This young master truly has the ambition of a hero.

When Natasha was summoned by Dick, the Star Train had already visited the Yalilo-VI and resolved the problems caused by the star core. Although the planet's environment had deteriorated to an extreme degree, and there was no possibility of recovery or improvement for at least the next few hundred years, at least hope had returned.

The people of Belleburg will surely see blue skies and flowers blooming on branches again.

Natasha, having returned to the surface, was summoned by Dick just as she had resolved many of her concerns.

This made Natasha feel that this calling might be a new mission or a trial given to her by fate, asking her to use the skills she learned in Beloborg to help ordinary people in the world who are still suffering.

As for Shizuka Marikawa, the time when she was summoned was right when the zombie crisis in her original world, Tokoname City, had just broken out. She was organizing documents in the school infirmary when she suddenly heard a commotion outside. Without thinking much, she went to push open the door to check, and ended up stepping into another world.

In other words, Shizuka Marikawa, standing before Dick at this moment, is completely unaware of the global zombie crisis that has erupted in her hometown. As the only one in the main group who can drive, she has now been summoned by Dick, and she doesn't know what will become of the others.

To Dick's slight surprise, Shizuka Marikawa, who seemed useless in the original work, actually had real talent and ability, aside from her big breasts and perky butt.

If Dick had taken a moment to look away from Naoko when watching cartoons in his past life, and instead checked out the official profile of Shizuka Marikawa, he would have discovered that she was actually a full-fledged doctor at the University Hospital of Tokoname City. She was dispatched to Fujimi Academy as a temporary school doctor and was very skilled at treating sprains and bruises. Although her homemade ointment looked strange, it was remarkably effective.

Although the official information did not explicitly state this, after Dick asked the person in question, she stated that she was an attending physician in orthopedics and could perform some simple surgical procedures that were not particularly complex.

Dick never expected that Shizuka Marikawa was so capable. Although she didn't have any special abilities and was just an ordinary person who was a bit of a ditz, she was a truly excellent doctor.

Dick pondered for a moment, and he seemed to understand why Shizuka Marikawa seemed so useless in the original work. Apart from her personality issues, orthopedic doctors really couldn't cure zombies!

Looking at it this way, Dick's summoning isn't even half a smear. In her original world, Shizuka Marikawa could only rely on her driving skills and selling her body, but in his world, she can shine with her true professional skills.

After the introductions were completed, Dick asked Belfast to arrange rooms for the two of them.

The old guard from David's time had been dismissed, and only a third of the original number of servants had been recruited, leaving many rooms vacant. Dick's "own men" all lived on the main castle side.

At the welcome dinner that evening, Dick dined with all twelve of his current female anime/manga fans.

During the conversation, Dick introduced the mainstream attitude of this world towards Earthlings. Because the doctor needs to be in the public eye, Dick planned to arrange disguises for Natasha and Shizuka Marikawa.

Natasha is alright; her temperament is not similar to that of Earthlings. But Shizuka Marikawa is different. Even though she has blonde hair and golden eyes, and her figure is so voluptuous that it would make even a typical Western woman pale in comparison, her temperament is the kind that can be seen through at a glance.

Moreover, given her naturally naive personality, it's probably unrealistic to expect her to learn the art of disguise.

Natasha was puzzled by Dick's concerns. What dangers would there be if their otherworldly identities were exposed?

"It's not so much a danger, but mainly... a problem of discrimination."

When asked about the general attitude of the Hessians towards Earthlings, Dick summed it up in one word: "despicable."

Using methods akin to kidnapping, they forcibly summoned Earthlings and imposed slave contracts on them. They then continuously stole Earth's technology, yet, relying on their status as slave owners, they looked down upon Earthlings who had no magical talent and therefore no magical immunity, even intentionally abusing and taking pleasure in it.

What's most terrifying is that this contempt isn't limited to the upper class; even the lower-class commoners, when mentioning the summoned Earthlings, would scoff and curse them as "Earth slaves."

So if Shizuka Marikawa were to make a public appearance in Laguge as an "Earthling," even with Dick protecting her and no one daring to lay a hand on her, verbal abuse would certainly be inevitable.

In truth, the local people of Laguge's hatred for Earthlings stems largely from the death of the Park siblings. These two siblings, who were dependent on the local bully Saxon family, did nothing good.

Park Ae-jung was Jonah's favorite concubine. Although she rarely appeared in town, when she did accompany Jonah, she always had a seductive and alluring demeanor, clearly not a good person. Her brother, Park Deok-yong, took pleasure in bullying serfs and committed numerous atrocities in town under the guise of the Saxon family.

It can only be said that thanks to them, the locals in Laguge think that all people on Earth are the same as Koreans!

Dick is keen to change this prejudice, but it's not something that can be done overnight.

Half a month passed in the blink of an eye. On the first day of November, Laguge welcomed its first heavy snowfall of the winter, which lasted for two whole days and nights, with snowfall exceeding one meter. The temperature plummeted by nearly ten degrees Celsius, dropping directly from above zero to below zero.

Even though Dick had lived two lives, this was the first time he had ever seen such heavy snow.

"If this were on Earth, the word 'snow' would be followed by 'disaster'!"

After muttering a few words to himself, Dick immediately ordered sentries to check the situation in the surrounding villages marked with green tags.

With this amount of snowfall, horses are no longer suitable for riding, but fortunately, dog sleds are the main mode of transportation in the area during winter.

The villages marked with "green labels" were civilian settlements that obeyed the governor's jurisdiction. Villages that did not obey the governor's jurisdiction but did not cause trouble were marked with yellow labels, while those suspected of colluding with bandits or showing obvious signs of resistance were marked with red labels. Dick planned to deal with these unruly villages next year; for the time being, he would avoid contact as much as possible while secretly monitoring them.

These villages marked with red labels are, to put it nicely, known for their fierce and unruly people; to put it bluntly, they're rife with banditry. Although they do farm, they'll seize any opportunity to become bandits, especially in winter when they'll plunder other villages.

Dick wasn't the kind of easygoing, kind-hearted person. From the very beginning, his attitude towards these villages marked with red labels was not one of naive preaching or taming.

He advocated physical extermination and labor reform!

“To be merciful to bad people is to be cruel to good people. We in Laguge don’t support idlers. I’ve expanded my private army to eight hundred men, do you think I’m raising them to generate revenue for the local brothels?”

During the routine military meeting inside the castle, Dick proposed that the first special anti-gang and anti-crime operation in Laguge would be carried out in the month leading up to spring, wiping out all villages inhabited by bandits, semi-civilians, and those collaborating with bandits.

Those who led the way should be killed, and the rest should be sentenced. The slave labor camps in the mining area have long needed to be replenished with fresh blood. Sending these guys in for labor reform is the perfect solution.

Moreover, if these unstable factors are not resolved before spring planting begins, Dick's pioneering campaign will also be affected.

The officers in the General Staff were partly promoted from private armies and partly selected from the last martial arts tournament. They were all eager to make a name for themselves and to be knighted, so their warlike desire was particularly strong, and they couldn't wait to lead their troops to fight.

But Dick hopes to train these people well and teach them to fight with their brains.

So every three days, Dick would convene his newly formed General Staff for a routine military meeting, where a group of people would conduct adversarial simulations on a sand table.

At the beginning, this group of brutes would launch a full-scale attack, and then proudly salute Dick, indicating that they would lead the charge.

Then they were taught a lesson by Dick, who volunteered to be the commander of the Blue Army and played the role of a bandit leader.

Dick wasn't a military academy student in his past life, nor was he a seasoned military enthusiast, but crushing this group of idiots who only knew how to charge forward like pigs was a piece of cake for him. Moreover, he wasn't fighting alone; he had two staff officers, Black and White Gun, who were experts in warfare during the era of cold weapons, by his side to fill in any gaps in his knowledge.

Therefore, this trio was always able to take advantage of the terrain and, with far fewer troops than the attacking side, severely thwart the blindly charging encirclement forces.

It also gave those officers in the General Staff a good thrashing and opened their eyes!

"Governor, you are an amazing military strategist! You are a true war god!"

Stop sucking up to me! You guys played terribly, you idiots!

After several wargame simulations, although Dick was consistently winning, his blood pressure was steadily rising, and he was showing signs of becoming extremely hot-blooded. Because at this rate of reckless fighting, his five hundred private soldiers would be wiped out after at most three bandit villages!

Especially that big oaf who just praised himself. This guy seems to have some mountain giant blood. He's nearly 2.5 meters tall, but his brain is probably positioned too high, resulting in insufficient blood supply and intellectual problems.

For a moment, Dick almost suspected that this guy was the reincarnation of a Japanese devil named Nogi, making the already poorly mobile heavy infantry charge a hillside with a close formation at a nearly 40-degree angle. Did he really think that the logs and boulders on the top of the mountain were just for show?

Dick repeatedly emphasized that these simple defensive structures were enough to inflict extremely serious casualties on infantry. In response, the fool chuckled and said that he could rush to the front and help the brothers behind him knock away all the rolling logs and boulders. Dick was so angry that he almost fainted and could not stand steadily.

Behind them, one of the two Artorias frowned and held her forehead, while the other was trembling from suppressing laughter.

Chapter 021: The First Case

After the military meeting, Dick slumped wearily in his chair. His young face, which looked only twelve or thirteen years old, displayed a sense of despondency reminiscent of a middle-aged widow.

He muttered to himself softly, as if trying to comfort himself.

"It's alright, there are still more than four months until the end of winter. They'll learn if we teach them slowly... right?"

"Master! How about letting Blake and me lead the bandit suppression operation? Please trust us, we will definitely..."

“White, it’s not that I don’t trust you. Your loyalty and abilities are beyond question. You were the commanders I designated from the very beginning for this planned anti-bandit operation. But you all saw what happened just now. I can’t possibly rely on recruited talents for all the junior and mid-level officers in the army, can I?”

Thinking about how those people had acted just now, Dick couldn't help but rub his throbbing temples again.

There's always been a really messed up problem in this world: due to the existence of magic and martial arts, a small number of people can reach a very high level of combat power, the kind of strength that allows them to take on a hundred or a thousand opponents single-handedly.

As long as one has a suitable physique for cultivation, one can surpass the realm of ordinary people.

Moreover, this talent seems to be really linked to bloodline. Many long-established families have been able to prosper because of the emergence of many strong individuals. If a talented person occasionally appears among the common people, they will try their best to get into the noble group.

Once you become a knight, you're a master!

Therefore, there is a reason why the nobles of this world are so arrogant and domineering.

Even a low-ranking warrior can take on ten opponents.

A mid-level warrior can withstand an attack from dozens of people without fear.

High-ranking warriors can easily break through a formation composed of hundreds of ordinary warriors.

As for mages, needless to say, in terms of destructive power alone, they far surpass warriors of the same level. Crucially, mages can also gather in groups to form large arrays, constructing even more powerful "strategic-level magic," which is the origin of some so-called "city-destroying magic."

This is like using individual magicians as CPUs and stacking them according to a special architecture to form a supercomputer.

This array magic, which resembles a human computer, is a recent achievement that has only emerged in the last few decades. It's quite possible that the idea was actually borrowed from Earthlings for free.

However, the strong are ultimately a minority. People with magical talent and the physique for cultivation only account for one in several thousand of the total population. And cultivation has a limit to talent. Some people spend their entire lives and still can't even become high-level warriors. Those at the Saint level or even the legendary demigods are even fewer among the few.

Therefore, war still needs ordinary people... a large number of ordinary people!

Mid- to lower-ranking officers could only be selected from these practitioners who possessed a certain level of martial arts skills.

Firstly, lower-ranking officers need sufficient combat skills as a deterrent to establish their authority in front of their subordinates, which is difficult for ordinary soldiers without martial arts skills to do.

Secondly, junior and middle-ranking officers are more likely to become key targets of enemy attacks on the battlefield, and therefore need to have a certain level of self-defense capabilities.

You can't expect a group of soldiers with medieval skills to have any initiative.

Once a large number of junior and middle-ranking officers are killed, it means the complete collapse of the already inefficient old-style military command system. Orders cannot be transmitted, and the soldiers below will fall into chaos.

Dick also wanted to go straight to modern standards and train the new army, but he had to consider the realities of the situation and not make decisions on a whim.

Over the next two days, the liaisons sent out to confirm the situation in the village returned to the castle.

The local villages are inhabited by long-time residents accustomed to strong winds and heavy snow, so a meter-deep snowfall had limited impact on them; most villages were doing alright. And regardless of whether their gratitude was genuine or not, they all expressed their thanks to the governor for sending someone to check on their situation.

However, just as Dick was beginning to relax, a sleigh sent to Kevin Village hurriedly returned to the castle, bringing back an injured man and bad news.

The first case of cold-related illness this winter has appeared!

Upon learning this news, Dick rushed to the castle clinic immediately.

After summoning Natasha and Shizuka Marikawa, Dick designated the northern part of the castle as part of the clinic. He also selected five bright young women from among the maids (castle servants) that Rita was training, and had them become nurses to learn medical techniques from Natasha and Shizuka Marikawa.

The girls were initially reluctant, but when they learned that the salary for being a nurse was twice that of a castle maid, their eyes lit up.

As for Shizuka Marikawa's identity, it was of course not a secret! Even though she herself never admitted it, the maids quickly guessed that she was an Earthling who had been summoned.

However, the maids were all intelligent and guessed that Shizuka Marikawa's "master" must be the governor. Moreover, Shizuka Marikawa's personality made it difficult for anyone to dislike her.

When Dick arrived at the clinic, Natasha and Shizuka Marikawa were examining a newly arrived patient.

The patient is a twelve-year-old girl from a rural area with a simple and unpretentious name: Jasmine. Her parents are residents of Kevin Village and were originally farmers. During David's rule, her father was forcibly conscripted to the mining area, but fortunately, he returned safely to his family.

At this moment, Dick noticed that outside the ward corridor door, a young man in a private soldier's uniform was peeking into the ward, looking somewhat nervous.

Dick, who had a vague idea of ​​what was going on, called out towards the door.

"You soldier, come in!"

The young soldier was startled when he heard the governor call him, but he still lowered his head and came to Dick, looking guilty as if he had made a mistake and confessed without being asked.

Dick looked at him and asked.

"What's your name? Are you the one responsible for making contact in Kevin Village?"

"The younger one is called Robert. I'm in charge of liaising with Kevin Village."

"The locals, from that village?"

"……Yes."

The soldier hesitated slightly, but dared not lie to the governor, and honestly admitted that he was from Kevin Village. He was one of the new recruits this year, and his superiors had sent him to contact Kevin Village precisely because he was a local and more familiar with the route.

As for why Robert felt guilty, Dick guessed that he had probably gone home and slacked off for a day or two. Otherwise, given the distance between Kevin Village and the castle, he shouldn't have been the last liaison to return.

What is your relationship with that girl?

"She's my sister... I'm sorry, Your Excellency, I brought her back without permission. I'm willing to accept any punishment, but the child has contracted a cold-related illness and will definitely not survive if she stays in the village. Please, have mercy and save her!"

As Robert spoke, he knelt down in front of Dick with a thud.

He probably thought that bringing back patients with cold-related illnesses without authorization was a violation of military discipline, and that the governor had repeatedly emphasized the need for strict military discipline during his inspections of the private army, with violators to be severely punished.

But Robert wasn't thinking about his own affairs at all. He just wanted to beg the governor to have mercy and save his sister. The girl was only twelve years old and had never even left the village before. She had always longed for what the outside world was like, but her first time leaving the village was in this way.

Looking at the young soldier humbly prostrating himself before him, Dick frowned.

"Get up! Don't kneel! You're not behaving like a soldier. Did I say I would punish you? Did I say you would stand by and watch someone die? You were right to bring the patient back. I built this clinic to deal with the cold-related illnesses caused by this unusually cold winter. I also bear some responsibility for this. I didn't expect the cold-related illnesses to appear so early this year, and I didn't inform you."

"grown ups!?"

"stand up!"

Seeing that Robert was still kneeling on the ground, Dick used his telekinesis to grab the kid by the neck and lift him up.

As a magician with thirty times the mental strength, Dick's physical strength is only at the level of a junior high school student due to slow development, but he can lift a boulder weighing several tons with his mental power and lift a person with ease.

"Don't worry about your sister, my doctors will do their best to treat her. As for you, hurry back to the barracks and get some rest. Your sled team is going to be very busy for the next while!"

It's only November, the official start of winter, and the first case of cold-related illness has already appeared.