Building A Human Empire By Creating A Clan [EN]: Chapter 27

“I am the rightful owner of this land, and that makes me your owner as well. Therefore, your owner declares this: as of now, I am freeing you from slavery. You will live in my territory not as slaves, but as free people. If you do not wish to, you are free to leave.”

Among the slaves whose spirits had crumbled, there was a man.

Unlike the other slaves, his mind was intact.

His name was Dylan.

“Freedom…”

Before becoming a slave, Dylan was a blacksmith in Olympus.

Before settling in Olympus, he was an apprentice in a fairly large city.

Before that, he was born and raised as the child of a city dweller.

At the age of 12, he lost his parents to an epidemic and spent a little over 10 years as a blacksmith’s assistant, belonging to a guild.

“Yes?”

“You must have learned something during that time, so you can manage on your own. Good work.”

However, as the winter of his 26th year was coming to an end, he was let go from the guild.

Not because he had done something wrong, but because he was considered too old.

The guild preferred cheap apprentices over journeymen who cost more to feed.

‘What am I supposed to do now?’

He had lived his life with the hope of becoming a master craftsman.

That hope collapsed in an instant, without warning.

At twenty-six, with nothing to show for it, all he had left were a few coins he had saved from side jobs and some intangible skills.

“Land flowing with milk and honey! You can have that land for free!”

He happened to see a pioneer group being organized by the Thirdlet County [likely a region or administrative division].

‘Let’s go to the frontier.’

He had no hometown to return to and no one to look for him.

He’d rather do something than starve to death.

He joined the pioneer group and introduced himself as someone who knew how to handle metal.

“You know how to do blacksmith work?”

That’s how he became the only blacksmith in Olympus.

Even though the master craftsman didn’t teach him directly, he had been by his side for over 10 years.

The skills required in the frontier village weren’t that great, and he was the only one who could do even that much, so his talent stood out and he received great respect.

He got a wife and had children.

“……”

Dylan had been happy.

It was like being compensated for his wasted youth.

The 10 years he had lost were belatedly returned.

He felt happiness he had never felt when he was under the master craftsman.

The frontier village lacked everything, but his heart was full.

He believed that what was lacking would be filled.

He thought his life would only get better.

He thought he would live like this and end his life here.

Dylan, who had thought that way, was now,

a one-legged mine slave.

The ears of barley sprouted, and their scent was fragrant.

The pioneers who went out to the fields were humming with excitement at the abundant harvest,

Everyone was smiling and bending over to harvest when,

Small figures appeared in groups beyond the horizon.

Orcs and goblins.

The barley burned, and ear-piercing screams rang out.

The sight of a goblin mob dragging his wife out of a dugout [a basic shelter, often partially underground].

No, he shouted and ran to his wife, but his vision collapsed.

A rusty dagger stuck deep in his calf.

The sight of a goblin holding up a strange stone,

“……Huck!”

Dylan opened his eyes.

“A dream…?”

He looked around with a dazed face and saw that he was in a wagon.

The wagon rattled as it traveled along the dirt road because there were no paved roads on the plains.

Each time his body shook from the impact, his senses returned one by one.

Dylan raised his left hand and wiped his face.

‘It was a dream.’

Even his sigh of relief trembled.

“Ugh, ugh, ugh…!”

Dylan wasn’t the only one having nightmares.

Everyone in the wagon had their eyes closed, gritted their teeth, and trembled.

‘We’ve finally been liberated, but our minds are still bound.’

He clenched his trembling hands into fists.

But the trembling didn’t stop, it spread through his arms and throughout his body.

“Ah, ooh…”

Dylan saw his wife, Maya, stirring in his arms.

Her face was covered in scratches, and her hair was torn out.

Both arms and legs were attached, but the ligaments in her ankles were severed.

Still, even this was better than what happened to others.

Most of them were missing limbs.

But Dylan couldn’t comfort himself by saying he was lucky.

“Woong…”

Maya put her left finger in her mouth and mumbled.

When Dylan reunited with her, she was out of her mind.

She had lost her reason and laughed like a madwoman, as if she had become a newborn baby.

It was because the disgusting race had broken her heart.

Dylan carefully hugged his wife with an indescribable expression.

“Woo…”

The next day, they arrived in Olympus.

Only a day’s journey from the Bakuku garrison, which he thought was hell on earth.

In that one day’s journey, there was a place he had thought of countless times every day.

‘It’s changed a lot.’

Dylan was quite surprised to see the appearance of Olympus.

The Olympus he remembered was a simple farming village.

But the current Olympus had neither simplicity nor the appearance of a farming village.

It was becoming a small city.

‘There’s no city wall yet, but….’

The image that comes to mind when you think of a city is a high city wall.

And a different living area from the farming village formed inside the city wall.

Olympus was not a city in that respect.

But there was a reason why Dylan felt like it was a city.

Because the scale and standards had changed like a city.

‘Did they take in immigrants?’

The population of Olympus had decreased due to several raids.

When Dylan was being hunted, the population was only about 200 people.

The number of households that could be seen at a glance seemed to have doubled since then.

‘If we’re added, it’ll be over 1,000.’

Dylan turned his head and looked at the wagon train.

The line was really long, and each baggage wagon was packed with people.

Even by rough estimate, there were hundreds of people riding inside, and he was worried about whether Olympus could accommodate all of them.

– You will live in Olympus.

He recalled the words of the human lord who owned Olympus and saved them.

The lord who annihilated that terrifying orc captain and the monster horde.

A being with such abilities would not have said empty words.

Dylan believed those words and hoped they would come true.

‘We mustn’t go through the same thing again.’

Dylan knew that as long as they were on the Great Plains, hell was not far away.

To avoid falling into hell, they had to be under the protection of the lord.

‘What I can do… I have to become someone who is needed by the territory….’

He had lost one leg, but his two hands were intact.

It was okay if he could hold tongs and swing a hammer.

He also had the mental strength to endure the hellish slave life.

‘Fortunately, it looks like they need a lot of people.’

He saw the residential areas, workshops, farmlands, and other areas neatly divided into straight lines, and people working busily in those areas.

If Olympus was developing like this, he would be even more needed.

“You can live here from now on.”

Those who got off the wagon were assigned temporary houses.

It was small and shabby, but it was like heaven compared to sleeping with corpses.

On top of that, they were given freshly baked bread three times a day.

Dylan picked up Maya, who couldn’t walk, and laid her down in the room.

“Ah… woo, ah.”

Maya was drooling and smiling brightly.

Dylan felt emotional as he looked at his wife, who had lost her former self.

But he didn’t show it and tried to smile along with her.

At least he wasn’t a slave anymore, so he could smile.

Knock, knock.

The next day, a familiar face came to visit.

It was Kistler, the village chief of Olympus.

“Welcome back.”

“I’m sorry for coming back in this state when you’re so busy.”

“It’s enough that you’re alive. Is that important?”

Kistler looked at Maya, who was smiling brightly, and made a pitiful expression.

“It must be hard. There’s no one to take care of her.”

“It’s okay. Maya is quiet.”

“Woo, ah ah!”

Maya shouted as if refuting his words.

“Then can you work again?”

“Anything I can do.”

“We need your help. The lord has brought in a few blacksmiths, but there aren’t enough.”

“I’ll do it.”

Dylan returned to the smithy.

The workshop he had built before had been demolished.

He heard that an elf had come and destroyed it, so they moved it while cleaning up the area.

He felt sorry that the traces he had once left here had disappeared.

But he quickly forgot about it and focused on his work.

What was important to him right now was to settle down as a blacksmith,

To prove that he was needed by the territory,

And to be under the protection of the lord.

“Oh… you’re very skilled.”

“Let’s just do it moderately.”

There were two blacksmiths in the smithy who were also apprentices like Dylan.

The two were brothers and energetic young men.

“Elder, that leg isn’t the right height. Should we make a new one?”

“That would be nice.”

“No, just give us the materials. I’ll make it.”

“Elder, please sit down. We’ll make it perfectly for you.”

For a while, he was out of his mind.

He had to work at the smithy during the day,

And he had to take care of his wife, who couldn’t sleep at night.

It was a little better that he didn’t have to take care of his wife during the day.

The lord’s vassal decided to take care of people like Maya.

“Don’t worry and go to work. I’ll take care of your wife.”

Dylan remembered that her name was Rachel and that she was one of the vassals who was by the lord’s side at the garrison.

Wearing a habit like a nun, she gathered people like Maya who were out of their minds during the day and entered a building near the lord’s residence.

He heard that the building was originally intended to be used as a warehouse.

But Dylan didn’t know what they were doing inside.

He was embarrassed to ask and was busy with his workshop work.

He worked in the workshop during the day and brought Maya back as if he were picking up a child he had left in someone’s care.

“Awoo!”

What was certain was that Maya’s appearance had brightened.

That’s why Dylan didn’t worry.

“The lord seems to be a great person.”

He suddenly said that during break time.

Since several workshops were close together, all the craftsmen would gather in one place to rest during break time.

The craftsmen closed their mouths at Dylan’s words and looked at him.

“What lord would treat slaves like this? A house, food, clothes, and even freedom. I am always grateful to the lord.”

“Ah, is that so.”

The tanner scratched his beard and smiled awkwardly.

The other craftsmen had similar reactions.

“Well… that’s really great about him.”

“I don’t know how he has such skills.”

“No wonder this friend made such a fuss about him being the incarnation of Vulcanistus [likely a deity or figure associated with blacksmithing or technology].”

“Hey.”

Vulcanistus.

When he praised the lord, the god of technology suddenly appeared.

As Dylan couldn’t follow the story, a craftsman brought a blueprint.

“The lord drew it.”

“The lord?”

The blueprint drawn in graphite on parchment was so detailed and meticulous that it was hard to believe that it was drawn by a non-professional.

Everything was included in the blueprint, from the overall shape of the item, the shape of each part that made up the item, the function and operating principle of the item, and even how to handle it.

‘Is he attaching several pieces of iron with different functions to perform several tasks at once?’

“He drew it right there on the spot.”

“Heo…”

“And that’s the finished product.”

When he saw the plow in the blueprint in real life, he nodded his head involuntarily.

He thought it was amazing to come up with such an efficient item.

“Amazing.”

“And he even showed us how to make it himself.”

Dylan’s eyes widened.

“In person? He made it?”

He was skeptical.

Having worked with metal his whole life, he thought it was an exaggeration.

But the craftsmen’s eyes were serious.

“It’s not just blacksmithing. Tanning, stonework… all are far below the lord. Even our masters can’t keep up with the lord’s skills.”

“……”

‘Is it possible to master multiple skills in one lifetime?’

Not at the level of hobby or apprenticeship, but with the proficiency of a master.

Dylan was sure it was impossible, that there was some misunderstanding.

But he didn’t think the craftsmen were joking, so he remained silent.

“I told you. Vulcanistus [likely a deity or figure associated with blacksmithing or technology] has descended upon him!”

The carpenter clapped his knee in frustration and shouted.

‘Vulcanistus…’

Craftsmen take pride in their skills more than anyone.

For a craftsman to call someone else the incarnation of Vulcanistus?

That meant truly undeniable talent.

‘The lord is supposed to be human.’

Dylan respected the lord of Olymus.

The benefactor who saved him and Maya from hell.

The merciful person who gave them unconditional generosity.

But not to the extent of worshiping him as a god.

‘A human as a god.’

But suddenly, he had such a thought.

If there were a god, he wished the lord would be the god.

Because he couldn’t trust Horbid or Vulcanistus, gods who had never given him a single help.

‘Is it time already?’

The sun was already setting.

He organized his tools and went to pick up Maya.

He arrived a little early, so the warehouse was still closed.

Dylan waited outside and heard a sound coming from inside.

~♬

A tune he used to hear every day when he was an apprentice in the big city.

But it was a tune he couldn’t hear in Olymus.

‘A hymn…?’

He slightly opened the door and looked inside.

The first thing he saw was a platform, and Rachel standing alone on it.

Rachel was singing a hymn in a slender voice.

‘……’

In front of the platform, people were lying or sitting.

All people with unsound minds like Maya.

They were staring blankly at Rachel or singing along to the hymn.

‘Maya…’

Maya was in the front row.

She was kneeling because her ligaments were torn.

She put her hands together and tried to sing along to the hymn.

No, it would be right to say she was trying to sing along.

“Ah… oo, ooah…!”

What came out was babbling, not a hymn.

“You can go inside.”

Turning around, he saw Kistler standing there.

“You seem surprised.”

“A little… Did you know?”

Kistler smiled instead of asking, “Know what?”

“I asked her.”

“Is it okay? I don’t think she believes in Horbid.”

She also didn’t praise Vulcanistus.

The Horbid Church, which Germania and Wallachia adopted as their state religion, recognized very few gods as not heretical.

“It could be designated as heresy.”

“I didn’t know you would worry about heresy.”

“Not me, but you…”

“Were you a Horbid monk?”

Kistler muttered with a bitter expression, “Once.”

“Humans either serve or don’t serve. And if they do, I think they should serve humans.”

“……”

Dylan opened his mouth, wondering if this was the same devout friend.

“It’s the first time I’ve seen you make that expression. If you want, I’ll separate Maya. I’ll take care of her the same, but I won’t make her attend the service.”

At Kistler’s suggestion, Dylan looked at Maya.

She was trying to sing a hymn, twisting her pronunciation.

Seeing her smiling brighter than ever, he shook his head.

‘Either way, the gods won’t even care about us.’

When the hymn ended and he brought Maya, Rachel followed.

“Your wife has gotten much better.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes.”

Rachel wiped the snot that Maya was shedding with her collar.

She still looked like a child with no reason.

“Can Maya get better?”

“Of course.”

Maya smiled bashfully, and Rachel smiled and replied.

“Your wife didn’t hurt her head. She hurt her heart. The experience was so painful that she couldn’t bear to think about it. She doesn’t think about anything and returns to a pure time when she doesn’t judge right or wrong.”

“How can I fix it?”

“You have to wait. Until time brings oblivion and forgets the pain.”

Rachel added to the disappointed Dylan.

“Or, just accept the reality that you don’t have to be afraid anymore.”

Could that be possible?

Dylan swallowed the words stuck below his Adam’s apple.

“My father said. Humans are not made to be defeated. Humans can be broken, but they are not defeated.”

His father must be talking about the lord of Olymus.

Dylan thought about him and recalled the rumors.

– The lord’s vassals are not human.

Coupled with the rumor that the lord was the incarnation of God, there was a rumor that the vassals were not human but apostles of God.

Coincidentally, when Rachel, who was not much different in age in appearance, called the lord her father, he strangely remembered the rumor.

‘Could it be.’

“Anyway, it looks like my father will be coming today.”

The lord?

How does she know that?

Dylan tilted his head, but Rachel just smiled.

After Rachel returned, Dylan hugged Maya.

She had gained a lot of weight lately and was regaining her old self.

The scars on her face remained, but her hair had grown a little.

She whined less and didn’t stay up all night.

“Ooah!”

‘Is time really solving it?’

But Maya didn’t show any signs of reason.

Her nightmares are fading and her wounds are healing, but how much time will it take for her to stand on her own and regain her reason?

“Maya, are you asleep?”

If it were normal, Dylan looked down at his arms, wondering if she was asleep because of her silence, which would have grabbed his cheek and played with him.

Maya wasn’t asleep.

She was quietly looking into the distance.

Dylan stopped walking and followed where she was looking.

“It’s sunset. Isn’t it beautiful?”

“Yeah.”

It was an unusually beautiful sunset.

The ground was black with shadows as the sun set.

The cloudless sky was dyed orange instead of the ground.

Looking at it, I unknowingly relaxed and sighed.

‘A person?’

There was a person in the sunset.

A person riding a horse in the wilderness.

Behind him, the light made the front black and shaded.

– It looks like my father will be coming today.

Dylan trembled.

The orange light, which was now fading like a dying light, spread like wings across the black wilderness, then subsided beyond the horizon.

“……!”

It was a moment and a phenomenon that may not have been real.

But it left a huge mark on one side of his heart.

And it didn’t just leave a mark on his heart.

“Dylan.”

Dylan felt like his breath was stopping.

He looked at his wife, who clearly called his name.

The madness in her face was subsiding.

Reason was returning to the place where madness had left.

“The sun…”

He knew even if she couldn’t finish her words that the sun seemed to be rising.

Because he was also watching.

A bright sun was rising under the sunset and the coming evening.

Even if the sun was not real and was an illusion created by the mind, his existence became a light and the night could not frighten him.

Dylan felt happiness again.

Raise the walls.

‘His name was Dylan.’

I thought of the couple who were standing blankly at the entrance of Olymus.

The reason I recognized the man named Dylan was because he was one of the few sane people in Baguku’s garrison.

Because he was a craftsman, his treatment wouldn’t have been the worst, and his mental state wouldn’t have collapsed because his slave life wasn’t long.

I remembered him hugging his insane wife and crying.

‘He’s come to his senses.’

The madness disappeared from her eyes as she looked up at me.

Instead of madness, she sent me a clear look that I was familiar with.

‘Did she awaken faith?’

I knew that look was faith.

She had faith in me, and that healed her.

Realizing the cruelty of reality and raising the hidden mind with faith.

From the belief that my existence would prevent her fear.

‘It’s too early.’

Me becoming an object of faith was something that was repeated every time.

The player is a completely different being from the NPC [Non-Player Character].

In the process of moving towards the ending, the achievements are bound to be different.

But I’m just a lord in the Great Plains, aren’t I?

It was insignificant compared to when I started to be praised in the previous rounds.

‘It’s not just because of Rachel…’

I already knew that she was using the warehouse as a chapel.

I knew that she was taking care of and preaching to the freed slaves in the chapel.

‘Faith is something you create yourself.’

But, to already see me as an object of faith,

‘Is it because of the class?’

I thought there was a reason for the Iron Man trait.

————————————

[Iron Man]

You have become the weakest to achieve the final achievement.

Your great will has a higher class than any being on this earth.

Your class keeps you calm no matter who the opponent is.

You are immune to mental interference.

Your level does not increase.

————————————

‘Iron Man.’

When I first saw the Iron Man trait, I paid attention to the fact that the level did not increase and that I was immune to mental attacks.

Then, I paid attention to the effect of composure as I experienced the situation of accepting the pressure of the strong as less than a tickle in the representative system, and I realized the true value of the class by seeing Raeragon, Vlad, and Gotava fall for my bluff.

Are the people of the representative system a race that is easily swayed by my words? No.

Even the fact that people like Kistler and Dylan immediately had faith in me.

It was clear that it was due to the influence of the Iron Man trait that I could not see.

And the influence I can’t see… was only the class.

‘The effect is greater than I thought.’

Because just level 1 pressured the absolute powerhouses, and the class exerted an invisible influence even to the point of giving inspiration to a monk who believed in another god and voluntarily converting.

“Are you uncomfortable?”

Calliope, who was walking next to me, asked.

It was reading my thoughts on the packaging of the class.

“I don’t know.”

I just compared the class to packaging, but in other words, it’s a bluff.

My essence is just a mere human, but in front of others, I’m bluffing as if I’m a strong person or a god, right?

Unless you’re a natural con artist, you’re not happy.

‘I am a con artist.’

I recalled the bluff I had committed in the representative system and smiled insipidly.

‘If I’m going to be a con artist anyway, I’ll become a great con artist. Even playing the role of that god. If faith in me makes humans stronger, I can do it as much as possible.’