The lively, festive celebration ended after two days, and quiet daily life returned to Feuzen. The remaining provisions were either stored in the warehouse or, in the case of food, distributed evenly among the villagers.

That alone was enough for them to keep praising Feuzen’s wonderful new lord. The street musicians and the laborers who had transported the supplies were sent back to Breisburg with an escort.

Hilda was leisurely sipping warm rose tea atop the manor, taking in the quiet scenery of Feuzen now that the heat of the festival had faded. It was a much nicer view than Breisburg’s grimy forest of buildings.

Unlike the city, the streets here were quite clean. Honestly, this was what I liked most about the place. The policies left behind by Baron Constance, who valued sanitation, had become customary and remained in place.

Baron Constance seemed to share several similarities with me.

November mornings were quite cold. At times like this, I missed a hot cup of coffee. Living with Hilda, I couldn’t easily use my points anymore.

Hilda and I were going to spend the rest of our lives together.

Was it all right to share my secret with my soulmate?

But the outcome was so uncertain that I was afraid.

If Hilda couldn’t accept it, would I be able to bear it?

"Lively Breisburg is nice, but this kind of quiet atmosphere has its charm too."

"What I like most is that even outdoors, there’s no smell."

"Honestly, Wolf. Do you have to ruin the mood like that?"

The way Hilda looked at me with reproach was lovely.

"I’d love to spend our time leisurely like this, but we’re going to have a lot of work ahead of us."

"I’ve been prepared since the moment I became the lord’s lady. But ruling our fief will be deeply rewarding work."

Hilda already seemed mentally prepared. As the founders of a lord’s household, our days as a couple would be busy. On top of that, as lord, I oversaw all matters in Feuzen and ran the knightly order.

Hilda also had a great deal to do as the lord’s lady.

Like a head of the inner court, the lord’s lady was responsible for the household.

She managed all the women of the fief, since they gathered in the meeting hall to weave cloth, sew, and do other such work as a community. Of course, she didn’t manage them directly but through her handmaids.

Priscilla and Sabine would be the busiest, but with two new handmaids hired, the burden would be eased. The chief’s younger sister, who was set to marry August, and Oscar’s wife, who had been a handmaid at the War Minister’s residence, had been brought on as Hilda’s handmaids.

Priscilla was already training the two of them.

In effect, Priscilla was the head handmaid of the Streit family. I’d had Sabine in mind for the role, but it was reasonable to appoint Priscilla, who had more years of experience.

Schäufele, made from pork, paired with soup is a feast you can’t skip in the Swabian region. After a hearty breakfast, I summoned August along with Chief Wentner and the order’s officers.

"Viktor, are you keeping the members in line?"

"Yes. They’re surprisingly well-behaved, almost to the point of being boring."

"However, a few of them already seem to have caught the eye of some village maidens."

Fiel reported, watching my reaction carefully.

In truth, this was one of the things I’d been most hoping for.

If I could have my well-mannered, decently paid cavalrymen marry village maidens and settle down, the population would increase, and I’d permanently secure precious cavalry forces.

"As long as their hearts are in agreement, I’ll arrange the marriage for anyone. I’ll provide special settlement funds too, so tell anyone interested to come forward without hesitation."

"That’s a way to bring in fresh blood from outside. Understood."

Fiel quickly grasped my intent. He also understood why I hadn’t built the encampment outside the village but had brought the men inside instead. The chief sighed, saying the village’s bachelors were going to weep.

Hilda would handle finding wives for the bachelors.

There were more unmarried maidens in the city than you could count.

If we put up a notice that the lord’s lady was arranging marriages, they’d come flocking in droves.

I’d settle people in this manner to grow the village’s population over the long term, and if any vagrants happened to be nearby, I was even considering inspecting their dispositions and taking them in. The side effects could be considerable, though.

The reason I was so focused on population growth was purely because of the lord shop.

The greatest factor in fief development was the passive skills. These passive skills came in many varieties, and what I could purchase depended on the village’s size.

Three hundred residents qualified as a medium village, five hundred as a large village.

Unfortunately, with 278 people, Feuzen was classified as a small village.

So I could only purchase passives available to small villages. Growing the population to at least 500 became my long-term goal. Settling people through marriage was the most effective method, with the fewest side effects.

"Now, Chief Wentner. Did your house and the wealthy farmers always have so much livestock from the start?"

"My lord. Chief Wentner’s father was killed in the second battle. The Baron rewarded the Wentner house with fifty head of livestock for their dedication."

It was August, not Wentner, who explained.

Hmm, so that’s why the chief was so young.

The Wentner house had fulfilled their duty at the cost of a life, so there was nothing to fault them for. They’d started with fifty head, but over the years, the number had grown to over a hundred. The problem was the other five wealthy farmers.

"What about those five?"

"Well, you see..."

The chief, hesitating, told me in detail how the wealthy farmers had built up their holdings over the years. Listening to it, the methods were rather simple and straightforward. How elaborate could a small village’s landholders really be?

They had unlawfully seized most of the pastures, pressured the villagers into staying off them, and brought in hired outsiders to act as muscle.

The estate manager, after taking bribes, had turned a blind eye. In the end, the villagers, worn down by the pressure, had reluctantly handed over their livestock at rock-bottom prices. They were left with only chickens and geese—animals that didn’t need pasture.

Were these people running a protection racket or something?

This was what happened in the absence of a lord.

But the real thug isn’t the wealthy farmer—it’s the lord.

The time had come to teach them just how terrifying a being with absolute power could be.

"To rule Feuzen smoothly, I’ll need to put my own house in order first."

"Should we mobilize troops to round them up?"

August, who held no warm feelings toward the wealthy farmers, was the most aggressive. As estate manager, he had limited authority, so he hadn’t been able to deal with these eyesores without the lord’s permission.

August had joined the Gale Knights along with his thirteen duchy army cavalrymen. He’d declined at first, saying it would be difficult to hold both positions, but I used my authority as commander to handle it as a matter of dispatching a Gale Knights officer to my fief.

As a result, he could now receive both an estate manager’s salary and a Gale Knights vice commander’s salary from me. The Finance Department might object, calling it favoritism through retainers, but personnel authority was mine.

Besides, August had the justification of being a knight who had earned merit in the war alongside Fiel. So even though it was a thinly veiled arrangement, I appointed him as my new vice commander.

"For now, I’ll grant them an audience and summon all of them here. In the meantime, station two squads in the reception hall and outside the manor. The two vice commanders will lead the rest of the troops to search and seize the wealthy farmers’ estates. They’ve committed plenty of unlawful deeds, so there’ll be evidence left behind—account books or whatever else."

"What if the wealthy farmers’ households resist during the search and seizure?"

"If anyone resists despite a lord’s order, threaten them with the charge of treason first. If they still resist, well, what can you do? The population will drop, but shoot to kill."

"Understood."

They had hired thugs, hadn’t they?

It was time for the cavalry to teach them a proper lesson.

Watching me casually issue kill orders, Chief Wentner gulped. He was probably thinking how glad he was to have picked the right side. This was the true face of a lord who had been through war.

Anyway, I decided I’d think about passive skills and everything else after I’d finished cleaning house. Honestly, the choice paralysis was hitting hard, and I had no idea where to start.