episode_0039

“Administrator, are you okay?”

“Ugh, Jack… I’ve been waiting anxiously for days….”

“It’s only been a day.”

“I was ready to die if Jack didn’t come… but even failing to die properly due to being bruised and battered….”

“Why would you die when I’m alive?”

“For the remaining life, I will live only for Jack….”

I doubt whether this woman is really listening to me.

Still, it’s fortunate she didn’t die.

But then again, maybe she couldn’t die.

Now that I look, what fell to the ground wasn’t excessive force but a knife used to tear open an envelope.

More like a very dull modern plastic pretending to be a knife. If you really tried to stab with it, you’d probably die, but it wouldn’t be easy.

“Get up. There’s a lot to do.”

“Alright…. To proceed with the marriage….”

“I’ve brought around seven hundred freed slaves. It’s not the right time to handle these people now.”

“S-Seven hundred!?”

The administrator staggered in shock and leaned into my arms.

“W-Well… starting from today, I’ll resign….”

“Resign? What are you talking about? You passed the Central Bureaucracy Exam.”

“But… handling seven hundred people is beyond my capabilities…. Even receiving refugees like Jilke last time was overwhelming….”

“I’ll help you, so stay strong. Also, if you resign, what will you do? Go back to your hometown?”

“Just… marry Jack and run a shop, cook food, and take care of children….”

“Who would let you do that?!”

Mirael, who had suddenly rushed over, pulled the administrator away from me with all her strength.

“Are you really an administrator living off the kingdom’s salary?!”

“It’s not a kingdom, it’s an empire, Miss Mirael….”

“Kingdom or empire!”

“Wait, wait!”

I intervened, raising my hand towards Mirael.

“Administrator, you’re a civil servant of the empire, not the kingdom?”

“Yes…. I’m sorry…. I came as a conscript under the Empire decree to deal with such matters….”

“No, no. That’s not what I meant.”

Goodness, he passed the Empire’s Central Bureaucracy Exam, not the kingdom’s?

That means he must be incredibly smart, right? But why?

It’s a mystery even if you know. Depression is a truly frightening illness.

Anyway, the immediate issue is accommodating all those people approaching the village.

“Let’s convene the Village Council. There’s a mountain of things to do.”

I immediately called the Village Council members to the council hall.

Seven hundred freed slaves. Facilities are needed to accommodate these people.

“But will they all agree to stay in our village?”

Hostante asked.

“As they arrived, I called representatives from the villages where they lived before they were captured and asked for their intentions. They all agreed. They have nowhere to go back to immediately, and most importantly, if they come to our village, they receive housing, farmland, etc., free of charge.”

“That’s right. If they go to another city, they have to rent and pay some money, which could be a burden for people with nothing.”

“Exactly. Those people are coming to our village. This way, we can match the population to that of a Grade 3 city. The problem is….”

“The problem is where they will live. Hmmm.”

The council members exchanged opinions quickly.

Currently, our village’s logging yards are divided into three areas, and the amount of timber produced here is considerable.

However, with the sudden influx of seven hundred people, it’s clear that there won’t be enough to build houses for everyone.

We need to expand the logging yards and increase production. And we also need immediate housing.

“Luckily, we’re entering early summer, so the weather is warm. For now, let’s identify vacant houses in the village, distribute them, and temporarily create shantytowns for the shortage.”

“In that case, what will be the criteria for distribution? Everyone would want to move into already built houses.”

“The criterion is whether there are children. Young people without children go to the plank village, while families with children go to the vacant houses. That’s correct.”

“So how do we solve the clothing and food issue?”

“If we empty out the warehouse, we can eat right away. After all, we can fill up the warehouse quickly. As for clothing, we might need to ask the villagers for donations in a hurry. Instead, we should immediately send a trade delegation to Odellin City to make quick purchases of necessary items.”

All the council members agreed with my opinion. And the administrator…

“Administrator.”

“Hmm…”

He rested his chin on his hand, looked at me with completely relaxed eyes, and just smiled like a fool.

“Please give me some money. We need to send the trade delegation.”

“Yes, Jack… Open it and take what you need…”

With the administrator’s approval, I took out money from the safe.

Currently, the village safe was completely full, including the treasures plundered from the slave traders.

Might as well send this along with the trade delegation and convert everything into gold coins.

After obtaining everyone’s signatures on the abbreviated meeting minutes, I stamped the administrator’s seal as the final step.

Now this would become an official administrative order, and all actions to enforce this order would be protected by law.

“Now, members of the council. Let’s get moving. People are waiting.”

As soon as the meeting minutes were signed, under the leadership of the council members, the entire village began preparing to welcome the newly freed slaves.

First things first, housing needed to be addressed.

Families with children were identified separately, and vacant houses in the village were allocated to them.

Since there had been a previous distribution when the Jilke refugees arrived, this final distribution meant that all houses were now occupied.

We needed to gather technicians quickly, secure materials, and build additional structures.

The rest of the people mobilized all the lumber from the logging yards to start constructing plank houses in the village.

With over a dozen carriages seized from the slave traders and all the knights being former residents of the slums, construction progressed rapidly.

Before sunset, temporary shelters for the freed slaves were set up in the outskirts of the village.

An outdoor kitchen was established there, and food supplies were provided.

The village guards and knights organized patrols and support activities.

“Wow, there are so many people now!”

Brasha placed her hands on her hips, looking around the plank village with her tongue sticking out.

“Do humans breed as fast as pigs? How did it swell up in just a few days?”

“They weren’t bred here; they were brought from elsewhere. By the way, what about the pigs?”

“Well, quite astonishing news! All the sows have started to show signs of pregnancy!”

Brasha proudly exclaimed, patting her lower abdomen.

“Oh… Brasha, are you pregnant…?”

The administrator widened his eyes between his seaweed-like bangs, staring at Brasha’s slightly protruding belly.

“Eh? Me?”

“Administrator, it’s not like that.”

I quickly interrupted the administrator. He must be speculating that something happened between Brasha and me when we went shopping together.

“Administrator, let’s not dwell on unnecessary thoughts. What else do we need to do to upgrade to a Grade 3 city?”

“Hmm… We need defense structures, commercial facilities, guilds, public markets, road improvements, water resources secured…”

“Please explain each one in detail.”

Defense structures require walls, watchtowers, and guard posts.

Just having palisades along key access routes could be considered adequate.

However, to advance further, a proper wall needs to be constructed.

Commercial facilities should include properly run shops operated by artisans.

Blacksmiths, carpenters, weavers, inns, foundries, medical facilities, and more.

Additionally, schools, archives, and public workshops are included.

In the case of roads, all roads inside the village boundaries must be paved with cobblestones, and the water resources should be clean water that the entire population of the village can drink without interruption.

We have some things already, but most of it needs to be built anew.

Let’s try issuing a wanted notice for the human resources needed here.

With the recent slave liberation operation, the village population has exceeded a thousand, and some people who used to make a living with skills in the past will probably come out.

Select those people, build workshops for them, and have them engage in trade.

As for the remaining infrastructure, since it mainly involves civil engineering works, pouring money into it should make it achievable.

Alright. Let’s give it a try.

* * * * *

Meanwhile, the Potion Knights of the starting village are at an intermediate stop for the slaves who were dragged along.

Equipped with unified armaments, they are investigating the scene turned into a sea of blood.

They are a special detachment of the Imperial Army. Following some traces, they have conducted long-distance tracking up to this point.

One of the slaves who had been hiding in the secret shrine at the innermost part of the cave was brought out by the soldiers.

“Lieutenant. Interrogate him.”

Ordered by the special detachment leader with red feather decorations on his helmet, the lieutenant swiftly severed the slave’s neck.

The lieutenant, after severing the suffering slave’s neck several more times and making him bend over in agony, asked a few questions in the central dialect.

After repeatedly trampling on him whenever the answers were unsatisfactory, the lieutenant finally extracted some desired answers.

“An unidentified armed force suddenly attacked and abducted all the slaves.”

“Are they rival slave traders?”

“It doesn’t seem like that. Perhaps they are not like ordinary slave traders; maybe they are pursuing revenge due to completely different races.”

“Hmm, a militia.”

The special detachment leader looked around at the numerous bodies strewn about.

“The central region’s slave traders take entire villages as slaves. There won’t even be a chance for retaliation or self-defense.”

“I will interrogate further.”

This time, the lieutenant drew out a baton for suppression and mercilessly beat the slave trader.

Even though he was responding, the lieutenant, having reached the predetermined number of strikes, belatedly interpreted the response.

“People who administered red water? Coming through smoke that clouds the mind?”

The well-roasted fruit lying in front of the cave entrance is the fruit of the Sensation Vine.

It seems that a force made a surprise attack by loading a lot of this with a stupefying ingredient.

So, this red water unaffected by the stupefying ingredient…

At that moment, the special detachment leader felt a strange premonition.

Until recently, they had been stepping on the tail of the troublemakers of the Empire, the Remagen Mercenaries.

They had been eyeing an opportunity to ambush those who had settled in a certain viscountcy, but one day they all disbanded and scattered.

Upon belatedly entering the viscountcy, the special detachment found broken glass bottles and traces of an unknown potion being brewed.

There seems to be some connection to this….

“Organize a search team. Dispatch them all to the nearest village from here. The next destination for us is a reputable potion shop in that village!”