Lord of Rot

The journey back was smooth, with no short-sighted thieves causing trouble.

Behind Leech were over a thousand slaves. He wanted to settle them quickly and convert their manpower into productivity.

The wheat harvest was coming up soon. This group of slaves arrived at the perfect time; they could be used to reclaim wasteland.

Oh, right, and there was the matter of building houses. The population had doubled; they couldn’t all fit even if they were crammed into dormitories.

The brick kiln would definitely be busy again.

After a few days of travel, they finally returned to Porcupine Territory.

From far away, they could see the thick, billowing smoke from the brick kiln.

’The environment is getting worse, and it’s my fault!’

’Is now really the time to be worrying about environmental pollution? A little more emissions won’t hurt.’

As the procession returned, the commoners of Porcupine Territory spontaneously gathered on the roadside, cheering for their returning Lord and Warriors. They didn’t know the details of what had happened, but seeing that long, dragon-like line of slaves, their Lord must have won a great victory!

Glory and cheers!

’So this is what it feels like to be admired.’ Leech’s heart was filled with a subtle feeling. People had cheered for him before, but there had been too few to have much of an impact.

But now it was different. Porcupine Territory had a population of over two thousand. It was a veritable sea of people, and the cheers followed them all the way.

Thanks to his development, the people now lived in clean houses, walked on flattened gravel roads, ate their fill, and wore warm clothes. Hearing their cheers now gave him a light, floating sensation.

’Everything I’ve done has been worth it! I’ll make the territory richer and stronger!’

’Farming is the true path to prosperity. Plunder and war are not sustainable in the long run.’

Leech turned to look at the Knight-squires and Soldiers. Every face was beaming with an excited smile. No one had died. They returned with victory and honor!

The procession began to deliberately slow down. It seemed the Soldiers were still basking in the cheers, unable to pull themselves away.

Pursuing honor was a good thing. Leech didn’t interrupt them and slowed his horse’s pace as well. ’Let’s take it slow. It’s my own territory, after all.’

They reached the commercial district, at the three-way intersection.

The changes were enormous.

Red brick houses had gone up one after another. The neat rows of brick buildings, like little square boxes yet to be roofed, were countless times better looking than the old wooden or rubble-and-mud houses.

What surprised Leech was that he hadn’t taught the masons how to make tiles, yet they had figured it out on their own.

One red brick house already had its crossbeams in place and was being tiled.

The tiles were laid in overlapping layers, and a layer of dry rice straw would be placed on top.

’Even without me, they can keep things running rationally.’ Leech nodded in satisfaction. Nothing pleased him more. If his subordinates could research and innovate on their own, Porcupine Territory could only get better and better.

’I don’t see myself as an irreplaceable part of this development. If I could’ve just transmigrated as a King and sat back to enjoy life, that would’ve been great. I wouldn’t have had the slightest inclination to bother with all this development work.’

’In the end, this is all because I’m poor!’

Gelan, Fastblade, Kro, Joe, and the others went to settle the craftsmen and slaves.

Under the scorching summer sun, Leech was already finding the heat unbearable. He immediately rode back to Porcupine Castle, first gulping down an iced honey beer, then having some ice cream. Only then did his body temperature slowly come down.

He hadn’t been gone long, and no trouble had broken out in Porcupine Territory. Leech could finally get a good night’s sleep to relieve his physical fatigue.

When he woke, the sky was already dark.

A soft knock sounded at the door.

It was the voice of his personal manservant, Pitchfork. ”My Lord, are you awake?”

”Just woke up,” Leech shifted, leaning against the headboard. ”Get me a glass of warm water.”

”Yes, my Lord!” Pitchfork turned and left.

Ever since Leech had issued the order that all water must be boiled, drinking hot water and hot tea had become a habit for the Porcupine People. From the management like Gelan down to the slaves, everyone liked to drink hot water.

Besides, hot water quenched thirst well.

Gelan and the others had marveled more than once at the magic of hot water. They understood that drinking hot water in the winter warmed the body.

But why did drinking hot water on a hot summer day make the body feel cooler instead of hotter?

’It’s because drinking hot water dilates the capillaries and boosts metabolism.’

Leech knew the answer in his heart but couldn’t explain it verbally. ’With my level of biological knowledge, what’s the point of explaining all that? ”Just drink more hot water” is good enough!’

He, however, would definitely be drinking iced beer and eating ice cream.

’Because it feels so damn good.’

On his first day back, he acted as a hands-off boss and just rested. After dinner, he went back to sleep.

He said he was sleeping, but in reality, Leech’s consciousness was traveling—communicating with Betty, then with Corpse Ghost Aina, and also using ”Eagle Eye” to patrol. He was incredibly busy...

He had only been gone a few days, but Oak Basin had already started researching a new creation.

Leech looked at the ice cream cone that was brought to him, a bit dazed.

A waffle cone held three scoops of different colored ice cream.

”How did you make this?” Leech asked Oak Basin.

He felt that a master dessert chef was rising up right under his nose.

”When you mentioned ice cream cones before, I started thinking about how to make them,” Oak Basin said. ”I tried using a cookie-making method to create the cone you described. The shell is crispier, and it’s delicious with ice cream.”

Speaking of ”delicious,” Oak Basin lowered her head, a little embarrassed.

To research more ice cream flavors, she had eaten quite a lot of it. She felt like she was starting to put on weight.

”Well done,” Leech was very pleased.

”Actually, ice cream doesn’t always have to have this kind of texture,” Leech said. ”You could also try making another type. Just freeze sugar water into ice, put a wooden stick in it, and people can lick the sweet ice to cool down.”

’Popsicles would still have a huge market. Even if it was just for me to eat for a change of pace. Sucking on popsicles and eating watermelon in the summer—it’s the ritual that matters.’

But Oak Basin was a little worried. ”Would that work?”

’Just frozen sugar water? How could it possibly compare to the flavor and texture of ice cream?’

”Well, you could try mixing your own flavors,” Leech said while eating his cone. ”No need to rush the research. You can take your time.”

”Yes!”

”Have the manservants and maids in the castle come here.”

The manservants and maids of the castle soon arrived before Leech.

They didn’t have to clean the castle every day, so they could do other work. For some of the more valuable technologies, Leech planned to keep them in his own hands for now. The manservants and maids were always under his nose, making them very suitable for work that required a higher degree of secrecy.

That’s right, Leech was going to make paper.

The Four Great Inventions.

Papermaking, printing, the compass, and gunpowder.

The Otherworld version, Magic Gunpowder, was currently under research and was bound to shine in the future.

The importance of paper needed no mention. It had to be made. Besides, he was idle anyway.

The remaining two inventions would probably appear in this world before long.

The 21st-century Earth method of papermaking involved grinding the raw materials into pulp in one step. But here in the Otherworld, conditions didn’t permit it, so he could only simplify everything and follow the ”ancient method.”

The raw material was high-fiber plants, which were everywhere in Porcupine Territory.

After a while, once the wheat was harvested, the stalks could also be used for papermaking.

’In Porcupine Territory, everything must be developed to have at least two uses!’

At Leech’s command, the manservants soaked the raw materials in limewater.

A strong alkali for degumming.

Before they started, Leech had stressed that they must absolutely not put their hands in the limewater. He wasn’t so ruthless as to exploit his men to death.

”Smash it with the wooden mallets.”

Leech stood by, watching the young manservants. The maids had no work for now, but they would periodically bring water and tea to let the manservants rest.

Office romances were absolutely forbidden in Porcupine Territory.

Given Leech’s understanding of this world’s morals—judging by how, when he first transmigrated, some unknown servant had been defecating and urinating wherever they pleased inside the castle—if they really started having office romances, wouldn’t the whole castle become their personal love shack?

The manservants were also secretly competing amongst themselves.

Red Nose, Gaga Bird, and Duck Feet wielded their mallets, pounding with all their might, sweat pouring down like rain.

They all wanted to make a good impression. Everyone knew the steward, Simon, was not in the Lord’s favor. Anyone who stayed in the castle for a while would hear the rumors—for instance, how the Lord’s previous injury was actually related to that stepmother who had been married off.

Back then, Porcupine Territory was struggling to develop and was short on manpower, so the Lord hadn’t done anything to Simon. But the Porcupine Territory of today was a different story.

The Lord had also been consciously stripping Simon of his authority. It looked like after Simon left, Pitchfork would be the new steward of Porcupine Castle. So, who would become the Baron’s personal manservant?

It would definitely be a competition between the three of them.

Everyone was scrambling to prove themselves. After spending enough time in Porcupine Castle, they all understood one principle: only those who desperately worked hard to stand out would succeed.

There were plenty of precedents, like Pitchfork, who was always by the Lord’s side, or Oak Basin.

Leech was quite satisfied with the manservants’ hard work, but he couldn’t help feeling that these three were taking the competition a bit too far. They were gritting their teeth and pounding away, none of them even thinking about taking a break.

THUD! Duck Feet fell down stiffly, landing right on his butt. He had used too much force.

He stood up, his face red. Thankfully, the Lord didn’t scold him.

”Alright!”

Leech immediately called a halt. ”That’s about enough. No need to pound it anymore.”

He could see the manservants were competing. But that was fine. ’Competition is better than laziness, anyway.’

”The rest of the work is for the ladies. Gentlemen, you can take a rest.”

”Yes!” The manservants felt they didn’t even have the strength left to speak.

The ladies were very steady in their work.

The next step was to boil it into pulp and then use a bamboo screen to lift a thin film from the cooled pulp. This process wasn’t easy; mistakes were common, and it required a great deal of patience.

But the ladies did not disappoint Leech.

Papermaking was a success.

Watching the sheets of paper being hung up to dry, Leech couldn’t help but sigh with emotion. ’Finally, I can use paper to wipe my ass.’

Before this, the method of going to the toilet in Porcupine Territory was actually a bit ”luxurious.” Cloth wasn’t bad, and a wooden stick would do, but it just wasn’t comfortable.