Hilco had been so busy lately that his feet barely touched the ground, with hardly a moment to catch his breath.
All because of Vaerik's casual instruction: "Go register the basic information of the Crimson Tide Domain residents, see what they're each good at."
So he found himself thrown into this disorganized pile of handwritten archives, staring awkwardly at a group of confused farmers and blacksmiths.
Some people stammered, completely unsure how to answer.
"I used to farm."
"Do you want to continue farming?"
"...I don't know."
"..."
Others simply answered carelessly: "Good at staying alive."
Hilco almost slapped the registry book into that person's face.
"Damn it, how did I, a future alchemist, end up being a housekeeper for a frontier lord?"
Hilco cursed under his breath while furiously writing, copying name after name into the register.
If anyone was to blame, it was himself for being meddlesome and stealing that alchemy formula!
He had originally been an alchemy apprentice in the Jade Federation, living an upper-class life by occasionally stealing his mentor's magic crystals to exchange for money.
Until one day, he met a mysterious person in the black market who paid a fortune specifically for him to steal one of his mentor's alchemy secret arts. The price was high enough to tempt him.
Hilco didn't hesitate for long, after all, the price was enough for him to escape his apprenticeship and open his own alchemy workshop.
However, the plan didn't go as smoothly as imagined.
The formula was too profound for him to memorize, so he took the entire document.
He figured his forgetful mentor wouldn't notice one missing formula.
But he underestimated the importance of this formula.
His mentor quickly discovered the missing formula, and the Golden Marrow Guild, which his mentor belonged to, issued an arrest warrant, vowing to bring the thief who stole the formula to justice.
The black market buyer was quickly captured and revealed Hilco's involvement.
Hilco knew that once caught, he would not only face severe punishment but might even be sent to a laboratory to become a guinea pig for various strange alchemy experiments.
So to escape, he cleverly disguised himself as a slave, mixing among slaves transported by slave merchants, intending to slip out of the Jade Federation and then find an opportunity to escape.
But these slave merchants were even more shrewd than he had imagined!
Any attempt at mischief was met with a whipping, leaving no room for resistance.
After several ten-lash punishments, he became obedient.
This was how he truly became an ordinary slave, and he didn't dare reveal his identity as an alchemy apprentice.
If these slave merchants knew, they would gladly sell him back to the Golden Marrow Guild, and Hilco would be sent directly to the experimentation table.
So after many twists and turns, he was brought to the black market in Frost Halberd City.
He had thought he would be sold to a mine to dig for the rest of his life.
Who knew he would be bought by a young pioneering lord named Vaerik, who brought him to this godforsaken territory.
Initially, Hilco thought he had escaped from one hell only to enter another, destined to be enslaved until death.
However, Vaerik didn't drive slaves like cattle as other nobles did.
Instead, upon learning that he could write and keep accounts, Vaerik canceled his slave status and made him a sort of assistant butler.
During his time observing Vaerik, he discovered something—Vaerik was a good person.
He would share his food with starving slaves and even personally tear up slave contracts, granting them freedom.
A nobleman who actually treated slaves as humans?
To Hilco, this hardly seemed like a qualified lord, but more like a religious follower.
"Hmph, I guess I got lucky for once..."
Though Hilco said this, he was constantly calculating his opportunity to escape.
After all, how could a future great alchemist spend his life in such a remote place?
...
"Sir, this is the resident survey you asked me to complete." Hilco placed a thick register on Vaerik's desk.
His face showed heavy fatigue, his steps somewhat unsteady.
"Hmm, thank you for your hard work." Vaerik took the register and casually flipped through it.
The handwriting wasn't particularly neat, but it was organized and clearly categorized.
Even those elderly who could barely hold a hoe, women who could weave, and children skilled at hunting were noted, showing it had been meticulously compiled.
He was indeed talented.
Vaerik looked up at the young man before him.
Hilco stood loosely, with dark circles under his eyes.
Of course, Vaerik knew that Hilco was no ordinary person.
After all, his Daily Intelligence System wasn't just for show.
Even when he first bought Hilco, he knew this guy was an alchemy apprentice from the Jade Federation's Golden Marrow Guild, and a criminal at that.
But he didn't expose him.
On one hand, Hilco seemed to have no malicious intent.
Vaerik wasn't in a hurry to reveal his knowledge, wanting to see when Hilco would voluntarily speak up.
On the other hand, given the current state of the Crimson Tide Domain, an assistant who was literate and had administrative abilities was more useful than an alchemy apprentice.
The territory was still in its early stages of construction—forget alchemy, even basic infrastructure wasn't properly established yet.
The most important thing now was to make this land function normally, not conduct alchemy experiments.
If he exposed him directly, what if the guy refused to do miscellaneous work?
Vaerik glanced at the mountain of documents and account books behind him.
If he lost Hilco, then he, the new lord, would have to personally sit amidst this pile of junk and decipher the texts.
Thinking of this, Vaerik decided to continue pretending.
Besides, in this remote wilderness, Hilco couldn't run far anyway.
Putting Hilco's matter aside, Vaerik opened the survey register in his hand and roughly scanned the basic situation of the residents.
Seeing the results, he couldn't help but lift the corners of his mouth slightly.
Although the Crimson Tide Domain appeared to be a desolate wilderness, the talent here was actually much more abundant than Vaerik had imagined.
With a population of over a thousand, farmers and herders made up the majority, with over a hundred experienced fishermen.
Hunters, blacksmiths, carpenters, and leatherworkers numbered several dozen each, enough to build a self-sufficient territory with basic necessities.
This was exactly the information Vaerik needed.
He had Hilco survey the population not merely for record-keeping, but to understand the fabric of this territory.
A territory was like a precision machine—each gear had to be placed in the correct position for it to operate efficiently.
If a farmer was randomly assigned to blacksmithing, a fisherman to digging ditches, or a hunter to herding sheep, the system might still function, but it would operate slowly.
A lord who didn't understand his subjects couldn't control the future of his land.
So next came the question of how to arrange these people reasonably to quickly put the Crimson Tide Domain on the right track.