Building A Human Empire By Creating A Clan [EN]: Chapter 23

‘I will send the items you specified as soon as the quantity is gathered.’

‘Entrust the transport only to Familiars and act as discreetly as possible.’

‘Yes.’

I left Turan to Gerhard and returned to Ollimorphous.

Even though it had only been a few days since I left Ollimorphous on horseback, the changes were noticeable.

Past the river south of Ollimorphous, pastureland had been created.

The pasture was fenced, and dozens of horses roamed inside.

“Lord.”

Kistler greeted me with a welcoming expression.

His expression was much brighter than when I first saw him.

“No problems?”

“There shouldn’t be.”

Kistler gave a wry smile and looked behind me.

Several wagons were following behind me.

The lead wagon was carrying artisans, and the rest were cargo wagons.

The cargo wagons were loaded with iron farming tools, livestock, materials, and other supplies needed for the settlement.

As the Familiars unloaded the goods, the territory residents stopped working and gathered around.

“Distribute the farming tools, one of each type per household.”

The territory residents looked at me in surprise.

“Lord, we cannot pay for these…”

“Payment is not necessary.”

The territory residents received the farming tools from the Familiars and held them tightly.

They treated them like precious objects, just as Kistler had when he held the alfalfa.

They knew very well how helpful iron farming tools would be for farming.

Farming tools with wooden or stone blades could not fully harness human strength.

The process of digging the ground deeply and cutting crops had to be repeated several times.

On the other hand, iron tools could dig the ground deeper and cut crops in one go.

The resulting increase in harvest and reduction in labor were what farmers longed for.

‘But they are expensive. Even in the inland areas where iron tools are widely used, the price is burdensome.’

Some territories even collected a special tax in exchange for lending out iron farming tools.

“Consider this a gift from me.”

I wasn’t interested in such petty money.

The bigger problem was the slow development due to the burden of repayment and the use of poor farming tools.

“Thank you, Lord…”

A territory resident holding an armful of farming tools prostrated himself.

“It’s nothing. They’re just farming tools.”

I raised my hand to stop the other territory residents from following suit.

However, those who had bowed their heads did not rise.

In the awkward situation, Calliope conveyed through telepathy to leave them be.

‘Yes. Prosper, so that you are not trampled by other races.’

I could give as many farming tools as they needed.

Tribute would be coming regularly from Turan.

Even if the tribute stopped, there was also the gold mine in the Gray Mountains.

Once the gold mine was developed and currency began to be minted, there would be no shortage of money.

What was lacking was humans.

If the population could be increased, no amount of farming tools or gold would be too much to spend.

“Anyone with experience raising livestock, stand up.”

Quite a few territory residents stood up.

After all, they would have farmed in their hometowns before becoming pioneers.

Even farmers would have raised small livestock such as chickens and ducks unless the situation was dire.

I looked around at the territory residents and said to Kistler.

“Select the most experienced among them and have them raise these.”

I pointed to the livestock that had been unloaded from the cargo wagons.

The livestock included several pairs of chickens, ducks, goats, pigs, sheep, and more.

Since there were not many, each household could be assigned one type.

“Similarly, I will not take payment for the livestock. However, this is not something I am giving to you right now. It will be given to the assigned household based on the number of offspring born this year.”

Farming tools are meaningless when placed next to each other, but livestock reproduce.

Increasing the number of livestock is very important.

Not just because they provide meat.

The fact that livestock manure can be used as fertilizer was also a major reason.

‘The more livestock there are, the more natural fertilizer there will be.’

Conversely, one might ask.

If there are many livestock, won’t a lot of feed be needed?

That’s right, a lot is needed.

However, since I was the lord of the Great Plains, there was no need to cultivate feed crops.

The Great Plains were full of livestock feed.

‘Humans eat crops from the fields. On the other hand, sheep and horses graze on grass, and pigs are raised in the forest. Humans are not herbivores like someone said. They can coexist because they grow in different areas where food is different.’

Humans in the fields, sheep and horses in the grasslands, pigs in the forests.

They could coexist because they took food from different places.

It would be a problem if the number of humans increased too much and the fields filled the grasslands and forests.

Before that, introducing 4-field crop rotation [a method of crop rotation using four fields] and cultivating feed crops would largely offset the problem.

“This…”

Kistler scratched his neck with an awkward smile.

I would lend livestock and give as much compensation as the number increased.

The eyes of the territory residents who stood up shone fiercely at that statement.

They silently looked at Kistler, begging him to choose them.

Kistler sweated nervously from the pressure and pointed to a pair of sheep.

“Should we select a shepherd separately?”

“No. I will manage the sheep separately.”

‘Hilde.’

One of the Familiars I created before going to Turan.

She, who had the profession of a wandering poet, came to the summons and examined the sheep.

“You brought gentle children.”

I wasn’t sure if she could herd sheep.

I prioritized personality over sturdiness so that even beginners could handle them.

Hilde looked around at the sheep and hugged the two puppies that were among them.

“Oh, how cute.”

“I brought them because I thought we would need sheepdogs. Can you raise them well?”

“Of course. You know my profession, right?”

I thought that wandering poets had nothing in common with shepherding other than wandering around.

Hilde confidently revealed that she knew how to herd sheep.

The puppies in her arms struggled to get out.

“Looks like they want to go to our lord?”

I was about to answer that it couldn’t be, but I saw the puppy waving its paws at me.

The clear eyes unique to baby animals.

When I inadvertently held it, the puppy licked my chin.

“······.”

Calliope was silently watching the scene.

Her expression was unreadable as always, but her thoughts were clearer than ever.

“Do you want to hold it?”

Instead of answering, Calliope took a step closer and looked down at the puppy.

Her deep blue eyes and the puppy’s black eyes met in the air.

Whisk.

The puppy turned its head and burrowed into my arms.

I could feel it trembling, so it must be scared.

I sensed Calliope’s thoughts stirring at that reaction.

“Wouldn’t a wolf be more suitable than a dog?”

At Griff’s joke, Calliope turned her head towards him.

I couldn’t see her expression because she was facing away from me, but I could feel the chill.

Griff smiled and rolled his eyes around.

I chuckled at the two people’s bickering and handed the puppy to Hilde.

‘You shouldn’t stay in one place as much as possible and should travel all over the territory.’

‘That was originally my job. No problem.’

‘Yes. While traveling around the territory, if you notice anything strange, report back immediately. Don’t forget that identifying your safety and the intervention of the Grand Assembly is the most important thing, more than herding sheep.’

‘Yes. Don’t worry.’

I sent the territory residents and Hilde away and checked the people who remained in their places.

The artisans who had been standing blankly since getting off the wagon were visible.

I gestured to the carpenter Tyler.

“Is the workshop built?”

“The building is up for now. It was originally just a matter of raising the pillars and ceiling.”

“Let’s check it out.”

I took the artisans to the workshop.

The workshop was what I had instructed Tyler to build just before I left for Turan.

As you can see from the fact that it was quickly built in a few days, it was just called a workshop, but it was nothing special in reality.

It was just setting up pillars and a ceiling without walls on an empty field.

Workshops are places where noise, odors, and heat are always present.

If it is close to the village, transportation is convenient, but everything else is a problem.

“First is the smithy.”

At least the smithy had some internal facilities for something that was quickly built.

There was a large, flat stone as a substitute for an anvil, and there was also a small furnace and bellows.

“There used to be a blacksmith named Dylan in the village, so the facilities remained. The furnace was broken, but otherwise, it was the same. The furnace was also small, so we could fix it ourselves.”

I tilted my head, looking at the tools placed on the table.

“Intact?”

Tongs, hammers, iron skewers… They were broken or rusted.

When I looked at Tyler, he glanced at Kistler.

Kistler moved his lips and made an excuse.

“I’m sorry. I used them in the field, so…”

“I see.”

It’s not something I can’t understand.

The situation was that they were plowing the field with wooden sticks.

There was no blacksmith to make and repair ironware, so would they have had the luxury to preserve the tools?

Even if the usage was not suitable, they would have used it indiscriminately because iron was durable.

‘It doesn’t deviate from expectations.’

The artisans pushed the broken tools aside and put up their own tools.

Knowing this would happen, I paid extra and prepared the tools separately.

“Can you start working right away?”

“Yes. It’s not like we’re making new ones, just fixing them.”

I nodded.

“Bring any plows you have made.”

“There’s only one because there wasn’t enough time.”

“That’s enough.”

Tyler brought the plow and placed it in front of the artisans.

The artisans examined the plow and pointed to the lower part of the plow.

“There’s no blade.”

The lower part of the plow was the part that came into contact with the soil when the livestock pulled the plow.

The role of the lower part was to dig into the soil, crush the soil, and move forward.

Therefore, the lower part had to have the durability to withstand hard soil, stones, plants, and so on.

The lower part of the plow that Tyler brought was just a wooden body.

‘Originally, there should be an iron plow blade here.’

That was what the artisan was pointing out.

The meaning of no blade was that only the body of the plow was there.

Since the plow was made of wood, the lower part without a blade was naturally wood.

If you plow the field like this, it will break whether the soil is soft or hard.

Even if it doesn’t break, can you plow the field with a blunt wooden club?

‘So that’s why they used that blunt plow.’

I recalled the plow I saw on the day I first arrived in Ollimorphous.

The human-pulled plow, which had to be pulled by people because there were no livestock, at least had a plow blade.

A blade that was worn out and blunt, a plow that was used solely because it was made of iron and had durability.

“What you will make right now is a plow blade. You will have to make a new one. But it’s just a matter of processing and attaching the iron plate you brought, so there shouldn’t be any problems.”

“At this rate, it seems like it will be over with a few hammer blows.”

The artisans were trying to attach the iron plate to the lower part without any special processing.

The sight of it looked like a shovel blade attached to a plow, so I reached out my hand.

“Wait.”

“Yes?”

“Don’t attach the iron plate as it is, but attach it at an angle to the side.”

“Yes…?”

The artisan tilted his head as if asking what I meant.

I was about to explain the reason to them, but I called Griff.

Griff, who read my thoughts, put charcoal on the furnace and snapped his fingers to light the fire.

Calliope pressed the two bellows connected to the furnace to inject air.

As the air-filled fire repeatedly grew and shrank, I put the iron plate into the fire.

“Watch carefully.”

When the iron plate absorbed heat and turned red, I pulled it out with tongs and placed it on the anvil.

Clang, clang.

I placed it diagonally on the side of the anvil and hammered it a few times.

The heated iron plate easily bent, making the bottom pointed and the top slightly curved.

The artisans opened their mouths as the initial appearance, which was close to a rectangle, changed in an instant.

‘I was worried that it wouldn’t work well because I didn’t have the skill. But it’s okay.’

I smiled as I looked at the completed plow blade.

When Deus Ex was a game, all actions were affected by skills.

When hammering in the smithy, the body moved with the help of the blacksmith skill.

The skill was a way to induce the most ideal movement.

‘Memory is truly amazing.’

When I had the skill, I didn’t care how ideally my body moved.

What I was interested in was how high-grade items were created with the effect of the skill.

But even now that the skill is gone, my subconscious remembered the movements from that time.

I know that it is not easy to follow what you remember.

Is it because I went through countless iterations in a different flow of time from reality?

From the moment I grabbed the hammer, my body moved naturally as if water was flowing.

‘In the first place, I learned horseback riding with a skill, but it was strange that I could ride a horse naturally even after the skill disappeared.’

The skills and levels of the previous iterations have disappeared, but the experience to replace them remained with me.

“Like this. Don’t just attach the iron plate to the front, but modify it so that when the soil is stirred, the soil is pushed to the right and piled up. And if you have the leeway, I would like you to attach a few more iron plates to increase the function.”

I unfolded the papyrus I had obtained from Turan and drew a blueprint on it.

The plow blade that the artisans were trying to make was no different from attaching a shovel blade to a plow.

‘With that, you’re only scratching the surface of the soil.’

What is the main reason for plowing?

It is to turn over the topsoil of the field and bring the soil underneath to the surface.

At the same time, it mixes weeds and fertilizer into the soil to create an environment where crops can grow easily.

If you only scratch the surface with a shovel, the soil will not be properly turned over.

Cutting weeds and mixing fertilizer was also sloppy.

‘Just slightly change the angle and attach a few parts.’

The plow I drew was just a few crude parts added.

So that the plow can dig deep into the soil,

So that it can cut vertically and horizontally and move forward,

So that it can push the soil to the side to create ridges and furrows,

I just drew the parts that play each role on one side of the blueprint and added the completeness.

“Can you make it?”

The artisans who saw the blueprint swallowed their words.

Their mouths, which had been open since I was working with iron, seemed like saliva would fall.

They couldn’t even think of blinking and slowly raised their heads to look at me.

“Did you… have you ever learned blacksmithing from someone before?”

“It would be more accurate to say that I acquired it rather than learned it.”

Because I learned it with a skill.

I didn’t learn it from anyone.

Then, to the question of whether I learned it on my own,

I answered, well.

Because it’s a skill, if it’s self-taught, it becomes self-taught.

“······.”

The artisans looked at each other and exchanged words.

Silence fell, and Tyler sent a thought.

‘Did you really need artisans? You could do it yourself.’

‘If I do the work, who will guide you and act as the lord?’

The person who works and the person who controls the work must be separated.

Even if the controller is better at technology than the worker, he should not do the work himself.

Unless he teaches the worker by showing a demonstration.

On the battlefield, the commander is better at fighting than his subordinates and jumps to the front?

If that’s the case, it’s better to stay as a knight from the beginning rather than a commander.

‘Territory management is the same. If I work in the workshop, I will make good things. But that is the job of a blacksmith, not a lord. As long as I am the lord, I have to do the work that is appropriate for it.’

I took the artisans to the tannery again.

“What we need right now is tack [harness for horses].”

I pointed to the horse plowing the field in the distance.

It seemed like they made the tack as they could and put it on, but the tack was strangling the horse’s neck.

As I did in the smithy, I unfolded the papyrus and played with charcoal.

“Don’t make it like the tack that horse is wearing.”

“Do you mean?”

I pointed to the horse’s neck drawn on the blueprint.

“The tack should come down below the neck and be made thicker than that. That method makes it difficult for the horse to breathe because the tack presses on the neck when the horse moves forward. To prevent that from happening, you have to lower the tack and distribute the force applied to the body.”

Horses were used in combat, transportation, and farming because of their unique mobility.

However, horses are less useful in farming than cows, and the reason was stamina.

The existing tack strangled the horse’s neck, making it an animal inferior to cows.

If the tack could be fixed and the horse’s original power could be drawn out, there were many advantages over cows.

‘Horses have less endurance and consume more feed than cows, but they have a strong instantaneous power and a fast working speed.’

The strong instantaneous power was very helpful in reclaiming undeveloped land.

Even if the land is fertile, it is difficult to reclaim if rocks and stumps are deeply embedded.

Horses could easily pull out rocks and stumps with the explosive power they exert in an instant.

Also, the fast working speed was important as the field got wider.

Because it means you can finish a two-day job in one day.

‘The Great Plains are all undeveloped land. In addition, the land owned by farmers is not large. In this situation, horses are better than cows.’

The work efficiency would be doubled if the plows and tack I ordered were added.

It could create the best synergy by reducing labor and increasing production.

As I did in the smithy, I showed a demonstration in the tannery.

“That should be enough.”

After confirming that the tanners understood the design, I moved to another workshop.

I gave individual instructions to other artisans such as stonemasons, carpenters, and weavers.

There were so many things to do because the territory had so little, so I had to instruct them one by one.

The materials purchased from Turan were not sufficient in number, but Turan would soon send tribute.

I didn’t know how big the scale of the tribute would be, but it would be difficult for the few artisans to consume it all.

‘The relocated artisans have become independent as artisans. I have to attach talented children from the territory residents as apprentices to the artisans and foster artisans in the long term.’

I thought it was also necessary to show short demonstrations whenever I had the chance to teach the artisans and apprentices.

‘Of course, it will take a long time to fill the technical positions in this way, so I have to continue to propose relocation. Relocation… Developing the gold mine comes first.’

If gold is mined from the mine and distributed using Turan as a window, the rumor will spread in an instant.

And that rumor will explosively increase the number of immigrants.

‘It’s late today, so let’s stop here, and tomorrow morning…’

Suddenly, I felt a stinging gaze and raised my head.

The artisans who had been following me every time I moved the workshop were looking at me with the same expression.

I knew very well what that expression meant.

“Vulcanistos…”

A murmur was heard from the group of artisans.

It was the name referring to the god of technology [a deity in imagination who bestows talent and inspiration to technicians].

Unlike Horbid, he does not actually exist because he is a god in imagination.

And because he does not exist, he was naturally a god that almost no one believed in.

Only a small number of technicians such as artisans and apprentices worshiped him.

‘Did I show too much?’

I showed the same skill and advanced knowledge as an artisan.

It goes without saying how it would have looked to those who worship technology and knowledge.

Moreover, it is said that Vulcanistos takes the form of a human.

The artisans’ gazes at me were not as confident as Kistler’s, but they were similar.

‘It’s happening again.’

It was the look I had always received while going through so many iterations.

In a way, it was tiresome, but I kept silent about their irresistible belief.