Chapter 216

Nine days ago.

The Overgeared members utilized the excellent transportation method of carriages and arrived in Reidan ahead of Grid, but they tasted huge disappointment.

The best city in the west, Reidan! According to the map, it was the second largest city of the Eternal Kingdom. The Overgeared members were full of expectations, but they were baffled because it looked more like a ruin.

“What happened here?"

“Wow, there is nothing big in the city.”

“The shops are closed, the doors broken and the poor are on the street...”

“The rice fields are like a wasteland.”

"In the first place, doesn’t the population seem too small?”

Huroi, Lauel, and Faker remained calm while the guild members were making a disturbance. They looked over Reidan because bringing up its information.

Name: Reidan

Size: Big City

Ruler: Grid (Duke of the Eternal Kingdom. Master of the Overgeared Guild)

Administrator: Arik (C-grade administrative ability)

* The higher the administrative ability of the administrator, the higher the overall development of the estate.

Affiliation: The Eternal Kingdom

Population: NPCs - 20,551. Players - 0.

Troops: Knights - 2 (Huroi, Lauel).

Soldiers - 141

Security: 5/100

* The state of security is the worst. It isn’t unusual if the people turn into a mob straight away. Gangsters and monsters will often pop up near the village.

* Security will increase hourly in proportion to the number of soldiers.

* People jobs and food for a policing activity is not available, even if the police do not rise.

Internal Affairs: 169/4,500

* Increasing the number of shopping malls, public cultural facilities and buildings will increase the internal affairs number.

Foreign Affairs: The Butin Barony in the Saharan Empire.

Forces hostile to the ruler: Yatan Church.

Forces hostile to your affiliated groups: Gauss Kingdom, Luvia Principality.

Specialties: None.

Distinguished Figure: None.

"The situation isn't as good as I expected."

“It seems like it.”

While moving from Winston to Reidan, the guild members were attracted to the monsters of the west and devoted themselves to hunting. They waited for monsters to attack the moving carriage, then quickly hunted them for experience. Therefore, they thought the west was a blessed land.

But Huroi, Lauel, and Faker thought that the strong monsters in the west were a negative point. The monsters were so strong that the accessibility of general users was low, and the area would be difficult to manage. Now the reality they faced was worse than their expectations.

“A city that can accommodate over 500,000 people only has a population of 20,000...”

"Furthermore, there are no users.”

"The biggest priority right now is to pay the people raise the security level.”

The Overgeared Guild currently had 5 million gold in funds. 5 million gold. While that amount of gold might sound large for a single person, it wasn’t enough to fund a big city. Not only that, 5 million gold didn’t even seem like enough to develop an empty, desolate city.

Now they had to pay expenses to raise the goodwill of the people? Was it even possible to produce food in this city in the first place? It wasn’t possible to even make barley bread. It was inevitable that they would have to import ingredients, but merchants were aware of the situation and wouldn’t come to Reidan.

'Considering the transportation cost...’

Lauel calculated that he had to set a minimum of 3 silver for one meal. If it was 20,000 people, he would have to pay 600 gold. This was one meal. It was ridiculous to spend hundreds of thousands of gold on meals until a fundamental solution was set up.

But Lauel couldn’t alienate the people. Did he feel compassion when seeing their skinny selves? No. That was irrelevant. People were the national power. He needed to restore them first, then there would be a rise in security and labor. There was no other choice.

"After making the people useful, set them to clearing the fields.”

"But doesn’t the lord have to give permission?”

Huroi was cautious. He knew that restoring the people was the most pressing issue, but he wondered if Grid would understand. Grid would wonder why they were wasting money on people’s meals.

Huroi spoke to the worried Lauel,

“South Korean doesn’t give up on making hot pepper paste just because of worms. That is a saying in South Korea.”

This was the right choice, even if it was against Grid’s will. This was Chief Lauel’s conviction to grow the Overgeared Guild. Hoewever, the saying was too provocative.

Huroi thought about the saying that Lauel mentioned and became indignant, “Don’t compare My Lord to measly worms!”

"Ah no, that's not what I meant.”

Lauel sweated profusely as he tried to soothe Huroi. On the other hand, Faker disappeared from next to the two men, moving through the yellow dust before arriving at the castle.

"Why didn’t you move quickly after hearing that the new lord’s men had arrived? Your greeting is late!”

“T-That... I was afraid that I would be stoned by the people if I left the castle and that made me late.”

"Pathetic guy. You are armed with sword and armor, but are afraid of rocks? What a worthless person. Tsk tsk.”

A fat, middle-aged man hurried to the entrance of the castle with his soldiers. This greasy man’s name was Arik, the administrator of Reidan. He was a baronet and often received treatment as a noble.

Faker pointed his dagger at Arik without hesitation.

“Hiik!”

Arik exclaimed as he saw the shadows in the yellow dust.

"W-Who are you?"

Faker replied in a cold voice, “A person with a lot of questions for you.”

“W-What...? Kiyaaack~!”

It was in an instant. Faker and Arik disappeared into the yellow dust like they weren’t there in the first place.

“Administrator Arik?”

The stunned soldiers looked around, but they couldn’t find any traces of Arik.

***

'This is a normal level?’

Bland had watched Grid training under Piaro for the past three days. Bland originally saw Grid as very strong. Grid would become much stronger under Piaro’s teachings and would have no education.

However, Piaro evaluated Grid as ordinary. Grid was satisfied that he wasn’t worse compared to others.

Bland couldn’t believe it. ‘Why are his skills so bad and dull? Doesn’t he have great skills?’

It was the difference in perspective. From Bland’s point of view, Earl Steim and Phoenix were the strongest swordsmen until he met Piaro, but Grid seemed to have a lot of talent. On the other hand, Grid compared his abilities to the top rankers and boss monsters, and decided this was good.

Then what about Piaro? He evaluated Grid’s ability as ‘poor in comparison to his amount of power.’

The conclusion.

“Puhahat! Now I can easily hunt monsters in the west without having to rely on skills!”

“This is just the basics. Only the lousy people rely solely on skills. You still have a long way to go.”

"Wouldn’t it be better to keep practicing steadily? Continue teaching me in the future.”

“I refuse. It is unlikely that your skills will improve, even if I keep teaching you.”

"Don't give up so easily. It isn’t that hard, is it?”

"This is a realistic analysis, not one based on any emotions.”

Grid was strong. It was true that he was lacking control skills compared to top rankers, but from a normal point of view, he was beyond the average level. However, the monsters in the west were so strong that his limits started to show.

“Hap!”

Now Grid had perfectly adapted to the strange terrain of the desert. He ran on the sand with light footsteps and freely wielded Failure, causing the monsters of the west to collapse. As a result, Grid reached level 275 and finally arrived in Reidan.

"This is your city?”

The scale of Reidan that came into view was huge. The exterior walls weren’t very high or well-maintained, but they spectacularly stretched out along the horizon.

“This is a huge city comparable to the capital of a kingdom.”

Grid smiled at Piaro’s admiring words.

“It is the second biggest city in the Eternal Kingdom after Reinhardt.”

Grid was filled with anticipation. He imagined hundreds of thousands of people in Reidan greeting him with confetti.

“Let’s go.”

Grid prompted Bland and Piaro and increased the pace. Then he was confused as he found people working on clearing the land.

‘Are they refugees?’

The people were skinny, dressed in poor clothes and looked like refugees. Grid wondered why they were doing field work in Reidan.

‘They seem to be slaves.’

He wondered if the people of Reidan hired slaved to work on the farmland. Grid tsked at the thought. ‘They might be slaves but they should be properly fed. What unscrupulous employers.’

The people of Reidan didn’t seem to have a good mentality. However, their mentality had nothing to do with Grid.

‘They are just my taxes.’

Lululula.

Grid looked at the nearest entrance to the city and hummed with a happy heart. He imagined a fanfare and hundreds of thousands of people welcoming him. However.

“Eh?”

Grid witnessed a bizarre sight and stopped walking. The Overgeared members were working among the tens of thousands of slaves?

‘W-What?’

Grid saw the Overgeared members sweating hard as they worked and stopped humming. An ominous thought struck him before Regas saw him and ran over with a bright smile.

“You finally came!”

Regas’ solid upper body was stained with sweat and dust. He looked like a worker in a coal mine so Grid asked him.

“What are you doing right now?”

"As you can see, we are clearing the fields with the people.”

"... With the people?”

Where were the people? Grid only saw the Overgeared members and the slaves.

“I greet My Lord.”

Huroi came running. He was also sweaty. Grid saw the rake in his hand and asked again, “What are you doing right now?”

Huroi had the same answer as Regas, "We are clearing the fields with the people.”

“No, that isn’t it. The people...”

Lauel rushed over at that time. “Why were you so late?”

Lauel berated with a scruffy appearance as well. He also held farming equipment in his hands.

“You didn’t respond to my whispers, so I had to start the guild members on the urgent tasks. First of all, we are joining forces with the people to connect the waterways and plant the fields, so we will be able to produce simple food in a few months.”

Grid finally perceived reality. Then he desperately asked. “Where are the people?”

“Can’t you see them?” Lauel turned his gaze to the fields. Lauel’s finger was pointing to the people on the fields, the thin ones who Grid thought were slaves. "They are your people.”

“... Ah, why me?”

It was the moment when Grid’s expectations collapsed.