Myriad's Conquest

The integration of the new villagers from Yarra has entirely completed. It didn"t take a long time for them to be able to mingle and mix with the original residents as most of them already familiar with each other.

Each of them, except the children, has been given tasks depending on their abilities and the task"s relation to their previous job.

Even though they still didn"t possess their own houses, they did their a.s.signed task with tremendous eagerness and high spirit.

They were saved from being turned into the beast"s food and they have been given chances to rebuild their lives under the protection of Seastar. Hence, they definitely wouldn"t waste these blessings.

Currently, just two kilometers southwest of the village"s gate. One could see a large group of people is scattering around a large open field between the rocky cliff in the east and the beach on the west.

They were busy doing many activities such as digging the ground, building small fences, shoveling, transporting dirt and many more.

These people were tasked to open up new farmlands in preparation for the upcoming sowing season.

This new farmland will be much wider and larger than the old one. And it will be entirely used to grow grains and vegetable crops. While the old farmlands have been designated as strategic farmland, where cash crops and industrial crops will be cultivated.

Also, Adrian planned to give each family a piece of land that was located in the new farmlands once the work there has done.

These lands will be the reward as well as the payment for the original villagers. While the new villagers will receive a smaller portion of land as some form of incentives to replace their already burned land back in Yarra and to further strengthened their sense of belonging to Seastar.

These lands will be 100% belongs to them. Naturally, they could do anything they want to it. But Adrian still has a final saying about what kind of crops these lands could grow.

Three days ago, the militia"s 2nd squad returned from their usual patrol outside the village while bringing a report regarding a clay deposit.

They had found it near a small waterfall just four kilometers east of the village. It was situated very close to the waterfall on the river"s south bank.

Actually, it"s more like the 2nd squad was simply rediscovered the deposit. Because Rogar remembered that the villagers once had gathered some clays from the exact same deposit to build a well for the village. But that was years ago.

Since they didn"t need much of clays after that, less they visit the deposit. Until finally, they forgot about it.

Coincidently, Yarra Village used to have a clay deposit nearby, and the local villagers usually gathered those clays in order to sell them to Lerna Town, the only town existed in Wilderness Island which located just south of the island"s largest mountain, Mount Valois.

It"s a faraway place from Seastar.

Those villagers who usually worked gathering clays had survived and now they already became Seastar"s residents. Their knowledge regarding clays is really valuable. Thus, Adrian had quickly ordered them to build a crude gathering facility near the deposit and tasked them to gather clays from then on.

The clay facility has been running very well since it"s inception. The facility was headed by a former Yarra"s villager named Herzog.

Now, the village"s warehouse has been filled with 180 units of clay just from two days worth of gathering.

Seastar didn"t need much of clays at the moment since they won"t be building anything fancy. But these clays could be sold to interested parties if they ever visit the village or Dorhok might need to use some for his building projects.

Good news also frequently came from other resources facility as well. Especially the salt pan. Yesterday, Gina and her workers just harvested another 20 units of salts, and their quality is similar to the previous batch.

It looks like harvesting 20 units of salts once every few days is already maximum for the salt pan. It"s not because of the limitation of the new harvesting technique, more like because the insufficient of workers and the facility itself that was not very advance.

But Adrian already satisfied with this much. Once the merchant arrives, Seastar by then probably would have a total of 60 or 80 units of salts. Which could be sold with a slightly higher price than normal quality salts.

And since Seastar has enough manpower. Adrian had started the copper mine operation. The mine was headed by an orc female named Gishka.

Even though she was a huge woman, her body and face were brimmed with the feminine outline. Her hair also really long and dark colored.

Ever since he arrived in this world, the only orc Adrian had ever seen was Dorhok. There are no other.

That is why he was surprised when he saw Gishka who didn"t have a savage visage that Adrian had always imagined.

Well, the image of typical orcs inside his mind was almost destroyed the moment he was introduced to Dorhok. And now, a really feminine female orc has appeared.

Adrian didn"t know anything about the orc race standard of beauty. But apparently, Gishka is a beauty. Judging from the fact that the usual carefree and lax Dorhok always turned meekly in front of her. Also, he seems to be smitten by her since long time ago.

Giskha is originally a resident of Ironide Village, but she moved to Yarra a few years back. She had decent knowledge of mining. As a result, Adrian had promoted her as the head of copper mine.

Another important move Adrian has made is the establishment of some basic framework for Seastar"s management.

Rogar has been appointed as the head of Material Department, overseeing the operations of all resources gathering facility such as the logging camp, the stone quarry, the copper mine, and the clay deposit. Each head of these facilities will answer to Rogar, instead of directly to Adrian.

Material Department was also tasked to manage the resources that were produced by those facilities.

That way, Dorhok can no longer take the materials he needs straight from the warehouse, he must inform and consult it with Rogar first.

Adrian also formed the Strategic Resources Department with Millea as the head. In her new position, she will manage and oversee the salt pan, strategic farmland, and the new farmland. Mira and Gina will have Millea as their new superior.

Millea"s Department will also administrate the distribution of lands in the new farmland to the villagers and in the future, will manage its production as well.

These two departments are still small and didn"t have many personnel. But both Rogar and Millea had a.s.sured Adrian that they can handle the duty since the work"s scale wasn"t that large currently.

Millea has brought Rina as her secretary. Rina"s profession is actually a tailor and she"s not just some normal tailor.

According to the System, the profession also has its own level. For non-combat profession, it has five levels: Normal - Adept - Advance - Master - Grandmaster.

Combat profession has five levels as well, but with some different names: Normal - Veteran - Advance - Superb - Grand.

Rina"s Tailor profession level has reached Adept level, and she has several tailoring related skills in Intermediate proficiency.

Adrian thought its really pity Seastar still didn"t possess any textile material. Flax and Cotton had just been planted in the strategic farmland not long ago, it would be a while before they can be harvested.

Otherwise, Adrian would have already built Rina her own workshop.

But, Adrian has kept his attention on her. In the future, she would be the forefront of Seastar"s textile industry.

30 new recruits have finished their basic training phase and have been enrolled in the militia unit. Same as previous recruits, each of them received a set of bettle"s armor.

Zilong had reorganized the militia as well. Currently, the unit is consisted of four squads with ten men on each.

The 1st and the 2nd squad are still led by both Schmidt and Zeke. While the squad leader of the 3rd squad is Leo, and Gelian is leading the 4th squad.

Zilong still had to babysit the 3rd and the 4th squad by taking them to the forest for some advanced training session. While the 1st and the 2nd squad were already done several patrols far outside the village on their own.

Adrian was satisfied with them. With this, his village had grown much stronger.

However, he still has dozens of problems that still plagued the village. One of them is the economy.

Economic activity almost doesn"t happen inside the village. It"s not like the villagers did not have money at all. They do have, even the villagers from Yarra. But there isn"t anything to buy.

Not to mention, that money is basically their entire savings, and they practically did not have any incomes. Since, even though they had jobs, they didn"t receive any salary from doing it. Adrian simply lacked money to pay them.

That is why he has gotten himself a ma.s.sive headache because of this. He must find a way to tackle this particular problem soon.

But beyond that. In overall, Seastar has become even more energized and vibrant. The progress is gradually leaning towards the right path.

***

"I hope these houses will bless your families with a warm atmosphere for days to come. It is yours now, take care of it." Said Adrian to the family of ratman in front of him.

Right now, he is at the residential district, standing near the newly constructed house while being surrounded by loads of people.

Dorhok and his team had just completed two more houses. Yesterday, all of the houses that were intended for the original villagers have been given entirely. And now, it is the new villager"s turn this time.

Since he had prioritized a family with lots of children to be given the house first. Thus, he had given these two particular houses to the two families of ratman race. These two families each had five children. As expected from the ratman.

"Thank you, Lord."

"Blessed you, Lord Dornan... Blessed you."

"Huu... Huu... You"re a good person, lord... Thank you... Huu."

"..."

"..."

There are lots of grat.i.tude"s words that Adrian received from these ratmans. Some of ratman"s mothers also kowtowing and kneeling on the ground while holding Adrian"s feet as they said those words. They totally worshipped him.

Adrian smiled wryly and feeling embarra.s.sed due to this scene.

Afterward, since its already evening, Adrian decides to head back to his manor. Millea is accompanying him.

"So, how"s your work, miss? Do you find it hard?" Asked Adrian with a relaxed tone.

Both of them are walking side by side.

Millea gazed at him for a moment before replying, "No... Not really. But the work on the new farmland is quite difficult because we did not have a single strong animal."

"Yeah... But I don"t know how to get those animals... Taming a beast is too hard..." Said Adrian solemnly.

Strong animals that could be utilized for heavy works such as horses, buffalos, and probably cows did not exist on this island. Those animals are too important for farming. But Adrian simply did not know how to get them.

Seeing Adrian who is thinking hard beside her, Millea"s lips curved upward.

These past few days, she had witnessed this young man running around the village and checking up on things all the time. Sometimes he even helped with the constructions of the houses and joined other villagers in digging the soil when he goes to the new farmlands.

Not only that, he micro-managed almost everything within the village. This young lord is simply a very diligent person.

And just as Millea had thought, this Adrian Dornan has a big ambition. Judging from how he planned to build and expand the village.

She did not know what kind of ambition did Adrian have, but she really wants to be a part of it. Not just that, she also wanted to help him and support him.

It"s a very strange feeling for her. Millea never had this kind of feelings before. And towards a man, nonetheless.

Millea then remembered that she had once heard a famous word.

It was said that a man who is a hard worker and has a big ambition is very attractive to women"s eyes.

She didn"t know whether the word is true or not. But it does sound legit.

"He does look very handsome, though." Millea lost in her thoughts. Then, she shakes her head slightly and gathered her mind again.

She opened her mouth and spoke softly, "I guess, we could only rely on that merchant from Eires, isn"t?"

Adrian nodded weakly, "Yes... And by the way, how did you guys do it back in Yarra?"

"We mostly did it manually. But since the soil there is much softer compared to here, the work was easier. Besides, back then we do have a single old brute buffalo. That old thing had helped us greatly on every sowing season, hehe..." Millea giggled for a bit as she said that.

Adrian"s eyes widened, he couldn"t help but inquire, "Where did you get that animal?"

"Haha... It was a gift. We received it from Baron of Lerna... Well... the previous Baron, actually. Back then, Yarra just got a very plentiful harvest. And coincidently, Lerna is having a food shortages problem... The grain we sold had really helped the town. Thus, the previous Baron gave us that Buffalo as a gift..."

Millea told the story with a radiant face. But her expression was somehow unsightly for a bit when she mentioned Baron of Lerna., and Adrian caught that sight.

"What happened to the Baron? You don"t like him?"

Millea helplessly sighs and spoke, "The previous Baron was a gentle and benevolent old man. But his nephew was not. He"s obnoxious, arrogant, and disgusting. When I visit Lerna together with my father to trade a couple of years ago, I met him and he tried to make me as his woman... I refused him, of course. Since my father had warned me about him..."

She stopped for a while before resumed speaking, "Even after I refused him, he didn"t give up. He shamelessly keeps bothering me when I was staying there for a few months. But because I have the protection of the old Baron, that man didn"t dare to act brazenly."

Adrian nodded in understanding after hearing her story, then he said with a mischievous grin, "Well, can"t blame him, though..."

Millea rolled her eyes and scoffed, "Hah! Surely your jest, milord..."

Adrian laughed, "Hahaha... Alright, I"m sorry... Anyway, is that it? Did that man still being smitten by you?"

Millea pouted her mouth slightly and said, "Don"t know, and I don"t care... But he did send some people to Yarra once every few months to ask my hand for marriage after he became the current Baron. The late father was so annoyed by them. He couldn"t help but kicked them out. Then, they stopped coming after that."

"Really? He sends some people? Lerna is far from here, right? That means, he really serious about you... Are you sure you don"t want to give him a chance? He might still into you right now, who knows." Said Adrian jokingly.

"How could I give him a chance? He was a womanizer as well, but I didn"t really disturb by that. He just feels disgusting, and he was not a good person... I don"t like him at all." Said Millea rather angrily.

Adrian frowned after he had heard a particular sentence from her but he decides to ignore it. He quickly replied, "Alright... Alright... Calm down okay, I"m just joking with you. Let"s talk about something else... Crossing Village... Can we contact them?"

Hearing that Adrian had changed the topic, Millea"s face began to relax and she said with a flat tone, "Sure, if you sent people over there."

"What kind of specialties they produced?"

Millea silently thinks for a while before replying, "Grains and vegetables. their productions are even greater than Yarra in its heyday. They also have lots of fishes with dozens of variety... There are many more in fact, but I didn"t remember the rest."

"And what about Ironide?"

"They specialized in mining since their village was located near a mountain formation. They mined copper, tin, and iron. Ironide mostly sold them to Lerna and in turn, Lerna would export them again to Eires."

"So, Lerna has a port?"

"Yes... Lerna is the only town on this island, and they were located near the west coast. It will be a waste if it didn"t have a port, right?"

Adrian nodded in agreement. However, he feels that his lack of knowledge about this island makes him really dumb.

"How could I conquer this entire island if I didn"t even know anything about it?"

"Miss, I need you to do something for me." Asked Adrian with a serious face.

"What will you have me do, Lord?"

"I want you to make a list that contained any kind of information about every settlement on this island, can you do it?"

Millea replied hesitantly, "I could... But the list won"t be very detailed since my memories about them are rather fuzzy, and the information I have is basically really old."

"It"s fine. It doesn"t need to be detailed actually. I"m only gonna use it for future reference, just in case we have some business with those settlements." Said Adrian leisurely.

"Very well, Lord. I"ll get it done and gave the list to you tomorrow."

Both of them have talked and walked for so long they didn"t realize they already arrived in front of the Lord"s Manor.

Adrian and Millea are facing and staring at each other.

"This is it, milord. It"s already at night. I should let you rest." Said Millea as she prepared to part with Adrian.

"I think you"re the one who needs to rest more, haha. Since it"s like that. Then, good night, Miss Millea."

"Good night to you too, Lord Dornan. Please excuse me." After she had said that, Millea turned her body around and start walking towards the Community"s Hall.

Adrian watched as she left and he entered the manor once Millea already walked far.