Spirituality

Spirituality

The greatest difficulty in the Northern Lands was food.

But Ryan had not expected that on the very first day of arriving in his own territory, before he had even begun thinking about how to squeeze his subjects dry, he would already be facing the problem of food.

I'm a noble lord, and I still have to figure out how to get you bread?

That really was the case.

Ryan sighed and looked at the transparent panel before him. The spirituality displayed on it was steadily increasing.

10, 11, 12, 13...

The final number reached thirty-five. Looking at the twenty-six villagers before him, Ryan roughly understood where the increase in spirituality came from.

Twenty-six subjects, eight Apprentice Knights, and one Old Steward. The principle was easy enough to understand.

Each subject could bring him one point of spirituality.

But what was spirituality for? Could it conjure food out of thin air for him?

He did not know whether it could, but it definitely could not now, because Ryan sensed that he needed more spirituality to unlock something.

"Go. Gather every villager in Frozen Earth Village."

No matter what this village had been called before, after Ryan's arrival, it was Frozen Earth Village.

At his side, Deren instinctively stepped forward. His sturdy, imposing figure was practically a savage beast in the eyes of these villagers.

The villagers scattered with a commotion, but Deren still caught one of them and then threatened him into gathering everyone else.

Soon, at the center of the village, where a millstone stood.

Ryan met all the subjects within his Baronial Territory.

Every one of them was wrapped up tightly, but not in any fine cotton clothes. Their garments were woven from tree fiber.

Only a few wore clothing made from animal pelts, and their status was clearly different from that of the people around them.

Poor and cold. Ryan finally realized what his territory was like.

Fortunately, as his spirituality had risen past ninety, Ryan temporarily had no intention of nitpicking with the villagers here.

There were one hundred and twenty-five people: thirty-one elderly people who looked as though they were about to die, exactly ten children less than half his age, and the twenty-odd people from before. Altogether, this village had given him eighty-four points of spirituality.

"Ninety-three points of spirituality. Seven more before anything changes."

Feeling somewhat helpless, Ryan set aside the matter of spirituality for the moment and looked at the villagers of Frozen Earth Village.

"Who is the village chief?"

An old man whose teeth had all fallen out hobbled forward on a cane, supported by a middle-aged man beside him, then knelt before Ryan.

"This humble one is Hamiti. Greetings, Lord."

"Get up first. Is that your son beside you?"

Ryan looked at the middle-aged man beside the old village chief Hamiti, Little Hamiti.

"Yes."

"From today onward, he is the village chief of Frozen Earth Village."

"Huh?"

Seeing Ryan frown, the middle-aged man beside Hamiti immediately knelt again, his forehead striking the icy ground.

"Thank you, Lord."

An old man who probably could not even survive this winter did not look like someone capable of working. Ryan simply replaced the village chief.

It was no big deal. As the lord of Frozen Earth Barony, he possessed absolute authority. It would not even be an exaggeration to say that these villagers were his private property.

After dismissing the surrounding villagers, Ryan kept only Hamiti behind. The middle-aged man stood before Ryan, looking extremely nervous and uneasy.

"You're not about to tell me that my Baron's Castle is up there, are you?"

Ryan pointed north, toward the fortress atop the rhino-horn-shaped mountain. It could be seen even from here, and it had probably been built with imperial funding after the Empire conquered Northwind Province.

But as Ryan looked at the snowstorm raging in the sky and the fortress that had apparently stood unoccupied for who knew how many years, he could not help cursing the people who had built it.

He could tell just by looking how cold it would be up there.

"Those damned parasites took the Empire's wages just to do this kind of work?"

Hamiti did not dare make a sound and could only say softly, "It is said that the scenery up there is good."

Good scenery meant people could live there? Ryan did not think his current body could withstand living in that place.

"Other than you hundred-odd people, is there no one else in Frozen Earth Territory?"

Hamiti shook his head.

"Frozen Earth Territory has not had a Baron for a long time. There used to be several hundred people in the village, but gradually, those with some skills all left. The people in the village are all Freemen. As long as they are careful not to be captured and made into slaves, they can survive in other lords' territories with their skills."

"Later, some blacksmiths and carpenters left. After they settled down, the others from the village gradually followed them."

After hearing this, Ryan said nothing. He merely instructed Deren, "Go back in the direction we came from and bring back two hunted beasts. Then look around. Weren't there bandits made up of many slaves before? Tell them that as long as they come here, I'll grant them Freemen status!"

Deren could not help but stare in shock. "My lord, those Mud Legs ought to be burned to death!"

"Don't you understand what I said?!" Ryan looked at him, and Deren trembled before dropping to his knees.

"I'll go at once."

At the side, Old Steward Beard had not spoken the entire time, but the look in his eyes as he watched Ryan became increasingly approving.

He felt that Young Master Ryan was truly becoming more and more like a noble lord.

For the reasons Hamiti had mentioned, many houses in Frozen Earth Village had been left empty. After Ryan declared that all those who had left were banished, these houses became his temporary lodgings.

"Sooner or later, I'll live up there!"

Ryan looked at the fortress on Rhino Horn Mountain, standing still with complete focus.

The Blaze Dragon Knight Breathing Technique, the Knight Breathing Technique of the Clayton Family. Ryan knew full well that if he wanted to gain a foothold in the Northlands, he absolutely could not lack extraordinary means.

As a lord, he could not be frail and weak.

One day passed. Then two. Deren, who had taken five Apprentice Knights with him, still had not returned.

"They... haven't run away, have they?"

Ryan asked Old Beard as he gnawed on hard black bread.

"They wouldn't dare." Beard looked at Ryan, who ate the black bread without the slightest expression, his face filled with distress. At those words, his eyes became murderous. "Their families became Freemen in the Earldom. If they dare run, their families will all become slaves. And even if they flee, other lords will not spare them if they discover them."

Anyone who betrayed their master would face pursuit across the entire continent.

At the first faint light of dawn on the third day, Deren finally returned to Frozen Earth Territory with five elk carcasses and more than thirty refugees, bruised and battered, their clothes stripped down to a single layer.

Ryan declared ownership over these thirty-four slaves who had originally belonged to other territories, and his spirituality rose to one hundred and twenty-seven.

Spirituality: 127

Ryan felt that he could consume spirituality at any moment to open a gateway leading into the unknown.