Daily

Actually letting them see these corpses with their own eyes was a form of intimidation in itself!

A pile of heads stacked together looked extremely shocking.

But the sight of a whole ground covered in neatly arranged headless corpses was even more intense.

After all, a pile of heads took up limited space, and looking away could ease the discomfort.

But the corpses that had been lying in front of them for two days were different.

The smell was truly awful.

The low, cramped shed was already oppressive enough. Add the pressure of a 360-degree, inescapable environment and a floor covered in corpses, and tsk, tsk!

When Ergons opened the door, even he was nearly overwhelmed by the stench. "Hurry up and identify the corpses, then haul them to the fields and bury them. Since you've come to Tervain Village, you have to take responsibility. The daily assignments will be issued after lunch."

He kicked Adamson, who was making no effort to hide his gloating expression, and the two of them quickly left.

Everyone from Horus's pirate ship was here except Horus and One-Eyed Dragon. It was a shocking, disgusting sight that made people want to throw up.

At noon, Adamson's second aunt, Jane White, made a great many thick, hard loaves of bread, along with cheese and fish soup. However, although the soldiers had little appetite,

Ergons's soldiers could really eat, which kept fair and plump Jane White's efforts from going to waste.

After eating their fill, they still stood on the drying ground, where the bloodstains had yet to be completely scrubbed away. The soldiers from Tervain Village and Tevalinburg stood in two clearly distinct groups.

Ergons Tevalin noticed this and showed a barely perceptible trace of displeasure, but he still

"You are all my subordinates. Although Tervain Village's recruits had gathered in response to the duchy's call and to fulfill their obligations to their liege, while the Northern Legion's soldiers are active, full-time troops, here, you have only one identity.

"You are protectors gathered to guard Tevalinburg's borders. You represent the final line of defense and the dignity of this territory!

"I'll ask you about the arrangements. The specific squad information is on the notice."

Old Adam put up a notice.

It thoroughly explained how they would be mixed together.

The twenty soldiers from the castle and the people from Tervain Village would be divided into four groups. Everyone would compete for the position of group leader based on their own abilities; they had already tested themselves on this during last night's welcome gathering.

One group would remain at the manor, one would patrol Tervain Village, and the other two would patrol the border and the road to the duchy, one from east to west and the other from west to east, preventing beasts and monsters from harming people. The assignments would rotate once a day.

The group leaders were also absolutely convincing. Aside from the two veteran soldiers from Tevalinburg, they were William Adena and Adamson, whose strength was beyond doubt.

The groups had been arranged according to complementary troop types. The soldiers from the castle might not understand it yet, but after spending more time together, they would discover that Tervain Village's strength was unfathomably deep.

That was because the ordinary soldiers were already the duchy's true backbone: light infantry.

Moreover, the degree of their armor was astonishing. Every one of them wore iron armor, and even the worst-equipped among them wore full chainmail.

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

As for the eleven heavy cavalrymen remaining after excluding the big, foolish Adamson—the five who had been with Adam from the beginning, the three recruited at the manor gate, and the three upgraded after the battle (I'm not only worried about confusing you; I'm practically confusing myself)—they would remain at the manor and take orders directly from Ergons Tevalin.

The soldiers from Tevalinburg did not find anything wrong with this. After all, in this secular world, those were eleven knights—at the very least, eleven noble court knights!

Even an ordinary Baron might not have ten court knights!

They might all have been elevated from commoners here, with no other significance. They were proud to have become Divine Favor bearers and were looking toward the future, no longer concerned about their current status.

Under Old Adam's indoctrination, they believed they would one day become a line in an epic and living legends. They no longer considered ordinary concerns.

But the soldiers from Tevalinburg still viewed matters through secular eyes, so they felt that Tervain Village was simply too unconventional.

Once everything had been arranged, the soldiers began heading out in shifts. Ergons naturally intended to enjoy life. There was nothing wrong with him, and now that he had crossed over and become a noble, why should he personally lead these soldiers on patrol?

As for the fact that everyone sent by the County of Tervain to scout the way had been wiped out, or how to continue the operation to overthrow the regime that had been ordered to stop, what did any of that have to do with him?

He led the recovered Elisa Adena around the village to see whether there was anywhere he could use his cheat abilities.

For example, he could improve the waterwheel to make it easier for water to flow into the fields, add a crank to the well to save the village women some effort when drawing water,

arrange the planting of the late rice, inspect the breeding work with Old Adam, and visit the remaining laborers as they cleared silt from the ponds and river channels.

While the strong laborers were clearing the waterways during the dry season, he went fishing and picnicking, while offering some guidance.

"Ferment the silt from the river together with the corpses. When the time comes, it can increase the fertility of the soil for the late rice and next spring's plowing."

"What you've said is one of the little tricks that only those of us who have spent our whole lives tending the land would know. A Divine Favor bearer really is different—born with knowledge!"

Old Adam was not merely flattering him. He was genuinely happy about Ergons Tevalin's growth from the perspective of a family member.

The work in the fields was proceeding energetically. The frost-covered persimmons in the orchard and the dates currently gaining sugar from the sunlight were both nearly ready for harvest.

The children in the village were also given an assignment: they carried poles with strips of cloth tied to the ends and drove away the birds.

When Ergons saw them, he cut some branches to make slingshots and handed them to the children so they could shoot birds.

"Start practicing now. When you grow up, you can follow me and become retainers of a Divine Favor bearer. By then, your aim will definitely be better than your fathers', uncles', and older brothers' is now."

As all the children looked at him enviously, he knocked down more than a dozen sparrows one after another. Sir Ergons Tevalin placed his earnest hopes in them.

"Solving the accuracy problem for crossbowmen in the Swadia template really has to start with children. What foresight!"

As he turned away and left behind a dashing figure, he gave himself another approving nod.

Ergons spent the entire following week this way. Every day was busy yet fulfilling, and he felt the exhaustion of hard work.

He was so tired that he woke every morning because he needed to urinate. He had lost weight, and his cheeks had sunk, but he had also gained a few points of sculpted, chiseled beauty.

This new beauty even stunned Old Adam. Though old, Old Adam's heart had not died, and he came to ask about the secret to becoming more handsome.

"How many times did you do it last night, young master? You need to show some restraint. Did you take any precautions? There are too few fish during the dry season, so it's hard to get a float. Besides, Lady Elisa is the Baron's wife, so this isn't quite proper..."

Whenever the subject came up, he always tried to distract himself with some practical matter, but the conversation ultimately returned to Old Adam's sighing plea: "You should find a proper marriage and give the master an heir!"

Daily life was plain and filled with happiness. In reality, however, the old tradition of Tervain Village was being carried out every night.

That was to hide in the granary and hold a meeting.

At first, it had only been him and the father-and-son pair of Adam and Adamson. Now, William, his brother-in-law, had joined them.

"The patrol route to the main castle arranged by the young master is excellent. The truly dishonest soldiers have already revealed themselves. Every group has someone going to the castle to report the day's situation, though there may still be people hiding even deeper."

During the normal discussion, a seemingly serious remark from Adamson caused everyone to burst out laughing.

Adamson, officially known as Sir Adam Dickens Rilanka, the Foot Knight, was left completely bewildered.

After everyone had laughed enough, Old Adam patted his tall son on the lower back and smiled in comfort.

"My son knows how to share the young master's burdens now. That's a good sign indeed. But didn't you notice that every time the soldier who went to report returned, a merchant caravan came with him?"

"Did it? Haven't caravans been coming here every day this week?"

After laughing, William reported seriously, "Young master, our people have all reached the point where they should be upgraded after their training. Please bestow your blessing!"

That was right. He would have to spend money on equipment again.

After a week of daily training, the last ten light infantrymen had also reached the experience threshold required for an upgrade one after another.

Even more miraculously, the castle infantry who had undergone the same training had also grown stronger. They did not need to upgrade, of course, and no one was giving them updated equipment.

After their training, all the castle militiamen had reached the strength of light infantry. The light infantry's strength had also clearly reached the ceiling before an upgrade.

But this was merely an increase in physical attributes.

As for whether they had enough experience, he did not know. Little Lan's cultivation and improvement should occur simultaneously, but different specialized training would lead to different paths of development.

The legion soldiers had not received knight training, so they could only upgrade into infantry.

His light infantry, on the other hand, had two paths: heavy cavalry or infantry.

What they lacked now was neither the money to buy their upgrade equipment nor an explanation for how so many horses had suddenly appeared.

What they lacked was the ability to support them.

These soldiers truly did not demand weekly wages like soldiers in a game, because they believed their faith supported them and that they needed no reward.

In reality, the village and their increasingly improved lives were already a form of compensation.

But feeding people and horses cost money, and so did the daily maintenance of weapons and armor.

Therefore, even if he encouraged more merchant caravans to purchase leather, dates, wheat, and other local specialties; even if he organized mass hunting for production; and even if he let the horses graze freely until they turned the wetlands surrounding the land into a desert, they still could not support too many horses.

This place was already close to the mountainous terrain of the Rockley Federation. It not only lacked enough open ground for cavalry to deploy, but also lacked a sufficient natural environment for horses to live in.

If he wanted to develop the military, he had to raise people's livelihoods and ensure they could keep up. Relying entirely on money from the system to provide subsidies was unrealistic.

"So we need to come up with something now. Only then can we support our continued development!"

He finally made a difficult decision. "Uncle Adam, you said earlier that the Church was going to send a pastor to our village, right?

"Since they're so eager to continue negotiations with the County of Tervain, urge their pastor to set out as soon as possible.

"After all, every man, woman, child, and elder in our village truly believes in the Holy Light from the bottom of their hearts and longs for guidance!"

He had no shame saying that!

As for whether Pastor Alphons's pastor would leak information about them after arriving, that was completely irrelevant.

The Baron could not possibly know nothing about this place. In fact, the more they let him know, the better.

The Baron was even considering sending soldiers here for training, and he had praised William Adena for training soldiers effectively. After all, the growth of the soldiers sent from the castle was visible to the naked eye.

As for the pastor being sent here, Ergons Tevalin only had to reveal a little divine power, and the man would instantly become a brainless fan.

Even if Pastor Alphons came in person, it would be the same.