Daily Life

Showing them the corpses with their own eyes would be a deterrent in itself!

A pile of heads looked shocking.

But the sight of headless corpses neatly laid out on the ground was even more impactful.

A pile of heads was limited in volume; one could relieve the shock by simply looking away.

But the corpses here, dead for two days, were different.

The smell was truly overpowering.

The low-slanted sheds already felt oppressive. The 360-degree inescapable pressure, combined with the corpses scattered everywhere, was something else!

Ergons was almost overcome by the stench when he opened the door. "Hurry up and identify the bodies, then haul them out to the fields to be buried. Since you're here in Tervain Village, you'll take responsibility. Daily tasks will be assigned after lunch."

He kicked Adamson, who couldn't hide his gloating expression, and the two of them quickly left.

All the crew members from Horus's pirate ship, except for Horus and the One-Eyed Dragon, were here. It was shocking, disgusting, and made one want to vomit.

At lunchtime, Adamson's aunt, Jane White, had made plenty of hard bread with cheese and fish soup. However, the soldiers had little appetite.

It was Ergons's soldiers who could really eat, so Jane White's efforts weren't entirely in vain.

After eating their fill, they were back in the drying yard where the bloodstains hadn't completely faded. The soldiers from Tervain Village and Tevalinburg stood in two distinct groups.

Ergons Tervalin noticed this with a barely perceptible frown, but he continued, "You are all my subordinates. Although the recruits from Tervain Village answered the Duchy's call and assembled to fulfill their obligations to their lord, and the soldiers of the Northern Legion are active duty soldiers, here, you share only one identity.

You are the protectors assembled to defend the borders of Tevalinburg, the last line of defense and the embodiment of dignity for this land!

I'll ask you to line up. Specific information about your squads can be found on the notice."

Old Adam posted a notice.

The notice thoroughly outlined their integrated deployment.

The twenty soldiers from the castle and the people of Tervain Village were to be divided into four groups. Squad leaders would be chosen based on merit, a competition that had already taken place during last night's welcoming party.

Then, one of the four groups would remain at the manor, one would patrol Tervain Village, and the remaining two groups would patrol the border and the road to the Duchy, from east to west and west to east, to prevent harm from beasts and monsters. The tasks would rotate daily.

The squad leaders were also undeniably trustworthy. Besides the two veteran sergeants from Tevalinburg, there were William Adena and Adamson, whose strength was unquestionable.

The specific details of the squad assignments were based on troop type coordination. Perhaps the soldiers from the castle wouldn't understand for now, but they would realize the unfathomable strength of Tervain Village once they interacted more.

This was because their ordinary soldiers were the true backbone of the Duchy: light infantry.

Furthermore, their armor was astonishing; all wore full plate armor, with the least being chainmail.

In contrast, the militiamen sent from the castle were still wearing padded armor!

As for the eleven heavy cavalry, excluding the big oaf Adamson (the initial five with Adam, three recruited at the manor gate, and three upgraded after the battle – I'm almost confused myself, let alone you guys running wild), they were stationed at the manor and directly under Ergons Tervalin's command.

The sergeants from Tevalinburg didn't find anything amiss. After all, in this mundane world, those were eleven knights, at least eleven court knights!

Even a regular Baron might not have ten court knights!

Here, they were likely raised from commoners, with no other significance. They took pride in becoming Divine Favor, looking towards the future and no longer considering their current status.

Under Old Adam's indoctrination, they believed they would become a part of history, living legends, and no longer concerned themselves with ordinary matters.

However, the sergeants from Tevalinburg still viewed things with a worldly perspective, so they found Tervain Village to be truly unconventional.

After the arrangements were made, the soldiers went out in shifts. Ergons, naturally, enjoyed his life. He wasn't an idiot; he had transmigrated and was now a noble. Why would he personally lead these soldiers on patrol?

As for the complete annihilation of the advance party sent by the County of Tervain, or the suspension of the coup plans, what did that have to do with him?

He took the revitalized Elisa Adena to look around the village for any opportunities to cheat.

For example, improving the waterwheels to make it easier for water to flow into the fields, adding a pulley to the well to save the village women effort when drawing water.

Arranging the planting of the late rice, inspecting the seed breeding with Old Adam, and visiting the site where the remaining laborers were clearing silt from the river pond.

While these strong laborers cleared the river during the dry season, he would go fishing and have a picnic, offering some guiding opinions.

"Fermenting the river silt with the corpses will increase the fertility of the land for the late rice and next spring's plowing."

"What you're saying are little tricks that only those of us who have worked the land our whole lives would know. Divine Favor truly knows things instinctively!"

Old Adam wasn't just flattering him; he was genuinely happy for Ergons Tervalin's growth from a family perspective.

The work in the fields was in full swing. In the orchard, the frost-covered persimmons and dates, which were accumulating sugar from the sunlight, were nearing harvest season.

The children in the village had also been assigned tasks: holding poles with colorful streamers to scare away birds.

When Ergons saw this, he cut some tree branches and made slingshots, handing them to the children to shoot birds.

"Practice from now on, and when you grow up, you can follow me and become vassals of Divine Favor. Your aim will surely be better than your fathers, uncles, and brothers are now."

Amidst the envious gazes of all the children, after he shot down over a dozen sparrows with a single shot, Ergons Tervalin, Sir, placed his earnest hopes on them.

"Solving the accuracy problem of the crossbowmen in the Swadia template really needs to start with the children. Such foresight!"

As he turned and left, leaving behind a dashing figure, he affirmed himself in his heart.

Ergons spent the next week like this, busy and fulfilling every day, feeling the fatigue of hard labor.

He was so tired that he was woken up by his bladder every morning. He lost weight, his cheeks caved in, but he also gained a more chiseled, three-dimensional beauty.

This aesthetic even amazed Old Adam. The old man, whose heart was still young, came to inquire about the secret to becoming more handsome.

"How many times a night are you at it, young master? You need to be more restrained. Do you have any protection? Fish are scarce during the dry season, so it's hard to get good fishing floats. Besides, Lady Elisa is a Baroness, so this isn't appropriate..."

Whenever this topic came up, he would always try to change the subject to something more serious, but the conversation always ended with Old Adam's sigh: "You should find a proper marriage and leave an heir for the master!"

Daily life was ordinary and full of happiness, but in reality, the old traditions of Tervain Village were reenacted every night.

That is, hiding in the granary and holding meetings.

It started with just him and Adam's son, and now his brother-in-law William has joined them.

"The patrol route to the main keep that the young master arranged is excellent. The truly unruly soldiers have already shown themselves. Each group has someone reporting the day's situation to the castle, though there might be some hidden even deeper."

Amidst the normal discussion, a seemingly serious remark from Adamson caused a burst of laughter from everyone.

Adamson, officially known as Knight Adam Dickens Rilanka, was utterly confused.

After everyone had their fill of laughter, Old Adam patted the lower back of his tall son and smiled with great satisfaction.

"My son knows how to share the young master's worries. This is a good sign, but don't you think the soldiers who go to report the situation are followed by merchant caravans when they return?"

"Are they? Haven't merchant caravans been coming to us every day this past week?"

After laughing, William earnestly reported, "Young master, our men have been through training and are ready to be upgraded. We request your blessing!"

Yes, it was time to spend money on equipment again.

Through a week of daily training, the last ten light infantrymen also reached the experience cap required for upgrading.

Even more miraculously, the castle infantrymen who underwent the same training also saw their strength improve. However, they didn't need to upgrade, and no one gave them new equipment.

After the training, all the militia in the castle had reached the strength of light infantry, and the light infantry's strength had clearly reached the ceiling before upgrading.

But this was only an improvement in physical stats.

It was unclear if their experience was sufficient. For Xiao Lan, cultivation and improvement should happen simultaneously, but their specialized training led to different developmental paths.

The legion soldiers did not receive knight training, so they could only upgrade into infantry.

His light infantry, however, had two potential paths: heavy cavalry or infantry.

The current problem wasn't the money to upgrade their equipment or the sudden appearance of too many horses that couldn't be explained.

It was that they were becoming too expensive to maintain.

These soldiers were indeed different from game soldiers who required weekly wages. They believed their faith sustained them, allowing them to forgo any reward.

In reality, the continuous improvement of the village and their lives served as a form of indirect reward.

But people and horses consume resources, and that all costs money. The daily maintenance of weapons and armor also costs money.

So, even with efforts to encourage merchant caravans to buy local specialties like hides, dates, and wheat, even organizing group hunts for production, and even letting the horses graze on the surrounding land until it became a desert, they couldn't support too many horses.

The terrain here was already approaching the mountainous features of the Rockley Federation. Not only was there insufficient space for cavalry to maneuver, but there was also not enough natural environment for horses to live.

To develop the military, civilian life must also be brought up to speed and keep pace. Relying solely on the system's money for support was unrealistic.

"Therefore, we need to stir up some trouble now to support our continued development!"

He finally made a difficult decision: "Uncle Adam, you mentioned earlier that the Holy See was going to send a priest to our village, right?

Since they are so eager to continue contact with the Duchy of Tervain, let's urge their priest to hurry.

After all, everyone in our village, young and old, truly believes in the Holy Light from the bottom of their hearts and longs for guidance!"

He wasn't even ashamed to say that!

As for whether Pastor Alphons sending a priest would leak information about their situation, there was no need to worry.

The Baron couldn't possibly be unaware of this place. The more they knew, the better.

The Baron was even considering sending soldiers here for training and had praised William Adena for his effective soldier training, as the growth of the soldiers sent from the castle was evident.

As for the priest who would be sent, as long as Ergons Tervalin displayed even a minor miracle, they would instantly become brainless fans.

Even Pastor Alphons himself would be the same.