Into the Mountains

Into the Mountains

Romain changed into hunting clothes that allowed him to move more easily. He also tied back his thick, shoulder-length hair with a headband, giving him the untamed freedom of a lion. Even his face seemed sharper and more angular.

Romain did not have Green and Aaron wear full armor. Instead, he had them change into clothes suited for moving freely through the mountains, bring their weapons, and had Aaron carry an iron shield on his back.

By the time the sun had just risen.

Mol was waiting in Sigg Town for Romain's foolish antics today—or rather, his Agricultural Instructor duties.

Instead, he saw Romain ride over on horseback, a greatbow on his back and dressed in neat, practical attire.

He heard Romain say, "Call out the guards of Sigg Town. I'm taking men into the mountains."

"Ah?" Mol stared blankly at Romain, his mind a complete mess. "But... my lord, why didn't you tell me beforehand?"

Romain frowned. "Why should I have told you?"

That's right, why should he tell me?

It's not like I could stop him.

What a damned ancestor to serve!

Mol was anxious and had no choice but to remind him, "Those people are very dangerous!"

Romain narrowed his eyes. "Oh? So I should let them run wild in my territory?"

Mol wanted to cry but had no tears. At this moment, he truly loved this willful, domineering lord of his to death.

Romain had clearly seen the struggle flickering across Mol's face. Before this, no matter how strange or absurd the things Romain did were, Mol would only silently accept them. At most, he would resign himself to fate, as though anything was fine as long as he was not demoted to the pigsty.

Only in this matter did Mol show considerable resistance.

So Romain brought Mol along as well.

When he announced it, Mol froze from head to toe, his eyes filled with utter despair, as though he had accepted his fate.

Sigg Town had thirty guards. Romain called away only twenty, brought enough supplies, and left ten guards behind for Sigg Town.

Today's production task was to repeat what they had done yesterday. The stewards of Sigg Town were capable enough to act as supervisors.

Romain first asked whether they had relevant experience and how familiar they were with the deep mountains.

The chances of anything happening to him, Green, and Aaron were very low, but that did not mean the guards had extraordinary physiques as well. Their chances of injury or death were high.

From his inquiries, he learned that as long as they were careful, nothing would happen.

Even before Romain had arrived here, the residents would enter the mountains or forests to gather timber.

This was also Romain's greatest means of noble oppression over all the residents of Sigg Town—though Romain was merely looking for an excuse.

Once he had trained the farmers to obey him instinctively, Romain would open up logging rights in the coming period.

He truly did not think this population could cause any meaningful waste of natural resources.

The farmers had no axes or machetes, only crude wooden tools. They could only struggle against nature with their bare hands.

Naturally, their efficiency was extremely low.

Traces of logging made this year would be covered by nature's renewal the following year.

Once Romain found suitable iron ore and forged sharp axes and chopping blades through metal smelting, he would personally show them what efficiency truly meant.

Breaking wood with rocks?

No!

Come on, use this. (hands over an axe and saw).jpg

But before that, Romain still needed to conduct a basic survey here and locate mineral veins suitable for extraction.

Most of Romain's territory remained undeveloped, what was known as wilderness.

Although the total cultivated area of Sigg Town was very likely tens of thousands of mu.

For the entire basin, however, it was still only a tiny portion.

This was a very common situation in this era.

The land was vast and the population sparse. Nature was perilous, wild beasts ran rampant, and pioneering was an arduous undertaking.

More than a hundred years ago, the Conqueror Emperor, in his capacity as an uncrowned king, issued a law.

Any pioneer would become the master of the land they developed and be granted the status and title of a pioneering lord.

This vigorous pioneering movement, which lasted nearly twenty years and was a shining moment for all human civilization, came to an end when The Conqueror fell gravely ill in the Nether Sea and his enormous fleet was struck by a storm.

Thus, with his death, his policies came to an end.

Without The Conqueror's overwhelming power to suppress them, the nobles and other kingdoms began stirring up trouble. In an extremely short time, they incorporated into their own territories the lands that commoners had painstakingly developed over twenty years.

Those voluntary pioneers were often people with nothing at all. They lacked resources and military strength and could not resist.

Only when the three grand dukes returned from the Nether Sea with their remaining forces did the chaos of dividing the cake finally settle down.

Yet the consequences of this affair were far-reaching.

For example, nations no longer actively undertook land reclamation. Instead, they relied on the natural growth of their populations to slowly expand humanity's living space.

Besides, the cultivated land was already enough for everyone to slaughter one another upon and reduce the population. There was no need to keep expanding outward.

Sigg Town had developed in precisely this passive manner, gradually growing from a few hundred people to its current scale and reclaiming tens of thousands of mu of wasteland.

Romain could not be bothered to comment on this matter.

He focused part of his attention on the interface of Tale of Survival.

Tale of Survival regarded his territory as "Origin Farm."

However, the map was shrouded in darkness. He had to personally travel through it to gradually illuminate the entire map.

During this process of illumination, it would mark various geographical details, such as logging areas, quarrying areas, mining areas, hunting areas, swamps, rivers, and wastelands.

Simply put, wherever Romain passed, he would know where minerals were located, as though he had activated a full-resource vision map.

But this vision only applied to specific resources; it was not real-time satellite surveillance.

And Romain had tested it.

Tale of Survival could not affect the real world!

Even because Sigg Town's farmland had not been cultivated by Romain, Tale of Survival did not regard those thousands or tens of thousands of mu as "farmland"—only land reclaimed by Romain himself would be considered "farmland."

Of course, this resource-surveying function still saved Romain a considerable amount of effort. As long as there was a mineral vein nearby, it could mark its exact location and spare him the time needed for surveying.

Mol earnestly advised, "Lord Romain, the mountains are full of desperate outlaws. You need not risk yourself personally. Your safety is what matters most."

Romain said, "If there is someone in these mountains capable of killing all the guards and two knights, then let him kill me."

His answer was relaxed and composed, but that did not stop Mol from sweating profusely.

The mountain path was difficult to traverse. He weighed nearly two hundred jin and could barely endure this kind of aerobic exercise.

Romain said, "All right. You can tell me about the people in these mountains now."

Mol clearly knew something.

Mol wiped away his sweat and could only cooperate. "I don't know very much either. Some of them have lived here for a long time. Before my father died of illness, when I was not yet the Agricultural Officer, they were already living here."

Ferocious magical beasts, treacherous terrain.

And certain exceptionally dangerous bandits and wanted criminals.

This was also why Mol had refused to come deep into the mountains, because one careless move could truly cost him his life.