Lily and Captain Boris both left the small, sparsely decorated office room to immediately deal with their assigned managerial tasks.
Their departing footsteps echoed softly down the stone corridor, leaving only Raymond sitting completely alone within the quiet space.
He leaned his back deeply into the sturdy frame of his wooden chair, letting out a soft, long sigh that seemed to drain the remaining physical tension from his shoulders.
A faint, amused chuckle escaped his lips as he ran a hand through his hair, staring at the scattered parchment papers remaining on his desk.
"This is really not an easy job," he chuckled softly, muttering the words entirely under his breath.
Ever since he had been abruptly dropped into this brutal medieval fantasy world a few days ago, he had not been able to enjoy any kind of proper, uninterrupted rest.
How could a person possibly have a proper rest or sleep soundly at night when they were constantly aware that their life could be forfeit at any given moment?
The core source of his constant, underlying anxiety was the looming presence of those twelve hundred emaciated, deeply resentful people living just outside his castle walls.
If he made a single administrative misstep, or if the food supply ran out even a day early, that desperate populace would transform into a chaotic mob that would gladly tear his castle down brick by brick.
"Sigh... some people transmigrate into powerful, legendary families, getting spoon-fed on a goddamn golden spoon from day one, and here I am suffering in a trash barony," Raymond grumbled, rubbing his face aggressively with both of his hands as he let out another heavy sigh of frustration.
Well, there is absolutely no practical need to waste time crying over spilled milk, he reasoned internally, forcing his thoughts to stabilize.
What has happened has already happened, and all I can do now is focus entirely on living my current life to the absolute fullest. And besides, looking at it from a broader perspective, it’s really not that bad of a choice to change servers entirely.
After all, Earth was getting incredibly boring and stressful as hell, with endless, destructive conflicts popping up everywhere you looked. There were constantly brutal wars raging between countries, bitter clashes between different religions, and endless systemic friction between different races.
Raymond rolled his eyes dramatically toward the ceiling when he thought back to the sheer chaos of his previous world.
"Heck, back on Earth, there were even constant, screaming cultural wars raging among genders... I mean, what the hell was honestly wrong with people back there?"
Raymond muttered, a genuine smirk forming on his face."It is honestly so refreshing to be changing servers to a completely new reality. Maybe, if I play my cards right and expand this territory successfully, I might actually get to see some real, legendary dragon shit in this new world."
Raymond’s eyes suddenly sparkled with a dense, childlike excitement when he thought about all the magical possibilities of encountering those grand, high-tier fantasy creatures he had always dreamed about while reading novels under his bedsheets.
A brief moment later, he quickly shook his head, pulling his wandering focus right back to his current reality. He cleared his throat, tapping his fingers against the heavy oak desk as he thought for a moment.
"Let’s see... I haven’t actually opened my system interface to check my status panel for quite some time now. Let me pull it up and see my exact statistical progress after these past three days of intensive public restructuring."
With that silent command issued, he focused his consciousness, and a massive, glowing blue user interface materialized directly in front of his eyes.
------
[ Status Panel ]
Host: [ Raymond von Althoff ]
Age: [ 20 ]
Race: [ Human ]
Title: [ The Deadbeat Lord / Head of House Althoff ]
Noble Rank: [ Disgraced Baron ]
Personal Strength Tier: [ 8-Star Bronze Rank
-----
[ Host Attributes ]
• Strength: 30
• Agility: 40
• Stamina: 45
• Endurance: 50
----
[ Family Core Metrics ]
•Family Grade: Tier-1 (Barony) [Upgrade Progress: 12%]
•Family Funds: [ 51,200 Gold Coins ]
•Total Population: [ 1,200 / 5,000 ]
•Total Land Mass: [ 150 Square Kilometers (Barren / Frozen) ]
•System Points (SP): [ 111,000 SP (Shop Locked) ]
•System Mission: [Surviving the Winter Famine]
-----
[ Inventory ]
[x20 Bronze Summoning Tickets, x5 Silver Summoning Tickets, x5 Tier-I Organic Nutrient Compost Catalysts, x1 Automated Deep-Well Irrigation Pump Artifact, x100 High-Efficiency Iron Plows]
-------
[ Household Subordinates ]
• Active Summons: 3 (Tier-1 / 5-Star Silver Knights)
• Bloodline Successors: None
• Loyal Subordinates: 460 (Guards + Converted Laborers)
-------
Use code with caution.Looking directly at his newly updated, highly comprehensive status panel, Raymond’s eyes were completely full of immense glee.
His personal physical strength had successfully broken through to the level of an 8-Star Bronze Rank Knight, which was a massive leap from the pathetic, poisoned weakling he had inhabited just a few days ago.
Although he knew that an 8-Star Bronze Knight was still technically considered nothing more than an insignificantly small ant in the grand scheme of this high-magic world, within the context of this remote, backward Zulor Region, he was officially considered a formidable big shot.
All of his core physical attributes had gone completely off the roof, granting him a substantial layer of personal protection that made his limbs feel incredibly light and packed with dense kinetic power.
Despite this sudden explosion of personal strength, however, Raymond was still deeply afraid of those twelve hundred hungry townspeople.
He had read more than enough webnovels back on Earth to know that a smart leader should never, under any circumstances, underestimate a single commoner or a desperate peasant group.
What if there was a hidden individual possessing absolute, terrifying protagonist luck or an unyielding ancient inheritance hiding among those starving refugees?
If he grew arrogant and careless, he might easily get himself completely killed by someone else’s supreme plot armor before his kingdom-building engine could even launch.
And besides, looking at the entire situation from a completely different, analytical perspective, in the eyes of the original townspeople and the surrounding noble factions, his identity was technically that of a corrupt, tyrannical villain.
In every single webnovel script, villains always died in the most remarkably stupid, inconvenient, and pathetic ways possible, and Raymond was absolutely not ready to die an early death to some crazy, righteous revenge plot.
Thinking of this terrifying possibility, Raymond shivered slightly, a cold sweat forming on the back of his neck as he quickly shook his head to disperse the paranoid thoughts.
He forced his eyes back down to continue analyzing his system metrics, a slow grin forming on his lips as he noticed the financial indicators. He now possessed a total of 51,200 physical Gold Coins inside his mirrored metrics, along with an astronomical balance of 111,000 System Points.
To the original, wealthy Raymond back in the capital before his exile, a sum of fifty thousand gold coins might have been considered nothing more than simple pocket change to be spent on luxury items, but right now, within this starved barony, that amount of liquidity could accomplish a staggering number of things.
"With this exact amount of physical gold capital, I can easily fund massive restructuring projects," Raymond muttered thoughtfully, rubbing his chin as he stared intensely at the numbers.
"Once this brutal winter season finally passes, various large-scale merchant caravans will inevitably travel through the region again, and I can purchase an immense amount of building materials, livestock, and iron to rapidly improve the town’s infrastructure."
His eyes then glanced over toward his system points, noting the massive balance of over one hundred thousand SP with a slight look of curiosity.
Unfortunately, the main System Shop interface had not been officially unlocked yet, as the system rules dictated that he had to continue accumulating points and developing his territory before the digital storefront would open its tabs.
He wasn’t bothered by the restriction, knowing that when the shop finally opened, his massive hoard of points would allow him to purchase top-tier magical blueprints instantly.Looking further down at his current inventory list, Raymond felt the absolute highest surge of excitement coursing through his chest.
He possessed twenty Bronze Summoning Tickets and five Silver Summoning Tickets waiting to be deployed at a moment’s notice.
According to the system guidelines, the maximum strength of a single Bronze Summoning Ticket guaranteed a warrior between a 5-Star to an 8-Star Bronze Rank Knight, while the Silver Tickets would manifest warriors as exceptionally powerful as Jonathan and his other two guards.
This meant he was effectively holding a highly trained, elite small army right inside his pocket.
With these loyal knights stationed around his castle, he could finally rest assured regarding the long-term safety and military stability of the town.
Furthermore, the recent milestone rewards had granted him one hundred high-efficiency iron plows, an automated deep-well irrigation pump artifact, and five organic nutrient compost catalysts.
All of these practical, high-tier agricultural tools would massively help his laborers cultivate the basin, maximizing the efficiency of the field without exhausting the peasants’ limited stamina.
With all of these advanced assets deployed simultaneously, the town’s agricultural production was about to take a massive, revolutionary step forward into the future.His eyes gleamed with a bright, predatory light as he scrolled down to the final metric on the blue screen.
The total number of his loyal subordinates had increased massively, breaking past the four-hundred mark to reach exactly 460 citizens.
This statistical surge meant that his daily rotation strategy and weaponized religious gaslighting were working flawlessly; little by little, the skeptical factions were breaking down, and it wouldn’t be long before the entire twelve hundred people in the town became his fanatical, loyal subjects.
Thinking of this beautiful future, a wide, completely unholy grin appeared on Raymond’s face as he casually closed the system panel with a wave of his hand.
He slowly stood up from his heavy oak chair, raising his arms high above his head to thoroughly stretch his newly reinforced, muscular body.
His joints let out a rapid series of sharp, satisfying cracking sounds that made him let out a soft moan of pure physical satisfaction.
"Let’s go get some proper rest for tonight," Raymond muttered to himself, a lazy, relaxed expression settling over his features. "There is a massive amount of administrative work waiting for me tomorrow morning."
He slowly made his way out of the office door, casually scratching his back while humming a cheerful, quiet tune down the dark stone corridor.
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