Unorthodox Farming: Chapter 21 (Patreon)

Okay, this chapter is very rough. I'm not exactly sure what to do with it. I kind of feel like this is rushed, and I need to break it into three chapters, but I'm not sure. This is a problematic chapter, so it will get a heavy rewrite when I finish the draft. Fixing it now will take more time than fixing it later, so sorry about this. The second and third section will remain no matter what though.

Chapter 21

Teleportation circles were easy to use, but difficult to maintain, from what I'd heard. The mana cost for powering a teleportation circle was so high that only cities or oligarchs had enough mana or money to activate them, which was why they required so much maintenance. That much mana moving through conductive materials burnt out portions of runic inscriptions several times a day, so repairs were constant.

Travellers never saw that part.

All we got to see while we made our way across the bridge to the teleportation chamber was ten pristine runic circles layered inside each other. They reminded me of ripples on a pond, and I'd seen them so many times that they had lost their magical allure. Using a teleportation circle was a little like flying. The first time a plane took off was a magical experience. The tenth time, it was just a pretty view.

I barely glanced over the side of the bridge as I made my way to the door of the metal cylinder the Wizards Academy had named a teleportation chamber. I'd been a little upset when I learned there was nothing magical about the cylinder despite all the mystical symbols attached to the exterior. It was just the most space-efficient method for moving both people and goods, allowing the operators of the teleport circles to safely jam more people into less space.

The number of runic circles you could see told you a lot about where you were travelling to or from, but so could the size of the teleportation chamber. The chamber I was walking towards was the smallest one they had and was usually reserved for level 1 cities. Longhill had been a level 8 city before the orcs attacked, so it theoretically should have been able to transport a much larger chamber. The fact that it could only transport the smallest suggested that it barely had enough of a population to function as a city.

It also meant this was going to be a very cramped experience, because the line of people waiting behind us wasn't short. My bodyguards made similar comments to each other as we entered the small metal cylinder, suggesting they all suck it in. They pushed me against the back wall and then surrounded me, before everyone else began squishing into the tiny space. No one was happy with the situation. But a few minutes of awkward discomfort would save weeks of travel by carriage.

Children sat on their parents' shoulders so they weren't crushed by the press of bodies as more and more people were squeezed into the tiny space. The last few passengers needed to be pushed in by force, making it hard for those with low attributes to breath. There was a loud clang as the door was forced closed and then locked.

My bodyguards hadn't liked the idea of me travelling with so many other people, because we were all basically sitting ducks in here, but I refused to pay for every ticket.

Everyone waited as the interior grew warmer, regulating their breathing and trying not to panic. Having a meltdown inside a teleportation chamber would get you put on the no-travel list, and no one who could afford to travel this way wanted that to happen.

There was a flash of light and then a voice called through the walls. "Welcome to Longhill. Please make your way to the exit. Your luggage can be collected from distribution point 3."

The far door opened a moment later, but my bodyguards waited until everyone had left the chamber before stepping away. We followed the line of people across the bridge while attendants waited to collect the luggage stored beneath the floor. No space was ever wasted.

We passed through a short tunnel and entered the travellers' lobby. People were exiting from seven other doors, which made me reassess the situation here in Longhill. There were significantly more people coming from some of the other teleportation circles. Longhill wasn't in as dire a position as I assumed. Especially if it could maintain eight teleportation circles simultaneously.

We waited another five minutes for our luggage, then headed for the doors to the visitors' lobby. I was once again reminded that there were many similarities between a teleportation circle and a plane. The only major difference was how quickly everything moved once you got off, and the fact that no one tried to sell you anything.

People were holding up signs and calling out names when we entered the visitors' lobby. I searched the sea of faces until I spotted Jeric. The fact that I'd crossed over a thousand miles in only a few minutes finally sank in. The old shock and awe I'd felt the first time I used one returned.

It was freaking amazing.

A smile spread across my face as I pointed Jeric out to my bodyguards. We made our way over.

Jeric immediately noticed the change in my appearance and grinned. "I haven't seen that face in a while."

"I don't think you've ever seen this face, unless you have so weird fantasies about me being younger."

Jeric snorted. "You ready to get to work?"

"You mean am I ready to become a human doormat?" I replied with all the sarcasm I could muster.

Jeric's smile grew as he chuckled. "That's exactly what I meant."

"I can hardly contain my excitement."

"That's wonderful to hear. However, Lord Bristan would like to meet you before we begin, so I regret to inform you that you'll have to wait a few days."

"Oh, no. However, will I manage to contain my disappointment?"

Jeric opened his arms, and we hugged. Then he leaned down, took one of my bags, and started making his way to the exit. "Our accommodation isn't far, so I figured we'd walk. It will give us a chance to talk."

I groaned because needing to talk always meant there was a problem. "Please don't tell me there were unforeseen problems?"

I'd been told there weren't any, but Jeric might have just said that to get me here.

"No. Nothing like that. I just need to explain what you're going to see outside."

"Oh."

"Longhill will remind you of Blackwood when you arrived there, except on a much larger scale. I need you to understand that this isn't a problem. And it's not something you need to concern yourself with, so I don't want you to start trying to fix things here."

My face twisted with frustration. "It kind of sounds like a problem."

"It would be, except that despite his age, Nobleman Briston is one of the wealthiest nobles in the kingdom. He's the only surviving member of several branches of his family, so all their wealth was concentrated in his hands. He's also frugal, personally living off only what his stipend can provide him."

One of my bodyguards moved ahead to open the doors, and we stepped outside into a busy street. A busy street where half the shops had been boarded up. This definitely looked like a problem, but Jeric was going out of his way to convince me it wasn't, which told me I was missing something.

"You're saying he has the money to change all this."

Jeric nodded to our left and started walking. "Nobleman Briston could afford to rebuild this city from rubble if he wanted. Longhill isn't Blackwood, and it doesn't need our help."

I looked around again. These were decent buildings. My experience with the royal builders told me they weren't cheap. To be able reconstruct this all from scratch would require more wealth than I could imagine. It would cost more than what I was investing in Blackwood.

"He might have money, but he lacks people."

Jeric sighed. "Does it look like he lacks people?"

"Boarded-up windows would suggest that he does."

"These businesses sell specialised materials. Specialised materials that Longhill don't currently produce. This isn't a problem you need to solve."

"If he doesn't need money and doesn't need people, then why does he need us?"

"I said there are no problems here for us to solve. However, Nobleman Briston still has problems to solve, and we're one of the solutions. We just need to play our part in his plans, and our deal with the southern nobles will go smoothly."

The further we walked, the more abandoned buildings I saw. This place definitely reminded me of what Blackwood used to be like. "I'm not dumping a bunch of farmers in some half-abandoned city, so we can make things easier on ourselves, Jeric."

I didn't think Jeric would do that, but he didn't always think clearly when it came to his family and the noble experience this deal offered Emily would set her up for life.

Jeric caught my meaning and actually scowled. "Nobleman Briston's farmers already supply Longhill with everything the people here need. Our people will be working near the edge of the city zone in the new hamlet's he's constructed for them."

This was news to me.

"Why did he construct new hamlets for our farmers?"

"Because I told him the old ones were not up to our standards, so he threw money at the problem."

"How many did he build?"

"Dozens."

"That's expensive."

"Like I said, money isn't an issue for Nobleman Briston. The lack of an army to keep this city safe from the orcs is. Until he has one, he can't convince high-level craftsmen to move here. He knows creating an army is impossible, so he's creating his own form of insurance. A way to prove that what happened here won't happen again."

This was getting a little confusing. I had been out of the loop for way too long.

"How's he supposed to do that farming pigs?"

I knew our people wouldn't be raising the pigs, just supplying the grain that fed them, but I still didn't understand what Jeric was talking about.

"Nobleman Briston understands that it will be impossible to have enough pigs on hand to prevent an orc tribe from repeating their previous actions. Instead, he wants to fill every cellar in his territory with cured pork. He knows for a fact that the orcs can eat it, even beyond the point that we can, so that food will be his insurance. It will also be a small source of revenue, because he'll trade it with the orcs as it begins to become inedible to us."

"Has he thought this through?"

Nobleman Briston was only twenty-one, just old enough to inherit the management of this city. Twenty-one-year-olds with vast fortunes rarely thought things through. I rarely thought things through, and I had more than half a decade on him.

"Don't be fooled by his age. He reached level 10 the day he turned thirteen and invested all his free attributes in wisdom. He then purchased every blessing he possibly could and has spent the last nine years studying at a relentless pace. He's years ahead of anyone else his age, and he's surrounded himself with some of the best advisors in the kingdom."

"So, this isn't a whim?"

"No. It's a calculated restoration of one of the souths most important cities. Longhill has several lucrative resources which created profitable industries. Nobleman Briston wants those industries returned to their former glory, but he doesn't care about the farmland beyond creating an insurance policy for his city, which is why he's willing to work with us."

Fitz had explained to me that big business wasn't about working together for a common goal but finding aligning interests. Working towards a common goal could lead you to become competitors. Aligning interests simply meant it was more profitable for you to work together than to work separately. Jeric was telling me our goals aligned with Nobleman Briston's, but I couldn't see how.

"If insurance were his only incentive, he wouldn't be asking for noble experience."

Jeric turned to me and scoffed. "You'd ask for more if you were in his position."

I mentally calculated the cost of everything Jeric had suggested so far, quickly realising he was right. This was a good deal for us. Too good.

"Why isn't he asking for more then?"

"Nobleman Briston has inherited enough noble experience to reach level 100. However, he can't access any of it until he reaches level 25 through his own accomplishments. It's a legal requirement for him to receive his inheritance, and his lawyers have confirmed that our deal meets the terms laid down for him to inherit. This is why we're receiving such a good deal."

"Does he have everything he needs to train the farmers to our standards?"

"He's gathered enough farming scholars to train those who are already here to the standards we promised, and he's constantly bringing in more. The farmers will have every chance to succeed like we promised."

"Has the abandonment order been lifted?"

Jeric shook his head. "The king has postponed his judgement on the matter, but whether or not he does won't affect what we are doing here. We don't need the abandonment order lifted for this. All we need to do is level the farmers and accept the experience the southern nobles give us."

"So there really aren't any problems."

"No. Not unless you make one."

I looked around at all the abandoned buildings, noticing the people for the first time. They were all well-dressed and fed, with no indication that they were struggling to get by. Without the clear signs of abandonment, I wouldn't think twice. Jeric was making sure I didn't jump to conclusions, so I forced myself not to.

"Okay, let's get to where we are staying. I promise to hold off on jumping to conclusions until after you've finished explaining."

Jeric gave a relieved smile. "Thank you."

***

The next day, Nobleman Briston sat across from me in his carriage. Nobleman Briston kept a short, dense beard and moustache which matched his short blonde hair. He'd modelled his appearance after the king, based on what I could see, but lacked any sign of the man's physical prowess. He was wiry-muscled, with an intense blue gaze and an expression that didn't let you doubt his intelligence.

He was still young.

But that youth was only noticeable when he got excited.

Nobleman Briston looked out the window, smiling with pride. Our tour around his city had started at dawn. It was nearly midday, and we had only toured half of the fifty new hamlets that he wanted me to see. The farm he was constructing was massive, stretching over millions of fields.

Nobleman Briston had long since proven to me that he intended to live up to his end of the bargain. None of the homes I'd seen were the bare minimum. They weren't luxury, but they weren't peasant dwellings. They were small brick farmhouses, nothing special, but far from the bare minimum.

I'd be comfortable living in one. Not long-term, because I now had indoor plumbing and I didn't want to go back to living without it, but I could stay for a few weeks without being upset.

Nobleman Briston leaned back so I could see and pointed to a small rise in the distance. "My uncle held the orc's advance off with a thousand warriors on that rise. He gave the farmers who lived around here the time they needed to reach the city." He beamed with pride as he spoke. "His death brought the people here another day of life and made it possible for some of their children to reach safety. One of the children he saved erected a statue of him up there with the names of the men who fought beside him. She didn't tell anyone. It sat up there for nearly a year before anyone found it." He continued to smile at the hill. "'Gone but not forgotten. I thank you all for the gift you have given me.' She had that carved at the base of the statue. The adults those children they saved grew into now leave letters there, writing to those who fell to save them."

Nobleman Briston was a decent sort. He reminded me of Jeric and Isabelle. He was young and sincere. Filled with enthusiasm. However, he wasn't blindly idealistic. His plan had been carefully thought out with an attention to detail that most of mine lacked. I could see why Jeric wanted to work with him. He was going to be a great man someday.

"You care more deeply for your people than many nobles I've met," I said.

Nobles universally cared about helping those beneath them, but only a few showed that care through kindness. Most ended up cold and calculating, running the numbers to determine how to gain the greatest benefit for those beneath them in the most efficient way. It was a very detached sort of caring.

Nobleman Briston shook his head. "My grandfather cared deeply for his people. My parents cared deeply for their people. I won't know if I care deeply for my people until I have to make a choice like theirs. They could have fled on foot. They would have gotten away. But they chose to stay and fight for the lives of their people's children. Spending a little extra gold that I inherited from them to make your farmer's lives better isn't the same as laying down my life for theirs."

"There are many ways to show you care."

Nobleman Briston shook his head. "Not really. When you don't feel any personal cost, you aren't caring, you're being nice. It's the difference between spending your free time with someone and making time for them. One is for your amusement, the other is for theirs."

I paused to consider what he'd said, surprised by the depth of insight he'd provided with his rebuke.

He was right, I decided.

"I stand corrected."

Nobleman Briston nodded with a cheerful smile.

I began reassessing my own actions. Did I care about the farmers I was helping, or was I just being nice? Where was the line? The experience I was giving them was useless to me. Was I doing the equivalent of letting someone drink out of my garden hose? It's not like giving it away cost me anything.

Nobleman Briston left me to think, looking out the window with a content smile on his face.

My mind kept turning.

***

The southern nobles had been waiting over a year for us to open our doors for their unwanted farmer. During that year, they had been educating out-of-work, experience-deprived farmers so they could meet our standards. The moment Jeric had told them where to send them, they had begun the migration, which was why there were sixty thousand farmers around Longhill waiting to treat me like a doormat.

The farmer standing on my back stepped off as the light enveloped him, making room for the next farmer to take his place. There were tens of thousands more to go, but only a few thousand were stretched out in a long line that looped around me. The line allowed those whose turn was coming up to see how it all worked.

Somehow, people still screwed it up.

One in sixty managed to either go too fast or too slow, absorbing their experience before or after they stepped on me. Even with two dozen farming scholars walking up and down the line repeating the same instructions over and over again.

When no one had stepped on me for several seconds, I rested the book about Longhill's history that I was reading on the ground and looked over my shoulder to see what the problem was. I'd stopped lying on my back long before we'd reached lunch.

Standing on someone was tricky, so people stumbled, and someone stepping on my boys hurt like hell. I'd recover almost instantly, but there was still that flash of pain I didn't want to deal with.

"Next, person!" I shouted before my gaze landed on a mammoth of a man. He was over seven feet tall and built like an offensive lineman, with more body hair than anyone I'd ever seen in person. He also had a belly. "Hell no!"

He was arguing with one of the scholars.

I climbed to my feet. There was a limit of what I was willing to put up with, and he was twice that. I looked up at him as he argued with the scholar. "Look, you're too big to step on me. It hurts like hell. Just absorb the experience."

The scholar stepped back, leaving me to deal with the problem.

The human mammoth looked down at me. "I can understand why you don't want me to stand on you. I'll crack one of your ribs for sure. But won't it work just as effectively if you pick me up? Why don't you do that?"

Birds chirped. "Because I'm an idiot, and so is everyone else here apparently, except you. Good idea. Someone give the man another ten levels of experience free of charge. He's earned it."

The farm scholar, handing out the experience, tossed him another crystal. The scholars had broken the larger crystals down so that we could supply just enough for everyone to reach level ten.

The human mammoth caught the second crystal and looked at me, shocked. "You're giving me ten levels of experience just for a suggestion."

"The right suggestion at the right time."

"Ah, um, thank you, ah, sir."

I grabbed his arm as I put my shoulder against his stomach. "No, thank you. Your idea probably just gained my farm another million farming points." I grabbed his legs and lifted with everything I had. He was at least 400 pounds. I could hold him off the ground, but that was all. "Damn your heavy."

The mammoth absorbed the experience, releasing a familiar glow. My manor ring released a much brighter burst of light as a notification appeared.

Congratulations, your farm has accumulated 1,000,000,000 farming points.

Your farm manor is now level 3

This was the highest my farm manor could level until the king allowed Blackwood to level beyond a level 3 village. Each level increased the number of fields under my farm manor by 5,000 and added another room to my manor. The temptation to contact Salem and check if it still looked like the one I grew up in gripped me again, but I quashed it like I had the last time it leveled.

This wasn't an emergency.

I dumped the man on his feet.

He was staring at my ring with his mouth open. "Was that because of my suggestion?"

I laughed. "No. You just happened to be the person who pushed my farm manor's farming points over a billion."

He grinned and slapped me on the shoulder, nearly knocking me off my feet. "Congratulations. I'm Ox, remember that name because I'm going to be in charge of your orchards someday."

***

There were so many nobles in Longhill who needed to make good on their side of our contracts that Nobleman Briston was hosting a feast. It was something called an Oath Night. The exchange of so much noble experience and so many beneficial deals being fulfilled gave him the opportunity to gain a lot of experience. He couldn't stop smiling.

Apparently, this was the first time he'd ever earned a substantial amount of experience through his own efforts. It seemed to fill him with a lot of pride.

I wasn't anywhere near as cheerful as he was when I arrived. A week of farmers treating you like a doormat will do that to you. However, as the nobles began handing over the noble experience that they owed Emily to Jeric, my mood quickly improved.  

Across the room, a middle-aged noblewoman stood before Jeric, smiling as she handed him a pouch of noble experience. A now all-too-familiar notification appeared.

Noble Hilistra has fulfilled her oath, releasing her from her obligation.

You are still bound by your side of the oath.

I dismissed the notification. She walked off happily as Jeric added the pouch to the chest behind him. She was the last in a long line of nobles who had come to fulfil their obligations. Jeric closed the chest and locked it, leaving it with the guards, before walking over to me.

He looked like a man content with life.

"We've got enough experience for Emily to reach her fourth threshold, don't we?"

There were more farmers than we needed to level, but none of them had arrived yet.

Jeric smiled. "More than enough. Emily now holds one of the largest reserves of noble experience in the kingdom."

I smirked. "Do you think we could use it to replace a regent?"

Jeric rolled his eyes. "Not without her failing to perform her duty."

"What are you going to do with it then?"

We couldn't leave that much experience gathering dust, and I honestly hadn't thought about what we would do if we ever had more than we needed.

"I'm not sure. A few of the nobles who run the villages and towns in your network could benefit, but none of them are lords, and the regent could easily replace them. And those who are lords can't take advantage of additional levels any more than Isabelle would. Honestly, we don't have any good options. The only person who would make good use of the experience would be Rina."

"Rina?"

"Yes, her city is small, but also one of the most efficient in the north. She's currently level 62, but having her reach her third threshold would boost her city's production."

"I'm almost willing to go along with your suggestion, just to upset her sister when she finds out she is a higher level. But Rina can't offer Emily anything as a favour for the experience."

"She could offer herself."

"I doubt she's Emily's type."

Jeric ignored my comment. "She could forge an alliance with her. Take an oath to treat all that Emily values with the same consideration as her own. She would become Emily's greatest ally. She'd be incapable of betraying her or working against her. Any business deal with her would be fair or favour Blackwood."

"Is this why you set all this up?"

Jeric shook his head and looked around the ballroom, smiling. "I set this up to give others a chance at a better life. Placing Rina under Emily's thumb is just a useful coincidence."

"You think she would go for it?"

"At the very least, she will consider it."

"I'll talk to Emily about the idea when I get back to the Capitol. If she agrees, I'll have Fitz organise a meeting."

"How soon are you going back?"

"Two days. I have other work I need to do. I'll be back to level the new arrivals in a month."