FL - Chapter 54: Zachary Diaz

The rich aroma of magical-beast fat filled the air, making mouths water.

"Mmm, this is so good..."

Jon tore into the roast with both hands. "I haven't had fresh magical-beast meat in ages!"

He took a huge bite, his face radiant with satisfaction. Then he remembered his own circumstances, and his mood plummeted again.

Louis ate as he studied Jon.

The man was nothing like the confident young lord who had first arrived in the Northlands. Hardship had weathered him, and he had lost a considerable amount of weight.

"This wretched Northlands isn't fit for human beings!" Jon complained between bites. "My territory is all frozen soil. Nothing will grow!

"And the residents are lazy and terrified of hard work. Give them fields, and they don't know how to farm. Give them hunting bows, and they can't use them. All they do is wait for me to hand out relief grain! They think I'm the greatest charity in the Northlands!"

Louis tried to console him. "The beginning is always the hardest. Keep planning and endure this first stretch. Things will improve."

"If my old man didn't send money every month and ship grain up from the south, I would've starved to death by now!" Jon clutched his hair, his face twisted with misery.

*He ships in enough money and grain to support an entire territory?*

Louis fell silent as he revised his estimate of House Harvey's wealth.

Jon sighed and stared up at the sky. "I should've known better than to come here. Do you think my father could petition the Emperor and get me sent home?"

Louis's mouth twitched.

No one could simply enter and leave the Northlands whenever they pleased.

Under the Northlands Colonization Edict, a colonization lord who abandoned his territory for too long without cause could be executed.

"Enough with the pitiful act." Louis clapped him on the shoulder. "Even if you want to leave, you're stuck here for at least twenty years."

Jon looked utterly despondent. He shook some grease from the meat and found something else to complain about.

"I had only just planted my seeds. Before I could even catch my breath, Duke Edmund issued an order and forced me to march out with my troops!"

"You really are having a run of bad luck," Louis agreed.

"Now I don't even know if I'll have a harvest this autumn!" Jon said, genuinely distressed.

He stabbed the meat skewer toward the fire. "Shouldn't the old northern nobles handle this sort of thing? Why drag newly arrived colonization lords like us into it?

"And our enemy is the damned Snowsworn! I've heard about them. They're lunatics!"

"You said it yourself—we're newly arrived colonization lords." Louis shrugged. "We have no foundation here and no local support. That makes us perfect cannon fodder."

Jon's smile froze as the truth sank in.

After a moment, he shook his head, unwilling to dwell on such a grim subject. "Oh, right. There's something else, Boss."

He chewed another mouthful of meat. "You know Zachary Diaz?"

"A member of House Diaz? I remember his territory is nearby," Louis said.

"That's him. He sent out invitations to all the southern colonization lords who settled in Snowpeak County. He's holding a banquet before the campaign." Jon waved his skewer. "Did you get an invitation?"

Louis paused, then shook his head.

Jon blinked, his expression turning strange. "What? That's impossible. You're—"

"Don't bother thinking about it. The reason is simple." Louis gave a derisive laugh as he turned the meat over the fire. "Zachary wants to lead the colonization lords, so he's shutting me out."

Jon kept blinking, his expression plainly asking whether Louis was reading too much into it.

"House Diaz and House Calvin are both among the Empire's Eight Great Houses." Louis smiled without warmth. "If I attended, do you think he could still act like their leader?"

Understanding dawned on Jon, and he nodded rapidly. "Right, right. You're also from one of the Eight Great Houses. He couldn't put on airs with you there."

He paused before muttering, "What a petty bastard..."

"No. It isn't pettiness. He simply knows his own limits."

"So what are you going to do?"

"When and where is the banquet?" Louis asked.

"Two days from now, in his territory. It's not far ahead." Jon spoke around another bite of meat.

Louis stood and brushed the dust from his clothes. "Take me there."

Jon stared, then his eyes lit up. "Ha! Boss, are you going to crash his banquet?"

Louis smiled. "We have time. We might as well take a look."

Jon wiped his mouth and slapped his thigh. "All right! I'll lead the way!"

...

The next day, Jon led Louis and his knight escort onward. After half a day's travel, they reached their destination.

The desolate sight before them was worse than Louis had expected.

Barren soil stretched into the distance. A few fields had been cleared through great effort, their mediocre crops swaying weakly in the cold wind.

Scattered houses stood across the land. Most were crude wooden structures, and some roofs already leaked.

The residents wore ragged clothes and worked with their heads bowed, their expressions numb.

They glanced at the column of knights without fear or expectation. Life had worn away almost every emotion.

Louis frowned.

Anything like this in Crimson Tide Territory would have been torn down and rebuilt.

Jon, however, folded his arms and nodded. "Not bad. He's done a decent job—only a little worse than me."

Louis stared at him, wondering if he had misheard.

He looked again at the residents' faces, the houses on the verge of collapse, and the barren land stretching beyond sight.

*This is decent?*

He was about to speak when a realization struck him.

This was what a normal colonization lord's territory looked like in the Northlands.

They had no rich resources, no comprehensive plans, and no stable supply routes.

In this harsh, frozen land, keeping the population alive, building a few houses, and cultivating even a handful of fields already counted as success.

Crimson Tide Territory was different.

Its prosperity and stability didn't resemble a newly established territory at all. It was better off than the domains of many old northern houses.

That was possible because Louis was a transmigrator and possessed the Daily Intelligence System.

With that advantage, he knew where resources lay, where magical beasts roamed, how to avoid danger, and how to make the best use of everything at hand.

No ordinary lord could have accomplished what he had.

Louis turned to Jon. "After we exterminate the Snowsworn, come visit Crimson Tide Territory. It's quite a bit better than this."

Jon nodded at once. "Of course! You're my Boss, after all!"