The appearance of a second Daughter of Misfortune—and the bonus of gaining a top-notch cook—made Nalant very happy.
Besides, he had no idea why Sherry, so young as she was, could be such a heavy sleeper. After drinking the potion, she slept straight through until the next morning.
After Sherry woke, Nalant didn't immediately have her test her talent or explain her abilities to her.
He still remembered that the last time Vivian awakened, the system had issued a quest that rewarded him with a Sprite.
Nalant had already gotten a taste of the benefits, so he planned to wait a few more days and see whether the system would issue another quest.
Of course, if he wanted the system to issue another side quest, Nalant figured he first had to finish the earlier quest of finding salt for the villagers.
Around noon the next day, Quick reported that the iron lures and hooks he had commissioned from the blacksmith shop were ready.
Nalant took the opportunity to head to Misfortune Village again.
When he reached the shore at Misfortune Village, he asked Kenbi Cowdung to find thirty villagers again, but this time he specified that they should be girls.
The girls weren't very strong, and they couldn't farm, so they had to rely on gathering wild fruit and vegetables to get by. Their lives were extremely hard.
Fishing didn't require much strength. Above all, it called for patience and skill, making it the perfect job for them.
It would not only make full use of Misfortune Village's workforce, but the daily wages from fishing would also give the girls an income and improve their quality of life.
Of course, to keep them safe, Nalant prepared a hemp rope for each of them. He tied one end to the bottom of each fishing rod and secured the other end to a boulder behind the girl. That way, if a large fish came along, they wouldn't be dragged into the sea or lose their fishing rods just because they weren't strong enough to hold on.
Once everything was ready, Nalant personally taught the girls how to fish. They quickly picked up the tricks of fishing with shiny lures, and since the seas in this world were still unspoiled, one fish after another was soon hauled ashore.
Kenbi Cowdung watched from the side, envious. He very much wanted to learn this wondrous fishing dance for himself.
"Kenbi Cowdung, how much sea salt have you made so far?" Once the fishing was arranged, Nalant turned his attention to the salt.
"My lord, after boiling it continuously yesterday afternoon and this morning, we've produced more than twenty pounds."
"Good. That's a decent pace!" Producing over twenty pounds of white salt a day was no small feat with just one large iron pot.
"Kenbi, I'll leave the salt-making and fishing to you! I'll take the twenty-odd pounds of salt you've already made. For the salt you make from now on, each person may borrow four packets on credit to use for drying fish!"
"Yes, my lord! Thank you for your generosity." Kenbi Cowdung was overcome with gratitude. He paused, then continued, "But, my lord, the wood we cut yesterday is almost all burned up. Should I gather some of the other villagers to start cutting more?"
"Right, I forgot about that. Kenbi, you don't need to worry about wood. I'll have the villagers from Wheat Leaf Village take care of it!" Boiling salt required a lot of firewood. Fortunately, Storm Territory had no shortage of trees. If anything, there were so many that they took up a great deal of the land.
"Guess I'll have to try that another time!"
After giving his instructions in Misfortune Village, Nalant headed back the way he had come, carrying more than twenty pounds of sea salt.
When he passed through Wheat Leaf Village, Nalant sent a guard to notify Pete and tell the villagers to bring two pounds of grain each to buy salt.
To keep the serfs from developing a sense of entitlement, trading goods for goods was essential.
Making a second exception by letting Misfortune Village borrow on credit had been unavoidable.
When the villagers learned that their lord had salt—and that it cost half as much as salt from Quinte Territory—they cheered and hurried over to trade for some.
A pound of wheat was worth ten copper coins, and now it could be traded for four packets of salt. That meant each packet cost the equivalent of five copper coins.
Nalant left the salt exchange to the guards, then told Pete to find thirty strong villagers to work exclusively on cutting wood.
They would be paid as well: twenty Copper Coins a day for each person.
At present, the people of Storm Territory were divided into three wage brackets.
At the top were the castle servants, the guards, and Kenbi Cowdung. They received ten silver coins a month, equivalent to a thousand yuan in his previous life.
The next bracket consisted of the villagers who boiled sea salt and cut wood. They received six silver coins a month.
Last were the girls who fished. They earned ten Copper Coins a day, or three silver coins a month.
Of course, the wages of the castle servants and guards might seem low, but the castle covered their food, drink, and other expenses. That meant they could save all ten silver coins they earned.
And so, over the next few days, Storm Territory—the Land of Misfortune in the eyes of the people—threw itself into rapid development.
Before long, ten days had passed.
During those ten days, the harvest along Storm Territory's coast had been impressive.
Nalant was getting three hundred pounds of fish a day, which meant each girl caught about ten pounds on average.
The salt production was even more remarkable. At first, one large iron pot could make around twenty pounds a day. Five days later, Nalant added another pot, bringing production up to forty pounds daily.
By now, the castle had nearly two thousand pounds of dried salted fish and three hundred pounds of salt.
Of course, as the saying went, when things went well on one side, they went to hell on the other. Nalant had still been dealing with a few frustrations these past several days.
The system quest he had expected to appear for Sherry never came. After completing the salt quest, he had waited for nine days, but the system seemed to have vanished without a trace.
As a result, Nalant hadn't obtained a Sprite during the last Night of Meteors. He had even stubbornly spent an Energy Point to search for one during the meteor shower.
Unfortunately, without a system alert, the chance of finding a Sprite was extremely low. Nalant hadn't found one, and his Energy Point had gone to waste, leaving him with only three.
To ease the pain of wasting an Energy Point, Nalant opened the Lucky Draw Wheel and tried his luck.
Perhaps to make it up to him, the draw gave Nalant another Strengthening Fruit. His body was strengthened again, saving him a great deal of training time.
Other Title Knights had to work hard every day to build up their bodies through grueling exercise. But after eating a Strengthening Fruit, Nalant only needed to meditate and absorb Fire Battle Qi to improve his strength!
"The next Night of Meteors is almost here. System, could you at least be a little reliable? And what about that promised Battle Qi secret technique reward? It's been nine days, and there's still no sign of it!" Out in the open space beyond the castle, Nalant's thoughts wandered.
Smack!
"I told you not to move! If you move, you get the whip!" The next moment, perhaps to vent his frustration, Nalant lashed a guard without hesitation.
Uh... Of course, the great and benevolent lord wasn't actually that harsh. He wasn't deliberately taking out his frustration on the guard. Nalant was busy with something serious: training his troops!
Standing before him were all twenty-seven guards of Storm Territory, including Vivian and Quick.