Chapter 11

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Chapter 11

“Damn it, my back hurts.”

Yuri muttered to himself as he planted the strange crop called potatoes in the farmland created by his lord Noein, digging up the ground to do so.

According to Noein, this is a “crop of salvation,” but it’s hard to believe that such a yellow-green mass with spuds sprouting out of it can produce as large a harvest as wheat all the while needing less labour and providing more nutritional value. Nevertheless, he obeyed his lord’s orders.

Around Yuri, the other four people were working just as hard in different fields.

It’s been a little over a week since Yuri and the others were accepted into this settlement. They had made a life for themselves with their arms and swords, but now they were working with hoes and plows in their hands.

For Yuri, it was the first time he had worked on a farm in 20 years, since he was a child helping his parents with the work. Bending down to face the earth was a different kind of exhaustion than running around as a mercenary or a bandit.

“I’m exhausted as well everyone, I’m sorry to put you through so much trouble.”

The one who came up to me and said with a smirk on his face was our lord, Baron Noein Arkvist.

“How could you say that without even getting your clothes dirty.”

“It’s terrible to say that I’m not working because I’m not dirty. I’ve done more work than anyone else in this territory.”

It’s true that Noein didn’t get his clothes or hands dirty with dirt, and he doesn’t sweat, and at first glance he looks as if he’s playing by himself.

But in reality, he is the one who is doing the most work in this settlement. The golems he controls have done the hardest work of all, digging up the soil and turning it into farmland, many times more efficiently than humans, and now they are effortlessly cutting down the trees in the surrounding area and expanding the plains even further.

He knows how overwhelmingly hard Noein works, but when Noein looks down at them with a grin on his face as they work on the ground, covered in dirt, Yuri feels like smacking him.

“At first, Yuri, you started out so sloppy with your hands, but now, you’re starting to look like a real farmer.”

“I’ve been away from farming for twenty years, after all. It’s starting to all come back to me now, I’m still not as good as when I was a kid.”

He has been wielding swords and spears ever since he left his parents’ house. He had forgotten how to grip farm tools.

Pence and Radley were the same way while Bert and Mai, who had been picked up by the mercenaries when they were orphans, had no experience in farming at all since they were born.

All of them would be laughed at if experienced farmers saw them.

“You’ll get used to it. I’m glad to see my people grow.”

“Well … but I never thought I would return to being a peasant farmer at this age”

From the moment I joined the group, I had been living with the determination to spend the rest of my life as a mercenary, and after I fell into banditry, I expected to be defeated and left to die sometime in the not-too-distant future.

I don’t know what kind of life I expected now that I live as a farmer in a nobleman’s field.

Just as Yuri finished this thought,

“What? What are you talking about? You guys are all land-owners here.”

Noein said.

“… What? Isn’t this Noein’s farmland, and we’re supposed to work here as peasants and get paid for it?”

“No, no, no, I just dug up the soil. If you grow crops here and harvest them, they belong to you. You’ll have to pay taxes, though.”

“Are you sure?… About this?”

“Sure. I didn’t want you to end up as farmers in the first place. As former mercenaries, you’ll eventually be my direct servants. Right now, I’m having you work on the farm because I don’t have the manpower, but …… I’ll eventually leave that farmland to the peasants and serfs to work on.”

“Oh. Thank you very much.”

The other four who were listening to the conversation between the two of them also had expressions of surprise on their faces.

I had thought that I had been hired by the owner of the farmland to be a small farmer, but I had been offered a job as a direct servant to the lord.

This was outrageous. As a direct servant to the lord, you work for your lord and get paid, and you also get income from the land you own, which you can pass on to your children and grandchildren.

It was an unparalleled treatment to a mercenary who lived each day as his last. How could I not be happy?

Yuri and the others resumed their farming work with more energy and a more cheerful expression than before.

・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・

“Well, I’m off to earn the first cash income in the history of the Arkvist territory. Matilda, Mai, take care of the house.”

“Please be careful, Noein-sama, and have a good day.”

“Take care of our land while I’m away.”

After exchanging a few words with Matilda, Noein left for Retvik with the remaining men.

In the past, the purpose of going to Retvik was to buy supplies, but this time, the purpose was to ‘sell what they had acquired in the Arkvist territory’.

This time, they would be selling demon fur and meat, as well as demon stones. In the shallow part of the Bezel Forest, there are only weak demons that an adult farmer can manage to deal with, but if you hunt them, you can harvest fur, dried meat, and magic stones, which are crystals of magic power, from their bodies.

For a territory with a population of only seven people, this would be a source of income that could not be ignored.

“That should be a good amount of money, right? Will it be enough for future food expenses?”

“It’s a big deal to have Plump Deer fur, not just Demon Rabbit.”

Plump Deer is a demon that looks like a fattened deer, and its fur is popular as a material for jackets for the wealthy.

These monsters are rare to spot in the shallow parts of the forest, but they were lucky enough to hunt one. It would be good money.

It took us about half a day to reach Retvik. We quickly passed through to cash in the pelts and dried meat we had brought with us.

“Noein-sama, do you know where you’re going to sell them?”

“I’ve already talked to Eliza-san about buying the dried meat, so it’s okay. I’m thinking of taking the furs and magic stones to ……a place called the ‘Miles Trading Company’.”

“Is there any particular reason why you decided to go there?”

“Of course. I’ve done as much research as I can on the main merchants in Retvik, and Eliza has told me about them in detail before, and she says that Miles is the most trustworthy of them all. I don’t think I’ll have to worry about getting ripped off.”

As they engaged in such queries and answers, Noein prompted the golem horses to head towards the Miles Trading Company’s building.

Noein is a nobleman with a knighthood, but he only owns a forest as his domain. There is a possibility that he will be lambasted for being in need of money and will be forced to buy furs.

That’s why he came with a large group of four followers to show that ‘they were doing well and that there were prospects for further development’. To make them look good, he made them wash their bodies with soap in the morning and wear freshly laundered clothes.

He wanted to do business with a merchant association that understood his intentions and had the wisdom to think, ‘Let’s have a sincere relationship with a promising nobleman who is making good progress in the development of the area’. With the reputation of the Miles Trading Company, he would be at ease in that area.

The Miles Trading Company was a large, three-story store. It was undoubtedly one of the largest merchant houses in Retvik.

“Excuse me, my name is Baron Noein Arkvist. I’d like to ask you to buy the pelts and magical stones of the monsters we hunted in our territory.”

When Noein entered the store and called out to the young employee, the employee said, “Please wait a moment,” and went down to the back.

If the chairman of the company, who is in charge here, comes to greet them, he would be able to judge that they were willing to get along with them.

As Noein waited with this in mind, a small, chubby man in his forties with a friendly smile came out.

“Welcome to His Excellency Arkvist. My name is Benedict Miles and I am the Chairman of the Miles Trading Company.”

As Noein had hoped, the chairman of the board himself had come out to greet him.

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This translation is presented by Nocturne Translations.

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