Date: 2025-02-27T20:24:24+00:00

The Lord Who Wants to Be an Emperor

顾天伦

The Lord Who Wants to Be an Emperor

Chapter 1: Rebirth

Chapter 2: Beginning

Chapter 3: The Butcher’s Knife is Raised: The Death of Ron

Chapter 4: Development Plan
Chapter 5: Max Village
Chapter 6: Lanning Village
Chapter 7: God-Given Talent: Materialization
Chapter 8: Listening to Essien’s Report
Chapter 9: The World
Chapter 10: Internal Support: Wood Village
Chapter 11: Taxation
Chapter 12: Half a Year Later
Chapter 13: The Army of a Past Life
Chapter 14: Tyrant
Chapter 15: Jason
Chapter 16: Local Snake Jason
Chapter 17: Business
Chapter 18: The Chamber of Commerce
Chapter 19: Young City Lord
Chapter 20: Pollution
Chapter 21: Meditation Method
Chapter 22: Classroom
Chapter 23: Former Maid
Chapter 24: The Fox Takes the Bait
Chapter 25: The Magic Lamp
Chapter 26: Assassin
Chapter 27: Ancient Ruins

Chapter 28: The Armor Gate Bandit Group Sees Ryaning in Full Plate Armor, Standing Like a Human-Shaped Tank

Chapter 29: Mistake
Chapter 30: Ambush and Counter-Ambush
Chapter 31: The Old Man
Chapter 32: The Merlot Charter
Chapter 33: Having Money
Chapter 34: 34: You Really Know How to Play
Chapter 35: The Gift
Chapter 36: Monopoly
Chapter 37: Breaking the Rules
Chapter 38: Senior Brothers and Sisters
Chapter 39: Being Playful
Chapter 40: The Bazier Family
Chapter 41: What Does This Mean?
Chapter 42: Good News Comes from Aslan’s Room
Chapter 43: Treasure
Chapter 44: Building Construction
Chapter 45: Sending You Home
Chapter 46: Salary
Chapter 47: Salary Grades
Chapter 48: Military Organization
Chapter 49: Level and Status
Chapter 50: The Changfeng Plains

1. Title Page

2. Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Rebirth

Having drunk the poisoned wine bestowed by His Majesty the Emperor, Aslan collapsed to the ground in a daze, recalling his life. Step by step, he had risen from a small border town to a position of power that overshadowed the court, even once making the Emperor struggle for breath.

His life, Aslan Sala’s life, could be considered one of extraordinary talent and brilliance.

As his memories faded away bit by bit, Aslan felt a pain in his chest, his eyes closed, and blood continued to spill from the corner of his mouth.

Outside the secluded courtyard where the legendary Prime Minister Aslan Sala was imprisoned, a sudden storm raged, with torrential rain that made the guards tremble with fear.

Amidst the lightning and thunder, the era belonging to Aslan Sala came to an end.

When Aslan opened his eyes again, he was surrounded by a hard burlap sack, and a bumpy sky.

Why a bumpy sky? Aslan, with his eyes open, was lying in an old carriage. The wooden wheels were rolling on a gravel road, and the uneven ground caused the old carriage to bounce around as if it were about to jump.

Aslan lay on the sandbag, staring blankly at the sky, and finally subconsciously pinched his face.

“Ouch, that hurts.”

Aslan suddenly sat up, the intense stinging sensation from his wounds making him feel even more clearly that he was still alive.

However, the intense pain did not make him show a painful expression, but rather the corners of his mouth slightly turned up, revealing a strange smile.

“I’ve actually been reborn.”

In the twenty-first century, he was an ordinary worker living a simple life. Aslan, born in the nineties, had worked overtime continuously for the woman he loved, to earn enough money for the bride price for his future mother-in-law. In the end, he didn’t win the beauty, but instead died suddenly from overwork.

This death, perhaps out of pity from the heavens, allowed him to transmigrate to another world, becoming a noble lord. He rose from humble beginnings to a position of power that overshadowed the court, even almost leading the Kingdom of Cleveland to unify the Northern Continent.

Unfortunately, when he went on an expedition, the ministers in the court ganged up on him, secretly colluding with other countries. Beset by internal and external troubles, he was defeated by the allied forces and fled back to the kingdom in a disastrous defeat.

Taking advantage of Aslan’s defeat, the new emperor reached an agreement with other ministers, seized control of Aslan’s ministers in one fell swoop, and sent royal guardians to hunt down Aslan. In the end, Aslan, with no escape, chose to surrender. For the future of his subordinates and warriors who had followed him, he accepted the poison given by the emperor.

Now he was reborn again to the time when he first transmigrated. Was this an opportunity to change his fate? “This time, I don’t want to be a powerful minister who overshadows the court. If I’m going to be anything, I’ll be the emperor, the one who sets the rules of the game.”

Aslan covered the wounds on his body, the clear pain telling him that everything would start again.

The current Aslan had just experienced a family power struggle, suffered a miserable defeat, and was assigned to a family territory on the border as a lord, which was simply exile.

Before his rebirth, Aslan had used this border town to develop into a border commercial metropolis, becoming a major noble in the Kingdom of Cleveland.

“Young Master Aslan, are you alright!”

The middle-aged man beside Aslan looked at him with nervous and worried eyes.

He was Arthur, Aslan’s guardian knight, with the strength of an intermediate knight. He was also the strongest sword by Aslan’s side. Later, his strength gradually couldn’t keep up with Aslan’s progress, but he had always loyally guarded Aslan’s side.

Until Aslan was given the death sentence, he also committed suicide by sword.

“Ah, Arthur!”

Looking at the old man who had followed him for decades, Aslan couldn’t help but feel a burst of emotion in his heart.

“Your subordinate is here.”

“It’s nothing, I just called out to you. I will have to rely on you for a long time to come, thank you for your trouble.” Aslan forced a smile, and then fell into a deep sleep.

When he woke up again, he had already arrived at Mello Town on the border.

A small town with less than five hundred people, located right at the Rift Valley at the junction of the Kingdom of Cleveland and the Eastern Subcontinent. The Eastern Subcontinent was connected to the Eastern Continent.

The reason why Aslan was able to open up trade routes between the two places was because he exhausted the resources of the entire territory to build the Rift Valley Bridge, opening up trade channels between the two continents.

But at this time, this place could only be described as desolate. The land was barren, and the eyes were filled with granite of all sizes, making the already barren land even less suitable for cultivation.

Looking at the dilapidated and backward town, the followers who were exiled here with Aslan all showed despair.

Only Aslan didn’t care, but looked at everything in front of him with confidence.

Before his rebirth, he was able to manage this border town into the largest trading city in the kingdom. Now he still could, and even do better. Moreover, this time he not only wanted to become the lord of a trading metropolis, but also a great lord with heavy troops in his hands.

“Let’s go back to the city lord’s mansion first.” Aslan said faintly, covering his wounds.

There was a trace of calmness and composure in his tone, which quickly calmed the originally uneasy followers, and they organized the convoy to enter the town.

Aslan didn’t bring many followers, three old carriages, three old coachmen. There were also Arthur and a guard team led by a junior knight, with less than fifteen people in total.

Plus three servants who had taken care of his food and daily life for many years. As a direct descendant of the Sala family, such a team was really shabby. Who told Aslan that he was a loser.

The convoy slowly drove into Mello Town. No one came out to greet him in the town, but one by one, the doors and windows were tightly closed. From time to time, pairs of vigilant eyes could be seen staring at him from behind the doors and windows.

Mello Town had never had a lord. The entire town was run by the town chief and guard captain elected by them, with everything based on the will of the residents.

Simply put, they were their own masters. Now that a lord had descended from the sky, who could guarantee that this lord would not impose heavy taxes or do things that would provoke public resentment?

The Kingdom of Cleveland had been established for more than five hundred years, and there had been many rebellions, but they were all suppressed by powerful force.

The current Kingdom of Cleveland was already rotten to the core. The nobles were extravagant and lustful. For most commoners, nobles were not good people.

Aslan quickly turned his attention to the two-story building in the town, which was the home of Claude, the town’s most powerful swordsman.

In his previous life, when Aslan first came to Mello Town, it took him two full years to master Mello Town. The key reason was that this Claude had been obstructing him from behind, and the guard captain of Mello Town was Claude’s own younger brother.

The location of the city lord’s mansion was very easy to recognize, because it was the most luxurious and tallest building in Mello Town, and the only three-story building in Mello Town. It was an ancient castle, left over from some unknown era. The originally scarred walls were now covered with moss and ivy, and no traces of the original war fortress could be seen, but there was a touch of pastoral style.

Chapter 2: Beginning

Outside the City Lord’s Mansion, Aslan’s convoy had just come to a stop. Arthur, looking at the empty space in front of the mansion, with no one coming to greet the new lord, immediately turned cold. He wanted to shout in anger, but Aslan stopped him.

“No need to rush. We’ve been traveling for so many days, let the soldiers rest well, so they’ll be in good condition when the time comes to fight.”

A glint flashed in Arthur’s eyes, and the corners of his mouth slightly turned up.

This failure and injury had made the young master grow a lot.

“Yes! Young Master!”

Town Magistrate Essien and Guard Captain Ronde rushed out of the City Lord’s Mansion in a panic, especially Ronde, who still reeked of alcohol, obviously having been on a drinking binge.

In his previous life, when Aslan had just transmigrated, coming from a society ruled by law, he was still relatively averse to violence. In the end, he only gave Ronde a severe scolding and did not punish him severely, thus leaving the townspeople with the impression that he was weak and easily bullied.

In fact, all of this was deliberately arranged by Claude, just to undermine Aslan’s prestige. He was confident that even if Aslan was angry, he wouldn’t dare to push their brothers too hard.

After all, Claude was the strongest person in the town, and his brother was the captain of the town’s militia. If they pushed the brothers too far, it was hard to guarantee that something extreme wouldn’t happen.

After all, the mountains are high and the emperor is far away.

Over the years, the people of Merlot Town had long understood that the nobles behind the Merlot region had ignored them for decades, obviously having abandoned them. Since the Salar family exiled Aslan here, they had no intention of letting Aslan live well.

The Cleveland Kingdom’s nobles’ rule over the common people had always been extremely brutal.

Once the people rebelled, the suppression would only be more bloody and brutal.

The surrounding countries were notorious for being good at internal strife but useless against external enemies.

If he wanted to take control of Merlot Town as quickly as possible, these two brothers absolutely could not be left alive.

Aslan, expressionless, passed by the town magistrate and guard captain, leaving the two dumbfounded. Especially Ronde, who had originally planned to embarrass the new lord in public, but he had not expected Aslan to not be angry, not even showing any emotional fluctuations, and not even acknowledging them.

Aslan had been in Merlot Town for three days. Apart from occupying the City Lord’s Mansion and driving out the original staff, everything was the same as before, still so peaceful and quiet, as if no lord had ever taken up residence.

This made the Claude brothers feel like they were punching cotton, with nowhere to exert their strength.

It wasn’t until the ‘big shots’ in the town received an invitation that they began to think.

The City Lord’s Mansion was very simple, because it was originally a fortress mainly for defense, so many facilities were very basic. In order to facilitate the banquet, Aslan had people move the excess furniture out of the hall, leaving only dining tables for entertaining guests.

Limited by space, Aslan could do nothing about it. He couldn’t set up the banquet at the entrance of the City Lord’s Mansion, that would be inappropriate.

Aslan had put a lot of thought into this banquet, taking out all the red wine he had brought from the capital, and also preparing a lot of delicious desserts, almost exhausting most of the food he had brought.

But all of this was worth it. Looking at the guests in front of him devouring the food, Aslan couldn’t help but shake his head. Even the ‘big shots’ in the town, living in this isolated town for many years, still had too little experience.

“This bunch of country bumpkins.”

An untimely voice suddenly sounded nearby. Although the voice was very small, Aslan still heard it.

The speaker was Lancelot, the youngest knight in Aslan’s knight guard. Born into poverty, he was not well-liked in the knight groups in the capital, especially since he didn’t have enough resources to cultivate, which made his growth rate extremely slow, and his strength had been lukewarm. In addition, he was young and had no combat experience.

In the knight guard, his strength had always been at the bottom.

Such an inconspicuous person, only Aslan knew, with the passage of time, how far this sunny young man would grow.

Lancelot was a ruthless person by nature. For a long time in the future, he would be Aslan’s sword in the dark, specializing in cleaning up things that couldn’t be seen in the light, and had always been Aslan’s right-hand man.

When Aslan was in trouble, he did not, like Arthur, express his loyalty with death, but instead took Aslan’s family away at the first opportunity, leaving Aslan with a glimmer of hope.

Compared to Arthur’s blind loyalty, Aslan appreciated Lancelot’s flexibility even more.

“I don’t want to hear such words again.”

Aslan raised the wine glass in his hand and said indifferently.

Lancelot, who had been forcibly arranged to follow Aslan, instantly felt his original unwillingness and despair come alive.

Lancelot, who had climbed up from the very bottom of society, had a much stronger understanding of human nature than old-fashioned knights like Arthur. He heard a kind of confidence from Aslan’s indifferent tone, a confidence in absolute control of the situation.

“Listen to my orders later.” After Aslan finished speaking, he walked towards Ronde with a wine glass in his hand.

Ronde, who was eating with a greasy mouth, saw Aslan coming over and quickly wiped his hands, wanting to greet Aslan.

“Kill him.” Aslan’s cold voice rang in Lancelot’s ears. He was only slightly stunned, and then burst out with the fastest speed he had ever had, stabbing his sword into Ronde’s chest.

Ronde looked at Lancelot’s sword piercing his chest with a look of astonishment and fear. He didn’t even have time to cry out for help before Lancelot pierced his body with a sword. Claude, who had been paying attention to Aslan, saw this scene and his face changed drastically. He instantly thought of several possibilities. Without any hesitation, and even without arguing with Aslan, he prepared to take advantage of the chaos to escape.

Unfortunately, he was blocked by Arthur, who had been staring at him.

Aslan quickly threw a dagger in front of Ronde, and then shouted loudly.

“Bold, you dare to assassinate this lord.”

The people who were originally in shock widened their eyes subconsciously, but they all accepted this reason at the same time. After all, Aslan had not issued any decrees since entering the territory, and had been mainly recuperating until today when he officially appeared in public, and as a result, such a thing happened.

If it were someone else, others would have suspected it, but with the Ronde brothers doing such a thing, everyone thought it was a matter of course.

All along, these brothers had been ambitious, wanting to rule the entire Merlot Town, but they had been jointly resisted by others. Even so, the two brothers had always suppressed the town magistrate’s faction with their powerful force.

Most importantly, these two brothers had a criminal record. They had assassinated a lord before, scaring that lord into fleeing Merlot Town in a panic.

Chapter 3: The Butcher’s Knife is Raised: The Death of Ron

Before the crowd could even celebrate, a violent battle erupted in a corner of the banquet.

Claude, the strongest man in Merlot Town and a mid-level swordsman, was locked in a fierce fight with Arthur.

Swordsmen and knights were actually quite similar, mainly cultivating battle aura. However, swordsmen had much poorer equipment, mainly leather armor, and they didn’t fight on horseback. Knights, on the other hand, were the opposite. Even knights like Arthur, who had come with Aslan after falling from grace, possessed excellent armor and shields.

Coupled with Arthur’s peak mid-level strength, he completely overwhelmed Claude.

If Claude couldn’t see what was happening at this point, he was truly a fool.

This banquet was entirely Aslan’s conspiracy, aimed at eliminating the two of them.

Claude wanted to call for help, but he quickly realized that the remaining knights of Aslan’s knight guard had surrounded him. Surrounded by powerful enemies, he eventually fell powerless into a pool of blood.

Seeing the two men lying in pools of blood before him, Essien felt a chill in his heart. This new young lord was too tyrannical. He had eliminated the Claude brothers, who possessed the greatest martial power in the town, right from the start. Would it be his turn next?

The thought had just sprouted when he heard Aslan’s amiable voice.

“Town Magistrate Essien, please come over here.”

Essien immediately shuddered. He also saw through Aslan’s plan, but facing the knights armed to the teeth around him, he finally lowered his head and respectfully saluted Aslan.

“I will follow the Lord’s instructions.”

Aslan smiled, a very happy smile.

Essien’s actions were exactly the same as in his previous life. Once the Claude brothers were dealt with, he would immediately come over to pledge allegiance. He was a shrewd old man.

This life was no exception, but compared to his previous life, Aslan’s methods were more ruthless and bloody, but the effect was more obvious.

Back then, he had felt his way across the river, taking a full three years. Aslan couldn’t help but laugh and cry every time he thought about it later. In this different world, mastering powerful strength was the foundation for survival.

This was also why the nobles of the Cleveland Kingdom were extravagant and luxurious, yet they could easily suppress every rebellion that broke out.

The reason was simple: the nobles possessed high-level power and elite equipment, completely dominating the commoner world.

“Essien, I’ll give you three days to register all the people in the town, not even children can be missed. The town guard will also be entirely handed over to my guardian knight, Arthur. No problem, right?” Aslan held a goblet in his hand, smiling, speaking in a completely consultative tone.

Essien lowered his head even further, repeatedly saying yes. He had lived to this age.

He wouldn’t really think that Aslan was talking to him in a consultative tone. This could be seen from the Lord’s decisive killing of the Claude brothers.

“Your subordinate obeys.”

Essien quickly responded.

The reason why the control of the town guard had to go through Essien’s consent was because the deputy captain of the town guard was Essien’s own nephew.

After receiving the order, Essien immediately had Wilke called to his home.

Inside Essien’s study, the door was tightly closed, and his wife vigilantly watched the surroundings of the house.

His nephew, Wilke, complained unhappily, “Why? Once the Claude brothers are dead, the entire town guard militia will be controlled by us. Is there any need to be afraid of that so-called Lord? So what if he has the strength of a mid-level knight? Does he dare to kill us all?”

Wilke’s words made Essien frown slightly, but he was speechless.

Essien had also thought about this question, but he always felt that something was wrong, but he couldn’t figure out what it was.

At this moment, Wilke’s confidant in the town guard rushed over in a hurry.

“What’s wrong? Why is Pike running over in such a panic?”

Wilke, who was standing at the window, vigilantly watching the surroundings, saw his confidant Pike running over, his face showing a hint of doubt.

“Terrible, something happened.” Essien immediately reacted. He finally understood what was wrong.

This Lord knew too much about Merlot Town.

He eliminated the biggest troublemakers, the Claude brothers, right from the start, and now he was already reaching out to the town guard. Moreover, judging from the way Pike ran over, it was very likely that this Lord had already sent someone to take over the town guard.

If that was the case, Essien couldn’t help but fear the methods and wisdom of this young Lord.

He tricked Wilke out of the town guard’s station, and then directly sent someone to take over the town guard.

Compared to others, Essien knew the people in the town guard very well. They were not an army at all, but a group of local ruffians. This army usually did nothing but bully the villagers. But it was precisely because they were numerous that the person who controlled them became the ruler of Merlot Town.

“It’s bad, Deputy Captain! The Lord’s knights suddenly broke into the camp, controlled Eli and Peter, and the other brothers were also arrested. I heard that the Lord is going to judge them.” Pike said breathlessly, his eyes full of fear.

Wilke was immediately furious, and Essien also quickly followed.

The Lord was going to judge these local ruffians of the town guard.

When they arrived at the town center square, they noticed that it was already crowded with people. Five hundred people didn’t seem like much, but gathered together, it was a dark mass.

When Essien arrived here, he already saw a large pool of blood on the ground, and the surrounding crowd was full of cheers.

Especially when he noticed that his old friend Wilson was standing next to the Lord, the fear in his heart became even more obvious.

In the entire Merlot Town, only Wilson could gather all the residents of the town so quickly, and at the same time, he could list the crimes of these local ruffians the fastest.

Back then, Wilson’s daughter was defiled by several local ruffians from the town guard, and finally committed suicide, but at that time, those local ruffians were all protected by the Claude brothers, so he naturally couldn’t touch them. Now that the Claude brothers were dead, Wilson, in order to avenge himself, immediately turned to the new Lord and began to settle accounts after the autumn harvest.

Wilson stared at the two heads on the ground with bloodshot eyes, indescribably melancholy.

The feeling of great revenge being avenged, of gain and loss, instantly filled his entire body, making him somewhat at a loss.

“Thank you for your hard work, Mr. Wilson. With these tumors removed, I believe that from now on, our Merlot Town will become even better. What do you say?” Aslan walked to Wilson’s side, smiling.

Wilson nodded instinctively, looked at the dozen or so bloody heads on the ground, and suddenly woke up. Then he felt a chill down his spine. This young Lord was really bloody and cruel.

From the moment he officially appeared today, he had already killed more than a dozen people. And this time, he had completely tied him to his chariot, making it impossible to betray him.

Chapter 4: Development Plan

Wilson was very puzzled. Why was the lord so aware of his hatred for the town guard? With just a few words, he ignited the flames of revenge within him. “Yes, your subordinate will definitely assist you with all my strength, my lord.” Now that things had come to this, Wilson was also very straightforward, referring to himself as a subordinate.

Wilson was a rare intellectual and scholar in Mello Town. In his previous life, he was also Aslan’s right-hand man in managing Mello Town, only he joined two years earlier this time.

Aslan looked at the dark mass of people before him and raised his head to shout loudly. “I, Aslan Salar, hereby make an agreement with everyone. No matter who it is, they must abide by these three laws: first, a murderer must pay with their life; second, one who injures another must be punished; and third, a thief must also be sentenced!”

With that one sentence, the entire square fell silent. Wilson couldn’t help but breathe rapidly after hearing it.

Someone asked curiously, “Does that include you, Lord?” “How dare you!” A member of the Knight Guard immediately flew into a rage and wanted to seize him, but Aslan stopped him.

Aslan nodded and raised his hands, saying, “Of course. Even if I kill someone for no reason, I must pay with my life.”

Instantly, the entire square erupted in an uproar. After hearing this, the people enthusiastically supported him and began to shout loudly. “Long live the Lord!”

Aslan had experienced such things in his previous life. The current laws of the Cleveland Kingdom were completely in service to the ruling class. Nobles could get away with murder by simply paying money, and as for nobles injuring others, they didn’t even need to pay compensation, as if everything was their birthright.

It was precisely because of this that Aslan’s three simple laws were able to gain the support and endorsement of the people of Mello Town so quickly.

As for the phrase “killing someone for no reason,” it was entirely a safeguard specifically designed to protect his position as ruler. As long as he listed the crimes before killing someone, it couldn’t be considered killing for no reason.

As the saying goes, if you want to condemn someone, you can always find a pretext. This was a common trick used by rulers.

Essien couldn’t help but sigh at the scene before him. He had been operating in Mello Town for over a decade, but he couldn’t compare to a single sentence from the new lord. He took Warwick, who had already been scared witless, and proactively submitted to Aslan. It wasn’t too late for him, and the lord didn’t have many people when he came to Mello Town, so he would more or less need the help of locals like them.

Looking at the uncle and nephew kneeling before him, the corners of Aslan’s mouth slightly turned up. Mello Town was now largely settled.

Aslan personally helped the uncle and nephew up and then began to arrange new positions. “Arthur will be in charge of the guard from tonight, Warwick will be the deputy guard captain, Essien will continue to serve as the town magistrate, in charge of urban and agricultural development. Wilson will serve as the sheriff and treasurer, responsible for the security and economic development of Mello Town,” Aslan began to issue orders.

Everyone respectfully accepted the orders. As for the issue of power and position, Essien and Warwick didn’t care too much. How big was Mello Town anyway? How much could there be to manage?

“As you command, Lord.” The four said in unison. “Very good. Next, let’s talk about the town’s future development plan.”

Hearing the words “development plan,” the four were at a loss. Only Wilson, with the most ink in his belly, reacted immediately, looking at Aslan with some excitement, hoping that Aslan could offer beneficial suggestions for Mello Town.

Over the years, he had not thought about developing Mello Town, but it takes two to tango, not to mention that Claude and his gang of hooligans were in power at the time, and many of his suggestions were just laughed at.

Essien couldn’t help but become serious when he heard this. “In the few days since entering Mello Town, I have walked through the entire town. Mello Town has barren land, which is our biggest flaw, but it is not the real reason why we lack food. Only when the food supply is stable can the town develop and the population grow. Therefore, for a period of time in the future, I hope you will focus on developing food and population.”

Aslan had someone bring out a rough map of Mello Town. He had rushed to make it last night. Although it was a bit unsightly, it could allow people to clearly see the terrain and environment of the entire Mello Town at a glance. Of course, this required someone who was born and raised in Mello Town.

The other world that Aslan transmigrated to, although it was a world where magic and battle qi existed, the majority of the population was still ordinary civilians. It was in the midst of European medieval civilization. The people of this era didn’t have so many pursuits. The biggest problem they faced every day was whether they could eat their fill.

Aslan’s words made Wilson and Essien nod, and the last bit of vigilance in their hearts slowly relaxed. From this, it could be seen that this lord had really put his heart into considering and planning for the development of the town.

“I have inspected this area of rocky terrain. It is not all stone underneath. Most of it is soil, probably rolled down from the rocky mountain, rather than naturally exposed,” Aslan said solemnly.

Hearing Aslan’s words, Essien and Wilson’s eyes lit up. The real reason that plagued Mello Town’s food problem was actually the lack of sufficient food production areas. If the bottom of that plain was really soil, it could indeed greatly solve the land problem.

“Is what you said true, Lord?” Wilson asked with some uncertainty.

Aslan nodded and then took out a fruit and placed it on the table. Essien picked it up and looked at it carefully, then said somewhat uninterestingly, “Lord, this is just an ordinary Balo fruit.”

Balo fruit was a fruit that grew in a forest five or six miles outside of Mello Town. The skin of this fruit was red, and the taste was similar to that of a potato. It was a high-starch food and had now become the main source of food for Mello Town, but it was a wild fruit, and the growth cycle and yield were unstable, not to mention that other herbivores also fed on Balo fruit. Sometimes, if they went too late, the Balo fruit would be eaten clean by wild animals.

“I have decided to promote the planting of Balo fruit,” Aslan said decisively. Wilson and Essien looked surprised, but after the surprise, they supported Aslan.

The reason was simple. Even if a piece of land was cleared, the yield of planting food crops on barren land would not increase. It would be better to plant Balo fruit. This kind of Balo fruit had strong vitality and a good yield.

“Then your subordinate will mobilize the farmers to clear the farm tomorrow…” “Then I will take people to Bito Forest tomorrow to transplant the Balo fruit trees…”

As for that plain, it was actually one of the largest farmlands in Aslan’s previous life. If it was all opened up, it would have tens of thousands of acres of farmland, enough to meet the food needs of Mello Town, but with such a large area of wasteland, relying on the existing population to fully utilize it. Aslan rubbed his head with some headache.

Chapter 5: Max Village

While the town lord’s manor was caught up in heated discussions, Claude’s son, Najie, bribed a guard and successfully fled the town. Before leaving, he gazed at the town where he had grown up, a flash of malice in his eyes. “Aslan! Just you wait, I’ll be back.”

The next morning, Aslan received news of Najie’s escape. He simply nodded, appearing calm and unconcerned, not taking Najie seriously at all. “Lord, you must strike the grass and eliminate the roots.” Arthur, seeing Aslan’s continued indifference, assumed he was still too young and offered this advice. Aslan shook his head with a smile. “What can a half-grown boy do?” Hearing Aslan’s words, Arthur finally sighed. In his eyes, Aslan was still too inexperienced.

Looking out at the Gulun Mountains beyond the town, Aslan smirked coldly. Najie was a native of Melo Town. If he wanted to escape, even Arthur might not be able to catch him, let alone after he had a night’s head start. As for whether he would bring any unknown dangers, Aslan was perfectly aware. Claude had once been a member of the Armor Gate Bandit Group, later retiring to Melo Town. In reality, he was there to guard the Armor Gate Bandit Group’s treasure cave in the area and provide cover for them, as the Armor Gate Bandit Group’s lair was located in a desolate mountain less than thirty kilometers from Melo Town.

Because the Melo Town area was remote, despite being at the junction of two continents, the Rift Valley made it a dead zone. The only settlement nearby was Melo Town, a poor and backward place with nothing to exploit. No one would ever suspect that this was the lair of the notorious Armor Gate Bandit Group. In his previous life, after Melo Town began to develop, Claude often acted as an inside man for the Armor Gate Bandit Group, robbing the territory. Therefore, Aslan knew the Armor Gate Bandit Group very well, especially the bandit leader, Armor Gate himself. He was a cautious man who wouldn’t act without seeing a profit. Melo Town was currently poor and backward. Even if they looted it, they wouldn’t get much money, and the town had Arthur, a mid-level knight, stationed there. If they accidentally lost a few brothers, wouldn’t it be a losing proposition? So, before the town developed, it was still safe. Until then, Aslan just needed to focus on developing his military strength.

He gathered the remaining town guards, removing most of the older or physically impaired ones, leaving forty-three people. In the courtyard behind the town lord’s manor, Aslan looked at the young men before him. In fact, the youngest of them was older than him. “Do you want to become swordsmen? Even knights?” Aslan said in a loud voice. The youngest militiamen raised their heads, their eyes shining with excitement. The Cleveland Kingdom was a martial nation. As long as one was strong enough, they could become a noble of the kingdom. For example, after reaching the Great Knight realm, one could register in the royal capital, swear allegiance to the kingdom, and receive a territory, becoming a great noble lord. This was why the Cleveland Kingdom had been able to maintain its rule for so long. Absolute power! Power that commoners could not possess. As the saying goes, a soldier who doesn’t want to be a general is not a good soldier. In this other world, the only way for commoners to learn battle aura was to join the army. They had worked hard to come here precisely to learn battle aura, to become great swordsmen, and perhaps even have the opportunity to become knights. “Yes!” The atmosphere among the militiamen in the courtyard was ignited. Aslan waved his hand, signaling everyone to be quiet. “From now on, promotions in the town guard will be based on military merit, and the level of battle aura cultivation techniques granted will depend on the level of merit.” Aslan’s words instantly brought the militiamen’s enthusiasm and drive to the extreme. What is an employee most afraid of when joining a company? No room for promotion, no vision for the company’s future. If such a company relies only on empty promises, it will eventually be abandoned by its employees. Aslan gave these militiamen hope and opportunity, and they would naturally work hard.

Under Arthur’s leadership, they began to train in an orderly manner, a scene never before seen in Melo Town. In the early morning, many residents opened their windows and saw a squad of town guards in neat uniforms jogging. Their footsteps were very light, and their clothes were simple, giving people a sense of stability and reliability. Aslan stood in front of the window of the town lord’s manor, watching the town guards slowly disappear from view, and nodded in satisfaction. “That’s not enough.” Aslan turned his gaze to the animal skin parchments on the table. He had stayed up all night recording the events and things he could remember from his previous life. He was worried that as time passed, he would forget certain key events. Melo Town was already in his hands, and the wasteland was beginning to be developed. Population was an unavoidable issue for Melo Town. Next, he began to turn his attention to the villages around Melo Town. That’s right, the surrounding villages. Although Melo Town was remote and lacked resources, it had an advantage that other prosperous areas did not: no nobles. No nobles meant no exploitation, no war, and no persecution. It had become a haven for many who had fallen on hard times. Although life was a bit hard, it was more peaceful than the big cities in other parts of the kingdom. In his previous life, after Aslan unified all the villages around Melo Town, it added up to tens of thousands of people to Melo Town’s population, which was absolutely unimaginable at the time. The population hidden in many villages far exceeded everyone’s expectations.

At noon, under the blazing sun, Aslan completed his daily tasks and began to head to a village less than thirty miles from Melo Town. Although it was called a village, its size was no less than that of Melo Town. Max Village. It was said that the first village chief, named Max, established the village with nearly a hundred refugees who had fled there. It had now been around for more than thirty years. It was now one of the most powerful villages around Melo Town. The only difference compared to Melo Town was that it was not recorded in the kingdom’s archives and could not accept the sale of goods and resources from local merchants. Although it could be self-sufficient, it often needed to buy things from Melo Town. The middle of each month was the busiest time for Melo Town, as all the surrounding villages went there for the market, and even many bandit groups went there to fence stolen goods. Aslan arrived at the front of Max Village with Arthur and his party. The high wooden palisade walls made Aslan shake his head. In this respect, Melo Town was far behind. Its only advantage was its legitimate status, otherwise, it wasn’t even as good as a village.

Chapter 6: Lanning Village

The wooden gates of Mace Village creaked open, and a fully armed militia team emerged. Behind them was an old man leaning on a cane, his hair white and his body slightly hunched. However, his piercing eyes made people dare not underestimate him.

Aslan was well aware of the old man’s capabilities. He had dealt with him in his previous life. His name was Johnson, a well-known figure within a hundred miles of Melo Town. He had made great contributions to Mace Village’s ability to develop to its current scale.

Johnson also had another identity: a great magician. Although only an intermediate-level one, he was still someone even a senior swordsman had to consider carefully in a backwater place like the Melo region.

Of course, only a few people in Mace Village knew about this identity.

Aslan knew because, in a previous life, during a conflict, he had led a large army to the border, forcing Johnson to take action.

“I didn’t know the lord was arriving; please forgive me for not welcoming you sooner.” Johnson naturally knew who the young man before him was.

The new lord had only been in Melo Town for a few days, but he had already dealt with Claude’s family, the original local tyrant of Melo Town, and punished the entire town guard, giving the whole town a refreshing and thriving appearance.

“Village Chief Johnson, hearing about you is not as good as meeting you, and meeting you is better than hearing about you.”

Aslan also greeted him with a smile. His past life experiences had long allowed him to remain calm even if Mount Tai collapsed before him.

Johnson had no intention of inviting Aslan into the village. Instead, he blocked the entrance and asked with a calm expression, “I wonder what brings the lord to Mace Village?”

Aslan didn’t care too much. He was well aware of the surrounding villages’ attitude towards Melo Town.

They were unwilling to acknowledge Melo Town’s status because once they did, they would have to pay taxes and obey Melo Town’s orders. That would mean losing their current free and unfettered lives.

Aslan simply exchanged a few polite words and then left, never mentioning any official business, acting entirely like a junior visiting a senior.

Johnson watched Aslan’s departing figure, filled with doubt.

“What exactly is this young lord thinking?”

He had originally thought that Aslan wanted to persuade Mace Village to join Melo Town, or perhaps form an alliance with Mace Village, but Aslan hadn’t said a single word about either of those topics from beginning to end.

This made Johnson, who considered himself cunning and experienced, very frustrated.

Aslan did this for a simple reason: Johnson was naturally suspicious. He just needed to make Johnson paranoid, which would buy him valuable time for his next action.

His real target was Lanning Village.

Lanning Village was a native village of Melo Town, or rather, a tribe. It was a barbarian clan tribe with a small population of only about a hundred people, but its combat power was among the top three in the entire Melo region. The village chief was a senior swordsman who wielded a giant bone hammer, invincible and unmatched, hailed as the number one expert in the Melo region.

With Aslan’s current strength, he naturally wouldn’t dare to dream of subduing them. He just wanted to establish a good relationship with Lanning Village.

Lanning Village’s biggest problem was food shortage. Although there were only about a hundred people, barbarians were known for their large appetites and didn’t engage in agriculture. Although they were all excellent hunters, hunting was a matter of luck. Sometimes they would go out for a whole day and not be able to catch any prey. Most of the time, they would eat their fill one day and go hungry the next.

Aslan and his party had just arrived at the entrance of Lanning Village when they were surrounded by more than a dozen barbarian warriors, immediately putting Arthur on high alert.

Because among the barbarian warriors surrounding them, there were two intermediate swordsmen.

Their weapons were mainly bone clubs and stone spears, but in the face of their strong physiques, even a wooden stick could unleash terrifying power.

“Is this how you welcome your friends?”

Aslan waved his hand, signaling Arthur and the others to sheathe their drawn swords, and said with a calm expression.

The leading barbarian warrior was somewhat surprised to see Aslan so calm, then gave a simple and honest smile and waved his hand to signal the others to retreat.

“Our chieftain has been waiting for a long time.”

Aslan nodded and entered the village led by the barbarian warrior.

The reason they said this wasn’t because their chieftain was so resourceful, but because they possessed powerful force.

Every month, the villages had to pay ‘protection fees,’ otherwise, it would be hard to guarantee that these starving barbarian warriors wouldn’t raid the villages for food one day.

They also regarded Aslan as someone who had come to pay protection fees.

After all, in the past, Claude of Melo Town would personally deliver a batch of food every month, although not much, it represented an attitude.

Even their nominal boss in the Melo region had to pay protection fees, so other villages had to think twice before refusing.

Entering the village, Aslan couldn’t bear to look at the barbarians’ architecture.

It couldn’t even be called architecture; it should be called tents. Many of the tents were even drafty. If the barbarians didn’t have strong physiques, they would have problems not dying from illness in this environment.

“New lord, I wonder how much grain you plan to supply each month.” Chieftain Lanning looked at Aslan as he approached, sitting on the ground in a commanding manner. His massive figure was only slightly shorter than Aslan standing up.

Aslan roughly estimated that this Lanning was at least two and a half meters tall, with a large bone club beside him, covered with iron bumps. One blow could probably smash a person into mincemeat.

“No, no, you misunderstood. I’m here to make a deal with you.” Aslan said with a smile.

Lanning’s face instantly turned cold, his eyes wide as he glared at Aslan, looking like he might attack at any moment.

“Hehe, do you want to make a move? I hope you can think clearly. I am from the Salar family of the capital. My family has archmages behind them, and not just one or two. As for great knights, there are dozens. If you move against me, I guarantee that within three days, the entire Lanning Village will be turned into ruins, and not a single warrior here will survive. The strength of our human army is not just in numbers.”

Aslan sat down in front of Lanning without a care, looking him directly in the eye as he spoke.

Lanning’s eyes slowly turned red as he stared at Aslan, making Arthur behind him break out in a cold sweat.

But the next moment, Lanning burst into hearty laughter.

“Just joking with the lord. I wonder what the lord wants to trade with us. You should be well aware of the situation in our Lanning Village. We are dirt poor.”

Chapter 7: God-Given Talent: Materialization

莱安宁 was nothing like Johnson, that sly old fox of a human. He didn’t understand the intricacies of noble society. They were still in the clan stage, only knowing the principle that if a clansman was in trouble, they had to help with all their might. He thought of Aslan’s family with this mindset, so he was naturally intimidated by the family power behind Aslan.

Anyone from a proper human background could guess that Aslan had been assigned to this backwater because he had lost in a family struggle. Only among barbarians would Aslan dare to flaunt his family’s banner so openly.

“I’ve cleared some wasteland to plant grain, and there will be a harvest in a while. I hope to exchange the grain for meat from your village. The price is negotiable,” Aslan said, his eyes slightly narrowed.

This was a habit he retained from his previous life. Once his eyes narrowed, it meant he was planning to swindle someone.

“Grain!” 莱安宁 fell silent.

Speaking of meat sources, 莱安宁 Village was indeed more stable than the rest of the Merlau region. However, simply eating meat wasn’t enough to fill their stomachs. If they could exchange for a large amount of grain and supplement it with some meat, they could easily eat their fill.

“We need a lot of grain,” 莱安宁 said, staring intently.

Aslan nodded. He knew the barbarians’ appetite very well. In his previous life, Aslan used this method to gradually subdue these barbarians, making them the strongest vanguard force in the Merlau Legion.

“But I need time. My grain has just been planted and needs time.”

“No problem, it’s all the same to us anyway,” 莱安宁 said generously.

He knew how difficult it was to grow grain, especially in the Merlau region. If Aslan could really grow it successfully, it would be good news for them.

“If it’s beasts like boar-pigs, the price is higher alive than dead,” Aslan emphasized.

Boar-pigs were beasts similar to wild boars. They had one characteristic: they grew quickly and were omnivores, making them easy to raise. In his previous life, they were Aslan’s main source of meat. Because of large-scale breeding, he eventually became the largest pig farmer in the Cleveland Kingdom.

“Okay,” 莱安宁 personally saw Aslan off from the village.

Before leaving, Aslan, out of curiosity, asked 莱安宁 if he could touch his bone club.

莱安宁 was also very generous, even with a hint of cunning in his eyes, and handed the bone club to Aslan.

As a result, Aslan didn’t hold it steady and was almost knocked over by the bone club.

莱安宁 quickly took the bone club back, only to see Aslan sitting blankly on the ground, staring at the sky with a dazed look.

“Lord.” Aslan’s condition startled Arthur.

He quickly helped him up and wanted to check on Aslan’s condition, but Aslan slowly came back to his senses, shook his head at Arthur, and then took his leave.

Along the way, Aslan didn’t speak, but his eyes occasionally became vacant.

Arthur and the other knight guards were worried.

Aslan’s eyes gleamed as images of the bone club’s shape and structure model constantly flooded his mind, especially the 3D model, which was similar to a magic model.

Aslan was shocked. He remembered reading a theory about god-given talents in his previous life.

God-given talents, only mages could awaken talents, and even then, only one in ten thousand mages would awaken a god-given talent.

The most impressive god-given talent was Material Simulation.

It was called a god-given talent because it couldn’t be explained by magic. Material Simulation allowed the host to produce items using materials of the same level after awakening the talent.

In the Westland Continent, it could only be described as a god-given talent, but in Aslan’s eyes, it was similar to a 3D printer.

As long as he had the complete shape and form of an item in his mind, he could create it using mental power and materials. This was similar to magical alchemy, but with a higher success rate and faster speed.

“Could it really be?” Without thinking, Aslan shouted to Arthur beside him.

“Arthur, lend me your sword.”

Although Arthur was puzzled, he respectfully handed the sword to Aslan.

Aslan took Arthur’s sword, and under his control, his mental power began to cover the longsword, completely replicating the shape of the longsword in his mind, while also revealing many magic element symbols.

Magic elements were similar to chemical elements in his previous life. Magic elements, also known as chemical elements, referred to the hundred-plus basic metallic and non-metallic substances in nature. They were composed of only one type of atom, and each nucleon in the atom had the same number of protons. They could not be broken down by ordinary chemical methods and could form all matter.

If he were just an ordinary beginner mage, it would be difficult to recognize all of these magic elements, but Aslan was different. In his previous life, he was a learned mage, and coupled with his familiarity with the periodic table of elements, he had long memorized the magic element cycle.

With a little calculation, he could spell out the materials needed.

Aslan returned to Merlau Town, immediately took out paper to calculate the required materials, and then locked himself in his room.

When Aslan came out of the room again, he had an identical knight’s cross sword to Arthur’s, except this cross sword was newer and more ornate than Arthur’s.

As long as his mental power and magic power were strong enough, Material Simulation could even simulate artifacts.

Last night, Aslan tried to create new weapons and armor.

Unfortunately, the resources required were too much, and Aslan couldn’t afford it at the moment.

Material Simulation was only responsible for manufacturing items and didn’t need to consider craftsmanship or technology. Aslan only needed to calculate the required materials.

This requirement sounded simple, but for the impoverished Merlau Town, it was undoubtedly a nightmare-level challenge.

In the town lord’s council hall, Aslan had people clean up the originally messy desk, leaving only a large round table with a diameter of five meters. Aslan sat in the main seat, which was elevated by a step, symbolizing nobility.

Aslan listened to Essien’s report but didn’t speak for a long time.

The reason was simple: Wood Village, fifty miles away from Merlau Town, was demanding that Merlau Town hand over fifty pounds of salt every month.

Salt was Merlau Town’s largest source of economic income every month. Almost everyone in the Merlau region came to Merlau Town to buy salt, and Merlau Town could only purchase a quota of one hundred pounds of salt from the garrison city each month. Wood Village’s demand for fifty pounds was not just asking for the moon, it was completely provoking Merlau Town’s dominance in the Merlau region.

Chapter 8: Listening to Essien’s Report

Listening to Essien’s report, Aslan’s eyes narrowed slightly, a strange glint flashing within them.

This Wood Village was the first village to go to war with Melo Town in his previous life. Their population was about the same as Mace Village, but they had cultivated six intermediate swordsmen, including a mage apprentice.

This was also the reason for their arrogance, even wanting to replace Melo Town and become the rightful authority.

Aslan sat in the main seat, his right hand supporting his chin, his left hand tapping the armrest of the chair. After a long while, he finally spoke, “Town Magistrate Essien, tell me your opinion.”

Essien couldn’t answer Aslan’s question for a moment. To say yes was impossible, but to say no meant Melo Town would be unable to resist Wood Village’s attack.

“Well, this matter requires careful consideration,” Essien said after pondering for a long time.

“Heh, it seems Town Magistrate Essien is still unwilling to believe in me,” Aslan said, standing up expressionlessly.

Upon hearing this, Essien’s face turned pale. He opened his mouth, but ultimately no sound came out.

Clearly, the people of Melo Town still didn’t believe that Aslan had the ability to confront Wood Village. Their strength was too great.

Essien had always been unwilling to admit that the reason Melo Town was able to maintain its complete independence was due in no small part to the offerings that the Claude brothers sent on time every month.

Essien really wanted to advise Aslan to agree to Wood Village’s demands, but not necessarily give them fifty pounds. They could haggle over the price.

However, when he was about to say it, he saw Aslan’s hawk-like gaze and immediately swallowed the words back down.

He didn’t think the lord was such an easy person to talk to.

As everyone dispersed, Aslan remained firmly seated in the main seat. Wilson slowly packed his things, and only when he and Aslan were the only ones left in the council hall did he walk up to Aslan.

“Lord! This subordinate has a way to deal with this matter.”

“Oh!” Aslan immediately showed an interested attitude.

In his previous life, Wilson had also come up with this idea for Aslan. This life was the same, except that in his previous life, it was about half a year after he came to Melo Town that Claude deliberately embarrassed him, encouraging Wood Village to make trouble for Aslan. This life, it was because there was no Claude to mediate that Wood Village’s ambitions quickly swelled.

Aslan was well aware that the reason Claude was able to persuade Wood Village was simply by relying on the power of the Armor Gate Bandit Group.

“We can join forces with Lanning Village. Lanning has been eyeing Wood Village for a long time,” Wilson said, respectfully bowing before leaving.

Aslan revealed an inscrutable smile. As night fell, he secretly took Arthur directly to Lanning Village. He said very straightforwardly, “I need help. Twenty pounds of salt per month, enough to meet your village’s needs.”

Lanning stared at Aslan for a long time. He had more or less received news that the guys in Wood Village were indeed being a bit excessive.

“The price isn’t enough,” Lanning said, shaking his head.

“It’s enough. Gaining my friendship is your greatest benefit. Believe me, within a year, I will be able to create a brand new Melo Town. No! It should be called Melo City. At that time, you will understand how wise your current actions are,” Aslan said with a firm tone.

Looking at Aslan’s serious and firm eyes, Lanning suddenly had a kind of illusion that he really wanted to believe him.

“You’re that confident?”

Aslan nodded, “I was born for this place. As long as you help me now, in the future, you barbarians will no longer be foreigners, but members of my Melo City, members of the powerful Melo Army.”

Lanning stared blankly at Aslan.

This pie in the sky was a bit too big. Anyway, their barbarian tribe had been rooted in the Melo region for decades, and they had never heard of such an ‘impractical’ dream.

“Do you know what you’re saying?” Although the overall intelligence of barbarians was slightly lower than that of humans, it didn’t mean they were idiots, especially Lanning, who had reached the level of an advanced swordsman. His intelligence was no different from that of ordinary people.

“Are you willing to stay holed up here for the rest of your life? Don’t you want to restore the glory of the barbarians?” Aslan became more and more excited as he spoke.

In fact, this was Aslan’s understanding of Lanning from his previous life. On the surface, he seemed to have no interest in anything other than making sure everyone in the tribe had enough to eat.

In reality, Lanning was determined to get rid of this situation, because he knew very well that once a force unified the Melo region, they, as foreigners, would inevitably be the first to be purged.

However, with the barbarians’ gluttonous appetites, no village could afford to support them. Coupled with their foreign status, they were easily targeted in a united front, so they had always had to maintain a neutral stance.

Aslan was an opportunity for Lanning, an opportunity to break the current balance.

“What can you give me?” Lanning asked, placing the bone club in his hand next to Aslan.

His attitude was very clear. If the answer couldn’t satisfy him, Aslan would definitely not be able to leave here alive today.

Seeing this familiar scene, Aslan smiled, a very happy smile.

“I can allow your tribe to join Melo City and become citizens of Melo City. As long as you don’t betray me, you will enjoy citizen treatment for generations,” Aslan said. Lanning had already placed his hand on the bone club, but Aslan was not afraid at all and continued, “I want to build a place without racial discrimination, whether it’s barbarians, halflings, or even orcs. There, they will only have one name: Melo people.”

Lanning’s hand unconsciously moved to the side, his mouth agape in an O shape, looking at the young man in front of him in disbelief.

His ideal was too great, so great that he found it incredible.

Now the entire continent was dominated by humans. Although the strength of other foreign races was still not to be underestimated, more than 70% of the land on the vast continent was occupied by humans. In many powerful empires, foreign races were actually synonymous with slaves.

Lanning had to admit that although the pie in the sky that Aslan had drawn was illusory, he still wanted to believe it.

“Easy to say, with the current Melo Town of less than five hundred people,” Lanning said, although he was tempted, he still didn’t believe it, and even less would he bet the entire tribe on Aslan.

“Of course not now, but what about the entire Melo region? Or even the entire Cleveland Kingdom,” Aslan said with a smile as he stood up.

Lanning was a little surprised by Aslan’s ambition. After a long while, he finally said, “What do you need me to do?”

“Don’t misunderstand, I just want to see your determination and ability.”

Aslan laughed heartily, placed his hands on the table, and stared into Lanning’s eyes, “Join me in a night raid on Wood Village. After success, all the food in Wood Village will be yours, while the land and population will be mine. As for the pursuit of other forces, my Melo Town will bear it all.”

Chapter 9: The World

Ryan Ning was truly stimulated by Aslan’s determination.

To launch a night raid on a village, especially one ranked among the top ten strongest in the Melo region, even their barbarian tribe wouldn’t have complete confidence in taking down Wood Village. Even if they could, they would suffer significant losses.

“Time and location?”

After whispering a few words into Ryan Ning’s ear, Aslan took the initiative to lead his people away.

On the way, Arthur asked somewhat uneasily, “Lord, what if the barbarians betray us?”

The corners of Aslan’s mouth curled up slightly, and he said something softly. Arthur’s expression instantly changed drastically, and he looked at Aslan with awe.

He never expected this young lord to be so scheming.

Why was Aslan so sure that Ryan Ning wouldn’t betray him? The reason was simple: even if he did, who would believe him? Aslan could even turn around and accuse Ryan Ning of trying to disrupt the stability of the Melo region and stir up conflict. In that case, he might be jointly attacked by the entire Melo region.

With the current strength of Melo Town, it was simply impossible to launch a night raid on Wood Village, but Aslan was still very confident.

Where there are people, there is a world. Just like the internal strife within the declining Melo Town, let alone Wood Village.

Wood Village was divided into two major factions: Village Chief Gulan’s faction, which was the strongest, and Elder Gude’s faction, which was second.

When Gude competed with Gulan for the position of village chief, Gulan tried to kill him. Although he ultimately escaped, his only son died as a result.

Gulan had done this very discreetly, and Gude, lacking evidence and unable to gain the support of the villagers, could only bury the seeds of hatred deep within himself.

Over the years, Gude had worked hard, but he only barely possessed the qualifications to confront Gulan. However, he was still a little short of being able to take revenge.

Aslan naturally knew about the affairs of Wood Village. There had been an internal conflict in Wood Village in the past, which had ultimately greatly damaged its vitality. Gude had fled to Aslan’s place after his defeat. It was Gude who brought the technology of growing baoluo fruit, which completely solved the food problem in Melo Town.

Although Aslan knew how to grow baoluo fruit, he wasn’t a professional after all. He only knew a rough outline. It would be even more perfect if he could win Gude over.

Unfortunately, Gude didn’t dare to trust Aslan and refused Aslan’s request for a meeting.

Aslan didn’t care about this. He knew Gude’s character very well. As long as there was an opportunity, he would never let it go.

“Arthur, arrange for a clever fellow to deliver this letter to Gude.”

Arthur nodded and finally handed the letter to Lancelot, who was responsible for it.

Lancelot’s recent performance had been stable and a bit smooth, and he wasn’t as rigid as most knights in handling affairs, which made Arthur very satisfied, and he began to focus on cultivating him.

Three days later, inside Wood Village, Gude held a letter tightly in his hand. The letter was made of burlap and had the lord’s emblem and autograph on it, but he hesitated to make a decision.

But he was unwilling to give up just like that.

With less than half an hour before the night raid, Gude paced back and forth in the room, thinking about all the possibilities.

The Gulan family in Wood Village.

Gulan had just drunk a little inferior malt wine, and his face was flushed, but his consciousness and thinking were exceptionally clear and sharp.

These days, Gude had been a little too honest.

Melo Town was still arguing with him, wanting to reduce the amount of salt. It was obvious that they had realized that their strength was inferior to Wood Village and had made a compromise, which made Gulan very satisfied.

If he could also subdue Gude’s faction, wouldn’t he be the one calling the shots in the Melo region in the future?

As for Mace Village and Ryan Ning Village, he had consciously ignored them, because Mace Village and Ryan Ning Village had always maintained absolute neutrality. As long as he gave them enough food, he believed that the two villages would sit idly by.

Gulan had considered this very carefully. Unfortunately, he had miscalculated one thing: they could accept his neutral position in exchange for benefits, and they could naturally accept Aslan’s benefits to take action against them.

In the end, it was all because he had the advantage of being on his home turf and thought that Aslan was new here and wouldn’t be able to connect with other villages so quickly. That’s why he dared to threaten them so openly. If it were another year or so, Gulan would definitely visit the two villages in advance and ask them to stand by and watch, instead of planning to give them some sweets afterwards.

“Gude has been too quiet recently. Could there be some conspiracy?” Gulan looked at his son and couldn’t help but ask.

Kerrili was Gulan’s youngest son. His battle qi talent was average, and he had only barely entered the apprentice swordsman realm. However, he was the brains of the entire Wood Village. Many of Gulan’s conspiracies and tricks came from this youngest son.

“There must be. I’ve been having people watch Gude’s people these past few days. I’m very worried that he will join forces with the people from Melo Town,” Kerrili said after thinking for a moment.

Gulan laughed loudly after hearing this.

“Melo Town only has one intermediate knight, seven primary knights, and three primary swordsmen. Even if they join forces with Gude, can they threaten us?”

Kerrili thought for a moment and said, “It’s better to be careful.”

Gulan knew very well that his youngest son was cautious, and he needed this caution to help him.

Outside Wood Village, Aslan and Ryan Ning met. They met in the dark night, and the two only nodded without speaking before heading towards Wood Village.

The stockade walls of Wood Village were not as high as those of Mace Village, but there were many more gaps, allowing people to see inside, but also making it easier for the people inside to poke out spears.

There was a torch every so often on the stockade walls, but in the darkness, it was still difficult to take care of the entire stockade walls.

Aslan began to count silently. He had been having Lancelot lurking here these past few days to observe the frequency of the Wood Village patrol guards.

“Almost there,” Aslan said softly.

Ryan Ning nodded, holding the bone club in both hands and raising it high. With a leap, he used the force in mid-air to slam the club on the stockade wall.

A wooden pillar as thick as a bucket was broken by Ryan Ning’s club. The huge noise alarmed the entire Wood Village.

Gude, who was still in a daze, almost couldn’t hold the water glass in his hand, and the water spilled all over the floor.

The alarm bell rang in Wood Village, and the young people of every household ran out with weapons.

“Enemy attack!”

“Enemy attack!”

Gude’s cousin, Gute, rushed in with a two-handed greatsword.

“Brother, enemy attack.”

“I know.”

Gude nodded to show that he knew, then sat quietly on the chair, looking at the messy doorway, wondering what Gute was thinking when he saw Gude like this.

“Brother?”

“Yes!” Gude raised his head, a fierce light flashing in his eyes, and asked, “Do we still have a chance for revenge?”

Hearing this, Gute immediately fell silent, and after a long time, he shook his head and said.

“Difficult.”

Chapter 10: Internal Support: Wood Village

Wood Village now has five mid-level professionals. Good and Gute are two of them, and the remaining three are Gulan’s men. Most importantly, Gulan’s eldest son, Chris, has also broken through to become a mid-level swordsman, the youngest in Wood Village’s history. There are even rumors in the village that Chris might have a chance to reach the level of advanced swordsman in his lifetime.

Once Chris breaks through to become an advanced swordsman, forget about revenge; they would be lucky not to face retribution later.

“Then we have no choice but to do it.”

Good took out his one-handed sword, held his shield in one hand, and strode out of the house.

Gute was stunned for a moment, as if realizing something, and followed closely behind. Waiting outside were all the forces the two brothers had in Wood Village.

Six elementary swordsmen, fifteen swordsman apprentices, plus more than twenty strong young men.

In the past few days, Lancelot had thoroughly scouted Wood Village. As soon as they broke in, Aslan and Leianning led a large group of people towards Gulan’s residence.

The two sides quickly met. Gulan was very surprised to see Aslan leading the charge. Although he had never met Aslan, he had heard many rumors about him recently.

This new lord was just a teenager, and seeing a group of fully armed knights guarding him, he could basically confirm his identity.

However, seeing the mage robe on Aslan, he was momentarily surprised and uncertain.

He never expected that Melo Town, which had been arguing with them for the past few days, would dare to take the lead in attacking.

But soon, the surprise and uncertainty on his face turned into fear, because he saw a figure he least wanted to see.

The barbarian warrior Leianning.

“Leianning, what do you want? Aren’t you afraid of being besieged by the humans of the entire Melo region?” Gulan shouted, his voice trembling slightly.

Leianning shrugged indifferently.

Aslan, standing beside him, replied with a smile, “I don’t know what you’re talking about. This operation is entirely led by me, the lord. Sir Leianning is just here to help out.”

Gulan almost vomited blood when he heard Aslan’s words.

Just helping out involved an advanced swordsman, ten mid-level swordsmen, and more than thirty elementary swordsmen.

Adding in the town guard of Melo Town, Aslan had mobilized over a hundred people this time.

The barbarian warriors Leianning brought alone were more than they could resist, not to mention the Melo people attacking from the rear.

Aslan wore a mage robe, held a beginner’s staff, and wore an enchanted ring on his hand, which contained a beginner’s fireball spell that could only be used once every three days. This was basically all the family fortune Aslan had brought with him when he left the Salah family.

Aslan walked leisurely in the middle of the team, with Lancelot guarding him. Arthur led the town guard to support the barbarian warriors.

Gulan led his men, fighting and retreating. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to fight head-on, but he simply couldn’t win.

The power of barbarian warriors was unmatched in the Melo region.

A single village simply couldn’t resist.

As Gulan retreated to the center of the village, Good happened to arrive with his men.

“Great, Good, we’ll rely on the village center to block them. I’ve already sent out a distress signal. Reinforcements will be here soon.”

As soon as Gulan finished speaking, Good stabbed him with his sword. If his son Chris hadn’t reacted quickly enough, this sword would definitely have pierced his heart.

“Are you crazy?” Gulan was stunned by Good’s actions, and then he burst into骂骂.

Didn’t he know there were foreign enemies invading? Why were they fighting among themselves at this time?

“You ask me if I’m crazy! I would be truly crazy if I didn’t avenge the murder of my son.”

Good launched a frantic attack on Gulan. Chris tried to help but was stopped by Gute. The Gulan faction’s warriors, who had been able to fight and retreat, completely collapsed after the mid-level swordsman responsible for commanding them was smashed into a pulp by Leianning’s club.

They began to flee on a large scale, but their retreat was blocked by Good and his men.

Aslan walked at the front of the team. Gulan and his remaining men were surrounded. He hadn’t made a move from beginning to end.

“Mr. Good, you’ve done a great job. As agreed, you will be the next village chief of Wood Village.”

Hearing Aslan’s words, Gulan, already covered in wounds, laughed up to the sky.

He should have guessed that something like this would happen.

But for the sake of Wood Village’s stability, Gulan had never touched Good. He just didn’t expect this day to come so quickly.

Good walked out expressionlessly, the sword in his hand still dripping with blood, the blood slowly dripping down the blade.

“Thank you, Lord Aslan. Please leave the rest to me.”

Aslan nodded indifferently and looked at Leianning beside him. Leianning also nodded. During the attack, he had already arranged for people to loot all the grain in Wood Village. His goal had been achieved.

“Retreat! I hope to see you at the City Lord’s Mansion tomorrow.” Aslan said lightly and turned to leave.

Gulan watched Aslan leave, laughing even more happily, but tears kept flowing down his face.

His men were all finished. Less than ten people were still alive by his side, including his son, each of them wounded and unable to fight.

When Aslan’s figure completely disappeared from Good’s sight, his eyes were filled with bloodlust. He charged towards Gulan and his son like a madman, along with Gute and the villagers who followed him.

A naked massacre, without mercy or pleas.

When Aslan returned to the City Lord’s Mansion, the sky was turning white. Esin and Wilson had been waiting for a long time. When they saw the town guard return intact, they exchanged glances and breathed a sigh of relief.

“We won!” Esin said uncertainly.

“Yes!” Aslan nodded. A maid immediately brought water for him to wash his face.

After a simple wash, Aslan sat on the main seat, resting his chin in his hand.

“After this victory, what suggestions do you have? Tell me.”

This time, Esin did not hesitate and said very decisively, “Integrate all forces and unify the entire Melo region.”

Wilson also nodded solemnly.

This battle had shown them Aslan’s ambition and methods.

He had unknowingly pulled Leianning Village onto the war chariot.

“You’ve finally said something worthwhile.” Aslan said with a rare smile.

“Reporting, Lord! Good from Wood Village requests an audience.”

“Understood.”

Esin and Wilson immediately stood respectfully on both sides. Aslan also straightened his clothes slightly, preparing for the meeting.

Before long, Good, his eyes bloodshot, entered. His hair was messy, his eyes were bloodshot, and he was in a state of confusion and颓废.

Having avenged his great revenge, he felt as if he had been hollowed out.

“Your subordinate Good greets Lord.” When Good saw Aslan, he immediately knelt on one knee and saluted.

Chapter 11: Taxation

Aslan smiled and helped Goode up. The two began to chat casually, but halfway through, Willson couldn’t help but shout angrily.

“Goode, you’re courting death!”

Aslan didn’t care about this at all.

Goode had come alone this time, entrusting the entire Wood Village to Goode’s care. He had come to offer himself for punishment.

From beginning to end, Aslan’s target was Goode, the expert in growing baoluo fruit. As for Wood Village, which had already suffered a great loss of vitality, as long as Melo Town developed, with Goode in Melo Town, Goode would eventually come over.

Aslan had always been very tolerant of his people.

“It’s alright, Mr. Goode’s arrival is enough. I have long heard that Mr. Goode has his own set of methods for planting baoluo fruit. My goal this time is only you. As for Wood Village, I will use practical actions to make them submit to me.” Aslan said heroically.

Goode glanced at Aslan in surprise, and then, led by Aslan, came to the wasteland being reclaimed south of Melo Town. In just a few days, dozens of acres of this wasteland had been reclaimed, and all of them had been planted with baoluo fruit trees. Based on Goode’s experience, he made a preliminary estimate.

Once these thirty acres of baoluo fruit are successfully planted, with the high yield of baoluo fruit, it should be able to alleviate Melo Town’s long-standing food problem.

Goode had put a lot of effort into planting these years.

There was a small patch of baoluo fruit trees on the back mountain of Wood Village, only half an acre, but it could bring him five to six thousand pounds of baoluo fruit every year, which was why he was able to pull together a team in Wood Village.

In the barren Melo region, sometimes food is more valuable than gold coins.

Looking at the baoluo fruit orchard in front of him, the wasteland was still being developed. It was initially estimated that at least several hundred acres of land would be reclaimed. If all of it was planted with baoluo fruit.

The yield, Goode didn’t even dare to think about it. Not to mention Melo Town, even adding Wood Village and Lianning Village, those big eaters, it would be no problem to feed them all.

From this point alone, Goode had seen Aslan’s ambition.

“How is it? Mr. Goode, is my farm not bad?” Aslan asked with a smile.

Goode looked at the orderly farmers and the neat spacing of each baoluo fruit tree, and couldn’t help but gasp.

Back then, it took him three full years to discover that if baoluo fruit was planted too densely, it would affect the yield.

But here, the baoluo fruit had already been neatly arranged, which was definitely not a coincidence.

Watching more and more baoluo fruit trees being planted, many residents of Melo Town couldn’t help but be tempted.

Especially those adults who were assigned to reclaim the wasteland.

If they could be allocated an acre or half an acre, then they wouldn’t have to worry about having enough to eat in the future.

In the current Cleveland Kingdom, all land belongs to the king, nobles, and lords. There is no private ownership of land, which is equivalent to the well-field system during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods.

The land is distributed to the common people by the lord for use. They are not allowed to buy or sell or transfer the land, and they must also pay a certain amount of tax. The lord will force the common people to cultivate collectively.

This is also the key reason why no lord is willing to come to the Melo region.

Everywhere is wasteland, and there is not enough land for the common people to cultivate. In the kingdom, as long as one is the lord, they must pay taxes every year, with the amount of tax determined by the size of the territory.

Melo Town’s entire territory includes the entire Melo region. This land area is no less than that of a duke’s territory, but because there is not enough cultivated land, it has eventually become a small town.

After each lord comes to such a small town, they only scrape the land three feet deep and exploit the common people, otherwise there is no way to cope with the next year’s taxes.

If a lord fails to complete the territory’s taxes for two consecutive years, they will inevitably be stripped of their position and demoted to commoners.

Aslan stood on a protruding hill and shouted to the onlookers: “How high the yield of baoluo fruit is, I believe everyone knows better than me, and there are three seasons a year. If you take good care of it, it is no problem to harvest twenty to thirty thousand pounds a year.”

Even if Aslan didn’t say this, the people were very clear, after all, their main food has always been baoluo fruit.

“I hereby announce that each household can receive one acre of baoluo fruit land, and families who are loyal to the lord will receive one more acre of land.”

Although the surrounding people were a little tempted, they didn’t have too excited expressions, because the most important thing was the annual tax to be paid.

Perhaps because of the different world, the grain yield is high, so the tax is also terrifyingly high.

Like the main grain rice pearl in other regions of the Cleveland Kingdom, with four seasons a year, each season yields 5,000 pounds per acre, and other grains are also between 3,000 and 6,000 pounds. With such a high yield, the land tax is naturally terribly high.

The lords near the royal capital have the highest land tax of seventy percent, which is equivalent to collecting seventy percent of the grain yield.

Such a land tax has little impact on a family of five during a harvest season, but once there is a natural disaster or man-made disaster, coupled with the poll tax, the farmers will inevitably be ruined.

Aslan had experienced these things in his previous life, and he had planned them clearly.

“In my name, Aslan, all the people in the Melo region can enjoy a tax rate of one in two, and at the same time, when there is a surplus of grain, the city lord’s mansion will give priority to purchasing the excess grain from each household.” Aslan’s words immediately caused a huge sensation.

A tax of half the harvest, for baoluo fruit that can produce 30,000 pounds of grain a year, only half of the grain needs to be handed over, and there are still 15,000 pounds left in the family, enough for a family of five to eat their fill every day.

“Lord, what about the poll tax?” Someone had already accepted Aslan’s identity and began to call him lord.

Aslan had also considered this question for a long time, and finally said: “The poll tax is uniformly 120 copper coins per person, but in the absence of money, it can be mortgaged with grain. For example, this year’s market price of baoluo fruit is about 40 copper coins per hundred pounds, as long as you take out three hundred pounds, you can offset 120 copper coins.”

A family of five only needs 1,500 pounds of baoluo fruit. Although the price fluctuates a bit, it is just a drop in the bucket for a family that produces tens of thousands of pounds a year.

Aslan successively opened two precedents in the kingdom: low land tax, and poll tax can be mortgaged with grain.

In the past, when collecting poll tax every year, those nobles and merchants would join forces to lower the price of grain. Even if there was a bumper harvest this year, in order to pay the poll tax, they had to sell the grain cheaply. As a result, it was clearly a bumper harvest, but in the end, not much grain was left.

After the two policies were issued, Aslan gained the support of all the people in Melo Town.

Whether in another world or in that era.

A farmer’s son is the foundation of a country. As for the knights and magicians who possess powerful martial arts and magic, who dares to pat their chest and say that the previous generations of their family were not farmers?

Chapter 12: Half a Year Later

Half a year later, Goode looked at the cheering residents of Merlau Town surrounding him, feeling somewhat dazed.

This lord was truly completely different from the previous one.

Although the entire Merlau Town had over five hundred people, in reality, there were fewer than sixty households. Before land could be distributed, many families huddled together for warmth. Over time, this created family power structures. Now that land could be divided, many families began to separate, just to get an extra acre of land.

In the end, a full eighty households were formed. Except for a few bachelors, widows, or orphaned elderly, who were unified by Aslan into a single farm, working collectively as tenant farmers, each person could still receive one thousand pounds of grain per year after deducting land tax and poll tax.

With this set of measures, in Merlau Town, as long as someone wasn’t hopelessly lazy, they would definitely not starve to death.

Although Aslan reduced the land tax to the lowest possible level, it stimulated the enthusiasm of the people for farming.

The total registered farmland in Merlau Town exceeded one hundred and fifteen acres. A rough calculation showed that the next grain harvest would yield at least 1.72 million pounds of grain in a year. Adding the poll tax, the entire Merlau Town could collect two million pounds of grain a year.

In the past, the annual land tax revenue of Merlau Town had never exceeded two hundred thousand pounds.

Aslan had taken over Merlau Town for only half a month, and it had increased tenfold.

Willson and Essien’s gazes towards Aslan also became respectful.

In the end, those lords were all proper nobles, who never lifted a finger. They only knew how to make the farmers cultivate the land and collect taxes, but they didn’t know how to adapt to local conditions and plant crops according to the kingdom’s traditional methods, so the yield naturally couldn’t increase.

The next day, Aslan also had a notice posted.

Anyone living in the Merlau area who was truly unable to make a living could come to Merlau Town to work on the lord’s private farm, with food and lodging provided. At the end of the year, they could also receive one thousand pounds of grain. As long as they stayed in Merlau Town for a year and had a Merlau Town resident vouch for them, they could become a glorious member of Merlau Town.

As soon as this notice came out, many families hiding in the deep mountains and old forests tentatively sent representatives to enter Aslan’s lord farm.

Many of the commoners hiding in the deep mountains and old forests were unable to survive in the cities and couldn’t afford the poll tax, so they had to hide and become unregistered residents. If possible, who would want to be an unregistered resident, living like savages in the mountains?

The entire Merlau Town entered a stage of rapid development.

Time flew by, and half a year passed.

Merlau Town had already developed to a population of over two thousand, becoming a veritable large town in the Merlau area. This included the entire Wood Village coming to join them, and the original site of Wood Village was used as a resettlement area for refugees.

The reason Aslan made this arrangement was because soon, next summer, the kingdom’s nine great lords would jointly rebel, dragging the entire kingdom into war. Merlau area, this poor and remote place in a peaceful region, would become the last paradise to escape the flames of war during wartime.

In his previous life, Aslan had used this war to develop Merlau Town. But this time, Aslan not only wanted to develop it, but also to integrate the entire Merlau area in one fell swoop.

At the old site of Wood Village, Aslan led a small team of swordsmen into it and began to point and gesture.

“Here and there, all need to be set up with arrow towers…” Aslan was preparing to rebuild the entire Wood Village into a military fortress, forming a strategic position with Merlau Town.

Goode, as the future person in charge of Wood Fortress, very respectfully and humbly accepted Aslan’s orders.

Half a year was enough for Aslan to establish absolute authority in Merlau Town.

With a population of over two thousand, Merlau Town had a town guard of over three hundred and twenty people, making it the undisputed number one force within dozens of miles of Merlau Town.

According to his memory, the army training in this world was still very ancient, with only some simple weapon combat. Once a war broke out, both sides relied on formations and numbers to charge and hack at each other.

There were no tactics to speak of. During wartime, apart from the kingdom’s regular army, which was somewhat decent, the other lords mostly just recruited some farmers, trained them a little, and sent them to the battlefield.

What Aslan wanted to train was a powerful army. He was very clear that a disciplined army, an army that obeyed orders, was what he truly wanted. So he prepared to use his previous life’s military training methods first.

“There’s also one more thing. Tomorrow, you will issue a recruitment order. Any young man between the ages of eighteen and forty can sign up to join our newly formed Merlau Army. They will receive five silver coins a month and three meals a day! The number of troops will be temporarily set at around one hundred!” Aslan said.

Willson exclaimed, “Lord, five silver coins a month is too much. Generally, recruiting soldiers only requires two or three silver coins at most, and we’re already providing three meals a day!”

Aslan said, “The warriors I want to train are true warriors, not militiamen like the town guards. I don’t expect them to be able to fight ten single-handedly, but they must obey military orders and have absolute loyalty. And to achieve this, we must at least provide them with a sufficient and reassuring reward so that they will fight for us.”

Willson said, “Then everything will be as you say.”

Goode, who was beside him, was listening with excitement.

Currently, the entire Merlau Town army is divided into three echelons. The direct line troops are Aslan’s lord guard, which is not large in number, only twenty people, but the worst of these twenty people is also a junior knight, three intermediate knights, and one senior knight.

After stabilizing, Aslan passed on a set of top-level battle qi cultivation methods he had obtained in his previous life to all members of the lord guard. Arthur also used this to break through to senior knight, Lancelot also reached intermediate knight, and the other two intermediate knights were also knights who came with Aslan. The remaining junior knights were all personally promoted by Arthur and were absolutely loyal to Aslan.

The second echelon of the army is the Merlau Army that is being prepared, professional soldiers, who will have no other tasks besides training and war, and will be the main force in future wars in Merlau Town.

The third echelon is the town guard. Most of them have poor talent, or are older, and are mostly equivalent to the army’s engineers, with less training, but they have to do work.

The only thing that gave Aslan a headache was the severe shortage of iron ore in the warehouse. He could only barely re-equip the entire knight guard. As for the town guard, the weapons in their hands were uneven and messy, and the armor was even more out of the question.

The poor environment and land in the Merlau area are mainly due to the rich mineral deposits underground, but Aslan doesn’t dare to mine them now. The reason is simple: don’t flaunt your wealth.

The Kingdom of Cleveland controls the entire country’s salt and iron trade. The salt and iron business is nationalized. No matter how big the noble lord is, once they are discovered to be privately mining salt and iron, it is a capital crime.

Chapter 13: The Army of a Past Life

Aslan waited until he had enough power to monitor the entire Melo region before daring to secretly mine iron ore. As for salt…

“Looks like I’ll have to take a trip to Billy City next month during the annual tax collection to see if I can buy a batch of salt and iron back,” Aslan muttered subconsciously, watching the bustling Wood Fortress.

Wilson, who was beside him, seemed to hear Aslan’s words and quickly said in a low voice, “Lord, if you are going to Billy City for the annual tax collection, please take me with you. I have relatives in Billy City who are merchants, and they might be able to solve many problems for you.”

“Oh!” Aslan was a little surprised about this, because in his past life, he had no idea that Wilson had such a relative in Billy City.

Could it be that Wilson joined Aslan too late, and his relatives moved away?

“That would be for the best,” Aslan said with a smile, nodding.

The entire Melo region was somewhat backward, with very few intermediate-level items, rendering Aslan’s innate divine arts useless. The only good thing was probably the exquisite and gorgeous furniture in the Lord’s Mansion.

Furniture.

A flash of inspiration struck Aslan. Luxurious furniture could indeed become an economic source of income for Melo Town. To the east of Melo Town was the Mana Hill Jungle, where the trees produced excellent wood for furniture.

“Gute, from now on, this will be the garrison of the Melo Army. All daily training will be conducted here, and sentries must be stationed around the perimeter. This will become a key secret of Melo Town. Anyone who dares to approach the fortress without permission will be killed without exception,” Aslan said with a murderous look.

In the past six months, Aslan had killed quite a few people, making it clear to all the officials in Melo Town that this lord was not an easy person to talk to.

“Yes! Lord.”

The next morning, bright and early.

Aslan stood on a flat area outside Wood Fortress. In front of him, nearly a hundred people had gathered.

Gute walked up to Aslan and said, “Lord, I have gathered them.”

Aslan looked at the chaotic group of over a hundred people in front of him. Although they maintained a square formation, their heights were uneven, and most of them were chatting. They were not even as well-organized as elementary school students during recess in his previous life.

The most talked-about topic was whether they would really receive five silver coins each month.

Gute frowned and was about to reprimand the soldiers, but Aslan stopped him.

Aslan walked to a higher spot, looked at the crowd, and clapped his hands.

“Everyone, quiet down. I think you all know what this place is for, and I also know that what really motivates you is those five silver coins.”

Although no one dared to contradict Aslan openly, their expressions and attitudes were very clear: they were here for the five silver coins.

It seemed that in the past six months, Aslan’s image in the eyes of the people was not only one of benevolence and kindness, but also of strictness and authority, which made these soldiers afraid to contradict him in any way.

Aslan’s tone began to become serious.

“Very well! Then I won’t waste any more words. Wanting to be a soldier in my Melo Army is not that easy. If anyone slacks off during training or disobeys orders, they will be punished by military law!”

Upon hearing “punished by military law,” the people below immediately erupted in an uproar. After all, the soldiers under the lords of other regions had very lax discipline and training during peacetime.

But upon hearing the requirements of the Melo Army, many people’s faces changed drastically. Not only was the training arduous, but the military discipline was also very strict. Some people were already considering whether this money was worth earning.

But Aslan didn’t give them a chance to speak.

“As long as you become a qualified soldier! And serve for one year, your monthly salary will be increased to ten silver coins.”

Ten silver coins! The crowd below exclaimed again. Compared to military law, the salary was even more important to them. As long as they didn’t provoke the bottom line of military law, ten silver coins would still be easy to obtain.

Gute on the side was also surprised. He knew that farming in Melo Town only earned less than three silver coins a month, and that was only for families who had been allocated land. Now, the salary of five silver coins was already more than that.

Ten silver coins was definitely a fortune for most families in Melo Town. The previously undesirable profession of soldier had suddenly become the highest-paid class in Melo Town.

“Our army will continue to grow. Soldiers who train hard and fight bravely can be promoted to higher positions, and they will receive even more benefits. You will all know the benefits attached to military ranks in the future.”

Aslan was constantly stimulating them, constantly dangling carrots in front of them, and making them fall into reverie.

“Ahem! Anyone who wants to leave can leave now. Next, I will personally train you,” Aslan’s eyes swept over everyone.

In a poor place like the Melo region, the conditions offered by Aslan were extremely tempting, as could be seen from the fact that no one was willing to leave.

Aslan nodded in satisfaction and shouted loudly, “I now announce that the training of you recruits officially begins.”

“Everyone! Arrange yourselves into ten rows of ten each, and those left over stand in the back.”

It took a chaotic five or six minutes for the group to finally line up.

Aslan said to Gute, who was beside him, “Go stand at the head of the line. You will also participate in the training.”

Gute pointed to himself in surprise and said, “I also have to participate in the training?”

Aslan said affirmatively, “Yes! You also have to participate in the training. You have to remember the training process, because you will be the one training them in the future.”

“Yes!” Although Gute was still a little surprised, he chose to obey the lord’s order.

“You will stand like this for two hours!” Aslan held a wooden stick in his hand and constantly shuttled through the ranks. He was going to completely transplant the military training from his previous life.

He wanted to train an army that belonged entirely to him, the strongest iron-blooded army on the continent.

Absolute obedience was the most basic requirement.

As for the knight guard under his command, Aslan had already put Arthur in charge of training them, but his training was more comprehensive and geared towards special operations.

Just as the formation was taking shape, Wilson rushed over.

“Lord, something has happened.”

Aslan handed the teaching stick to Arthur, who was beside him, and said, “Train them according to the training I gave you.”

“Yes! Lord!”

“Speak! What happened?”

“The lord of Jimmy Town has sent someone over!”

Jimmy Town was a town located at the border between the Melo region and the Billy region. It belonged to the Billy region and was the closest city to Melo Town, with a population of over 20,000. Its main economic source was grain, and it was one of the largest grain suppliers in the Melo克斯 Province. The lord was Baron Jimmy.

Chapter 14: Tyrant

“What are they doing here?” Aslan’s eyes narrowed slightly. He hadn’t expected Jimmy to set his sights on him so quickly.

In his previous life, Jimmy had come to “beat the autumn wind” (exploit) as soon as Melo Town showed signs of improvement. He particularly liked buying Melo Town’s grain at low prices. Back then, Aslan’s army was just being established and had no power to resist, so he could only grit his teeth and accept Baron Jimmy’s exploitation.

But this life was completely different. In addition to his Knight Guard, the Town Guard’s size had been maintained at around three hundred men, plus nearly a hundred barbarian warriors. Aslan had over five hundred soldiers at his disposal, not counting the Melo Army that was currently in training.

Even now, Melo Town was still no match for Jimmy Town, but with such a large military force, Jimmy Town had to think carefully before trying to take advantage of Melo Town, considering whether it was worth it.

“Interesting. Have Warwick prepare, we’ll go and greet this envoy.” Aslan wiped his hands with a handkerchief and said casually.

Baron Jimmy was a typical bully who feared the strong and oppressed the weak. He was good at developing agriculture, but his military skills were somewhat appalling. Although his territory had a thousand-man army, less than three hundred of them were soldiers who could actually be used in battle. The rest were poorly equipped farmers who hadn’t even completed basic training.

Caron entered the Lord’s Manor with his nose in the air, finding it so crude that it couldn’t be cruder. He originally wanted to mock the manor’s dilapidation, but he was immediately shocked by the gorgeous and exquisite furniture inside.

The furniture had simple shapes, crisp carved lines, excellent workmanship, and a polished shine. Any piece was more exquisite and beautiful than the Lord’s own seat. Although it wasn’t inlaid with precious items like gems, it didn’t diminish the furniture’s nobility in the slightest.

It was an essential nobility, not one decorated with precious gems.

“I heard that this Lord of Melo Town came from the capital. It seems to be true. Where else would you find such precious furniture except from nobles who came from the capital?”

Caron was awe-stricken. It seemed that this mission would be quite difficult.

Soon, he saw hundreds of soldiers rushing towards the Lord’s Manor with fierce momentum, making his heart pound.

Especially Lanning, the leader, whom he had seen before, the barbarian warrior known as the strongest in the Melo region.

“Could it be that this Lord has completely subdued the entire Lanning tribe?” At the thought of this, Caron couldn’t help but turn pale.

If that were the case, then the task that Baron Jimmy had given him would be tantamount to sending him to his death.

After the Town Guard surrounded the Lord’s Manor layer by layer, Aslan finally arrived late, leading his Knight Guard, who were armed to the teeth.

Compared to the Town Guard’s large numbers, the Knight Guard could only be described as the elite of the elite. They were all equipped with the most advanced standard equipment that Aslan could currently access, shining brightly in the sunlight.

Aslan slowly walked into the hall and sat down leisurely on the main seat. A maid served two cups of black tea. Aslan simply said “Please!” and drank his tea in peace.

He had spent half a day at the training ground, almost shouting himself hoarse. He needed a good rest. In the future, he only needed to show his face during new recruit training, and the training would be the responsibility of the Knight Guard.

The hall fell into an awkward silence. Aslan leisurely drank his tea, while Caron looked around uneasily at the fully armed knights. Finally, he could only grit his teeth and say, “Lord Aslan! I am here on behalf of Baron Jimmy to visit your territory.”

“And then?” Aslan asked without even raising his head.

Caron was immediately choked. He wanted to say that this wasn’t how things were supposed to go. Shouldn’t you ask me why I’m here? “Our Lord wants to purchase a batch of grain from your territory,” Caron said with extreme frustration.

“Oh! Is that so!” Aslan finished his cup of black tea and said with a smile.

“I’m really sorry, but I can’t help your Lord. See him out!”

Before Caron could even react, the knights of the Knight Guard grabbed his arms and carried him directly out of the Lord’s Manor.

It wasn’t until he was thrown out the door that Caron realized that this Lord Aslan must be crazy!

“Do you know what you’re doing?! Are you trying to start a war?” Caron shouted in exasperation.

Lancelot suddenly drew the long sword from his waist and placed it on Caron’s neck.

“Start a war! My Melo Army is ready at any time! Go back and tell your Lord that two thousand people may seem like a lot, but it would only take ten days to kill them all.”

Caron’s body began to tremble. What had he just heard? Was the other side threatening to massacre the city?

Were all the Lords from the capital crazy? “Fine! You just wait and see!” Caron didn’t forget his identity and left a harsh threat before fleeing in a sorry state.

As he fled, his subordinates were released, their armor and weapons stripped off, more like robbers than robbers themselves.

On the way, Caron asked many people in the Melo region and received some terrifying information.

This Lord Aslan was an absolute tyrant. In less than half a year since arriving in the Melo region, he had massacred several villages, killing hundreds or even thousands of people.

Moreover, he was fond of boasting and warmongering. His territory only had a few thousand people, but his army was already close to a thousand.

After receiving this news, Caron’s body trembled even more violently. He hadn’t expected their neighbor to be so terrifying.

“I must report to the Lord as soon as possible so that the territory can prepare early.”

The information that Caron received was indeed from the villagers of the Melo region, but it was somewhat exaggerated. There had been no village massacres at all. It was just that some villages had defected to Melo Town as a whole.

The villages were empty, so people thought they had been massacred. As for the killing of thousands of people, that was also impossible. During this time, Aslan had suppressed many small bandit groups and village bullies, killing hundreds of people.

However, it had been exaggerated into thousands of people through rumors. As for the thousand-man army, that was true, but five hundred of them were construction corps. Although they were also in the army, they didn’t carry weapons but tools. They were just paid to work, but they belonged to the Lord’s Manor, so they were called the construction corps.

Their main task was to build roads and reclaim wasteland.

Aslan never expected that Caron’s mission would completely change Jimmy Town’s attitude towards Melo Town, and even spread the name of the Melo Tyrant throughout the entire Melo region, and even the surrounding areas.

Three days later, Aslan set off early for Billy City, not because he wanted to go, but because he had to.

The treasury in Melo Town was almost empty.

During this time, there had only been expenses and no income. There was still more than a month until the next tax collection, and distant water couldn’t quench the immediate thirst, so Aslan planned to set off for Billy City to purchase a batch of iron ore and salt.

Chapter 15: Jason

This time, Aslan traveled completely light, without even bringing any goods. Fifteen people on fifteen fast horses, traveling the entire way.

Before coming to Merlot Town, Aslan’s last stop was Billy City. At that time, it took him ten days or so to travel from Billy City to Merlot Town.

This time, however, it only took less than three days. Even Aslan’s body was starting to feel the strain, let alone Wilson, an old man over fifty.

The real reason Aslan was rushing so much was that Wilson’s relatives in Billy City were moving away. It had already been fifteen days since someone from Billy City brought the letter to Merlot Town, and the letter said they would be leaving in twenty days.

So, as soon as he received the letter, Wilson only rested for one night before asking Avellan to hurry to Billy City. Wilson had no children or wife, only this one brother, and he hoped to see him one last time before he left Billy City.

In a world without airplanes and bullet trains, the distance between cities is very far. Sometimes, a separation can be for a lifetime.

Billy City is one of the largest cities in the Merlot region and the Billy region. The lord is Marquis Medea, a very powerful magician.

After her husband died in battle, she single-handedly supported the entire family, but ultimately fell sadly due to her idiot son’s rebellion.

That rebellion was almost a farce. The Marquis’s son raised the flag of rebellion after drinking a few cups of horse piss. By the time Marquis Medea learned of the news and came out of the magic tower, it was too late. Her son had already been hanged.

Having lost her husband, Marquis Medea focused all her attention on her son. This stimulation ultimately drove her mad, and she fought against three royal archmages, killing them all in one fell swoop. In the end, Joshua, the kingdom’s guardian deity, was alarmed and personally killed her.

Afterwards, Joshua was filled with regret, saying that Medea had the potential to become the kingdom’s new generation of guardian deity within the next twenty years.

With Marquis Medea, this powerful magician, stationed in Billy City, Billy City is the most prosperous and densely populated city in the surrounding area, no, it should be said, in the Merlot-克斯 Province.

“A city of three li, a wall of seven li.” This saying describes the prosperity of ancient Chinese cities, and it still applies in this other world.

Billy City covers an area of fifteen square kilometers, and with the outer city walls, it reaches fifty square kilometers, with a total population of more than nine hundred thousand.

The outer city walls are outside the city without the protection of city walls.

More than three-quarters of Billy City’s population lives here.

As soon as they entered the southern district of Billy City’s outer city, Wilson was too tired to walk. With Lancelot’s support, he sat down to rest at a small stall on the side of the road.

This journey had almost killed Wilson. It was clear from the fact that he couldn’t even straighten his back after getting off the horse.

Aslan twisted his waist to make his body feel a little more comfortable, and then asked the stall owner to bring everyone some snacks and water.

The so-called snacks were just black bread soaked in water. The highest grade was adding a few slices of vegetables.

In a situation where fifty percent of the people on the Sino Continent can’t get enough to eat, you really can’t ask for too much. After all, more than ninety percent of the people in the outer city are poor, and their consumption level is ridiculously low.

Aslan drank a bowl of water and began to meditate, which was the fastest way to eliminate physical fatigue.

The knights quietly ate the food in front of them, trying to recover their strength as soon as possible.

“Wilson, where is your brother’s house in the outer south district?” After meditating for a while, Aslan suddenly said.

Wilson took out the letter, looked at it for a while, and then asked the stall owner before answering, “Go in from this intersection, then turn a corner and you’ll be there.”

Aslan nodded, pulled up his collar, and slowly stood up.

“Then let’s go! Let’s resolve the matter as soon as possible and rest in the city tonight!”

“Yes!”

Wilson stood up with difficulty. Aslan snapped his fingers and asked a knight to carry him on his back. Anyway, the road ahead was full of city alleys, and it was crowded and difficult to ride a horse.

“Absolutely not! Lord, how can you let a powerful knight carry this old geezer like me.” Wilson was very moved, but he still refused.

“Is that so! Then I’ll carry you!”

Aslan turned around and wanted to carry Wilson on his back, scaring the knight next to him into squatting down directly.

Lancelot forcibly helped Wilson onto the knight’s back.

“That’s right!” Aslan patted the knight’s shoulder and said.

“As my knights, you must not only be loyal to me, but also to the territory. The mission of knights and soldiers is to protect the people and property of the territory from being violated.”

Wilson listened with reverence.

This is a lord who truly cares about the people.

From this moment on, Wilson was truly devoted. He was convinced by Aslan’s breadth of mind and kindness, and he would do his best to assist Aslan in this life.

Aslan saw the respectful gazes of Wilson and the knights, and the corners of his mouth raised slightly.

This world doesn’t have as many ideas as ancient times in his previous life, and there is no such thing as treating virtuous people with courtesy.

The class system is strict, and the emperor and nobles are high above, completely a world of exploitation and being exploited.

The ideas of sharing happiness with the people and that the people can support or overturn a boat are even more nonsense.

A lord like Aslan who cares about the people instantly convinced his subordinates who came from commoner backgrounds.

Although the alley could be reached by walking straight to the end, it was winding and took a full ten minutes to reach the entrance of Wilson’s brother’s house.

Wilson’s brother’s house happened to be in a dead end. As soon as they entered the dead end, they saw a black shadow flying towards Aslan.

As soon as Lancelot saw the black shadow, he wanted to draw his sword and slash it without saying a word, but the sword was slapped back by Aslan with a palm as soon as it was unsheathed, because he saw that the black shadow that flew over was a fat man.

“It’s a person!” After Aslan finished speaking, he caught the fat man with one hand. Relying on the Tai Chi he used to pass the time in his previous life, a simple technique of using force to deflect force caught the fat man who weighed almost two hundred pounds.

Lancelot and another senior knight, Gawain, were dumbfounded. They were people who practiced fighting spirit martial arts, so they could naturally see the power and skill contained in this move.

But when they thought that Aslan could teach them top-level fighting spirit techniques, they were relieved.

“Jason!”

Seeing the fat man, Wilson exclaimed in surprise. It was his nephew Jason, and also the last male in his family.

Wilson jumped off the primary knight’s back and limped towards the terrified Jason.

“Jason, are you okay! What exactly is going on?”

Aslan also saw the situation in the dead end clearly. About seven or eight burly men were surrounding Wilson’s family, especially the old man lying on the stretcher, looking sickly, indicating that he had been ill for a long time.

“Uncle!” After seeing Wilson, a glimmer of hope appeared on the originally desperate and numb face of the fat man Jason.

Chapter 16: Local Snake Jason

Jason’s shout of “Uncle!” was incredibly loud, immediately attracting the attention of people in the dead-end alley. The burly men also dispersed, slowly surrounding Aslan and the others, each armed with a weapon.

Gawain’s face turned cold. How dare they surround the lord with weapons!

He drew his knight’s sword, and the battle aura within him surged, coating the blade in a layer of green light.

“A high-level professional.”

The leading burly man looked at the suddenly appearing group. Their armor, though covered in dust, was still obviously of excellent quality. The man’s expression changed slightly.

In this world, whether knight or swordsman, once they reached the high-level professional stage, they could condense their battle aura onto their weapons, causing them to emit a dazzling light, greatly enhancing their power, and also symbolizing their status.

“Take them all down. Break the legs of anyone who just laid a hand on him,” Aslan said slowly.

Being able to do such things in the slums meant they were definitely from the dregs of society, people who couldn’t be brought to the table. Even if they had some backing, no one would offend Aslan for the sake of such a low-life thug, even if Aslan was currently just a lord exiled by his family.

“Your Excellency! We are under the command of Rien, the commander of the Southern Outer District Patrol Division.” The leading burly man looked at the approaching knights, knowing they had run into a tough customer this time.

Knights in full armor, their armor gleaming brightly, the weapons in their hands flashing with a dazzling cold light, all displayed their noble and powerful status.

No matter when or where, clothes make the man. Especially in this other world, a set of knightly equipment like Gawain’s was not something a rural noble lord could afford.

Not to mention a high-level professional.

The commander of the Southern Outer District Patrol Division was equivalent to the chief of the local police station in this area. If it were the Patrol Division of the Inner City, Aslan might have to show some respect. After all, anyone who could sit in that position in the Inner City was bound to be an old-guard noble of Billy City. New nobles and those who had migrated here couldn’t interfere in such important official positions.

Lancelot saw that Aslan had no reaction and a ferocious smile appeared on his face. Without drawing his sword, he directly pulled out the scabbard and used it as a club to smash at the nearest burly man.

After a series of cracking sounds, all eight burly men were groaning on the ground, two of them with their legs broken.

Jason didn’t even have time to be pleasantly surprised to see his uncle before he was frightened by the scene in front of him. He instinctively wanted to remind Aslan that they were making a big deal out of this and offending someone they shouldn’t.

Wilson pulled Jason back, shaking his head subtly at him.

“Subordinate thanks Lord.”

Aslan nodded, waving his hand dismissively.

“Let’s take care of the real business first.”

Wilson nodded. This time he had come to see his brother, and also hoped that his brother could leave some manpower in Billy City to help Aslan establish a chamber of commerce.

Although Wilson didn’t know what Aslan’s chamber of commerce was going to sell, the old man who had been lying on the stretcher actually sat up tremblingly after seeing Wilson, and hugged Wilson. The two old fellows, who were over a hundred years old combined, hugged each other and talked, and then started crying.

Aslan walked directly into their house, a very dilapidated house, only forty square meters in size, but housing a full six people.

Wilson and his wife, their three daughters, and their youngest son, Jason.

Aslan covered his nose. The house was not well ventilated, so the smell inside was very unpleasant.

After hearing Wilson say that Aslan was a lord, and seeing the imposing knights around him, Jason regarded Aslan as a great lord. He followed behind him very diligently, taking the pot off his eldest sister’s back, preparing to boil water.

Aslan saw Jason preparing to light a fire, not because he was being pretentious or polite, but because the house was already poorly ventilated, and lighting a fire inside would only choke people to death.

“Alright! Don’t bother. I heard that you used to do business in Billy City, how did you end up like this?”

From Jason, he learned that old Wilson had suffered a serious illness and urgently needed money to hire a priest, so Jason had borrowed usurious loans. The interest on the loans snowballed, forcing them to abandon their original business and flee Billy City.

Aslan asked a few questions and found that Jason was very knowledgeable about Billy City. He was a true local snake of Billy City. Although he lived outside the city, his main business was buying cheap vegetables and fruits outside the city and selling them inside. Although the business was not big, he was quite familiar with the city and knew many places.

He repeatedly mentioned Constance Hall, which made Aslan roll his eyes. Did he really think he was a fool who didn’t know anything? That was the most famous brothel in Billy City.

“Take me to a few of the best and largest chambers of commerce.”

Aslan immediately decided.

Jason’s eyes also lit up. Of course, he knew the location of these chambers of commerce, but because of his previous status, he could only move around the periphery and couldn’t get in at all. Today, he finally had the opportunity to see them, so he was naturally excited.

“I’ll go into the city first, and we’ll meet up in the city later. Lancelot, take a few people to protect Wilson.” Aslan walked out of the house under Jason’s guidance, looked at the two old men who were still reminiscing, and said with a smile.

Wilson’s wife and three daughters saw Aslan come out and hurriedly wanted to salute, but Aslan didn’t stop them, just nodded lightly and left.

Wilson’s wife looked at her youngest son following Aslan out, and asked worriedly, “Uncle, will Jason cause trouble for the lord by going out with him?”

Wilson knew very well the purpose of his lord’s visit to Billy City, and shook his head with a smile.

“The lord is young at heart and wants to take a stroll in the city. Having Jason as a guide will make things much easier.”

The city walls of Billy City were 20 meters high and 6 meters thick. Entering the city also required paying an entrance tax of ten copper coins per person.

Nobles and high-level professionals could enter for free and had a special passage, without having to queue.

So Aslan swaggered through the ‘VIP’ passage, and Jason followed behind Gawain with his head held high. Many people who knew Jason greeted him, and Jason responded to each of them, but his smug look made Aslan shake his head.

The environment of Billy City was better than Aslan had expected. The buildings were well planned, and the city roads were very smooth, without any traffic jams.

Jason led Aslan directly through Billy Avenue to a four-story building.

Without the magical assistance of a mage, a four-story building was already considered a tall building in the city.

Chapter 17: Business

“The Faith and Fire Merchant Guild!” Looking at the guild’s emblem before the building, Aslan’s expression became somewhat complicated. In his previous life, his main business was also with this Faith and Fire Merchant Guild.

This merchant guild was considered extremely wealthy in the Province of Merlocks, but unfortunately, the young master of the guild was brainless. He followed the drunken young city lord of Billy City in rebellion, resulting in their joint suppression. The family’s wealth, accumulated over nearly a hundred years, was divided up by the great nobles of the Province of Merlocks.

At that time, he had already become the Marquis of the Merrow region. Although he didn’t participate in the suppression, he received 20,000 gold coins due to his status, which showed just how rich this Faith and Fire Merchant Guild was.

Entering the guild, a beautiful young woman approached and proactively began introducing the guild to Aslan.

Although Aslan was wearing simple samurai attire, the fabric was only available in Kyoto. The material was much easier to recognize than ordinary cloth, not to mention he was followed by several fully armed knights. A closer look at the knights’ equipment revealed that Aslan was someone who didn’t lack money.

No matter the era, the most important thing for a salesperson is their eye for detail, being able to tell at a glance whether someone is a big spender.

In reality, Aslan was penniless. As for the equipment of the knightly guard, it was all created by Aslan using his innate divine magic, requiring only equivalent resources.

“First, take me to see the magical equipment,” Aslan said grandly.

The saleswoman’s eyes lit up upon hearing this, wishing she could throw herself into Aslan’s arms, making Jason, who was beside him, drool with envy.

The appearance and figure of the saleswomen here were many times more beautiful than the cheap prostitutes in his tavern.

The first floor of the Faith and Fire Merchant Guild sold ordinary goods, the second floor had rare weapons, equipment, and tools, and the third floor sold precious magical equipment and tools.

After wandering around the magical equipment exhibition hall, touching almost all the magical items, Aslan didn’t buy a single thing, much to the saleswoman’s disappointment.

Feeling bored, Aslan also went to the second floor for a look. The weapons and tools sold here were geared towards knights and warriors, and the prices were much cheaper than the magical items on the third floor.

Picking up a knight’s sword, he activated his divine magic of material analysis, immediately calculating the materials of the knight’s sword. After all, before a weapon is formally used, its quality cannot be judged solely by its appearance, but it can be determined from the materials.

Moreover, after various treatments, the essence of magical elements will also change. For example, pig iron becomes wrought iron. Although both are called iron elements, the magical element values they represent are different.

Aslan looked down at the price, 20 gold coins.

From a magical element perspective, this knight’s broadsword was at most an iron weapon, while the knight’s broadsword he created was a steel weapon, the difference being like heaven and earth.

“What garbage! Gawain’s sword is better than this,” Aslan said, handing the sword to Gawain.

Gawain took the sword, activated his battle aura, and the knight’s broadsword instantly glowed green.

“Indeed, it’s much worse than the sword Lord Aslan bestowed, especially in battle aura channeling,” Gawain said honestly.

Aslan nodded and glanced at the other weapons before finally looking at the knight armor.

A full set of knight armor cost as much as 200 gold coins, but after checking, the defense was indeed slightly better than the knight armor of the knightly guard, but it was a dozen kilograms heavier, and the joint movement wasn’t as good as their knight armor. After all, their weapons and equipment were all modeled by Aslan after Arthur’s standard weapons, which were standard knight equipment from Kyoto.

Although it was only the lowest grade, the technology it contained was still beyond the reach of a border city like Billy City.

“No good! The equipment here is no good,” Aslan continued to shake his head.

The saleswoman next to him was sweating profusely. If it weren’t for the fact that Gawain’s knight armor and knight’s sword were really better than those in their guild, she would have suspected that Aslan was deliberately trying to cause trouble.

Aslan’s real purpose was to study everything here, to familiarize himself with the market prices.

As for buying things, even the cheapest goods on the first floor were beyond Aslan’s current financial means, so naturally, he had to find fault with everything.

“The weapons and equipment here naturally can’t compare to those produced in Kyoto.”

A full-bodied voice, yet carrying a hint of affability, sounded.

The saleswoman quickly lowered her head and saluted upon seeing the newcomer. Jason’s expression also changed upon seeing the other party, and he whispered to Aslan, “It’s Shelson Lake, the vice president of the Faith and Fire Merchant Guild.”

Aslan’s eyes narrowed slightly upon hearing this name. He had been wandering around for so long, waiting for this person.

Shelson Lake was a business legend. The Faith and Fire Merchant Guild owed its current scale to this man’s efforts.

Silma Lake, the president of the Faith and Fire Merchant Guild, even publicly declared that the guild would be fine without him as president, but if it lost Shelson as vice president, the guild would likely plummet.

This showed just how important Shelson was to the guild.

The reason why the Faith and Fire Merchant Guild jumped on the young city lord’s bandwagon back then was because Shelson had died of illness three months prior, leading to such an irreparable tragedy.

“Oh, you have a good eye, sir. You could even see that,” Aslan said with a smile.

Shelson said generously, “When I was young, I was fortunate enough to travel in Kyoto for a while.”

Aslan also chatted with Shelson about some interesting things in Kyoto, and Shelson also knew what was what, leading Aslan to the top floor.

Clearly, he also saw that Aslan was here to talk business, not to buy things.

Entering the reception room, the two sat opposite each other, each with only one person by their side, while the others stayed in the corridor outside.

“Young Master Aslan, I wonder what business you want to discuss with me?” Shelson said unhurriedly, taking a sip of red tea, while also revealing Aslan’s identity.

“Oh! How did you see that I’m that exiled young master of the Aslan family?” Aslan asked with interest.

“The armor of the knights under your command, although they are only the lowest-grade standard knight equipment of the Imperial City, being able to equip so many, there shouldn’t be many nobles around Billy City with this strength. I have to admire the strength of the Aslan family. Even an exiled young master like you can be equipped with such a scale of knightly guard.”

Shelson’s expression was solemn when he said this, truly living up to the saying that a starved camel is bigger than a horse.

“Haha!” Aslan couldn’t help but laugh upon hearing this.

That hearty laughter carried a hint of bitterness and sorrow.

When he left Kyoto, only Arthur, his guardian knight, had this set of equipment. The others were only equipped with ordinary soldier armor, and at that time, the strongest knight was only Arthur, a mid-level knight.

As for wealth, there was very little. It was all the savings his birth mother had left him. As for his birth father, he even wished he would die in a foreign land, so naturally, he wouldn’t give him any support.

“So! What do you think of this set of knight equipment?” Aslan said with a smile.

Shelson’s eyes lit up, and a hint of cunning flashed in his eyes.

“It’s indeed good, but the price is too expensive. The most expensive things are not the most practical.”

“Haha, indeed! But the best things are definitely the most expensive. And the things used by nobles must be the most expensive and the most gorgeous. My knight armor is more in line with the aesthetic of the nobility,” Aslan said unhurriedly.

Chapter 18: The Chamber of Commerce

The brief exchange between the two made Shelson marvel at the difference in young people from large families. This composure and calmness were unlike that of a sixteen-year-old boy. At least his good-for-nothing nephew didn’t have this ability.

“Do you only have knight equipment?” Shelson asked, changing the subject.

Aslan shook his head and said, “Of course, there are other things too. I naturally have my channels, but they’re just not suitable for public display.”

Shelson immediately understood. He already understood what Aslan meant.

Although this Aslan had failed in the family struggle, he still had forces within the family that would secretly smuggle goods from the capital for him. Therefore, he couldn’t openly display them and could only sell them on the black market.

“Young Master Aslan, do you know how many of these knight sets you have on hand?”

“I only have fifteen sets left for the time being. I equipped quite a few of my subordinates a few days ago.” Aslan was practically lying through his teeth.

Shelson’s expression became even more serious. He had already guessed from the brief conversation how big the business Aslan had brought was.

Leaving aside other things, these fifteen sets of knight equipment would cost at least 250 gold coins per set, totaling 3750 gold coins if he bought them all.

The current Faith and Fire Chamber of Commerce’s business scale was mainly around Billy City. Aslan’s first contact with the Faith and Fire Chamber of Commerce in his previous life was two years later, when he had completely controlled Merlot Town and had the ability to leave the Merlot region.

Therefore, Aslan had misjudged the Faith and Fire Chamber of Commerce’s current financial strength. They did indeed have the ability to take this batch of goods, but it would affect their cash flow.

After a brief hesitation, Shelson very decisively accepted this business deal.

“Very good. Also, I need to purchase some medicines and alchemical materials. After all, I am also a magician.” After Aslan finished speaking, he picked up the quill on the table and began to write down the materials for some magic potions and magic items he had just seen.

Shelson’s expression became even more serious. He took the list and looked at it, and couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief. They weren’t any particularly expensive medicines or materials.

As for what these things were for, he couldn’t understand at all.

The recipes for each potion and the manufacturing techniques for magic items were all closely guarded secrets of magicians. Unless the magician who made these things was here, it was impossible to tell what Aslan wanted to make.

“These are not difficult. The Chamber of Commerce will mobilize a batch of them in the next few days. Young Master Aslan can just have fun in Billy City for a few days. There is a hotel opposite the Chamber of Commerce, which belongs to our Faith and Fire Chamber of Commerce. Young Master Aslan can take your men there to rest for a few days.” Shelson immediately made a decision.

That would save him the money for a hotel. Aslan was very satisfied. After all, he only brought a few silver coins with him this time. With all his wealth, feeding a dozen people would be a problem, let alone staying in a hotel.

“That’s perfect. It will also take a few days for my people to bring the goods over. How about this! Three days later, I will have someone bring the goods over for the transaction.” Aslan also made a decision.

The two parties then signed a contract. As for the purchase of iron ore and salt, Aslan didn’t want to bring it up for the time being. He would make a decision after this transaction.

Shelson sent Aslan out of the Faith and Fire Chamber of Commerce. Jason followed behind Aslan with a look of reverence, wishing he could follow Aslan from now on. He felt the benefits of being above others for the first time. Just now in the rest area, he rested with the other knights, and the respectful and humble attitude of the Faith and Fire Chamber of Commerce’s shopping guide was really intoxicating to him.

After leaving the Chamber of Commerce, Aslan took his men directly to the Flame Maiden Hotel opposite. The reason it wasn’t called a tavern was because it was too big, and the decoration was very luxurious, not much worse than the headquarters building of the Faith and Fire Chamber of Commerce.

“Go back and tell Wilson that we will be staying here tonight.” After Aslan finished speaking, he entered the Flame Maiden Hotel without looking back.

Upon hearing this, Jason turned around and ran towards the outside of the city.

Entering the room arranged by the Faith and Fire Chamber of Commerce, it happened to be a single room in a corner on the fourth floor, with a very good view. He could see the entire Billy Avenue, and there was also an open-air balcony.

The surrounding rooms were all double rooms, just right for Aslan’s guards to use, and could also ensure Aslan’s safety.

Details are king.

Shelson was a man who paid attention to details to the extreme.

When the city gates were about to close in the evening, Wilson and his party arrived at the hotel. Along with Wilson came Wilson’s family.

As soon as Wilson entered the hotel, he apologized to Aslan, because he had brought his brother’s family over without permission.

“Forget it! This is just a small matter. Your family is my family.” Aslan had just finished dinner and had someone prepare a wooden barrel in the room. He was going to take a bath.

Wilson had long been accustomed to this habit.

The lord had a cleanliness fetish, which was recognized by the entire Merlot Town. He took a bath once a day, and his clothes, except for his coat, were washed almost every day.

Compared to most people in this world, who only took a bath every few days or even every half a month, it was simply astonishing.

In fact, Aslan had already begun to promote the idea of personal hygiene, especially in the army.

Unless it was wartime, he had issued a strict order that soldiers had to take a bath once a day.

Therefore, the most public facilities being built in Merlot Town now were bathhouses.

After taking a bath, he washed away the fatigue of the day and was lazily sitting on the sofa.

In fact, it couldn’t be said to be a sofa, it was just a larger chair with soft cushions on the seat and backrest. Compared to the sofa in the City Lord’s Mansion, it was really uncomfortable.

“Lord! Your subordinate has a suggestion. I can let my nephew establish a chamber of commerce in the outer city, which can purchase some cheap raw materials for you. It will be much cheaper than purchasing in the city.”

After Wilson finished speaking, he handed Aslan a plan he had prepared. He didn’t sit down slowly until Aslan waved his hand to signal him to sit down.

This document was the reason why he was delayed until the evening to enter the city.

Aslan smiled slightly. This was the reason why he valued Wilson the most. No matter what he did, he planned it in advance, and his work was clear and efficient.

In today’s world, industry is still very backward. It is impossible for people in the outer city to find work in the city, because it has long been occupied by the people of the city. But why can the outer city still attract so many people? In addition to various illegal transactions, it is the collection of various cheap raw material resources.

Crops are one of them, as well as logging, picking medicines, etc. For example, more than thirty kilometers northeast of Billy City is the Billya Mountains, and to the southwest is the Night Lai Forest. These places can provide a lot of raw materials.

Chapter 19: Young City Lord

“Most importantly, there are quite a few places around Billy City with low-grade iron ore. Many people secretly mine and refine it into iron ingots, which they then sell within the city,” Wilson said, mentioning something that greatly interested Aslan. Their demand for steel wasn’t high right now, and buying it outside the city was indeed an option.

The kingdom implemented a state monopoly on salt and iron. In secret, which noble wasn’t secretly mining or producing salt? It was just that the kingdom controlled the large salt fields and iron mines. Once they discovered any large-scale salt fields or mines, they would unhesitatingly take them over and impose severe penalties.

However, for those low-grade iron ore deposits and small-scale iron smelting workshops that couldn’t achieve large-scale production, the kingdom’s inspection officials would turn a blind eye. This was also the most common occupation for ordinary people in the outer city districts.

Because the ore produced by low-grade iron mines was difficult to refine and required much more manpower than rich iron mines, the kingdom was too lazy to manage them. But for the common people at the bottom, what they had the most of was manpower, and what was worth the least was human life.

“Very good. Wilson, immediately purchase a batch for me to bring into the city. I need it in the next few days. Hmm, let Jason handle it. About a ton of iron ingots. As for the money, give it to him three days later,” Aslan said, greatly delighted, and decisively gave the order.

Compared to those nobles who looked down on the petty profits of the slums, Aslan clearly understood the importance of small profits but quick turnover and accumulating wealth little by little. He wanted to make good use of the resources of the slums to develop Melo Town.

As for giving the money three days later, Wilson had no objections. Who told them they were short on cash right now? Entrusting this matter to Jason was also a test for Jason. If he couldn’t handle such a simple matter, he wouldn’t be qualified to become the head of the merchant guild.

“Yes, Lord! I’ll arrange it immediately.”

Wilson, having received Aslan’s approval, left excitedly. As for what that ton of iron ingots was going to be used for, it wasn’t within Wilson’s consideration. He even thought that Aslan had deliberately brought it up as a test for Jason.

Since the Flame Maiden Hotel was the largest hotel in Billy City, it was naturally also one of the biggest money pits after night fell.

The first floor was made into a huge bar, and many of Billy City’s prominent nobles and upper-class people would come here to pass the time in the evening.

In Aslan’s eyes, the bar was very simple: a huge bar counter, a few tables, and several private rooms on the side. There wasn’t even a dancing girl, and the music was just a few bards singing.

“A backwater place. That’s all it is.” Aslan was already considering whether he should open a brothel. His past life experience told him that brothels were the best source of information and one of the most profitable businesses.

“It’s him!”

A strange voice rang out, and a group of people quickly rushed towards Aslan’s location. Several of them were carrying weapons, and their imposing manner frightened many people who were drinking and making merry, causing them to scatter in panic.

“Who offended our young city lord?” Someone recognized the appearance of the person who came and began to whisper.

The only son of Marquis Medea, Justin, the young master.

Following Justin was Lien, the commander of the patrol division in the outer south district. This Lien was accompanied by the lackey whose leg Aslan had broken during the day.

Aslan was very surprised. This patrol division commander was quite capable, actually managing to invite this second-generation wastrel.

“How dare you, an outsider, openly attack an official of my Billy City?” Justin didn’t immediately attack, after all, he had already investigated. This Aslan was from the Sara family.

Although he was a loser in the family struggle, he was still a member of the Sara family. If he went too far and affected the reputation of the Sara family, the Sara family wouldn’t sit idly by.

So, the best way to deal with this kind of abandoned son of a large family was to sanction him with the laws of the territory. As long as everything was within the rules, the Sara family would turn a blind eye.

Simply put, both face and substance had to be satisfied. After all, the most important thing for nobles was face.

“Oh, and who are you? And which Billy City official did I hit? Point him out to me,” Aslan said very arrogantly.

He had the confidence to do so. Billy City was the magic holy land of the Merlocks Province. Because Marquis Medea herself was a great magician, she had issued a decree that as long as a magician committed a crime, regardless of their strength, she must personally judge them.

Although Aslan was just a beginner magician, he was still within the scope of this decree. Once the matter was brought to Marquis Medea, Justin would also suffer the consequences.

“It’s him! You openly broke the leg of a Billy City official. What is your crime?”

Justin didn’t know that Aslan was also a magician, so he was still happily displaying his clumsy acting skills.

Lien also took the opportunity to step forward. Green light surged, and Gawain rushed out with his sword, but was stopped by a senior knight from the city lord’s mansion.

“This is your capital for being arrogant?” Justin sneered and began to chant a spell. A fist-sized fireball appeared out of thin air and shot towards Aslan.

The original onlookers in the bar were immediately shocked and retreated one after another. Some timid people even crawled under the tables.

A fist-sized flame couldn’t cause any effective damage, but the fireball thrown by a magician was different, because the fireball contained compressed fire elements, which would explode upon contact with the target.

The power of a beginner magician’s fireball spell was equivalent to a single-soldier hand grenade. This was the reason why magicians were respected and powerful in this world.

Aslan’s eyes narrowed, and he advanced instead of retreating. His left hand turned into a claw and grabbed towards the fireball.

“Is this guy scared silly?” Justin was also shocked by Aslan’s actions.

Some women even subconsciously closed their eyes after seeing this scene. They didn’t dare to watch the scene of being blown to pieces.

Aslan’s hand grabbed the fireball. The fireball didn’t explode as expected, but instead paused briefly.

“Dispel!” Aslan uttered the last syllable, and the fireball in his palm burst open, but it didn’t hurt anyone. It was just that the flames splashed open.

“Dispel magic! The opponent is a magician, and a master at that.”

The middle-aged man who had been standing next to Justin, looking lazy from beginning to end, suddenly shot out two sharp rays of light from his eyes.

“Light Body Technique!”

Taking advantage of the moment when the flames splashed open, Aslan cast another zero-level magic spell. His whole body instantly lightened, and he transformed into an arrow leaving the bow, shooting towards Justin.

The middle-aged man suddenly grabbed Justin’s shoulder and blocked him behind him. The ring on his right hand glowed with a yellow light, and a khaki-colored shield suddenly appeared in front of him.

Aslan’s fist struck the shield. Rumble, a violent explosion rang out, overturning everyone in the center of the battlefield.

Chapter 20: Pollution

The middle-aged man gracefully retreated, the shield in front of him cracking with a snap, cracks beginning to appear and slowly spreading across the entire shield.

In the end, the earth shield condensed by the middle-aged man with earth element shattered and dissipated.

“Just one strike! That was the explosion produced by the Fireball spell.” The middle-aged man looked at Aslan with an uncertain expression.

This guy probably only has the strength of a beginner mage, but his mastery and understanding of the elements far exceeds that of mages of the same rank, allowing him to unleash strength far beyond that of a beginner mage.

The middle-aged man estimated Aslan’s strength. He was just about to condense a second-level spell when his brow twitched slightly, and he immediately interrupted the incantation, while also dispelling the magical elements around his body.

To the middle-aged man’s surprise, Aslan did the same. Could it be that he also sensed it?

“Generido, hurry up and attack, let this bastard know how powerful we are…” Justin’s words had just finished when a sharp whistling sound came, and it was getting closer and closer.

At this moment, the Magic Enforcement Team of Billy City arrived.

The Magic Enforcement Team was Marquis Medea’s private armed force, entirely composed of mages.

“There are still traces of magical elements remaining around, confirming that a battle took place here.” A slightly younger mage held a magic crystal ball in his hand, inside which several kinds of magical elements were still in a state of agitation.

“The mages on both sides of the battle, step forward. Representatives from both sides of the incident will also accompany us to see Marquis Medea.” The captain of the Magic Enforcement Team stepped forward and said unhurriedly.

Aslan walked out with righteous indignation.

“I am Aslan Saracen, the lord of the Melo region! I have just arrived and was attacked by these two people. I demand to see Marquis Medea. I want to accuse her of allowing the security of Billy City to become so chaotic that they dare to commit murder and silence people in public.”

Upon hearing this sentence, the middle-aged man immediately cursed.

“Lord Generido.” The captain of the Magic Enforcement Team saw the middle-aged man and quickly bowed his head in salute.

Aslan’s eyes also lit up after hearing the other party’s name.

Generido was a very famous mage in Billy City. His magical talent was very ordinary, even poor. He had been practicing magic since he was a child, and now in his forties, he was still only an intermediate mage.

Although he was just an ordinary intermediate mage, Generido was the most knowledgeable mage in Billy City, even no less than Medea, the Archmage.

He really didn’t expect Marquis Medea to value her idiot son so much that she would send Generido to Justin’s side.

“It’s just a little conflict. I will explain everything clearly when I see Lady Medea later.” Generido was very shocked that Aslan was so young, yet spoke so ruthlessly, but he valued Aslan’s magical talent even more.

Being able to do this at this age is no simple matter.

Justin shuddered instinctively when he heard that he was going to see his mother.

Marquis Medea did indeed dote on him very much, but that kind of doting was based on disappointment that he wasn’t living up to his potential. She was usually very strict with Justin, so strict that Justin suspected that he was adopted.

“Teacher, can I not go?” Justin asked in a low voice.

Generido shook his head helplessly.

“You should have heard what this lord just said. If you don’t go, then he will have the final say. With the teacher’s personality, do you think she will let you off?”

Justin followed the Magic Enforcement Team to the towering magic tower in the center of Billy City with an almost mournful face.

The magic tower was divided into eleven floors, each about four meters high, making the forty-four-meter building truly towering in Billy City, where most buildings were only a dozen meters high.

Aslan looked at the tallest building in the Merlocks Province and shook his head with amusement.

Generido asked with amusement, “What? Not tall enough?”

Aslan nodded as a matter of course.

In his previous life, he relied on modern technology to build a magic tower hundreds of meters high. In the end, he could only build that high due to resource scarcity. If magical resources were sufficient, he could build it to two hundred meters, or even higher.

However, the tallest building in the current Cleveland Kingdom is the magic tower in the royal palace of the capital, which is 57 meters high, with a total of 14 floors, the last two floors not having a four-meter floor height.

“The Saint John Magic Tower is much taller than this.” Aslan said with a smile.

“What bragging, do you even know what this…”

Hearing someone belittle his mother’s magic tower as too low, Justin wanted to retort, but Generido interrupted him.

“Indeed, the Saint John Magic Tower is the tallest magical building in the kingdom.”

Hearing Generido’s words, Justin’s face turned red.

The first floor of the magic tower was a huge palace hall, with red and purple stone pillars on both sides, with intricate magic patterns carved on the pillars.

Magic crystals hung on the stone pillars, making the light in the hall very good, bright and solemn.

Aslan had the solemn feeling of going to a museum in his previous life.

“Why are you fighting in the city!”

A solemn voice sounded, not from Marquis Medea sitting on the main seat, but from her adjutant beside her.

That was a person covered in a huge cloak.

Aslan’s pupils shrank slightly after seeing the cloak.

He recognized the identity of that cloak at a glance. That was not a person at all, but a dead person, or rather, a death puppet.

Medea’s husband, Sikin.

In his previous life, Aslan remembered that after Medea died in battle, her identity as a death puppet was also exposed.

It turned out that Sikin did not die normally, but was killed by Medea.

In Medea’s magic diary, it was recorded that she loved Sikin, but Medea was too busy. Reaching Medea’s level, sometimes a meditation would take a week, or even half a month. As a normal man, Sikin eventually cheated.

In theory, as a marquis, Sikin would have no problem having three wives and four concubines, but Medea appeared to be uninterested in anything on the surface, but her possessiveness towards feelings was unexpectedly perverted.

After she found out that Sikin had cheated, she killed Sikin’s mistress at the first opportunity, and then in a war, she plotted to kill Sikin and refine him into a death puppet, whipping him severely with a leather whip for two days every week, day after day, year after year.

This habit lasted for more than ten years, until Justin got married, she gave up this bad habit.

Medea recorded the most in her magic notes.

The polluted flower of love is an evil poison, which makes people fall into evil along with it.

This is a crazy woman, and a powerful one at that.

Chapter 21: Meditation Method

Jenerido respectfully bowed and called out, “Teacher!” Then, he told Marquis Medea everything that had happened from beginning to end.

Judging by the current timeline, Marquis Medea should still be a beautiful woman in her thirties. It’s just that the mage robes are not flattering; they are too loose and baggy, making it impossible to discern even the gender of the wearer, let alone their appearance.

“Hmph!” After listening to Jenerido’s explanation of the whole story, Marquis Medea coldly snorted.

Justin immediately trembled all over, not even having the courage to look at his own mother.

“Young man of the Sala family! What do you think should be done about this matter?” Marquis Medea’s soft and beautiful voice rang out, extremely pleasant and refreshing.

Aslan cursed inwardly, “Siren!”

Clearly, Marquis Medea didn’t want to deal with her own son. After all, this wasn’t a big deal in itself. However, in order to maintain the prestige she had always built up, she had to remain impartial, so she gave the choice to Aslan.

If she had to punish Justin, Marquis Medea would do it, but that would offend her.

Aslan smiled slightly, bowed, and said, “This matter is not a big deal. It’s better to resolve a feud than to prolong it.”

“Well said, ‘It’s better to resolve a feud than to prolong it.’ The young man is indeed magnanimous.” Marquis Medea’s nightingale-like voice rang out again, as she lazily shifted her posture.

“Justin, are you short of money?”

Then, Marquis Medea asked in a sarcastic tone, scaring Justin, who had just stood up, into kneeling on the ground again.

Aslan shook his head. Marquis Medea waved her hand to dismiss her son, lest he continue to embarrass himself.

“Young man! You were exiled from the Sala family to Merlot Town. Do you have any plans? You have good talent, so you can’t waste it.” Marquis Medea’s words seemed like encouragement, but they contained hidden meaning.

Aslan’s eyes lit up, and he immediately seized the opportunity.

“I hope to join the Medea Magic Tower. I don’t ask for anything else, just the opportunity to continue learning more profound magic.”

Marquis Medea nodded in satisfaction and agreed.

“Alright, I will personally assess your studies every month. If your grades can satisfy me, I will consider taking you as a disciple.”

Aslan looked pleasantly surprised. He had found a backer, and he was also very interested in the meditation method of Marquis Medea’s faction.

A mage’s meditation method is like an internal energy cultivation technique. The more advanced the internal energy cultivation technique, the higher the level of cultivation.

In his previous life, after being exiled, he had no chance to access the Sala family’s top-level meditation method. Even after he had gained power and influence, he only managed to find a high-level meditation method.

Coming out of the Medea Marquis’s mansion, Aslan was almost jumping with excitement.

Jenerido walked beside Aslan, patted him on the shoulder, and said.

“Kid, I’m very optimistic about you! I hope you have the good fortune to become my junior brother.”

Aslan nodded solemnly and said, “I won’t let senior brother down.”

Hearing Aslan already calling him senior brother, Jenerido couldn’t help but laugh.

Coming out of the Medea Marquis’s residence, Rien, who had been waiting for a long time, hurriedly ran over and bowed to Aslan.

“I didn’t know that Lord Aslan was a great mage before. Please forgive me for any offenses. This is a small gift as an apology.”

After Rien finished speaking, he took out a huge money bag and handed it to Aslan.

Aslan casually opened it and was dazzled by the golden light inside. He weighed the money bag in his hand.

Good heavens, there were at least a hundred gold coins.

“Commander Rien is joking. As the saying goes, no discord, no concord. Everyone is working for Marquis Medea. Let’s just let this matter pass. Let’s all have a drink together when we have time.”

He just happened to be short of money when someone sent it to his door. Moreover, Jason would be establishing a chamber of commerce in the Outer South District in the future, so he would inevitably have to deal with Rien. There was no need to offend him too much.

Seeing Aslan accept the money and even say that they could have a drink together, Rien also breathed a sigh of relief and began to chat with Aslan.

He didn’t leave until he had sent Aslan back to the Flame Maiden Hotel, still reluctant to part.

In the following two days, Aslan stayed quietly in his room, secretly receiving the iron ingots that Jason sent over, preparing to make them into knight armor.

However, when Aslan began to use Divine Art Materialization, he realized that although the Divine Art Materialization talent was heaven-defying, it was not as convenient as he had expected. The refining of each item required him to watch it step by step, just like making it himself from start to finish, except that the process was accelerated.

The first time he used it, he was just curious and surprised, so he didn’t notice this problem. But now it was different. He realized the huge flaw of Divine Art Materialization: it couldn’t be mass-produced. Even if Aslan wholeheartedly became a production worker, it would be impossible to mass-produce knight armor.

It was impossible to mass-produce cheap goods for sale using Divine Art Materialization in the future.

“It seems that national industry is the cornerstone of rise.”

Thinking of this, Aslan’s eyes lit up, and he took out a piece of red iron ore.

It was the iron ore that Jason had collected these days. Because the slums couldn’t refine it, it had been left aside and bought by Jason at a low price.

The familiar red ore made Aslan couldn’t help but reveal a happy expression.

“It’s actually blood demon iron ore.”

This time, Aslan relied solely on alchemy to refine it. He wanted to know exactly what the difference was between Divine Art Materialization and alchemy.

The result made Aslan very helpless. The whole process was similar to alchemy, except that the refining speed was ten times faster than alchemy.

Despite this, Aslan was still full of expectations for Divine Art Materialization.

Sometimes, many things can only exist on paper because they cannot be produced. As long as they can be produced, mass production is only a matter of time.

The original fist-sized ore eventually turned into a small iron block of 5x5mm.

Although there was only a small amount of blood demon iron, Aslan’s face was full of surprise.

That was a high-level alchemical material. Many mages would add a little bit when refining magic items to increase the flow of magic power.

Aslan estimated that this small piece of blood demon iron could be sold for at least several hundred gold coins, while Jason had bought it for only a few silver coins.

“It seems I really found a treasure.”

Aslan put away the blood demon iron.

The next morning, Aslan hadn’t woken up yet when he heard a knock on the door. He got out of bed impatiently, his hair disheveled and his eyes still heavy with sleep, and opened the door.

“It’s so early in the morning, can’t you let people sleep?”

Opening the door, he saw Jenerido raising his hand, preparing to knock again, while Wilson was standing far away.

In the past six months, Aslan had been a benevolent, fair, and just lord in front of his people, but within the city lord’s mansion, his various bad habits and strange behaviors could be described in a book.

The term “morning grumpiness” came from Aslan, and Aslan’s morning grumpiness was very serious. Once, Lancelot accidentally knocked a piece of wood into Aslan’s open window because he moved too much during training. It just so happened to hit Aslan, who was sleeping soundly, waking him up. As a result, Aslan chased him with a fireball spell for more than ten miles.

“Teacher is giving a lecture this morning, are you going?” Jenerido asked with a smile, seeing Aslan’s furious look.

Aslan’s original dissatisfaction disappeared without a trace, and the Water Arrow spell hidden behind him also disappeared without a trace.

“Go! How could I not go? Wait a moment, I’ll change my clothes and go over.”

Chapter 22: Classroom

As for the deal with the Faith and Fire Merchant Guild, have Wilson inform Shelson to reschedule it for the afternoon. He had to attend a class in the morning.

Even if Shelson was dissatisfied with this matter, he wouldn’t dare utter a single complaint. That was Medea Marquis’s monthly public lecture. If any news of his dissatisfaction leaked out, Medea Marquis could uproot the entire merchant guild and family in a matter of minutes.

In his previous life, although Aslan had cultivated to become a high-level mage, he was self-taught. The strongest mage around him was only a magus, and that was only after he became a powerful figure and they came to rely on him.

Therefore, in the early stages, Aslan’s magical foundation was very poor, and he couldn’t master many advanced spells, which eventually led him down that distorted path of a mage.

The class was simpler than Aslan had anticipated.

On the second floor of the Medea Magic Tower, there was a huge classroom with seven rows of seats.

Generaldo pointed out a seat for Aslan, which was in the second-to-last row, while he himself sat directly in the first row.

The seating arrangement clearly indicated the strength represented by each row. The seventh row was for magic apprentices, the sixth row for beginner mages, the fifth row for intermediate mages, the fourth row for advanced mages, the third row for great mages, the second row for magi, and the first row was probably for archmagi and Medea Marquis’s personal disciples.

Generaldo’s ability to sit in the first row was evident of his strength.

“Soon, I will also be sitting in the first row,” Aslan said confidently.

Today’s lecture mainly focused on the application tips and precautions of natural magic, as well as the major pitfalls to avoid.

Aslan listened with great interest and even took notes. In his previous life, because he was self-taught, he had indeed fallen into several magical pitfalls and almost ruined himself.

Therefore, this knowledge was very important to him and had to be recorded.

While Aslan was diligently taking notes and listening to the lecture, Medea Marquis also noticed the young man’s performance, which indeed pleased her very much. He was a good seed.

Aslan devoted all his attention to this class. He didn’t snap out of it until Medea Marquis announced the end of the class. It wasn’t until Generaldo nudged him that Aslan reluctantly packed up his notes.

Generaldo glanced at Aslan’s notes, and the corners of his mouth curled up slightly.

Everyone thought he had become Medea Marquis’s direct disciple because of his extensive magical knowledge.

In fact, the real reason he became Medea Marquis’s direct disciple was his discerning eye. Currently, six of the other eight disciples under Medea Marquis were discovered by him.

Aslan was likely to become the seventh.

“Senior brother! I wonder when the teacher usually holds classes?” Aslan asked very seriously.

He had already decided that whenever Medea Marquis held a class in the future, he would definitely come to Billy City.

“There is a public lecture on the seventh of every month. As long as you are a mage registered in Billy City, regardless of your status or cultivation level, you can come and listen,” Generaldo said calmly.

What he valued most was Aslan’s desire to learn. Only such people could go further on the path of magic.

“Great! I will come to listen to the class every month on these days in the future,” Aslan said before bidding farewell to Generaldo.

Back at the hotel, before Aslan could even have a glass of water, Shelson came to visit.

As soon as he entered Aslan’s room, he saw the set of imperial knight armor casually piled up in the corner of the room, completely treated like junk. Shelson’s eyebrows twitched at the sight.

“Young Master Aslan! I’m very sorry for the urgent disturbance. I have already prepared the money and goods. Should we proceed with the transaction?” Shelson went straight to the point without any pleasantries.

Aslan looked at him with surprise and pointed to the knight armor on the ground.

“It’s all there. You can count it.”

“I’m very sorry, but the merchant guild has encountered some urgent matters and needs this batch of knight armor,” Shelson said apologetically as he had his men count and sort it out.

“Oh, what happened?” Aslan waved his hand nonchalantly. It’s always good to help others when you can.

“Just a joke, the merchant guild’s caravan was attacked and urgently needs support,” Shelson said after seeing his subordinate nod and having them carry out a money chest.

“Young Master Aslan, the goods you wanted have already been placed in the hotel’s backyard. The remaining 2,844 gold coins are here for you to count,” Shelson said unhurriedly.

Aslan nodded, glanced at the gold coins in the money chest, and nodded, saying, “Then I would also like to trouble your merchant guild to help me purchase these items and deliver them to Melo Town.”

Shelson glanced at the shopping list and nodded. They were all ordinary items, such as iron ore, which were much easier to find than the alchemical ingredients Aslan was looking for. He wouldn’t even need to do it himself.

“The merchant guild has urgent matters to attend to. I’ll take my leave first,” Shelson said as he put away the list and prepared to leave.

Aslan got up to see him off.

No sooner had he seen Shelson off than someone hurriedly delivered an invitation.

“Lord Aslan! My master is Rien, the commander of the Outer Southern District, and he invites you to a banquet tonight.”

An old man dressed as a butler bowed respectfully. However, his etiquette seemed newly learned, so it was very stiff and somewhat awkward.

Aslan nodded, glanced at the invitation, and responded casually with a hint of disdain.

“Alright!”

The butler had followed Rien all the way from the bottom of society to his current position, and he had long since mastered the skill of looking down on people. He could tell at a glance that Aslan was dissatisfied.

However, with Aslan’s status, the butler didn’t dare to say anything, even if he felt unhappy.

“Next time, learn your etiquette better before going out,” Aslan suddenly added as the butler was about to turn around and leave, causing the butler’s old face to flush red.

Back in the room, Aslan looked at the last set of knight armor without accessories in the corner, and a smile couldn’t help but appear on his face.

“Have Jason come with me to the banquet tonight.”

Wilson immediately knelt on the ground, filled with gratitude.

Aslan hated this kind of kneeling at the drop of a hat and waved his hand impatiently.

“Let’s just give them this set of armor as a gift. Have someone wrap it up. I want to sleep a little longer. Don’t bother me if there’s nothing important.”

He didn’t sleep well in the morning, and it was already Aslan’s limit to suppress his morning grumpiness until now.

Wilson quickly picked up the armor from the ground, but almost strained his old back. This set of armor weighed at least seventy or eighty pounds, which was really difficult for an old man like him.

Chapter 23: Former Maid

Outside Melo Town, Najie, disguised, returned to Melo Town. The town had now grown to over two thousand people, with the population still steadily increasing, so not many people could recognize him at a glance.

In fact, most of the old people who knew Najie had already become small landlords in Melo Town. The thing they did most every day was to check the harvest on their own small plots of land. Having land meant they had much more surplus grain at home than those landless commoners. Some families with larger populations were even considering renting land from the lord to cultivate, because as long as they could plant it, they would basically make a steady profit and increase the lord’s income. Why wouldn’t they?

So, the only people wandering around the town during the day, besides those who were taking a rare break from farming, were children and women. Even fewer people recognized Najie.

The Rien family’s banquet was just a simple social gathering. Aslan simply brought Jason to meet the local bigwigs.

He didn’t expect to run into Justin. Seeing the way Justin and Rien’s mature and charming wife were exchanging glances.

Aslan understood everything. That was why Rien, such an insignificant fellow, was able to cozy up to Justin, the young city lord.

With Marquis Medea’s morbid obsession with purity, she would never allow Justin to mess around with relationships, and Justin was at the age where he was most ignorant and curious about such things.

Rien offered up his own wife, mature and charming, to give Justin some enlightenment.

For any man, his first love is the most special, which is why Rien was so highly valued by Justin.

If Aslan hadn’t been there at this banquet, Justin would probably have already gone to roll around in the sheets.

So, Aslan very tactfully took his leave.

As soon as Aslan walked out of the hall, Justin pulled Rien’s wife onto his lap and began to wander his hands around.

“What exactly does that guy mean?” Justin kicked the knight’s armor at his feet. The workmanship was indeed exquisite, but for Justin, that was all it was.

A hint of mockery flashed in Rien’s eyes.

He really looked down on Justin. Compared to other noble sons, he was simply a good-for-nothing. If it weren’t for his good mother, he would have died countless times.

“That young master Aslan just wants to do some small business in Billy City, so he’s here to pay his respects,” Rien said with a smile, while instructing his men to put away the knight’s armor.

Justin looked down on it because of his high status, but Rien was different. He couldn’t afford such a set of armor with his financial strength.

“Hmph, it’s good that he knows how to behave.” Justin nodded in satisfaction when he heard this.

Not only Rien, but even the woman in Justin’s arms was speechless.

They really wanted to say that the only person in Billy City who didn’t know how to behave was the young city lord.

Rien casually flattered him a few times and left the hall, leaving the two of them to mess around.

“It seems like I have a chance to go to Melo Town. I heard that Lord Generald also thinks highly of him,” Rien said to himself.

As Aslan was about to leave Rien’s mansion, a strange but familiar voice rang out.

“Young Master Aslan!”

Aslan subconsciously turned around and saw a woman in a robe running over.

However, the woman’s face was a bit dirty, so he couldn’t recognize her for a while.

Jason took the initiative to step forward, wanting to stop her.

“It’s me! Young Master!” The woman kept wiping her face, trying to get Aslan to recognize her.

Although her face was dirty, the familiar outline quickly reminded Aslan.

It was his childhood maid, Nomeli.

If she was just an ordinary maid, Aslan naturally wouldn’t care, but this maid had accompanied Aslan throughout his childhood. A few months before his mother died, Nomeli also left to get married.

Aslan clearly remembered that the original Aslan was heartbroken because of this, which gave him the opportunity to transmigrate and be reborn.

The original Aslan’s soul had a somewhat morbid infatuation with this maid.

The reborn Aslan naturally wouldn’t care about this maid anymore, even if he was influenced by the former soul.

It wasn’t until he completely controlled Melo Town and came to Billy City for the first time that he learned about Nomeli’s situation again.

It was a very fantastical and exaggerated story.

A few years after her husband died, Nomeli’s family lost its pillar. In order to raise her children, she worked everywhere. The most common job she did was to help some newly emerging families train and cultivate servants.

After all, noble etiquette had to be learned little by little.

Unfortunately, it didn’t last long. Nomeli met a very mean steward who wanted to drive her away after she finished training the maid’s etiquette, wanting to pocket the remaining money. However, due to the contract with the gods, he couldn’t drive her away, so he really treated her like the lowest servant.

Nomeli could only grit her teeth and persevere because her child had just entered the Swordsman Academy in the southern outer city.

Unfortunately, it didn’t last long. Nomeli’s son saw the master’s wife cheating with someone in an accident and was almost killed, but eventually died from his injuries.

Nomeli also awakened the dragonkin bloodline in her body because of this.

Dragonkin are demi-humans born from the combination of dragons and humans. They look no different from humans, but they inherit the terrifying talents of dragons, and their combat power is stronger than that of humans of the same level.

Not long after awakening her dragonkin bloodline, Nomeli killed her way back to that family and exterminated them. In the end, no one knew what happened, but it alarmed Marquis Medea, who personally took action to kill her.

From the cause and effect of the matter, the family that was exterminated should be the Rien family, and judging from the time, the matter should happen within the next six months.

Aslan knew that such a tragedy would happen, but he still didn’t want to stop it. He would save Nomeli, but only after she awakened her dragonkin bloodline.

“Nomeli, long time no see!” Aslan took the initiative to reach out and grab Nomeli, but Nomeli avoided him, her eyes a little evasive, not daring to look Aslan in the eye.

“Young Master, don’t! I’m too dirty.” Nomeli said with her head lowered.

Aslan waved his hand, not caring at all.

“I’ve been looking for you all these years. So you came to Merox Province.”

Nomeli took the initiative to greet Aslan for a simple reason: she wanted to borrow his influence to let those who bullied her in the mansion know that she had a background.

As for her feelings for Aslan, they were very complicated.

Jason stood quietly on the side. From Aslan’s tone, he had already heard the other party’s identity. Even though the other party’s status was low now, Aslan still didn’t care, which was enough to prove Aslan’s character.

Jason was even more convinced of his heart to follow Aslan.

Chapter 24: The Fox Takes the Bait

The two didn’t chat for too long. The Rien family’s butler walked over, and upon seeing this scene, his gaze sharpened as he respectfully bowed to Aslan.

“She used to be my maid, and she will be going to my place soon. If I find out that Nomerie has been wronged in any way, I guarantee many people here will die,” Aslan said slowly and deliberately.

Nomerie, who was about to leave, trembled slightly. She bowed to Aslan and slowly departed, but her steps were much lighter as she left.

Aslan watched Nomerie’s retreating figure and smiled slightly.

Clearly, Aslan had said those words on purpose, and the effect seemed quite good. At least it would make Nomerie’s future days much more comfortable. As for whether it would change history, Aslan wasn’t worried at all.

It was highly likely that the person Nomerie’s son saw having an affair with Mrs. Rien was Justin. With that idiot’s personality, even if he knew Nomerie was Aslan’s person, he wouldn’t give Aslan any face. He might even turn on Nomerie because of it.

After returning from the Rien estate, Aslan didn’t enter the city again. Instead, he returned to Merlot Town with the long-waiting caravan. He had been away from the town for some time.

Nage stood on the only main street of Merlot Town, looking at the familiar and unfamiliar surroundings, feeling somewhat dazed.

He could be said to have grown up in Merlot Town. He was very familiar with every plant and tree in the town.

But after only half a year away, the changes in the town had left him feeling incredulous.

Apart from the lord’s manor, which remained unchanged, the buildings on both sides of the street had undergone a major transformation. Although they were still wooden structures, they were brand new and bright. The population of Merlot Town had also increased several times over.

Even as he entered the town, he happened to see a well-trained army drilling. The scale wasn’t large, only a little over two hundred people, but the ranks were orderly. Although he couldn’t see much, his life as a bandit for the past six months had made him realize that these guys in front of him were not to be trifled with.

Usually, when they saw caravans with such guards, they would give way unless they had an absolute advantage.

Originally, Nage was a little unwilling to be sent here by the chief. Although he resented Merlot Town, he was well aware of the strength of the knights and guards that Aslan had brought. Moreover, Merlot Town was dirt poor and had nothing to see.

But now it seemed different.

Many vendors had appeared on the streets, selling only a few things, but they gave Merlot Town the appearance of prosperity.

This was something Nage could never accept.

But soon, he revealed an excited and ferocious smile.

Wouldn’t it be better if Merlot Town became more and more prosperous? It would allow the chief to lead people to attack Merlot Town, especially as the scale of Merlot Town’s army grew larger and larger. If it continued to develop, it might affect the activity space of the Armor Gate Bandit Group, or even threaten it.

At this thought, Nage became even more excited and began to stroll around Merlot Town. He even bought some daily necessities along the way, after all, he had said that he was from a nearby village coming here for the market.

Unfortunately, Nage’s every move was being watched.

Town Administrator Essien had been in Merlot Town for decades. He knew everyone who came from Merlot Town, not to mention Nage, whom he had watched grow up since he was a child.

No matter how he disguised himself, Essien recognized him at first glance, so he immediately had Arthur brought over.

Arthur glanced at Nage, who was strolling around, and couldn’t help but smile.

“This little fox has finally arrived.”

Hearing this, Warwick, who was beside him, immediately drew his longsword, wanting to take people to intercept Nage, but he was stopped by Arthur.

“Send a few clever people to follow him and see where the Armor Gate’s lair is.”

After hearing Arthur’s words, Warwick and Essien couldn’t help but shudder.

They were really frightened.

Not by Arthur’s and the lord’s methods, but by the name of the Armor Gate Bandit Group.

The Armor Gate Bandit Group was a well-known bandit group in the Merox Province. It was said that at its peak, it had as many as a thousand people. Its strength was very powerful, and it even had the strength to attack small towns. However, it had always been very well hidden. Every time it made a move, it would quickly retreat and hide, leaving the city guards of Billy City helpless.

“The lord naturally has his plans. You just need to act according to the plan,” Arthur said lightly.

After Nage fled, Aslan had told Arthur about his plan. He believed that Nage would return one day, and then they could take down the Armor Gate Bandit Group in one fell swoop. Not only could they get the Armor Gate Bandit Group’s treasure, but they could also go to Billy City to exchange it for a high reward.

As for whether they had the strength to take down the Armor Gate Bandit Group, Arthur was very confident.

The Merlot Army had been expanded to two hundred people, and the total number of city guards and construction corps exceeded six hundred. In addition, there were two hundred barbarian warriors. They were fully confident of taking down the Armor Gate Bandit Group.

It was just that they didn’t know the location of the Armor Gate Bandit Group’s lair yet, so they were holding back for the time being.

In fact, it wasn’t that Aslan didn’t know, but that Aslan was very clear about how difficult the Armor Gate Bandit Group’s lair fortress was to crack, so he planned to lure the snake out of its hole, eliminate the main force of the Armor Gate Bandit Group in the wild, and then attacking their fortress would be much simpler.

A name casts a shadow.

Even though they already knew the current strength of Merlot Town, Essien and Warwick were still afraid.

Five days later, Aslan returned to Merlot Town with a mighty caravan, which made many people in the town welcome him on the streets, especially the children, who ran around Aslan.

Aslan also very amiably touched the heads of several of the children, took out a large bag of malt candy he had bought from Billy City from his arms, and handed it to the oldest of these children.

“This is the candy I promised you. You few are the oldest, so you have to divide it equally.”

Aslan smiled knowingly as he watched the children leave happily. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to buy better candy, but the current level of production in this world was not much better than that of medieval Europe. There were no foods like brown sugar yet, so sugary foods were mostly malt candy.

Aslan’s amiability made many people greet him proactively when they saw him.

More than half a year had passed, and the originally barren town had gradually become prosperous. Many people had begun to live a good life, and they were naturally grateful to Aslan. In particular, the original residents of Merlot Town now mostly had their own land and industries, and could be considered middle class in Merlot Town.

The same was true for the refugees who had come to seek refuge. They had never imagined that one day they would be able to live in a house that could shelter them from the wind and rain, and eat hot meals every day.

The people’s demands were so simple. As long as they could eat their fill and dress warmly, the people would sincerely support their lord, and even be willing to actively pay taxes.

Chapter 25: The Magic Lamp

Aslan smiled and nodded. His previous life as a politician had completely professionalized his smile, allowing him to maintain a friendly expression at any time and in any place. “Gawain, have the goods unloaded, especially the newly purchased linen. Register everything and prepare to put it on sale in the market next week, so the people won’t have to suffer from the cold this winter.”

Aslan directed Gawain to unload the daily necessities from the carriage.

The current Melo Town doesn’t yet have the ability to be self-sufficient, and many things must rely on outside purchases. Therefore, Aslan is developing the entire Melo Town according to a planned economy.

Many things cannot be bought with money alone; you need coupons to purchase them.

For example, buying cloth requires cloth coupons, and buying farm tools requires iron coupons.

You don’t need to buy these things. As long as you work for the City Lord’s Mansion and the Lord, you can get these coupons in addition to your wages.

At first, many people couldn’t accept it, but slowly the people were able to accept it. They also strongly supported Aslan’s policies, and all the people were proud to work for the Lord and the City Lord’s Mansion.

This was also Aslan’s helpless move in the early development of Melo Town, because Melo Town’s economy and industry were too backward.

Aslan took off his gloves and threw them on the table, rubbing his cheeks that were sore from smiling, and said lightly, “In the ten or so days I was gone, did anything happen?”

Arthur took the initiative to speak, and the matter of the fish taking the bait made Aslan’s eyes light up, and he smiled and told Arthur to prepare.

Watching Arthur leave, Essien straightened his collar. Although his hair was gray, the rapid development of Melo Town in the past six months had unconsciously made him feel more than ten years younger, and he said with a full voice, “Lord, the carpentry factory you requested has been built and has begun to produce slowly. However, there are not many carpenters in the town, so the output is a bit low, but I have arranged for a group of apprentices to learn, and I believe that it will not be long before we can give a satisfactory answer.”

Aslan nodded with satisfaction. In this world, there are no porcelain products yet. Therefore, the main tableware in this world is wooden carved plates and bowls, while the nobles are better off, their tableware is mainly silver or gold products.

Furniture is something that only nobles or wealthy merchants can afford, so Aslan’s carpentry factory’s main customers are nobles, wealthy merchants, and residents of large cities.

Simply put, the carpentry factory will be Melo Town’s foreign exchange earning industry in the future.

“Very good, then how is the textile factory doing now?” Aslan continued to ask.

“The textile factory has officially started construction. It is easy to find female textile workers, and there are already more than twenty people working. However, the flax in the flax fields needs some time to harvest well. The flax in the current factory is all wild flax from the nearby jungle, and the quantity is seriously insufficient, so it is impossible to continue to increase manpower.”

Aslan waved his hand indifferently and looked at a certain place on the map, where Aslan had developed a huge flax field.

Because of the chaotic magic elements, the yield of other crops in the Melo area, except for the baoluo fruit, is reduced by half. However, Aslan is not worried, because in the next few years, this chaotic magic element will slowly return to order, and everything will return to normal.

This is also the key reason why the Melo area became one of the kingdom’s granaries after the magic elements returned to order.

“Increase the planting of flax fields. I hope that from now on, the people in the territory can wear clothes produced by themselves.”

Essien and Wilson nodded excitedly.

“Is there anything else?” Aslan asked unhurriedly after listening to the development of the two factories.

Melo Town originally had blacksmith shops and tailor shops, but they were not large in scale. They only slowly expanded after being included in the planned economy. These two industries are relatively old, and they can only rely on manual operation without advanced production equipment.

As for why not fire ceramics, it’s not that Aslan doesn’t want to, but he can’t. The pottery technology in this world is very general, and there is no room for development.

This kind of fragile, troublesome to make utensils has been slowly eliminated by the market except for a few necessities.

Common people think that pottery is too expensive, and nobles dislike it for being too ugly. Over time, there is no market.

The backwardness of pottery technology has made porcelain lose the soil for its birth.

Therefore, if you want to produce porcelain, you must start from scratch. Therefore, Aslan first asked people to build a pottery workshop to practice, and after a while, he will try to produce porcelain.

“The construction of the cement plant is nearing completion, and the limestone mine has also been found, but the volcanic ash is a bit troublesome. There is no volcano in the entire Melo area.” Essien said helplessly.

“Well! Don’t worry about this. Contact the merchant guild in Billy City and ask them to help purchase a batch. Anyway, that thing is not worth much.” Aslan said indifferently.

Early cement was a mixture of lime and volcanic ash. The hardness may not be as good as modern cement, but it is enough for a fantasy world. After all, this world also has a technology tree called magic.

“If there is nothing else, let’s have dinner together tonight. I brought back a lot of good things this time.” After Aslan finished dealing with the government affairs of the past few days, he opened his mouth and invited.

Essien naturally agreed. No matter how Melo Town develops, it is already a remote place, and there is nothing delicious to eat on weekdays. Therefore, Essien especially likes to freeload meals at the Lord’s Mansion on weekdays.

Dinner was grilled white bread with honey sauce, and simple grilled lamb skewers. However, there were not enough spices, so the taste was not as good as expected. Aslan only ate a little and didn’t eat any more, but it didn’t affect Wilson and Essien’s appetite at all.

Arthur, as the Captain of the Melo Town Guard, was naturally qualified to attend, but he didn’t have high requirements for food. As long as he could swallow it, he would never waste it.

At night, the sky was covered with dark clouds, and not a single star could be seen. Even the moon was sometimes visible and sometimes hidden.

Aslan put down the notes he had taken in Billy City very irritably. Relying on the light from the oil lamp, let alone reading, even people with slightly poor eyesight might not be able to see the road clearly.

Aslan had a flash of inspiration and suddenly stood up, rushing to his simple alchemy room to tinker. He remembered the magic lamp from his previous life, which would not be born for about ten years. It originated from a young magus from the Claire Magic Tower in Kyoto.

It was because the magic lamp quickly swept the entire kingdom that the Claire Magic Tower made a lot of money and jumped from a third-rate magic force in Kyoto to a top magic force in Kyoto.

It can be seen the huge benefits brought by the magic lamp.

At this time, Aslan realized that he had been walking in a dead end. In his previous life, he had been developing with the knowledge of Earth, but this life was different. He also possessed more than sixty years of knowledge and experience from this different world.

Chapter 26: Assassin

He found a silver-tungsten filament in the alchemy lab and carefully placed it between two magic wands.

Silver-tungsten filament is an alchemical product. It relies on magic to refine silver-tungsten, and its effect and durability are hundreds of times better than ordinary tungsten filaments. The most important thing is that it can conduct various attribute magic elements.

But that wasn’t enough. He picked out a white crystal that had exhausted its magic power, hollowed out the middle, and turned it into a transparent glass罩 (zhào - cover), but the glass cover was a bit thick, and there were irregular diamond facets on the surface, so the light shining out was similar to the dazzling lights in a nightclub.

But Aslan didn’t care at all. What he wanted to do was very simple, just to make the light turn on.

The last step was to evacuate the air inside the lampshade and then introduce magic power. The silver-tungsten filament did light up slowly, and as Aslan’s magic power strengthened, the light became brighter and brighter.

“Success!” Aslan laughed excitedly, his laughter even alarming Arthur downstairs.

Arthur only glanced at the roof and personally led people to guard around the lord’s manor.

He put the designed magic lamp and a piece of white magic crystal together, carved a simple conduction magic array on it, and then packed it in a box, quickly creating a simple desk lamp.

Now that he had a sample, Aslan immediately used Divine Art Mimicry to perfect and beautify it.

The original irregular diamond lampshade was replaced by Aslan with a smooth and bright thin lampshade, and the original simple shape also began to become elegant and luxurious, very much in line with the aesthetic of the nobility.

The final light regulator and lampstand were also replaced with high-quality peach wood, which is the best wood for magic conduction. He also designed a removable “death gate” on it. Once removed, it would destroy the vacuum environment inside the lampshade. Even if it was reassembled, as soon as the light was turned on, the silver-tungsten filament inside would burn out in less than two days.

This seemingly inconspicuous trick successfully allowed Claire Magic Tower to monopolize magic lamps for more than a decade. In the end, Aslan cracked it with his knowledge from his previous life, allowing him to join the lucrative magic lamp business.

After the beautification was complete, Aslan gathered the necessary materials and produced two lamps in one go. Looking at the soft light, Aslan suddenly had a flash of inspiration.

“This is a good excuse! It really kills two birds with one stone.”

Aslan laughed again.

Early the next morning, Aslan led the entire Knight Guard out, and didn’t return until evening. Two knights were missing from the Knight Guard, and the remaining knights all showed expressions of fatigue and sorrow.

Such days continued until the third day. The Knight Guard had lost most of its manpower, and this time they also took more than fifty Mello soldiers.

Nadj had been quietly watching all of this these past few days. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to follow, but he was noticed by Arthur not long after he followed. To avoid being discovered, Nadj didn’t continue to follow.

But he was sure that Aslan had discovered something. Judging from the manpower lost these past few days, could it be that he had discovered an ancient relic?

On the evening of the third day, instead of waiting for Aslan to return, a knight returned covered in dust and blood. The knight didn’t stay for too long and took away more than fifty Mello soldiers again.

This made Nadj very sure that Aslan had discovered an ancient relic, and that the relic should have been developed to a very critical moment.

“Indeed, ancient relics are not so easy to develop.” Nadj had heard a lot about ancient relics when he was in the Kaimeng Bandit Group.

Some large families were completely destroyed because of developing ancient relics, while some small families succeeded in excavating ancient relics and rose from obscure small families to become top-notch large families.

So Nadj very much hoped that Aslan would fail to develop the ancient relic, and preferably die inside the ancient relic.

Unfortunately, reality always likes to see people disappointed or even desperate.

It wasn’t until early in the morning on the fifth day that Aslan returned with the heavily damaged Mello army, along with several large carriages. The warriors, who should have been desperate and sad, all had rosy faces and were constantly laughing.

Seeing this scene, Nadj’s heart couldn’t help but thump, and a burst of anger kept surging into his heart.

“This is not fair! Why is Aslan’s life so good? Why does the Goddess of Fate favor him so much?”

Nadj shouted in his heart, secretly determined that he must sneak into the lord’s manor tonight to see what Aslan had excavated from the ancient relic.

Late at night, it was a dark and windy night for murder. Because the moon was almost hidden behind the clouds, the quiet Mello Town fell into a terrifying gloom and darkness.

In the pitch-black night, a man dressed in night clothes quickly sneaked towards the lord’s manor.

He easily avoided the patrolling town guard soldiers, quickly touched the lord’s manor, and easily climbed onto the second-floor balcony. The shadow only stopped for less than a moment before heading to the third floor.

Inside the lord’s manor, Nadj’s pupils shrank slightly. The originally simple lord’s manor had now become luxurious and impetuous, but the more it was like this, the more rapid Nadj’s breathing became.

How rich is the current lord’s manor? Nadj couldn’t tell, but the only thing he could be sure of was that it was wealthy, enough to persuade the boss to take action.

Relying on his previous memories of the lord’s manor, Nadj quickly touched the door of Aslan’s room.

He put his ear to the door and listened for a while, roughly hearing the movement inside the room. After confirming that there was someone inside, he very decisively jumped over from another balcony next to him.

Looking through the gap, he happened to see Aslan tinkering with an item that looked like a huge sphere.

Suddenly, the huge sphere lit up, and the light shone throughout the room, much brighter than ordinary candles and oil lamps.

Nadj subconsciously covered his mouth. He could even feel a trace of warmth in the light.

“This is definitely an ancient magic item.”

As soon as Nadj had this thought, a sharp, ear-piercing sound rang out.

Shu! Shu!

Nadj immediately knew he was in trouble, someone was shooting arrows at him from the shadows.

Puff! Nadj dodged one crossbow bolt, but another one had already shot into his right shoulder.

“Who’s there?”

A sonorous voice rang out, and the originally bright room instantly dimmed.

Nadj didn’t look back, jumped directly to the next balcony, darted into another room, and jumped out to another balcony.

“There’s an assassin!”

The patrolling soldiers on the other side saw the figure jumping down from the balcony and shouted as they chased.

In an instant, the lights of every household in the entire Mello Town began to light up, especially after hearing that an assassin had entered the lord’s manor to assassinate Aslan.

Many of the townspeople’s men took out hoes and wooden sticks and walked out of their houses.

Some of the slower men were even pushed out the door by their wives.

“Don’t come home until you catch that damned assassin who assassinated the lord!”

Chapter 27: Ancient Ruins

During the slack farming season in Merlau Town, the residents would receive short basic military training. Because the Lord’s Manor provided three meals a day during the training, many men with nothing to do at home would participate in the military training to save their families a day’s worth of food and get to eat meat.

Now that life was better, the people were naturally grateful to Aslan. Although they had to pay taxes, they still had a lot of surplus grain left after paying them. Compared to the days when they didn’t pay taxes but still couldn’t get enough to eat, even a fool could tell which was better.

But some people wanted to assassinate their great and benevolent Lord and destroy the hope and future of their Merlau Town, which was absolutely not allowed.

Therefore, not only did the Merlau Army mobilize, but the town guard, more than three hundred strong, also appeared in the streets and alleys of Merlau Town fully armed. Many residents also consciously formed small teams of twenty people to join the search.

Although Nager relied on his familiarity with the terrain to luckily rush into the forest, he was chilled to the bone seeing the dense crowds holding torches and searching the forest.

He hid in a tree hollow, clutching his wound. These ‘little bases’ he had discovered while playing in the forest as a child had been blocked up with stones to keep them a secret. He never expected that they would save his life when he grew up.

After searching all night without success, Arthur led the unwilling residents and soldiers back to Merlau Town.

Aslan was already in front of the City Lord’s Manor, having people cook vegetable mush. It was a breakfast made from dried and ground baoluo fruit flour, with some minced meat and vegetables added. The taste was a bit like lean meat porridge from his previous life, which was Avril’s favorite breakfast.

“Lord! This subordinate has failed in his duty and allowed the assassin to escape.” Arthur said, kneeling on one knee as soon as he saw Aslan walking over with a bowl of vegetable mush.

Aslan smiled and helped Arthur up.

“Don’t let it happen again. The fact that the assassin was able to sneak into the City Lord’s Manor so easily this time is not your problem, but rather that the City Lord’s Manor itself has too many defensive loopholes.”

“You’ve worked hard all night, have something to eat first!”

Arthur knew from the beginning that they were putting on a show, deliberately letting Nager go, but he was still moved by Aslan’s consideration for his subordinates.

“Fellow citizens, thank you very much for your help last night. Everyone, have something to eat first, and then go back and get some rest!” Aslan had the maids of the City Lord’s Manor serve bowls of breakfast to the soldiers and residents who had worked hard all night.

“Thank you, Lord!”

“Thank you, Lord!”

Aslan nodded with a smile. In his previous life, he had become a powerful minister by being as loving to the people as a son, and after being reborn, he played this game even more skillfully.

The reason he said that the City Lord’s Manor had defensive loopholes was simply because he thought the City Lord’s Manor was too small and many facilities were incomplete. He wanted to rebuild a Lord’s Manor, but that would be too costly and would likely cause resentment among the people in the territory. Therefore, he had to get the support of the people, so that it would be much easier for him to build it.

Simply put, Aslan wanted to have his cake and eat it too.

The assassination attempt that night did not make Merlau Town panic, but instead united everyone and brought everyone’s thoughts together.

After breakfast, many residents chatted with each other and left together.

“Our Lord is really too good. Thinking about the days we lived before the Lord came, it was simply inhuman,” said Hilder, a villager.

Hilder was an old resident of Merlau Town. In the past, being able to eat two meals a day was a blessing. Where would they have such a good life as today, eating three meals a day and having surplus grain to sell for money?

“Yes! So we must protect the Lord and absolutely not let him be harmed. What if we get a bad Lord next time? We might have to go back to the old days.”

Mitter, Hilder’s neighbor, nodded in agreement after hearing Hilder’s words.

Carl, an old man in his fifties next to him, knocked the two of them on the head hard.

“What do you mean change Lord? Lord Aslan will always be the Lord of our Merlau area, and the Lord’s son will also be our Lord in the future. Everyone should pay attention in the future, and keep a close eye on any strangers who come to town, so as to avoid such things happening again.” Carl said with a serious and solemn expression.

Hilder and Mitter nodded in unison after hearing this. Not only them, but also several young adults next to them did the same. Everyone unconsciously formed a town patrol team, specializing in patrolling areas that the town guard did not patrol, invisibly strengthening the security of Merlau Town.

Less than fifty kilometers away from Merlau Town, a secret stronghold was hidden. This was the base camp of the Kaimen Bandit Group.

This stronghold was located in a remote area, far from the main road. In the past, Merlau Town was so poor that no one would pass by here, so the Kaimen Bandit Group naturally considered it to be a safe base camp.

But now it was different. After Aslan took over Merlau Town, the population had been increasing day by day, and the commercial atmosphere was getting stronger and stronger. Many merchants had also begun to come and go to Merlau Town, making this rarely traveled road active again.

When there were more people, accidents were bound to happen. Several passers-by had accidentally come to the entrance of the Kaimen Bandit Group’s base camp, and the outcome was self-evident.

“Tch! There are a few too many people who have strayed in here.” A man with a scar on his face spat and said fiercely.

Not far away lay a corpse, judging from its attire, it should be a passer-by.

“That’s right! That new Lord is really capable. He’s only been here for half a year and he’s already revitalized the half-dead Merlau Town.” A companion said with some emotion.

“Hmm! Someone’s coming.” The scarred man suddenly tensed up. Another companion quickly pulled out a dagger and hid in the small woods, ready to block the newcomer’s retreat at any time.

“Brother Leia, quickly take me to see the boss, I have important things to report.” Nager ran over staggeringly, clutching his shoulder, which had been stained red with blood, his face pale.

Perhaps due to excessive blood loss, Nager was almost unable to hold on when he ran here, or perhaps it was hatred that was supporting him. Before he fainted, he only said one sentence.

“Ancient ruins!”

The amount of information contained in Nager’s sentence was very large, and even the leader of the Kaimen Bandit Group, who commanded thousands of bandits, did not dare to act rashly before clarifying the situation.

As a result, the soldiers and troops ambushing in Merlau Town squatted for three days in vain, but it bought time for the barbarian warriors to change their equipment.

The barbarian warriors’ heavy armor weighed twice as much as knight armor, but its defensive power was more than three times higher. This kind of armor could only be worn by barbarians, and they had to reach the strength of an intermediate swordsman to avoid affecting combat.

Chapter 28: The Armor Gate Bandit Group Sees Ryaning in Full Plate Armor, Standing Like a Human-Shaped Tank

Aslan smiled and had someone bring over a two-meter-long greatsword.

Ryaning swung the greatsword a few times and laughed excitedly.

“Haha, Lord, this greatsword is not bad.”

Aslan rolled his eyes. This was a high-grade weapon, and Aslan had even engraved sharp runes on it. Ordinary weapons couldn’t withstand the greatsword’s attacks at all.

“The battle in a few days might be tough. I’ll have to trouble you then, for the future of Mello.” Aslan said earnestly.

Ryaning nodded firmly. After moving into Mello Town, he had really come to like this town. Although there was initially some estrangement with the commoners, and not a few conflicts had occurred, Aslan had resolved them all.

Now, they were slowly living together with the commoners. Just as Aslan had said, in reality, they were no different from ordinary people, except that they were a bit stronger and bigger. They were still human and needed to eat, drink, and relieve themselves.

“Lord, please rest assured, your subordinate will definitely teach them a lesson with the greatsword in my hand.” Ryaning said confidently.

“It’s just that the lads still don’t know who the enemy is, and they’re a little uneasy.”

Aslan couldn’t help but laugh. This Ryaning was indeed a shrewd fellow, both rough and meticulous.

“The Armor Gate Bandit Group.”

Hearing about the Armor Gate Bandit Group, Ryaning’s eyes lit up instantly. He had wanted to meet them for a long time.

The Mello region had two scourges: the barbarian tribes and the Armor Gate Bandit Group. Now that the barbarian tribes had submitted to Mello Town, only the Armor Gate Bandit Group remained as the last scourge.

“Please rest assured, Lord, your subordinate will certainly live up to expectations.”

Aslan waved his hand dismissively. He was going into this battle with a plan, and the enemy was caught off guard. He was completely confident in taking down the Armor Gate Bandit Group.

“I am completely confident in annihilating the Armor Gate Bandit Group in this battle. What I’m concerned about now is, how many of the other barbarian tribes living in the Mello region have you persuaded? If we want to truly develop the Mello region, the strength of your barbarian tribe is indispensable.”

Ryaning pondered for a moment, then scratched the back of his head awkwardly, his tone carrying a hint of self-deprecation.

“Lord, to be honest! The tribe I lead was basically driven out, which is why we settled so close to the commoners.”

“Driven out?” Aslan was greatly surprised.

“It’s normal. In the mountains, food and animals are limited, and it’s impossible to support so many people. Every so often, the old, weak, sick, and disabled are driven out. Because I was unwilling, I took a dozen of my brothers and took all the old, weak, women, and children from our family.” Ryaning’s tone was somewhat unkind when he spoke of this.

Aslan didn’t know about this in his previous life. In his previous life, Ryaning had taken in many barbarians who had been driven out of the mountains, although most of them were old, weak, women, and children, they were still much stronger than ordinary people. For a long time after the Armor Gate Bandit Group was destroyed, they were Aslan’s major concern.

It wasn’t until Aslan carried out a scorched-earth tactic against Ryaning’s village, cutting off their food supply, that he finally forced them to surrender.

Aslan remembered that the population of Ryaning’s village was over a thousand at that time.

“It doesn’t matter, as long as you sincerely join Mello Town, this Lord will not mind.” Aslan said without thinking.

Having an elder at home is like having a treasure.

Although these elderly barbarians may have lost their fighting ability, the fact that they were able to live to old age was enough to prove that they were all powerful warriors when they were young.

In the barbarian tribe, only powerful warriors can live to the end.

Moreover, having these elders at home can make the barbarians outside feel more at home. Having the bonds of family will make them more loyal.

Hearing Aslan’s words, Ryaning knelt on one knee, his right fist clenched and placed on his chest. This was a common loyalty gesture on the continent.

“After the war is over, go and bring them back!” Aslan patted Ryaning on the shoulder and turned to leave.

Ryaning was both excited and ashamed.

During this period, he had taken in many old, young, women, and children who had been driven out in the original Ryaning Village. The amount of food consumed every day was not small. It turned out that the Lord had known about it for a long time, but he didn’t care.

Ryaning was also worried that they were all old, young, women, and children, unable to work and unable to fight, and would be disliked.

He immediately sent his men to Ryaning Village to bring the people over, and turned to find Town Magistrate Essien to request some land for their tribe to cultivate.

Although they were not as good as ordinary people at cultivating land, it did not mean that they could not do it. During this period, he had been to Ryaning Village several times and saw the elders in the village also learning to cultivate.

At that time, his teacher, Teyes, a once-famous greatsword master among the barbarian warriors, said to him.

“He is no longer good at fighting, but he still has no problem with farming, but in the mountains, there is too little land suitable for cultivation.”

After Aslan learned about this, he didn’t care too much and let Essien agree. In his previous life, when he subdued Ryaning, his Ryaning Village had planted a large area of land for food. Because they had not systematically studied it, the yield was lower than that of ordinary people, but it could barely support them.

Most importantly, Aslan remembered that among those old guys, there were several greatsword master-level old guys.

Although they were old and lacked energy, they could not exert their full strength, but there was no problem with bursting out the strength of a sword master in a short period of time.

Especially during a major crisis in his previous life, Aslan was almost killed, but he was saved by these old guys. One of them actually broke through to the realm of a sword master instructor at a critical moment, his energy surged, and he recovered most of it. For a long time, he was the guardian of the territory.

This is also the reason why Aslan has always been so generous to the barbarian tribe.

In his previous life, the barbarian tribe helped Aslan too much.

In three days, Aslan had his knight guard and the Mello army fully equipped. The knight guard was still wearing the Kyoto standard knight armor set, but these armors were blessed with sturdy runes, and their defense was more than doubled.

The armor of the Mello army was mainly plate armor. Although it did not look as gorgeous as the knight armor, its defense was still not to be underestimated.

It was a pity that steel ingots had not yet appeared in this world, otherwise, weapons and armor forged from steel would be better.

Unfortunately, the scale of Mello Town’s blacksmith shop was too small. Being able to meet the army’s own needs was already something that many blacksmith workers could only accomplish by working overtime.

As for researching the steelmaking method, Aslan was not considering it for the time being.

Until the fifth day, when even Aslan was a little lax, the scout reported that a large-scale army was surrounding them.

“Number? Scale? Enemy unit affiliation?”

Aslan stood up excitedly from the main seat and asked as he walked.

“About eight hundred people! It’s the Armor Gate Bandit Group, and the leader is Armor Gate himself.” The scout said without thinking.

Chapter 29: Mistake

Aslan nodded. Beside him, Arthur and Gawain looked excited. They had been wondering if the Kaimen Bandit Group wouldn’t show up. “Why only eight hundred people!”

But Aslan quickly reacted, frowning slightly as he spoke.

He remembered that in his previous life, when he wiped out the Kaimen Bandit Group, he had annihilated more than one thousand three hundred bandits and captured over one thousand two hundred.

Kaimen looked at the drastically changed Mello Town before him and was also greatly surprised.

“This young master from the capital is quite capable.” After Kaimen praised, he waved his hand, and the team behind him immediately split into two hundred-man squads to launch a probing attack.

Gute raised his hand, clenched his fist, and all the soldiers immediately raised their weapons, ready for battle.

“They launched an attack without even saying a word. They’re really ruthless and don’t waste words!” Aslan had just arrived when he heard the Kaimen Bandit Group’s footsteps of attack.

These bandits casually brandished the weapons in their hands, each with a fanatical and disdainful expression on their faces. They did not charge straight away but walked towards Mello Town step by step.

These arrogant and domineering bandits made all the soldiers of Mello Town seethe with anger. This was a provocation, looking down on the soldiers of Mello Town.

“No, we are not soldiers, we are warriors.”

Suddenly, an old soldier spoke angrily.

The bandits were slightly stunned, but their footsteps did not stop slightly, continuing to advance unhurriedly.

“Fight for our home, fight for our families, fight for Mello!” Gute immediately shouted loudly.

“Fight! Fight! Fight!”

The unanimous shouts dispersed the tense emotions of many people. Aslan also drew his long sword and stood in front of the team.

Seeing that the lord was also taking the lead, the soldiers’ morale was even higher.

“Fifty paces away,” Arthur suddenly shouted loudly.

The advancing bandits suddenly had an ominous premonition.

“Forty paces!”

The Knight Guard standing at the forefront suddenly scattered to both sides.

Shoosh shoosh…

More than fifty crossbowmen in the rear, lying down, squatting, and standing, shot arrows in three alternating echelons.

The sound of crossbow bolts piercing the air resounded throughout the battlefield.

The advancing bandits were sent flying by the powerful kinetic energy of the crossbow bolts before they could even cry out in alarm. Some bolts even pierced through two people directly.

The crossbows used by the Mello army were improved by Aslan based on the ancient ballista. This long-range weapon, with power comparable to a musket.

In Chinese history, drawing the bow was very difficult, but for these soldiers in another world who cultivated battle aura, it was relatively much simpler.

Training crossbowmen was much simpler than training archers. After all, a qualified archer could not unleash the power of a bow without one or two years of training.

This wave of arrow rain extinguished most of the bandits’ arrogant flames. Some timid bandits even turned around and ran, only to be beheaded by the small leaders suppressing the rear.

“Those who retreat will be killed without mercy.”

Kaimen, who had been standing in the rear with a confident look, had a terribly gloomy expression after seeing the crossbows.

“You guys attack too! After breaking through Mello Town, slaughter the city.” Kaimen’s cold voice rang out.

“Yes! Boss.”

Two burly men holding broadswords walked out. They were the Kaimen Bandit Group’s publicly known experts, both advanced swordsmen.

Seeing the appearance of the two men, the corners of Aslan’s mouth rose slightly.

“Arthur! Gute! Your opponents have arrived.”

Arthur smiled steadily and continued to direct the crossbowmen to slaughter the ordinary bandits. These bandits at the forefront were mainly ordinary people, at most a few swordsman apprentices. They didn’t even have shields, and they could only be slaughtered in the face of crossbowmen.

As for the bandits who had already become professionals, they were the main force of the bandit group, about a hundred people, who, led by the two burly men, split off half their number to join the battlefield.

After Gute led the entire village to join Mello Town, his wife, who was already forty years old, was actually pregnant again. Aslan also attached great importance to this and went to check on her every once in a while.

Gute also opened his heart because of this and successfully broke through to become an advanced swordsman, becoming the fourth advanced professional in Mello Town.

The shouts of killing soared to the sky. Under the threat of the small leaders’ butcher knives behind them, the bandits could only bite the bullet and rush forward. However, they had become much smarter.

Two or three people pulled up the corpses on the ground to serve as shields. As the distance got closer and closer, the power of the crossbows became more and more terrifying.

Even people and corpses were sent flying together, but the rate of fire of the crossbows was not as fast as that of bows and arrows. After paying hundreds of casualties, the bandit army had already rushed to the front of the Mello army.

The crossbowmen quickly retreated, running towards the surrounding rooftops. This was one of their daily training exercises. Facing enemies without ranged units, the only thing they had to do was shoot arrows and find a safe place to shoot arrows.

Shoosh shoosh…

Crossbow bolts continued to shoot out, and one bandit after another fell outside Mello Town. A burly man with a ferocious scar on his face suddenly jumped up, stepped on the shoulder of a bandit, and with a crack, the scarred man leaped high and killed towards the roof.

“Get down here!” Arthur’s voice rang out as he slashed down with his sword in both hands.

The two swords met, bursting out with dazzling light, and then flew back to their respective teams.

“Advanced knight!” Kaimen’s face changed slightly when he saw the knight armor on Arthur’s body.

The advanced swordsman who led the bandits to attack on the other side was also blocked.

“Two of them!”

This sound made Nage, whose injuries had not yet healed, tremble with fear.

This was something he had not reported, or rather, something he did not know.

Nage was very worried that Kaimen would punish him afterward for the excessive losses.

When did Mello Town get two more advanced professionals?

His father told him that Arthur was an intermediate knight when he first came to Mello Town. As for Gute, he was an old neighbor, so he naturally knew him very well.

“They should have broken through. Both of them were only intermediate professionals before, especially Gute. You also know this person, boss. It should be because of the ancient ruins. There must be some secrets inside the ruins that can help professionals break through.”

Nage’s eyes rolled, and he shouted decisively.

He knew very well that Kaimen’s mind was focused on breaking through to the swordsman realm. As long as there was any opportunity, he would never give up.

Sure enough, after hearing Nage’s words, Kaimen’s eyes suddenly lit up, and he turned his gaze back to the battlefield, quickly noticing Aslan, who was commanding the battle in front and occasionally hacking down his subordinates.

“Who is that person?”

It was no wonder that Kaimen would notice Aslan. Aslan’s armor was too conspicuous, simply flamboyant.

Nage took a closer look and immediately shouted with great joy, “He is Aslan, the lord of Mello Town.”

As soon as Kaimen heard this, he immediately put aside the thought of teaching Nage a lesson and slowly disappeared into the crowd, sneaking towards Aslan with the team, preparing to ambush Aslan, the lord. When that time came, Mello Town would be leaderless and collapse without a fight.

Chapter 30: Ambush and Counter-Ambush

Aslan noticed the slightest movement from Kaimen. Kaimen thought Aslan didn’t recognize him, but even if Kaimen were reduced to ashes, Aslan would never forget him.

In his previous life, Aslan had been forced to pay protection money to Kaimen’s bandit gang for three years. By the time he had the strength to fight back, Kaimen had already become a Sword Master-level expert with a dozen or so high-level swordsmen under his command.

To defeat Kaimen’s bandit gang, Aslan had paid a heavy price, including the lives of Gawain and Leianning. Moreover, this Kaimen had no awareness of being a strongman, and loved to dress up as an ordinary bandit and sneak into the ranks to ambush his opponents.

The reason Aslan was so eager to take action against Kaimen in this life was to take advantage of the fact that he had not yet broken through to Sword Master, when his overall strength was at its weakest and he was easiest to kill.

When Kaimen had crept to within twenty meters of Aslan, all it would take was a burst of swordsmanship, and in just a few seconds, Kaimen could instantly kill Aslan.

Aslan pretended not to see him, and continued to calmly direct the soldiers in battle, but from time to time he used the corner of his eye to pay attention to Kaimen.

Kaimen’s distance was getting closer and closer, eighteen meters, sixteen meters, fourteen meters…

When Kaimen was less than ten meters away from Aslan, this distance was his best assassination range. No one could escape his assassination at this distance.

Aslan’s eyes suddenly shot out a fierce light, and his left hand suddenly raised, arcs of electricity constantly emerging from his entire arm.

“Kaimen, you’re finally here.”

Aslan stared sharply at Kaimen. Kaimen was stunned, and the sword he had raised was slightly lowered. Meeting Aslan’s eyes, he instantly understood that Aslan had recognized him.

But he didn’t understand how Aslan had recognized him, let alone when the two had met. “Hmph! Go to hell!” Kaimen’s Great Swordsman strength erupted. He was confident that at this distance, he had full confidence in killing Aslan. Even Gutt, who was running frantically from the side, couldn’t save him.

In a flash, Aslan’s left hand, which had been emitting arcs of electricity, suddenly took out a silver coin. The silver coin flipped in mid-air. Kaimen had already charged in front of Aslan, and the image of Aslan had already been imprinted on the heavy sword in his hand.

Bang! With a loud noise, thick smoke rose up, and a strong and rapid beam of light flashed across Aslan’s position. The battlefield was also attracted by the loud noise, and everyone stopped subconsciously.

“Magician!” The scarred strongman fighting against Arthur’s face changed drastically, and he was the first to shout.

The scarred strongman’s words caused a great sensation.

The originally silent battlefield also boiled over because of the scarred strongman’s words.

Especially the warriors of Merlot Town, after learning that their wise and martial lord was a mysterious and great magician, their morale instantly soared, and they drove all the bandits who had invaded the town out.

Compared to the high morale of the Merlot Town warriors, Kaimen’s bandit gang also had low morale and retreated step by step.

When the smoke slowly dissipated, Kaimen was holding the broken long sword with one hand. His entire right shoulder and right chest had disappeared without a trace, and the blood vessels in his remaining body were still spurting blood.

“How did you know my identity?”

Kaimen was actually not dead yet after suffering such a heavy injury, which surprised Aslan very much.

Aslan put the sword in his hand back into its scabbard, and leisurely came to Kaimen, squatting in front of Kaimen.

“Of course, there is an inside agent, otherwise I wouldn’t have bothered to put on this show.”

“Inside agent!” Kaimen’s eyes widened suddenly, and he completely lost his breath.

“Kill, kill…”

At the same time Kaimen died, shouts of killing immediately rang out around the bandit gang. A full five or six hundred people surrounded them from all directions.

Under this shout of killing, deafening shouts of killing also rang out in Merlot Town.

The people who had been arranged by Aslan in the town, regardless of men, women, old or young, took out their weapons and rushed out.

“Protect the lord!”

“Drive all these bandits out.” Essien, holding a cane, was supported by his son and ran at the front.

At this moment, Aslan’s cold heart after rebirth actually felt a throbbing.

He had actually forgotten the people who had followed him and fought to the death in the past. If he hadn’t gone to Kyoto back then, perhaps he wouldn’t have ended up like that.

“Good, good, good!” Aslan said three good words in a row, and then chopped off Kaimen’s head and raised it high.

“Kaimen is dead! Those who surrender will not be killed!”

Arthur immediately blocked the scarred face’s retreat and said coldly, “Kaimen is dead, do you still want to resist to the end! That’s just burying the lives of the remaining brothers.”

The scarred face showed a hesitant look, but he saw that the companion who was also a high-level swordsman on the other side was shot through his entire back by a silver light from Aslan’s hand.

Just one blow made him shudder. The speed of that silver light was impossible to avoid.

“I surrender! Don’t kill me.” The scarred face saw his companion die, and decisively dropped his weapon, squatting down with his hands on his head.

The troops that came to kill from the rear of the bandits were the manpower that Aslan lost during the exploration and attack, and the barbarian warriors brought by Leianning.

In this battle, Aslan overestimated the strength of Kaimen’s bandit gang. He had always positioned the strength of Kaimen’s bandit gang at its peak in his previous life. At that time, Kaimen was already a Sword Master with strong soldiers and horses. In fact, the current Kaimen’s bandit gang was far inferior to Merlot Town in terms of strength. It was just that Kaimen didn’t know the details of Merlot Town and rashly attacked.

In the final analysis, this was all thanks to Nager, the ‘mole’.

Willick carried the pale-faced Nager with one hand and threw him in front of Aslan with a look of contempt.

“Lord! This traitor actually wanted to escape just now, but fortunately I reacted quickly and captured him alive.” Willick said as if asking for credit.

Aslan nodded with a smile and waved his hand to let people take him down for execution. He didn’t have the mind to chat with a dead person.

“Reporting to the lord, four hundred and thirty-five bandits were captured alive in this battle, and three hundred and twenty-six were killed.” Arthur counted the number of people and said with a look of joy.

Merlot Town won a great victory in this battle. As for the wounded, in this world, there is no humanitarianism or war treaty.

As long as the prisoners are seriously injured or disabled, they will be given a knife to send them to see God.

After all, seriously injured and disabled wounded will only increase the burden, and they cannot be sold for much money, so naturally there is no need for them to exist.

“Very good, Gawain, this time I will give you a great credit.” Aslan patted Gawain’s shoulder with a smile.

Aslan then noticed Leianning, who was hiding behind Gawain, cowering.

“What are you doing?” Aslan asked subconsciously.

But then he saw that behind the encircling army, thousands of people walked out one after another, and the number was still increasing. Among them, there were many white-haired old men who participated in the battle with wooden sticks.

“So many people.” Aslan was stunned.

Chapter 31: The Old Man

Looking at the continuous stream of barbarians, Aslan was somewhat surprised. He remembered that in his previous life, when he brought the old, weak, women, and children of Leianning Village over, there were only seven or eight hundred people. This was several times that number!

“Lord, you were the one who told me to bring all the clansmen over. You can’t go back on your word!” Leianning, a full head taller than Gawain, hid behind Gawain and stretched his neck to speak.

Aslan was speechless for a moment. Was he really that scary?

An elderly, white-haired man among the barbarians heard Leianning’s words and cautiously approached, bowing his head very humbly.

“Lord! Please don’t make things difficult. Forget about us old fellows who are just waiting to die. I hope you can take in these children. Although they are thin and weak now, as long as they grow up, they can definitely become your most valiant and loyal subordinates.” The old man knelt on both knees and gave Aslan a prostrate bow.

Many barbarian warriors had red eyes, and even Leianning was no exception.

The old man prostrating on the ground was Leianning’s teacher, once one of the most powerful warriors of the barbarian race, and once the mainstay of their lineage.

Unfortunately, after he grew old, their lineage never produced a great swordsman or even a swordsman-level expert again. Food rations were reduced, causing the people of their lineage to go hungry. Even if they went out hunting early and late every day, they simply couldn’t feed all the clansmen.

Prolonged hunger weakened the elders, and the children suffered from malnutrition, their physiques becoming worse and worse. Naturally, there was no way to cultivate outstanding warriors, and they fell into a vicious cycle.

Leianning’s lineage would only become weaker and weaker until one day it was annexed by a more powerful tribe.

Although Aslan didn’t recognize the old man, he had heard Leianning and Tyes talk about him many times in his previous life. Unfortunately, the old man died of starvation just one year after arriving in Leianning Village.

Grumble! Before the old man could hear Aslan’s answer, his stomach rumbled. Perhaps because of years of hunger, the grumbling sound was very loud, and everyone around could hear it clearly.

Gawain opened his mouth to the side, but didn’t know what to say.

There were really too many people from Leianning Village this time, a full two thousand people. With the barbarians’ appetite, even the old and young ate three to four times as much as ordinary people in a day, and the young and strong were even more terrifying. Two thousand people didn’t sound like much, but with the barbarians’ appetite…

That was equivalent to ten thousand people or even more. With the current population of Merlot Town, there simply wasn’t that much food.

Aslan was only stunned for a brief moment, because he recalled some past events from his previous life.

Leianning’s eyes couldn’t help but dim. He was also very clear about the situation in Merlot Town. Relying on a single Merlot Town was not enough to support his clansmen.

But just as he raised his head, Aslan said, “Essin, register everyone and see how starved they are. Let’s have a celebration feast.”

Essin was stunned for a moment, but quickly reacted and hurriedly said, “Lord, our grain production cannot meet the needs of so many people.”

Aslan waved his hand dismissively, helped the old man who was kneeling on the ground up, and grabbed the other party’s wrist. Aslan couldn’t help but feel sad. It was truly a case of a hero reaching the end of his road.

Judging from the old man’s bones, he was a mighty and strong warrior like Leianning when he was young, but now he was almost skin and bones from hunger, and even his back was a little hunched.

“You’ve suffered. From now on, Merlot Town will be your home.” Aslan very naturally helped the old man into Merlot Town.

“Everyone has worked hard. Come to the Lord’s Mansion for the celebration feast.” Aslan said to the surrounding people who came to support while helping the old man.

The celebration feast was very simple. After all, Merlot Town had only just solved the problem of food and clothing, and being able to eat enough and dress warmly was already very difficult.

That night, many barbarians ate and shed tears.

They hadn’t had a full meal in who knew how long.

Essin walked over with a gloomy face. Aslan had played the good guy, so naturally he had to play the bad guy.

Leianning and Yokeff saw Essin’s gloomy face and quickly stood up to greet him. As the town magistrate, Essin would have the right to govern them barbarians in the future.

“Magistrate!”

“Greetings, Magistrate!”

Essin looked at the two in surprise. In the past, Leianning was a very arrogant person in Merlot Town. He ignored everyone except Aslan, but now he was so polite, it seemed he was very clear about his current situation.

“You should know the situation in the town now, right? If it were just ordinary people, saving a little would not be a problem, but you also know how big your appetite is.” Essin’s expression softened a lot as he said.

Yokeff and Leianning looked at each other and lowered their heads, feeling ashamed, seeing the strange gazes of the surrounding clansmen and ordinary people.

“We understand. We will definitely not eat for free. I wonder if the magistrate has any work for us. We guarantee we won’t eat for free.” Yokeff said decisively.

Essin nodded in satisfaction.

“That’s more like it. All the people working in Merlot Town have always been paid with wages and rations. I think Leianning should be very clear about this. I’ve already calculated that barbarian warriors are much stronger than ordinary warriors, so a barbarian warrior’s salary is four times that of an ordinary warrior.”

Hearing that the existing salary had quadrupled, Leianning raised his fingers and calculated. They now had forty-six qualified barbarian warriors in the army. This salary would be enough to solve the food consumption of five hundred clansmen every month, and he couldn’t help but feel happy.

“As for those barbarian warriors who are not yet qualified, they will receive the same salary as ordinary warriors.” Essin continued to add.

“This was specially approved by the Lord for you.”

“What a benevolent lord!” Yokeff praised.

Leianning’s eyes lit up, and he couldn’t wait to ask, “Magistrate! If all my clansmen become qualified barbarian warriors, will they be able to receive the same salary as me?”

“That’s natural, but the assessment is very difficult. You have to be mentally prepared.” Essin added.

“It doesn’t matter, I will definitely train those little brats hard.” Leianning said with delight.

“I’ve also calculated that this can probably solve the food problem for a thousand of you. You still have one thousand three hundred people. The Lord has already designated a piece of land in the east, which you will be responsible for producing. If you can fully utilize and develop it, you will have more than enough food to live a good life.”

When Essin said this, he also felt a little unhappy in his heart, because Aslan was too generous to Leianning’s clan.

Chapter 32: The Merlot Charter

Yorkov listened and immediately pulled Ryaning towards Aslan, both kneeling on one knee to pledge their allegiance.

Aslan smiled, put down his wine glass, and jumped onto the table.

“Everyone, quiet down, I have something to say.”

The originally noisy square outside the Lord’s Manor quickly quieted down, and everyone watched Aslan intently.

“I, Aslan Saracen, hereby declare that from now on, in our Merlot Town, or rather, the entire Merlot region, there will be no more racial discrimination, no more class discrimination. There will be no more foreigners here, and certainly no slaves. You will all have only one title, and that is Merlotian.”

“Nobles who break the law will be punished the same as commoners! I guarantee you that as long as I live, this decree will be enforced to the end. So, I want to give a special warning to certain officials here. Don’t wait until I raise the butcher’s knife to wake up.”

Aslan’s words were followed by complete silence in the square. The barbarians mostly looked around with blank faces, as most of them didn’t understand what Aslan was talking about.

The officials of Merlot Town were completely dumbfounded. They even suspected that their lord had gone mad.

Essien looked around in surprise. He noticed that Wilson was already in tears. Essien opened his mouth, but no sound came out.

The entire square erupted in cheers.

“From now on, I will govern according to the law, and lock power in a cage. Starting tomorrow, I will draft the Merlot Charter, which will be carved into a stone tablet and placed in front of the Lord’s Manor.”

That night, the entire Merlot Town was immersed in a sea of cheers.

Scarface and the other prisoners locked in the Lord’s Manor listened to the deafening cheers, and each of them was filled with confusion and doubt.

This lord seemed different from other nobles, deeply loved by the people of his territory.

Many bandits who had been forced to become outlaws began to consider whether they could surrender.

Scarface was the same. After all, his precious daughter was still young. If he died like this, how would his wife and daughter live?

At dawn, as soon as the sky began to lighten, Yorkov pulled Ryaning and led their people to the wasteland Essien had promised. It was indeed barren, and full of rocks. Reclaiming it into farmland would not be an easy task.

In the past, Yorkov would not have done such a thing. It consumed too much physical strength, and they had no experience in farming. After all, the barbarian tribe was a hunting and fishing people. They were good at hunting and fishing.

Accompanying them were several civil servants responsible for agricultural production, who were responsible for guiding them in reclaiming the wasteland.

Barbarian warriors were different from ordinary people. They did not cultivate battle aura, but focused on strength and vitality. Once they became old and weak, their strength and vitality would decline, and their strength would plummet. This was why the barbarian tribe would abandon the elderly.

Yorkov had just gotten used to using a hoe, and began to reclaim the wasteland under the guidance of the instructor. As for moving the large stones, it was naturally the job of young people like Ryaning.

Suddenly, the ground began to tremble slightly. Yorkov, who had experienced many battles, quickly lay on the ground and listened intently.

“It’s cavalry coming from the town, fully armed heavy knights, about twenty riders and two carriages loaded with goods.”

After Yorkov finished speaking, the agricultural instructor next to him wanted to say something sarcastic, but he saw Aslan leading all his personal guard knights, fully armed, escorting two carriages loaded with goods.

The official in charge of this agricultural guidance placed his left hand on his chest, bowed his head in salute, and slowly said after the convoy had completely passed.

“The food in the town is insufficient. I heard that the lord is going to take some of the family heirlooms he brought from the capital to Billy City, hoping to exchange them for enough food to get us through the winter.”

Hearing this, everyone was silent for a while. Ryaning didn’t say anything, and gripped the crowbar in his hand even tighter.

“What are you still doing? Hurry up and work. In three days, we must reclaim the wasteland. The lord is willing to take us in, but we can’t let the lord suffer for our sake.”

Ryaning quickly pried up a boulder, and was about to throw it away when he was stopped by the person in charge next to him.

“Don’t throw these stones away. I believe it won’t be long before the lord builds a city wall. When that time comes, these stones can be used.”

Ryaning nodded. Although he didn’t quite understand the meaning of the other party’s words, he still cooperated and collected the stones to one side.

Aslan was indeed going to Billy City to buy food, but the goods on the carriage were not the family heirlooms that the people were talking about, but the goods produced in Merlot Town, which he was going to Billy City to develop the market for.

The most valuable of these were the several items that Aslan had created using divine art mimicry. Magic lamps were naturally the most valuable, and there were also many ordinary daily necessities from his previous life, but with the current technology of the continent, they simply could not be produced, so they seemed extremely precious.

After traveling for two consecutive days, Aslan’s speed was even faster this time, but the roads in the Merlot region were really not easy to travel on. Warhorses could not run in many places. If he could go at full speed, Aslan estimated that he could reach Billy City in less than a day.

After a month away, Billy City was still so prosperous and lively. It was indeed the most magnificent city in the Merlotx Province, even more prosperous and lively than the provincial capital, Kex City.

Aslan did not enter the city directly, but went straight to Jason’s Chamber of Commerce in the outer city.

“Libra Chamber of Commerce!” Aslan looked at the name of Jason’s Chamber of Commerce and couldn’t help but smile.

This name was very good, implying fairness!

Aslan smiled and got off his warhorse. When the knight squad arrived at the door, someone had already gone to notify Jason.

So, before Aslan had even stepped into the Chamber of Commerce, Jason had rushed out to greet him.

Compared to the Faith and Fire Chamber of Commerce, the Libra Chamber of Commerce was unexpectedly simple. It was just a two-story wooden building, with nothing outstanding about its appearance. As soon as he entered the Chamber of Commerce, a musty smell hit him, making Aslan feel uncomfortable.

“Lord Aslan!” Jason quickly gave a salute, but when he saw Aslan take out a handkerchief to cover his nose, he explained awkwardly, “The smell is a bit strong, but this is the best street in the outer south city, and the security is also the best. Moreover, the Libra Chamber of Commerce’s main business is with the residents of the outer city, so it doesn’t matter if the environment is a little worse. After all, the funds on hand are limited now.”

Jason asked for money as soon as he came up, which made Aslan very helpless. Money was needed everywhere now. He had earned more than a few thousand gold coins last time, and after leaving a portion for Jason, the rest was invested in Merlot Town. Now, there were less than a hundred gold coins left in the entire treasury, and he still had to buy food for the winter. This was why Aslan was so eager to go to Billy City.

Chapter 33: Having Money

“It really is too difficult for you. See if you can sell these things for a good price in Billy City.” Aslan waved his hand, and Gawain immediately stepped forward, bringing out a batch of goods, all small commodities produced in Melo Town.

Jason took the goods handed over by Gawain and led Aslan to the inner room to rest.

“These pottery pieces are very exquisite, and what is this on the surface? It’s too beautiful. It will definitely sell for a good price in the city, no, make a fortune.” Jason put down the pottery in his hand and said with a face full of surprise.

In terms of the body craftsmanship, it is not inferior to the products produced by the city’s workshops. Moreover, the pottery brought by Aslan is more comprehensive, such as kettles with lids, and the surface is coated with a layer of colorant, which is what is said to be glazing in his previous life. Although he has only just mastered this glazing technology, the color is simple, but the surface is bright and soft, smooth and not protruding, appearing crystal clear and very delicate. It should be able to attract many nobles in the city to buy it.

Aslan shook his head speechlessly when he heard Jason’s evaluation of the pottery. He even disliked these pottery pieces, which were only practice products for refining porcelain in the future.

Aslan couldn’t help but think of the time when porcelain first appeared in his previous life. The silky smooth and white texture instantly conquered the entire continental aristocratic group, making porcelain a fad for a time and becoming a new luxury. For the nobles, at that time, anyone who didn’t have a few sets of porcelain at home would be too embarrassed to call themselves a noble.

At that time, porcelain had become Aslan’s cash cow and the foundation of Aslan’s rise.

“The goods you brought, sir, are really timely. All along, the Chamber of Commerce has only relied on purchasing living materials from the outer city area and selling them to the inner city area, only making a little difference in price, which is not conducive to long-term development. In addition, many of the materials purchased were personally named by you and were to be sent back to Melo Town. The Chamber of Commerce has simply been unable to make ends meet during this period. If you hadn’t come, I would have considered going to Melo Town to find you.”

Jason felt as if a weight had been lifted from his chest, and he relaxed a lot.

Aslan was even more embarrassed. He didn’t expect Jason to be so capable at the beginning, standing firm in less than half a month and starting to pull things to Melo Town.

“These products will be sent to you every once in a while, so there is no need to worry about the goods. How is the situation in Billy City recently?” Aslan unloaded almost all the goods on the two carriages, leaving only a small box containing the gifts he prepared for Marquis Medea, including many high-end goods.

“The situation in Billy City is about the same as before, except that the Young City Lord and Rien are getting closer and closer, and they have also opened up many gray industries, making the underground forces of Billy City faintly unified.” Jason thought for a while and said.

Aslan estimated the time when Nomerie broke out in his previous life. It seemed that Rien unified the entire underground forces of Billy City and successfully promoted from the outer city patrol division to the commander of the inner city patrol division.

Don’t look at just the difference between inside and outside, but the two are worlds apart.

The commander of the outer city patrol division is still an insignificant country bumpkin in the eyes of the noble masters in the city, at most a higher-level one, which should be called a lackey.

It was precisely because of the advancement of his status and the expansion of his heart that the tragedy occurred.

Aslan was just stunned for a moment, and then he directly drove the matter out of his mind. He would not interfere in this matter, and he would not see Nomerie during this period. He wanted the event to happen naturally, only in that way could Nomerie’s dragon bloodline be activated.

“I know. During this period, you just need to develop the Chamber of Commerce with peace of mind and see if you can gain a foothold in the city. I have some good high-end products there, which the people in the outer city area cannot digest.”

Aslan did not drink the water brought by the servant, but got up directly to leave.

People on the continent today have not yet developed the habit of drinking boiled water. Most of the water is directly drawn from wells or rivers and drunk directly, so it is inevitable that they will drink some parasites into their stomachs.

Melo Town has now begun to promote the importance of drinking boiled water, so Aslan mostly avoids the water outside, and even prepares a set of water boiling tools when he goes out.

“I still have to go into the city to visit my teacher, so I won’t stay here for long.” After Aslan finished speaking, he got up to leave, but before leaving, he said to Jason.

“From now on, all water to be drunk must be boiled before drinking. As for the reason, you will know when you get to Melo Town. This is an order, and I will let Lancelot supervise you.”

Jason nodded blankly. Aslan’s order was so strange.

When Aslan came out of the Chamber of Commerce, Lancelot, who was left behind in Billy City, rushed over.

“Your Excellency!”

Lancelot jumped off his warhorse and knelt on one knee to salute.

“Lancelot, are you still used to living in Billy City?” Aslan smiled and helped Lancelot up.

Lancelot shook his head and said with an embarrassed expression, “Your Excellency, can I go back with you this time?”

Aslan shook his head helplessly.

“No, the Chamber of Commerce has just started to improve, and someone must stay behind to take charge. After returning, I will send people over to help you. When the Chamber of Commerce is on the right track, you can come back if you want.”

Lancelot’s face suddenly collapsed, and he nodded weakly.

Aslan smiled and patted him on the shoulder, flipped onto his warhorse, and led the cavalry into the city with a flick of his whip, leaving behind Lancelot with a look of melancholy.

Lancelot really wanted to return to Melo Town. Although Billy City was prosperous, people’s hearts were unpredictable. Every day, he had to use his wits and courage to protect Jason and fight against the underground forces in the outer city area, which was really tiring and boring. He had not practiced properly for more than a week.

Aslan entered Billy City, not to Medea’s magic tower first, but to visit Generido at his residence.

After all, Aslan is not yet a true disciple of Marquis Medea, and he is not qualified to disturb her at the magic tower.

Generido was very surprised when he heard that Aslan had come, but he still greeted him into his mansion with a smile on his face.

Although Generido is only a middle-level magician, he has the title of magic professor, especially in alchemy and potion science, he has unique insights.

Therefore, Generido is very rich. His mansion is several times larger than Rien’s. If it were not for the fact that it is not allowed to build castles in the city, it is estimated that Generido would directly build a castle.

It took a full ten minutes to walk from the gate to the hall. Along the way, Aslan saw no less than thirty maids, and each of them was graceful, young and beautiful, especially the revealing maid outfits, which almost made Aslan blurt out ‘What the heck!’

His eyes were full of white, long legs and round, plump breasts.

Chapter 34: 34: You Really Know How to Play

“Jenalido, you really know how to play!” After a long while, Aslan finally blurted out these words.

Jenalido was stunned for a moment, but quickly burst into laughter.

“What? See any you like? I’ll give them to you later. They’re all slaves I bought. You can do whatever you want with them. It doesn’t matter even if you play them to death.”

Listening to Jenalido so casually deciding the fate of these maids, Aslan sighed. From his previous life to now, having lived in this different world for over fifty years, Aslan still couldn’t stand this trampling of the lives of the lower classes by the upper classes.

Although Aslan in his previous life had done his fair share of it, he would always find all sorts of high-sounding reasons.

But Jenalido’s attitude of being so confident and completely disregarding human life was something Aslan could never learn.

“Forget it! Senior, I came this time to visit the teacher and have a gift to give her.” Aslan said, pushing a set of elaborately decorated wooden boxes in front of Jenalido, which contained glass beakers produced using the materialization ability of his innate divine magic.

Hearing that Aslan wanted to visit the teacher, Jenalido frowned slightly, feeling that Aslan was somewhat ignorant of his own limitations, truly believing that just because he called Marquis Medea “teacher,” he was really her student.

Jenalido casually opened the box, and his eyes immediately lit up. He was attracted by the crystal-clear experimental beaker set in front of him.

This world didn’t have glass yet, so most magicians used silver utensils when preparing potions and doing alchemy experiments, and only a few highly corrosive materials would use utensils carved from light magic crystals.

Using either of these was far less convenient and more expensive than using a glass beaker set. Moreover, glass was very resistant to corrosion, which Aslan had personally experimented with in his previous life, so he had always kept the glass technology a secret, only personally producing one or two sets every so often to give away.

“I found this in a ruin in the Merlot region. Unfortunately, the magician who lived in seclusion there was too weak. At most, he was only a Great Magician before his death, so there weren’t many things left behind. Many were severely corroded, leaving only two sets of beakers and some experimental records. I plan to offer the other things to the teacher,” Aslan said unhurriedly.

Originally, Jenalido almost jumped up when he heard the word “ruin,” but when he heard Aslan say that the ruin was just a place where a Great Magician lived in seclusion, he lost interest.

What powerful magic technology could a Great Magician, even one from ancient times, have mastered, especially in the Merlot region, which was a famous magic wasteland in the Sino Continent thousands of years ago?

“You have a good heart. Since you came with good intentions, I’ll go ask for you,” Jenalido said, putting away the beakers with a smile on his face.

As for the gift that Aslan mentioned offering to the teacher, although he was interested, he didn’t ask about it. Although the ancient ruin was only from a Great Magician, it was hard to say whether he had mastered some ancient secret techniques or forbidden arts.

As the saying goes, the more you know, the more dangerous it is. Jenalido was very clear about this principle.

This visit was very fortunate. Marquis Medea had just finished her daily meditation. As for magical research, she really wasn’t in the mood to care about it today.

Because in a while, she would have to go to the Magic Capital to participate in the once-every-five-year magic test.

The Magic Capital was the magic holy land of the entire Sino Continent. The worst magicians who could go there to participate in the test were Archmages.

The purpose was very simple, to avoid old magicians breaking through or deliberately hiding their strength.

Because Magisters were equivalent to human-shaped nuclear warheads in the entire Sino Continent and had to be registered.

In the Sino Continent, there was a Magister Non-Proliferation Treaty, which simply meant that forbidden spells could never be used unless life was in danger, otherwise, they would be jointly sanctioned by all magicians in the entire Sino Continent.

After all, forbidden spells were not only powerful but also had a huge impact on the environment. The Merlot region was hit by the forbidden spells of two Archmages, which was why it became what it is today. This was still after thousands of years of mitigation that it reached its current level.

Naturally, Marquis Medea wouldn’t care too much about testing her magic realm, but when a large group of Magisters and Archmages gathered together, there would naturally be various gatherings.

What could they do at gatherings? Boast about their latest magical research or show off the magical items they had just refined.

This was similar to Aslan’s previous life’s class reunions. Everyone gathered together, and if they didn’t show off their wealth, they would show off their children, which was extremely embarrassing and depressing for those classmates who had neither.

Marquis Medea was pretty much the same. The Merrox Province was a famous magical wasteland in the kingdom. It was a miracle that Medea, a Magister, could be born there. As for magical achievements and magical items, there were none at all. These magical technologies required time and the inheritance of generations to develop.

In terms of combat power, Marquis Medea was among the top in the Magister ranks, but when it came to these two items, the Magisters in the Magic Capital were likely to be more outstanding than her.

So, when she heard that Aslan had found some remaining magical items in a small ruin, Marquis Medea was also taking a chance, receiving Aslan with the attitude of treating a dead horse as if it were still alive.

If it were in the past, let alone Aslan, a mere beginner magician, even a senior magician would have to see Marquis Medea’s mood to see her.

Medea was indeed a legend in the Merrox Province, playing a vital role in the magical development of the Merrox Province, but that didn’t mean she was a saint.

So, after learning that Aslan had brought a good gift, she reluctantly met Aslan.

Entering the second floor of the magic tower, the reception hall opposite the public classroom, Marquis Medea sat high on the seat, waiting for Aslan to come in without saying a word.

“Student greets the teacher!”

Marquis Medea nodded slightly as a greeting, without intending to speak.

Aslan quickly took out the gifts he had prepared one by one, asking the maid to send them up.

Marquis Medea sensed that the things Aslan sent up didn’t have much magic fluctuation, and she immediately lost interest, resting her chin on her right hand and saying lazily.

“Introduce them!”

From Marquis Medea’s tone, Aslan sensed a serious dissatisfaction, which made his heart feel uneasy for a short time, but when he thought of that thing, he firmly believed that he could impress Marquis Medea.

“The first gift is a set of crystal-clear glass beakers, equipped with very complete experimental instruments.” After Aslan finished speaking, the maid immediately sent a whole set of beakers to Marquis Medea for display.

Chapter 35: The Gift

Marquis Medea glanced at it indifferently and nodded slightly. The exquisitely crafted crystal beakers were indeed worth a lot of money, but not enough to impress her. She also had a set of such crystal beakers, but not in so many styles and as complete.

Obviously, even Marquis Medea, who had reached the level of Archmage, could not recognize the difference between artificial crystal and natural crystal.

“You have put in the effort.” Marquis Medea waved her hand, signaling the maid to put it away.

Aslan couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief.

“The second gift is an alchemical product I created from an old alchemy booklet found in the ruins.”

Marquis Medea glanced noncommittally at the magical item presented by the maid.

The shape was a bit strange, and there were faint magical fluctuations, but considering Aslan’s age and the strength of a beginner magician, it was enough to prove that Aslan’s alchemical talent was very high.

“I call it a magic lamp. It is mainly used for lighting, convenient for daily life, and has no combat value, but it has high commercial value.” Aslan explained seriously.

Hearing that it had high commercial value, Marquis Medea’s eyes lit up. Don’t think that all magicians are otherworldly old scholars.

Whether it is alchemy or potion-making, they are both very expensive professions, not to mention the daily experimental consumption. It can be said that every magician is built up with resources.

Over time, every magician’s business acumen and sensitivity to money are no worse than professional merchants, otherwise, how could they maintain that huge daily expenditure?

There was only one rotary button on the magic lamp. This kind of switch button had appeared on many magic items, so it was not unusual.

Marquis Medea gently twisted the switch, and the magic lamp slowly lit up. As it was twisted to the end, the brightness of the light gradually illuminated the entire hall.

“It is no worse than the Light spell. How long can it be used each time it is turned on, and how long is the lamp’s lifespan?” Marquis Medea asked with great interest.

With a simple question, she brought up the most important commercial points of the magic lamp.

“A white crystal can be used continuously for 500 hours, which will exhaust the magic power of the crystal. And that glowing crystal ball, which I call a light bulb, can be used continuously for 2,000 hours. It also uses white crystal as energy. I shouldn’t need to elaborate on its cost-effectiveness. As for other components, as long as they are not deliberately damaged, they can be passed down for generations.” Aslan said very confidently.

Marquis Medea nodded, her eyes under the cloak gleaming. The short introduction made Medea realize the huge benefits contained in this magic lamp.

“Cost?”

“A little silver tungsten wire. Only the lampshade is more troublesome, it needs to be carved out of crystal, which takes a little more time. As for the price of other parts, it will not exceed one gold coin.” Aslan said after thinking for a while.

In fact, he wanted to say that the cost of the magic lamp would not exceed one gold coin.

“It is indeed a very convenient thing.” After Marquis Medea finished speaking, she asked the maid to put the magic lamp aside, obviously not wanting to continue talking about the magic lamp, and put it aside for now.

“What other gifts are there? Bring them all up!”

The maids followed the order in which Aslan gave the gifts and presented them to Marquis Medea one after another.

“This is a magic robe without a sealed magic array?” Marquis Medea’s expression changed slightly when she saw one of the purple cloaks.

She picked it up, carefully examined it, and praised, “This magic robe is top-notch in terms of workmanship and the inscription of the magic array. Where did you get this magic robe?”

Marquis Medea put away the cloak on her head, revealing her stunningly beautiful face that had been hidden under the cloak.

Her beauty was timeless, pleasing to the eye, and her appearance could overthrow cities and countries, astonishing the world.

Seeing Marquis Medea for the first time, Aslan was overwhelmed by her beauty. He remembered the sentence he had heard the most in his previous life. At that time, he thought the sentence was a bit exaggerated, but he didn’t expect that there would be such a beautiful woman in this world.

Purple hair slowly fell down, indescribably charming. Purple eyes with a look of surprise picked up the cloak, completely unaware that Aslan’s face was already full of infatuation.

A fragrant breeze hit, and Aslan suddenly woke up, lowered his head and quietly looked at his toes.

“Thirty-six magic circuits. This cloak should have been left over from ancient ruins.” Wearing the cloak, Marquis Medea stroked the magic circuits on the cloak with tenderness.

The magic circuits on the magic robe correspond to the number of inscribed magic arrays.

The magic robes that magicians usually wear are their strongest magic items. Thirty-six magic arrays represent the storage of thirty-six spells.

This magic robe was Aslan’s biggest trump card. Thirty-six magic circuits were still extremely precious forty years later, let alone now.

“I am very satisfied with this gift. Explain the remaining gifts one by one!” Marquis Medea said, turning around in front of the mirror, very happy.

This trip to the Magic Capital, she could vent her anger fiercely. The design of this magic cloak was very avant-garde. A pair of shoulder pads were added to the shoulder positions, which could hold the front cloak after receiving the shoulder pads. Usually, putting down the cloak was similar to the old-fashioned magic robe, which was convenient for hiding her identity.

The shoulder pads were also very beautiful, not as rigid and rigorous as the warrior’s shoulder pads. Its style was very similar to the forest aestheticism of the elves.

Whether in terms of design or style, this magic cloak perfectly showed the most beautiful side of female magicians.

As for the remaining gifts, they were actually high-end products that Aslan prepared to open up the market.

“This bottle of blue liquid is called perfume. Just spray a little bit, and it can make people fragrant all day long.” Aslan held a bottle of blue liquid and sprayed it around. Before long, the entire hall was filled with a intoxicating fragrance.

“A very good smell.” Marquis Medea said lightly, and asked the maid to put the things away.

“What is this again?” In a good mood, Marquis Medea picked up a scarf made of transparent material, not knowing what kind of fabric it was made of, and asked.

Aslan glanced at Marquis Medea’s long legs and said with a righteous face, “This is silk stockings, a kind of socks, specially designed for noble women. It can be used to modify the legs, keep warm, prevent edema, and prevent sunburn and sweat. With high heels, it can show the most perfect side of women.”

Looking at the serious Aslan, Marquis Medea waved her hand and asked a maid to try it on. After all, Aslan had given her many surprises today, and she was also very much looking forward to it.

Aslan quickly grabbed the maid and explained the precautions for wearing silk stockings to her, so as not to wear them improperly and break the silk stockings, disappointing Marquis Medea.

Chapter 36: Monopoly

While the maid went to change into high heels and stockings, Marchioness Medea began to examine Aslan’s studies. She discovered that this Aslan’s strength wasn’t high, but his foundation was extremely solid, especially his mastery of magic and the application of magical elements, which was extraordinary. Even some great mages who had immersed themselves in magic for decades were no more than this.

Knock, knock, knock…

The sound of high heels striking the floor, unique to them, rang out, and a tall maid walked out, supported by her companion.

“What’s going on?” Marchioness Medea asked, somewhat displeased.

“People who wear high heels for the first time are like this. They just need to get used to it for a while,” Aslan quickly explained.

Marchioness Medea nodded, accepting the explanation, and had the maid turn around.

The maid, already tall, had an even more charming appeal when paired with high heels.

Aslan spoke at the right moment, “Besides increasing height, the more important factor of high heels is that they can enhance allure. High heels reduce a woman’s stride, and because the center of gravity shifts backward, the legs straighten accordingly, causing the buttocks to contract and the chest to protrude forward, making a woman’s posture and gait full of charm, creating a graceful and elegant demeanor.”

Marchioness Medea nodded in sudden understanding. No wonder she felt something different about the maid just now. Combined with those crystal stockings, she was indeed uniquely charming.

Marchioness Medea was very confident that with her figure and appearance, she would definitely become the most beautiful queen in the Magic Capital.

“I like these gifts very much. Tell me about your plans for the magic lamp?” Marchioness Medea had someone put away the gifts and formally discussed the magic lamp matter.

She had already estimated the cost of the magic lamp, which would not exceed three gold coins. Because it also belonged to the category of magic props, the future price would definitely not be lower than ten gold coins.

She naturally wanted to get involved in such a lucrative industry. She just didn’t know how Aslan planned to operate. If Aslan didn’t know what was good for him, she wouldn’t mind using her power to pressure him.

“I believe teacher has also estimated the cost of the magic lamp. I want to sell the magic lamp in teacher’s name, and the profits will be split six-four, with teacher taking six and me taking four,” Aslan said after some consideration.

Marchioness Medea frowned slightly.

“Do you think this share is reasonable?”

Aslan naturally understood Marchioness Medea’s dissatisfaction. In fact, Marchioness Medea’s plan was to split it nine-one. With her status and strength, she deserved that price.

“Teacher! I can say with certainty that there is a technology in the magic lamp that cannot be cracked in the next ten years. Moreover, teacher only needs to take the finished product. I need to purchase materials and be responsible for developing the market and managing the business. Although it is said that I occupy 40%, the actual profit I get is only a little over 20%,” Aslan said with a wry smile.

Marchioness Medea was silent. She didn’t care about that little bit of profit. What she really cared about was the monopoly on the magic lamp technology.

If it was true as Aslan said, and they could really achieve a ten-year technology monopoly, then that meant the price of the magic lamp was completely up to them. From this point of view, the potential profits were even greater.

There was no intellectual property in the continent. If a certain commodity was really so easy to sell, it wouldn’t take long for various knockoff products to flood the entire market, and the profits would be greatly reduced.

“You’re that confident?” Marchioness Medea sized up Aslan with interest.

If it was true as Aslan said, then this young man’s alchemy talent was very amazing and qualified to become her disciple.

In fact, Marchioness Medea was only relatively high in cultivation talent. Her alchemy and potion-making talents were very average.

It was quite embarrassing to say that if Generido’s realm wasn’t too low, Marchioness Medea could be his student in alchemy.

“Okay! I’ll consider it. You can have fun in Billy City for a few days. If you need any help, just go to Justin. You’re about the same age, you should get along,” Marchioness Medea said in an unquestionable tone.

She wanted to disassemble the magic lamp with several students who mainly studied alchemy to study it carefully and see if it was as simple as Aslan said.

If Aslan really had the alchemy talent she expected, she would take him as a disciple and take him to the Magic Capital feast this time.

Unfortunately, Aslan didn’t know Marchioness Medea’s good intentions at all. He only saw it as Marchioness Medea’s distrust.

As for getting along with Justin, that was simply a joke. Aslan dared to swear that being with Justin, that arrogant and brainless guy, would eventually make him stupid.

At the same time, he had to admit that Marchioness Medea valued her precious son very much and couldn’t wait to push all her resources and connections to this good-for-nothing.

Aslan hadn’t had time to catch his breath when he came out of the magic tower, when he was blocked by Shelson and his men.

Arthur, who had been waiting outside, immediately rushed over with his men. Because they were outside the Medea Magic Tower, everyone restrained themselves and didn’t draw their weapons.

“Don’t get excited, Young Master Aslan. I have an urgent matter I want to ask for your help,” Shelson shouted loudly, looking at the tense atmosphere.

“Is this how you ask for help?” Aslan asked, dissatisfied.

Shelson shook his head awkwardly.

“The matter is quite serious. Let’s find a quieter place to talk!”

Aslan nodded, but didn’t follow Shelson. Instead, he went directly to the City Hall.

He still had to claim the reward for Kaimen’s head, which was a full 1,000 gold coins, enough for Aslan to purchase a large amount of food in the city.

Shelson naturally knew that Aslan was angry and could only bite the bullet and follow him.

The Billy City Hall happened to be opposite the Medea Magic Tower, directly across the street. Anyway, this world didn’t have traffic lights or zebra crossings.

As for carriages and horses, as long as the owner wasn’t stupid, they would never dare to rush around the magic tower. Who could face Marchioness Medea directly and be a simple person?

Gawain placed Kaimen’s processed head in front of the girl at the counter in a straightforward manner.

“Bounty mission!” Gawain said coolly and then remained silent.

The girl responsible for the reception next to him should be a newcomer, her face flushed from beginning to end.

It was really that Aslan and his party were too good-looking. Not to mention Aslan, who was completely a noble and handsome young man, Arthur and Gawain were also rare and handsome uncles, wearing gorgeous knight armor.

He was definitely a rich and handsome man, no, in Billy City, he should be called a noble and handsome man.

In the Cleveland Kingdom, rich people were just fat sheep raised by the nobles. As long as the time was right, 90% of them would be killed and skinned.

The girl’s mind was not on her work at all, and the result was tragic.

Chapter 37: Breaking the Rules

She hadn’t even considered the significance of the wooden box typically associated with bounty missions, so when she opened it, a scream echoed through the clouds.

The counter manager, a middle-aged, overweight man in his forties with a receding hairline, heard the scream and rushed over, wiping the sweat from his forehead and apologizing profusely.

After all, Aslan’s bearing and entourage made it clear that he was a young noble master, not someone a small city hall employee like him could afford to offend.

“It’s alright, can I have the bounty?” Aslan said with a smile and a shake of his head.

The fat man quickly had someone bring the money. The nearby Shelson also recognized the head’s owner.

It was Kaimon, the leader of the Kaimon Bandit Gang, who had a high bounty on his head in Billy City. He was a major cancer in Billy City, but he would disappear for a while after each crime, leaving the Billy City pursuit forces with no way to start.

“I never thought that a fierce bandit like Kaimon would eventually fall into Master Aslan’s hands,” Shelson said with a sigh, because their chamber of commerce had been robbed by Kaimon several times.

“It’s nothing, it’s just that Kaimon, that idiot, attacked my territory without thinking. How could I refuse such a chance to deliver a head?” Aslan said calmly.

Shelson was instantly filled with respect upon hearing this. The Kaimon Bandit Gang had thousands of bandits and brigands, and Kaimon himself was a great swordsman, with several advanced swordsmen under his command.

Even if Kaimon wanted to offer his head, one had to have the ability to take it, or risk losing their own life.

The thought of Aslan wiping out the famous Kaimon Bandit Gang made the fire in Shelson’s eyes burn even brighter.

The bounty was a full thousand gold coins, enough for Jason to purchase a batch of grain. Compared to the barren land of the Melo region, the land around Billy City was very fertile, located in an alluvial plain area, and had professional nature-type mages planning and developing farmland, making Billy City not only the magic holy land of the Meloks Province, but also the granary of the Meloks Province.

“Master Aslan, is there something I would like to ask for your help with?” Shelson asked impatiently as soon as they left the city hall.

Aslan said unhurriedly, “I will not hesitate to do anything within my power.”

The implication was that he couldn’t help with things beyond his capabilities.

“Our Faith and Fire Chamber of Commerce was robbed by the Garros Bandit Gang on the way back,” Shelson said with a grim face.

Aslan rolled his eyes directly.

The Kaimon Bandit Gang was the strongest bandit group in the Melo region, while the Garros Bandit Gang was the strongest bandit group in the Meloks Province, with strength that could even capture cities and seize land.

In his previous life, even after Aslan had developed the entire Melo region, he had not touched the Garros Bandit Gang. On the one hand, it was to raise bandits for self-importance, and on the other hand, the Garros Bandit Gang was too powerful, and even if Aslan wanted to swallow the Garros Bandit Gang, he would have to pay a huge price.

“Are you kidding me?” Aslan said unhappily.

Shelson smiled awkwardly. His real purpose was to get Aslan’s teacher to take action. If Marquis Medea took action personally, a few ninth-level spells would leave the Garros Bandit Gang dead or crippled.

Aslan also realized that this was the effect of his efforts over this period of time. After all, Marquis Medea was known for being aloof. Although she had many direct disciples, none of them truly suited her, and very few disciples could see Marquis Medea whenever they wanted.

Aslan had arrived in Billy City this morning and could see Marquis Medea at noon. Even the top disciple, Natal, didn’t have this treatment, so Shelson misunderstood.

Aslan shook his head and said righteously, “If Teacher wanted to deal with the Garros Bandit Gang, they would have been reduced to ashes long ago.”

Shelson nodded, naturally understanding what Aslan meant, and also very clear why the Garros Bandit Gang was able to survive in the gap between Kex City and Billy City.

The main population of Meloks Province initially resided in the Melo region, but due to the subsequent effects of the forbidden spell, they slowly migrated to Kex City. Over time, the Kex region became the center of Meloks Province, and the governor’s mansion of each term was located in Kex City.

However, the current governor of Meloks Province was having a hard time, because of the rise of Billy City, located in the Billy region between the Melo region and the Kex region.

The river diversion allowed the Billy region to obtain a large amount of fertile land, and under the vigorous development of Marquis Medea, it was already faintly surpassing Kex City, naturally arousing the dissatisfaction of the provincial governor. In the midst of open and secret struggles, a no-man’s land was formed in the gap between the two major regions, which was the Garros Bandit Gang’s lair.

The Garros Bandit Gang was used to ease the conflict between the two sides.

That’s right, it was to ease the conflict.

Billy City, known as the province’s magic holy land, already had a transcendent position in the province itself, coupled with Marquis Medea, the province’s strongest expert.

They couldn’t beat her, and their economy couldn’t compare, so they could only huddle in a corner and develop in silence.

Meloks Province originally had only four regions, of which the Melo region had the largest area, accounting for half of the province, but the land was barren and the population was sparse, with only a few thousand people registered. The provincial governor was too lazy to send people to collect taxes.

The remaining two regions combined were not as large as the Melo region, and their economy was not as good as the Billy region. The governor of the province existed in name only. In order not to be affected by these two regions, the Garros Bandit Gang existed, with the real purpose of isolating the exchange between the two places, preventing ordinary people from going to these two regions to develop, and reducing the population loss of Kex City.

Marquis Medea also acquiesced to the provincial governor’s behavior, but this time the Garros Bandit Gang had gone too far.

Aslan suddenly remembered his previous life, around this time, a huge conflict broke out between the two regions, with both sides deploying tens of thousands of troops to confront each other on the border.

Now it seemed that it should be related to the Garros Bandit Gang. Marquis Medea would not care about isolating ordinary people, but trying to curb the commercial development of Billy City would definitely cause conflict between the two places.

“Tell me what happened, and I’ll consider it,” Aslan knew that this conflict would break out sooner or later, and he didn’t mind taking the opportunity to make a profit and brush up his presence in front of Marquis Medea.

“This time, the Garros Bandit Gang broke the rules. They actually blocked all the roads and condoned other bandits and brigands to attack the chamber of commerce. Afterwards, they shamelessly said that it had nothing to do with them,” Shelson said, his whole body about to explode with anger.

Aslan’s mouth turned up at the thought of this. He looked at the bustling crowd around him, pulled Shelson to his side, and whispered for a while. Shelson’s eyes suddenly lit up, and he nodded excitedly, turning around and leading people to make arrangements.

Aslan glanced at the towering magic tower, his smile even brighter.

Chapter 38: Senior Brothers and Sisters

The next day, a major event occurred in Billy City. Several large merchant guilds’ caravans returned ahead of schedule, and the guards of the caravans were all injured and tattered, with the goods on the carriages also damaged. It was obvious that they had been attacked by bandits. Such things were not uncommon, but it was rare to see such a large-scale incident affecting so many caravans as today. Aslan stood at the window of the Flame Lady Hotel, quietly watching all this, already calculating his next steps in his mind, preparing in advance for all possible accidents. He wanted to make a fortune in this conflict, break the boundaries of communication between the two places in advance, and take this opportunity to develop rapidly. Knock, knock, knock! Three knocks sounded on the door. A trace of caution flashed in Aslan’s eyes, and he quickly put on his professional smile. It was faster than he expected! Aslan calmly opened the door. Generido, dressed impeccably, gave Aslan a magician’s salute. This ancient and complex etiquette was not even used by the oldest nobles. However, it had always been used in magician circles, especially on important public occasions. It was obvious that Generido’s advance this time represented a very important status, which was why he made such a grand salute. “Aslan, you really have refined an extraordinary magic item.” Generido said with a smile. Aslan quickly responded modestly, “Not at all! Just some insignificant little gadgets.” Aslan’s words were not just modesty. Although they greatly facilitated daily life, they were almost useless for the development of magic and combat. In the eyes of some old scholars, they were simply insignificant magic items. “You’re being modest! The teacher wants to see you. It seems we will be fellow disciples from now on.” Generido was also genuinely delighted because he had discovered a potential disciple for his teacher. “I will have to trouble my senior brother to take care of me in the future.” Aslan also exchanged a few polite words. Along the way, the two probed and complimented each other. This time, Aslan did not go to the first or second floor of the magic tower. Instead, he followed Generido and took the elevator directly to the top floor. “The first time you ride the Sky Elevator, you may feel a little uncomfortable for a short time, but you’ll get used to it.” Generido said with a smile, amused by Aslan’s constant looking around and touching after entering the Sky Elevator. Aslan smiled awkwardly and did not explain. After all, elevators were very common equipment in his previous life, and he was tired of seeing them. The Sky Elevator was designed very simply, like the freight elevators used on construction sites in his previous life. It relied entirely on experience to judge the floor number. Of course, you could also count each floor as you passed it. The activation of the Sky Elevator relied entirely on the magician’s magic power. A waist-high marble pillar rose in the center of the Sky Elevator. Above the pillar was a crystal ball. As long as magic power was input into the crystal ball, the Sky Elevator would move. The speed was a little faster than an elevator. After going up ten floors in one breath, a brief feeling of floating would occur. It was indeed a little uncomfortable for people riding it for the first time, but Aslan did not feel that way. He had once ridden a hundred-story building in one breath, so ten floors were nothing. Aslan followed behind Generido as if nothing had happened, which greatly surprised Generido. “Have you ridden the Sky Elevator before, Aslan?” Aslan shook his head. He couldn’t possibly say that he was tired of using it in his previous life. “Maybe I’m just more adaptable!” Aslan said with a smile. Generido laughed and walked towards the only door in the passage. As soon as he reached the door, the door seemed to open automatically as if it had intelligent sensing. Aslan deliberately glanced at the door. There was no doorman or anything like that. “Don’t bother looking. There can’t be any outsiders here. Can’t you feel it?” Generido asked with interest, obviously testing Aslan. Aslan’s eyes rolled, and he subconsciously closed his eyes, entering a meditative state in just a short moment. As he entered the meditative state, Marquis Medea walked out with seven people wearing mage robes, quietly watching Aslan. “Teacher!” “Yes! What do you think?” Marquis Medea asked with interest. Medea’s eldest disciple, Natal Bakilulu, carefully examined Aslan, clearly feeling the surrounding magic elements vibrating. Her purple eyes flashed with dazzling light. “This little junior brother is not bad, very interesting!” Natal’s evaluation made the other senior brothers and sisters couldn’t help but widen their eyes. They all knew Natal’s character very well. It was not an exaggeration to say that she was arrogant. Such a person was very strict with both people and things. Therefore, being able to be evaluated as “not bad” by Natal was extraordinary. At least when the other senior brothers and sisters first met Natal, the best evaluation was only “acceptable,” especially Generido, who was directly evaluated as “trash” by Natal. Aslan was in the midst of the magic elements, which were so rich that they were dozens or even hundreds of times more concentrated than outside. Everywhere he looked, there were colorful elemental light spots. He had expected this situation. The top floor of the magic tower was basically a special environment prepared for archmages to meditate, which was also the reason why the magic tower was so expensive to build. Meditating here for one day was several times, or even more, effective than in other places. As for magicians below the archmage level, they could not meditate here. It was easy to be burst by the violent magic elements, especially magicians below the magus level. Once they meditated, it was like opening the water valve of a washbasin, instantly sucking the water in the washbasin over. Once Aslan meditated here, the magic elements squeezed here would instantly squeeze towards him. Therefore, this was Marquis Medea’s entrance test for each disciple, to see if he could retreat safely from meditation. Of course, basically no one was able to withdraw from the meditative state on their own, but was rescued by Marquis Medea. The test was just to see how long Aslan could last. “How about I open a betting pool? Within one minute, one pays 0.7, within two minutes, one pays one, within three minutes, one pays two, and above three minutes, one pays five.” A frivolous voice sounded. The speaker was Olga. Olga was Marquis Medea’s second disciple, a young man with a head of green hair, handsome in appearance, even his eyes were green. Wearing a green magic robe, he was truly green from head to toe. As soon as Olga’s betting pool opened, the other senior brothers and sisters cheered and began to bet, only Generido and Natal did not bet, for a simple reason. They could not see through Aslan. One of the red-haired female magicians had the most indifferent reaction, not speaking from beginning to end, just watching Aslan with interest, but the position she stood in was vaguely opposed to Natal.

Chapter 39: Being Playful

Marquis Medea twisted her body, and a marble throne carved with delicate petals appeared behind her. She casually sat down and began to observe Aslan’s changes.

While it was bustling outside, Aslan tightly closed his sea of consciousness, not allowing a single bit of magical element to pour in. Instead, he used the surge of magical elements to temper his mental strength.

A mage’s advancement in rank is entirely based on mental strength, with magic power being secondary.

Mental strength is like a gun, and magic power is like bullets.

As long as the gun is advanced enough, even with fewer bullets, it can still kill.

The limit of a primary mage’s mental strength is 20 points. Breaking through 20 points signifies becoming an intermediate mage. As for each mage’s magic power value, it varies, and this entirely depends on talent.

Aslan was the type with poor talent, possessing only about two-thirds of the magic power of an average mage.

Using magical elements to冲击 mental strength was a method of training mental strength that was only discovered by a magus named Rhodes about forty years later. Subsequently, the strength of mages throughout the continent began to develop explosively, and magic began to become the mainstream of the continent.

This cultivation method has not yet been spread, so Aslan naturally had to make good use of it to strive to improve his strength.

While Aslan was diligently cultivating, the onlookers were completely dumbfounded.

Olga held a magical pocket watch and said with a shocked expression, “Five minutes have passed.”

Natal’s eyes were like torches, staring intently at Aslan. Marquis Medea was even more interested, slowly closing her eyes, wanting to see what Aslan was doing.

She saw Aslan’s weak soul constantly teasing the restless magical elements around him with his frail mental strength. Once the magical elements made any movement, he would immediately retreat back into the depths of his soul, allowing the soul to suffer the impact of the magical elements. However, Aslan had prepared in advance, arranging mental strength around his soul to block the impact of the magical elements.

It looked like he was having a lot of fun.

Marquis Medea withdrew from her meditation with a strange expression. Natal called out in confusion.

“Teacher!”

“Hmph, your little junior brother is a bit playful!” Marquis Medea said with a smile, gently waving her hand, and an invisible ripple spread out, dispersing the surrounding magical elements cleanly.

Aslan also suddenly woke up. He had actually immersed himself in cultivation, forgetting that he was currently in Medea’s Magic Tower.

Opening his eyes again, Aslan saw Medea, as well as seven strangers he had never seen before.

In his previous life, when Aslan rose to prominence, Marquis Medea was already on the verge of collapse, her entire mental state in disarray. Naturally, he avoided her, so he didn’t know much about Marquis Medea’s other direct disciples.

Because at that time, only one useless Gennalido remained by Marquis Medea’s side. The other disciples had successively fallen in the war.

“Student Aslan greets Teacher and senior brothers and sisters.” Aslan quickly saluted.

Olga nodded slightly as a greeting.

Natal, however, stared at Aslan with sharp eyes, making Aslan’s hair stand on end.

The other five also curiously sized up Aslan, but did not introduce themselves.

“Gennalido called you over, do you know why?” Marquis Medea asked unhurriedly.

Aslan quickly nodded.

“Student has already guessed some.”

Marquis Medea nodded in satisfaction, pointing to the red-haired girl next to her.

“She is your fifth senior sister, Maria. She is responsible for the maintenance of the entire Magic Tower. You can ask her about anything you don’t understand. I have other matters to attend to now, you may all leave!”

Seeing such a strange atmosphere, Aslan could only nod and follow his senior brothers and sisters downstairs.

On the fifth floor of the Magic Tower was the dormitory area for all disciples. Each person had a room, and in the middle was a huge living room.

The living room was very clean, not just clean in the ordinary sense, but spotless. Apart from the ceiling and floor, Aslan didn’t see any furniture or daily necessities.

Aslan counted, there were a total of nine rooms, which perfectly matched Marquis Medea’s nine direct disciples.

“Aslan, you are the last to enter, and also the youngest. From now on, we’ll call you Little Nine.” Maria finished speaking and pointed to the room in the corner, which would be Aslan’s room from now on.

Could Aslan refuse? Of course not. Moreover, to him, a name was just a code, so it didn’t matter what he was called.

The only thing he was worried about now was that he would need to live here for a long time.

“Um, Fifth Senior Sister, I still have a territory to manage, can I not live here?” Aslan asked timidly.

The others couldn’t help but be stunned when they heard Aslan’s words, and they all cast strange glances at Aslan.

There was actually a mage who didn’t want to live in the Magic Tower. He was simply a freak.

“Little Nine, you may not know how important the Magic Tower is to us mages.” Maria said subconsciously.

Aslan said something shocking, “My family also has two Magic Towers, so I know very well, but I must be responsible for my people.”

“Two Magic Towers!” Olga was instantly dumbfounded.

Natal frowned subconsciously.

Gennalido looked at Aslan with a monstrous expression.

As for the other senior brothers and sisters, they looked at Aslan like he was an idiot.

“It’s okay, do as you please. Gennalido also lives outside. Who told him his talent was too poor? Living in the Magic Tower is a waste.” Seventh Senior Brother Qatar said with a mocking expression.

Gennalido’s face immediately turned red, his eyes bloodshot, but he clenched his fists tightly, not saying a word.

Aslan had a premonition that if his strength wasn’t inferior to others, Gennalido would definitely attack, and it would be the kind that directly killed. At this time, Aslan realized that the relationship between Marquis Medea’s disciples wasn’t as close as a loving family in novels. Instead, it was clearly defined, especially when Marquis Medea wasn’t around. It could only be described as tense.

“I heard that Little Nine is from the Sala family in the capital. Then we should get close. I’m from the Bazier family.” Third Senior Sister Vattini said with a smile, obviously trying to win Aslan over to their side.

She was the red-haired female mage who had been standing on the side from the beginning.

Compared to Natal and the others who came from humble backgrounds, the four people led by Vattini were direct descendants of old noble families or magical families, and they had a natural sense of superiority towards commoners.

This was a struggle between conflicting classes, and it couldn’t be changed at all.

Logically speaking, Aslan should stand on Vattini’s side, but after hearing the Bazier family, his face instantly darkened, and the look he gave Vattini carried a hint of hatred.

The reason why he was driven out of the family was largely due to the efforts of the Bazier family’s first wife, who had also sent people to assassinate him multiple times on the road, until he arrived in the Melo region that these assassinations stopped.

Chapter 40: The Bazier Family

Not only was he driven out of the family, but Aslan’s biological mother died at that woman’s hands.

When he later rose to power, the Bazier family was his main opponent. In the end, they lost the struggle, and the Bazier family even tried to completely eradicate Aslan’s forces.

In both his past and present lives, the Bazier family was the family Aslan wanted to destroy the most, even more so than the Sara family that abandoned him.

Everyone felt Aslan’s naked malice and was somewhat baffled.

“Little Ninth, what do you mean by this?” Qatar asked, displeased, his eyes flashing fiercely, ready to lash out at any moment.

“What is the current strength of Third Senior Sister and Seventh Senior Brother?” Aslan asked, not answering the question.

“Third Senior Sister is a Great Magician, and I am a Senior Magician. What, Little Ninth, you want to challenge me?” Qatar said with interest.

“Challenge you? No, no, you are all my senior sisters and brothers.” Aslan quickly calmed down. After all, they were still fellow disciples, and to avoid arousing the displeasure of Marquis Medea, he could only back down for now.

He knew very well that with his current strength, he was definitely no match for the two of them. He needed to continue to lie low. As for whether his identity would be exposed, Aslan wasn’t worried at all.

The Sara family’s First Madam dealing with him was a private matter within the family. The Bazier family couldn’t possibly know. As for the struggle with the Bazier family, that was a matter of his previous life.

So in this life, Aslan had no grievances or hatred with the Bazier family. Naturally, no one would associate him with them.

As for developing the Bazier family into allies in this life, that was simply impossible, because their starting points and interests were opposed from the very beginning. There was no possibility of joining forces.

“Then what was that attitude of yours just now?” Qatar asked, dissatisfied.

“Whatever attitude you have towards Senior Brother Generaldo, that’s the attitude I have.” Aslan shrugged, not caring in the slightest.

After hearing Aslan’s words, Generaldo’s breathing quickened, and his eyes slowly turned red.

“Little Ninth Junior Brother, do we know each other?” Vartini asked curiously.

“We don’t! But I was brought into the fold by Senior Brother Generaldo. If you bully him like this, what’s the difference between that and bullying me?” Aslan said very seriously.

This was the persona he wanted to establish in front of all his senior brothers and sisters, to give them a kind of illusion.

That this little junior brother was worthy of their trust.

Sure enough, as soon as Aslan said this, not only Vartini, but even Olga revealed admiring smiles.

“Alright, let’s end this matter here.” Eldest Senior Sister Natal stepped forward and said.

In fact, Natal and the others also looked down on Generaldo. Generaldo’s talent was simply too poor. Although his magical knowledge was very solid, his strength was what it was. They weren’t research-type magicians, so naturally they wouldn’t take him seriously.

The other senior brothers dispersed one after another, with absolutely no intention of greeting Aslan, which made Aslan frown.

What on earth was this teacher doing? How could the relationship between his personal disciples be so tense? Perhaps Aslan understood why, in the end, Marquis Medea only had a useless Generaldo left.

With this tense relationship, as long as Marquis Medea showed a slight attitude of indifference, these people would definitely fight until their brains splattered.

He originally thought he was latching onto a golden goose, but now it seemed he was getting caught up in unnecessary struggles.

What a headache! Aslan and Generaldo visited his room together. The room was not big, only fifteen or sixteen square meters. It was empty inside, without even a chair. The dust on the ground was a thick layer.

“Fifth Senior Sister is a very lazy woman. Usually, only the places that the teacher often passes through and public places are arranged for people to clean. Most other places are like this. Only during the annual cleaning will these places be cleaned.” Generaldo said very awkwardly.

Aslan nodded thoughtfully.

He got an important piece of information from Generaldo’s words. This Fifth Senior Sister maintained absolute neutrality among all the senior brothers and sisters. Because she was also the manager of the magic tower, no matter which side dared not give her face.

“Fourth Senior Brother, who is managing Billy City now?” Aslan asked curiously.

That’s right! Generaldo, whose strength was only slightly higher than Aslan’s, was Marquis Medea’s fourth personal disciple.

Generaldo took a deep look at Aslan.

“The City Lord’s Mansion was originally controlled by the old noble Cullen family in the city, but it was taken down by the teacher some time ago. Now, the nominal City Lord is the teacher, but the person who truly controls it is Senior Sister Vartini.” Generaldo clearly emphasized the words “Senior Sister” when he said them.

It was evident that Generaldo harbored no small amount of resentment towards Vartini.

“The army is controlled by Eldest Senior Sister. Eldest Senior Sister has done this very well. Vartini has tried several times to send people to infiltrate, but all have failed.” Generaldo said unhurriedly.

Aslan’s eyes became even deeper. He seemed to have found a very crucial point that could become a breakthrough.

After returning from the magic tower, Aslan still stayed at the Flame Maiden Hotel, but it was not until midnight that Shelson secretly visited, accompanied by several other heads of chambers of commerce in Billy City.

“The plan is going smoothly.” Shelson said directly as soon as he entered the door.

“Yes! I am now a personal disciple of Marquis Medea.” Aslan threw out a reassurance at the right time.

Shelson and the other chamber of commerce heads couldn’t help but show joy.

Aslan looked at the moonlight outside the window and quietly fiddled with the water glass on the table. It was a completely wooden carved water glass, but it was coated with a layer of light wood lacquer, making the originally ordinary water glass extraordinarily luxurious.

Jason’s actions were faster than he expected.

It seemed that even after glazing, the response to pottery was still mediocre, but the lacquerware market should be good.

The Flame Maiden Hotel was, after all, a famous den of extravagance in Billy City, and also a trendsetter.

Knock, knock, knock! A knock on the door sounded.

Although the knocker deliberately controlled the force, it was still unusually harsh in the quiet environment of the night, especially for Shelson and those who were doing something with a guilty conscience, who couldn’t help but show fear.

Arthur took the initiative to open the door, and Generaldo, dressed in a black robe, walked in, complaining, “Why couldn’t you say it on the spot? Why did you have to wait until midnight…”

Generaldo didn’t say the second half of his sentence, because he saw several acquaintances in the room.

The reason why he said acquaintances was because Generaldo had been in Billy City for a long time, and he basically knew all the prominent figures in Billy City.

Generaldo just glanced at them, and his eyes immediately narrowed, because these people were all the heads of chambers of commerce who were attacked today. Their simultaneous appearance here, did it mean that this large-scale attack on the caravan was planned by someone with ulterior motives?

Chapter 41: What Does This Mean?

The thought that so many merchant guilds had secretly joined forces gave Generaldo a headache. This was a major event.

It seemed this little junior brother was no pushover. He had only just become a disciple and was already trying to make big moves.

“Little Nine, what do you mean by this?” Generaldo pulled out the chair directly opposite Aslan and sat down, asking with displeasure.

Originally, he was responsible for negotiating the magic lamp business with Aslan. Being called out by Aslan in the middle of the night already made him unhappy. If Aslan hadn’t stood up for him during the day, he wouldn’t have even bothered coming.

“Don’t rush, Senior Brother, please sit!” Aslan waved his hand slightly, and Arthur immediately served a cup of black tea.

“The magic lamp business is indeed important, but this matter concerns the life and death of Billy City, so I have to take it seriously,” Aslan began to exaggerate the situation.

Generaldo’s initial dissatisfaction slowly turned into seriousness. He had thought Aslan was preparing to make him compete with other merchant guilds for the sales rights of the magic lamps.

“Tell me about it!”

Aslan took out a report he had prepared.

“This is the data I’ve compiled in the past few days.”

Generaldo took it and couldn’t help but frown after just looking at the beginning.

In just three days, Billy City’s commercial tax revenue had decreased by twelve percent. This data was terrifying, especially considering that Billy City was currently the largest commercial city in the Melorx Province.

“What are you trying to say?” Generaldo already had some understanding in his heart. His eyes shot out a sharp light, staring directly into Aslan’s eyes.

“Someone in the City Lord’s Mansion is covering for the Garros Bandit Group,” Aslan said without any hesitation.

Although he had expected it, Generaldo still couldn’t help but gasp.

“But we have no evidence, so we can’t accuse the City Lord’s Mansion,” Generaldo quickly shook his head, saying helplessly.

“We don’t need to accuse them. We just need to let our eldest senior sister decide,” Aslan said with a mysterious smile.

Generaldo’s eyes lit up immediately. Only the representatives of the Xiersen and other merchant guilds still looked puzzled. Obviously, they were not aware of the discord between Marquis Medea’s disciples.

“Maintain the current situation for the next few days. If necessary, wipe out a few small merchant teams to create a sense of panic. The effect will be even better then.”

Aslan sipped his black tea elegantly, speaking slowly and calmly.

Generaldo and Xiersen’s eyelids twitched slightly. They finally realized how black-hearted this young Master Aslan was. For the sake of the plan, he was willing to sacrifice so many innocent lives. Even Xiersen, who had lived to this age, couldn’t do such a thing so decisively.

Everyone nodded in agreement. Although they were surprised by Aslan’s methods and ruthlessness, this matter concerned their vital interests. Once they were pushed to the brink, they would do even worse.

After the group continued to discuss and supplemented possible scenarios, Xiersen quietly left with the merchant guild representatives, leaving only Aslan and Generaldo.

“Little Nine, what exactly is your purpose in doing this?” Generaldo waved his hand, asking Arthur to refill his tea.

Aslan’s hand kept turning the handle of the teacup. After a long time, he finally said, “I hope all my senior brothers and sisters are a united group. Only then can we ensure our strength and maximize our interests, instead of wasting time on this unimportant infighting.”

Generaldo was also an old man. Naturally, he wouldn’t believe Aslan’s nonsense. From tonight onward, he would no longer treat Aslan as an immature teenager.

Coupled with his performance during the day, this guy was a viper, always lurking in the dark, looking for opportunities. Once the opportunity matured, he would not hesitate to bare his fangs.

“Hehe!” Generaldo just smiled slightly, without answering. Obviously, he didn’t trust what Aslan said.

Aslan knew that if he didn’t get Generaldo on his bandwagon today, it would be extremely difficult to carry out his future plans.

Generaldo might be the weakest among the senior brothers, but in Billy City, even in Melorx Province, he had the widest network of contacts.

“Okay, I’ll tell you the truth. Melorx Province is too small and not suitable for our development. If we want to go further, we must leave this place,” Aslan said with a serious expression.

Generaldo was surprised by Aslan’s ambition, and at the same time, he was also impressed by Aslan’s shamelessness. In order to achieve his own ambition, he could actually say it was for their future.

They had only just become senior brothers!

“Arizona Province produces a mysterious natural liquid. I don’t know what it is, because I saw it in the family’s collection of books. That liquid is called the Elemental Holy Spring. Legend has it that it can improve a magician’s magical talent and affinity for magical elements,” Aslan said mysteriously.

This was true. Aslan had obtained it in his previous life and successfully improved his magical aptitude and talent by one level. However, the price he paid to obtain the Elemental Holy Spring back then was too great, and he still felt the pain to this day.

Generaldo, who was still nonchalant, suddenly opened his eyes wide after hearing this and stared straight at Aslan.

“Is this true?”

Aslan nodded very affirmatively. This legend was not a secret. Any magician who reached the level of a magic导师 knew about it. He believed that Marquis Medea also had this book in her collection.

“I saw it in a book. Why don’t we go to the teacher’s library and look for it?”

Without saying a word, Generaldo pulled Aslan up, ready to leave. Aslan was so frightened that he quickly stopped him. If they went to the magic tower at this time, although they wouldn’t be denied entry, it would easily make Mariu suspicious of them.

“What exactly do you want to do? Have you thought about how this will offend those two senior sisters?” Generaldo’s face was full of melancholy.

If he really offended the two senior sisters, his future days would be even more difficult.

“My idea is very simple. Like fifth senior sister, maintain absolute neutrality. When necessary, we can influence the decisions of both sides. Only then can we ensure that our interests are not harmed. Otherwise, we will be killed by their infighting sooner or later,” Aslan said with an unusually serious expression.

In his previous life, only Generaldo was left among Marquis Medea’s disciples. It was probably for this reason. They were still fighting internally when facing a formidable enemy, not supporting each other, and even possibly stabbing each other in the back. It would be a problem if they didn’t die.

“Senior sisters, they shouldn’t, right!” Generaldo said with a pale face.

In fact, even he himself didn’t believe this, because he was very clear about the conflict between the two sides. It was completely a class conflict and could not be reconciled at all.

“Senior brother, you should think about this matter carefully. We’ll go check the library tomorrow. I’ll have to trouble you to keep an eye on the situation in Billy City. I have urgent matters and must go back. If there’s any situation, send someone to contact me,” Aslan said decisively. He didn’t want to give Generaldo a chance to refuse.

Chapter 42: Good News Comes from Aslan’s Room

After leaving Aslan’s room with one more thing on his mind, General walked along Billy Avenue, the central street of Billy City. Even though it was already night, it was still brightly lit, showing its prosperity.

As the cool night breeze blew, General quickly calmed down. After careful consideration, he decided to help Aslan after all. He knew very well that this matter required cooperation with Aslan. His current limit was already there. Relying on his own strength, it was impossible for him to obtain the Elemental Holy Spring.

Not to mention, if he handled this well, his position in his teacher’s eyes would greatly improve, or it might even be possible for him to become another neutral faction under his teacher’s command, alongside Aslan.

For both personal and public reasons, he had to help Aslan.

The next morning, the sky was just beginning to lighten when Aslan led his Knight Guard and tens of thousands of pounds of grain back to Mello Town.

It wasn’t that he didn’t want to buy more, but relying on the abilities of the Balance Merchant Guild, it was already not easy to gather such a batch of grain in a few days. Moreover, Aslan wasn’t worried, because he would be going to Billy City again soon. As long as he could solve the immediate need, that was enough.

The return trip wasn’t as rushed as the journey there, but facing the bumpy road, Aslan was still very dissatisfied.

As a great man in his previous life often said, “To get rich, first build roads.”

“If we were to repair this road, how much funding and manpower would it require?” Aslan muttered with dissatisfaction.

Arthur said with a stiff face, “At least ten thousand gold coins, a thousand workers, and a year’s time.”

Aslan nodded, just as they arrived in front of Gullen Mountain.

“Do we have to go around Gullen Mountain every time we go back?” Aslan looked at Gullen Mountain, which wasn’t very high, and asked curiously.

“We have to go around. Don’t think Gullen Mountain isn’t high; its altitude is already close to five hundred meters. Because the mountain road is rugged, it actually takes more time and effort to walk than to go around.”

Arthur continued to explain. Recently, he had discovered that this master of his had a very big imagination. He suddenly became very worried that the lord might ask them to hollow out Gullen Mountain.

“Hmm!” Aslan nodded. In his previous life, he indeed didn’t dig a tunnel through Gullen Mountain because his strength and economy didn’t allow it. But this life was different.

With the support of Marquis Medea and a large group of mages as his backing, he had full confidence in digging a tunnel through Gullen Mountain. When that time came, going from Mello Town to Billy City would be a straight line, a distance of only eight hundred kilometers. Plus, with a cement road, travel would be convenient, and a round trip could be made in a day.

Here, Aslan had to admit the speed of warhorses in this other world. Traveling a thousand miles a day was standard. Those warhorses with the bloodline of magical beasts or divine beasts could double their speed, or even more.

A top-quality steed with a speed of three hundred kilometers per hour made Aslan couldn’t help but laugh. It could be compared to a Bugatti Veyron from his previous life.

When Aslan returned with a dozen grain-laden carriages, it caused quite a stir in Mello Town. They didn’t expect the lord to return with grain so quickly. Although they could tell at a glance that the amount of grain brought back wasn’t much, it was enough to last for a while. In particular, some idle hunters had already begun to organize manpower to go to the forest to harvest those wild jackfruit, which also added a lot of grain reserves to the warehouse.

At this time, Mello Town could be described as united in purpose and of one mind.

Aslan jumped off his warhorse, and Wilson and Essien hurried over.

“Lord!”

“Hmm! Let’s talk inside if there’s something.” Aslan waved his hand.

Both of them had restrained and solemn expressions on their faces.

Entering Aslan’s office, Aslan took off his belt and hung it along with his longsword on the coat rack. He casually threw his noble robe onto the back of the chair before finally stretching lazily with satisfaction.

He really didn’t like the noble’s robes. Not only were they inconvenient to wear, but they were also very troublesome to move around in. Most importantly, they were loose and uncomfortable to wear, unlike the short-sleeved T-shirt he was wearing now.

“You were in such a hurry to find me. Did something happen?” Aslan sat back in his original position, changing his initial laziness, his eyes sharp, and asked seriously.

“The village chief of Mace Village, Johnson, wants to see the lord. Your subordinate believes that Mace Village wants to rely on the lord and become your subjects,” Wilson said with a smile.

Mace Village was the most powerful village in the Mello region, without a doubt.

Its population had already exceeded three thousand people, and it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call it a small town. The armed forces in the village were also very powerful, and even the Kaimen Bandit Group didn’t dare to attack it.

Aslan immediately thought of the white-haired old man, who was a mid-level mage.

He might be nothing in Billy City, after all, it was the magical holy land of the Merlocks Province, but in other regions, he was considered a big shot.

“Alright, Wilson, go and arrange it. We must show our importance to Mace Village,” Aslan said with a smile.

If he could subdue Mace Village, plus the original population, the population of Mello Town would break ten thousand.

This was a great happy event, and with Mace Village as an example, he believed that those people hiding in the remote mountains and valleys of the Mello region would slowly get the news.

Aslan knew very well how many people there were in the Mello region. In his previous life, when Aslan completely controlled the Mello region, he even mobilized the army to conduct a census.

The total population exceeded five hundred thousand, and this didn’t even include the people who later immigrated from other regions.

“Essien, what good news do you have to tell me!” Aslan asked in a good mood.

“Yes! Lord, remember that scar-faced bandit? He is willing to lead his men to surrender, and he is also willing to persuade the people in the stronghold to surrender,” Essien said with a smug look.

“Oh!” Aslan naturally knew about the Kaimen Bandit Group’s stronghold. When he defeated the Kaimen Bandit Group in his previous life, he also annexed the population of the stronghold.

The Kaimen Bandit Group’s stronghold had a full six thousand old, young, women, and children, with women and children accounting for four-fifths of the population. Almost every bandit could be assigned a wife, and the stronger professionals had several wives.

At that time, Lancelot ridiculed whether the bandits of the Kaimen Bandit Group were all a group of people who couldn’t find wives and became bandits.

Seeing Aslan’s silence, Essien thought that Aslan didn’t want to accept the unstable factors of the Kaimen Bandit Group’s stronghold, and suddenly became a little anxious.

“Lord! Those people are all family members of the bandits, but many of them were robbed and have no sense of belonging to the bandit group at all. Many even have hatred, so there is no need to worry that they will have different intentions.”

Hearing Essien’s explanation, Aslan couldn’t help but laugh. He was just considering how many people there were in the Kaimen Bandit Group’s stronghold now. After all, he had miscalculated the number of the Kaimen Bandit Group last time, and he didn’t want to make such a mistake again this time.

Chapter 43: Treasure

“What about the Treasure Gate’s treasure?” Aslan said, waving his hand. Essin added, “That Scarface said he wants to talk to you personally.”

Aslan tapped the table, considering it for a long time before saying, “Alright! I’ll go see him now.”

Actually, Aslan knew the location of the Treasure Gate’s treasure, but he didn’t want to cause too much of a stir, because he couldn’t explain why he knew the location. That’s why he delayed asking about it until now. It wasn’t going anywhere anyway.

Inside the city lord’s underground prison. Cold and damp was the uniform style of this type of building.

As soon as Aslan entered the prison, he subconsciously rubbed his nose. The stench was heavy and disgusting.

Scarface, because he was a high-level swordsman, was being held separately in the city lord’s prison. He was guarded by the Knight’s Guard on a daily basis, so it was considered safe.

“What’s your name?” Aslan stood directly in front of Scarface, looking down at him.

Scarface glanced at Aslan, a flash of light passing through his eyes. He took difficult steps and knelt on one knee before Aslan.

“Alfonso! No surname.” Alfonso said with difficulty.

He only ate one meal a day, and the bones in his shoulders were clamped with iron pincers, preventing him from exerting any strength.

Alfonso didn’t know what this torture device was called. He only heard them say it was called a “Pipa Lock,” specifically used to lock a prisoner’s collarbones. Even a Great Swordsman would have their combat power reduced by seventy or eighty percent when locked with a Pipa Lock.

“Give me one reason why I should accept your allegiance.” Aslan’s tone was unhurried, carrying an indescribable air of authority.

“I am willing to offer my soul, only seeking a stable identity for my family.” After thinking for a moment, Alfonso changed from kneeling on one knee to kneeling on both knees, pressing his once proud head tightly to the ground.

If the iron bars of the prison cell weren’t in the way, he would have wanted to place his head directly on Aslan’s leather shoes.

Hearing that he was willing to offer his soul, Aslan’s expression shifted.

The so-called offering of one’s soul was to sign a master-servant contract with the host, becoming the host’s slave, unable to betray them for life. Moreover, upon the host’s death, the slave would also die with the host due to the slave contract, euphemistically called dying for their master.

This was also why the slave population in the West Sino Continent was so large, yet there had never been a slave rebellion.

It wasn’t that they were unwilling, but that they were powerless.

“For your family.” Aslan smiled and paced back and forth. “What about the Treasure Gate’s treasure?”

Alfonso didn’t raise his head, still maintaining his prostrate position, and said, “If the lord agrees to my request, I will naturally lead the lord to dig up the Treasure Gate’s treasure.”

“Heh!” Aslan clapped his hands with a smile. “You have guts! Someone, take him to the hall.”

“Yes!”

Alfonso was dragged out. They were all members of the Knight’s Guard, Aslan’s absolute direct subordinates. Even if Alfonso was a high-level swordsman, he would still serve under Aslan in the future. They were confident that they wouldn’t like Alfonso.

Because of Alfonso, they had been stuck in this hellhole for so many days. It would be a problem if they didn’t have any resentment.

After throwing Alfonso into the city lord’s hall, Aslan slowly sat down in front of him and asked, “Have you thought it through? Do you want me to give you a few more days to consider?”

Alfonso nodded firmly, glancing at the knights around him who were watching him like tigers eyeing their prey. Alfonso really wanted to complain about Aslan’s twisted sense of humor.

If he dared to go back on his word, without Aslan even saying anything, the surrounding knights would definitely chop him into mincemeat.

“I swear to serve the lord with my life!” Alfonso said very straightforwardly while lying on the ground.

Aslan began to chant a spell.

“With the gods as witness, with the earth as the contract, with the element of time as the shackle…”

A huge magic circle slowly appeared under Alfonso’s feet. Although Alfonso had been mentally prepared, he still felt an indescribable bitterness in his mouth, and was extremely sorrowful.

“Alfonso, are you willing to become my, Aslan Sala’s, servant?”

This was a prerequisite for the combination of magic contracts. As long as Alfonso refused, the magic circle would actively dissipate. If Alfonso actively accepted, the slave contract would be integrated into Alfonso’s body, restraining his every word and action in the future.

“I, Alfonso, am willing to become Aslan Sala’s most loyal servant.” Alfonso said very straightforwardly.

The magic circle spun rapidly, integrating into Alfonso’s body with colorful light.

A dazzling light also erupted in the city lord’s hall, splashing outwards, allowing many people to see the situation in the city lord’s mansion.

The people looked at this scene with extraordinary joy, because they already knew that their great lord was a mysterious and powerful magician.

The light dissipated, and the hall returned to its original lighting. Aslan changed the coldness on his face and waved his hand with a smile.

“Take Alfonso to rest. We’ll set off for the stronghold tomorrow.”

Alfonso bowed his head. Now that he had become the other party’s servant, he naturally couldn’t lack the proper posture.

Watching Alfonso’s departing back, Aslan couldn’t help but laugh loudly.

Arthur asked, puzzled, “Young master! What’s making you so happy?”

Aslan walked to the large map of the Melo region, pointed at the map, and said, “See here? As long as we open up the road here, the Melo region will become the second Billy region in the future.”

Arthur rolled his eyes after hearing this. He remembered Aslan’s planning for the passage leading to Billy City on the way back.

This project was simply too large, even terrifying.

Willson and Essin didn’t know about this. After hearing Aslan’s words, they couldn’t help but be extremely excited.

They had struggled for a lifetime, just to allow the people of Melo Town to escape their poor and difficult lives.

“If you want to get rich, build roads first! You must remember this. How is the cement production going?” Aslan suddenly remembered a very crucial matter and quickly asked.

The importance of cement to Aslan’s future development was beyond doubt.

Whether it was residential houses, city walls, roads, or other facilities, they all couldn’t do without cement.

“The cement factory has been built. It can produce 250 kilograms of cement every day. The warehouse has already accumulated more than ten tons of cement.” Willson said with some headache when it came to cement.

Although the production of cement relied entirely on those slaves and didn’t require paying wages, the materials for the cement were all bought with real money. Not to mention the slaves’ daily food, which was a considerable expense.

“Only ten tons!” Aslan said with great regret.

With Willson’s rigorous personality, he hadn’t even clearly stated the true amount of cement, which showed that he had been really busy recently, and was also somewhat dissatisfied with the cement factory only taking in and not giving out.

“Lord, what do you need so much cement for?” Willson asked in confusion.

“To build houses! What about the brick factory?” Aslan didn’t care about the dissatisfaction in Willson’s words and continued to ask.

Chapter 44: Building Construction

Hearing about the brick factory, Wilson’s tone softened considerably. The effect of cement was still unclear, but from the moment the bricks were produced, Wilson immediately realized their importance.

If this stuff were used to build city walls, it would be many times more convenient and faster. Just thinking about the walls surrounding Melo Town, Wilson couldn’t help but get excited.

The main building materials in this world are stone, especially for city walls and castles, which are made of huge stones processed into stone bricks. This is why Meloques Province is so large, yet has only three main cities.

Without city walls, it can only be called a town. No matter how large the scale, it cannot be called a main city.

Of course, besides stone bricks, there are also stone bricks produced by mages using earth magic. The price of these magic stone bricks is not cheaper than stone-processed bricks. Most importantly, magic stone bricks are more beautiful than ordinary stone bricks and have more magic resistance.

It is said that the outer walls of the entire Billy City are made of magic stone bricks.

As for the houses built by civilians, they are either wooden huts or thatched cottages. Those with better conditions use clay and “Geli juice” to make earthen cement and build them with stones.

Although this “Geli leaf” is not expensive and can be collected casually in the mountains, the process of processing it into “Geli juice” is very cumbersome. It takes at least half a year to build an earthen house, and only wealthy farmers’ families generally have such houses.

“Two hundred fifty-six thousand four hundred fifty-four red bricks have already been produced,” Wilson said very excitedly.

He was already preparing to propose that Aslan build city walls and had even begun to survey the terrain.

“What about the steel bars?” Aslan was also a little excited. In his previous life, after mastering reinforced concrete, he built many high-rise buildings, even surpassing many magic towers in height, which angered many archmages.

In this life, Aslan certainly wouldn’t make such a mistake again, but no matter what, buildings are much better than the old-fashioned houses in this world, and they save land space.

“Six hundred thirty-two steel bars have been forged according to the lord’s specifications.” After Wilson finished speaking, he asked with some doubt, “Lord, what do you want these steel bars for? More than five meters long, it’s too long to be a dragon lance, right?”

“Of course, it’s for building houses.” Aslan said with joy when he heard that there were more than two hundred steel bars.

Wilson and Essien were completely stunned. Wilson was the first to react and asked, “Is the lord going to rebuild the city lord’s mansion?”

Aslan shook his head firmly and said, “Now the population of Melo Town is increasing too fast, and simple wooden houses cannot meet the housing needs at all, so I plan to build a batch of houses and reward them to those who have contributed to Melo Town all along.”

Hearing Aslan’s words, Essien and Wilson couldn’t help but feel awe.

“Lord is benevolent! You are as great and benevolent as an angel from heaven.” Wilson and Essien respectfully gave Aslan a big salute.

Aslan waved his hand indifferently and said, “Wilson, immediately start collecting statistics on the people who have contributed to Melo Town all along, whether they are soldiers, officials, or civilians, even slaves are no exception, collect them all for me.”

“Yes!” Wilson had already obtained a set of merit value statistics plans from Aslan, and he had been preparing for it all this time.

“Essien, speed up the planning of the urban area. This building will be built in the planned new urban area.”

“Yes! Lord!” Essien had long been dissatisfied with the current chaotic Melo Town, because too many people had poured in, and many houses were illegally built, causing the roads in the entire Melo Town to be very chaotic, making this old guy who had lived in Melo Town for decades get lost when he went out.

If Wood Fortress hadn’t shared some of the population, Essien would have gone crazy.

As for subduing the Armor Gate Stronghold, Aslan didn’t need to do it himself, because he was also very busy. The new urban area had already been planned, so he chose a pre-planned residential area, which was about three kilometers away from the old urban area.

He took out the drawings he had drawn and began to explain to Essien and the most outstanding group of house builders in Melo Town.

Gawain took Alfonso to the Armor Gate Stronghold, accompanied by two hundred Melo soldiers.

Speaking of Gawain, Aslan had a headache.

A fair-skinned uncle who often has a gentle smile on his face. Although he is extremely serious, he does not have the overly heavy posture of Arthur. He is very polite and friendly to everyone.

Although he can be impulsive, because there are no negative emotions such as jealousy or resentment, he gives people a refreshing feeling no matter what kind of battlefield he is in. As Lancelot said.

“Being as unobjectionable as him is already a talent.”

Therefore, Aslan has always liked to hand over things that are not very serious to him to deal with. He died in the previous life in the crusade against the Armor Gate Bandit Group. The history of this life has changed, and Aslan is very much looking forward to his future achievements.

When leading the team into the construction site, Gawain gave Aslan a knight’s salute very respectfully.

Aslan nodded very helplessly. This is what gave him the biggest headache about Gawain, a person who has completely engraved etiquette in his bones.

The Melo soldiers behind him saw Gawain’s actions and quickly followed suit. They didn’t want to be punished by the etiquette madman Gawain for this little thing.

Alfonso was also a seasoned veteran who had been around for many years. Although he had not learned knight etiquette, he still imitated it.

At the same time, he was secretly surprised by Aslan’s prestige in the army.

Hearing that the lord was going to build a house, a large number of residents came to help early in the morning. They were sincerely willing to help.

Aslan circled the planned area with a red line, pointed to that area and said, “It’s here, dig a pit here.”

As soon as these words came out, everyone looked at the lord in front of them with a dazed expression.

Those who didn’t know thought Aslan was going to build a basement.

“Lord! This…” Essien wanted to continue to persuade Aslan to give up this strange idea, but Arthur had long been accustomed to it. Seeing the lord’s order, he no longer doubted the lord’s determination to dig through the Valley Wheel Mountain.

“Don’t talk so much nonsense, dig one out according to the specifications and depth I specified.”

In the end, Aslan was too annoyed to explain and directly issued an order with the air of a lord.

Sure enough, after hearing Aslan’s order, all the workers obediently began to dig the pit.

More than a hundred people, digging a rectangular pit that is one point five meters deep and four hundred square meters in size, relying on manual labor, will take at least two days.

Compared to an excavator that can complete it in less than two days, the importance of industrial production can be seen.

Chapter 45: Sending You Home

Little did they know that while Aslan was digging the pit, he scared many of the bandits who were originally unwilling to surrender into doing so. They thought Aslan was digging a pit to bury them alive, resulting in Aslan gaining over two hundred more slaves for nothing. After all, the Kingdom of Cleveland has always had a tradition of burying prisoners alive in pits.

The two days passed in a flurry of activity, so fleeting they could only be described as ephemeral.

When Aslan returned to the construction site, the foundation pit had already been dug. Aslan handed the blueprints to Lomen and said calmly, “I’ve explained a lot to you these past two days. Follow the blueprints, and come ask me if you don’t understand.”

Aslan was actually just a dabbler himself. Fortunately, he had developed quite a few properties in his previous life, so he could be considered a half-expert. Therefore, Aslan understood architectural blueprints to some extent, but he had never studied them professionally, so the blueprints he drew were a bit rough, and it would take some time to understand them.

Lomen was the oldest and most experienced construction worker in Melo Town. Many of the houses in the town were built with Lomen’s help.

While Aslan was explaining the key points to Lomen, Arthur and Gawain returned with a large group. The team of thousands was massive, pulling hundreds of carriages behind them. However, upon closer inspection, over eighty percent of the convoy consisted of women and children.

As the saying goes, three women can create a drama, but this many women were unexpectedly quiet. No, it should be said, deathly silent. Many of the women carried an aura of despair and resignation.

Aslan had experienced this once before in his previous life and knew exactly what these kidnapped women were thinking. Those women who already had children might still have a glimmer of hope to live on.

Aslan stood quietly at the front of the group, not saying a word, unusually silent. But his gaze never left the group before him.

Gawain wanted to step forward to salute, but Aslan waved his hand to stop him, letting the people in the group understand that the man before them was the lord of this town, the same young man who had killed Kaimon.

Minute after minute passed. Aslan didn’t speak, and no one else dared to speak. The work on the construction site had stopped at some point, and everyone was quietly giving Aslan their full attention.

Silence and joy are both contagious. Silence is different from joy, containing too many emotions, and is more complex.

Unlike the slaves and the surrendered members of Kaimon’s bandit gang, every resident of Melo Town looked at Aslan with deep fanaticism and reverence.

The first to buckle under this strange atmosphere were the deeply sinful slaves. After someone took the lead, they knelt on the ground in terror.

Aslan didn’t look at the slaves, but swept his gaze over the surrendered bandits. The surrendered bandits originally wanted to be tough, but under Aslan’s sharp and cold gaze, their bodies trembled slightly, especially when they saw the huge pit not far away.

Unable to withstand this silent pressure, the surrendered bandits began to kneel, praying that Aslan would not kill them.

A large area around them had already knelt down, but Aslan still didn’t speak, his gaze fixed on the people from Kaimon’s stronghold. No one dared to look Aslan in the eye.

Even the few who weren’t afraid to die trembled instinctively after staring at Aslan for about ten seconds. They were afraid, but they didn’t know what they were afraid of. Until only the women and children were left in the group, some of the children began to sob softly in this strange and oppressive atmosphere.

Aslan let out a long breath.

The entire space seemed to cool down because of this breath, and the bodies of the bandits and surrendered bandits kneeling on the ground trembled even more violently.

“You are free! I am the lord of the Melo region, and it is because of my incompetence that you have suffered so much.” Aslan’s voice was a little hoarse, giving people an indescribable sense of sorrow.

The residents of Melo Town couldn’t help but recall the days when they didn’t have enough to eat, and their eyes turned red.

“I will help you find your families and send you home.”

Upon hearing the words “family” and “home,” the originally suppressed atmosphere could no longer be contained. Someone took the lead. “Wah!” Cries echoed through the heavens and earth.

Whether it’s laughter or crying, both are contagious. Many of the onlookers also began to shed tears, and wails filled the air. The barbarian tribe who were originally working in the farmland were stunned when they heard such a large-scale cry.

Lanning and his teacher’s expressions changed drastically. Without saying a word, they picked up the weapons in their hands and rushed towards the source of the crying.

They were extremely worried and afraid. Could it be that Lord Aslan was in danger? Otherwise, why would so many people be crying? But when Lanning led his people to the scene, they were completely dumbfounded. Thousands of women and children were crying, making their scalps tingle.

“Everyone!” Aslan shouted, but the crying didn’t diminish. He could only use amplification magic.

“Everyone, be quiet! I will have people register those who want to go home. As long as you are in the Melo region, I will send troops to escort you home. Kaimon’s bandit gang is finished. You don’t have to worry about being raided by bandits anymore. Go back and live a good life.” Aslan said with a smile.

He knew very well that more than half of these women would not be able to return. Their homes had long been burned down by Kaimon’s bandit gang.

“Lord! My family has already been killed by those beasts. I have nowhere to go…” A woman, holding her four- or five-year-old child, knelt down in front of Aslan, saying with a painful expression.

She had nowhere to go. If Aslan was unwilling to take in her and her child, they would only starve to death sooner or later.

Aslan looked at the child’s dirty face and the tattered clothes, which showed that their life in the bandit gang was not good.

Aslan squatted down, not caring about the dirt on the child’s face, and gently wiped it.

“Little one, are you willing to become my subject?”

The child looked at his mother in confusion. The mother said with tears of joy, “Yes! We are willing!”

Aslan nodded and said, “Essen, register them. As long as they are willing to join Melo Town, from now on, they will be my subjects, Aslan Sala.”

“I will take responsibility. I swear here that I, Aslan Sala, will protect the interests of all the people in my territory with my life, and prevent our homes from being invaded by any foreign forces. If there are any invaders, I will lead the warriors of the Melo army to hunt them down to the end.”

After Aslan said the last word, he raised his fist high.

“Kill! For the Melo region!” “Kill! For the people of Melo!” “Kill! For our home!”

With a simple declaration, the scene was silent, and the original people of Melo showed proud smiles.

Chapter 46: Salary

Wilson’s eyes flickered as he watched Aslan, silently recording Aslan’s words. He planned to erect a stone tablet at the entrance of the new district, engraving Aslan’s declaration on it. “Let’s call it the Declaration of Guardianship!” Wilson secretly named the declaration.

Essien was having a headache settling these poor women, especially those who still planned to return home, registering them one by one. This was a lot of work. Coupled with the daily needs of the City Lord’s Mansion, Essien would be exhausted even if he had three heads and six arms. He used to be too idle, but now he was working like a dog every day. “Lord! The City Lord’s Mansion is severely understaffed, which will seriously affect many of the upcoming tasks.” Essien said to Aslan with a bitter face.

Aslan also rubbed his head with a headache. This was the biggest drawback of the Melo region: insufficient talent reserves. “I’m already considering this. In a while, when the group of people Wilson is training are ready, we’ll open a college and cultivate our own talent.” Aslan said helplessly.

Arthur walked over with Alfonso’s family. Aslan glanced at Alfonso’s wife in surprise. It wasn’t that Aslan was into married women, but Alfonso’s wife gave Aslan a very special feeling. A scholarly family, a cultured person. Aslan looked at Alfonso with a strange gaze. It was truly a Beauty and the Beast combination.

Arthur wanted to speak, but Aslan stopped him. “Alfonso, is this your wife?” Aslan’s question made Alfonso’s face change slightly. He thought Aslan, like Kaimen, also wanted to take advantage of his wife. “Lord! She is my wife.” Alfonso said with an ugly expression, as if declaring his sovereignty. But Aslan directly ignored him. He finally understood why he had that feeling. This temperament was exactly the same as Wilson’s. Because they were both scholars. The erudition of scholars was different from that of mages. The two were like liberal arts students and science students. In this world, scholars were the highest title for knowledge and culture, equivalent to PhD professors in his previous life. “Madam, may I ask if you are a scholar?” Aslan asked very politely, performing a noble etiquette.

When Hilkin initially saw Aslan’s fervent gaze, she was also startled. She thought she had just escaped the wolf’s den only to fall into a tiger’s lair, but after hearing Aslan’s greeting, she breathed a sigh of relief. Hilkin lifted the corners of her skirt with both hands, her left toe touching the heel of her right foot, and gently curtsied, a very standard lady’s etiquette. “My father was a famous scholar in Kex City. I have always studied by my father’s side, but I have not participated in the scholar examination, so I don’t know where my level has reached.”

Alfonso stared blankly at his wife, who was chatting and laughing with Aslan, completely dumbfounded. At this time, he also understood Aslan’s attitude towards Hilkin, which did not contain any lust. But he really couldn’t figure out what about his wife could make Aslan value her. “Knowledge is power! I will trouble Madam Hilkin with the college. When we get back, I must introduce you to Wilson. He is the only scholar in my Melo Town. I believe you should have a lot to talk about.” Aslan said with a smile. In reality, he was also planning to have Wilson assess Hilkin’s level to see if she was qualified to be the dean of the college.

Hilkin seemed to see through Aslan’s plan and nodded with a smile. After Hilkin and her father were captured by the Kaimen bandit group, she had no choice but to marry Alfonso. After the marriage, Alfonso treated her with respect, so Hilkin and her father also took this opportunity to continue their studies. Without unnecessary socializing, their knowledge could be said to have improved by leaps and bounds. Unfortunately, her father died of illness in a year, otherwise, he might have had the opportunity to take the examination to become a great scholar. Although Hilkin had not participated in the examination, her father had said many times that she would have no problem passing the scholar examination. People become strong because of confidence. This was most appropriate for Hilkin. Now, there were not three people in the entire Melo Town who could chat with Aslan so calmly.

Alfonso and his daughter, Irene, both looked at Hilkin with admiration. When Hilkin was arranged in an independent small courtyard, a courtyard that was countless times better than their place in the mountain stronghold, Irene jumped up excitedly. “Mom, you were so amazing just now! I feel like you’re even more amazing than Dad.”

Hilkin rubbed Irene’s head and said with a smile, “Lord’s saying that knowledge is power is very good. Irene, if you want to cultivate with your father, Mom won’t stop you, but you can’t neglect your studies.” Hearing that she had to study, Irene’s face immediately fell. Hilkin was also full of anticipation. She had learned from Aslan about the construction of schools, and that Melo would establish a complete education system including primary schools, middle schools, and universities in the future. From Aslan’s educational philosophy, Hilkin could see that Aslan was different from other lords, who only wanted to squeeze their people, wishing that the people under their command were a group of mindless pig-like beasts. He was a good lord who sincerely cared for his people. “Alfonso, you did the right thing this time. Although our lord is young, he will definitely be the greatest lord in the Melo region in the future, passed down through the ages.”

Hilkin did not know that Alfonso had signed a slave contract with Aslan. She thought that Alfonso had surrendered voluntarily. Alfonso smiled wryly, but when he saw the clean and bright small courtyard in front of him, he couldn’t help but think. “It seems like this is not bad either!” “I heard that all officials in Melo Town have salaries, and daily expenses have to be purchased with money. Although we have saved some money over the years, we can’t just sit and eat our savings. How much is your salary?” Hilkin said while unloading things from the handcart.

Hearing the word salary, Alfonso suddenly felt bad. He was just a slave. Would the lord give him a salary? “I don’t know. I just joined the lord, and I’m not very clear about this.” Alfonso said very awkwardly and embarrassedly. Hilkin was organizing the notes she had written with her father over the years. These were her greatest wealth, so she did not hear the embarrassment in Alfonso’s words. “Then go ask. I already inquired when we came. The market in Melo Town is quite big, and many things can be bought.” Hilkin hadn’t gone shopping for a long time. In addition to just moving into a new home, there were many things to buy. She was worried that the money she brought would not be enough.

Irene was also full of interest when she heard that she could go shopping. She grew up in the mountain stronghold. In this environment where the strong prey on the weak, she only knew that a big fist was the only truth. As for shopping, she had only heard about it from some elders, so she was also very much looking forward to it.

Under the urging of his wife and daughter, Alfonso came to the City Lord’s Mansion in a daze.

Chapter 47: Salary Grades

“Lord! From Mount Armor Stronghold and the treasures he left behind, we collected a total of fifteen thousand three hundred and forty-two gold coins, two hundred and twenty-one sets of various weapons, and fifty-six thousand pounds of grain,” Arthur reported, producing a small notebook.

Aslan had already estimated this, and it wasn’t far off from what he expected.

“Excellent!”

Not only was Aslan satisfied, but Essien and Wilson couldn’t help but reveal expressions of surprise. With this batch of funds and grain, the urgent needs of Merlau Town would be greatly relieved, and this capital could even be used for vigorous development, especially the school that Aslan mentioned, which could also be put on the agenda.

While selecting a site for the first primary and secondary school, Alfonso arrived with a solemn and helpless expression.

Seeing Alfonso’s appearance, many people frowned slightly. Could it be that the surrendered bandits were planning something big?

“What’s wrong?” Aslan asked, putting down the map in his hand, puzzled.

Alfonso’s hesitant appearance made the others’ expressions even more serious.

Could it have escalated to such a serious point that Aslan needed to order troops to be dispatched?

“Lord! I…”

Alfonso opened his mouth, but didn’t know how to say the following words.

Lanning couldn’t take it anymore, grabbing Alfonso’s collar and scolding, “Speak up if you have something to say, stop dilly-dallying, are you even a man?”

When the question rose to whether he was a man, Alfonso hardened his heart and asked, “Lord! I want to ask how much my salary is?”

Clang!

Gute was so shocked by Alfonso’s words that he fell to the ground.

Everyone was discussing future development plans, and you come over to ask how much your salary is? Lanning directly lifted Alfonso up, and said fiercely, “What do you mean? Are you worried that the Lord will treat you unfairly? Your worthless life was spared only because the Lord showed great mercy, how dare you…”

“Alright! Lanning.”

Aslan quickly stopped Lanning, lest this punch affect future colleague relations.

“This matter does need to be put on the agenda.”

Aslan wasn’t just a boss who only talked about ideals and the future; salary and benefits were the key to retaining talent.

“Lord! I, Lanning, am willing to follow you to the death, no matter the difficulties and dangers.”

Lanning glared fiercely at Alfonso, and knelt on one knee in front of Aslan.

Aslan looked speechlessly at this simpleton Lanning, but Lanning’s flattery was very well done, making Aslan feel indescribably comfortable.

“Alright, I’ve already considered this matter. I’ve already divided the salaries into grades, based on the soldiers’ salaries, and divided them into several levels. Take a look, everyone!” Aslan took out a salary list from the drawer and handed it directly to Wilson to look at.

Wilson frowned after just one glance. If based on this salary, the future financial expenditure would be quite large.

However, Wilson didn’t speak, but silently finished reading it and handed it to Essien.

Essien’s eyes lit up as soon as he took the first glance.

The salary was divided into twenty-five grades, and each grade was divided into six tiers.

The highest level was Level One, and so on.

The salary for Level Twenty-Five was 5 silver coins, which was now the basic salary for workers in the factories under Aslan’s name in Merlau Town. As the level of technical skill increased, the tier would increase, one silver coin per tier. Ordinary city defense soldiers also received this salary, but if they wanted to increase their tier, they had to pass the combat skill assessment and meet the length of service requirements.

The salary for Level Twenty-Four was 10 silver coins, the standard salary for Merlau soldiers. The tier increase was also by analogy, but they started at Tier Four, while those civil servants were at Level Twenty-Four, Tier One.

Regardless of whether they were civil servants or soldiers, after being promoted to a new position, they would implement the salary standard for the new position, and increase the grade and level salary as required.

With Aslan’s set of salary system, apart from Wilson who understood it, and Essien who barely understood it, everyone else looked confused. They didn’t understand the requirements for increasing their salary, but they checked the salary levels. Each level increased by 5 silver coins, and each tier still increased by one silver coin.

Most people were confused after reading it, and looked at each other, because the salary level was temporarily set at Level 17, which should be the temporary highest salary, but they didn’t know where their respective levels were, so they were very confused.

Many people were confused about their salary levels, but Gute caught sight of the occupational allowance at a glance.

After just one glance, he couldn’t help but laugh out loud.

“Don’t rush to look at the salary level, look at the occupational allowance. With this number, I’ll be very satisfied.”

Hearing Gute’s words, someone immediately went to flip to the occupational allowance at the end.

There were three levels from Beginner Swordsman to Advanced Swordsman, and each level could receive a 5 silver coin allowance.

After entering Great Swordsman, they could receive 30 silver coins, Swordsmaster doubled to 3 gold coins, and Great Swordsmaster even reached 30 gold coins.

Gute and the other professionals in the Merlau area were drooling. They had never seen so much money in their lives.

Aslan’s eyebrows twitched. Were they too poor, or had they never seen the world? Reaching the strength of a Great Swordsman, would they lack money?

Look at Armor Gate, this bandit, with the strength of a Great Swordsman, he hid tens of thousands of gold coins worth of property.

If they relied solely on this little allowance, how many years would it take to accumulate this wealth?

Everyone was enthusiastically discussing it. Essien saw a very crucial point, the scholar allowance and the artisan allowance.

He could understand the scholar allowance, but what the heck was the artisan allowance?

What were artisans? They were the workers in factories and workshops, but their skills were more superb. They could create many things with just their hands. They also had a common and easy-to-understand name – master craftsmen.

“Lord! What virtue or ability does this artisan have to become a member of the allowance list?” Essien stood up and asked directly.

Artisans sounded good, but they were just workers. What kind of people were those who could become workers? Basically, they were all peasants without land. Farmers with land, apart from doing odd jobs during the slack season, had no time to practice any skills at all.

Aslan smiled at Essien, tapped Arthur’s armor, making a crisp sound in the conference room, and asked lightly, “What do you think of Arthur’s armor?”

“Very sophisticated, it’s a high-quality knight’s armor,” Essien said directly.

Aslan nodded, and asked again, “Can the original blacksmiths of Merlau Town forge it?”

Essien shook his head.

“What’s the reason?”

“Not skilled enough!” Essien’s expression changed instantly when he said this, more uncomfortable than eating dog poop.

Aslan didn’t need to say the following words; Essien knew what he meant.

This point was similar to ancient Confucian thought. The techniques mastered by artisans were collectively referred to as “ingenious skills and frivolous crafts,” but daily life was inseparable from these “ingenious skills and frivolous crafts.”

Chapter 48: Military Organization

The ideas on the Continent of Xino are roughly the same, only with a touch of fantasy magic and technology.

“Just as Essien said, a highly skilled artisan can create sturdy armor, sharp swords, and also exquisite products,” Aslan said with a smile.

This was his usual expression, but no one dared to interrupt Aslan in this state.

Because that would invite Aslan’s wrath.

“From a future development perspective, highly skilled artisans will likely drive the development of skills and the improvement of productivity. Take the Merlau Army’s current equipment, the Merlau crossbow! It was improved from the crossbow. You all say I improved it, but who am I? What’s my background? You all know very well. I understand the theoretical knowledge, but if you really put the Merlau crossbow in front of me, I wouldn’t be able to improve it even in a hundred years. This is the importance of artisans. Mages are not omniscient and omnipotent; many things also rely on the help of artisans to produce.”

As a scholar, Wilson’s knowledge and insight were naturally beyond question. He immediately understood what Aslan meant. The future planning and development of Merlau Town indeed required the assistance of artisans.

“From an economic perspective, how much money do you think an artisan with the skill to forge knight armor can earn for this lord in a month?”

Aslan’s words made Wilson and Essien’s eyes widen suddenly.

If Aslan’s previous words were to pressure people with righteousness, then now it was a blatant pressure with profit.

Not to mention the two of them, even the rough and tumble Gutes around them reacted.

“That’s a huge profit! How much is a set of armor worth! A dozen gold coins is considered little, and good knight armor cannot be bought without hundreds of gold coins.”

Alfonso, the bandit leader, was more knowledgeable than the Gute brothers and spoke out about what he knew.

“That’s right, a set can sell for so many gold coins. Giving the artisan a five gold coin allowance a month is really not much.”

Arthur, who was always like a statue in the conference room, rarely opened his mouth.

He was really telling the truth.

Wilson said with a constipated expression, “I understand what the lord means. The so-called artisans are both the bridgehead for future technological development and the most important source of economic products.”

Facing Wilson’s straightforward answer, Aslan’s expression did not change in the slightest.

“Essien, do you understand now? The more artisans you cultivate, the more exquisite goods you can produce and sell. Back and forth, who earns more in the end? Moreover, the workers’ wages are the responsibility of the factory. The industries under my name will be separated from the city lord’s mansion, completely separating private industries from the city lord’s mansion.”

“The workers’ salaries are naturally my own responsibility. This way, the city lord’s mansion can increase its tax revenue every year, and it also solves the salary problem of the huge worker population. What do you all think?”

Arthur and other military representatives approved Aslan’s proposal with both hands. Essien was no exception.

In his eyes, the lord’s industry did not need to pay taxes, and the workers’ wages were also the responsibility of the city lord’s mansion. The lord was simply making money lying down. Now that the lord was willing to pay taxes and pay wages for the workers, it was simply killing two birds with one stone.

After all, this was a common problem for most lords on the Continent of Xino. Private industries were tied to the territory. Once something unexpected happened to the industry, it would also lead to the decline of the territory’s economy.

Only Wilson felt strange, but he didn’t know what the problem was.

Aslan’s combination of punches greatly increased the workers’ enthusiasm. He believed that the factory’s income would slowly increase in the future.

For the Continent of Xino, which was still in a slave exploitation system, Aslan’s capitalist exploitation system was simply too advanced.

Aslan’s real purpose was to occupy the surplus value generated by the workers’ labor without compensation. The essence of the wages paid by the capitalists to the workers was the value of labor or the price of labor.

Compared to real slaves, those workers hired by Aslan were still slaves, but they were all slaves to money. Therefore, in addition to developing military preparations, Aslan also had to develop various entertainment and consumption industries so as to drive workers to go to work and earn money. As long as the workers went to work and earned money, it was equivalent to earning money for Aslan.

From the opening of the factory, the work efficiency of hired workers was several times that of slaves, which showed the charm of money. This was also why Aslan wanted to improve the workers’ treatment and salaries.

Great power craftsmen were a part of it, but profit-driven was an important factor.

Many workers were even grateful to Aslan for this ‘high’ salary.

“After this battle with the Kaimen Bandit Group, this lord has decided to reform the army,” Aslan said surprisingly.

Essien and Wilson belonged to the civil service system and did not know much about this, so they sat upright, wanting to hear what Aslan was going to say. As for the military representatives, they had already received the news and were nervously looking at Aslan.

“From now on, the army will be organized into corps, regiments, battalions, companies, platoons, and squads,” Aslan took out the plan he had prepared in advance and began to read.

The reason for choosing such an organization was very simple, because it was similar to the existing military organizations of various countries on the Continent of Xino. They were also mainly based on large, medium, and small teams, and above that were thousand-man teams and ten-thousand-man teams.

Such a military organization was too chaotic for Aslan’s comprehensive army and was not conducive to troop command. Aslan did not like the scene of the entire army collapsing after the death of the main general.

Therefore, the improvement of the organization and the integrity of the officer system were imperative. In case of a war, if senior officers were assassinated, junior officers could quickly take over the army and fight to the last drop of blood.

“Each infantry squad has ten people, four infantry squads form a platoon, and four platoons form a company. And so on. Usually, they act on a platoon scale, and in wartime, they are managed by the highest-ranking officer,” Aslan passed the document to everyone to see.

“Squad leader, twenty-third grade, salary of fifteen silver coins, platoon leader, twenty-first grade, salary of twenty-five silver coins, company commander, nineteenth grade, salary of thirty-five silver coins, battalion commander, seventeenth grade, salary of forty-five silver coins. Each team has a deputy captain, and the deputy captain is one grade lower than the captain in salary,” Aslan’s voice continued to sound.

Wilson’s scalp tingled, and he was not feeling well.

“Lord, in this way, will there be too many officers? This will definitely cause a lot of unnecessary expenses for the army.”

Wilson’s words had just finished when Gute immediately jumped up.

As the commander of the new army, many of the current soldiers were trained by him personally. He was the most steadfast supporter of the military representatives. This matter concerned the vital interests of the army, not just Gute, but also Arthur and Gawain.

Chapter 49: Level and Status

“Too many! Where are there too many? These are all numbers that the Lord has calculated and planned. You point out to me, where is it inappropriate? Or are the lives of us roughnecks who shed blood and sweat on the front lines not worth anything?” Gutt, the roughneck, jumped out and retorted without showing any weakness.

These words were a bit accusatory.

Gawain glared at Gutt and told him to sit back down.

Willson calmly explained the previous army organization. As for Gutt’s words, he simply ignored them. He couldn’t respond to those words. No matter how he responded, Willson would be stuck between a rock and a hard place in front of the soldiers in the future.

“Then which of the two is stronger in combat?” Aslan simply asked, and Willson was instantly silenced.

Essen looked at his nephew beside him. Warwick shook his head almost imperceptibly, not wanting Essen to steal the spotlight. Warwick had already received a lot of information about this matter.

This proposal was imperative.

“This?” Willson was just a scholar. He learned about military matters from books. As for combat effectiveness, he wouldn’t understand it even if it was placed in front of him. He just opened his mouth, hesitating to speak.

“The army is the foundation of Melo Town, no, Melo City’s future. What I want are not the lords’ militias, but brave and skilled warriors. The garbage armies like militias are not what I need, nor what the people of Melo need. Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun. Without absolute power, how can we protect the entire Melo region?”

Aslan’s voice was firm and powerful, making all the military representatives’ blood boil.

Although Willson and Essen understood the meaning of Aslan’s words, they also understood Aslan’s attitude towards the army. Military spending would definitely become the largest expenditure in the Melo region in the future.

“To put it another way, if we don’t have a strong army, what good is it if our Melo City develops so well? We’ll just be fat sheep in the eyes of other great lords, who will come to fleece us every once in a while. What’s the point for us? We must grasp both military and political power. Neither side can be neglected. A strong army is the foundation for the prosperity and stability of the territory and its people.”

Aslan changed his way of thinking again.

This was also Aslan’s greatest strength. When persuading others, he never imposed his own ideas on them, but rather discussed things from each other’s perspectives and the overall situation.

“Lord is wise! Everything is for the Melo region and the people of Melo.”

If they didn’t seize the opportunity to flatter him now, when would they? Alfonso knelt on one knee and shouted loudly.

When Leianning saw this, how could he let this go? He also knelt down and praised Aslan.

“Lord is like a star in the sky, guiding us forward, like…”

“Stop!”

Aslan quickly raised his hand to stop the two from praising him. Although it sounded good, it was too cheesy after hearing too much.

The others couldn’t help but chuckle when they saw the two of them.

“Your subordinate reserves his opinion and hopes to have the opportunity to see the Melo Army display its might one day.” Willson helplessly sat back in his seat and began to estimate how much money would be spent each month on this group of people.

His meaning was very simple. He temporarily agreed to this proposal. If the Melo Army failed to demonstrate its due combat effectiveness, he would definitely bring this proposal up for discussion again.

“Then it’s settled. Now I will set the salary arrangements for everyone. Town Magistrate Essen’s salary is level nineteen, thirty-five silver coins. Chief Financial Officer Willson, also level nineteen salary. Arthur is granted the title of Melo Army Captain, level seventeen, forty-five silver coins. Gawain, Melo Army Vice-Captain, level eighteen salary, forty silver coins. Lancelot, Chief of Intelligence, level eighteen salary. The other guard knights belong to this Lord’s command, and this Lord will arrange them myself.”

Everyone sat up straight, nervously looking at Aslan. As for the treatment of the Knight Guard, they didn’t dare to be envious, because they were very clear about the combat effectiveness and importance of the Knight Guard.

“Gude, Middle Captain, level nineteen salary. Gutt, Middle Vice-Captain, level twenty. Leianning, Middle Captain, level nineteen. Warwick, City Defense Army Captain, level nineteen salary…”

After a large number of rewards were given out, many people excitedly saluted Aslan.

“Everyone, please note, those in positions must fulfill their duties. If anyone dares to neglect their duties, this Lord will definitely punish them according to the Melo Constitution. As for those who are unable to fulfill their positions, I will also demote them. Do you all understand?” Aslan said sternly, without being angry.

Leianning’s scalp tingled. He felt a lot of pressure. It would be embarrassing if he was demoted.

Warwick couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief. Originally, he felt a little embarrassed, but now he felt much better. At least his pressure wasn’t that great. Wasn’t it just the City Defense Army? He was still confident that he could manage it well.

Alfonso next to him subconsciously pointed to his nose. Everyone present had a position and salary, but his name was not mentioned.

What did this mean? Did the Lord not want to pay him a salary? “Alfonso, what does your hand mean? Don’t even think about being lazy. Train and restrain these surrendered guys properly.”

Aslan turned his gaze to Alfonso and said.

Alfonso immediately shuddered and quickly saluted and said, “Yes! Lord!”

“If your performance satisfies me, I can give you a level twenty-one salary, and the professional allowance will be issued as usual. If I’m not satisfied, the salary will be level twenty-five, and all allowances will be canceled.” Aslan suddenly added.

The others also looked at Alfonso with sympathy. Only a hint of surprise flashed in Alfonso’s eyes. As a slave, even if Aslan asked him to work for nothing without paying him a salary, he would still work honestly. So, he was happy to hear that he would get a level twenty-one salary right away.

What did this represent? Even Gutt and those who had followed Aslan for a long time only received a level twenty salary. He, who had just surrendered, could receive a level twenty-one salary, which meant he was considered Aslan’s confidant.

“Yes! Lord! Guarantee to complete the task.” Alfonso excitedly saluted and said.

This way, he could also give a good explanation when he went back.

Compared to Gutt and those poor people who valued dozens of silver coins so much, Alfonso himself had savings of hundreds of gold coins. What he valued was not money, but status.

The salary level could be seen as a status positioning in Melo Town.

Aslan nodded in satisfaction. The following meeting was unimportant. Essen was responsible for the new residents moving in, and Willson was in charge of monitoring the salary and food distribution.

Arthur and Gawain were responsible for the army and security. Aslan was the one who was idle in the territory on weekdays, except for researching messy things and magic. He was a veritable hands-off shopkeeper.

However, with the foresight of having been reborn, Aslan’s control over the overall strategic situation far exceeded ordinary people. Therefore, Aslan often liked to plan ahead.

Chapter 50: The Changfeng Plains

For example, dealing with the Armor Gate Bandit Group, subduing the nearby large villages, even this time sending the captured women home was the same. “The Changfeng Plains are about forty kilometers away from Merlot Town, and they have very vast plains that can be used as farmland. Why hasn’t anyone considered going there?” Aslan said at the right time.

He was well aware that a noble rebellion would break out soon, with war raging everywhere. Then, locust plagues and droughts would erupt, plunging the entire kingdom into turmoil, a double blow of natural and man-made disasters.

This disaster lasted a full year before the kingdom recovered, suppressed the rebelling nobles, and began to provide relief to the disaster victims.

After the disaster, the kingdom re-counted the population, and the national population had disappeared by thirty percent, leaving less than five hundred million people.

In this natural and man-made disaster, the Merox Province, because it was far from the battlefield and a famous backwater of the kingdom, was not affected by the war. Without the threat of man-made disasters, the sparsely populated Merox Province had always been a haven for many refugees.

After the war, the total population of Merox Province had multiplied several times, and even the deepest part of the Merlot area had been allocated several million people.

Aslan remembered very clearly that in his previous life, when the outbreak first started, the Billy and Kex areas were not confident in keeping so many people, so they could only divert them to the Merlot area.

During that time, in order to stabilize his territory, Aslan deployed heavy troops at several key passes entering the Merlot area, and only dared to let refugees in when the territory had surplus grain. The Billy and Kex areas also took advantage of this time to recuperate and re-gather refugees.

By then, the number of refugees Aslan could get was less than one-tenth of the original.

“Lord! The existing developable farmland is already enough to feed more than twelve thousand people in Merlot Town. There are still many wastelands around that have not been developed. Rashly entering the Changfeng Plains will only cause unnecessary disputes,” Essien said with a troubled expression.

Because the Merlot area had been washed by magic forbidden spells, the land was barren, and there were many places where elemental disturbances remained, so the human race was not very willing to settle here.

Therefore, the Merlot area became the last refuge for many alien races within the kingdom.

It is said that the Changfeng Plains have more than four hundred thousand alien races, mainly halflings, followed by dwarves and gnomes, and then a small number of other alien races.

In his previous life, Aslan’s rise took a lot of effort to subdue these alien races, and in this life, in order to lay out the situation in advance, Aslan would naturally not let this place go.

“The Changfeng Plains are so big, we can just find a place where no one is. Moreover, we can also trade with these alien races. We don’t need to conquer them by force, we just need to conquer them economically,” Aslan said with a mysterious smile.

Wilson glanced at Aslan thoughtfully and quickly wrote down this sentence. Essien nodded with only a half-understanding, which was still out of trust in Aslan.

“Essien, go and issue a notice to recruit people who are willing to go to the Changfeng Plains to settle and cultivate wasteland.” Aslan said here, thought for a while, and added: “At that time, the farmland that is reclaimed will be divided five-five.”

“Five-five split?” Essien asked in shock.

“Yes! Is there a problem?” Aslan looked at Essien with surprise.

“The problem is huge! It is an honor for those people to reclaim wasteland for the lord. The lord not only hires them, but also divides the land to them…”

Essien braked suddenly at the end. He really wanted to say if Aslan was stupid.

Aslan naturally understood the meaning in Essien’s words. He was different from Essien. He knew very well that the key to developing a town was the population.

Even if he opened up several large farms in the Changfeng Plains, the people who worked on the farms would only treat it as a place to work, so how could they really develop the town.

But after there was land there, the people who went to the Changfeng Plains would have roots there. At that time, without Aslan’s development, the people there would spontaneously take action.

“I may have guessed some of the lord’s thoughts, but I suggest that there should be area requirements for reclaiming wasteland, and there should also be an upper limit on the amount of land obtained.”

Wilson stood up and said, and this suggestion was immediately approved by Essien.

Aslan nodded helplessly. In the end, they were all limited by the rules of this world, where the interests of the royal family and nobles were above everything else.

“Okay! This matter will be left to Wilson to arrange.” Aslan waved his hand and very seriously acted as a hands-off shopkeeper.

Wilson nodded, which was regarded as accepting the order.

Aslan stretched his back, finalized the last few things, and then announced the end of the meeting. Then he put on his knight’s helmet and swaggered to the construction site for inspection.

Wilson and Essien shook their heads helplessly, looking at the documents in each other’s hands. The workload was not small! “How are the students you have trained?” Essien asked weakly. He felt more and more tired as he got older.

It was not that his energy was insufficient, but that there was really too much work.

Although the proposal was passed, it still needed to be re-polished and evaluated by the city lord’s mansion, so it would not be released so quickly.

On this day, the sun was bright, and Aslan was wearing a knight’s helmet, circling around the construction site.

The construction site was not large, covering an area of only four hundred square meters, and he circled around it in a few moments. The construction site was not messy. This was Aslan’s strong request. A clean construction site could reduce many safety hazards.

The construction speed of the construction site was much faster than he expected. In just a few days, the walls of the first floor had been built.

This was also the reason why Aslan wanted to follow up personally, because if he was not careful, the walls would easily tilt or shift, and he had to rework several times.

Fortunately, there were many people, so for such a small house, Aslan actually had a dozen people start work. As long as the direction was correct, the efficiency was unexpectedly fast.

Lomen, the ‘architect’ cultivated by Aslan, deserved a lot of credit for this efficiency. Looking at the building that was already taking shape, he patted Lomen on the shoulder.

“Well done. After this building is completed, you will be my chief architect of Merlot Town. I will give you a raise.”

Hearing about the raise, a look of surprise could not help but appear on Lomen’s face.

“Thank you for your grace, Lord!”

“Today’s main task is to pour the cement on the top of the first floor. After the cement solidifies, we can start work on the second floor.” After thanking Aslan, Lomen immediately reported the next task.

The construction of the new building attracted many people to watch. The brand-new and alternative house shape was completely different from the architectural technology they currently knew, and it was very novel and surprising.

Aslan put his hands behind his back and looked at the small building in front of him with a smile on his face. He had very rich construction experience in his previous life, but seeing a new building slowly taking shape in his hands, a sense of pride that he could not explain arose spontaneously.

A neigh of a war horse sounded, attracting the attention of many people. The sound was vigorous and powerful, which ordinary war horses could not have.