This was sothing Chahar had been thinking about constantly of late.
But the matter was too important for him to decide on his own; he could only wait for Ronin to return and seek his counsel.
"It’s good to want to increase the castle’s revenue, but we just announced our new population policy. It’s not appropriate to be thinking about changing the tax rate already."
Ronin rejected the proposal.
"Changing policies on a whim is not a sign of mature leadership. It will only cause public dissatisfaction, which is extrely detrintal to our efforts to attract more people to Wubei Territory."
"Besides," Ronin continued, "I’m encouraging population growth. If the common folk can’t even eat their fill, how can they be expected to have children?"
"We must let the people know that by planting more grain and harvesting more food, their own lives will improve. That will give them a greater incentive to work hard."
"The Lord is right!"
Wilson chid in, "The farrs may be tired, but they all have smiles on their faces these days. They’re working more actively and with more energy than in the past."
Chahar sighed. "I know it’s not good, but the territory’s expenses are huge. Right now, salaries cost over two hundred Gold Coins a month, our staff is still expanding, and several of our enterprises are only at a self-sufficient stage..."
He was afraid of the day the money might run out and how he would be able to answer for it.
"You don’t need to worry about money."
Ronin, however, was more philosophical about it. They were still in the investnt stage, and he wasn’t going to hoard his funds out of stinginess.
"Wushan Castle was victorious in this war, and our gains were imnse."
Wilson and Chahar exchanged a look. They had been feeling uneasy when they arrived; after all, their Lord had returned alone, and they didn’t know if the war had been won or lost.
Now, hearing his words, they could finally relax.
"So, don’t worry about spending too much money, as long as it’s for sothing of value."
Ronin said with a smile, "Starting today, you need to recruit more people, because you’ll all have a lot more to manage very soon."
"Lord, are you saying...?"
An idea popped into Wilson’s mind.
He had originally been just the Civil Servant of Mountain Forest Town. Back then, Ronin had told him to learn more, see more, and do more. And now, in the blink of an eye, he was the Civil Affairs Chief of Wubei Territory, managing the administration of four towns.
’Now that the Lord was saying this... could it be that they were getting new territory?’
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