Ch.213Land to the Tiller

Most residents of Lord Alzar’s pioneer village (tentative name) were experiencing the happiest days of their lives.

The policy that Lord Alzar, the village’s ruler, referred to as “land to the tiller” distributed a certain area of land to each individual free of charge for agricultural and livestock purposes.

For countless farmers who had suffered without land of their own, the implementation of such a policy was literally like having a savior.

To put it bluntly, when a powerful figure who could have easily claimed all the surrounding land as his own showed such generosity instead, it was only natural that his reputation within the village skyrocketed instantly.

Farmland is the most fundamental condition for a person to exercise their rights as an economic entity.

This policy granted rights to each individual through land ownership, simultaneously creating a foundation for villagers to enjoy a life of abundance beyond their imagination.

The core of this land distribution policy was that land was given unconditionally to individuals aged 15 and above. These conditions were equally applied to socially vulnerable people, providing relief to those unable to work themselves.

Even if they couldn’t work the land themselves, they could entrust cultivation to others and collect a certain percentage as rent to make a living. Even elderly people who could barely move had land, resulting in families taking care of and cherishing them.

There are always people who want to cultivate more land to earn more money even if they already have their own, so naturally, there was a high proportion of people willing to work others’ land, which also served to support those with disabilities.

As a result, although unintended by the policy’s creator, socially vulnerable people were being rescued through this policy, while the majority of residents engaged in agriculture found themselves in an absolutely ideal situation.

For poor free farmers, obtaining “my own land” was typically a lifelong aspiration, and for second or later sons of farming families who were driven from their hometowns due to lack of land, this desire was an even stronger yearning and ambition.

And now, to be given such land—nominally as cultivation rights but practically as ownership?

This experience of so easily resolving what had been a lifelong grievance literally turned the village residents into Lord Alzar’s concrete support base.

In particular, they were captivated by the mysterious charisma that Lord Alzar had unconsciously developed, and hadn’t Lord Alzar also achieved the religious accomplishment of being a “miracle experiencer”?

As a result, the emotion that people within the village now held toward Lord Alzar was literally faith. Though they themselves didn’t clearly understand what this was, their feelings essentially resembled religious devotion.

….Though one couldn’t say the bloodline influence of being a descendant of “Gluttony” played no part in this.

Anyway, in this atmosphere of fervent devotion filling the village—

“—Proclamation! We are recruiting guards from among the village militia. Those interested should visit the government office within this week to apply!”

The announcement regarding the recruitment of guards from the village leadership and administrative organization instantly became the biggest topic of conversation among the villagers.

At the state-run tavern, various discussions about the guard recruitment circulated constantly, and among the militia, those interested in power (advancement) added their names to the list of applicants after hearing the qualifications.

This represented a change in the village’s power structure, which had until now maintained an almost complete horizontal equality in name.

The experience of gaining advancement, wearing an armband, and obtaining power stronger than others was extremely attractive to most people.

For most intelligent beings, the desire to stand in a higher position than others is a fundamental desire, which is why most of them applied to become guards unless they had other specific goals.

….In fact, considering that instead of paying a salary, those who passed the guard selection would receive expanded land allocations similar to military colonists, it’s no wonder applicants flocked to apply.

From this crowd of applicants, some were filtered out through physical and character examinations, and from those who passed, experienced candidates were given preference, resulting in 28 guard candidates.

These individuals, who would serve under the 7 retired adventurers who had been performing guard-like duties in the village until now, were mostly from rural backgrounds, skilled in archery, and had some experience handling weapons.

In short, these selected applicants had begun training, and they would likely reach a level where they could master at least the basics within a few weeks.

The daily life of the pioneer village was flowing along gradually like this.

※ ※ ※

Meanwhile, at the same time that Lord Alzar’s pioneer village was enjoying peaceful days.

The western border region of the Holy Empire was maintaining a chaotic political situation, engulfed in a suddenly erupted conflict.

Although the Holy Empire itself shares borders with many powers due to its central location on the western continent, this situation was truly so exceptional that it could only be described as unprecedented.

This was because the cause of the conflict that erupted on the western border of the Holy Empire was none other than “vampires,” one of the empire’s archenemies.

Vampires, undead with the characteristic of blood-sucking, form a major faction among the undead forces of heretics, based on their unique ability to easily turn humans into their own kind and the powerful abilities possessed by each individual.

While lower entities like “vampire zombies” or “vampire ghouls” are little different from infectious undead, vampires above the intermediate level are mostly monsters armed with all sorts of special abilities and formidable power.

The ability to turn living beings into servants through blood-sucking, the innate ability to wield “blood magic” based on controlling blood, intermediate-level magical aptitude, the power to handle the “blood aura” subspecies, physical abilities and intelligence far surpassing humans.

Add to this mesmerizing magical eyes, super-regenerative abilities, resistance to simple physical attacks rather than magical ones, the ability to transform into amorphous fog or beasts, and even the unique “blood essence abilities” that some vampires awaken.

To put it bluntly, vampires (intermediate) not only possess all these powers but also command hundreds of servants, making them truly one of the powerful undead factions that fully deserves the description of formidable….

And these vampires—specifically, a high-ranking vampire lord who commands such ordinary vampires—were the fundamental cause of this current situation.

In particular, this vampire lord was the byproduct of an intermediate high vampire who had been disguised as a mercenary but was discovered by an inquisitor and went on a rampage.

In what was essentially a desperate act, they attacked and completely destroyed one of the fortress cities located in the border region of the Holy Empire, and in the process of turning the soldiers and knights there into vampires, reached the level of a lord and began rampaging.

Vampires can basically advance their level according to how many servants they possess, and considering this, what would the combat power of this vampire lord be?

Moreover, the situation included not only subordinates from when the vampire lord had not yet reached that status but also an undead (vampire) army of 8,000 obtained by conquering the border fortress.

Over 30 intermediate-level forces. Adding the servants they had been gradually gathering, the soldier count was roughly 10,000 even by conservative estimates.

Faced with this tremendous situation that could potentially become the reincarnation of Count Cepeshi, Romania’s worst enemy and the leader of the First Vampire War, the Holy Empire naturally wanted to move swiftly.

The neighboring electorates quickly gathered forces against the vampire lord who had occupied and settled in the fortress, instantly assembling over 30,000 regular troops.

Add to this the joining of the Hippogriff Knights, the symbol of the Holy Empire. The addition of the War College’s new weapon test unit. Even the magic tower branches and pantheon called up thousands of soldiers and forces.

At precisely the same time that the military was gathering to eliminate a force that could cause an unpredictable aftermath, the vampire lord’s side also couldn’t help but recognize the unfavorable situation.

The reason they suddenly accelerated to gather forces and raised their level through fortress attacks was that, since their identity had been discovered anyway, they judged it more advantageous to rampage than to hide inadequately.

However, this advantage only meant that coming out in the open was better than hiding poorly.

Would they be crazy enough to engage in a full-scale war with insufficient forces?

Therefore, while this vampire lord force holed up in the fortress they had made their headquarters, they also split off some of their forces to operate as separate units, aiming to disperse enemy forces and expand their own troop size….

Among the external powers toward which these split forces were directed, the Frankish Kingdom to the west was also included.