One Day 2

Landen's afternoons were always very leisurely, as tasks like dressing crocodile skin, butchering meat, and starting fires were all handled by Neil and Fang. Fang and Greyhound were both excellent hunters, highly skilled at skinning and deboning, while Neil, a child of the grasslands, was an expert at building fires, curing meat, roasting it, and finally cleaning the magic crystal plates.

The remaining magic-gifted individuals continued to use baskets to catch Water Arrow Fish. Once caught, the fish were killed, cured, and eventually brought back to camp as a supplement for the magic-gifted members.

The entire team tried their best to avoid engaging with a second crocodile. For one, hunting them consumed a significant amount of Landen's battle qi; after unleashing two consecutive strikes, Landen required nearly half a day to recover.

On the other hand, Landen now considered the entire Gallop Plains his own backyard. Since it was his own garden, he had to protect the source of his magic beast meat.

Over a dozen magic-gifted individuals sat around the fire, gnawing on crocodile meat. A four-meter-long crocodile was enough to feed everyone until they were full, with plenty of meat left to bring back to camp. After eating, Landen would require some of the leftover scraps to be made into jerky, which he would set aside for himself.

Afternoons in Alivia were very long. After Diyang set, the massive Laya would linger in the sky for a long time; this period was known as the evening. The evening was quite bright, but the temperature would drop. Herdsmen on the grasslands would use this time to hurry back to their camps, where bonfires would be lit.

On the way back to camp, Landen always told the young cavalrymen stories about the Gallop Family. Some of these stories had been told by Hark and Albert, while others Landen had read in that large book recording the territory's history.

"Let me tell you, our Gallop Family of the Great Dragon can be traced back to a legendary knight of the former Galloping Horse royal line. In his childhood, he went to the Tower of Purity in the imperial capital to study, and he was once a disciple of the God Emperor, the beloved student of the legendary space mage Kaul."

"Master Kaul participated in the reconstruction of Night-Kirin City and thereafter always looked after the students from our Gallop Family who went to the Tower of Purity. Our family's ancestors produced several legends and over a dozen magi under his tutelage. Master Kaul helped our Gallop Family until that world-shaking war over 200 years ago, when Master Kaul fell."

Landen counted off his family's glorious history, "Do you know? The God Emperor truly favored our old Galloping Horse line. The design of the banner for this Gallop Tribe was personally bestowed by the God Emperor Himself!"

"Ah... the Lord's family is truly blessed by the gods."

"Indeed, the Gallop Tribe is the ultimate ruler of these great grasslands!"

Landen listened to his subordinates' flattery with great satisfaction. What he had just said wasn't exactly wrong; back when the Galloping Horse line restored the nation, the God Emperor issued a decree naming the Night-Kirin banner as the flag for the Gallop Family, though it did not specify a fixed style, size, or illustration.

Over the thousand years of history that followed, the style of the Gallop Family's flag had undergone dozens of revisions. It could be said that even now, any noble who painted a Black-Scaled Horse on their flag could basically be confirmed to have some connection to the Galloping Horse line. Therefore, Landen's claim that his banner's style was personally bestowed back then was technically flawless.

Landen had been thinking a lot lately about what Albert had said regarding how to truly integrate the barbarians into his territory. Currently, Landen was merely the leader of a nomadic tribe; he had no territory and could not be called a lord.

But he would eventually become a landed lord. Yes, he should! At the very least, whenever Landen saw his tribe growing larger and the barbarian population increasing, he would repeat this to himself.

Once he had a territory and a castle in the future, what would the barbarians in his domain actually be? How would they live, and how would they be managed?

If the barbarians had never been conquered by a human lord, how should he treat them in the future?

After several days of contemplation, Landen attempted to follow the path of the feudal dynasties from his previous life: on one hand, granting the barbarians semi-autonomy, and on the other, finding a religious faith for the nomadic tribes to transform them into a semi-nomadic form through religion. The god he brought to the barbarians was the God Emperor, and Landen secretly hoped that the God Emperor Himself wouldn't mind having barbarian believers.

To make the barbarians believe in the God Emperor, Landen selected many stories from his family history related to the God Emperor and the legends of the Tower of Purity, telling them to the barbarians or the young magic-gifted members in his team whenever he had the time.

As he finished telling stories of the Gallop Family, Landen's group finally returned to camp.

Upon entering the camp, Landen first went to the area designated for the children—a mandatory stop every time he returned from a hunt.

Landen required the non-magic-gifted individuals in charge of the children to select the four to six children who were the most literate, learned skills the fastest, and performed the best each day.

After returning, Landen would distribute chunks of magic beast meat to the children; every child received a small piece, and those who performed well received two.

Landen felt that if the children ate magic beast meat, they would have a better chance of awakening their magic-gifted bloodlines, which would be of great benefit to the territory. Even if no new magic-gifted individuals emerged, increasing the children's loyalty to him was not a bad thing.

Of course, as a teacher in his past life, Landen had a greater fondness for children, and he held the view that no matter how hard things were, one should not let the children suffer.

"Who learned the most characters today?" Landen asked the children, though he was actually asking Nancy, the non-magic-gifted person managing them.

"The one who learned the most characters today is Redbird."

Redbird was the granddaughter of a human steward from a newly conquered territory. Since joining the group of children, she had shown herself to be very studious. Both Landen and Nancy were very fond of the child.

"Come, here is a piece of meat as a reward."

"Thank you, My Lord."

"Hmm, which child was the most obedient today?"

"The most obedient one is Little Knife Handle," the child of the camp's first leatherworker.

"Come, here is another reward."

"Th... thank you... My Lord." Little Knife Handle was very shy.

"Children, the meat you are eating now was brought back by me and these big brothers behind me," Landen said. He always brought his hunting team with him whenever he visited.

"Thank you, Lord of the Territory, thank you big brothers!" This was what Nancy had taught the children to say, but both Fang and Neil were very happy to hear it.

When Landen's group returned to camp, it meant the entire territory could start eating. Every day, the camp consumed three Long-Haired Sheep, and occasionally, a pack animal that was nearing the end of its life would be stewed as well.

The non-magic-gifted individuals would begin selecting and slaughtering the Long-Haired Sheep every afternoon. The organs and scraps were made into sausages, while the bones and whole cuts of meat were put into large pots to stew.

Every time a tribe was conquered, Landen would gain a large pot; these large iron pots were also important assets for the territory.

Landen's camp required five large pots to stew meat simultaneously: one for the human magic-gifted, one for the barbarian magic-gifted, and one each for the Left Camp, the Right Camp, and the original Galloping Horse subjects. When the mutton was nearly finished stewing, they would add the previously air-dried sausages, the fish caught that day, small game obtained by the cavalry, and so on.

In addition to meat, the camp would use the afternoon fire to make wheat cakes. The flour was grain obtained from various camps, and they would also add grass seeds, wild vegetables, Earth Potato roots, and more. The entire camp would prepare enough wheat cakes for the next morning and afternoon.

If they were to migrate the next day, they would also have to prepare the amount for the following evening.

At each meal, the human magic-gifted could finish off a whole Long-Haired Sheep, the barbarians could finish another, and the remaining non-magic-gifted individuals would each receive a small piece of mutton and some broth.

Fortunately, Landen was not short on Long-Haired Sheep; it was grain that he lacked.

Landen was currently organizing the subjects to dig for Earth Potatoes. Every morning, the non-magic-gifted subjects would wash and crush the Earth Potatoes collected the previous day, put the mash into large wooden barrels, and add water. They would then filter the potato pulp through linen cloth. The filtered pulp water would go into a large wooden barrel, and after letting it settle, they would remove the supernatant. The remaining starch paste would be dried in the sun to become starch.

Thank you to all the readers, I hope you will leave comments and recommendations.