Ch.108Land Distribution (3)

After news came from the newly arrived administrator that land distribution would take place at the domain level, the pioneer village was, naturally, plunged into a frenzy of excitement.

In modern terms, this would be like a company president suddenly going mad and buying each employee a 50-pyeong apartment in the metropolitan area. Considering that farmland in this world serves as a kind of economic foundation, it might actually feel more like distributing company stocks or shares.

“Hey, did you hear? The lord is—”

“…What?”

Over forty people who had directly heard the proclamation spread the news to others (neighbors and family), and naturally, it quickly became the biggest topic throughout the village.

Logically speaking, it was nothing less than distributing farmland—with the only condition being that every adult over 15 years old would receive a specific area per person.

Support for Lord Alzar, the village’s lord(?), skyrocketed, and some who had been planning to flee after experiencing “real combat” suddenly realized they were Lord Alzar’s loyal subjects and repented.

Affection for the village, where they would soon have their own land, sprouted like bamboo shoots after rain. Some even began openly wandering around the village, insisting that the yet-unnamed village should be called “Camillgrad.”

That day, about dozens of people visited the village church for confession, citing their reason as having doubted Lord Camille de Alzar. There was even a small competition held on who could praise Lord Camille de Alzar better.

Walking around the village, one could witness impromptu worship late into the night, with prayers to the goddess considered the protector of farmers echoing throughout the entire village.

It was madness, pure madness.

The village opinion was so heated that it seemed as if someone was deliberately fueling this madness—an absurd inference that was actually being put into practice.

In the face of such overwhelming joy, the loose bonds of reason were easily undone, and occasionally, “blasphemous” words and actions toward the gods of the pantheon were exchanged in the village.

Things got so out of hand that Lord Camille de Alzar himself had to step forward to impose restrictions, and had to begin controlling public opinion through Pierre, the village’s luckiest seedsman.

Though Camille de Alzar never intended it, he somehow ended up becoming the village’s greatest benevolent ruler and loving monarch.

Anyway, the next day after this night of enthusiasm…

‘…Hmm.’

‘But is this really going to happen?’

Without anyone in particular to name, some people who had been watching these excessive praises and hopeful faces began to question based on common sense.

On the first day, everyone had been swept up in collective psychology and what seemed like madness pushed by someone, causing a riot. But the next day, when heads had cooled a bit, they naturally began to harbor doubts.

No matter how renowned Baron Alzar and his son were as “exemplary” knights, compassionate and chivalrous, in this world, such exemplary and capable knights often viewed commoners as little more than livestock.

So while they grumbled and blamed their futures, they gathered in front of the government office as instructed in yesterday’s proclamation, still clinging to the expectation that remained dormant somewhere in their hearts.

As people aged 15 and above (though some looked a bit younger than 15) gathered as the lord (representative) had declared in the proclamation…

“This way, gather over here! We will now begin the ‘registration’!”

“””””””””…!!!”””””””””

The moment the newly arrived administrative officer (apprentice) made that announcement, the villagers finally realized that yesterday’s proclamation was not a lie. They cheered and rushed forward, each trying to be the first to receive land…

“Wait, just a moment! What is this! Stop! I said stop!”

Naturally, in this pinnacle of disorder, all the administrative officer could do was try to restrain them.

There’s one fact that many modern people overlook: the concept of “queuing” hasn’t been added to human behavior for very long.

Modern humans learn how to line up from kindergarten with methods like “duck quack quack,” but asking pre-modern people to behave in such an orderly manner is like trying to run a 3D gacha game on an old flip phone.

Moreover, in the current situation, with competition to get the best land first, humans driven mad by greed and hope had become virtually uncontrollable.

“If you keep this up, your land allocation priority might be pushed back!!!”

Ah, the invincible statement. The moment they faced the risk of losing what had made them so desperate in the first place, the atmosphere immediately calmed down.

After all, all their aggressive behavior was ultimately about somehow securing good land for themselves.

※ ※ ※

The regulations for land distribution in my pioneer village were roughly as follows:

First, the area of land distributed to each individual is basically “10 acres.”

For reference, I can’t really say how large this is because the “customary” unit system in this world is mind-bogglingly bizarre.

‘1 acre’ is ’13 fien’, and ‘1 fien’ is ’31 adar’.

The adar unit used for measuring farmland differs from what is commonly understood; while a general adar is about 64 kanen, a farmland adar is roughly 43 kanen.

…As you can see, this gets more complicated the more I explain, so let’s move on.

Anyway, about 10 acres is more than enough for an individual to live comfortably on the harvest from that farmland, with plenty to spare.

Considering that in this era, with barley, wheat, rye, beans, and oats being double-cropped—harvesting crops twice a year—it was enough to live without major concerns if one farmed alone.

And the land being distributed isn’t some particularly important land, but rather “uncultivated land” in an area that had been set aside from the beginning stages of village construction.

This means that while I keep my current land as private property, they need to cultivate new land from scratch for their farming.

Cutting down shrubs, pulling weeds, removing stones, building fences, etc.

Plowing a field like this is such hard labor that they’ll need to focus solely on cultivation until at least the fall farming season when they can plant winter wheat or rye.

If they slack off, they might have to leave their fields idle all winter while others are farming.

Of course, some “dissidents” who didn’t know better were greatly dissatisfied with the fact that the land to be distributed to them would be uncultivated…

“SILENCE!!!!!!!!”

“Losing faith is tantamount to death…!!!”

Those who seemed possessed by chimpanzees from somewhere eventually “reformed” these troublemakers, transforming them into good and honest supporters.

Honestly, since some people view kindness without compensation as a kind of intangible debt or are suspicious of it, when the lord stepped forward with demands, they were finally able to relax after seeing his intentions (which he never tried to hide).

Anyway, the land will be distributed to each individual aged 15 and above. The distributed land will be bound to each individual, and its ownership cannot be transferred.

Furthermore, only ordinary citizens can receive this land.

To be frank, what I need are hundreds of independent farmers, not large landowners and tenant farmers.

Therefore, since the transfer of land ownership itself implies the possibility of certain individuals monopolizing large tracts of land, I began land distribution in a way that fundamentally denies this…

“How old did you say your son was?”

“Oh my… He may look young because he’s underfed, but he’s actually fifteen—”

Of course, this world is full of shameless, rude people who try all sorts of tricks to occupy more land.

Among these, the largest proportion are those who try to lie about their age, but…

“Seedsman Pierre. It seems we have someone who needs the ‘Room of Truth.'”

“Understood! Come, to the Room of Truth!”

“””To the Room of Truth!”””

Thanks to the “Room of Truth” introduced under Lord Alzar’s leadership, most such cases were filtered out, and land began to be assigned to each resident of the pioneer village…

“My lord, I have a suggestion…”

“Yes… That. Sounds good. Let’s try it.”

In this atmosphere, I was planning an “otherworld exploration” of the northeastern forest with the Wolfblood sisters.