HTLCCBFT Chapter 15

Has The Lord’s Career Chart Been Filled Today? – Chapter 15

Even when it was time for bed, Oliver was still pondering how to solve this difficult problem.

He held the cat god statue—which he only took out of his game backpack at night to place by his bedside—in his arms. His pale golden brows were slightly furrowed, and he let out a troubled sigh from time to time.

The square for the Summer Market needed to be close to the residential areas, next to a road convenient for transport, and have enough manpower to ensure the security of goods and the ease of waste disposal…

Oliver’s head ached from thinking about it. He was tempted to commandeer the temple, which occupied the best spot in the city aside from the castle, yet was extravagantly and wastefully left vacant.

Unfortunately, that was not an option.

Furthermore, after filling in the former marketplace site, which had been regarded as a ‘river of shit,’ a proper method was needed to dispose of the daily waste produced by the territory’s residents and livestock.

“Oh, my God of Wealth.”

Oliver heaved a long sigh, placed the statue he had been hugging onto his lap, and looked earnestly into the golden fortune cat’s eyes, muttering to himself, “Is this the burden of being a lord?”

After finalizing the location, not only would he have to put in the effort to break rocks, level the uneven ground, and build a new square… he also had to figure out how to deal with the residents’ excrement!

Toilets definitely had to be built, and it would be best if they were the kind that could also function as composters.

Oliver, drained of energy, hugged the statue and flopped onto his bed, wishing he could just sleep it all away.

But complaining was one thing; if it came down to it, he could never bring himself to turn a blind eye to the slaves’ miserable plight or wait for that foul-smelling “river of shit” to become the breeding ground for the next plague that would claim the lives of the entire city.

“I can’t just think about this by myself; I need to brainstorm with others,” Oliver murmured. “Besides, aside from livestock, there must be many other things to buy at this Summer Market.”

Laina City, widely recognized as a desolate and decaying place, was far from self-sufficient.

For ordinary Laina citizens, even if they toiled from the beginning of the year to the end, the grain from their fields was never enough to eat, and even slightly better fabrics had to be bought from outside.

And what attracted those outside merchants the most was certainly not the common folk of Laina City—in their eyes, they were all just paupers.

The only thing that made the trip worthwhile for them was the lord of Laina City.

No matter which lord it was, they all had a taste for fine wine, treasures, and cheap slaves.

And no matter how poor Laina City was or how many people starved to death, it was impossible for the lord’s treasury to be unable to afford even a few dozen barrels of beer.

Listening to the pitiful complaints of this lord—who always wore a warm, sunny smile in public and was seen by all as the most optimistic and kindest of angels—the solid gold statue of the God of Wealth remained perfectly still.

Its beautifully carved, lifelike cat eyes seemed to gaze at him quietly.

Of course, Oliver didn’t expect a response from it—if it suddenly did respond, he would definitely be scared out of his wits on the spot.

It was only in the dead of night like this, when he was alone, that he could reveal a hint of his inner turmoil.

Complaining was one thing, but he couldn’t truly just wash his hands of it all.

“Oh, my dear Cat God.”

Oliver hugged the golden statue and lay on the bed for a short while, quietly staring at the ceiling in thought. Gradually, an idea began to take shape in his mind.

It was already very late. He sat up and, with a solemn expression, placed the statue on his bedside table. He then set a pink rose he had picked earlier onto the cat’s paw. In a tone that sounded serious but was actually filled with lighthearted jest, he asked, “When I wake up tomorrow morning, can I see another gold ingot?”

Of the materials required to make a seed maker, he had already found ways to obtain wood planks and coal, and had even saved up a large pile of them.

But if he wanted to get a gold ingot, he could only rely on the statue of the God of Wealth.

Because he was speaking to a statue produced by the game system, Oliver felt no psychological burden as he closed his eyes to “pray,” simply spouting nonsense with a smile. “My dear, great Cat God, please bring me lots and lots of gold ingots!”

The bright, silvery moonlight gently streamed through the window, spilling onto the beautiful face of the man on the bed, who was chanting with his eyes closed. He looked like a pure, compassionate angel praying to a deity, every breathtakingly beautiful, faint contour of his face radiating an air of sacred tranquility.

Listening to Oliver’s wish, the Cat God remained motionless.

Only the paw pad, upon which the angel had just gently placed the pink rose, seemed to faintly radiate a soft warmth.

As soon as Oliver fell asleep, the day’s settlement panel popped up in his mind—

The experience points for Farming, Combat, and Mining remained unchanged.

Fishing had leveled up from 1 to 2, with 0% experience toward the next level.

The reward for leveling up was an item that, to Oliver, was rather useless.

A “Good Quality Fishing Rod” automatically replaced the “Crudely Made” one. Its description read: “If you can’t even catch a fish with this, you should first reflect on your own technique.”

Oliver only gave it a casual glance before turning his attention to Foraging.

Just as he had thought, Foraging had jumped directly from level 1 to level 3, with 0% experience toward the next level, unlocking two items in a row.

One was the cooking recipe for a “Delicious Small Bun” that could restore 30% of his stamina bar, but it was the other that made Oliver the happiest.

It was the recipe for a “Charcoal Kiln,” the essential equipment for producing the material “coal”!

By putting 10 wood planks into the charcoal kiln, he could get one piece of coal. Adding that to the wood planks themselves and the gold ingots obtained through the Cat God…

This undoubtedly meant he had taken another huge step toward the “seed maker,” his most important goal at the moment.

The next morning, Oliver, who hadn’t expected to actually receive a gold ingot as he had wished, felt doubly encouraged.

After giving a flower to the Cat God as usual and expressing his thanks, he stored the gold ingot and the statue in his game backpack.

He ignored the pained protests of his butler, Fosse, and didn’t even bother to eat breakfast (his stamina bar was full anyway). He went directly to the last piece of land on his territory, a field that had been forced into disuse because it was overgrown with weeds and piled with rocks of all sizes.

This area was near the clock tower and adjacent to the other fields. Although it was a short distance from the residential area, after much deliberation the previous night, he had decided this was the most suitable place to build a square. As the saying goes, practice makes perfect. The lord, who had become quite adept at the work over the past few days, first picked up a scythe in front of everyone. After a dazzling series of swishes, he easily cleared the large patch of land of all its wildly growing weeds.

Oliver thought to himself that he had to admit, the rustling sound made by cutting the grass…

…was truly both addictive and therapeutic.

He didn’t have time to savor the joy of cutting grass for long. He immediately swapped the scythe for a pickaxe and then, without batting an eye, brought it down with a clang on the large and small stones that had been exposed after the weeding and were scattered all over the ground.

Two hits for the small ones, five for the big ones.

The “stone” resources, automatically collected into his inventory by the game system, were instantly crafted by Oliver into “gravel path blocks” using the set of basic recipes gifted by the system. Their appearance was merely passable, but their quality was absolutely guaranteed. He then laid them on the ground.

This entire sequence of actions was as smooth and natural as flowing water, and it was executed with clean efficiency.

Even the people who believed from the bottom of their hearts that this lord was the angel sent to Laina City by the great God of Wealth, the ‘Cat God,’ were still deeply shaken when they witnessed the lord perform another miracle with their own eyes.

While doing their farm work, they secretly stole glances at the lord in the distance, who was completely absorbed in his own work. Occasionally, when the foreman wasn’t looking, they would quickly exchange a few whispered words with a friend.

“Hey, Jonathan.” Jonathan’s neighbor, who happened to be assigned to the same plot of land as him today, couldn’t help but ask, “What do you think the lord is planning to do this time?”

Many people had seen the Angel Duke smashing stones and miraculously producing gravel to lay on the ground, gradually forming a path. They couldn’t help but speculate curiously.

Was he expanding the castle? Or was he rebuilding the temple for the great God of Wealth?

If so, he could have just ordered them to do it. Why make the beautiful and kind lord work so hard?

Jonathan didn’t answer, because he didn’t know either.

This angelic lord, who had received a God’s favor, seemed to be omnipotent. He was even faster and better at farm work than they were.

The farming, which had originally been delayed, had rapidly caught up to the progress of previous years under the lord’s personal leadership.

With just three more days of work, the rest of the tasks could definitely be completed.

But farm work was, after all, dirty and arduous. Having already received so many boons from the lord, they should be doing their own duties properly. How could they be so shameless as to always trouble the lord?

“Some people have been reassigned,” his neighbor said mysteriously. “They went to fill in that shit river to the east! My ‘Cat God’!” He wore a look of relief. “That place is so filthy and smelly that not even a pig could stand it. Only flies would be willing to go there.”

“It’s not just the slaves,” Jonathan added thoughtfully. “Commoners went too.”

Even the families of those usually arrogant and domineering foreman and supervisors were forced to send one or two of their sons to do that dirty work.

“Whatever the case, the Lord’s orders are always right.” The neighbor sounded a little gleeful at the news. “It was their own piss and shit in the first place, so they can only blame themselves. It’s good that it’s been filled in. Even though we live pretty far away, we could still smell that stench. What if it were to bother the Lord?”

“Yeah.” Jonathan nodded and urged, “Let’s focus on our work. If we get distracted, the Lord might not trust us to do our work properly.”

“That can’t happen!”

The words had an immediate effect, causing his talkative neighbor to instantly refocus his energy on the farm tool in his hands. He even muttered under his breath, “The Lord is so good to us, we absolutely can’t let him overexert himself. If—if he gets sick like the last few lords, we’ll be back in hell again.”

Thinking of how Laina City seemed to have been cursed this past year, losing so many lords in a row… he and Jonathan couldn’t help but shiver.

Terrified that the Angel Duke might also come to harm, they didn’t dare even mention the word “death.”

Meanwhile, on the other side of things, Oliver, relying on the game system’s basic tools, single-handedly completed the entire process of “weeding,” “breaking stones,” “making gravel slabs,” and “paving the road” in one go.

He worked for the entire day.

As the sun set in the west, his stamina bar steadily dropped. Fortunately, throughout the entire process, only using the pickaxe consumed energy; the other tasks merely took up time.

By the time his energy was about to bottom out, the brand-new plaza he had built with his own two hands had revealed its complete form before everyone.

At this, no one could hold back any longer, and they couldn’t help but cry out in amazement. “Heavens, that’s a plaza!”

“The Lord built a new plaza all by himself!”

“What is it for? It’s so beautiful!”

Oliver observed the fruits of his labor with a critical eye and could only say it was barely satisfactory.

Although he had quite enjoyed the process of transformation, having gradually become addicted to the work… in his eyes, the final result was just a flat piece of land where he had cleared away all the weeds and rubble, and paved it with dull, gray gravel slabs that were, at best, level.

It was so plain it didn’t have a single decoration. Still, it was much better than the previous dirt road—at the very least, the wheels of the heavy, cargo-laden carriages wouldn’t sink so easily into the soft ground and fall into pits of mud, big and small.

Of course, this was just a starting point. Once he had the resources, he could expand it as needed or add decorations.

In any case, it was a vast improvement over the previous cesspit-like area.

After admiring the new plaza he had paved, Oliver carefully put away his tools under Fosse’s worried gaze and walked toward the castle. “Have the people in the fields go back and start cooking early.”

He instructed, “After dinner, have them all wait at the castle gate. I have something to say.”

---