It wasn't Lucas' first time staying over at the Town Lord's Manor, but in the past, he had at most spent a night or two here, so this was still a new experience for him.
At first, he was a bit disoriented waking up in an unfamiliar room and eating with so many other people rather than just his mother and father. Even washing his face was different here as he didn't need to fetch the water himself. Even so, being young and flexible, it didn't take long for Lucas to adapt, and after just 3 days, he was basically used to this new routine.
Life was certainly easier when he didn't have to do everything for himself, as Lucas would normally do at home, but the young boy soon filled his new free time with other things, like tinkering with the private bathhouse he had set up here at the Manor.
Despite the looming hostile takeover by the Roth Family, Lucas didn't pause production of soap at his workshop; quite the contrary, in fact. Since he was going to lose this source of income soon, Lucas figured he should get as much out of it as possible while he still could.
Soap making would likely not stop in Redwood Town, even if the Roth Family took over this business, but Lucas' plans for further expansion would undoubtedly come to a halt with such a massive force entering the picture.
In other words, Lucas needed to pick a new commercial product to develop and market. Fortunately, he had plenty of ideas floating around his head, so it wouldn't be long before the young boy was back up on his feet.
Of course, there was also lych, aka maple sugar, but Lucas didn't dare to begin collecting sap just yet. Originally, he had wanted to start hanging collection buckets once the fall harvest calmed down, but having witnessed the unscrupulous nature of the Roths, he knew that if he showed any signs of being able to manufacture something as valuable as sugar, that would surely be robbed from him as well.
All of these, however, were concerns for the future as what took up most of Lucas' time currently was the field inspections.
The field inspections that Sasha and Charles had mentioned started up 4 days after Lucas settled in at the Town Lord's Manor. At first, Lucas thought that these inspections would simply be visits to the local fields and pastures to see how the farmers were doing, but he soon learned that they were much more involved than that.
On the first day, after his usual exercise and cultivation routine as well as a morning meal, Lucas got on a pair of wagons together with Charles, Eris, and a large number of others. There were over a dozen young men and women traveling with them, carrying with them a bunch of farm tools and record books.
Arriving at a certain field, Charles hopped out of the carriage and walked up to a group of farmers who had apparently been waiting for him, dragging Eris along. As this was happening, Lucas took a look around and noticed that they were on the east side of town where he had previously been helping out.
Although the initial harvest panic, sparked by the early cold spell, had died down a bit, there were still many people working in the fields, cutting the ripe stalks of wheat with hand sickles.
Observing the slow, manual harvesting process once more, Lucas couldn't help grumbling to himself about how inefficient it all was, swearing he would find a way to improve productivity in the coming years.
As soon as such thoughts came up, though, Lucas realized he was getting ahead of himself again and re-focused his attention on the conversation between his Uncle Charles and a few men and woman who seemed to be the owners of the farmland around here.
"Thank you for coming today, Lord Newton, Young Lady Eris," the lead man spoke. He didn't look like a merchant or noble, still giving off the air of a man who worked the land, but his clothes were clearly better quality than average, so it was obvious he wasn't just another farmer.
"Hahaha, no need to be so formal, Michael!" Charles laughed, "Just treat me like you used to. I may be the Baron around here, but honestly there's not much difference between now and back then."
Shaking his head, the man named Michael wryly smiled, "That won't do. Regardless of our old friendship, your visit today is about business. Some sense of formality is necessary."
"Fine, fine," Charles sighed, "If that's how you feel, then lets just get down to it. How's the harvest going?"
With a smile, Michael replied, "Things are going well, so far. Thanks to the new fertilizer, all the fields are producing more wheat than ever before, but that also means we need to hire more hands to reap and thresh everything before the cold sets in."
Nodding his head slightly, Charles commented, "I'm getting the same story from all the other big farm owners around town. Everyone's worried about finishing in time before the weather turns."
Pausing here for a moment, Charles grinned and said, "It's not unusual to need more hands around this time of year, but it's never been because there was too much grain to harvest! You big farmers will surely be making a killing! Hahaha!"
In response, Michael and the other farm owners smiled and laughed too. It truly was a pleasant problem to have too many crops to harvest.
After a good laugh, Charles continued, "Well, you're all in luck. I brought some extra hands out to help. These kids are the older ones from the orphanage and are looking to earn some wages. They also have some experience from last harvest season so you can put 'em to work right away."
Glancing back, Lucas now understood why these young men and woman, all of whom looked to be around 15 years old, had accompanied them out here. It seemed his Uncle Charles had worked out some kind of arrangement with Director Leah to provide jobs for the older orphans.
After some quick negotiations, 4 of the 14 youths were hired by Michael and the other local farmers for the next 10 days before Charles moved on to the next location.
For the most part, Lucas and Eris remained quiet and observed the process as the Town Lord went around visiting the various farm areas. Not every farm wanted to hire extra workers, but there were always some that did, so it wasn't long before all 14 kids from the orphanage had been snatched up.
By the end of the first day, Charles had toured about half the farms on the east side of town. There were times when issues would come up, such as broken equipment or damaged crops, but there were no life-and-death crises that needed to be handled. As such, the field inspection went by rather smoothly.
In addition to checking in on the local farms, Lucas noticed that his Uncle Charles was also having some of his subordinates from the Manor meet with subordinates of the big farmers, where both sides would open their respective books and swap notes.
Apparently, this was both for keeping harvest records as well as for tax collection purposes.
Speaking of which, I wonder what kind of taxes I should be paying on my soap business? Lucas wondered somewhat absentmindedly as he rode in the wagon back to town.
"En, we made good progress today," Charles commented from the driver's seat of the wagon, "We should be able to finish the eastern fields tomorrow, then we'll move on to the north ones the day after. If all goes well, we should be able to finish everything up within 6 or 7 days."
Thinking about how there would be several more days of inspections made Lucas feel a bit exhausted. It was a novel experience doing this kind of administrative work, but since most of the time he was just standing around observing, rather than doing anything, Lucas inevitably found it a bit boring.
Lucas had even offered to help out with the record keeping, a task he felt he wouldn't have any trouble with seeing how he was the one who kept the books for both the soap and bathhouse businesses, but the people from the Manor politely declined, saying it was their job to handle.
Whether they truly felt this way, or they just thought Lucas was too young to be tabulating tax accounts, the boy didn't know, but he also didn't make a fuss about it.
As for Eris….
Carefully turning to his side, Lucas found his Big Sister wearing a goofy grin on her face as she leaned against his shoulder, drooling in her sleep.
Eris had been full of energy at the start of the day, eager to go out and spend time with her father and favourite little brother, but by mid-day, the monotony of the field inspections had worn her spirits down.
"Mmm… I can't eat anymore…"
Listening to his big sister mumble in her sleep, Lucas had to try really hard not to laugh, simply turning his head back and making himself comfortable.
And so, for the next 6 days, everything played out just as Lucas had expected.
Each day, they left the Manor before noon, picked up job seekers from the Central Square, and headed to the fields. Charles had prioritized getting work for the orphans before recruiting from the general population of the town, but thankfully there were only so many orphans, so they were all taken care of within the first 2 days.
On the seventh day of the inspections, as the sun was floating just above the trees of the Great Western Forest, Charles was wrapping up a meeting with the last group of farm owners on the west side of town.
As this was the side of Redwood Town that faced the yet undeveloped forest, and it was more common to see Wild Beasts appear here, it had the least amount of farmland. In turn, the smaller number of farm fields allowed the field inspection to wrap up sooner than the previous few days, much to Lucas and Eris' delight.
"I don't want to become a Town Lord when I grow up," Eris grumbled under her breath, the whole field inspection experience turning her off from such duties quite a bit. For a girl whose favourite pass-time was running around swinging her sword, these dull 7 days had really drained her energy and enthusiasm.
Although Lucas felt the same, he kept such sentiments to himself so as not to appear rude.
Some final issues were dealt with by Charles, and the farm owners bid him farewell after thanking him for his assistance. The Baron waved them off casually and turned back to the children, who even he could tell were disinterested in what was going on around them.
Shaking his head, Charles was about to lift their moods with talk of the delicious dinner which would be waiting for them back at the Manor, when all of a sudden, he felt a strange sensation wash over him, causing him to freeze in place.
It was like he had suddenly been hit by a warm blast of air, one that was hot enough to cause his skin to sting.
Lucas, on the other hand, felt the impact of whatever this phenomenon was much more clearly, like a solid wall had all-of-a-sudden smashed into him, sending him stumbling a few steps.
Charles and Lucas both frowned and turned their heads towards the Great Western Forest, where they felt the wave of pressure come from, only to cover their eyes in the next instant as there was now a brilliant flash of light filling the western horizon.
Everyone else noticed something was amiss at this point too, turning away and shielding their eyes from whatever the flash was. This lasted for several seconds before the light dimmed back down, at which point everyone turned their gazes to the west.
Unlike her father and little brother, Eris hadn't felt anything at first, but after the flash faded, she too understood that something was wrong and gazed towards the distance, asking, "What happ…"
Eris never finished her words, though, as her jaw went slack at the sight which filled her eyes, stunning her and everyone else into utter silence.