NOVEL NEXT chapter 54 - Zachary Diaz
The air was filled with the aroma of roasted meat, carrying the unique fatty scent of magical beasts, making one salivate.
“Wuwuwu, it’s so delicious…” Yoen gnawed furiously at the roasted meat, complaining indistinctly, “I haven’t had fresh magical beast meat in ages!”
He took a bite, his face full of satisfaction, then suddenly remembered his predicament, and his mood instantly plummeted.
Louis ate his meat while observing Yoen’s current appearance.
Indeed, unlike his high spirits when he first arrived in the Northern Territory, Yoen now truly carried a hint of Vicissitudes, and he had lost a lot of weight.
“This terrible place in the Northern Territory is simply not fit for humans!” Yoen complained to Louis as he ate, “The frozen soil in my territory can’t grow any crops at all!
And the territory residents are lazy and afraid of hardship; they won’t farm if you give them land, and they won’t use hunting bows if you give them those. They just wait for me to distribute relief food all day! They all treat me like the Northern Territory’s number one philanthropist!”
Louis comforted him, “As long as you get through the initial period and plan slowly, things will eventually get better.”
“If my old man didn’t send me money every month to transport grain from the south, I would have starved to death long ago!” Yoen clutched his hair, his face filled with indignation.
Relying on transporting grain and money to support an entire territory?
Louis was silent for a moment, beginning to gain a new understanding of the Harvey family’s financial power.
Yoen sighed deeply, looking up at the sky, “I knew I shouldn’t have come. Do you think my dad could beg the Emperor to let me go back?”
Louis’s mouth twitched, feeling a bit speechless.
How could one simply come and go in the Northern Territory?
According to the laws of the Northern Territory Development Order, if a pioneering lord left their territory for too long without reason, they could be beheaded.
“Alright, stop playing pitiful.” He patted Yoen’s shoulder, “Even if you want to leave, it’ll be at least twenty more years.”
Yoen’s face was filled with despair. He shook off the oil stains from the roasted meat and changed the subject, complaining:
“And as soon as I sowed the seeds, before I could even catch my breath, Duke Edmund issued an order, and I had to bring troops over!”
“Tsk, that’s really unlucky,” Louis echoed.
“Now I don’t even know if there will be a harvest this autumn!” Yoen said with a pained expression.
And it’s the Snowsworn! I heard they’re a bunch of lunatics!”
“You said it yourself, newly arrived pioneering nobles,” Louis shrugged, “No background, no foundation, aren’t we the best cannon fodder?”
Yoen’s smile instantly froze, as if he had suddenly realized something.
A moment later, he shook his head, not wanting to dwell on this heavy topic, and changed his tone, “Oh, by the way, Boss, there’s one more thing.”
He gnawed on the roasted meat, saying indistinctly, “You know Zachary Diaz, right?”
“A scion of the Diaz family? I remember his territory is also nearby,” Louis replied.
“Yes, he sent out invitations, wanting to gather all the pioneering nobles from the south of Snowpeak County, saying he wanted to hold a pre-expedition banquet.” Yoen shook the meat skewer in his hand, “Did you receive an invitation?”
Louis paused, then slowly shook his head.
Yoen was stunned, his expression a bit strange, “Huh? No way, you’re…”
“Don’t think about it, the reason is simple,” Louis sneered, casually flipping the meat over the fire, “Zachary wants to be the boss of these pioneering lords and exclude me, that’s all.”
Yoen blinked, with an expression that said, “You’re not overthinking this, are you?”
“Diaz, like Calvin, is one of the Empire's Eight Great Families,” Louis smiled meaningfully, “If I went, could he still maintain his position as ‘boss’?”
Yoen suddenly understood, nodding vigorously, “That’s true, after all, you’re also one of the Empire's Eight Great Families. If you were there, he wouldn’t be able to put on airs.”
He paused, muttering, “This guy is really petty…”
“No, he’s not petty. He just knows his own limits.”
“Then how will you deal with it?”
“When does the banquet start? Where is it?” Louis asked casually.
“In just two days, at his territory, not far from here,” Yoen replied indistinctly, still chewing on meat.
Louis stood up and brushed the dust off his clothes, “You take me to see.”
Yoen was startled, then his eyes lit up, “Ha! Boss, are you going to crash the party?”
Louis smiled, “Just going to take a look.”
Yoen immediately wiped his mouth and slapped his thigh, “Alright! I’ll lead the way!”
… … … …
The next day, Yoen led the way, and Louis, accompanied by some knights, spent a day traveling, finally reaching their destination.
However, the sight that met their eyes was unexpectedly desolate.
As far as the eye could see, the land was barren. Occasionally, a few barely cultivated fields could be seen, with ordinary-looking crops swaying in the cold wind.
Scattered houses sat on the land, mostly built of wood, with simple structures, and some roofs were even leaking.
The territory residents wore worn-out clothes, their expressions numb, and they bent their heads, busy with their chores.
They glanced at the knight procession, with not much emotion in their eyes, neither fear nor expectation, as if they had become numb to their own lives.
Louis frowned.
A place like this, if it were in Red Tide Territory, would be torn down and rebuilt.
But Yoen crossed his arms and nodded, “This guy is doing pretty well, just a little worse than me.”
Louis was stunned, suspecting he had misheard.
He looked back at the expressions of the territory residents, then at the dilapidated houses and the seemingly endless barren land.
This was considered good?
Just as he was about to speak, a thought suddenly flashed through his mind.
Such a territory was the norm for pioneering lords in the Northern Territory.
No adequate resources, no proper planning, no stable supply of materials.
In such a cold and harsh environment, being able to keep the territory residents from starving, building a few houses, and managing to farm was already considered a success.
And what about himself?
The prosperity and stability of Red Tide Territory did not resemble a newly established territory at all; it was even better than many old established families in the Northern Territory.
The premise for this was that he was a transmigrator, and he had the Daily Intelligence System as his golden finger.
With this cheat, he could know where there were resources, where there were magical beasts, how to avoid dangers, and how to maximize the use of the conditions at hand.
If it were anyone else, it would be impossible to achieve this.
Louis said to Yoen, “After we eliminate the Snowsworn this time, you can come to Red Tide Territory to see; it’s much better than here.”
Yoen nodded without hesitation, “Of course, you’re my boss!”