episode_0074

“Ack! I forgot to repair the weapon!”

“You crazy guy! Fix it quickly! Or buy a new one!”

“I guess so. Just wait a moment.”

The mercenaries who rushed out of the mercenary hall immediately left the village. Of course, some of them ran to our Smith Skeleton store, perhaps because their weapons were poorly maintained. To buy a new weapon or have it serviced.

However, it was inevitable that commotion would arise in the process. It was strange that there was no commotion as dozens of mercenaries ran out, and those who were resting were also caught by their comrades and started running.

At the entrance to the village in the distance, I could see mercenaries running around telling me to open the door, and guards looking at them as if they were bothering me.

And, as expected, there was a commotion in front of our store.

“There! Don’t cut in line and stand back in line! Can’t you see everyone standing in line here?”

“Atta, old man. It’s because I’m in a bit of a hurry. I’m a mercenary, so I have to go catch monsters? So please make some concessions.”

“You’re a monster and a bastard, and if you don’t want to be sprayed on the field as fertilizer, get in line, you bastard.”

However, the commotion did not last long. This is because the mercenaries who were trying to ignore the long queue and cut in line became calm as they looked at the scythe, which they couldn’t tell if it was red due to rust or something else.

Anyway, thanks to the mercenaries leaving the village or calming down, the commotion quieted down. I watched the village return to its usual appearance for a moment, then started walking again.

Now that I have completed research or requests that require starting a little early to receive results quickly, I have more freedom to walk. I walked leisurely, like old men who came out to drink. As we cheered the return of spring, we watched children running around and farmers getting ready to go to the fields.

As I was walking very leisurely, I was able to reach my destination before I knew it. It was the house of our village chief. Like everyone else, perhaps because spring had come, the village chief, who was out in front of the house and lightly tidying up the area around the house, spotted me and greeted me warmly.

“Oh my, our Baron has arrived!”

“Chief, just do it like before. Burdeningly… … .”

“Hehe, but how can you do that to the Baron, the hero and nobleman of our village?”

Perhaps because he thought of me as a hero after catching the troll, the village chief bowed to me even though he was old and gray-haired. I think it was because, due to his position as the village chief, he often came into contact with nobles called lords.

But if you think about it for a moment, it wasn’t really a strange thing. This was a world with a strong caste system. It was a natural world where status was prioritized over age. Even if the village chief had seen me since I was born, it was natural that he could not treat me comfortably.

Therefore, I decided not to tell the village chief to take it easy anymore. Since I couldn’t and had no intention of turning back that I had become a nobleman, I thought it was right to adapt to reality. To be honest, I wasn’t a very close friend of the village chief like my friends, so I didn’t have any regrets if we became a little distant.

Deciding not to think any more about the village chief’s somewhat difficult treatment of me, I got straight to the point.

“Chief. I would like to find a larger area of land outside the fence. Is that possible?”

“If it is land outside the fence… … . Are you planning on farming at least?”

The village chief seemed a little nervous when he heard that he wanted land outside the fence. I wondered why, but I quickly found out why.

There was nothing particularly special about our village, but the land was perfect for farming. So, a significant number of village residents were devoting themselves to farming. From simple family farming to farming, there were also people who hired workers to farm on a large scale.

That’s why the village chief was nervous. If I even used skeletons to farm, everyone’s livelihood would be threatened. As the village chief leading the village, it was a natural concern.

“Ah, it’s not farming. I couldn’t farm in the first place.”

“Yes? Can’t you farm with a skeleton?”

“Perhaps because they have the energy of death, skeletons tend to hinder the growth of crops.”

It would be great if you could farm with skeletons, but unfortunately, farming wasn’t possible. This was because it was a skeleton that walked around oozing the energy of death, making it difficult for seeds to germinate or for sprouts to grow. I knew this because my grandmother lamented it every time she grew flowers in the yard of the mansion. My grandmother was very disappointed that the pretty flowers couldn’t bloom properly and withered every time.

“Then, is there any effect on crops or people…? … ?”

“Ah, you don’t have to worry about that. In order to affect crops, you have to go into the fields and manage them yourself. I guess this is only possible if you stay in the field for about a month or two… … . And, it is harmless to people. It is at the level of hindering growth by making very small seeds or sprouts tired, so it is not harmful to humans.”

“Thank goodness.”

I was a little confused as to whether I was glad that the farmers’ livelihoods were not threatened by my inability to farm, or if I was glad that it did not affect crops or people.

But it didn’t really matter what happened, so I turned the conversation back to the topic I wanted to talk about.

“The reason we want land outside is to build a large-scale blacksmith shop. I have quite a few business partners now. In order to handle that volume, the blacksmith shop needs to be several times larger than the current one, so there is nothing we can do about it.”

The reason he wanted the land was solely to build a blacksmith shop. Large-scale construction requires a large amount of land, but there is currently no suitable land inside the wooden fence. There were empty spaces here and there, but they were all separated. Moreover, due to the nature of the blacksmith shop operating 24 hours a day, there was bound to be noise, so it was even better to be outside the wooden fence.

“If that’s the reason, um… … .”

The village chief nodded and looked like he was thinking about something. He seemed to be wondering if there was any good land around the village.

And, after contemplating for a while, the village chief remembered something.

“If you walk east of the village for about 30 minutes, there is a field that is no longer in use. What is it like there? Since the owner of the land is no longer farming, I think he might be thinking of selling it, so it wouldn’t be a bad idea.”

“Thirty minutes? Hmm, I guess that’s okay.”

A thirty minute walk wasn’t bad. If you use a skeletal horse and cart skeleton, you can go back and forth within a few minutes, and you can work as much as you want without worrying about noise.

Moreover, it was even better if there was a separate owner of the land. It was clear that at some point, it could almost be said unconditionally, that there would be a conflict with Viscount Tarr, the owner of this territory, but if the land was not owned by Viscount Tarr, there would be some freedom from problems. If I were a commoner, I would have tried to take it away by citing various reasons, but since I am also a noble, such a method was impossible.

After deciding to use the location, we immediately went to the land owner with the village chief and finalized the transaction. I don’t know if it’s because the farm was farmed during the parents’ generation, but the children’s generation came to play in other fields instead of farming, but the transaction was instantaneous. Since I had been exploring the area around the village since I was young, it was not difficult to pinpoint the location of the land, and it was possible to purchase it without even seeing the land.

With some money out of pocket, documents proving ownership of the land came into my hands. It was a document containing the information that at a certain time they began to pioneer land, farmed it for a certain period of time while paying land usage fees like tenant farmers, and ultimately took ownership of it.

Although it was a document that was almost a hundred years old, it was in good condition because the owner had kept it with care, perhaps because it was a document proving ownership of the land. Even the seal stamped by Viscount Tarr at the time remained intact.

If I had this document, I would have many advantages even if a dispute arose, so I also kept the document carefully. It was carefully hidden in the corner of the studio, behind items that looked dangerous at first glance.

“Ah, since it’s been a long time coming to the studio, let’s make a skeleton first.”

And while I was at the studio, I decided to make a skeleton first. There were a few monsters I caught on the way to the village, so I turned them into skeletons. Since I had enough materials, I started making skeletons right away.

Starting with the orcs first, several goblins were transformed into skeletons one by one, and in an instant, about a dozen skeletons were created.

However, the skeletons were not put into the blacksmith shop right away. Even if it was put in, not only was there not enough work space, but the skeletons that had just been created had separate work to do.

In other words, the ground on which to build a new blacksmith shop was to be laid very firmly. Before large-scale buildings were built, the ground had to be solid in order to place a piece of iron on an anvil and hit it with great force. It is possible to build a structure on the ground, but first, it would be better if the ground was solid.

So, I immediately moved to the land I purchased with the skeletons.

“Uh… … . I need to pull out the grass first before compacting.”

However, the condition of the land was not good. It was full of unidentifiable weeds and long vines. There were more plants than the forest, perhaps because farming was done and no longer done.

“Pull out all the grass in the area I designated. Orc Skeletons, you pound the rocks on the ground and compact the ground.”

Slowly.

The guys rattled their jaws as if they understood what I was saying and immediately started moving. The goblin skeletons, which were relatively small in stature, were the first to start moving quickly. The idea was to pull out the grass in the area I had previously designated.

They pulled out the grass with their backs bent close to 90 degrees, and although a human would have whined about how difficult it was, they continued the work without a single complaint. Thanks to this, the grass that was so covered that the soil was invisible disappeared, revealing a brown dirt floor.

As the dirt began to appear, this time the orc skeletons moved. There were several rocks nearby, the size of a person’s torso, and he lifted them above his head and threw them down with all his might toward the floor.

Kuung-!

A dull impact was transmitted to the floor, and a little dust rose up. When the dust settled, a large rock was visible half embedded in the ground.

And then, the rock was pulled out again by the skeleton’s hand and hit the ground. As the process was repeated several times, the floor was seen to be very solid. Because the grass had been pulled out, the dirt floor where feet had been buried had disappeared everywhere, creating a floor so hard that even footprints could not be made properly. Of course, that’s only partially the case now.

“When you finish all the work in the designated area, just sit down.”

This time, as if I understood, I looked at the rattling jawbones of the skeletons and turned around again to head towards the village.

Skeletons were not good at complex tasks, but they were very good at simple tasks like this. After about a day, the area I designated would have a solidly compacted floor without a single blade of grass. So much so that even if you throw a rock, it doesn’t hit, but bounces off.

Anyway, when I returned to the village after completing the preparations to build a new blacksmith shop, someone came to see me.

“Oh my, the client is here! I got what you asked for!”

In fact, they were some of the mercenaries I had commissioned to capture monsters. They were completely dirty with sweat and dust, showing off a bundle containing something large.