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

Chapter 326 Freezing Rain
Morning arrived in the blink of an eye.

Roman led Margaret into the hall, where Edith and Shasta were having breakfast.

"Your Highness, how does Margaret taste? Is it delicious?" Edith asked with a smile.

"Oh my, you even braided her hair, it looks so pretty."

Margaret followed closely behind Roman, her movements slightly evasive. She habitually lowered her head to let her hair obscure her face, only to find that it was still brightly lit. She no longer had bangs; her long, thin hair was styled in a simple updo with delicate braids that added elegance, making her look completely different.

Roman said to Edith, "No one will think you're mute if you don't speak."

The old Margaret would never have done such a thing; there must have been someone behind it. But Roman knew without asking who it was.

“Margaret, come sit here,” said the Nightmare Witch.

Margaret sat down next to Shasta with a gloomy face. Shasta looked at Margaret's new appearance and saw some deep red marks on her snow-white neck. He imagined the intense events of last night.

Spellcasters may excel in magic, but when it comes to physical combat, they are clearly no match for warrior knights.

Shasta won't work, and neither will Margaret.

But the witch's regenerative abilities are stronger than those of ordinary people. Having survived the violent storm, she now shines even more brightly.

"How are you feeling?" Shasta asked in a low voice.

“His Highness also asked me to tell him stories,” Margaret said.

"Oh, telling a story, is it like this... umm... umm..." Edith imitated the sound, but then fell silent instantly.

Seeing that she had behaved herself, Roman put down the plate he was holding.

“It’s a story about the underworld,” Margaret said.

But as Edith said, that's what she called most of the night.

“I know this well too. Some people think our magic comes from that world, but others don’t,” Edith said. “For example, Lord Thunder believes that magic comes from the spellcaster himself.”

“My teacher believes that the Netherworld is merely a reflection of real-world magic,” Shasta added.

Leona of the Thunder, one of the most powerful witches in the Witch Forest, may not have the same high status as the Prophet Witch, but her power is certainly far greater. Her student Shasta holds that witch in high esteem.

However, she had already passed away.

Roman listened quietly, learning from the witches many rumors, some true and some false, but all quite mysterious and unpredictable.

The Netherworld is an invisible world.

The real universe cannot interfere with it, but it can interfere with the real universe, fluctuating due to the movement of celestial bodies and stars.

At certain specific times, bizarre and wonderful things happen on earth.

For example, fleeting phantoms will roam the land, ancient alien races will return, fallen spirits will revive one after another, legendary species will emerge from the land, and monsters in the mountains will become even more powerful.

Sinnoh astrologers believe that each conjunction is the work of the gods, who exert their divine power, and that the earth's structure will undergo new changes.

Roman didn't know if it was true or not, after all, he was very young and had never met him before.

He pondered to himself how devastating those messages must have been for him.

But after thinking about it for a long time without any results, he simply stopped paying attention to it.

He needs to focus on managing this land, attracting people, and strengthening his rule; there are too many things to do to finish in this winter alone.

His caravans traveled in all directions, bringing wave after wave of slaves, but also some bad news.

To make matters worse, freezing rain began to fall in parts of the Black Iron Lands.

The icy raindrops, falling to the ground, quickly freeze into smooth, transparent ice, commonly known as rime, or sometimes as icicles or tree frost. Because the trees are wet from the rain, their leaves, branches, and trunks are all covered in a layer of ice. The same is true for the farmhouses and shacks in the villages; the thatched roofs quickly freeze into ice, pressing heavily on them.

Trees will be broken, houses will be crushed, and crops in the fields will be ruined.

This was a complete natural disaster.

In Roman's view, this was far more terrifying than those vague and unfounded legends.

The only saving grace was that the freezing rain wasn't very heavy, only affecting a few noble territories, far from the city of abundance.

People at the bottom of society have extremely poor risk resistance.

Roman wanted to bring the homeless people to the City of Abundance, but he encountered many obstacles.

The Vatican and its priests portrayed this place as a terrifying place inhabited by monsters, where a man-eating demon king ruled and the Iron King colluded with him, making it a living hell on earth.

Some people would rather die than come here.

Roman let it be and didn't force anyone. He only selected those who were willing to come, negotiated with the local nobles, and sent them several hundred pounds of iron farm tools, which brought in hundreds of people.

After the group arrived in Fengrao City, they were first provided with brick houses, winter clothing, three meals a day, iron stoves with honeycomb briquettes, and everyday furniture.

After settling in, it's time to get to work.

The infrastructure construction in Plenty City is progressing extremely rapidly, but as long as the population continues to increase, the construction work cannot stop.

In fact, the current population of Plenty City far exceeds that of Condry at its peak, and is more than twice as large as it once was.

With such a large population, managing it is extremely difficult.

Roman could only insert nails, control the lines with points, control the surfaces with lines, and connect them one by one.

This can only guarantee the most basic administrative power.

It seems very unstable, but to say that they are plotting a rebellion is impossible.

First and foremost, it must be clear that the King of the Valley has the prestige of a monarch and the status of an aristocrat as his backing, loyal subjects and a powerful military as his foundation, and now he also needs the love and respect of the farmers.

At the very least, those families who were allocated brick houses would not have had any intention of participating in the rebellion.

Unless the gods themselves descend and perform miracles, those people would not risk their heads to participate.

They came to join the Jihad Army simply to make a living; the true believers had already been wiped out during the sweeping war.

The basis for plotting a rebellion is finding like-minded companions.

This raises the question of whether the people recruited are truly determined to rebel.

What would happen if one of them informed the King of the Valley or his army?

All participants will be hanged, and only the informer will be spared and rewarded.

Conspirators have reason to be afraid before committing crimes; those who harbor evil intentions are like hens in a henhouse, living in constant fear. They feel surrounded by enemies, as if everyone around them is loyal to the King of the Valley.

So there's no need to care about those shady insects.

By the last month of winter, the canal in the basin had been completed.

After more than four months and an investment of over 10,000 laborers, the winding river was finally connected in sections. As a result, transportation costs have been greatly reduced. As long as there are enough porters, transporting hundreds of tons of goods a day is no big deal.

More importantly, they were able to open up new settlements along the canal.

Build more infrastructure, open up more arable land, and transform more grasslands and pastures.

(End of this chapter)