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Chapter 11: My Friend, You’re So Green

“Milord, thank you for your compassion. May the blessings of Sia be with you!”

Outside the Fief Lord’s gristmill, Old Kent loaded his flour onto his carriage before bowing deeply in gratitude to Roel. Behind him was a huge queue of farmers, who were looking at him in envy.

Old Kent was quite lucky today. It was already time for the taxation official to get off work when it finally got to his turn in the queue, but the generous and compassionate young master Roel noticed how he had laboriously toiled a huge cart of wheat over and had waited under the glaring sun for long hours, so he made a special exception and extended the operations by half an hour. Due to this stroke of fortune, Old Kent managed to pay his taxes today.

One must know that Roel was a traveling tax official, which meant that there was no saying when they would be able to see him once more. Naturally, Old Kent was more than overjoyed with this turn of events, and the others were deeply envious of his luck too.

“It isn’t anything much. I’m just getting off work a little later than usual. Make sure to prepare well for the onset of winter with the harvest you have made,” Roel said with a warm smile as he gazed upon the green light glowing above Old Kent’s head.

Those words only made Old Kent feel even more moved, to the point that his head was glowing as green as a grass field.

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Seeing this sight, the smile on the face of the ‘compassionate’ Roel grew even brighter. In his mind, he gave himself a huge round of applause for having come up with such a brilliant plan.

Kindness did play a part behind Roel’s decision to extend operational hours and handle Old Kent’s taxes, but what played a larger role behind that decision was the fact that Old Kent generated the most Affection Points for him during the earlier farmland marathon race, an astonishing 150 points!

Roel was deeply shocked when he saw it.

What marvelous harvest this is, glowing with such beautiful viridescent color! Even I’d feel bad if I were to turn down such a huge gift!

So, when Roel found that the person next in line was Old Kent, he decided to stay on for one last grand harvest. As could be seen from the overwhelming evidence, he had made the right decision. Old Kent had given him 300 Affection Points in one shot, rivaling the sum of three farmers!

“Young master, it’s getting late.”

The soft whisper from a beautiful maid tickled Roel a little. Due to his shorter stature, Anna had to bend forward in order to whisper into his ears. As a result of that, when he turned his head over to look at her, he found himself staring straight into Anna’s bountiful chest.

“...”

“Young master?”

“Cough cough, it’s nothing.”

Roel didn’t feel anything due to his young age, but his adult mind still felt a little embarrassed about it. He quickly adjusted his state of mind before standing up to enter the gristmill together with the unguarded Anna.

Meanwhile, the other servants began packing up the table, chair, and tea set. The other farmers in the queue also sighed in disappointment.

Roel did find it a pity to have not reaped the harvest that was already right before him, but as the saying went, ‘haste makes waste’. If he were to keep granting special privileges to the farmers without thinking it through, the farmers would simply take his service for granted. By then, the Affection Points he could earn from each individual would reduce significantly.

After a month of analysis, Roel realized that the Affection Points System was more complicated than he had initially thought.

Take Old Kent for example, the reason why he produced so many Affection Points was due to the relief of having barely been able to make it in for the tax collection, as well as the delight and sense of superiority derived from having a noble make a special exception just for him before everyone else.

All of these factors played a huge role in generating the grand total of 300 Affection Points. However, if Roel had not chosen to wander amongst the gristmills but instead selected a specific one to work in, Old Kent would have still been grateful to him, but it would definitely not have been as much.

Give a man a cup of rice, and he’ll be thankful. Give a man a sack of rice, and he’ll become dependent on you.

To put it frankly, the key to earning Affection Points lay in hunger marketing. That being said, humans were complicated beings, such that there was no such thing as a sure-win strategy.

With such thoughts in mind, Roel walked into the gristmill and saw six skeletons standing in a daze before the millstone. There was a black coffin placed by the side of the room, though it had already been cloaked white by a layer of flour.

Indeed, this was the method that Roel thought of to recoup his 2500 Affection Points!

The concept of sending the deceased away joyously with dancing skeleton pallbearers was simply too revolutionary, such that it was impossible to even fathom that anyone in the Ascart Fiefdom would enjoy it, so earning gold coins through that was out of the question. That being said, it would still be wonderful if he could recoup his Affection Points somehow.

So, he found the skeletons, who were good for nothing except for their stamina, a job that they could do?—coolie work.

The combined strength of the 6 F+ skeletons was at least enough to compete with a donkey, so pushing the millstone posed no issue for them. It just so happened that the coffin was a good way to transport the flour around too.

All the skeletons had to do was to dump the flour inside the coffin outside the gristmill once it got full, and the other servants would pack them up properly and load them onto the second carriage.

Roel directed a nod of approval toward the six skeletons, thinking that they were at least good for something now. Then, with a snap of his finger, the skeletons swiftly folded themselves tightly and fitted themselves into the coffin.

The attitude that the Saint Mesit Theocracy had toward the undead was one of silent approval. It was said that the undead had already existed ever since the First Epoch, so the Theocracy had nothing against the undead. As long as a magician controlling the undead didn’t flout any laws of the country, no action would be taken against him.

That being said, the sudden appearance of a few racks of skeletons would still cause great panic amongst the people, so Roel couldn’t just allow his skeletons to run rampant. For that reason, he usually first stowed his skeletons inside the black coffin before transporting them from place to place.

Roel also knew that it would be impossible to hide them from his servants in the long-run, so he claimed that the Skeleton Pallbearer Army was a treasure stowed away in the vault of the Ascart House. There were quite a few old relics inside the vault anyway, such that even Marquess Carter couldn’t say for sure whether it had really been in there or not.

Ahh, being from a house of magicians sure is convenient!

Roel stretched his back lazily as he walked out of the gristmill. Some of the guards quickly marched into the gristmill to carry the coffin out and load it onto the second carriage. As for what the first carriage was, it went without saying that it was a luxurious transportation carriage reserved specially for the esteemed marquess’ son!

Under the cheers of the farmers, Roel got onto his luxurious carriage and sunk his little body into the comfy sofa. Anna also followed him into the carriage and sat down on the chair opposite to him. The door to the carriage closed, and the coach began driving the carriage forward.

Sitting in front of the Fief Lord’s gristmill and supervising the taxation process was the kind of work that looked deceptively easy but was actually incredibly tiring. Putting aside the sweltering weather, Roel had to constantly maintain a dignified sitting position before the farmers, and that was more than enough to wear his weak body down.

After a long day of work, the exhausted Roel was finally able to rest a little. His muscles, which had stiffened up from long hours of staying stationary, gradually eased up little by little.

“Ahhhh, I’m going to die if I don’t recharge a little from Alicia later on...”

Roel muttered with a blank look in his eyes, causing Anna, who had heard her fair share of bizarre words from him recently, to blink her eyes in confusion.

“Does young master miss Miss Alicia? You’ll be able to meet her in a moment’s time. She should be waiting at the main entrance for you to return.”

Anna thought about the silver-haired girl who had been waiting at the entrance of the Ascart House every evening the last few days, and a knowing adult smile formed on her lips. She couldn’t help but think that youth was such a great thing.

On the other hand, Roel’s spirits lifted a little upon hearing Anna’s words as he prepared himself to receive the biggest harvest of Affection Points for the day.

With a look of anticipation on the little boy’s face, the luxurious carriage finally made its way through the gates of the marquess’ mansion. At the moment that Roel alighted from the carriage, Alicia’s promised sweet voice sounded in the air.

“Welcome back, big brother Roel!”