"Oh, no..." Early in the morning, Kerry was still in bed. He had never even considered exercising. After all, once he learned a new cultivation technique in the future, his previous cultivation would be abolished, so exercising would be pointless anyway.
But not exercising didn't mean he wouldn't get up early. Kerry had been forced to rise early today.
Early that morning, Frank went to the stable as usual to care for his beloved horse, Maria—the castle's only packhorse. Maria had originally been lively and active, at the prime of her life.
Unfortunately, Maria was now drenched in cold sweat and trembling nonstop. Frank had never expected that after leaving for half a month of recuperation, he would return to find his darling in such a terrible state. He immediately let out a heart-rending scream.
The castle had arrived only around dinnertime the previous day. After returning, everyone had been busy celebrating Frank's recovery from his serious illness and the arrival of a new member at the castle. By the time dinner was over, it was almost nine.
Even Level 1 Warrior Kerry had been unbearably sleepy, while ordinary man Frank had long since passed out drunk.
Before going to sleep, Kerry had returned the Queen to the stable and given her an entire pig for dinner. He had done the same thing before, and Gandalf and the others hadn't known about it. It wasn't until Frank's scream early that morning gathered everyone in the castle at the stable that Kerry realized he had overlooked a basic fact: griffins ate all kinds of meat, but they were especially fond of horses.
Although Maria and the Queen were separated by a partition, when faced with delicious food, a powerful griffin might very well destroy the partition and hunt its prey. They had to be thankful that the Queen was indeed in poor condition. Its occasional stomachaches made it unwilling to move much even when it wasn't hungry. Otherwise, Maria would already have become griffin droppings.
"Young master, Maria is the only thing I have left to care about. Are you planning to feed her to the Queen? Good heavens, Maria spent the entire night with a griffin! This is simply abuse..." As soon as Frank saw Kerry arrive at the stable, he began complaining nonstop, chattering away without pause.
Gandalf was there too, and he pulled Kerry aside to give him another thorough lecture on the precautions for raising griffins.
Keeping a griffin and a horse in the same place was dangerous for the horse. Moreover, being tempted by delicious food for a long time without being able to eat it could easily drive the griffin mad.
Kerry spent the entire morning apologizing to Frank. He didn't dare tell him that he had previously kept the griffin and Maria together in the same way, or Frank probably would have exploded again.
It was nearly ten when the old butler, Carson, finally rescued Kerry. The first batch of people applying to become city guards had arrived at the castle for their interviews. Kerry was grateful for the island's small size for the first time. The news released at eight that morning had reached practically everyone on the island by ten, and quite a few people had come to apply.
The recruitment requirements were simple: applicants had to be between sixteen and fifty, male, healthy, and have all four limbs. Their facial features didn't matter; there were no requirements.
The island's original inhabitants, together with the fishermen and their families who had recently arrived, numbered around 1,600. Men who met the requirements made up roughly thirty percent of the island's population, but not many of them were unemployed. Almost all of those without jobs had come to the castle to apply.
There were a little over twenty of them, and none were particularly old. The oldest was only thirty-eight. This showed that most of the older people on the island had work that allowed them to support themselves.
Kerry was quite relieved. Having too many unemployed people in his territory would cause serious problems. He had originally planned to recruit at most ten people, but he changed his mind on the spot.
In any case, Unit 001 couldn't keep handling the Copper Ore mine alone forever. Some people had to help it and increase its ore output.
"Those among you who've been in a fight, step forward." This was a recruitment session. Although Kerry had already decided to hire everyone, he first had to learn about them before assigning them specific jobs.
There were twenty-five people in total. Twenty-four of them had been in fights before. The last person had only just met the minimum age requirement of sixteen and hadn't had the chance to fight anyone yet.
In short, brutality and violence were common throughout this world. Even an isolated island like this was no exception.
Since so many of them had been in fights, Kerry was fairly satisfied. At least anyone who had fought before should be capable of working as a city guard. However, there were too many people, so he still had to eliminate some of them.
"Those who've drawn blood in a fight or taken part in an armed brawl, step forward again." There were still quite a few this time—sixteen people had participated in armed brawls.
To Kerry, this group of unemployed people unexpectedly had considerable combat ability.
Actually, Kerry simply hadn't expected that on such a small island, nearly all the unemployed people would be unruly rather than well-behaved. The ones who fought and caused trouble all day had practically come to apply here.
There were actually this many? Then he would make it harsher. "Those who've caused a death in a fight, step forward again."
Kerry thought that these desperadoes might gradually grow into the protagonist's most trusted aides. He wondered whether someone like that would end up joining him this time.
Unfortunately, although the applicants had seemed rather fierce just moments earlier, not a single one stepped forward now.
Obviously, the man standing before them was a baron of the kingdom. If they were foolish enough to admit to killing someone in front of him, they might well be sent to prison. Besides, even if any of them really had killed someone, they wouldn't admit it now.
Kerry thought for a moment, then realized he had made a fool of himself. He quickly added another requirement: "Those who've fought someone one-on-one, step forward."
There were many kinds of fights, especially group brawls. When they had the advantage, even cowards would dare to charge in. A one-on-one fight was different, though. At the very least, you needed the resolve to fight on your own, and cowards absolutely didn't have that.
Only eight people stepped forward this time. Although that was fewer than his target number of city guards, Kerry was still very satisfied. In the end, those eight people and the only sixteen-year-old who had never fought were selected as city guards. Then, when his obsessive-compulsive tendencies suddenly flared up, Kerry picked the strongest of the other eight people who had participated in armed brawls and added him to the city guard team, making a full squad of ten.
The oldest member of this city guard team was under thirty, making it a fairly young and energetic group. Kerry felt that the recruitment had gone very smoothly. Although no particularly dazzling candidates had appeared, the overall quality was excellent.
The fifteen people who had assumed they had been rejected and were preparing to go home were all disappointed. Opportunities to work for nobles were rare, and in the eyes of people of this era, such jobs were iron rice bowls.
When Kerry saw the others preparing to leave, he hurriedly called out, "The rest of you, don't leave yet. I have some other work that needs people. It just depends on whether you're willing to do it."
In the end, Kerry kept all twenty-five people. He temporarily assigned the other fifteen to transport the Copper Ore mined by Unit 001 at the southern dock.
The ore would be moved to a cave near the dock. Unit 001 had dug out this cave specifically to store ore. Digging a cave was ridiculously easy for a Miner Robot; in half a day, it had excavated a warehouse the size of a basketball court.
For now, Kerry still had far too few people he could use with confidence. Once the large warehouse was filled with ore, Unit 001 would stop mining and come here to refine all the ore into ingots.
Although this would reduce mining efficiency, it had the advantage of being safe.
Only Kerry and Carson knew about this. Once Carson learned that his young master's puppet had the ability to help them make a fortune here, he repeatedly urged Kerry to keep it absolutely secret. It concerned both their lives and fortunes.
The contracts have already been sent out, so everyone can rest assured and bookmark the story.
Before you continue