Lord of Rot

「Early morning.」

”BURP~”

Yesterday, he’d worked hard to earn work points, which he exchanged for a hearty meal.

After eating and drinking his fill, Luca fetched a basin of water and washed his face.

Unlike when they first arrived, the Lord no longer provided meals. If anyone wanted to eat their fill, they had to rely on their own hard work to earn work points.

Although there was plenty of work throughout the territory, the amount of work points available was fixed. This meant everyone had to work even harder to earn enough to fill their stomachs.

Luca’s job was the envy of the other slaves.

He had to deal with wriggling worms every day, but they moved slowly and were harmless. Other than chopping wood to feed them, the labor wasn’t too demanding. Most importantly, the work points were plentiful, so he earned a lot.

”Are you really not going?” a boy asked, standing beside Luca.

The boy was from the Endor Plateau. According to him, he’d been captured by a rival bandit tribe while herding sheep and then sold into slavery in Gaoxue City.

This was how the vast majority of slaves in Gaoxue City had ended up there.

Although the boy desperately wanted the job in Silkworm Village for himself, he and Luca were on good terms, and he didn’t want to see his friend be made a fool of.

After all, if Luca didn’t work today, he wouldn’t earn any work points for food. He would also lose his position at Silkworm Village for skipping a day and would have to wait for a new assignment—which could mean going without food for several days.

He’d also heard that some who failed the selection came back covered in injuries.

”I’m going to become a soldier!” Luca said seriously. ”One of the foremen said I’m well-suited for it.”

But the boy tried to dissuade him. ”Those foremen just love to mess with us slaves. You’re so skinny, there’s no way you’ll pass their selection.”

Becoming a soldier meant earning a salary, eating your fill, and escaping the life of a slave.

It was the fastest path for the slave boys to improve their station. Almost all of them had participated in the first selection, but the vast majority were weeded out at the very first step—including Luca and the boy beside him—because they were too thin and weak to qualify.

But Luca shook his head. ”I have to try. Only by shedding my status as a slave will I have any chance of going back to find them.”

”SHREEEEE—!!”

The sharp blast of a whistle sounded again. The boy patted Luca’s shoulder and said, ”Well then, I wish you success. May the War God protect you.”

”Yeah!” Luca took a deep breath and headed in the direction he had inquired about earlier.

When Luca arrived, a crowd had already gathered.

They were all slave boys, every one of them tall and powerfully built.

Among this group of slave boys, he appeared short and scrawny, easily swallowed by the crowd.

His two thin arms, visible to all, made one wonder if a strong gust of wind might blow him away entirely.

A wooden crate was placed in front of all the boys.

A nobleman in exquisite armor, his long hair meticulously styled, leaped onto the wooden crate and looked down upon the crowd.

”Everyone, take your number tags!” the nobleman boomed. ”I will not tell you how many will be chosen today. It’s possible all of you will pass, and it’s possible none of you will pass! Remember, only a true warrior can earn the right to wield a sword for the Lord!”

”Alright, line up and follow me. And remember, stay quiet. Anyone who isn’t can go straight back.”

The slave boys cherished this hard-won opportunity to change their destinies.

Besides, their life of servitude in Gaoxue City had long since crushed their spirits. Even this recent period of greater freedom hadn’t changed them much.

Several hundred people gathered, forming a long, dragon-like line. Aside from the sound of footsteps and rustling clothes, it was almost completely silent.

Luca was right in the middle of this group of sturdy youths. His heart was pounding with excitement. ’The young foreman from yesterday wasn’t lying to me! I really get to join the selection!’

They were led to a massive, empty field.

In the distance were stacks upon stacks of red bricks, covered with straw and weeds to protect them from the rain.

This was an area newly zoned for building houses and factories. However, the masons and construction crews were too busy with other projects, so for now, it was just a preliminarily cleared lot, ready for future expansion.

The empty field was perfect for the selection.

Lacy looked at the boys before him, their faces full of anticipation and desire.

As the population of their two territories continued to grow, Lacy and Fast-Blade had no choice but to accelerate the training and selection of new recruits.

His Lord’s rate of expansion was simply beyond imagination. In less than two years, the population had grown from two hundred people to nearly ten thousand.

Furthermore, his Lord’s operational philosophy was completely different from other nobles. He was willing to bear the cost of training professional soldiers instead of just sending farmers to the battlefield with pitchforks and iron rakes.

In the eyes of other nobles, militiamen were just worthless consumables. If they died on the battlefield, it even saved them some expense.

But in his Lord’s eyes, every single person had value. The Lord even said that farmers were the foundation of the territory—a concept completely alien to anything Lacy had encountered before.

Lacy was fully supportive of the Lord’s decision to train soldiers, because he hoped to gain more glory through war...

The musketeers had shown impressive power on the battlefield, even fighting in the siege of Longship Castle—a battle that had shaken the entire East Gorge.

But after the war, Leech had discussed the disadvantages their soldiers faced in that battle with Lacy and the others.