On the hillside, slaves were hauling timber, working their butts off to build Thane's manor.
Thane planned six wooden houses—besides his main residence, separate dormitories for guards and servants, a guest room for Eliric and his crew, plus two for storage.
The courtyard originally had three rooms and needed three more built, plus a cellar.
Under Kralfard's supervision, the slaves worked enthusiastically.
Not far from them, in the open space outside the courtyard, townspeople surrounded Otto, chattering noisily like a pot of boiling water.
No farming allowed, no foraging, no fishing in the river either.
Everyone in Fontdmer Town was restless with idle anxiety.
Without knowledge, but watching the grain barrels get emptier each day, everyone understood the principle of eating away their savings.
Hearing that working would get them free breakfast and lunch, everyone fought to sign up with Otto.
This would cut their household grain consumption by more than half.
Most people didn't take the so-called work points seriously—
Would the lord really give back the grain he'd taken from them?
What went in their bellies was more real.
This left farmers who hadn't signed up feeling bitter.
"Otto, I'm stronger than your son—why won't you take me?" A sturdy farmer nearly six feet tall complained angrily.
"You came too late, we have enough people." Otto said dismissively.
This made the strong farmer even more pissed off:
"That's not right—why did your son get to sign up first? That's not fair!"
"Right, not fair!"
"The lord told you first, of course your son could sign up first!"
"Your son isn't even as tall as the wall—if he can do it, so can I!"
"Otto, your family has plenty of grain, stop competing with us..."
...
Other townspeople who hadn't signed up jumped in.
Otto wasn't the lord after all, and this time Thane hadn't assigned him guards. The townspeople weren't scared of him and took the chance to air their grievances.
Of course, Otto hadn't handled this well either.
Relaying commands in this era wasn't like Thane's previous life where you could just send a group text.
Normal territories had heralds who passed orders down through the chain of command.
But Thane's operation was basically amateur hour, so Otto naturally lacked experience.
He'd told the lord's orders to a few buddies and had them spread the word around town, but many people got the news too late.
Especially the strong men, who felt they deserved this kind of work more.
The crowd's criticism left Otto flustered, though his sons were tough, aggressively confronting everyone.
"What's all this racket about?"
Just as a fight was about to break out, Pamin's stern voice rang out.
Everyone turned to see Thane and Pamin approaching.
"Good day, lord."
The townspeople all bowed their heads respectfully and stepped aside to make way.
Thane stared at Otto with puzzled eyes and said coldly: "Can't you handle such a simple thing?"
Otto quickly trotted forward and bowed: "I'm very sorry, lord. I didn't expect so many people would want to serve you..."
"Are you saying my people all hate me?"
"No, no, you misunderstood..."
Thane ignored Otto and looked at the townspeople: "Do we have any beef between us?"
"No, lord."
"None at all."
The townspeople responded one after another, though their voices lacked confidence.
Thane smiled and continued: "Then are you all willing to work for me?"
"Of course!"
"I'm willing, lord!"
"It's Otto who won't let us serve you!"
This time more townspeople spoke up, and their voices were louder.
"Good. I now need fifty men to turn soil and ten women to cook, with the same compensation as before."
"Me, me, me!"
"I'm strong!"
"I cook the best!"
...
Thane's words were like a grenade thrown into a calm lake, instantly stirring up countless responses.
Thane waved his hand to quiet everyone, then looked at Otto:
"For digging pits and turning soil, prioritize picking those who are strong and powerful. For collecting fallen leaves and weeds, choose those who are quick and know the mountain paths. Do I need to spell this out for you?"
"You're absolutely right!" Otto agreed fearfully.
"I'm giving you one more shot. If you screw this up again, you'll get the whip."
Thane glanced at Otto and turned to leave without waiting for his response.
Behind him came cheers of "Well done, lord!" and "The lord is awesome!"
Hearing these words, Thane wasn't pleased—he just thought these people were too gullible. A little benefit and a few words made them redirect their anger.
The class conflict had instantly transformed into their internal squabbling.
When Thane showed more favor in the future, these people would forget that he'd once taken sixty percent of their property.
Of course, ultimately it was because nobles of this era exploited too harshly, making Thane seem like a saint by comparison.
Fontdmer Town's original farming method was broadcast sowing. Good harvests might yield 220 pounds of rye per acre, bad harvests only 130-140 pounds.
This wasn't just due to crop diseases and pests, but also thieves like rats and sparrows.
Continuous planting on crappy soil would also tank grain production.
Now that Thane was here, he naturally couldn't continue the previous broadcast sowing method and would use proper farming techniques.
Remove the poor soil, add fertilizer, irrigation, and weeding techniques, and Thane estimated yields could jump to 440 pounds.
If they also selected high-quality, plump seeds, they might reach 550-660 pounds at most.
To be self-sufficient, conservatively they'd need at least 1,000 acres.
So Thane finally decided on 1,000 acres of high-quality land for intensive cultivation.
Of course, other farmland would still be cultivated, just without fertilizer.
After all, as lord, Thane needed grain reserves, and he still had to complete the Crop Lord trait requirements.
But the fertilizer needed for 1,000 acres was still a mind-blowing number.
To make up for the manure shortage, everything usable had to be gathered.
Not just weeds and fallen leaves, but even soil mixed with humus layers.
Fortunately, gathering grass and digging soil was work even ten-year-old kids and sixty-year-old geezers could do. To collect more fertilizer, eventually everyone in Fontdmer Town joined the grass-gathering and soil-digging brigade.
To improve efficiency, Thane distributed all the farm tools confiscated from the Beuigclair caravan, keeping nothing back.
The townspeople of Fontdmer were like locusts, ruthlessly scraping away a layer of topsoil from the mountain forests.
The originally natural forests now looked like cities preparing for health inspections—cleaned spotless.
During this process, townspeople discovered bird habitats like sparrow nests, and all the accumulated bird droppings were dug up along with the soil.
The muddy ponds and swamps were also ruthlessly stripped of a layer, exposing the hard earth beneath.
Thane regretted that his territory had no marshes, or fertilizer wouldn't be a worry.
Based on knowledge from the system, Thane sent people to valleys and river bends to collect weathered granite debris, then crushed it into fine powder and mixed it into composted fertilizer at 220 pounds per ton.
Weathered granite contained potassium. Though it couldn't compare to his previous life's potash fertilizer, it could still improve soil.
While townspeople collected these materials, Thane wasn't sitting on his hands either. Once the manure pits were dug, he immediately began composting.
For the first composting, Thane had to stay on site to teach.
But looking at the sticky mixture of yellow and black nastiness, Thane swore he would never do it himself again.