Chapter 133: “Number Game”

She rose onto her tiptoes and stretched lazily. The smooth arch of her foot and her long, elegant leg formed a flawless straight line. Her pearl-like toes, round and delicate, had turned slightly red from the pressure of standing on tiptoe.

“I wanted to talk to you about second-tier magic power. Have a maid prepare a bathtub.” Rosalia’s tone had changed. It was calm and unhurried, yet carried undeniable authority—like a powerful executive in the workplace. “After advancing, impurities will be expelled. Preparing a bath in advance will make things much easier.”

“I’ll go prepare it.”

The moment Ashina heard the words second-tier magic power, her eyes lit up. She knew Rosalia could help the lord advance his magic. Without even arguing with Rosalia this time, she immediately went off to make preparations.

“Thank you.”

“There’s no need to be polite with me.”

Rosalia casually tossed her hair back. With a simple gesture, she directly manipulated the Greatsword of Gluttony. A torrent of powerful life energy surged out from it, flowing into every single cell of Phield’s body.

Phield could feel his cells greedily devouring the energy as his strength surged wildly upward.

Half an hour later, Rosalia finally withdrew the bloodline power. She clapped her hands lightly, looking a bit tired.

“All done.”

“I feel like I could punch an elephant to death.”

Phield casually threw a punch, and the air immediately exploded with a sharp crack.

“Next time, don’t forget to buy some magic manuals and techniques,” Rosalia reminded him kindly. “Otherwise, you won’t be able to fully utilize your magic power. And remember—don’t push yourself too hard. You are a lord first, and a knight second.”

“No problem. I never imagined obtaining second-tier magic power could be this easy.”

Phield could hardly believe it. Ordinary people had to either bankrupt themselves or train relentlessly to gain second-tier magic power.

Yet he had obtained it effortlessly—and the quality was far purer than theirs.

“Hmph. I wouldn’t call it easy.” Rosalia crossed her arms beneath her chest and rolled her eyes adorably. “Your punishment is giving me shoulder massages for a month. I’m exhausted.”

“Sure. But right now I just want a bath. I’m sticky all over—it feels awful.”

After bathing, a refreshed Phield felt as if the power within his body would never run out. The eight-pack muscles on his abdomen were especially satisfying to behold.

“I really want to test the strength of second-tier power.”

Phield’s hands itched for action. But instead of finding some corrupted corpses to spar with, he revealed a mischievous grin and summoned Ashina to discuss some “mathematical problems.”

The moment Ashina reached the doorway, Phield grabbed her and pulled her into the room, shutting the door behind them. Soon, the sounds of problem-solving could be heard inside.

“What’s one thousand minus seven?”

“Ahh! Don’t ask me that kind of question right now!”

Ashina gasped for breath repeatedly. Her face turned pale, sweat pouring down her body as she was driven nearly mad by the difficult “math problems.”

“Have you figured it out yet?”

“Stop already! It’s too hard to think—my brain is going to break!”

“You can’t even do that? Then what’s twenty plus three?”

Phield grew irritated. Why couldn’t she just study properly?

“Oh, oh! Let’s stop doing math problems!” Ashina’s chest heaved violently as she grabbed her hair and cried out. “I surrender! I surrender! It’s impossible!”

“Sorry. The knowledge you need to learn must be mastered to the highest level.”

Phield smiled wickedly.

It continued until the next day. Phield, who had nearly died from exhaustion, dragged his tired body along while yawning.

“Second-tier strength really is terrifying… it’s completely incomparable to first-tier,” he muttered.

He casually wrote the words “Administrative Office” on a piece of paper and handed it to Kaor, telling him to place it at the entrance of the great winery.

“Inform the residents—anyone who can buy their way out of slavery can process it today.”

He would soon be moving into Starnight Castle. From now on, the great winery would function as a combination of town hall and fortress.

“Understood… my lord. Please take care of your health,” Kaor advised nervously, shrinking his neck.

“Uh, don’t worry.” Phield scratched his head awkwardly.

“Sigh. Lady Ashina is truly a devil. And the lord is still as perverted as ever.” Kaor muttered quietly to himself before taking two guards to inform the residents.

Soon, a long line of people formed excitedly. Most of them were slave soldiers.

“Sister, what are they doing?” Clara asked while carrying a bag of seeds. She needed to deliver them from the warehouse to the newly reclaimed farmland.

Since Phield had brought back more purification potions, the farmland was still expanding.

“They… are gaining freedom.”

Jane watched for a long time with envy before snorting. “It’s unfair. They kill corrupted corpses and earn lots of money easily. But we work all day and only earn a few copper coins.”

“B-but their work is very dangerous.” Clara scratched her head. After these days in Nightfall Domain, not only had they not grown thinner, they had even put on a little weight. Their faces had regained color. “And I’m already very satisfied. At least we have food every day.”

“The lord must be a war-loving bearded man who enjoys drinking with soldiers. Otherwise he wouldn’t treat those annoying soldiers so well. But his knight seems like a very gentle person.”

Clara steadied the large bag in her arms. She had a feeling her sister might be mistaken, but she didn’t dare argue with her.

The two sisters continued chatting idly as they walked toward the farmland.

As gold coins piled up one by one, Phield destroyed slave contracts one after another.

It wasn’t until two in the afternoon that he finished processing all 113 people.

“Wonderful. That’s 113 more tax-paying citizens,” Phield chuckled. “And I’ve recovered over a hundred gold coins.”

He played with the gold coin in his hand. All of it had been accumulated from the soldiers’ reward money.

“In another month or two, some slaves who work in farming or stone quarrying will probably gain their freedom too.”

With nothing else to do, Phield decided to inspect the territory.

Stepping out of the great winery led directly to Windrise Town. The settlement had already taken on a certain scale. The mud houses of the freemen had been completed. Compared to the shabby wooden huts of the slaves, they were luxurious by several dimensions. This made Windrise Town finally look like a proper village.

Starnight Castle was still under repair. The debris and corrupted remnants inside had already been cleared out.

Aside from that, the biggest change was near the lumberyard. The corrupted trees had been cut down. In their place stood five earthen kilns.

An endless stream of corrupted wood was thrown into the kilns, turning into charcoal of varying quality.

“My lord, the charcoal is piling up everywhere, but we can’t use it all.”

A mason’s apprentice responsible for charcoal burning had a face blackened with soot. He pointed at the charcoal stacked as high as a small hill.

“Following your instructions and the blueprints, we successfully built proper earthen kilns and produced a large amount of charcoal. It’s practically a miracle. But… we don’t seem to have any place to use all this charcoal.”

In this era, craftsmen had to constantly prove their value to their lord.

If the things they produced held no value, their livelihoods would come to an end.

That was why they were extremely worried.

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