HTLCCBFT Chapter 13

Has The Lord’s Career Chart Been Filled Today? – Chapter 13

Watching the last half of his stamina bar about to deplete and the sky darkening to dusk, Oliver, who had been lost in the thrill of chopping trees, reluctantly stopped.

The fruits of his labor from felling 23 mature trees in one go were the piles of branches scattered across the ground like small hills, and the 1380 pieces—nearly 1.5 stacks—of lumber in his game backpack.

The experience points gained from logging would surely be enough for him to jump straight to level 2.

Thinking of the items he could unlock by leveling up twice in a row, Oliver looked at the thick tree trunk right before him, a restless urge stirring within him.

Sigh, that’s enough for today.

He thought regretfully that, indeed, he had brought too many attendants this time—forcing himself, as a duke, to maintain an excessive air of nobility.

If only Fosse or Noel were the only ones here… He actually would have preferred to just sit down and gnaw on the few leftover pieces of dried fish to regain a bit of energy before continuing to chop.

“That’s all for today.” Oliver tore his reluctant gaze away, returned the axe to his backpack, and swung himself onto his horse. “Let’s head back.”

Fosse, who had been struck speechless from the moment he witnessed his beloved young master effortlessly fell the first great tree, only slowly found his voice after a long while. “Yes, Your Highness.”

Truth be told, whether it was Fosse, Noel, or the other few knights, they had all seen their fair share of the world before being sent by the old king to serve Duke Oliver.

But how could their so-called ‘worldly experience’ possibly include this!

They had watched with their own eyes as the delicate and beautiful Angel Duke swung an axe with vigorous flair, nonchalantly felling one giant tree after another that would have taken two men to encircle, and then using divine power to collect the main trunks… a miracle.

Compared to Fosse, who was advanced in years, held the position of a butler, and had witnessed the many divine powers the God of Wealth had bestowed upon Oliver, Noel, the knight captain, was already in a daze.

He couldn’t have felled such a thick, tall oak tree on his own!

What’s more, he had seen it with his own eyes and counted clearly each time: His Highness swung the axe neither more nor less than exactly ten times.

Just ten swings, and such a massive tree trunk would come crashing down!

On the way back to the castle, poor Noel, while still instinctively on guard against their surroundings and subconsciously listening to the conversation between His Highness the Duke and Fosse, couldn’t help but fall into intense self-doubt.

His Grace the Duke, deeply favored by that great God of Wealth, the ‘Cat God,’ possessed a colossal strength comparable to that of Hercules…

Thinking of that large patch of forest cleared by His Highness Oliver’s hand, and of those giant trees where even the stumps had been cleanly split, Noel’s dark brown eyes filled with bewilderment.

Did a Duke like this… really need the protection of a good-for-nothing like him?

Oliver was completely unaware that the loyal knight captain trailing behind him had just suffered an unprecedented blow to his self-esteem and was now questioning his own life.

Perhaps because Fosse had shown his usual formidable adaptability, Oliver subconsciously assumed that everyone around him possessed the same ability as Fosse. After admiring the spoils in his bag with a sense of accomplishment, Oliver turned his head slightly and said to Fosse, who was half a horse’s length behind him, “Those branches will only rot if they’re left piled up in the woods, making the land beloved by the God of Wealth ugly and unsightly. Fosse, once we get back, have the supervisors inform those under them that anyone who wants the branches can go and take them.”

Oliver had no intention of transporting them back by carriage.

For one, the quantity was too large, and just gathering them would be a hassle. For another, the journey back was quite far.

By letting the people take what they needed, the trouble of the process itself would naturally limit the amount each person could take, preventing anyone from getting too greedy and taking too much.

The people toiling in the fields near the castle soon received two pieces of great news that made them doubt their own ears.

—Thanks to the lord Sir’s generosity and benevolence, they would get to drink that hot fish soup again tonight—the kind so delicious you could almost eat your own tongue along with it!

—The lord Sir had also said that there were a large number of felled oak branches scattered on the ground in the woods to the southeast. Without paying a single copper coin, anyone could go and gather them!

Although the commoners were happy, their excitement was moderate.

After all, they were about to enter the hot summer, the season when the need for firewood was at its lowest.

In previous years, they had been allowed to gather fallen branches from the lord’s woods, on the condition that they paid the lord a fee of two silver coins.

Two silver coins in exchange for a family’s firewood for the winter was by no means expensive, so they had always paid it.

But saving two silver coins was a good thing no matter how you looked at it. They could just consider it preparing for winter in advance and stocking up a portion.

The slaves, however, were about to go mad with joy.

They endured the most frequent and vicious beatings, did the filthiest and most tiring work, received pitifully small wages, ate food that left them only twenty or thirty percent full, and lived the bitterest of lives.

A slave would be lucky to save a single silver coin after a whole year of work, and that was assuming it wasn’t stolen by a cruel-hearted manager.

Even if a family was fortunate enough to save two silver coins, as the lord’s slaves, they were never qualified to purchase the right to gather firewood.

The reason given by the supervisors was both absurd and simple: “Both the woods and the serfs are the lord’s property. How can property be sold to other property?”

“Lucy, Lucy, did you hear?”

Marianne quickly patted Lucy’s thin shoulder and said enthusiastically, “Don’t go alone later! There are wild beasts in the woods, it’s too unsafe. I’ll have Jack take you with my rascally boys! Let them help you carry more. It’s not just firewood for the winter; the straw on your roof should be replaced too. Look how badly it leaks…”

Jack was Marianne’s husband. Although they had married in their ignorant teens at thirteen or fourteen, their affection for each other had only grown.

Marianne arranged things this way, of course, to look after the frail Lucy, whose parents had both passed away.

How could this small, thin girl possibly carry back enough firewood for the entire winter on her own?

Besides, Marianne knew that there were a few scoundrels with ill intentions among the serfs; otherwise, Lucy’s father wouldn’t have died so tragically after being informed on… and to make matters worse, Lucy was quite pretty and cute. The worst possible outcome would be if someone took advantage of the chaos and the crowd in the woods to drag her to a hidden place and bully or even torture her.

Lucy blinked, and tears quietly fell.

Amidst Aunt Marianne’s warm fussing, Lucy quickly wiped away her tears, looked up, and broke into a wide smile. “I know, Aunt Marianne,” she said obediently. “I’ll wait for Uncle Jack to go with me.”

The new lord was truly an angel, a messenger sent by the great Cat God, his heart as gentle and beautiful as his appearance.

If only… if only he had come just a little sooner, that would have been perfect.

Duke Oliver, whom the slaves firmly believed to be a true angel incarnate, had already finished his dinner and was gazing out the window.

Summer twilights lasted much longer than usual, and the sky wouldn’t turn completely dark right after the sun had truly set.

The commoners were patient enough, planning to wait a few days until they were free to go gather firewood in the woods.

But the slaves, who were receiving such good treatment for the first time, were unwilling to wait even a moment.

Even though they deeply loved their angelic lord, their past suffering left them with a lingering fear. They worried that they might wake up tomorrow to find this dream-like life had vanished like a bubble.

To prevent any unexpected setbacks, they wouldn’t just go while it was still light out; they would risk entering the woods even after it was pitch black to bring the firewood home as soon as possible.

Only when they saw the firewood in their own homes could they truly feel at ease.

Although Oliver couldn’t guess their exact thoughts, he could somewhat understand their feelings.

Therefore, when he looked out the window and saw the slaves filing into the woods as soon as they finished their farm work for the day, he wasn’t too surprised.

With so many people and the sky not yet dark, they shouldn’t run into any small wild beasts roaming the woods.

As Oliver thought of this, a new idea came to him. “Noel, once the busiest farming season is over, I want you to select a hundred men from below. They must be young and strong. You will train them in combat.”

Not expecting to receive a direct order from the lord, who always trusted Fosse the most and consulted him on everything first, Noel froze for a moment, then his eyes lit up.

Fosse, on the other hand, looked perfectly calm, completely unaffected.

But Noel’s gloomy mood from the afternoon instantly lifted.

He couldn’t hide his excitement as he replied loudly, “Yes, Your Grace!”

“Our arrival in Laina City was too rushed. The fief is so large, and many places need guarding, but I can’t tie down my most trusted knight-commander with trivial matters.” Oliver, mindful of Noel’s feelings as a minor noble, said with a smile, “Only the few of you are fit to be by my side… Their duties will be limited to the safety of all my property on this fief—and of course, that includes the slaves. Since it’s such dirty and tiring work, you don’t need to limit your selection to commoners. Even slaves, as long as they meet the criteria, can be conscripted.”

Oliver had no intention—at least not for now—of courting death by “breaking down the class system.”

Making knights protect the safety of slaves?

That would probably drive the knights, who regarded dignity and honor as everything, to their deaths.

Even if they accepted out of obedience to the duke’s command and for the sake of loyalty, Oliver didn’t believe they could be as thorough as he wanted them to be. Even though slaves made up the largest portion of the territory’s population, their status was the lowest. Even freemen felt a sense of superiority when dealing with them, let alone a knight who came from minor nobility.

Hearing the Duke’s words, Noel felt incredibly flattered and nodded in deep agreement. “I understand, Your Highness.”

Oliver nodded in satisfaction, then turned his head slightly to look at the serious-faced Fosse.

When gazed upon by those eyes, which were like the world’s most expensive and dazzling sapphires, Fosse, who was always stern with others, unconsciously curved the corners of his lips, revealing a smile for his beloved young master.

“Fosse,” Oliver looked expectantly at the ever-astute and capable man who seemed like an omnipotent butler. “Can you tell me where I can purchase animals suitable for a farm?”

From his very first day in Laina City, he had noticed… there was far too little livestock and poultry in this territory.

—No matter how delicious the fish he caught were, he would get tired of eating them every day.

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TL Note: I’ve gone back and swapped out some ranks/jobs like overseer > supervisor for consistency since the author is is not consistent with terms 🫠 I’ll try to be more consistent from here on.