The victory of a religion in another world is so easy?

Ryza doesn't know much about mechanical manufacturing, and she plans to collaborate with Ellie later.

She overheard Rand mentioning this thing during a conversation. She didn't know what the purpose of making such a small toy was, but she always trusted Rand's creativity.

After Elsa and Lysa completed their secret transaction, Elsa finished the remaining mixed juice in one gulp and asked, "You're pretty good, aren't you? And you seem to have a lot of free time, so why don't you go find the parts yourself?"

Lysa didn't answer, but simply took the cup and handed it to the kitchen staff to wash.

It was just a casual question, and they didn't care about not getting an answer. Elsa didn't care either, since this elf had always been rather strange.

After leaving the tavern, Elsa hid in the shadows to avoid greeting anyone and took a side path back to her rented house.

She wasn't socially anxious, but what she had experienced recently had turned her into a gloomy little devil who was afraid to see people. Fame was just too much trouble.

The small house contained adventure equipment and some loot. Rand had arranged for people to patrol the residential area day and night, so there was no need to worry too much about anyone breaking into the houses to steal items.

However, Elsa still kept her most valuable possessions with her at all times.

The hut was also equipped with small lamps produced from the ruins. These lamps were much more convenient to use than oil lamps and illuminated the hut very brightly.

The brick house is now the highest-end option, but the second phase of construction is underway. Once the even more luxurious house is completed, Elsa will definitely move there as soon as possible. As for the price, that's a piece of cake.

Elsa only recently became an adventurer. From birth, she was trained to be a cold-blooded killer until she rebelled against her fate.

She had no idea when her family would come looking for her, and becoming an adventurer was merely for convenience. It wasn't until she came here and met that shameless Rand that her life changed.

Perhaps this is the life she has always dreamed of: exploring ruins with a group of clueless adventurers every day, encountering new and exciting things, defeating enemies, or finding treasures.

All of this made her happy, even though she knew her family would find her sooner or later.

Before this, she was eager to experience this unexpected pleasure.

Meanwhile, Rand received another threatening letter from Baron Lakesource. The letter was quite harsh, containing threats, intimidation, and insults, but Rand read it with great interest.

However, Rand's usual approach was to read but not reply.

It's estimated that once the Fengrang Mercenary Group is in place, Baron Lake Source will be unable to sit still and launch an attack on Crescent Moon Territory.

Rand licked his lips, eagerly anticipating the expression on the face of the Lake Source Baron.

Chapter 66 Merchants, Training Troops, Preparing for War

Perhaps due to the cooperation with the Adventurers' Guild, or perhaps because the news of the ruins here was gradually spreading, a caravan actually came to Crescent Moon Territory. The caravan leader was a middle-aged man wearing a felt hat.

After being searched, the caravan leader was allowed to enter the hideout above the resort.

The hideouts have now all been replaced with stone buildings, and just a few steps away you can see the now magnificent lord's hall.

There is also a giant snake coiled above the hall. Because the resort below is located in a low-lying area, only its huge outline can be vaguely seen from a distance.

Only when you actually arrive at the lair and see the snake bones up close will you understand what a huge and terrifying monster it is.

These monsters have now turned into skeletons, becoming decorations for the Land Lord's buildings.

This made the caravan leader, who prided himself on his extensive knowledge, even more awe-inspiring.

The silver-armored soldiers guarding the entrance confirmed the caravan leader's identity and checked him to make sure he was unarmed before stepping aside to allow him to enter the magnificently decorated lord's hall.

The art style is a bit strange, with traditional aristocratic architectural style paired with many ancient decorations from ruins.

It looks nice, but the style is different from any lord's hall the caravan leader had ever seen before.

A long, dark red carpet with gold trim stretched through the hall, leading to a black-haired, black-eyed man seated in the lord's seat.

There was also a female swordswoman guarding him with a weapon at her waist, but she was wearing a mask so her face was not visible.

Unlike before when she was casually counting the chandeliers while waiting, she sat up more properly after the guests arrived.

Looking down at the caravan leader wearing a felt hat.

Rand slowly began to speak: "What do you have?"

The caravan leader bowed his head in respect, but he did not attempt any aristocratic etiquette lest it backfire: “Slaves, spices, farm tools, jewels.”

Rand wasn't surprised that this merchant was also a slave trader; in fact, his eyes lit up after hearing the story: "Let's take a look at the slaves."

Before transmigrating, Rand had read a lot of online novels. Slavery was just a talent market in another world, right? Maybe there was a princess from an enemy country, a mysterious descendant of an ancient being, a demi-human prince who was unfortunately captured, and so on.

Thinking about this makes me quite excited. Although there are already a lot of strange people gathered at the hideout, he can still handle it for now, and he can handle even more if more come.

When the slaves were brought up, Rand was somewhat disappointed. They were all ordinary people, with nothing particularly special about them at first glance, but they all seemed to be healthy. The men could work, and the women could give birth.

Oh, there is one exception. There is an elf. Although the human kingdom made peace with the elf race a hundred years ago, there are still some historical issues.

Many humans were also captured by elves and enslaved, which is one of the reasons why the relationship between elves and humans remains poor even today.

Rand asked, "Take a look at the spices and farm tools, but not the gems."

Then spices and farm tools were presented.

Rand examined it carefully; the spices were good, but the farm tools were so-so.

"Do spices have seeds?" Rand asked after reading it.

The caravan leader, wearing a felt hat, was somewhat surprised. This was the first time he had heard someone ask about spice seeds. Spices have very demanding requirements for their growing environment and are difficult to grow outside their native habitat: "There's only a little bit."

However, as a seasoned caravan leader, he naturally had many preparations, including bringing some seeds to fool some uninformed nobles, but as for this Rand...

He recalled the scene he had seen at the resort: the orderly houses, and the giant serpent skeleton above the lord's hall when he arrived at the hideout.

"Sir, spices are very difficult to grow outside their native habitat."

Rand was taken aback. There was actually a merchant who would take the initiative to explain this. Were all merchants in this era so conscientious? "Ah, I know, it's okay."

Having already been warned, the merchant no longer paid any attention and continued to introduce his products.

After listening for a while, Rand called over a few cultists from the hideout and asked them to bring up some things: "What I have here are some products from the ruins, as well as some fruit juices."

Then the believers made a cup for the caravan leader.

After he took a sip, Rand said, "I can sell the finished product here, or tea bags."

The tea bags were something Rand had urgently developed when he heard that a caravan was coming. In short, they were the same as the tea bags from his previous life. The tea bags contained sugar and spices, and all you needed to put in the cup was water and fruit juice.

The effect is definitely not as good as freshly made, but the taste is not too different.

The caravan leader frowned, but after Rand's explanation, he understood the significance of the tea bag. Rand then smiled and said, "You can trade relics directly with adventurers, but we will collect taxes. As for trading directly with us, we will not collect taxes."

Overall, Rand managed to keep the sale of relic items from the hideouts slightly more profitable than collecting taxes.

After some back and forth, which wasn't exactly a lot of haggling, the prices were finally settled: 5 silver coins per tea bag, 500 bags to be sold, a large-scale transaction of relic items, with a total profit of 10 gold coins; 10 silver coins per ordinary slave, a total of 15 slaves; and 5 gold coins per elf. Rand bought them all.

The price of the elf was much lower than expected, which seemed a bit off. Rand planned to have Lysa come over later to take a look and let her decide how to handle it.

After the transaction was completed, the caravan leader said that if there were no war, he would return next spring, bringing slaves and spices with him.

This is a good start. As for the agricultural and textile products from those hideouts, they are not within the scope of these caravans' trade, and Rand doesn't care. These things will definitely sell.

After the caravan leader led the caravan away, Rand said to Olena, who had now removed her mask, "Make arrangements for the slaves. The elves will be managed separately. Let Lysa go and check on them."

Olena nodded and went to take care of the matter, while Rand went to the army training ground at the hideout.

Many qualified soldiers have already emerged from here, but the current batch of magical steel soldiers that Rand intends to use as its ace are still in training.

Now, at least the formation is neat and they can understand basic tactical instructions.

Moreover, he should be quite knowledgeable, so he wouldn't be so scared that he couldn't stand up when facing the enemy.

The only problem was the lack of a suitable mount. Rand had saved up a lot of magical steel materials to make horse coats and horse armor, just waiting for a suitable mount to appear.

He can then gradually train this army into a cavalry, a heavily armored, magically enhanced steel cavalry, which should still be dominant in the first expansion.

If all else fails, Rand will try to create a mount himself. He's seen that there are many cool and miscellaneous mounts in the game "Deep Moon," and he also happens to have Blessing 2. He can try to create a mount by crossbreeding them himself.

However, now that the autumn harvest is about to end, the Fengrang Mercenary Group has arrived in Lake Source Territory. Rand watched this group of fifty magical steel infantrymen complete their training for the last time before preparing to lead them to the village in the northeast of Crescent Moon Territory.

The road that was dug up there has not been filled in to this day, and now it is Rand himself who has to fill it in.

The army's commander was Rand himself, and his deputy was Serai. Unlike Serai, Serai had not received the power of the Mother Goddess, so there was no need to worry about him being detected by the Torch Church's ritual implements.

Chapter 67 Tanl, the King of Traitors

Rand led his magical steel troops to a village in the northeast, which was much more prosperous than when he first visited.

Although Rand has been actively recruiting refugees and buying slaves, the population allocated to each village is still not very large. The village is a little more populated than before, but not by much.

But apart from that, everything has improved a lot. With the arrival of the autumn harvest, the population has decreased, but the harvest has hardly decreased, resulting in every family becoming much wealthier.

Rand reduced the taxes levied on the villages compared to those previously collected by the baron. Although Rand did not reduce them by much in order to pursue a policy of militarism, the villagers' incomes increased significantly, and as a result, every household lived much better.

Unfortunately, it will take time to make up for the loss of life during the previous village unrest.

Now, Rand has separated the doctrines of fertility and care and is vigorously promoting them among the missionaries in the area, hoping that the subsequent baby boom and population increase will be the foundation for everything.

Rand and Olena were currently overseeing the backfilling of the large pit. It had been dug to prevent Baron Lakespring's cavalry from charging, but now, with Tanl's Abundance Mercenary Group acting as an inside agent, they needed to fill in the road to expand their gains.

Otherwise, it will be difficult to pursue them later.

Since the autumn harvest was over and the villagers had some free time, they were also mobilized to fill in the pits.

The villagers had no complaints, because when Rand withdrew his troops back to his stronghold, they were also worried that Baron Lakeshore's army would come, so they would come here to dig pits whenever they had free time.

As a result, the partition here is now more than twice the size it was before Rand left, turning into a giant, deep pit.

Now they've been mobilized for free to fill the gaps. Putting aside the fact that they were originally obligated to be conscripted, even though they don't understand, they still know that Lord Rand would never make baseless accusations.

Whether it was filling in a hole or digging one, they all believed that Lord Rand must have had a deeper meaning in doing so.

Rand stood on higher ground, watching the people below work hard to fill the hole, and estimating the time.

Since Baron Lakesend has already departed, no letters have been received from Tanl recently.

I don't know if it can be completely filled in before the baron arrives.

Olena still had her sword at her waist, but she was holding a stack of documents in her hand. The road connecting the northeastern village to the hideout had been completed, and some of the more important documents would be delivered by scouts.

Olena, who was both a bodyguard and secretary, read through the document and then dictated it to Rand.

"Sir, the tavern's business is gradually becoming more profitable, but the bathhouse business has not been doing well. Are the prices too high?"

Rand nodded and said, "That's normal. Most people don't have the habit of taking a bath. And for ordinary people, I did take into consideration why I set the price so high."

Originally, Rand wanted to benefit the people by setting the price of the bathhouse in front of the bathhouse very low. However, he later thought that this wouldn't work. He decided that the price should only be lowered when the villagers had developed the habit of changing their clothes regularly and were aware of the importance of keeping warm.

If you don't wash properly, you'll catch a cold. And if you catch a cold, there's no ibuprofen available now. Without sufficient medical care, even a cold can be fatal.