Reincarnate as Prince: Change Magical World with Industry

16 Progress

In the middle of winter, a thick layer of snow fell on every inch of the manor. The workers took out their thick coats, with the Masters buying more from the nearby towns. There were a few blizzards here and there. It was colder than Janus had ever experienced before. If not for the fireplace blazing away in his room, he wouldn't survive a single night.

While the town and the neighboring estates were slowing down on their operations, Janus and his men were getting more work. The kitchens served porridge, soup and bread all day. Guard duty was rotational, with longer breaks in between. Their outposts were installed with a simple form of heating. The children who worked the fertilizers only had to keep their earthworm colonies fed. Giving them more time to attend classes or just stay in their homes.

Those who were assigned in fieldwork were now working closely with the goblins to make specialized plows and tools. The men were skeptical about adding cranks and gears into their usual implements, but their minds quickly changed when they saw the initial prototypes.

They all congregated in a huge workshop beside the storage silos and sheds. Adduk always had a gathering of craftsmen around to check his designs and do most of the grunt work. Some of the goblins were also adept at iron working, they mostly did smelting and fabrication.

To Janus' surprise, Arthan started training with Hazzak and the fighters from the goblin band. It started when the knight was practicing at the courtyard with Cedi and the guards.  

Hazzak challenged them to a fight, and while it was all chaos at first -- the knight was quite interested on learning the tendencies and fighting styles of the other races. With a few scuffles and heated arguments on the best ways to use weapons and such, they learned to get along in the end.

 The knight devised a few scenarios on how to win when fighting against a group of enemies, especially those with unorthodox weapons and tactics. He was trying his best to not teach the goblins anything directly, as that could get him in trouble with the Holy See.

There was another member of the Royal guard there too. She was the one who usually accompanied Yvaine on her travels. It was the first time Janus had seen her. Her name was Gisela Goldshire, she had pale blue eyes and long blonde hair tied in a ponytail. She looked at Janus with intense contempt. Janus avoided her at all costs.

Gisela had only arrived at the start of winter. Janus asked Arthan why his sister didn't need a guard with her at all times.  But he knew the answer, it did make sense that the King trusted her more than him.

Janus wasn't even mad. If not for Arthan, who knows how the encounter with the goblins could have turned out?

The autumn harvest was much better than they expected. By the careful judgment of Master Oswald and Master Ringo, they raised the prices for the ingredients of the Prince's bread and other recipes. The pub owners and noble houses were happy to pay a premium just to prepare the food that was gaining popularity in town.

Janus carried on with teaching the children and the goblins in his spare time. He used up a lot of Contribution Points for educational content as well as books on making farm improvements.

Another one of his ideas was to make use of the fallow fields so that all of the manor's land can be utilized. Using a careful method crop rotation and selection, they can ensure that the land can be productive without needing to rest every other season.

Master Oswald was constantly summoned by the King to look after the other estates. During one of his returns, he delivered an important message.

"Oh right. The three-month ultimatum. How could I forget?" Janus said with a surge of panic.

"No need to worry your highness, the King has granted you favor to continue what you are doing. He is pleased with the changes you have made to this place and is more than happy with the healthy yield of the last season. You still owe him the profits for now but are free to use a portion of it for facilities and improvements. There is a condition though."

"What condition?"

It was Yvaine who answered. "I'd have to look after you in the meantime and possibly stay during the whole winter, which I don't mind of course. What would my students do without me?"

Janus felt relieved at this. "Always a pleasure to have you here Yvaine."

A few more weeks passed and Janus found a lot more free time. The manor was basically running on its own. Master Ringo managed everything with precision and even came up with interesting new ideas. As the weather got warmer, they could reclaim more land in the bordering forest. Janus didn't know this, but the manor still had a lot of unused acres of land that belonged to the King. The only reason why it wasn't used was because of the limited workforce. They could hire the men to clear out and reclaim the land before winter ended.

Master Ringo also came to him with interesting statistics. The number of protests from the serfs and regular folk was getting fewer by the day. There were no reports of anyone starving or freezing to death during the winter, something that Janus was surprised to know was quite a common incident in the past years. The old straw settlements and lack of heating were actually losing them some workers with no one stepping up on the issue.

The water tanks that they built were paying off in dividends, they had a constant supply all through the cold season. This in conjunction with the heating facilities that the goblins built ensured that work could go on smoothly.

The goblins were slowly growing in number, another twenty-one had found them in the winter, which Janus gladly accepted under the leadership of Kazzuk as Tribal Chieftain. Kazzuk still reported directly to Janus and the stewards, but they mostly left them on their own devices. These weren't goblins who grew up under war. They were mostly craftsmen who were forced to subservience.

They only learned to arm themselves when they had to rebel against their former master, as such they were more than happy to be left alone as long as they did their work. They had built stone settlements on the edges of the manor before the thick swath of pine trees and a few minute's walk from their underground base. It was littered with new contraptions to make their life easier, like folding furniture and storage units controlled by ropes and pulleys. In between lessons, Janus would inspect them to collect points.

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When spring finally came, and the thick snow thawed out of the fields, sprouts of flowers started blooming and the trees started growing back their leaves. Wild animals and insects came out of their nests, ready to greet the sun again.

Yvaine had to leave as soon as the roads were clear again. She didn't seem too enthusiastic about it. Something to with the relations to the Empire of Midyr. Janus was sad to see her go, but couldn't do anything about it with Gisela's icy glare.

 Work continued on. The men were able to reclaim another five acres of land, with a few more to spare that they could do in the next season.

Slowly but surely they took to the fields and started trying out the new crops. Things that were only planted at home gardens in pots and small plots like vegetables, herbs and spices were rounded out to be added to the fields. Janus had read that they were actually useful in reinvigorating the soil. The farmers looked at him like he was performing some archaic form of magic, but really it was just a matter of managing the minerals that the crops were using.

Various beans, beets, cabbages, potatoes, tomatoes and peas were planted in a rotating manner. The variation of crops are carefully designed so that the soil's minerals would cycle and regulate, keeping it productive while waiting for a new season of wheat.

Due to the reclamation efforts, they were now in need of more workers to pick up the slack. The bountiful harvest of the previous season afforded them to hire more. Men and women all lined up from the nearby towns and settlements. They had a spare dormitory for them to move to, with even more to be built on the way.

Janus also ordered an installation of deep wells to supply the workers near their houses and dormitories, giving them the freedom to bathe and shower.

Another new addition that Janus ordered was the for their livestock. They added more chicken, geese, ducks, pigs, and cows. These would not only be a good source for food but also a way for Janus to experiment on more recipes, with the added benefit of having more animal matter for their fertilizer.

They started milking the cows and goats and started producing another product -- cheese. It was something that preserves well and pairs with bread, something of a no-brainer if you were to grow all these animals. Janus installed a few barrels of cheese-curdling devices and hired someone to train the workers on how it's made.

Even with the surge of constant work inside the manor, they were getting less and fewer protests by the day. The workers and guards were quite happy, and they had even less and less infighting with the goblins as time passed by. Of course the little green folk mostly kept to their own homes out of work but as far as Janus and the stewards saw it, it was a remarkable feat.