It was still late autumn, but the weather was already extremely cold. Countless translucent crystal snow particles were floating down in the sky. This year’s winter snow came earlier than in previous years.
Therefore, the world was austere, and everything withered and frosted.
Several days had passed since the “accidental poisoning by poisonous mushrooms”. Today, with the careful help of his maid, Cress, Rhodes walked out of the room to stretch his body.
What he saw was a small village, a few sparse wooden houses, tents made of large pieces of rags, and wooden fences surrounding the surroundings to resist the invasion of wild beasts. This was a very poor pioneer territory or a small village.
“Good day, honorable master.”
“Master, are you feeling better?”
“Good morning, Master Rhodes. Good morning, Miss Cress.”
On the road where they were walking, several busy farmers would bow respectfully when they passed by Rhodes, with respect and admiration from the bottom of their hearts on their faces.
Although everyone’s life is a little difficult now, almost everyone’s face is malnourished and green, but they were originally bankrupt farmers. Even if they are living in hardship now, at least they have their own land, hope in their hearts, and their identity is no longer a beggar. Therefore, every farmer here is very grateful and respectful to Rhodes from the bottom of their hearts, because he is a big man who brought them out, and the lord of every lord here.
The Styak Empire has been established for more than 200 years, and the class differentiation and land annexation within the country have become very serious. However, most of the bankrupt farmers in the empire do not have enough knowledge and courage to take the initiative to leave their familiar environment. Therefore, this predecessor of his was able to spend very little money to gather a large number of bankrupt farmers and lead them to leave their homes and come to the wilderness area in the north of the empire to develop the territory. The biggest promise Rhodes gave them was to promise to give them their own land.
However, these simple farmers in front of them did not know that Rodhart had sold them all privately.
Because he was eager to achieve success, Rhode sold the Redwood Town to the Atlan Chamber of Commerce for a mortgage price of 500 gold coins, and then took the money to participate in the arena gladiatorial competition. There were a total of six games. In the fourth game, Rhode was defeated by a wandering knight.
Now the Atlan Chamber of Commerce may come to collect the debt at any time. The town in front of them, which has been painstakingly managed by everyone for two years, will soon no longer belong to them.
Rodhart did not care about the future situation of these poor farmers. He was just completely desperate about his bleak future after losing the bet. Therefore, after clearly identifying that the mushrooms picked by the maid Cress were poisonous, he still took a large amount of them after cooking. The only good thing he did before his death was to drive Cress out. Otherwise, Rhode would despise this guy’s character even more.
“Master, Grandpa Eng’s bread mill has been built. In the future, we will be able to eat delicious bread every day soon.” When Rhode recalled the past of his previous life, the maid Cress beside him was worried that the lord would feel bored just taking a walk, so she pointed to a few buildings that looked like houses and said so.
She had orange-red hair, freckles on her face, and a rustic blue-gray robe, but she was lively and cute like a twelve or thirteen-year-old girl.
At this moment, her eyes were full of her master, as if this was her whole world.
“If I hadn’t crossed over, her best fate in the future would be to be sold to other nobles’ homes and become a maid, right?” Coming from a society with highly abundant material but increasingly alienated and indifferent people, Rhode suddenly met Xiaoju who was full of his eyes. He couldn’t help but reach out and touch the little girl’s head with love, which scared Cress a little, but she blushed and shrank her head, and didn’t avoid it.
At this moment, a white-bearded old man and a young man holding a hunting bow walked quickly in the distance.
“Good day, sir. This is an urgent document from the Lord of Silver Frost Town. It was just delivered. The Lord of Silver Frost asked us to bring militia to help defend Silver Frost Town against thieves.” The old man Eng, the village chief, handed over the parchment, while the young man in leather armor beside him stared at Rhodes’ hand stroking Cress’s little head.
Eng, an old man who knows a few words and has certain skills, is the leader of this group of bankrupt foreign farmers. His granddaughter Cress is Lord Rhodes’ maid, and his grandson Raymond is the militia leader of Redwood Town and also Rhodes’s personal guard.
To be fair, if Rodhart did not have the identity of a noble and a pioneer lord, then Eng, as the lord of Redwood Town, would be ten times more competent than Rhodes. On weekdays, most of the affairs of the entire town are handled by this old man.
Engel had lived for most of his life, and he had clearly understood that birth was far more important than talent. However, his grandson Raymond was still young and could not understand this truth, so he had always disliked Rhodes, and Rhodes also disliked him. However, Raymond was indeed very capable, and with Engel’s relationship, he could not be replaced for the time being:
Elite Raymond, Shire Recruit, Shire Hunter, Shire Wild Hunter, Shire Leopard Spirit Hunter (not achieved), Son of the Forest, Shire Guardian.
“He actually rose to the level of a wild hunter just by his own ability? If he is left alone and follows his normal destiny, this guy may rise to the level of a leopard hunter or even a child of the forest in his later years. For an ordinary person, he is indeed very strong.” In the Wind of War, in addition to hero units, there are also randomly born elite character templates in later version updates. If they are well trained, they can almost match heroes, but their chance of death in battle is far higher than that of hero units, and they are quite rare. There is a very small chance that they can be promoted to hero units through high-difficulty tasks.
The maid Cress beside Rhodes is a gifted hero template, but she is still too young. It is easy to send a teenage girl to the battlefield and die. On the contrary, her brother, although his dissatisfaction with himself is almost hanging on his face, he is indeed the ceiling of the combat power of Redwood Town at this moment. His predecessor was just slightly better than the other party by relying on the noble martial arts inheritance. If it is really a life-and-death fight, the victory or death of both sides is still uncertain.
Without paying attention to Raymond’s dissatisfaction, Rhode read the contents of the parchment. This was a call from the largest nearby pioneer territory, Silver Frost Town. Although he could choose to ignore it, if he did so, he would basically not be able to stay in this area in the future.
Therefore, after a brief pause, Rhode said decisively: “Elder Eng, please mobilize all the militias in Redwood Town, and then follow me to Silver Frost Town.”
The Atlan Chamber of Commerce may come to collect the gambling debts at any time, but as long as he can collect a mortgage of 500 gold coins before they come, he can keep his territory. Normally, this is difficult to do, but the Atlan Chamber of Commerce is a large chamber of commerce. Every year during the real sword fighting held in Bright Moon City, it will borrow a lot of money, and it may not be possible to collect the debts here for a while.
After all, Rodhart himself can run away, but Redwood Town cannot run away. The most valuable thing here is the fertile land that has been cultivated for two years and has been cultivated and gradually produced.
