Chapter 23: Replacing a Batch

Watching Mas lead a few people away, Farra put away the fake smile on his face. In the end, all administration still had to rely on these literate people. For now he would use them as they were and swap them out little by little later. Since this world already had paper, disseminating knowledge and skills was not that hard.

After deciding to gather the household data of everyone in the domain, Farra’s original house was no longer big enough. He needed more space and more rooms dedicated to storing files and records. Up to now he had lived and worked under the same roof, but residence and office had to be separated bit by bit. It could only be done gradually; there was no rushing it.

In July, the guard corps expanded to 300 men. One hundred carried swords and shields, while 200 wielded wooden spears. Yanis was put in charge of them all. With the previous experience and the 100 veterans already in service, absorbing the extra 200 men was no trouble.

That same month, Farra used his spare time to test a simple soap. Its introduction was nothing short of overwhelming. After writing down the recipe, Farra kept it secret and planned to use it at home first to test the results. If it proved feasible, he would order mass production later.

Because Farra did not forbid people from leaving his territory, those with surplus grain started to leave Jago Barony and head for the big cities. Seeing this, quite a few others were tempted and went along. Farra did not interfere.

After inventing the soap, during the latter half of July Farra began experimenting with specific methods of composting manure. He also set about improving the handling process and optimized it a bit. At the current level of knowledge on Mu Continent, people were still unaware of pollution or microbes. Perhaps in some richer, more developed regions someone had already noticed, but it had not spread.

Farra spent half a month devising the most rigorous procedure he could and required the staff to follow it to the letter. During those two weeks, his personal workload was practically 007-level, working around the clock. But there was no helping it. He simply could not tolerate the current living standards and had to keep refining them. He was already a lord, yet the food was still filthy and even the maids were unclean! He could not stand it. If he could not stand it, he would have to change it. That is how people are: either change themselves or change the world.

At the beginning of August, after allocating the latest batch of supplies, Farra tackled his final experiment: distillation technology. He offered the skilled craftsmen an unprecedented high wage… 4 jin of grain per day for each man, higher than his own subordinates. All the craftsmen had to do was keep refining and upgrading the existing distillation technology.

“You may recruit apprentices on your own to fill any manpower gaps; I have only one demand right now… build me a fully functional distillation unit that makes the water clean enough! Can you do it?”

“Of course we can, Lord!”

Struck by this windfall, the craftsmen answered at once. One then asked, “Um, Lord, I also know some people in Cagary City; may I recruit all of them as well?”

“Yes, I’ll send someone to fetch them for you; just give me their addresses.”

“Yes, thank you, Lord!” said the craftsman, his face flushed with excitement. They could never earn such wages anywhere else, especially not after having fallen into slavery. Cases of regaining freedom and then landing a job like this simply did not happen elsewhere. Generous treatment naturally boosted their creativity.

“…I hope that before year’s end all our daily water can be replaced with distilled water.” After assigning the task, Farra silently made a wish in his heart. In this world the only water sources were natural streams and wells, but given the terrible environment, even those sources were not necessarily clean. He did not want the epidemics recorded in history books to come knocking. This world had already seen many large-scale outbreaks; each one only drove religious faith deeper into people’s hearts. Even though it did nothing to improve reality, believers kept increasing.

Time slipped by. Two months later, the number of livestock underwent a qualitative change. Once a critical threshold was crossed, reproduction speed and scale exploded. In July, the sheepfolds, pigpens, and chicken coops had already been expanded once; in August they were expanded again. The chickens were the first to skyrocket in number.

According to Farra’s observations, the chickens in the Level 9 chicken coop not only had unprecedented mating drive and vastly increased laying frequency, their meat quality and flavor had also improved. Even their incubation speed had risen more than fourfold. Eggs already hatched quickly; at four times that speed it was even faster. Chicks popped out in just five or six days. The expansion pace of the coops could not keep up with the hatching rate at all. Because a Constitution-boosting buff was in effect, the livestock’s chance of falling ill dropped sharply, further increasing the chickens’ reproduction rate.

In mid-August Farra had to pull more hands over and rebuild the chicken coops yet again, this time adding three more rings of coops. Fortunately, because he kept taking in refugees, the labor force kept growing. By then the territory’s commoner population had reached 6,000, just enough to fill the manpower gap. Every new commoner still went through the process of joining the Church of the Goddess of Plenty, after which they were entered into the register. Slaves had their status abolished and were tossed into workforce vacancies as commoners.

If one stood beside the ranch at this moment, the view would be remarkably open: everywhere figures were busy with all sorts of tasks. Whenever he had time, Farra would come out and take a stroll. Only after confirming that nothing was amiss would he saunter back.

After more than half a month of work, the household data delivered to him grew more and more detailed. Everyone’s age, sex, name, origin, status, past occupations, and so on were all recorded clearly. Even a pure slave would still have prior work experience. Based on this information, it was easy to assign people to suitable posts where they could keep doing what they did best.

Farra looked at the papers in his hand and exhaled a long breath. A schooled brain was impressive after all; they handled tasks far more smoothly than Mas and the others! They could also put everything down on paper, simplifying the reporting process. Most importantly, they could easily grasp Farra’s requirements and execute them with much greater precision. Mas and his group were far rougher. …In the end he still had to change to a new batch.

“Mana.” He tapped the table lightly with his finger, paused, and called out.

“…Lord.” Someone heard him and tiptoed inside. She wore a maid outfit and, after this period of training, had basically accepted her current status. Whatever she had been before, she was now nothing more than a maid. Although… Farra did not seem to have any extra thoughts about her.

“Go and fetch your father.”

“…Yes.”