Farming in the Magical World

"Sixteen already, not bad, not bad! Can you read?" Lanny looked at this unusual young man with great interest, and for some reason, he felt that he should be able to read, so he suddenly asked.

When Lanny asked the question, he thought he was overthinking it, but to his surprise, the young man was literate.

After writing something down on the spot for the other person to identify, Lanny confirmed that he could indeed read, though not many words, mainly focusing on common sense.

However, this is already quite remarkable. Apart from the people in the castle, the villages under his territory are all populace who can't even get enough to eat. Who would have the time to study and learn to read?

After some communication, it was learned that it was his sister Cora who taught him, hoping that her brother could find a job in Elfen to make a living.

Wow, this woman has some ideas! Lanny became even more curious about Cora.

"From now on, you'll work under Jimmy as an apprentice for a while. We'll talk about other things once you can work independently. You'll get a salary of two silver coins a month. Any problems?"

“I’m fine, thank you very much, Mr. Lanny.”

The other party clearly hadn't expected that not only would they not have to pay him as an apprentice, but they would also receive a salary. A happy smile finally appeared on their calm face.

After finishing talking about Cody, Lanny called out Hammer and announced that from now on, Hammer and Jimmy's salaries would change from daily wages to monthly wages, 5 silver coins per month.

Based on the current daily calculation of 20 copper coins, that's about 6 silver coins a month. It seems like it would be less after becoming a monthly salary, but the two of them don't see it that way.

Working for the Baron is such a stable job! Iron Hammer used to work himself to the bone every month, and after deducting the cost of buying iron, he was lucky to earn 2 silver coins. More often than not, even that was a struggle. As for Jimmy, he almost starved to death!

Kaster Ridge is only so big, where are there so many people to make farm tools? Most people only come to repair the farm tools when they are completely broken, and how much income can they make then?

"Jimmy, you and Cody need to produce another 40 red-tasseled spear shafts next week. Any problems?"

"Sir, this material... I'm afraid it will be difficult to obtain. There aren't many suitable tree trunks, and they also need to be air-dried and processed, so time is a bit tight. What do you think?"

Jimmy started complaining, which meant that the matter was indeed difficult, and the difficulties he mentioned were real. Lanny thought about it for a long time, but couldn't come up with a good solution for the time being.

As Lanny was asking questions, he suddenly noticed that Cody, who was standing next to him, seemed hesitant to speak. He guessed that his family had told him to look around more and talk less when he came to the castle.

"Cody, what are your thoughts?"

With Lanny's permission, Cody said that they could mobilize the villagers to find suitable materials, and he and Jimmy would only need to cut down the trees and process them. If all went well, it should be done in a week.

Hearing his suggestion, Jimmy's eyes lit up, and he hurriedly said, "Yes, yes, how come I didn't think of that? Sir, that's no problem. I'll go back tonight and ask the neighbors for help. I can always buy some green bread for everyone later."

Seeing that they had already come up with a solution themselves, Lanny stopped thinking about it and instead looked at Cody with interest, feeling that the young man was quite quick-witted.

With the problem of the red-tasseled spear shaft solved, he turned to Iron Hammer and asked, "Iron Hammer, what about you? Can you make 40 spearheads in a week?"

Iron Hammer didn't say anything, he just nodded.

Looking at the honest and unassuming Iron Hammer, Lanny felt he couldn't show favoritism. After a moment's thought, he asked him softly, "Would you like to take on an apprentice as well?"

Ok?

Hammer's eyes lit up, and he frankly stated that if he could receive the same treatment as Cody, he would certainly like to take on an apprentice.

Seeing Jimmy's impressive demeanor with his apprentice, he was filled with envy. However, since Lanny didn't speak up, he couldn't bring himself to ask, and even if he wanted to, he felt too shy to open his mouth.

Lanny nodded, thought for a moment, and added, "However, I have one requirement: this apprentice must be a reliable and trustworthy person, and cannot have any messy or bad habits..."

Seeing Iron Hammer's blank expression, Lanny rubbed his temples in exasperation and waved his hand, passing the responsibility of educating him off.

"Forget it, go home and discuss it with your wife. She should understand what I mean."

The next day, Iron Hammer brought a young man to the workshop. As he entered, he glanced smugly at Jimmy, but Jimmy was too lazy to argue with Iron Hammer and just rolled his eyes and ignored him.

Lanny arrived at the workshop around noon. In the morning, he had taken Frank and Joseph to the nearest village, Hexi, to see for himself how the two would promote their recruitment brochure.

You wouldn't know unless you looked closely; once you did, you'd find quite a few problems.

Frank was alright. As the butler, he was quite familiar with Lanny's recent actions and habits, and he understood and conveyed Lanny's meaning very well.

Joseph, on the other hand, struggled to speak properly, and when villagers asked him questions, he would stutter and have to constantly pull out his manual to find the answers.

As a groom, he didn't actually have a high status and little presence in the castle.

But to his surprise, even though he knew that Lanny was watching from a short distance away, he still inadvertently displayed a superior attitude when facing the villagers, which made Lanny shake his head.

However, these are not major problems and do not affect the overall situation.

They continued this process of spreading the word and making corrections until almost noon before Lanny allowed the two to proceed to the next village on their own. He then hurriedly returned to the castle alone and went straight to the workshop.

He suddenly realized that he seemed to have made a big mistake, and if he didn't fix it, it would be quite troublesome.

According to the plan, he would begin recruiting the security force in a week, which is why he gave Hammer and Jimmy a week to do so. He hoped that once the recruits were in place, the team members would all have weapons available.

He had thought of the weapons, the conscription conditions, and even the training methods, but he had completely forgotten about the accommodation issue.

Where will the recruits live when they arrive?

Do they all live in castles?

His little castle could barely accommodate a few guests; forget about letting thirty people stay there.

Besides, it seems that Jimmy is the only one in Custer who can build houses, or rather, the only one who might build houses is Jimmy.

Just yesterday, Jimmy was assigned to get the red-tasseled spear shafts, and now he's being asked to build dormitories. This constant change of orders makes him a little embarrassed.

All the way, he was thinking about how to solve this problem, so much so that when Hammer pulled the young man over to introduce him, he only heard the gist of it, knowing that his name was Zach and that he was Karina's cousin; he really wasn't interested in hearing anything else.

Lanny's perfunctory attitude saddened Hammer. He had originally thought that the master would announce Zach's monthly salary in public, just like yesterday. That kid Zach still didn't believe that becoming his apprentice would not only be free, but also come with a salary of 2 silver coins per month.

Such a good thing had never been heard of before. It was only after Karina insisted that her father allowed her to come to the castle.

Lenny, disregarding his feelings, grabbed Jimmy and said somewhat embarrassedly...

"Jimmy, let Cody go find the materials first today. You have a more important task."

His idea was to have Cody first mobilize the villagers to find the materials, then Cody would cut them down and air-dry them, while Jimmy would go and plan the construction of two dormitories.

He didn't intend to make the dormitory very nice; he just hastily built a frame out of wood, and there wasn't even a bed inside—just a row of large communal sleeping platforms. One room seats 15 people, and two rooms would be just right.

Jimmy blinked, somewhat incredulous at what he was hearing. "Sir, I've never built a house before. I just helped out with the master for a while. You want me to build one directly? I...!"

"Besides, I can't handle it all by myself. It has to be done in a week. I'm afraid I can't even dig the foundation properly!" Thinking of the new task assigned by the master, his face couldn't be more bitter.

That's true. Digging the foundation, erecting the pillars, building the roof—Jimmy couldn't possibly handle any of that by himself. He was oversimplifying things!

We are still lacking people, lacking capable people.

He sighed, abandoning his thoughts on the talent issue, and decided to directly use his "money power" to resolve the current predicament. With the gold coins Tim brought back, he finally felt somewhat more confident.

"Okay, then you go to the village and recruit people. I've already told you the requirements, and you decide how many you need. Once you've recruited enough people, report the number to me, and I'll pay each person 10 copper coins. How about that?"

Of course, no problem. Villagers usually have very few ways to make money. Now, by helping the lord build a house and working for seven or eight days, they can earn a lot of money. People will probably fight tooth and nail to get it.

Sure enough, "money power" lived up to its reputation as the most powerful superpower. Early the next morning, a piece of open space that Lanny had marked out not far from the castle was crowded with people. Some were helping to dig the foundation, some were helping to transport materials from the castle, and some were even setting up stoves and starting fires right next to the castle to cook meals.

Lanny had expected it to be chaotic, so he went to check it out early in the morning. But to his surprise, although there were quite a few people, it wasn't actually chaotic. Most people knew what they were supposed to do, and the messy scene he had imagined didn't happen.

Clearly, someone is orchestrating these things.

Lenny searched around curiously and immediately spotted the woman directing everyone's work in the crowd. Hmm, she must be Cody's sister and Jimmy's girlfriend. Hammer said her name was Cora.

Cora wasn't particularly good-looking; she was just fair-skinned, and her clothes, like those of the surrounding villagers, were somewhat tattered, but like Cody's, they were very clean.

On the contrary, it was her temperament that was so different from the surrounding villagers that Lanny spotted her in the crowd at a glance.

Lenny knew his own limitations; given his reputation, he figured it was best not to get too close. So he didn't go over, but just glanced at it from afar.

Jimmy had no idea that the Baron was worried about him and had come to see him specifically. His mind was completely focused on Cora; whenever he had free time, he would fawn over the woman like a lapdog.

Cora, however, was poised and unashamed, and didn't seem to care about what the villagers might say. She directed everyone to do this and that, and occasionally exchanged a few jokes with Jimmy.

Sure enough, Lanny noticed something different about Cody. He understood when he saw his sister; Cody was clearly greatly influenced by her.

Hmm, why is it that women are always more outstanding in my own territory? Karina is like that, and so is Cora. ​​It's really strange.

Regardless of Lanny's doubts, the group, under Cora's organization, made progress in building the houses day by day, and by the evening of the sixth day, the two wooden houses were finally completed.

Jimmy even built several large wooden beds from large logs inside, which was better than Lanny had expected!