Rendezvous

At last, they could see the camp Landen had just captured. Nila was filled with pride. Every Territory Resident was singing Landen's praises, saying that he would either inherit the territory in the future or establish a new barony of his own.

Just ten days ago, Landen had still been the baron's fourth son, merely a Reserve Knight. Though he was already one of the family's Mana-Wielder lords, neither Baron Hark nor Scholar Albert believed he would advance beyond Junior Knight. More likely, they thought he would remain a Reserve Knight for the rest of his life.

Landen had been someone without much of an opinion of his own. Whether it was Hark, Albert, Ryan, or Obert, few of them ever cared about Landen's thoughts or feelings.

Yet after Lord Hark was carried off by the Barbarians, Landen—the baron's fourth son whom no one had thought highly of—not only successfully led everyone in the territory to relocate, but had now captured three Barbarian camps and acquired more than a hundred Mana-Less people.

By knightly tradition, the spoils of battle were distributed by the Lord first. Landen had already given every knight a suit of Iron Armor, which was undoubtedly an immense gain for them.

That meant the remaining cattle, sheep, and people would become the foundation of Landen's future.

The thought made Nila even happier. She kept urging the two butlers, Yoke and Mevenan, to bring the Territory Residents and join up with Landen's group as quickly as possible.

The two camps joined together, and everyone was jubilant. The Mana-Less people from the old camp were even more convinced that Landen could lead them out of the Gallop Plains and back to the territory, where they could live peaceful lives.

The Mana-Less people newly taken in by Landen, meanwhile, were delighted by the original foundation of this territory. It meant their lives ahead would not be too difficult.

Seeing more than three hundred Mana-Less people gathered together, Landen finally let out a breath. After all, the number of Mana-Less people in the camp had expanded by fifty percent, while the livestock had doubled.

Moreover, many of them did not know one another. Having once been a homeroom teacher, Landen was terrified that these people, who did not even reach his chest, might cause trouble. It was an occupational habit carried over from his previous life.

While the Mana-Less people at the main camp began setting up camp, Landen called the main stewards among the original 120 Mana-Less people directly under the baron, along with Mevenan, Nila, Yoke, and the stewards of the three newly subdued camps—Cole, Shumo, and Haite—into his tent for a meeting.

The purpose of the meeting was simple: assigning responsibilities. Landen asked Mevenan to pick out the seven or eight Mana-Less people who usually attended to him. In the future, they would stay in two or three tents in the same area as Landen, under Nila's leadership.

The other Mana-Less people originally under Baron Gallop would be led by Albert. This way, the Mana-Less people from the original territory would continue following the old system of Baron Gallop's Territory: each Mana-Less person answered to the Mana-Wielder head of their household. The Mana-Less people belonging to Hark, Ryan, and the other family members would be managed collectively by Albert, and Landen could not be bothered to interfere.

From now on, the Mana-Less people taken in from any tribes they subdued would become Landen's own directly governed Territory Residents. Landen decided to manage them in a unified manner rather than throw them all together in a chaotic mess.

Nila would still be responsible for attending to Landen, while Yoke, Cole, Shumo, and Haite would manage the Mana-Less people from their respective former camps. Before being captured by the Barbarians, Yoke and the others had been butlers in the baronies or knightly territories where they lived. They were literate and highly experienced in managing families of around thirty people.

Landen's first requirement was to gather all twenty-two children below the age of fourteen together, have several female Mana-Less people look after them, and find a literate Mana-Less person to teach them reading and writing.

Second, they were to identify adults among the Mana-Less people who possessed particular skills. Landen had actually assigned this task that morning, but that time had been to ease his own awkwardness over unfamiliar girls suddenly appearing at his bedside.

Once the skilled people had been identified, the best practitioner of each skill would be chosen as its leader. On one hand, they could take in underage Apprentices; on the other, the skill leaders could communicate with the relevant personnel directly under the territory.

Third, among the remaining Territory Residents without specialized skills, they were to select people to serve as sanitation supervisors, herders, sentries, and other jobs that required no particular skill but did require responsibility.

Everyone left after that would serve as porters and provide the labor for relocating the territory.

As Landen made these arrangements in the tent, Albert watched from beside him.

To Albert, the Landen before him felt utterly unfamiliar. Landen had only gone to Bristle-Wolf City once in the past, and that had merely been to take refuge. These arrangements of Landen's clearly did not conform to the noble traditions of the Dragon Kingdom.

Yet they were remarkably effective. Albert did not interrupt or offer advice throughout the entire process. He wanted to see what kind of Lord Landen intended to become.

When Yoke and the others left, Landen let out a long sigh. He had always hated meetings before; who would have thought that after arriving in another world, he would still have to hold meetings? And perhaps someday, he might even be holding video conferences.

Just thinking about how his old boss would suddenly send a message at 16:45 telling everyone to get together made his heart ache uncontrollably.

"Uncle Albert? Which of these people do you think would make the better butler?"

"Oh? You want to choose your own butler from among them?" Albert looked at Landen with great interest.

"Yes. Mevenan now has more than a hundred people to manage, while each of them only needs to manage twenty or thirty. Besides, they are more familiar with these newcomers."

"Landen, I believe that for a butler, ability is not the most important thing. Loyalty is."

"Of course. But Uncle, both their loyalty and ability are very clear. Their masters' households were raided. First, they did not fight to the death in resistance; second, they did not swear to follow their former masters unto death. Isn't that the finest proof of their loyalty?" Landen said.

"You see things clearly. But if that is the case, why not find someone more loyal to manage them? Nila, for instance?"

"Because they can manage them more efficiently. As Mana-Less people of the Human Race, they were able to earn the Barbarians' trust and manage Barbarian camps. That is enough to show their ability and standing within their original camps.

"What I need now is efficiency."

"Efficiency?"

"I cannot expect loyalty from them, but I can expect results from my battles. As long as I keep winning, they will naturally offer up their loyalty." Landen knew well that it was better to expect achievements than to expect human nature.

A month ago, Landen could never have said something like that. It seems he has been thinking these past few days about how to become an outstanding Lord. Albert continuously guessed at the path Landen's thoughts had taken.

God Emperor bless him—may Landen's future go smoothly as well. Otherwise, with him thinking about all this day in and day out, he'll start losing his hair. Albert believed that, as a newly rising Lord, Landen's appearance would matter in the future too. It would be best if he could attract female Mana-Wielders.

If he wanted to find himself a Mana-Wielder wife, then he needed to take even better care of himself.

That afternoon, Yoke and the others roughly compiled the main skilled personnel among Landen's 109 new Territory Residents.

Contrary to Landen's expectations, the proportion of skilled people in the camps was very high. Sixty percent had one specialty or another. There were not only the cooks, Tanners, armor maintainers, weavers, spinners, Carpenters, stonemasons, and Grooms Landen had expected, but also people skilled in brewing, pottery-making, tree planting, assisting priests in rituals, singing, dancing, and more—over a dozen categories in total.

Landen also learned that many physically demanding tasks in Barbarian camps were performed by the Barbarians themselves, such as carrying goods, loading and unloading, digging pits, and so on. The Barbarians found the Mana-Less too slow and felt they wasted their time.

For the Barbarians, the reason they purchased these Mana-Less slaves at tribal assemblies was precisely because they valued their skills.

Listening to their reports, Landen felt as if heaven itself were looking after him. Within Human Race families, skilled craftsmen were considered family assets, and their crafts were often secrets never passed beyond the household. Borrowing Mana-Less people with skills from one another required payment.

The other thing Landen had requested—literacy—produced far fewer results. Of all 109 people, only twelve could write complete sentences. This included the four butlers and the four children of those butlers.

Another four were Mana-Less children from minor noble families, being trained to become their families' butlers. Aside from those who could write full sentences, several more could write a few words beyond their own names.

After hearing the reports, Landen gained a general understanding of his Territory Residents' characteristics. He therefore decided to begin the next stage of work immediately.

First came a more thorough census. Landen required the two butlers, Shumo and Haite, to each take along a literate assistant and carefully record the names, genders, ages, specialties, and special identities of everyone in the territory, such as which family they came from.

Once the count was complete, Landen would divide all specialties into two groups. Group 1 included people whose skills could be put to use in the party immediately: cooks, grooms, armor maintenance workers, tanners, singers and dancers, musicians, and the like.

Landen had Shumo lead this group. During the territory's rest periods and relocations, they would be responsible for cooking, tending the horses, processing leather, and so on.

Group 2 consisted of talents engaged in production work: brewing, pottery-making, tree planting, rituals, carpentry, masonry, spinning, weaving, and so forth. These people were highly valuable, but during the territory's recent migration, they had no chance to put their skills to use.

Haite would lead these people in helping make Meat Sausages, dry leather, and handle other work that required little physical exertion.

Next, Landen found two literate female Mana-Less and appointed them junior teachers. Together with the three women previously assigned to care for the children, they would look after the twenty-two children. The two literate women would specifically handle the children's literacy education, while the other three would be responsible for their daily lives.

Then, Landen had Cole take a literate Mana-Less and divide the remaining dozen or so Mana-Less without specialties into three groups, assigning them heavier physical labor such as herding sheep, patrolling, and standing guard.

Finally, Yoke would take a literate Mana-Less and supervise the three people above. Every seven days, they would evaluate the members of Groups 1, 2, and 3, rewarding the outstanding Mana-Less with better meals.

After dividing the work, Landen said he would announce the arrangements for the four of them to all the Territory Residents. He also explained that the current division of labor was only temporary and that rotations would begin soon. After the rotations, Landen would ask the Mana-Less about the previous work of the various butlers. In short: division of labor, requirements, and supervision.

Of course, with work and responsibility came corresponding treatment.

Landen's own camp had only just been established. Before this, everyone had eaten the provisions they had stored themselves. Now that they had taken three camps, the grain each family had originally owned still belonged to that family, while the newly captured grain belonged to Landen. The captured meat and Long-Haired Sheep would serve as supplementary rations.

Based on the Mana-Less divisions, Landen split the meals into five types: management meals, skilled-group meals, physical-labor-group meals, outstanding-group meals, and children's meals. The total portions for the labor group and skilled group were roughly equal, but the physical-labor-group meals contained more salt, while management meals had somewhat more meat. Outstanding-group meals had as much meat as management meals, plus a meat sausage as a weekend reward. The children's group, meanwhile, was guaranteed a supply of mare's milk or beast milk.

Landen racked his brains over the division of labor for the Mana-Less. In his previous life, he had also assigned work and set requirements for students, but the situation he faced now was far more complicated. For one thing, the abilities in this world had no unified standard of evaluation.

There was no system that said one person was a Level One hunter while another was a Level Two carpenter. Therefore, for talents like those in Group 2, whose skills were not especially useful at present, he could neither make them do too much physical labor and let them forget their crafts, nor let them sit around idle with nothing to do. He could only have them take on tasks that did not demand much physical exertion.

Landen also hoped that the relevant craftsmen and talented people of the Baron's territory could exchange ideas with those in Groups 1 and 2. Following the traditions of Landen's original world, perhaps they could organize some kind of skills competition. But after he shared the idea with the Baron's butler, Mevenan, Mevenan was somewhat hesitant and resistant.

In Mevenan's view, Landen had already effectively split from the Baron's territory. Though livestock and food were still shared, the population and wealth had already been divided. As the butler, Mevenan did not really dare make the decision himself.

In the end, Albert nodded and had Mevenan summon craftsmen of every kind from among the Baron's directly governed Territory Residents to exchange knowledge with Landen's craftsmen.

With the personnel assignments settled, it was finally time to arrange the work. Landen's supplies were relatively abundant now, especially daily necessities such as tents, cooking pots, and furs. Landen felt that, while there were no Barbarians nearby these next few days, they should make more arrangements for camp affairs.

He ordered Greyhound Dante, the Knight, to continue scouting the medium-sized Barbarian camp to the east. Mana-Less Group 2 was to select some Long-Haired Sheep for slaughter. Landen himself now had 119 Long-Haired Sheep.

These sheep were both mobile military rations and liable to lose weight during long-distance travel. Moreover, with so many sheep, the demand on the grasslands near the camp was also great. Landen could not remain in one place for too long. He could only slaughter as he moved.

Landen's ideal situation now was to take a camp, rest and regroup there for a while, then continue onward. While maintaining a streak of victories, he also had to keep his camp's scale under control, lest it grow too large for the few Mana-Wielders to protect.

Three Moons rose into the sky, and night descended. Because the camps had joined together, Landen ordered a bonfire dinner that night. The Territory Residents chose five sheep to slaughter, ensuring that everyone received some mutton.

Landen, meanwhile, shared some Magic Beast Meat with the other Knights and Mana-Wielders, and told everyone not to drink. After all, the last time they had attended a bonfire dinner, the dinner's original owners had eaten until they were sprawling every which way, drunk with merriment.