Became the Owner of a Poor Estate
Chapter 22
A maid earns between 1 and 4 silver a month for a full month of work.
While wages increased with experience, the maids gathered here had all just turned twenty, so most were receiving between 1 and 2 silver as their monthly salary.
But to receive 5 Bron for making just three coats!
If things went well, they might be able to earn double, or even triple, their usual monthly wage this month.
The eyes of the maids, who had been hesitating before the expensive dresses just moments ago, now blazed with determination.
「We will do our absolute best to make them!」
Donghee gave a bright smile to the highly motivated maids.
The next morning.
「Are you coming as well, my Lord?」
Scrooge asked, his eyes widening in surprise as Donghee appeared before the logging team waiting to depart.
「Yes. I should go see for myself.」
「Why would you go to such a dangerous place?」
「Because these people are going?」
「Pardon?」
「How can I turn a blind eye when my own people are heading into danger?」
「My Lord! You absolutely cannot. To go to such a dangerous place! No matter how bright the daylight is, it is a place where one never knows what might happen.」
Scrooge tried to dissuade Chloe, looking as horrified as if a Monster had jumped out right then and there.
The butler’s fussy reaction made her a bit nervous, but she couldn’t take back words she’d already spoken. Moreover, considering how difficult it was to raise favorability, going back on her word now might cause the favorability she’d barely managed to increase to drop again.
Donghee shook her head with a solemn expression and spoke in a firm voice.
「No, I must go. I cannot just send the people of the territory alone.」
「It is absolutely out of the question. If you were to get hurt—no, if a real Monster were to appear, your life could be in danger.」
She was starting to get genuinely scared. However, she felt she had to persist at least three times to save face if she eventually backed down. Thinking this would be the last time, Donghee spoke once more.
「That is all the more reason why I must go.」
She said it with the intention of quietly stepping back if Scrooge protested just one more time. However,
「Sigh, if that is your resolve, my Lord, then it cannot be helped. But you must stay in a safe area at all times.」
「What?」
Wait, he’s not going to stop me one more time?
Donghee was slightly flustered, but unable to show it, she busily shifted her gaze between Scrooge and the waiting Knights. It would look ridiculous to say she’d stay behind now.
Unaware of her inner turmoil, Scrooge gazed at Donghee with sparkling eyes.
He seemed truly moved.
It wasn’t just him. The Knights following behind her and even the logging team standing there in their scruffy states had eyes that grew moist as they looked at Donghee. And a moment later,
- Favorability of the territory residents has increased by 10.
- Favorability of the territory residents has increased by 10.
Ding, ding! Loud alarm sounds rang out, and an intimidating number of favorability increase notices began to sprout like bamboo shoots after a rain.
‘Jackpot!’
Donghee bit her lip hard as the corners of her mouth tried to curl up on their own.
Though her fear hadn’t completely vanished, she felt it was well worth enduring if favorability surged this much. Besides, weren’t there so many Knights going with them?
Ding, ding. Along with the pleasant sound effects, the fear that had been fluttering in her heart was washed away as if by the wind.
If she smiled strangely here, she might lose the favorability she’d worked so hard to build. Unaware that her expression had turned odd from forcing back a smile, Donghee tried her best to look dignified.
‘Why such a terrifying expression…?’
Scrooge, who had been swept up in a wave of emotion just a moment ago, felt a chill run down his spine at Chloe’s mysterious facial expression.
Donghee maintained a deliberately solemn face and stood proudly at the very front of the logging procession.
「Let us depart.」
At Donghee’s words, uttered in a refined and dignified voice, the Knight Commander shouted loudly.
「Move out!」
「For the revival of Grace!」
「For the Lord!」
「Waaaaah!」
The unexpectedly grand slogans made her cringe.
But fine, revival or whatever. I’ll do it.
She lifted her chin proudly toward the Black Forest visible in the distance and thrust one arm high into the air.
「Waaaaaaaah!」
「Long live the Lord!」
Heh!
Donghee, who had never even been a cheerleader for a sports day, felt a surge of strength at the deafening cheers that erupted at her single gesture.
Just you wait, people of the territory.
I’ll make sure you get to eat white rice and meat soup!
Hahaha! Her nostrils flared as she fought the urge to laugh out loud.
‘Is the Lord deeply troubled?’
Scrooge’s worries deepened at the Lord’s indecipherable expression.
*
The Black Forest was far more beautiful than it had appeared from a distance.
Perhaps because it was a forest untouched by humans, there were no signs of damage to be seen.
「Once we enter the forest, the dense branches prevent sunlight from reaching the ground even at midday, making it pitch black.」
「So that is why it is called the Black Forest.」
Donghee added quietly to Scrooge’s explanation.
Scrooge’s heart swelled as he watched the transformation of Chloe, who used to show absolutely no interest in the affairs of the territory.
The strange expression he had seen on the Lord earlier had now vanished from his mind.
It felt as though he was finally being rewarded for the days he had spent suppressing and re-suppressing his desire to leave Grace Territory several times a day.
「The trees are truly massive and thick. They must be very old.」
Even the smallest tree was so thick that even if a grown man hugged it, his fingertips wouldn’t touch.
「Yes. It has been several hundred years since the Black Forest felt the touch of man.」
Looking up at trees whose tops were invisible even when she tilted her head all the way back, she felt an indescribable sense of awe.
It wasn’t fear of the Black Forest, but rather a feeling of being a trivial creature daring to lay a hand on nature that had maintained its ancient form.
‘I’m sorry. I’ll just do a bit of pruning. It’s hard to manage hair if it’s too thick, right?’
‘No more, no less, I’ll just thin it out enough for the sunlight to reach the ground.’
Donghee stared at the Black Forest for a long time, muttering words that were neither a prayer nor a spell to herself.
The temperature had dropped sharply in a single day, making it feel as though winter had drawn much closer.
「My Lord, this man is the person in charge of the logging operation.」
While she was organizing her complex thoughts while looking at the dense forest, she heard the Knight Commander’s voice from behind.
Turning around, she saw a lanky man standing with his hands neatly folded.
Perhaps because he hadn’t eaten well, his cheekbones protruded, giving him a slightly sharp impression.
「The person in charge? I thought the butler was in charge?」
When Donghee looked at Scrooge beside her with a puzzled expression, he smiled warmly and began to explain.
「Since this man was a carpenter, he knows far more about trees than I do. Therefore, I have entrusted him with the overall responsibility for the logging operation.」
「Is that so?」
When Donghee looked at him with surprise, the former carpenter bowed even deeper in greeting.
「A carpenter?」
「Yes.」
「What did you mainly build?」
「I built houses.」
Bingo!
Where did such a talented person just pop up from!
Delighted, Donghee grabbed his hand firmly.
「What is your name?」
The man, flustered by a noble suddenly grabbing his hand, answered haltingly.
「I-I-I am called Builder.」
It was a very intuitive name. Donghee looked at Builder with a slightly playful glint in her eyes and asked.
「Your father’s name wouldn’t happen to be House, would it?」
「How did you know!」
Gasp!
Donghee was surprised internally but cleared her throat, pretending to be calm externally.
This system had a surprisingly simple side for something that seemed so complex.
「I have my ways of knowing. Well then, I’m counting on you.」
Builder bowed so deeply she worried his forehead might touch the ground.
- You, who show great interest in your people, have plenty of potential to be a wonderful Lord!
Because the resident ‘Builder’ has gained deep respect for the User, you are awarded 50 Hidden Points as a reward.
The total Hidden Points held by the User is 520 points.
‘Shouldn’t deep respect be worth 500 points?’
Donghee grumbled internally, but the status window continued its explanation as if it hadn’t heard.
- What is more important than accumulating Hidden Points is using them efficiently! Would you like to start personalized point management?
‘No, you’re just going to take my points again. I’m not doing it. I’ll manage my own points.’
- Hmph!
Leaving behind a single word that would fluster anyone watching, the status window vanished quickly.
*
For people who were scrawny from malnutrition, their working speed was quite fast.
When the logging team cut down the trees, the waiting transport team loaded the logs onto carts.
Donghee, who had been secretly worried they might work in a haphazard and frustrating manner, was truly impressed to see the people moving in perfect order under Builder’s command.
It seemed Builder was destined to be the cheat key for the revival of Grace Territory.
Less than three hours after the logging began, the sun started to set.
Perhaps because night falls faster in the Black Forest than elsewhere, an ink-like darkness was rolling out from deep within like a fog.
The temperature dropped suddenly, and white steam puffed out from their mouths.
She was about to say they should head back when she saw a familiar plant in the vast field stretching along the edge of the forest. When she saw it from afar, she thought it was just large Defense Grass, but the leaf shape was slightly different. Compared to Defense Grass, which had small, round leaves, what she saw now had slightly larger leaves with pointed tips.
「Huh? Isn’t that a potato? Scrooge!」
It was hard to see clearly as the twilight settled in, but the plants filling the wide field were undoubtedly potatoes. Having worked in potato fields before, it would be strange if she didn’t recognize them.
At Donghee’s call, Scrooge, who had been directing the cleanup of the work, hurried over and stood beside her, squinting at the field the Lord was pointing to.
「Yes, my Lord.」
「That plant. Isn’t it a potato?」
「That weed, you mean?」
「Yes. It looks like a potato.」
「That is Dural.」
「That’s Dural?」
It was definitely a name she had seen in the status window.
Because it was such a peculiar name, it had stuck in her memory. But no matter how she looked at it, it was a potato.
「Yes. But why do you ask?」
Scrooge asked with a puzzled expression, glancing at the plant that didn’t look particularly pretty.
Thinking that it must be called by a different name here, Donghee approached the Dural.
「My Lord, the sun is setting. You must depart soon!」
Scrooge urged in an anxious voice, glancing at the darkening forest.
Frustration was evident in Scrooge’s voice, as if he found it disagreeable that the Lord was showing interest in such a useless plant.
Regardless, Donghee ran to the edge of the slope with a flicker of hope and, grabbing the Dural stalk with both hands, yanked it upward.
And then, with only a slight exaggeration, potatoes the size of a person’s face came dangling out from the stalk in clusters.
Jackpot!
Heavens, what incredible potatoes!
