[Knowledge of Fertile Soil (White): You clearly understand the characteristics and fertility of land, determine what types of crops are suitable for planting, judge what herbs may naturally grow in the area, and your observation skills improve by 10%.]
A massive amount of information flooded into Thane's mind, all about land characteristics and crop knowledge.
It included not only fertile soil characteristics and where they might appear, but also knowledge about how to improve soil nutrition.
Most notable was a scoring system for land fertility—anything above sixty points could grow corresponding crops.
"This is actually way better than I imagined!"
Thane breathed a sigh of relief, marveling to himself.
With [Knowledge of Fertile Soil], Thane could pinpoint exactly which existing farmland could keep being cultivated and which absolutely needed to sit idle.
Besides crops, the information also included growth and planting details for various herbs, so he could accurately gather medicinal plants while exploring the mountains.
Even if Thane didn't go himself, he could teach others to improve collection efficiency.
Thane stood in place and observed all around. The soil beside him scored sixty-nine points for wheat planting and seventy-eight points for rye.
This was close to what Thane's naked eye had judged, but much more precise.
Thane immediately had people mark this farmland, then quickly ran to the previously crappy-looking soil to check it out.
Wheat planting score: fifty-two. Rye planting score: sixty-five.
Then the third plot, the fourth plot...
After spending another whole day, Thane ran all over the hillside, categorizing all the surrounding farmland by whether it could be cultivated and whether to plant wheat or rye.
Of course, there was still farmland on the more distant wasteland that Thane needed to check, while the land in town would be saved for growing vegetables.
Categorizing farmland was just the first step. This year when they started farming again, Thane couldn't let them just throw seeds around anymore.
So the first thing he did upon getting back to town was order Otto beside him:
"Spread the word—collect all the manure in town and dig a pit outside town to store it all in one place."
Otto instinctively wanted to ask why they needed to collect that crap, but remembering his earlier ass-chewing, he immediately shut his mouth and just nodded respectfully in response.
"From now on, nobody is allowed to dump chamber pots randomly in town or take a dump anywhere. Anyone caught gets fined 110 pounds of rye!"
This order wasn't just to unlock the next trait—Thane was creating a clean, normal living environment for himself.
Yes, normal.
In this era there was no concept of toilets, and people were used to relieving themselves anywhere.
At night and when it was cold, they'd use wooden buckets for waste, then dump it randomly, leaving puddles of piss everywhere in the streets, some with floating turds.
Noble castles were better since servants cleaned up, but towns with packed populations were especially nasty—summers would reek with swarms of flies.
Fortunately, Fontdmer Town's weather was still cool and the ground had just thawed, so there wasn't the sight of piss flowing everywhere.
Otherwise—
Thane would never let that kind of nasty scene happen in the future.
"Going outside town every time might be hard to hold it in..." Otto couldn't help but speak up quietly.
"Dig several pits around town and build wooden fence enclosures around them. Use those specifically for taking dumps and dumping waste!"
Thane glanced at Otto and said irritably: "You're all human beings—don't you want a clean, decent living environment?"
"Yes, yes, you're absolutely right, noble lord."
Otto nodded repeatedly.
This time he agreed wholeheartedly.
Everyone hated that stinking waste, but nobody had thought to solve it or had the ability to do so.
"I'm giving you one day, and I'll assign you two soldiers. Find your own workers."
Thane looked seriously at Otto:
"If there's a single turd on the street the morning after tomorrow, you'll be getting the whip!"
"Don't worry, I'll definitely get it cleaned up!"
Otto thumped his chest in assurance.
After running around the hillsides all day, Thane just wanted a good night's sleep when he got back.
But the sour stench on his body made it unbearable. He wanted a hot bath but didn't even have hot water, so he had to have Eliric tell the slaves to quickly heat some water.
"You need a steward, and servants—two isn't enough."
Eliric reminded him.
Thane nodded in agreement.
Matt's wife and daughter were no longer working here. Although they hadn't shown any hostile behavior, Pamin had still assigned them to handle the militia's meals.
Now the two slaves originally from Matt's household were responsible for meals for the guards and Thane.
Slaves didn't care who their master was—as long as they had food and didn't get beaten, they were fine.
But two slaves handling meals for over twenty people was really too much work, so Thane wouldn't blame anyone for the lack of hot water.
Originally Thane had planned to add people after finishing the manor, but now it seemed the servant issue needed to be bumped up.
At least he needed to find two people to take care of his daily needs first.
"Good day, Baron,"
As Thane was mulling this over, Kralfard approached with a stack of records:
"The tax collection and population statistics you assigned are done."
"Finished in two days—pretty fast."
Thane took the records to look them over.
They recorded that Fontdmer Town had a total of 358 people: ninety-nine adult males of working age, ninety-seven adult women.
Fifteen people over sixty, 147 children under sixteen, with ninety-seven of those under nine.
This was the overview, with detailed breakdowns of each family below.
"Nice work, Kralfard. I really like this statistical method."
Fifteen-year-olds already counted as adult laborers, while ten to fifteen-year-olds counted as half-laborers in this era.
At the same time, due to poor diet, people over sixty had declining physical strength and only counted as minimal labor.
The natural lifespan of ordinary people in this era was fifty to sixty—very few lived past sixty.
Of course, knights like Pamin were exceptions.
Thane briefly scanned the property situations of various families—most weren't too poor.
After all, these years without an oppressive lord had allowed the townspeople some savings, especially in terms of grain.
But the population was really too small.
"Are there any who can't eat enough after paying taxes?" Thane asked.
Collecting taxes was about establishing rules, but he couldn't let people starve to death.
Otherwise who would stick around?
Thane wanted to develop and expand—he needed to stabilize these townspeople first, then recruit more.
"There are!"
Kralfard pulled out a piece of parchment like he was presenting treasure and reported: "These families below this line don't have enough grain for three months.
Especially this last family—a mother and daughters with a child, only have 110 pounds of rye left. Even making porridge probably won't be enough."
Thane read through it carefully and nodded approvingly.
"Kralfard, you're sharp. You know what I want."
"Thank you for your praise."
Kralfard beamed.
He understood that although Thane appeared fierce, as a lord he actually didn't want his people to starve to death.
Otherwise, Thane wouldn't have spent his first two days here constantly circling the farmland.
So after finishing the statistics, Kralfard immediately marked families that might not have enough to eat.
"Earlier you said if I did well, you'd cut the gold coins..."
Kralfard rubbed his hands expectantly.
"Don't worry about that—I won't take any of your ransom."
Thane waved his hand generously, and Kralfard's eyes lit up with delight.
"Thank you so much, noble Baron. You are the most generous lord in the Loanium Empire..."
"And don't leave either."
"Huh?"
Kralfard's voice cut off abruptly as he stood frozen in place.
Thane put down the record list and looked seriously at Kralfard:
"Do you have dreams?"