Lord of Rot

Leech rose bright and early, and his manservant, Caocha, helped him dress.

The snow was beginning to melt.

There was some excitement today, as Fla, the dwarf carpenter, was marrying a tall maidservant.

Porcupine Territory had no church, so weddings couldn’t be perfectly formal.

Fortunately, no one was too concerned with formalities. As part of the first group of settlers in Porcupine Territory, their faith in the four gods was lukewarm at best.

Leech was quite interested in the first wedding to take place since he took control of the territory, so he had agreed to officiate for Fla.

While the dwarf lacked much creative talent, Leech found him to be an invaluable craftsman, even more useful than his own hands. After all, his own hands couldn’t perform the skilled carpentry required. The dwarf, however, could experiment time and again to bring Leech’s ideas to life. Bellows and a waterwheel had already been successfully developed, but they had yet to be implemented, and there were bound to be problems along the way.

In addition, Leech had also tasked the dwarf with building two-wheeled carts. That project hadn’t truly begun yet—the newly-married carpenter would have plenty of work waiting for him.

After the roads in Porcupine Territory were paved, the constant foot traffic had packed the gravel down into a relatively flat surface. The territory, however, lacked sufficient draft animals. Two-wheeled carts would greatly improve transportation efficiency. While the Lu Leiyi Continent had long since developed the one-wheeled wheelbarrow, it wasn’t very practical—it couldn’t carry heavy loads. Two-wheeled carts, however, could be pulled by a team of people, making them the best option in the absence of animal labor.

The design of a horse-drawn carriage was conceptually similar to a handcart, so it wouldn’t be difficult for a carpenter to replicate.

The small plaza, cleared for the last festival, had since become a permanent fixture.

A crowd had already gathered, staring curiously at the newlyweds, whose height difference was staggering.

Fla was a middle-aged man with a full beard. For his wedding day, he had donned clean, exquisite clothes and was standing on a tall table to be eye-to-eye with his bride.

Opposite him stood his wife, the tall maidservant Cao Ya. She had shed her servant’s uniform for a new dress. Her hair was intricately braided, and she wore a shy expression.

’Leech knew that few young women in Porcupine Territory would turn Fla down. He wasn’t just a dwarf; he was, first and foremost, a carpenter—and a carpenter with a handsome income!’

’It wasn’t just this world, either. Weren’t such situations common in his past life, too?’

’Marriage happened for many reasons, and love was often one of the least important. Take his own situation: he was willing to entertain a match with his cousin, whom he hadn’t seen in ages and whose current appearance he couldn’t even picture.’

’An alliance with Green Forest Castle through marriage would bring so many advantages; it would save him at least twenty to thirty years of struggle.’

’If he secured financial backing from Green Forest Castle, he could implement so many of his ideas, instead of being constrained as he was now.’

Ultimately, marriage boiled down to a single question.

"Are you willing?"

Leech took his place, and the crowd fell silent, offering their heartfelt blessings for the wedding being officiated by their lord.

As all eyes turned to him, Leech declared in a loud voice, "We are here to witness Fla and Cao Ya become one in mind and body. The Celestial Father, the Knight, the Matron, and the Captive shall bear witness to this sacred union. Let no one interfere with their marriage!"

"Fla, you may now kiss your bride," he said.

The dwarf took a step forward, making the table wobble, but his tall bride stepped in to steady her new husband.

The two shared a shy kiss.

Applause erupted from the crowd.

Leech smiled, turned, and left. The wedding was as simple as that.

With the lord gone, the restrained atmosphere in the small plaza gave way to true liveliness. It seemed the wedding had also helped to dispel some of the gloom left over from the recent bout of sickness.

The development of Porcupine Territory proceeded in an orderly manner.

As spring arrived, the oats were nearing maturity. It was clear to any observer that they were headed for a bountiful harvest.

As Leech rode toward the river, he could see many children with baskets, bent over and gathering manure from the ground.

The commoners of Porcupine Territory had discovered the value of manure. Children who were too young to be part of the main labor force but too restless to stay idle were sent out by their families to collect it. With the oat harvest approaching and wheat planting to follow, the importance of fertilizer was self-evident.

When people along the road saw Leech, they immediately stopped their work, bowed, and called out, "My Lord."

Leech rode on without stopping, until he saw the building under construction by the river.

The watermill was the first structure he wanted to build. Some of Porcupine Territory’s commoners had their own grain, but grinding it into flour was a time-consuming task, and Leech had no desire to see their labor wasted so pointlessly.

Once the watermill was built and operational, the next project would be the irrigation waterwheel, which would play a crucial role in the upcoming planting season.

Some of the newly arrived slaves were assigned to clear untamed land in the early spring—the most important thing was that they get enough to eat. Meanwhile, the first batch of slaves, who were waiting for the harvest, could work to eat their fill and earn work points.

Those with excellent performance earned points, while those with poor performance had points deducted. For now, points could be exchanged for bread and other food, which motivated many slaves to work extremely hard.

However, this point system applied only to the slaves, not the commoners. The commoners weren’t trapped in one place; they worked to earn copper stars and make a living, not just to get by on meager rations. The slaves, in contrast, could only pledge their loyalty to Leech. For them, earning something was better than earning nothing.

This wasn’t a new monetary policy, just a small experiment. The point system had no tangible backing; it was based entirely on the lord’s own word. If he were to go back on it, all their efforts would be for naught.

Even so, the slaves were unwilling to pass up the opportunity. ’If you can earn an extra piece of bread, why settle for one less?’

Seeing Leech arrive, a young man with a bug-shaped mole on his forehead came over and skillfully took the reins of his horse.

"Akelie, where’s your father?" Leech asked as he dismounted.

He was Ark’s eldest son, and three years Leech’s junior.

Akelie answered with awe, "There’s some trouble with the slaves. It seems to be an argument over work points."

He heeded his father’s teachings every night, and his reverence for the lord far surpassed the respect he held for his own father.

"Tell him not to be too harsh," Leech commanded casually. ’The introduction of incentives is bound to create conflict. Incidents of people fighting over work points, for example, have become common. The young, strong slaves wake up early and work nimbly and quickly, so their work points naturally skyrocket.’

’Furthermore, the castle was gradually reducing the basic food rations for the slaves, forcing them to adopt a "work more, earn more" mindset. This resulted in some eating their fill until they were stuffed, while others didn’t get enough to eat.’

’Then there was the difference in jobs. Gathering seafood at the shore was not the same as felling trees and hauling stone, yet the work points awarded were the same. After all, there’s a difference between a child and a strapping man.’

’Some who were efficient could earn three days’ worth of black bread in a single day, and would then slack off.’

’Situations like these were all too common.’

’This is just a transitional phase,’ Leech reminded himself. He had only tossed the idea of the work point system to Gelan, offering a few suggestions from the sidelines. Ultimately, the profit generated by the slaves wasn’t the main objective—the Little Pill was.