Iron Harvest: When Farming Becomes Conquest
Chapter 226 - 31: Romance

Chapter 226: Chapter 31: Romance

Recruitment of Angel Envoys was just the beginning. Roman still had to develop their various abilities.

Roman had recruited quite a number of Angel Envoys.

As long as there was potential for cultivation, those fit for military service joined the army, while those unfit entered civilian department work.

Nobody was born with managerial talents; they were all forged through acquired experience.

Roman did not demand much from the entry-level members of the civilian department.

Social order, public health, welfare security.

First, Roman legislated based on simple justice—unrelated to human rights or faith.

If everyone thought a person should die, then that person deserved to die.

If someone deserved punishment, they would be punished.

When ten people accused one, there was indeed a problem with that individual.

The underlying logic was that the minority submits to the majority, which allowed for rapid stabilization.

Roman only cared about the development process of Origin City; he never cared about individual feelings.

Second, there’s not much to say about public health; it mainly involved supervising health issues.

A residential area had a hundred brick houses, and each area was assigned a dung carrier.

Usually, old farmers took on this role.

They dug out about five to six hundred pounds of feces from the public toilets daily, sending it to the compost area before starting their tasks.

The dung carriers had a basic salary of two copper coins per month, with an additional copper coin bonus in the summer—getting this job was all about connections.

Third, welfare security was responsible for issuing summer and winter clothing, ensuring distribution to every household, with amounts based on the number of people registered at each household.

But the size of the clothes was not Roman’s concern.

He only provided one standard size, meant for average adult bodies, even if a household had children, they too would receive adult-sized clothing.

If the clothes did not fit, individual adjustments had to be made, as there were no children’s sizes available.

The welfare for veterans was managed by the civilian department, and these departments also dispensed their subsidies.

...

The civilian department’s functions were extremely simple.

Yet, even these matters were enough to run Jimmy ragged.

Fortunately, last year Roman uncovered a star-level Angel Envoy proficient in management, who was assigned to assist Jimmy.

This was a female Angel Envoy named Ada.

The daughter of an artisan from the Kant Territory.

At the end of last winter, she and her family were captured and brought here. She had formerly learned words under the guidance of a church Priest and was also a shallow believer.

Upon discovering the laws on Roman’s land, she decisively converted her faith.

She was a smart person, more rational than emotional.

Adept at analyzing pros and cons, she only took actions that benefited her.

Thus, Roman directly promoted Ada to the deputy head of the civilian department.

Roman liked people like her the most.

Strong learning ability, skilled in assessing the situation.

Most importantly, she was literate and could understand written texts.

...

Recently, Roman discovered something.

He could enhance the skills of Angel Envoys through extraordinary resources.

But the so-called skills were not limited to professional knowledge in various fields.

For instance, the knowledge for blast furnace iron refining, crafting various types of bows and arrows, breeding, architecture...

Were these pieces of knowledge complex?

Actually, they were not.

Even the knowledge of iron refining, in Roman’s view, could be adequately covered in five pages, including complete details, a blast furnace structure diagram, and a production chart.

Of course, the iron refining method of Origin City was adapted by Roman to local conditions and was not applicable elsewhere.

After all, the quality of each iron mine was different, and one could not proceed by simply following a diagram.

However, the total volume of these pieces of knowledge was not large; a few thousand words could encompass the production processes, and routine operations were sufficient.

Ruto was also literate.

Yet for these five pages of information, Roman had to spend a high-quality Blue Gemstone as a price to enlighten Ruto.

Was this outrageous?

Not really.

People living in such an era had great difficulty overcoming their limitations.

Even if you taught them step-by-step, they might not understand your intentions.

People just can’t truly understand each other.

How could a literate person understand the feelings of someone illiterate?

This was the so-called knowledge curse.

The more knowledge you have, the harder it is to impart knowledge.

Roman’s vision in this era was unparalleled.

Yet, he could not explain the things he knew to others.

However, this ability to enhance skills showed Roman a glimmer of hope.

Not only the knowledge of iron refining.

He could even regard the words he knew, his thoughts, his philosophy, also as a form of knowledge to be conveyed.

This did seem to impact the spirit somewhat.

It was a one-way transmission, with Roman conveying his own ideas to the Angel Envoys.

But this was the ultimate convenience.

Of course, the specific process is yet to be verified, and the extent to which it can be achieved is still unknown.

Because Roman lacks resources.

If he had enough resources, he wouldn’t be restricted and would have brainwashed the Angel Envoys long ago.

Start with strengthening education and improving literacy rates.

Under the improved Skill conditions, the children who previously had to copy a word a hundred times to remember it can now recall it after just five or six repetitions.

Their learning efficiency is off the charts, truly superhuman.

What is so-called romance!

It’s this!

To ruthlessly dominate them!

Make everyone kneel! Kneel before him and sing of conquest!

Then sway the waist! And strike their faces hard!

Showcasing the moments of a man’s charm!

For a man, this is romance!

...

...

"Lord Dick, we are late," the Scout Captain rushed back to the camp to report.

"Buck High Land’s castle has been breached; Lord Owen is dead, and Mr. Morry is missing."

"Is there a possibility that they are alive?" the middle-aged Knight asked.

Dota hesitated.

At this moment shaking his head was the best choice, as they could immediately return to the court, perhaps in time for the autumn harvest.

But he ultimately nodded.

"It’s possible. Lord Gael’s army took many people, including Lord Owen’s offspring. It’s said the Buck Knights tried to rescue them."

"Dota, do you know about the Buck Knights?"

"You previously told me, the Extraordinary Power of Buck High Land—each Buck Knight is at least a Second Rank Transcendent, with Third and Fourth Ranks being quite common, and they are stronger than ordinary knights..."

"You have a good memory, but the Buck Knights also have their natural predators; they are most afraid of the Riptide Family’s Shattered Archers. Bucks can’t defeat Hunters; once they face them, they die immediately... This battle might not even take place."

"What should we do then?" the Scout Captain caught up with Dick.

"Help the Buck Knights. If they have no chance of winning, they have to compromise. But if we help them, and if they remember the recently slain Lord Owen, they’ll know what to do."

"Will that work?" Dota was taken aback.

"What else? Dota, even if it’s just a slight possibility, we have to do it; it’s the mission our master entrusted to us."

Dota watched Dick’s receding figure, slightly lost in thought.

That knight, handsome, skilled in martial arts, gentle, mature and poised, surely was a dazzling young knight once, one who could make the hearts of young girls in their springtime swoon.

He had spent ten years with him in the deep mountains but had never engaged much, as his elders told him he was a knight who devoured his master, a crazed brute who had killed those he served. He had misunderstood him because of this.

Now, it seemed, he valued honor and loyalty, and there was no doubt about it.

Sometimes he saw Dick staring blankly at a darkened silver necklace inside the tent, but when he asked, he got no answers.

The fault of that incident may not lie with him.

...

...

...

A cold voice: "Prophet! Prophet! Give us a prophecy! Our living space is severely compressed, they will soon trace us. What shall we do next?"

An aged voice: "Don’t rush, let me see..."

An angry voice: "Alster shouldn’t have died. Now that Riptide has become the enemy, is this what you foresaw?"

An aged voice: "He chose to give up; otherwise, no one could have killed him. He died from humanity, not an assassin’s poison and dagger."

A faint voice: "You made him wait too long."

An aged voice: "The Human Clan is not yet ready."

An angry voice: "Because of that line, we have been retreating! Constantly losing! Without reliance, without a refuge... now, we’ve retreated to the edge of a cliff, one step back is doom. Are you happy now? Your prophecy two years ago told us to prepare for war; we thought it was the signal to counterattack, but now it appears it was just a desperate fight?"

An aged voice: "..."

A cold voice: "Prophet, please give us a prophecy, tell us what to do next."

An aged voice: "..."

Overlapping voices: "Prophet, have you fallen asleep again? Or are you thinking of something?"

An aged voice: "...I am thinking about what Alster saw before he died..."

A cold voice: "..."

An angry voice: "Alster deserved to die!"

A faint voice: "It’s time to take a stand... while we still have a chance."

An aged voice: "But I always feel that hope is in the future, it’s waiting for us. There’s been a slight change in the timeline, subtle, but it’s real. Destiny is whispering..."

An angry voice: "Are you sane? Are you deluding yourself with the same rhetoric you used on Alster?"

A faint voice: "But what awaits us could also be destruction... Prophet, you have deceived yourself, but I don’t blame you. The darkness is right in front of us, and you’ve stared into the destiny for too long, it has throttled you, in the boundless despair you see hallucinations—the freezing person feels warmth, the drowning person feels air before sinking—you are now in the same situation."

An aged voice: "Perhaps..."

An angry voice: "Forget this rigid old fool, I’ll start planning ahead because we can’t wait till winter, we have nowhere to retreat, we only have to fight, to make a way out!! Do you agree?"

"Agree!" "Agree!" "Agree!" "Agree!"...

An angry voice: "What about the latest sister to join? It won’t work without your nod, your voice outweighs most of the sisters."

A raw voice: "I... also agree."

A faint voice: "Even without reaching winter?"

A raw voice: "Yes!"

An angry voice: "Good, let’s start! Humph, Alster did something before he died, or else we would truly be desperate."