From a hired knight to a master of Game of Thrones

Chapter 94 Population Shortage

After the stonemason Kieran finished reporting on the size and extent of the territory, only Lady Hannah among the seven retainers had not yet reported.

Mrs. Hannah took a few deep breaths.

Although this was the third time she had personally reported the situation to the lord, she was still extremely nervous.

She lowered her head, not daring to look around, and slowly said, "My lord, I have recently spoken with many people and listened carefully to their gossip."

"In addition, several people personally told me what they wanted and what they were dissatisfied with."

"In the short term, Your Majesty, your people still have some desires, and also—some dissatisfactions."

"Firstly, there were several wealthy villagers who wanted to build their own new houses."

"But—but, almost no one in the territory wants to work for them; everyone is busy with what the adults have told them to do."

"They don't dare to bring it up publicly either."

"Because—because they are worried that you, my lord, will have a problem with them because of this."

After a pause, Mrs. Hannah suddenly became even more nervous.

Compared to the reports given by other retainers, her reports mainly focused on the various points of dissatisfaction the people had with the territory.

She was on tenterhooks while listening to it.

Now that she was personally relaying the message to the lord, her heart was pounding with nervousness.

But she dared not remain silent.

From the very beginning, when the lord appointed her as a retainer, he repeatedly said that she must truthfully report all her thoughts, big and small, good and bad, about the territory.

Miss Adele had also spoken to her about this repeatedly in private.

If you only talk about the good ideas and the things you're satisfied with.

Concealing negative thoughts and dissatisfaction.

Once discovered, they will completely lose the lord's trust.

And it cannot be hidden.

Because the core territory of adults is currently only this size.

Because other citizens can also speak directly to the lord, as long as they have the courage.

Therefore, Lady Hannah dared not hide anything: "My lord, there are also some people who complain that the pay for working for you is decreasing day by day."

"Although they are still very satisfied with their current compensation, they are also worried that the compensation will become unacceptable in the future."

"They also said that we secretly took the payment, which is why their payment was less."

After pausing for a moment, Mrs. Hannah concluded, "Finally, some people want to go to other places to drink, and to find prostitutes."

"Because of your generosity, sir, the prostitutes in the village could live a decent life by simply finding some wood and stone or picking up some garbage around the village every day."

"So I have no desire to continue that kind of life where I was not respected and lived a very cheap life."

"Without them, some people in the village are sometimes very dissatisfied, especially when they are drunk, they will keep complaining."

"My lord, that's all I've heard and learned about recently."

Not long after.

Phoenix and Zachary, who had followed Don Quixote for a long time, suddenly said, "My lord, these people are truly ungrateful! Many lords make their people work for free, unlike you, who pays out so much silver and copper coins. They are truly ungrateful!"

"Yes, sir, when I was still a hunter, I was afraid to do this and that, and I almost couldn't survive. It was truly—"

Don Quixote waved his hand and said slowly, "These are the true thoughts of my people, and sometimes we cannot refuse to listen to these true thoughts."

After thinking for a while, Don Quixote looked at Madame Hannah, who was still bowing her head, and instructed her: "Madame Hannah, you can tell the people you can contact."

"Tell them that things in the territory will not be as busy as before for the time being."

"If anyone wants to build their own house, they can come to me and ask. I will arrange for someone to help with the construction and can also provide some stone and wood materials."

"Of course, they need to pay a reasonable sum of money."

"Well, if there are people who want to build their own new houses but don't have enough gold dragons and silver deer, I'm willing to lend them out at a low interest rate."

After a pause, Don Quixote continued, "Also, tell everyone you can reach that the pay for helping me and the territory will gradually decrease until it reaches a reasonable level."

"Well, as for those who want to go elsewhere to find prostitutes, tell them, as well as those who want to leave my territory for other reasons."

"If anyone leaves my territory without my permission, I will immediately strip them of their citizenship and expel them from my territory forever."

After speaking with Mrs. Hannah, Don Quixote then went on to explain to the others the tasks, both big and small, that needed to be accomplished.

The report session ended shortly afterward.

Don Quixote got up and left the council chamber of his territory, heading to his new residence.

A spacious two-story stone house.

Don Quixote entered the study, sat quietly at the desk, and slowly pondered: "My territory currently has one junior stonemason and three stonemason apprentices."

"One junior carpenter and five carpentry apprentices."

"Zakari, a novice hunter and also a first-class knight, and seven hunter apprentices."

"One junior livestock clerk and three livestock apprentices."

"And nine first-class knights and two knight squires."

"We are still lacking many talents from all walks of life, such as blacksmiths, doctors, scholars, monks, nuns, tailors, and teachers, who are planned to be trained or recruited into the territory."

"Alas, now the only factor limiting the development of my territory is population."

"Most of the remaining inhabitants of the territory are elderly or young, and it is difficult to train people who are useful in a short period of time."

"But this golden dragon seems to multiply with each use!"

"Now I have money but I don't know where to spend it."

"There are still too few people!"

In the past two weeks, Don Quixote has spent over three hundred gold dragons in a lavish manner in order to quickly expand his territory.

Of course, the vast majority of the gold dragons were used to purchase all sorts of supplies.

However, the Bloodhand Mercenary Group members in White Harbor completed seven more mercenary missions.

Although you can only accept one job at a time.

But after completing one, if in reality there are still employment contracts signed in his name as Don Quixote that are still in effect.

The system will randomly select one of the employment contracts as the new employment task.

In this situation, the employment task may not have started yet, or it may be about to end; either is possible.

That's why the Bloodhand Mercenary Group members in White Harbor were able to complete seven mercenary missions in such a short time.

Seven job assignments allowed Don Quixote to acquire a bag of Frost Spirit Rice and 789 Golden Dragons.

"How can we significantly increase the population of our territory?"

"Buy slaves?"

"But on the continent of Westeros, slavery was hated and strictly prohibited."

"At least that's how it appears on the surface."

"Just like Jorah Mormont, who was once the Earl of Bear Island and the head of House Mormont, in order to make his wife happy, Jorah bought luxury goods and spent all his gold, silver, deer, and copper coins, and in the end became penniless."

"To pay off his debts, Jorah broke the laws of the Seven Kingdoms and began selling poachers to the Tyrothy as slaves, violating the most severe taboo in Westeros."

"After the affair was exposed, Jorah's lord, Eddard Stark, immediately sentenced him to death."

"So if I were to buy slaves, and it were to be exposed, it would be very easy for it to be exposed, and that would be a huge problem."

"So this road won't work in the short term."

"Is all we can do is wait out the time?"

"Gradually increase the number of people in the territory, and also attract outsiders."

"Hmm, we can consider communicating with the surrounding lords and knights who own property."

"Perhaps it's possible to buy the subjects of those lords and property knights. It's definitely not possible on the surface, but what if we change our approach and buy the labor force of the subjects?"

"According to the information I have gathered, there are very few wealthy knights or minor lords in the surrounding area."

"If I pay those lords and propertied knights a sum of gold dragons to their satisfaction, and then hire them and their people to work in my territory."

"After a year or two, when the chaos breaks out, hehe, those people will be mine!"

"You can give it a try."