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

Chapter 212 Romance
Recruiting apostles is just the beginning; Roman also needs to cultivate their various abilities.

Roman has recruited quite a few apostles.

Those who are suitable for military service should join the army if they have the opportunity to be trained, and those who are not suitable should work in the Residents' Affairs Department.

No one is born with management skills; they are all developed through experience.

Roman didn't make many demands on the grassroots members of the Residents' Department.

Public security, public health, and welfare.

First, Roman legislates based on simple justice—it has nothing to do with human rights or religion.

If everyone thinks someone deserves to die, then he/she deserves to die.

If someone deserves to be punished, then they should be punished.

When ten people accuse one person, that person is the one with the problem.

The underlying logic is that the minority must submit to the majority, which can quickly maintain stability.

Roman only cares about the development of Origin City; he never cares about individual feelings.

Second, public health goes without saying; it mainly involves monitoring hygiene issues.

A residential area has a hundred brick houses, and each residential area is assigned a night soil collector.

It is usually an old farmer who does this job.

Every day, they scoop out about 500 to 600 kilograms of excrement from the public toilets and send it to the composting area before starting their work.

A night soil collector receives a basic salary of 2 copper coins per month, with an additional 1 copper coin as a summer bonus—you can't do this job without connections.

Third, welfare guarantees are responsible for distributing summer and winter clothing, ensuring that it reaches every household, and distributing corresponding free clothing based on the number of household registrations.

However, the size of the clothes was not within Roman's consideration.

Anyway, he only provides one type of clothing, which is for normal body size. Even if you have children at home, he will still provide a normal body size set of clothes.

If it doesn't fit, you can alter it yourself; there are no children's sizes.

The welfare and security of veterans are the responsibility of the Department of Residents, and they also distribute the pensions.

……

The functions of the Residents Department are extremely simple.

But these things alone were enough to make Jimmy run his legs off.

Fortunately, Roman discovered another three-star apostle with excellent management skills last year to assist Jimmy.

That was a female apostle named Ida.

Kant was the daughter of a craftsman.

She and her family were abducted here in late winter last year. She had learned vocabulary from the priests at the church and was a novice believer.

After discovering the laws of the Roman lands, he promptly converted to Christianity.

This is a smart person; rationality outweighs emotion.

They are good at analyzing the pros and cons and only take actions that benefit themselves.

Therefore, Roman directly promoted Ada to deputy director of the residents' department.

Roman likes this kind of person the most.

They have strong learning abilities and are good at assessing situations.

Most importantly, she is literate and can read written text.

……

Roman recently discovered something.

He can enhance the skills of the apostles through extraordinary resources.

However, skills are not limited to professional knowledge in every industry.

For example, knowledge of blast furnace iron smelting, knowledge of making various bows and arrows, knowledge of animal husbandry, knowledge of construction...

Is that knowledge very complicated?

It's actually not that complicated.

Even your knowledge of iron smelting, in Roman's view, can be written on at most five pages, with all the details in place, complete with blast furnace structure diagrams and production diagrams.

Of course, the iron smelting methods of Origin City were adapted by Roman to local conditions and were not suitable for other places.

After all, the quality of each iron ore mine is different, so there's no way to follow a map exactly.

But as I said before, the total amount of this knowledge is really not much; a few thousand words can cover the production process, and you can just follow the steps.

Ruto was also literate.

Roman, however, was willing to spend a high-quality sapphire to enlighten Ruto for the content of these five sheets of paper.

Is this outrageous?

It's not outrageous either.

People in this era who stay in such an environment for a long time will find it difficult to break through their own limitations.

Even if you teach them step by step, they may not necessarily understand your intentions.

It's impossible for people to understand each other.

How can literate people understand the feelings of illiterate people?
This is what is known as the curse of knowledge.

The more knowledge you have, the less you can impart that knowledge.

Roman's vision is unparalleled in this era.

But he couldn't explain what he knew to others.

But the ability to improve skills gave Roman a glimmer of hope.

It's not just about knowledge of iron smelting.

He can even regard the words he knows, his thoughts, and his ideas as a kind of knowledge and pass them on to the past.

This does seem to have some psychological impact.

Although this can only be transmitted in one direction, with Roman conveying his own thoughts to the apostles.

But that's the biggest convenience.

Of course, the specific process remains to be verified, and it is still unknown to what extent it can be achieved. This is because Roman lacks resources.

If he had enough resources, he wouldn't have been so hesitant; he would have brainwashed the apostles long ago.

First, we should strengthen education and improve literacy rates.

With improved skills, children who would need to copy a word a hundred times to memorize can memorize it after copying it only five or six times.

His learning efficiency is off the charts; he's practically a superhuman.

What is romance, anyway?
Right here!

Use the big drum to fuck them hard!

Make everyone kneel down! Kneel before him and sing "Conquer"!
Then swing your waist! Slap them hard in the face!
A moment to showcase a man's charm!

For a man, that's romance!

……

……

"Lord Dick, we are late."

The scout captain rushed back to the camp to report.

"The castle at Bucks Heights has been breached, Lord Irving is dead, and Mr. Morey is missing."

"Is there any possibility of survival?" the middle-aged knight asked.

Dota hesitated.

Shaking their heads is the best option right now, so they can return home immediately and perhaps catch the autumn harvest.

But he ultimately chose to nod.

"It's possible. Lord Gale's army took many people with them, including Lord Owen's offspring. It's said that the Stag Knights tried to rescue them."

"Dota, do you know the Bucks Rider?"

“You told me before that the supernatural power of the Stag Heights is such that every Stag Knight is at least a second-tier supernatural being, and third and fourth-tier are very common, and they are stronger than ordinary knights…”

“You have a good memory, but the Stag Riders also have their natural enemies. They are most afraid of the Broken Archers of the Cracked Armor Family. The stags cannot defeat the hunters. Once they face them, they will die instantly... This battle may not happen.”

"Then what should we do?" The scout captain caught up with Dick.

“Help the Bucks. If they have no chance of winning, they will have to compromise. But if we help them, and if they haven’t forgotten Lord Irving who just died in battle, they will know what to do.”

"Will this work?" Dota asked, taken aback.

"What else can we do? Dota, even if there's only a one in ten chance, we have to do it. This is a task our master entrusted to us."

Dota stared at Dick's retreating figure, somewhat lost in thought.

The knight was handsome, highly skilled in martial arts, gentle and polite, mature and steady. He must have once been a dashing young knight who could make those lovesick girls' hearts flutter.

He and his master had lived together in the deep mountains for ten years, yet they had never had much contact. His elders told him that the man was a knight who had betrayed his master, killing the one he served, and was a heartless thug. Because of this, he had some misunderstandings about him.

In retrospect, it's undeniable that he valued honor and loyalty.

He sometimes saw Dick staring blankly at a blackened silver necklace in the tent, and when he asked him, he never got an answer.

The fault in that matter may not lie with him.

……

……

……

A cold, clear voice: "Prophet! Prophet! Give us a prophecy! Our living space is being severely squeezed. They will soon find us. What should we do next?"

An aged voice said, "Don't rush, let me see..."

An angry voice: "Ulster shouldn't have died. Now that Rift Armor is the enemy, is this what you see?"

An aged voice said, "He gave up voluntarily; otherwise, no one could have killed him. He died because of his humanity, not because of the assassin's poison or dagger."

A faint voice said, "You made him wait too long."

An aged voice said, "Humanity is not ready."

An angry voice said, "Because of that sentence, we've been retreating! We've been losing! We've lost our support, our place of refuge. Now look what's happened, we've retreated to the edge of a cliff, one step back means utter ruin. Are you happy now? Your prediction two years ago told us to prepare for war. We thought it was the start of a counterattack, but now it seems it was just a desperate gamble?"

An aged voice: "..."

A cold, clear voice said, "Prophet, please give us a prophecy and tell us what to do next."

An aged voice: "..."

A repeated voice: "Prophet, are you asleep again? Or are you thinking about something?"

An aged voice: "...I'm wondering what Ulster saw before he died..."

A cold, clear voice: "..."

An angry voice cried out, "Ulster deserved to die!"

A faint voice said, "It's time to go all out... while there's still a chance of winning."

An aged voice said, "But I always feel that hope lies in the future, waiting for us. The future line has shifted, subtly, but undeniably. Fate is whispering..."

An angry voice: "Are you even conscious? Are you using the same rhetoric you used to fool Ulster to fool yourself?"

A faint voice said, “But what awaits us may also be destruction… Prophet, you have deceived yourself, but it is not your fault. It is only because the darkness is right in front of us, and you have been staring at fate for too long. It has choked you. In your endless despair, you have seen illusions—the frozen dead feel their bodies warm, the drowning people feel they are breathing air before they sink to the bottom—and so you are now.”

An aged voice: "Perhaps..."

An angry voice: "Forget about this rigid old man, I need to start planning ahead of schedule, because we can't wait until winter. We have nowhere to retreat, we have no choice but to fight and fight our way out!! Do you agree!"

"Agreed!" "Agreed!" "Agreed!" "Agreed!"...

An angry voice: "Where is the sister who joined last? We can't do it without your approval. Your voice alone can drown out most of the other sisters."

A hesitant voice: "I...agree too."

A faint voice: "Even if it's not winter, is that okay?"

A hesitant voice replied: "Okay!"

An angry voice said, "That's good, let's get started! Hmph, Ulster did do something before he died, otherwise we would really be in despair."

(End of this chapter)