Lord of Rot

In the back kitchen, the young maids gathered together.

With Wineglass, the highest-ranking among them, leading the way—and with Oak Pail being the only assistant cook—the young maids were able to get their hands on quite a few tasty treats.

"I’m absolutely in love with this caramel pudding!" Little Eyes couldn’t resist licking her fingers.

The others didn’t say a word, but the precious way they held their portions showed they had no resistance to sweets.

"Arkke, I saw two people today who looked a bit like you. Were they your brothers?" Wineglass asked, carefully eating the pudding in her hand.

"Mhm," Arkke nodded. She had remembered her orders and hadn’t given her brothers any special treatment when serving the food.

That was her father’s command as well.

"That’s amazing."

Little Eyes said with envy, "If they can stay and become the Lord’s retainers, they might even become Knights in the future."

Now that they were all more familiar with each other, her youthful liveliness was beginning to show.

Arkke’s cheeks flushed slightly. "We have the Lord’s benevolence to thank."

Having wandered with her father and brothers, Arkke knew better than anyone how precious their current life was. She didn’t know if her brothers could become Knights; everything was up to the Lord.

"Ooh, you’re blushing~" Wineglass teased. "I saw the Lord touch your face last time. Up close, is he especially handsome?"

Little Eyes and Oak Pail also looked at her curiously. They only dared to look from a distance; none of them had ever gotten a closer look, let alone had their cheek touched by the Lord.

"N-No," Arkke’s cheeks grew redder. "I didn’t dare to look."

"If it were me, I’d definitely stare at the Lord the whole time," Wineglass hmphed, a mix of envy and fantasy in her voice.

Footsteps approached from behind, followed by a disdainful snort. "Hmph, you’re just maids! Your job is to wash dishes and sweep floors."

The newcomer was Duckfoot.

They knew Duckfoot had become a noble’s personal manservant, which was equivalent to having a chance to become a steward. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call it a meteoric rise.

But Wineglass wasn’t afraid of him. "You’re not the Lord’s personal manservant. The Lord’s personal manservant is Pitchfork!"

In other words, even if Duckfoot really had shot to the top, he had no authority over them.

"So what? My master will perform great deeds for the Lord, and I’ll become the steward of some castle in the future. You’ll all be nothing but floor-sweeping maids for the rest of your lives! Oh, and dishwashing maids!"

"Well, Arkke’s brothers might become the Lord’s retainers!"

The argument between them grew louder.

"AHEM, AHEM." A sudden cough interrupted the squabble.

Simon the steward was standing there, though no one knew for how long. As the castle steward, he naturally exuded an intimidating aura.

Simon glanced at Duckfoot, then said, "Oak Pail, the Lord requires a cup of hot milk tea." 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶

"Yes, sir!" Oak Pail immediately got busy.

Simon turned and left without another word, completely uninterested in the arguments between the servants.

Watching the steward’s retreating back, the young servants were suddenly at a loss for how to continue their argument.

They shot each other a glare, then went their separate ways to get back to work.

For Porcupine Castle, this was just an insignificant little episode.

There was a more important matter to attend to today.

The thank-you gift from the Bill family had arrived: 10 Jinri.

Porcupine Territory had been attacked by pirates in the first place because the young noble from the Bill family had led them there. They likely felt they were in the wrong; otherwise, they wouldn’t have just handed over such a large sum of money.

Leech immediately allocated the funds to Gelan. The road between Livestock Village and Maitian Village needed to be repaired.

Housing construction couldn’t be free, either. He needed to discuss with Gelan how to arrange things for the slaves and commoners. They could live there as if in dormitories, but their wages would have to be reduced.

After the spring planting, some farmers with a little money wanted to raise chickens and ducks. He had to figure out how to manage that, since his plans didn’t allow for poultry in the residential area. But sending just one or two chickens to Livestock Village didn’t make sense either.

Gelan had also mentioned taking on two hardworking boys as apprentices.

There was a mountain of things to deal with every day, including all sorts of trivial matters. But in these early stages of development, he had to be involved. Otherwise, the people under him would abuse their minor authority. Some of them were greedy and unafraid of death, and they knew a hundred ways to silence others.

’So busy.’

He gently rubbed his head. And this was with Gelan shouldering most of the work, compiling and organizing everything before presenting it to him. All Leech had to do was make the final decision.

’Isn’t being a lord supposed to be all about feasting and fun? Why is my every day filled with the nitty-gritty of survival? This isn’t what I imagined at all.’

He took a sip of hot milk tea.

To clear his head.

Juggling two jobs at once was mentally exhausting, even if his Spiritual Power could handle it.

He closed his eyes and quickly shifted his consciousness into the Cape Cavern.

After reaching an agreement, his cooperation with Betty had become quite smooth. Betty seemed to have a powerful ability to locate things by sound. They had avoided many monsters and were gradually getting a handle on the situation in the Cape Cavern.

It was an underground city.

It could be roughly divided into six areas.

One, the Residential District. This was the area just down from the entrance to the Cape Cavern, mainly inhabited by small, blue-skinned monsters. Judging from the architecture and the dilapidated, collapsed stone statues, they weren’t the original inhabitants.

Two, the Commercial District. Tailor shops, herb shops, general stores, spice shops, and the like were all concentrated here. There weren’t many blue-skinned monsters, but because of its former prosperity, most of the buildings were two or three stories tall. This made them ideal for bird-like creatures—in other words, the harpies’ roost.

Three, the Church and Plaza District. At its center was a broken fountain filled with monster droppings. The area was open with few monsters. If the residential and commercial districts were the outskirts, then the church and plaza district was like a no-man’s-land. The blue-skinned monsters wouldn’t approach it rashly, and only the harpies would fly over it freely.

Four, the Canal District. The wide canals bordering the plaza were now just muddy trenches, separating a castle from the rest of the city. Lurking within were agile, fast-moving, lizard-like monsters. Leech and Betty knew this because one of Betty’s former Mercenary teammates, who had escaped and was lucky to still be alive, had provoked a humanoid lizard monster. He was chased back to the Commercial District, causing a huge ruckus before being brutally killed.

Five, the Castle District. What lay inside was currently unknown, as neither Leech nor Betty had managed to get close to it.

Six, the Unknown Foggy Area. Within the castle grounds stood a tall tower, perpetually shrouded in mist. The entire cavern seemed to have been stretched taller to accommodate it.

Leech had gathered this basic information through a preliminary investigation with the corpse, and the divisions were based entirely on his personal assessment.

While the corpse explored the Cape Cavern, Leech sat in his study, drawing a map and recording all the useful information.

Looking at the map, it was clear that an entire small territory had been swallowed underground.

Reacting to the information the corpse had just gathered, Betty said, "There must be a Magical Curiosity in that castle! Maybe it’s in the foggy area!"

She knew the corpse beside her couldn’t speak, but she also knew the person controlling it could hear her. "Magical Curiosities are the crystallization of Magic. They possess all sorts of wondrous effects. They used to only be recorded in books. It’s said that some can allow a person to fly, some can grant a person limitless strength, and some can even turn a man into a woman..."

She said just enough, confident that the person listening understood what Magical Curiosities represented.

Magical Curiosities were wondrous, but they only existed in legends.

Betty hoped the person controlling the corpse would become greedy for these curiosities. For the sake of a Magical Curiosity, he would surely send more forces in, which would give her some added security.

But back in his study, Leech froze.

’A man turning into a woman?!’

’Wh-wh-who would dare get a wife, then?’

’Even if you were... physically intimate, you probably couldn’t even tell their gender!’

’Betty’s words had an effect. A Magical Curiosity with special powers... I have to get my hands on it! At worst, all I’ll waste is a single corpse.’

They carefully skirted the Residential District, where the blue-skinned monsters were most numerous, and prepared to loot the Commercial District first.

Leech’s current strength wasn’t enough to fight his way through the entire Cape Cavern, but he could snatch some benefits first and use them to support his territory.

The injured Betty acted as his sonar, helping him detect enemies. The two were now firmly bound together. Leech could do without Betty, but Betty couldn’t do without Leech.

A night passed. His body was well-rested and his mind wasn’t too tired, but Leech had grown a bit numb from all the killing. They had successfully secured a sealed room in the Commercial District. After changing her bandages, Betty fell into a deep sleep. Leech left a sliver of his consciousness on guard, and then got out of bed.

’Clearing this cavern is going to take a long time,’ he thought. Right now, he just felt really hungry.