Overlord: Start from the Goblin Lair.

"By the way, what's the response from below about the law I implemented during winter? Are there any opinions that are gaining popularity?" Ron asked, looking towards the snow-covered jungle in the distance.

“I don’t know about other things, I don’t feel anything, but your sanitation system—” The villager grinned and gave another thumbs up.

"Okay! That's all I can say!"

"Winter used to be the most dangerous season. The elderly and children could easily die in the cold weather. Those who died of freezing were actually a minority of the minority. Most of them died because they fell ill in the cold weather and had no medicine to cure them. In the end... Alas! At that time, there were no doctors willing to stay in the village in the cold weather. Even in a small town like Fromm, there were few doctors available!"

"I still remember that it was the winter five years ago. My neighbor's sister-in-law gave birth in late autumn. As a result, the winter of that year was even colder than usual..."

Ron listened to the villagers reminiscing about their past and couldn't help but shake his head. The bitterness of winter was inevitable in any world, but fortunately, he had some strategies to deal with it.

Even if you haven't eaten pork, you have always seen pigs run. Ron plans to see if he can get some warm materials this year and lay them on the outer walls of each household, which should be able to reduce the burden on the residents and doctors.

In the past two months, too many people have been sick, and most of them were suffering from colds caused by the cold. Even though Ron ordered the militia guards to cut wood collectively to alleviate the shortage of firewood in civilians' homes, it still could not change the doctors' high-intensity workload every day. It was only in the last two days that things got better.

Ever since the winter five years ago that the villagers mentioned, every winter has been "colder than previous years", so this winter is naturally the "coldest one". But this winter, most of the people left their former homes and came here.

Of course, this is not necessarily a bad thing. According to Ron's recollection, the buildings he saw at that time were not necessarily warmer than the houses here. After all, the abilities of those villagers were limited, and they had warlocks who specialized in this to help.

Now Miss Anne has entered her rest period. She basically spends every day in the fireplace dining hall or in her warm bed. Ron even wonders if she is the same person now as she was during the construction period.

"My Lord," the villager looked at Ron who seemed to be distracted, and called out, "Well, there is something I want to tell you, have you heard about it?"

"It's about orcs."

"The Broken Tooth Tribe?" Ron raised his eyebrows. "Did they harass you? I remember I should have allocated special relief funds to them."

"No, not them," the villagers laughed. "The people of the Broken Tooth Tribe are all good orcs. They are all good hunters. Even in such a cold day, they can always catch more prey. They can also trade with us. Except that they sometimes get drunk and lie in the snow, there is nothing serious."

Ron was a little doubtful of his ears. As far as he knew, this behavior was almost as suicidal as licking the iron railings, but he seemed to have not received any related death reports.

"Generally speaking, we carry them into the house as soon as we see them. How can we let them sleep outside?" The villager saw Ron's confusion. "It's because they vomited and had diarrhea after waking up. It's really..." This man probably did similar good deeds before, and he couldn't help but wrinkled his nose when he said this.

"I'll have their priests try to restrain them - but you just said it has nothing to do with the Broken Tooth Tribe."

"Oh, yes! This is what I heard from my relatives in Fromm. Several groups of orcs migrated here from the north. I heard they were quite violent, robbing and beating people. They also built a lot of outposts outside the town, which made Mayor Victor very anxious."

"My lord, I'm a little worried. If the winter is longer than in previous years, will those bad guys..." The villager didn't say the second half of the sentence, but just winked and gestured at Ron.

"That is a problem, but don't worry. If they are just orcs, I still have the confidence to keep my territory from them. How about this, after we return, I will write a letter to Mayor Victor and see if he has any ideas."

The villagers expressed their gratitude to Ron again and again. These villages were located between the trading post and Green Swamp Town. If orcs really came to plunder, they would definitely be the first to suffer. They couldn't help but be nervous.

After finishing the inspection of the fields, Ron looked up at the sky, chanted a spell, and his figure became illusory, and he stepped into another dimension.

Etheric plane.

As Ron stepped in, the surrounding images became soft and blurred, and the colors and edges of objects became hazy. When Ron observed the outside world from here, it seemed as if he was looking through a distorted frosted glass, and the visibility dropped to less than 20 meters. This is the etheric border, the "shore" that distinguishes it from the deep layer of the etheric plane, and is also one of the favorite ways for some travelers to travel.

Ron was one of them. An eight-hour trek in the outside material world would make it difficult for him to return to Green Swamp Town in time, but here he had a chance to do so by calling on his mount.

A series of blurry figures walking on four legs gradually appeared at the edge of Ron's vision. As the barking sounds rang in his ears, the huge bodies and human heads of the monsters appeared in front of Ron. In the etheric plane, these night hounds had larger sizes and more powerful strength, and were not restricted by day and night. The only thing that was the same as outside was that they were still Sylvia's pets and subordinates. When there were no adventure missions, the vampires ordered them to move around Ron. Ron would feel at ease using these one-meter-tall guys as mounts when he went on long trips, traveling back and forth between Green Swamp Town and other locations in the territory.

A big dog riding on a human head was somewhat strange, but this was the etheric plane, and the visibility at the edge was no more than twenty meters. Ron didn't need to worry about his face at all. After stroking the leading Nighthound that arrived first, Ron let his body float in the air as if taking a walk, and after taking two steps, he landed steadily on the hound's back.

The etheric plane does not follow gravity, and the creatures within it can move freely up and down as if walking, which is one of the reasons why Ron likes to move places through here.

As Ron stretched out his hand and pointed forward, the hounds immediately understood and ran forward wildly. Their destination was the Green Swamp Town in the material plane. At this speed, eight hours would be enough for Ron to return to his residence, and he would not have to endure the cold outside or tire himself out.

He can even take a meditation nap...wait, what is that?
Ron was about to close his eyes when he opened them again amidst the panicked barking of the hounds. A black columnar object like a snake appeared at the edge of Ron's vision without warning, and the hounds were desperately trying to escape its influence! (End of this chapter)