Reincarnated Into The Middle Ages

After the battle, the already ancient castle was now in ruins, with scattered limbs and dark red bloodstains everywhere. White-clad warriors moved back and forth, busy tending to the wounded, extinguishing fires, and burning corpses.

Grand Master Odod rode into the infidel castle, surrounded by his men. His mood was quite good after the recent victory, and he laughed heartily with everyone from time to time. The castle's inhabitants, seeing the Grand Master arrive, quickly got up and bowed.

Odod casually nodded and then asked the quartermaster, "How did we fare in this battle?"

The quartermaster looked troubled and slowly said, "The infidels burned all their warehouses and equipment in the end. Only a small amount of weapons, gear, and some documents were left. The only valuable thing we found was..."

"What do you mean, 'the only valuable thing'?" Odod asked, displeased.

"In the dungeon, we found some infidel women and children," the quartermaster replied in a low voice.

"Dispose of them all. No need to waste food on them," Odod casually instructed.

"Your Excellency, we've suffered great losses on this campaign. These women and children could be sold as slaves to offset our expenses!" Everard quickly stepped forward, glancing subtly at Otto. He continued, "I know Baron Norn's estate needs a lot of labor. I believe he would be willing to buy these infidels."

"Very well, let it be done," Odod said, waving his hand. He then added sternly, "Rest for two days, then burn the castle and return to the Order's quarters."

Ten days later, at the estate, Otto looked at Norn somewhat sheepishly. "These hundred-odd people won't be too much trouble for you, will they?"

To Otto's surprise, Norn laughed heartily. "Uncle, how could they be? I was just worried about where to find labor. I didn't expect you to solve my problem all at once."

"Uncle, let me show you my newly built windmill wool workshop."

Norn took Otto's hand and led him to the estate's windmill. The massive windmill, facing the desert's strong winds, had its four huge blades whirling noisily, with the faint sound of creaking gears audible.

"These five giant windmills, though they require daily oiling and maintenance and aren't very efficient, are still stable enough to provide a steady power supply for our wool workshop," Norn explained.

Before Otto could recover from the windmill's impressive sight, Norn pulled him into a nearby room, which contained only a large wooden trough and five wooden hammers.

Norn pointed to the rotating drive shaft and gear transmission equipment, explaining, "This is the wool-washing workshop. We'll put the wool into the trough and use the windmill-powered hammers to pound it in turns, which will greatly save labor."

"Next to it is the wool-carding workshop. The washed wool will be compacted and carded by a specially designed drum driven by the windmill, giving us a large amount of roving."

"Then there's the spinning workshop. For now, we have to rely on this hand-cranked spinning wheel with a flywheel for weaving."

"Finally, there's the dyeing workshop. The windmill-driven mixer can properly dye the woven woolen yarn in the dye vat."

"Also, I've mastered the recipes for madder red, woad blue, and weld yellow dyes, and even a small amount of purple dye is no problem," Norn proudly introduced to Uncle Otto in front of the large vat. "I've estimated that our production efficiency is at least eight times higher than other workshops, and we need fewer people."

Otto stared blankly at the windmill production line. The strong winds common in the desert were transformed into powerful energy. The well-oiled iron-clad gears seemed to rotate endlessly, driving various machines to perform simple motions.

Despite the simplicity of the mechanical structure, Otto was deeply impressed.

He couldn't help but ask curiously, "Did you... learn these technologies from a book as well?"

"Yeah, there was a book that introduced techniques from a mysterious Eastern empire," Norn said with a straight face, making up a story. "Although for now we're only planning to sell various colored woolen yarns, after deducting costs, I believe we can make a profit of 400 gold nomismata per month."

Otto thought about his own meager income as a poor baron from a small place, which might only be 300 gold nomismata a year, and couldn't help but marvel at his nephew's money-making skills.

"By the way, there's also a windmill workshop for grinding and sifting flour," Norn opened a nearby clay pot and took out a handful of pure, impurity-free fine flour.

"From now on, we just need a few people to watch over the mill, and we can continuously produce fine flour. We'll never have to eat those hard, tooth-breaking black breads again!"

Otto looked at his nephew and laughed happily, and Norn also smiled contentedly.

At that moment, William walked in from outside, saying that the Order had escorted a batch of slaves who were now at the estate's gate. Upon hearing this, Norn and Otto headed towards the main gate together.

On the way, Norn remembered the image of a slave owner he had in mind and tried to put on a stern face, attempting to look menacing so that these slaves would fear him from then on.

But when Norn saw the slaves, he couldn't maintain his serious expression anymore.

Most of the slaves were women and half-grown children. Their faces, now reduced to slavery, wore expressions of numbness.

The continuous travel and a meager ration of one meal a day had left them all looking pale and emaciated. A half-grown child, seeing Otto in his Order's robe, started to cry softly but was silenced by his mother.

Seeing this pitiful sight, Norn, who had originally planned to act like a slave owner and scold them a bit, sighed.

"Let's eat first."

Since the estate had few people before, the stored flour was all white. Generous Norn simply waved his hand and arranged for everyone to have a piece of white bread and a bowl of meat soup.

The slaves were in an uproar. They had worked hard as commoners for a year and could only afford to eat hard, black bread. They never expected that as slaves, they would be able to enjoy soft white bread. They all knelt on the ground, praising Norn's kindness.

Although he couldn't understand them, seeing their grateful expressions, Norn felt greatly satisfied. In a good mood, he simply sat on the ground with the slaves and asked a female villager to bring him the same meal.

At first, the crowd dared not move, but under the enticing aroma of the food and Norn's urging, they finally couldn't resist and began to eat. Various scenes of ravenous eating played out among the people, with occasional expressions of gratitude to God and Norn.

Norn took the plate handed to him by the female villager, looked at the crowd happily eating their lunch, and couldn't help but think, "Why do people have to fight each other?"

Seeing the puzzled look on the female villager's face, Norn realized that she didn't understand him. He waved his hand, signaling the villager to sit beside him.

Norn looked at William and the others who were still on guard in the distance, and then at the people who were cheering and celebrating just because they got to eat white bread. He sighed and thought about what his uncle had told him.

"Look at that little girl named Adile. She didn't do anything wrong, but the Hashashin killed her family to poison the water source, and the Order sold her as a slave. This damned era, when just surviving is already so hard, people still have to fight each other."

"A single windmill could help everyone eat white bread, but people always think about robbing their neighbors, merchants, or infidels. If everyone united, we could get through tough times together," Norn said, recalling scenes from his past life.

"And isn't religion supposed to guide people to be good? Why does it encourage its followers to slaughter those who don't believe in it? Faith is a personal matter. As long as you don't interfere with others, it shouldn't matter what you believe in!" Norn sighed, thinking about what he had seen since arriving in the Holy Land.

Talking to a stranger who couldn't understand him, Norn felt like he was back in his past life, boasting to an online friend.

"As long as you don't harm others, you should be free to believe in whatever you want. How can there be such a ridiculous notion as 'infidels'? And you know what? There's a country where people, as long as they work hard, can not only eat their fill and dress warmly, but also have cheap spices, white sugar, and salt to use freely. Every weekend, they can rest, go shopping, and buy the dresses they like. And there's also..." Norn talked to himself, then laughed at himself. Why was he saying these things?

But the seemingly ordinary female villager in front of him was having an internal storm.

After instructing the now-recovered DeMol to settle everyone in, Norn returned to his room with a sense of melancholy.

At night, as Norn was sound asleep in bed, a cold, clear voice came drifting through.

"Norn."

"Leave me alone!" Norn turned over, ignoring the voice that seemed to come from nowhere.

"Norn." The voice came again, this time more insistently.

Norn finally sat up, dazed for a moment before realizing he was alone in the room.

"Ghost!" Before Norn could scream, a delicate hand covered his mouth.

"I just want to ask you some questions. Nod if you understand," the cold voice said again.

Fearing for his life, Norn quickly nodded in agreement, and sure enough, the hand disappeared back into the darkness.

"Do you mean that you will lead your people to have enough food and clothing?"

"Well, that's easy!" Norn looked into the dark void in front of him, scratching his head. "Even though I'm only 9 years old, I've read a lot of books. It's not hard to ensure everyone has enough to eat and wear."

Remembering the textile workshop on the estate, the shadow seemed to believe his words.

"You also said that you think people should be free to choose their faith, right?"

Norn had a hunch about the identity of the shadow but still gritted his teeth and said, "As long as a person obeys the law and doesn't interfere with others, they should be free to choose their faith."

Norn quickly added, "Of course, I'm still very weak now, and I need to avoid trouble with the Church as much as possible."

"And the last question, you said you want to build a wonderful country. Is that true?"

Norn was even more bewildered. After a long struggle, he hesitantly said, "I don't know if I can do it, but I want to give it a try."

The candle in the room suddenly lit up, and in the flickering light, a shadow knelt on one knee, hand on chest.

"Thus, the current Old Man of the Mountain, Hassan-i Sabbah, pledges his loyalty to you."