Farming in the Magical World

"Mmm... ...Ah... ..."

Lanny stood up from the chair, stretched lazily, and finally felt a little more comfortable in his body, which had been locked up for so long it was almost rusty.

Still feeling somewhat annoyed, and not wanting to stay in the study any longer, he thought he should put the matter aside for now!

Looking out the window, the weather seems pretty good. Maybe going out for a walk is a good idea?

Stepping out of the castle, the weather was lovely, with gentle sunshine and minimal air pollution. Plus, the castle's location on a hilltop offered excellent views.

Not far from the castle is a village where people can be seen moving around in the distance, with scattered houses nestled among them. The river beside it winds around like a ribbon, and wildflowers bloom all over the riverbanks.

As far as the eye can see, there are mountains, and the wildflowers on the mountains are in full bloom, adorning the originally dark green mountains with a riot of colors.

Further away, the mountains block out the view, and it's impossible to know what lies beyond them.

It is indeed the best season of the year, with hundreds of flowers blooming and the air filled with fragrance.

He remembered that the village in front of the castle was called Hexi Village, where the Iron Hammer couple lived.

The village is small, with about fifty households. There are also some small shops selling daily necessities, which can be considered as a small market town.

Downstream from the river, there is another village called Hedong Village, which is larger and has about a hundred households.

The castle is located in Castel Ridge, which comprises six villages with a total population of between 1,200 and 2,500.

As for the exact amount, sorry, he didn't know, and neither did Frank.

In those days, there was no household census, and statistics for each village were calculated by household, but the exact number of people in each household was actually unknown.

In any case, the taxes paid by the subjects to the lords were based on the amount of land they owned, so the lords didn't really care about the total population.

In other words, he, Baron Laney-Wells, had approximately two thousand subjects, and he had the responsibility and almost absolute power to protect them.

According to his understanding, these rights include, but are not limited to, levying taxes, enacting laws, and conscripting soldiers.

Simply put, nobles could take almost anything from their subjects within their territories.

Of course, the nobles weren't stupid; they wouldn't act recklessly and would still have minimum standards and rules.

If a territory is left in ruins, with nine out of ten houses empty and everyone struggling to survive, even noble lords will not be willing to accept it, and might even be impaled by commoners with pitchforks.

This is not impossible. Even though Lanny knows very little about this world, he believes that something similar must have happened before.

Although everyone would follow certain agreements, the power of the nobility at this time was still greater than he had imagined.

When he held the kingdom's regulations and records on this matter in his hands, he was astonished by the extent of the nobles' power.

With all sorts of random thoughts in mind, I strolled leisurely along the path in front of the castle. The crops on both sides of the road swayed in the wind, and even the breeze carried a hint of floral fragrance.

This finally brought him some relief from his agitation.

At that moment, he finally felt a real connection to his noble status!

Cough... cough... I'm a big shot now.

"Good morning, Mr. Lanny!"

Just as he was daydreaming, recalling and imitating the appearances of some important figures he had seen in another world, pretending to imitate them, a voice suddenly came and startled him.

Feeling a little flustered, he realized he hadn't done anything strange, which put him at ease. Looking up, he saw a middle-aged man kneeling by the roadside, looking at him with a humble and ingratiating expression.

"Ah, I remember you. You are Parker, the village chief of Hexi Village."

Lanny gestured for the other person to stand up, looking at them with a smile.

"It is my honor that Mr. Lenny remembers me." Parker said with a fawning smile, bowing and scraping, as if he was very honored that Lenny remembered his name.

However, perhaps because he frequently interacted with Frank of the castle, he didn't act like the villagers, fearing Lanny and wanting to keep his distance. Instead, he looked at Lanny with curiosity and asked, "Master, what's going on?"

Lanny glanced at the village not far away, then smiled and said, "I'm just taking a walk. You go ahead and do your work, don't worry about me..."

“Master Lanny, everyone is working in the fields right now, you… there’s probably not many people in the village.” Parker waved his hands repeatedly, indicating that Lanny’s arrival was ill-timed.

I thought to myself, "This Mr. Lanny must have injured his head recently. Why is he acting so strangely?"

Wasn't it said that the injury was... well, you know? It really scared Karina and Hammer, that young couple, half to death.

When Lord August was still alive, Lanny never came to the village; he always had the butler notify him of anything.

Today, for the first time ever, I'm planning to go to the village, but I've chosen a time when no one is home. Am I going to look at the dilapidated houses in the village?

That's really strange...

Lenny smiled, not taking Parker's words to heart.

"It's okay, I'm just looking around."

After saying that, without waiting for a reply, he waved his hand, turned around, and swayed as he walked towards the village.

Seeing that Lenny hadn't listened to his advice, Parker shook his head and stopped caring. He picked up his hoe and turned to walk towards his field.

The weather is nice today, so he has to hurry up and finish his farm work. He doesn't have time to care what Lanny is doing in the village.

The village's buildings were rather haphazard; to Lanny, who was used to modern cities, these houses were basically no different from illegal structures in a slum.

Those that are more particular are still built with wood, and from a distance they look quite decent.

Those with worse conditions were in a much worse state; almost everything was built with stones, and with some finishing touches on the roof, it looked no different from a pile of rubble.

This is different from the stone walls of a castle, where the stones are all polished as a whole and are much larger, allowing the castle to be built very tall.

These villagers didn't have the financial means to do that, so they just used whatever materials were available around them. They left the stones as they were, mixed them with some mud, and laid them on top, like building blocks. So it looked... very unique.

It was incredibly tragic!

Among this pile of rubble houses, he even saw some houses that were simply made of branches, weeds, and mud, with the same weeds covering the roofs. They had been roughly prepared, so they had some rain protection.

It's safe to say that things can only get worse!

Regardless of the materials used, these houses are generally low, with the tallest not exceeding three meters. It's unclear whether this is to avoid the height of castles.

He remembered that in some eras there were strict restrictions on the height of houses, and he wondered if this was the case here.

When Lanny first arrived, he was full of complaints about the living conditions in the castle: it was dark, cramped, damp, and cold.

The only advantage I can think of after racking my brains is that it probably won't be too hot in the summer.

Almost everything else is a flaw.

But it wasn't until I saw the houses where these villagers lived that I suddenly realized that perhaps the castle wasn't as bad as I had imagined.

It was still early, and just as Parker had said, there weren't many people in the village, and most of the houses were closed.

If those things woven from wooden strips and hung with linen can also be considered doors.

However, a few doors were still open, and some things were displayed inside, making it look like a small shop, but there weren't many people coming and going.

Hexi Village is a small market town in Castel Ridge. Because Castel Ridge is very far from Elfen City, people usually buy daily necessities here.

However, this market town is not bustling every day. The market is open about every three days, which means that every three days, people from the surrounding area will gather in this small market town to exchange things that everyone needs.

However, it was clearly not market day today, so there weren't many people in the village. Occasionally, you could see a few children shouting and making noise as they emerged from behind the houses.

They were still just kids and didn't really understand respect. When they saw Lanny, they didn't show any particular reaction. At most, they gave him a strange look, and then ran off with their friends, disappearing behind the house.

Lanny didn't think much of it; he wasn't used to his new identity yet and didn't feel any sense of being offended.

On the contrary, the adults seemed very surprised and reserved when they saw him.

Some young girls, in particular, looked at him with furtive glances, as if they wanted to sneak away quietly.

She would only bow tremblingly when she noticed Lanny looking at her, and then jump up and run away like a startled rabbit.

"So afraid of me?"

Lenny rubbed his face, somewhat bewildered, thinking that although he wasn't very handsome, he wasn't scary either, so why was he so frightened?

After thinking it over, I realized it was probably the original owner's fault again.

Sigh, the original owner's reputation...

Shaking his head, no longer worrying about his reputation, he strolled aimlessly, wandering wherever his gaze fell...

He hadn't noticed before because he hadn't left the castle, but now, observing closely, he realized that these villagers were actually living a very hard life. Their clothes were almost all made of coarse linen, and the workmanship was very poor; in many cases, he could even see the linen threads being sewn on the outside.

However, the design is quite unique; the entire garment is almost entirely made of two pieces of fabric sewn together, making it look like a moving sack from a distance. But the biggest difference from a sack is that almost all of these garments have hoods, for reasons unknown.

The women were in a better position, their clothes were still intact, but the men were in a worse state, almost all of them were shirtless, some even without any clothes on at all. I don't know how they would manage in the winter.

Unbeknownst to him, he had walked along the uneven dirt road in the center of the village to the other end of the village.

At that moment, a series of clanging and knocking sounds could be faintly heard.

But without realizing it, he ended up in front of a blacksmith shop!