You were made to farm, and now you're the emperor of an empire?

Chapter 103 must be because he's too greedy.

Behind the hillside.

A silent square formation stood in full armor, its spears arrayed.

His random shooting of a pirate was a warning: if Scarface didn't know what was good for him, he could unleash his forty Arctic warriors in a counterattack. Then this army of a hundred men would cooperate with Roman to hang them all here.

However, he made a wise choice.

Whether the latter will not come because of this is a question Morey needs to consider.

If there's no scarred head, just have Morey find another scarred face; all we need to do is send him 300 slaves every month.

Roman just felt that the pirate trader knew the value of salt and wouldn't give up on this line.

If someone dies, you can't do business anymore. What kind of businessman are you?

He casually handed the Greatbow with its split armor to Khao.

When Kao witnessed his master's heroic figure as he shot down the Arctic pirates, he was filled with excitement and exhilaration. This was something he had always dreamed of, and he longed to bow down and kiss that powerful and fierce blood-red bow.

Roman waved his hand, and Dick and Jet, along with all the soldiers, vanished silently like a moving forest.

He walked down the hillside.

The reception of slaves went smoothly, and most of them were sick or weak. Roman was not picky and they were willing to contribute to the construction of Sig Town.

Even disabled people who can't stand up have to sit up and have their clothes sewn and mended.

There's never enough firewood.

Moreover, the cost of feeding them is extremely low, consisting of nothing more than food and shelter.

Even if you eat a lot, how much can you eat?

Eat as much as you want, why would Roman be afraid of them eating too much?
Here, the probability of someone dying from overeating is greater than the probability of someone starving to death.

Roman believed that as long as the resources they produced were proportional to the resources they consumed, they were making a profit.

The only downside is that low-quality slaves pollute the recruitment pool.

This was bound to happen.

Roman simply did not launch a new round of recruitment.

He had Jimmy assign preliminary identification numbers to everyone, place them in corresponding brick houses, and arrange jobs based on their physical characteristics and past occupations.

These people only need to rest for three days.

Roman will then have an additional pool of usable labor.

At the Origin Manor, he paced back and forth within the small space, seemingly restless, and turned to say to Seth.

"I want them to build a road to the iron mine within 20 days. That's not an unreasonable request, is it?"

Seth bowed his head and said, “It’s not excessive! You have already bestowed enough favors upon them, and they will give you everything they have.”

"Good! Good!"

Roman clenched his right fist.

He gently clenched his fist, his white teeth clenched, the intense smell of fire and steel seeming to emanate from his nostrils.

It's time to speed things up!

He said.

It's time to speed things up!

……

Dawn.

Dane then awoke.

He didn't get up, still thinking about what happened yesterday.

The wooden bed was comfortable, the brick house was sturdy, and a cool morning breeze blew in from the window, but his wife Pamela was nowhere to be seen.

Pamela was a helper at the food camp, not in charge of cooking, but rather at the mill and oven.

She has to wake up before dawn every day to bake enough bread and pies.

The lords therefore exempted them from mill and oven taxes.

In the future, when they use the mill, they will no longer have to hand over half a pound of wheat for every ten pounds of wheat they produce.

The same goes for the oven; the baked rye bread will never have any pieces taken away again.

They were quite happy at first.

But now, he and Pamela have discovered that the lord's seemingly benevolent policy actually conceals a huge trap—

Because they no longer have time to grind their own wheat or bake their own rye bread.

Moreover, the lord's daily schedule filled his time to the brim.

Every task was so strenuous that he was so exhausted he could barely stand up straight.

In this situation, even if he has half a day of free time, he doesn't want to do anything; he just wants to rest or sleep.

However, during the move, they belatedly discovered a problem.

The grain in our house has gone moldy!

This is no small problem. It's not just the wheat that's moldy, but also various other grains, totaling about 700 to 800 pounds.

He and Pamela stared at each other, pondering for a long time, and realized that they hadn't touched the food much in the past three months.

The weather is hot and humid now, and after a heavy rain, it's normal for grain to get moldy.

But they had never encountered this problem before.

Dane's father had never encountered this.

Dane's grandfather had never encountered this before.

But now Dane is facing this situation.

Having never had this kind of experience before, Dane was naturally at a loss. His mind simply couldn't comprehend this phenomenon.

Their family used to have to carefully allocate their food rations, and they were only allowed to eat this much each day. Even when the summer harvest came, they couldn't eat it all; they had to leave some as reserves. They were so eager to break a single grain of wheat in half to eat.

Why were they able to store this grain for so long?

Who is the culprit?

"Gods help us! That's not the culprit, that's our savior..."

Dane suddenly began to repent.

He felt intense guilt and annoyed that he had entertained such disrespectful thoughts, offending the lord's supreme authority.

He was terrified and no longer wanted to lie down. He got out of bed and walked out of the bedroom, lifting the straw mat. Just then, he saw his eldest son, Ge Lan, and his second son, Ke Li, coming out of the next room.

Ge Lan was 18 and Ke Li was 16, which was considered adulthood in the farmer's eyes.

Unlike Maycher, Wayne, and Lana.

Unable to attend classes at the Origin Manor, they could only work as able-bodied laborers, cultivating land, repairing roads, firing bricks, and building houses.

Dane hopes that Glenn and Corley will become honorable guards.

But they were eliminated twice and still failed to be selected.

Fortunately, there will be opportunities in the future, as the lord will recruit soldiers every once in a while.

Hello, guards!

They receive a monthly bonus and can eat meat at every meal; soldiers who cannot eat meat will be punished.

Dane couldn't imagine what a wonderful time those days must have been like.

He could only glance at the moldy grain again, and couldn't help but feel worried.

What are we going to do if we can't finish all the food?

We can't let it be wasted.

Dane glanced at Glenn.

Ge Lan shook his head. He ate three meals a day in the main kitchen, so how could he eat anything else?

Glenn left home.

Dane glanced at Corley.

Ke Li shook his head; he ate more than Ge Lan.

They left home with Glenn.

Dane then looked at Meichel, whose third daughter had just come out of her bedroom.

Dane made a decision that went against his ancestors' wishes.

"Mecheler, would you like breakfast?"

Thirteen-year-old Meichel looked somewhat bewildered. After glancing at the pile of slightly moldy grain, she suddenly jolted awake and shook her head vigorously.

She quickly left the house.

10-year-old Wayne also came out of the bedroom.

“Wayne, I remember you used to say you were hungry every day…”

The fourth son, Wayne, glanced at his father. "Then give these things to my former self." He remembered that every time he complained of being hungry, his father would beat him and scold him for being greedy.

As he spoke, he followed Meichel out of the house.

The youngest daughter, Lana, was the last to wake up. She was only eight years old and walked out of the bedroom yawning.

"Lana..."

Before Dane could finish speaking, he saw the pile of slightly moldy grain that his fifth daughter had spotted first.

She is still young and doesn't know how to hide her emotions.

Dane clearly saw the look of contempt and disgust on Lana's face before she left the house without even glancing at her.

She went to Origin Manor every day with her third sister, Meichel, and fourth brother, Wayne.

The portly chef Bob there teaches them how to make breakfast—the estate doesn't have enough people to cook, so the children have to fend for themselves.

However, the lord was not stingy at all, and provided a rich variety of ingredients, including fish, meat, sugar, salt, milk, and flour.

Not everyone has to cook; they take turns—today it's their turn to cook.

Otherwise, they wouldn't have to get up at five o'clock; they could sleep until six o'clock and then leisurely head to the manor for breakfast.

The lords sometimes ate the food they prepared, and they were proud of it.

Dane was hurt after Lana left; he felt that all his children had changed.

It wasn’t like this before…

……

Dane always believed that this was a punishment from the gods.

He and Pamela had five children.

Every day when I open my eyes, there are five children who need to be fed.

They only eat two meals a day, so they're not full.
They were only given half a pound of food per meal, so they cried out in hunger, like fledglings crying for food.

They had no choice, so they never complained about the food. They would eat even moldy or rotten grain.

Dane thought this was what they deserved.

He heard from the merchants who came to Sig that the greedy would be punished by the gods.

He must have been too greedy and not hardworking enough, so he was punished by the gods, who made him poor and hungry...

(End of this chapter)