Lords of the Heavens

Chapter 435 The Death of the Earl
The warm sunset, like fire, softens the evening breeze.

Such weather is truly rare in early winter, especially when paired with wisps of smoke rising from chimneys, the aroma of food mingling with the smells of burning vegetation, and the cheerful laughter of children.

Ah, how peaceful and serene life is.

Li Wei played with the prestige stone, in a very good mood. Before his eyes, images of people, like projections, kept flashing and disappearing, displaying the current status of all the free people in real time. Of course, others could not see it.

However, as he watched, his expression became subtle; these free people were in rather poor shape.

Yes, he knew it was bad beforehand. These free people were in poor health. How could his perception of 10.5 be wrong?
However, physical weakness or frailty is not a problem. With life potions, stamina potions, job cards, and level-up tokens, one can grow quickly.

He was a terminally ill patient who was able to make a comeback.

But his perception is not omnipotent; there are still many things he cannot see through.

For example, he was unaware that among these 400-plus free citizens, 75% only had a third-grade primary school education, making them semi-illiterate.

In particular, when he traced back through the Prestige Stone, he discovered that Earl Windbreak had been implementing this policy of keeping the people ignorant that crossed the line of humanistic care.

This way, resources and magic can be conserved to the greatest extent possible, allowing us to use our best resources where they are most needed.

Newborn children undergo potential assessments. Those with good potential are given priority for development, while those with poor potential are given basic life skills and spend their lives farming.

So this can't be considered wrong.

But this has created an awkward situation for Li Wei!

With such a foundation, how could he possibly rebuild Gale Fortress?
He has lost his self-confidence.

"Alright, let's give it a try. The first territory mission will be—Rebuilding Gale Fortress?"

With a thought from Li Wei, the Prestige Stone automatically generated the relevant main quests and various side quests. Well, that old guy Earl Fengxi is quite lazy; he actually chose to use the Prestige System to be the Minister of Internal Affairs.
Sure, it's not impossible.

At the very least, all free citizens can clearly see who works how much each day, how much they will be paid, who is better at what, and who will be grouped with whom—all of this is quite clear.

For example, the main questline for rebuilding Gale Keep has as many as twelve sub-quests.

The first branch task is to clear the site ruins, with a five-star priority. Fifty free people have been assigned to start tomorrow and are expected to complete it within five days. However, there are three options: A) increase or decrease manpower; B) increase or decrease the task completion time; C) provide rewards as an incentive, with an initial reward of five copper coins per person.

Goodness, just like in a game, but that's the nature of having the prestige system as an internal affairs officer—it's extremely unreliable.

Can fifty farmers complete the clearing of the fortress ruins in five days?
can!
If we disregard the cost, we might be able to finish in four and a half days, but many of them are injured, and if they really work this hard, they might not survive the winter.

As for humanitarian concern, as long as they don't freeze or starve to death, if they die from illness, it can't be considered a lack of humanitarian concern. Everyone goes through birth, aging, illness, and death, and it's not my fault that there are no doctors.

Li Wei almost laughed out loud; Earl Fengxi had apparently figured out a baseline for humanistic care.

Moreover, this is only the first branch of the quest.

He then looked at the other side tasks, which included logging, quarrying, lime production, rebuilding the blacksmith's workshop, building temporary wooden houses, temporary warehouses, temporary food storage warehouses, making cotton clothes, supplying firewood or charcoal for winter heating, and repairing breaches in the city wall, etc.

It looks like a whole bunch of things, covering all aspects, and it's quite impressive.

But after watching for a while, Li Wei directly deleted the task of rebuilding Gale Fortress.

Because it's meaningless.

Reconstruction is possible, but how many people will survive afterward is unknown.

In short, the tasks set by the prestige system are so comprehensive that they must have calculated the maximum work capacity that these free laborers can be squeezed out of, and they must be in accordance with the rules, humanistic care, and impeccable in all aspects.

Moreover, these free people are used to it. Earl Fengxi has ruled this world for nearly two hundred years. No matter how unruly the free people are, they are either incorporated or imprisoned. How could they dare to disobey in the slightest?

They are not even as good as the natural people struggling to survive in the apocalypse. At least the former have experienced a prosperous civilized era, can read, and know all kinds of knowledge.

With just these four hundred-odd people, even if they manage to complete the reconstruction task, they won't be able to provide Li Wei with much or much value. Don't even think about expanding territory.

Aside from the thirty-four soldiers who were four- or three-star, the highest-ranking among them were thirty or forty artisans, tailors, butchers, cooks, and the rest were mostly one-star farmers, with only a small number being two-star farmers.

Yes, these free people need to start farming at the age of fifteen to get their first farmer card, and then they have to keep farming until they are thirty-five years old before they can barely reach the level of a two-star farmer, and then that's it.

The land is barren, devoid of magic, and farmers rely on the weather for their livelihood, resulting in meager incomes and less than a dozen farming experiences gained each year.

To put it bluntly, this is not much different from the peasants of the Middle Ages. Oh, at least there is no right of the first night, and the lord cannot hang someone at will. But if you violate the laws of the territory, you will be punished, whipped, imprisoned, paraded in public, or even beheaded.

Humanistic care does not mean that mistakes go unpunished, nor does it mean that you must be cured if you are sick.

Therefore, Li Wei felt that he must have been out of his mind to expect such a group of honest, simple, and ignorant farmers to develop production, rebuild the fortress, and expand the territory.

At this moment, he truly missed his Blazing Territory. If he had replaced all four hundred-plus people with free citizens of his territory, the production and combat efficiency would have increased at least tenfold!

Even if you forcibly upgrade this dull and unresponsive old farmer to a three-star profession and activate and bind three professions for him, he still can't handle it.

Or, it's possible to do it, but how much investment and how much time would it take?
He has a little over a year before he has to go on a cross-border mission.

This is too much to handle!
Li Wei looked at the territory stone in his hand. Before he got this thing, he really thought the situation was pretty good. But having this thing was like showing him the dirtiest, most trashy, and ugliest side of the world.

Everywhere you look, there are deficits, deficits, deficits!
No wonder Earl Windbreak was willing to give up Gale Fortress, because besides a fortress and a three-star magic mine, the most valuable things here are the twelve Gale Paladins and the second-tier spellcaster Agatha who can be resurrected.

The rest is really unimportant; it's too cheap.

Even if he wanted to, he couldn't afford to mess this up; he was going to abandon the mess.

A six-star settlement card was casually taken out, but the next second, Li Wei's expression froze as the settlement card lit up with a red light.

What the hell!

What's going on? Have we entered combat?
They haven't disengaged from the battle?

Are there enemies nearby?

Just as he was thinking this, a guard with a sword suddenly flew over from a distance. At the same time, a scene appeared in Li Wei's mind: a total of thirty-five Gale Paladins, led by Grand Master Teren, were rushing over from more than ten miles away.

day!
Has the fighting on the front lines come to a conclusion?
Li Wei dared not delay, so he quickly took out the warrant of the sheriff and went to the crossroads under the fortress wall to wait for the arrival of Grand Commander Teren.

Soon, the sound of hooves thundered, and thirty-six Gale Paladins arrived. Li Wei observed from afar and felt that the group's spirits were somewhat weak, even though their equipment looked very high-level, with an average of four-star enchanted heavy armor and Grand Commander Teren even having five-star enchanted heavy armor. Good heavens.

However, something was wrong. Their souls seemed pale, as if all the essence and blood in their bones had been exhausted. They were strong on the outside but weak on the inside, as fragile as a candle flame.

What the hell?

"Hiss!"

With the neighing of their warhorses, the thirty-six Swiftwind Paladins came to a stop in unison in front of Li Wei. Their eyes, hidden beneath their heavy helmets, were so weary and numb, like those of old men on their deathbeds.

Li Wei watched in surprise, but understood in his heart. There was a loss after dying and being resurrected too many times. This was not a game account where you could die and start over countless times. They were not game players, not the Fourth Calamity. Even if they could be resurrected, they would lose a part of their souls with each resurrection.

Like Li Yue and her second aunt, they couldn't even experience death again.

Human strength has its limits, and even divine power is not always omnipotent.

"George, you're still alive! That's a wonderful surprise. I'm so glad you were able to hold down this Gale Fortress for us!"

The Grand Master, Teren, spoke in a hoarse voice, his aged voice sounding like a ghost, but he was indeed a living person.

"I'm sorry, I didn't actually do anything. The fortress is now just a wall."

Li Wei smiled bitterly.

"I know, because this was part of the plan. We won a resounding victory, but the price we paid was everything we have now."

"I don't quite understand—Commander, are you taking back control of Gale Fortress? I will hand over the fortress to you immediately."

Li Wei was puzzled, but immediately said that he had a bad feeling about Earl Fengxi.

“No need to rush, George. Count Windbreak, who founded the Wind Knights, was killed by the enemy in a crucial battle not long ago. He was so badly wounded that even the priests of the temple could not resurrect him. He will rest in eternal sleep in the main city of Windbreak. Before that, I had already led my brothers in dozens of attacks against the enemy in several battles. We killed countless enemies, but we also died and resurrected constantly, and were immediately teleported to the battlefield through the portal.”

"It wasn't until our seventeenth resurrection that we were told we could retire, that we could return to our homeland with the warhorses and armor bestowed upon us by His Majesty the King, and with enough gold coins, to enjoy our old age. So we came back."

"Windbreak City is not our home, Gale Fortress is. Although the Gale Knights no longer exist at this moment, we may look glamorous on the outside, but in reality we are just some old men who are about to die and are in their twilight years."

“George, before we die, we have one small wish: to rebuild Gale Keep and console the souls who died unjustly because of our wrong decisions. Thank goodness for you, George, you saved these survivors, otherwise our sins would be even greater.”

"We have no way to be saved, and the holy Knights of Gale have been disgraced because of this. But, please, save Gale Fortress once again? Rebuild it and lead these ignorant and apathetic farmers to live. We are willing to give you all the glory we have won on the battlefield."

(End of this chapter)