The Path to Lordship Begins in the North

Lind had made preparations well in advance to deal with the influx of refugees, which was almost two to three times the population of the territory.

The most important thing was to temporarily train a group of grassroots officials who could read and write to register the refugees' household registrations.

There's no need to worry about the food supply. Not only did Lin Degang and Viscount Jefferson receive the full payment of 20,000 silver leaves for the goods, but the Grand Duke of Lars still has a large surplus of the grain he brought.

Like Count Jacob, the nobles did not lack food; on the contrary, large quantities of grain were rotting in the granaries.

The remaining issue was hygiene. In addition to the newly built temporary toilets, the team leader repeatedly emphasized to the refugees at the relief food distribution point that they were not allowed to urinate or defecate indiscriminately. Violators would be disqualified from receiving food or have their tools confiscated.

However, the actual implementation is still quite flexible, since the relief food is distributed on the outskirts of the territory, which is a good opportunity to fertilize the land around the territory.

The repeated emphasis is merely to ensure that these people, once inside the territory, are aware of the importance of not committing crimes indiscriminately.

Thanks to Isa's assistance, the refugees were very obedient. Lind had originally thought that accepting refugees who numbered twice as many as the territory's population would be extremely difficult, but the process went much more smoothly than he had imagined.

It's probably also because of the unique personal charm of the female protagonist, Isa.

"It is an honor to meet you, my lord."

Looking at Isa, who was bowing to him, Lind suddenly felt a sense of absurdity. Even the heroine, who had only studied in the capital for three years, had a more standard bowing posture than Lena.

"You are Isa Nebert, the White Saint the refugees speak of?"

Lind curiously circled around Isa.

"It's just a false title."

Isabella felt a little uncomfortable. Could it be that this seemingly young lord was only giving out porridge because he was interested in her?

However, thinking of those pots of rich wheat porridge, Isa decided that even if the lord in front of her intended to use force, she would simply close her eyes and accept it.

But what he imagined didn't happen. Linde's eyes showed more curiosity than any wicked intentions.

The title "White Saintess" was originally given to the female protagonist by the Holy See in the game. Unexpectedly, the female protagonist herself used this title again after going around in circles. At this moment, Lin De began to suspect that this world did indeed have a mechanism to repair its own timeline.

Moreover, in the game, whenever the female protagonist is in dire straits, in addition to the mysterious miracles, a young, handsome, and mysterious man will always appear to help her out of danger.

Linde was a little curious whether a male character had also appeared by the female protagonist's side, since the territory was in dire need of manpower.

"What's wrong, my lord?"

Isa couldn't stand being stared at like that anymore; Lind's gaze was like that of someone looking at a rare animal.

"Excuse me, I'm just curious what kind of person could lead refugees to conquer an earl's castle."

This wasn't an excuse. Lind was very curious about what happened to the female protagonist after she deviated from the original timeline, so he asked Isa to tell him what happened to her after she left the capital.

This lecture was quite remarkable; the more Linde listened, the more astonished he became, especially when it mentioned that Isha, like a grand mage from a past life, had used a meteor shower to defeat her opponent—the rumors were actually true. He could only conclude that she truly lived up to her reputation as the female lead; this was no ordinary stroke of luck. He was glad he hadn't chosen to be her enemy.

But what surprised Lind even more was the heroine Isa's new interpretation of the scriptures, which could almost be considered heretical.

After listening to Isa's new thoughts on the Church of the Goddess of Light, Linde tentatively asked Isa, "Is it Imperial Jade Liquor?"

"What? My lord, would you like some wine?"

Isa looked at Lind with some confusion. Why did the lord suddenly say such a thing out of the blue? Is it true that a lord who is willing to help refugees must be a little crazy?

"Odd changes to even and stays the same!"

Lind was unwilling to give up and asked a second question.

This time, Isa didn't answer. Instead, she looked at Lind with the same look Lind usually gave Lena.

"Sorry, forget what I just said."

Linde rubbed his forehead and shook his head.

Upon closer examination, although Isa's ideas are very close to liberation theology, they are still quite immature, with many points not clearly summarized, and they do not emphasize secularization like liberation theology does.

Although it could be attributed to the fact that there really is a god in this world, and that's why they had to make changes, looking at Isha with a look that was three parts sympathy and seven parts doubt, Linde felt that he was indeed overthinking things. The real transmigrator should only be the one who took the female lead's identity in the capital.

"My lord, in the new canon I believe that all nobles are bad people, even those nobles in the capital are mostly hypocritical. But after meeting you, I am confused. Does this mean that my previous ideas were all wrong?"

Of course, Isa didn't regret killing Count Jacob. She was just really confused. Her intuition as the female lead told her that the lord in front of her might be able to explain many of the problems she had encountered along the way.

At that moment, even after exchanging many secret codes, Lin De still suspected that the female protagonist had been replaced by someone else from another time.

This already touches on class theory. Isa, the original female protagonist, is more progressive than Lind, who is a transmigrator from a new world. On the contrary, Lind himself is becoming more and more accustomed to the role of a feudal lord.

Seeing Linde remain silent, Isa did not press the matter and prepared to get up and take her leave.

"and many more!"

Although it was only for a moment, Linde thought a lot about whether these thoughts would be beneficial or detrimental to himself and the world if he put them into practice now.

Linde shook his head. When did he become so selfish? Or had he been in this position for so long that he had really become someone who only considered the pros and cons?

"First, you need to understand what class is."

Without weighing the pros and cons, Linde decided to help Isa refine some of her theories. After all, Linde was afraid that he would stop speaking up later, and that he would be too afraid to speak up. While he still had the courage, there were some things he had to do.

No matter what the future holds, and no matter whether the dragon slayers eventually become dragons, these ideas must be passed down.

Originally, liberation theology did not have a clear class-based stance, but it would analyze class contradictions in the social structure and advocate class struggle for the purpose of achieving social liberation.

Linde combined these ideas with some phenomena that already existed in the world, and introduced Isa to the theory of class.

When discussing the natural tendency of the aristocratic class to actively or passively exploit serfs, Isa raised objections.

"But Lord, aren't you the exception?"

Linde couldn't explain to Isa that he was essentially no different from those nobles, and he said guiltily, "That's the question you asked at the beginning. What I want to tell you is that although there is no class that betrays its class, there are individuals who betray their class."

To be honest, Lind felt he didn't deserve those words, because he simply hadn't exploited them as ruthlessly as Lind. But even so, the people in his territory were still incredibly grateful to him.

One must walk one step at a time, and eat one bite at a time. Linde's actions were already considered progress in this world full of monsters and demons, but Linde always felt that he had not done enough and never dared to slack off.

Upon hearing this answer, Isa, combining her understanding of class theory with a sudden realization, seemed to have a breakthrough, instantly grasping many things.

Just like someone who is both clear-headed and a little foolish when learning physics, Isa immediately started to apply what she learned to other situations.

"Since you say that society is made up of conflicting classes, what about the contradictions between these classes?"

Out of line.

Linde rubbed his Jingming acupoint, unsure how to answer Isha's question.

It's not that Mao Dun said Linde hadn't studied it, but rather that he didn't have the original version of liberation theology.

It's not that there really isn't one, but rather that liberation theology, like class, doesn't have a fixed position on contradictions. Moreover, it doesn't deny the existence of supernatural power, and some people place their hopes for resolving contradictions on this power while struggling. And indeed, supernatural power does exist in this world.

There was no other way, so Linde had to go beyond the scope of liberation theology and talk about the theory of contradictions. He told Isa that the development of things is a spiral ascent in contradictions, and what the principal contradiction is and what the secondary contradiction is. Although it was all content that Isa had learned in junior and senior high school political classes, it was still a great enlightenment for Isa.

To be honest, Lind was already sweating profusely by this point, but Isha's questions were not yet over.

"If things continue to develop, is it possible to build a truly equal world for all? And how can we achieve this?"

"..."

"Student, please don't ask questions that even the author couldn't answer."

That's what they said, but Isa keenly sensed that Lind definitely had something else he hadn't said. According to etiquette, the two should have stopped there, since judging from Lind's expression, he really didn't want to continue the conversation on this topic.

"My lord, I'm afraid you haven't finished explaining your ideas yet?"

But Isa felt it wasn't enough. Linde's theory of class and contradictions directly explained the various problems Isa had seen along the way. There must have been someone who had put this methodology into practice. Linde was like someone who had only taught an internal martial arts technique. It needed to be combined with real external martial arts moves to form a complete combo.

That's the real art of slaying dragons.

With the internal energy cultivation method and Isha's own practice, it was only a matter of time before she mastered the external martial arts techniques. Lin De didn't know whether it was good or bad to tell the female lead these things, but in the end, in order to prevent the female lead from going astray, he decided to pass on this set of internal energy cultivation methods to her.

After Linde had prepared himself mentally, he turned to the female protagonist, Isa, and said, "Alright, I'll tell you the whole story now. Just don't mention your teacher if you cause trouble in the future."

Linde was serious. If he revealed some things, some clever nobles might really tear him to pieces. The female lead had the protection of a goddess and wouldn't be in any trouble, but he didn't.