Lord of Reclamation: I Can Unlock Abilities By Building Civilizations
Chapter 34: Buyer’s Remorse

Chapter 34: Buyer’s Remorse

...

The next morning.

The townspeople had learned their lesson and showed up early to claim their spots at the manor gate.

The earliest birds had staked out their places before sunrise.

If the guards hadn’t forced them to scatter yesterday, some folks would’ve been planning to camp out in front of the manor gate all night.

Kralfard looked at these faces—hungry as a pack of wolves—then quietly glanced back at his lord Thane and sighed to himself.

He sure hoped the lord had something up his sleeve.

Thane smiled and stepped forward slowly.

"I’m mighty pleased that over the past month, everyone here has worked their tails off, which has really improved my opinion of you all."

Thane’s gaze swept over the crowd as he spoke casually. "So, to reward everyone, I kept my promise early this month and let you trade work points for goods."

"That’s something worth celebrating, but it’s not enough, so I’ve decided to give you more things to trade for."

The moment he finished speaking, the crowd started buzzing and chattering among themselves.

"Pipe down!" Pamin barked, putting a stop to the commotion.

Thane continued with a smile. "When I first got here this year, since everyone was short on proper farming know-how, I took over the land and had everyone work it together to keep you from ruining it."

"During this whole process, plenty of farmers really showed their worth. They picked up farming knowledge and got some real experience under their belts. I’m well satisfied."

"So I’ve decided that starting tomorrow, I’ll rent out part of the land to everyone, for you to manage yourselves again."

"As for how the rental works—you’ll use work points to pay for it."

Thane’s tone was calm and his voice wasn’t particularly loud.

Yet it hit everyone like a thunderclap, striking them speechless.

Ignoring everyone’s stunned reaction, Thane gestured with a welcoming hand.

"Well, I’ve said my piece. Everyone can get back to your trading."

With that, Thane turned on his heel and left.

The whole place went dead quiet, with everyone hanging their heads, chewing over Thane’s words.

After a long moment.

"We’ve got plenty of food at home. I’m not trading today."

"Let’s get out of here."

"Back to work."

...

Without anyone telling them what to do, about ten people immediately turned around and walked away.

Other farmers caught on and gradually started to leave as well.

In the farmers’ eyes, nothing on God’s green earth was more important than land.

Trading for food now was just a quick fix. Having land meant steady food production and something to look forward to.

Aside from life itself, nothing mattered more than land.

Especially the hard-working, honest farmers—they’d rather pay higher taxes than work shoulder-to-shoulder with lazy good-for-nothings.

It wasn’t about working more or less; they just couldn’t stomach it.

So plenty of farmers decided to save their work points and wait to rent land back next year.

Before long, only sixty or seventy people were left at the manor gate.

Some of these had no food to speak of, while a good chunk were trading for meat.

Meat ran 150 to 300 work points per pound, while salted fish was 120 per pound.

Each person only traded for one or two pounds, with very few going for three.

Ryan had set up a whole mess of traps for catching wild rabbits and chickens around the wilderness, and hunters regularly cleared out nearby wild beasts, so the manor had plenty of meat to go around.

The salted fish was running low since Fontdmer Town didn’t do any winter fishing—only two or three hundred fish left, and they were nearly all traded away.

However, salted fish wasn’t exactly fine dining, so the townspeople didn’t much care if it ran out.

Word that land could be rented with work points next year spread through town like wildfire. People who’d traded their work points yesterday came rushing back to the manor gate.

This included Loff, who’d traded for three hundred and thirty pounds of rye.

"Sir Kralfard, can I take back what I traded yesterday? My family’s got plenty of food..."

Loff pleaded with a hangdog expression.

Kralfard scowled. "Take back? You think I’m sitting here putting on some kind of show for you?"

"Sir Kralfard, what’s a show?"

"Beat it!"

Kralfard shouted at the crowd. "Work points that have been traded won’t be given back!"

"No, sir, give me back my work points! I need to save them to trade for land!" Loff begged.

"Yes, give them back to us..."

"Shut your traps!"

Kralfard slammed the record book closed.

"Yesterday I asked if you wanted to trade everything, and you said yes. Now you’re trying to pin the blame on me?"

"If you’re done making a fool of yourself, get back to work. Don’t hold up my business!"

Kralfard immediately had the guards chase away the farmers demanding their work points back, causing a real ruckus at the manor gate.

"Everyone, don’t get your britches in a twist. There’s still plenty of work to be done in the territory, so there’ll be chances to earn work points."

Otto grinned, unable to hide how pleased he was with himself.

Working for the lord meant getting chewed out regularly, but the work points were the best around and it wasn’t back-breaking labor.

Next year he should be able to trade for a good piece of land.

Ha! Good thing he hadn’t jumped the gun on trading.

"Otto, are you shooting straight with us?" Loff asked with a sour look.

"Course I am. We still got seven thousand acres of farmland sitting unplanted, and down the road Lord Thane’s gonna build irrigation channels and fish ponds. There’ll be work points to earn."

Otto answered with confidence.

With his word on it, the farmers finally felt a bit better.

Though they were still uneasy inside, this was good news mixed in with the bad.

Truth was, they didn’t have much choice but to tell themselves there were still opportunities and left with their tails between their legs.

Even fewer people traded work points that afternoon.

Kralfard shut down shop early.

He ran over to Thane, practically bouncing with excitement.

"Sir, you’re a genius!"

Kralfard chuckled to himself, reporting in a hushed voice. "Nobody traded for food in the afternoon. Just a few families traded for meat and fish, plus some dried fruits."

"Lots of people wanted to trade back their work points, but just like you told me, I turned them down flat."

"Mm."

Thane just nodded. "When you get a chance, have Otto talk to everyone about trading in moderation when it makes sense."

Thane’s daytime moves were aimed at stopping the townspeople from going hog-wild with trading and hoarding, not making them stop trading altogether.

It was the same principle as spending money—spend it when you should.

"Keep good records of work points handed out and work points collected. At the end of each year, I want to see the total work points for the whole town and each person’s situation."

Based on this information, Thane would set land rental prices for next year.

Land was the bread and butter. By controlling land prices, Thane wouldn’t have to worry about handing out too many work points.

Naturally, Thane hadn’t been pulling everyone’s leg during the day—he really was planning to rent out part of the land.

After all, group farming’s motivation problems were a hurdle you just couldn’t get over. Rental was still the way to go.

Of course, Thane would still hang onto some land as a backup plan.

"Also, after tomorrow’s trading wraps up, get our bulk goods organized and set up a trading market."

Thane looked at Kralfard. "Tell everyone that anyone with extra stuff they don’t need can come trade, with prices based on work points."

Townspeople were bound to have useless junk lying around. Rather than let them wheel and deal in private, Thane would set up a proper market and keep an eye on prices.

"No problem, my lord. I’m good at this kind of thing."

Kralfard agreed readily. Just as he was about to make arrangements, he turned back around. "Oh, sir, we’re running short on salt—only five hundred and eighteen pounds left."

Five hundred pounds sounded like a heap, but for the whole town it was only two months’ worth.

As the weather got warmer, folks would need even more.

"Should we find time to head to the border city and buy some?"

Thane didn’t answer straight away but said instead, "Go get Eliric and tell him it’s time to earn his keep."