Starting Life as a Baron

“Amy, Tyra, you have to get along well,” Alan said.

He put Tyra and Amy together and the two spirits quickly became familiar with each other with only one look. Since they were both lively characters, the two of them quickly started fighting with each other.

The entire baron’s castle became lively. The two little spirits clamored from upstairs to downstairs, ran from the bedroom into the kitchen, and into the maids’ room. The entire castle became a riot for these two little ones, but they did not make others mad. They could not hate such beautiful, cute, and important spirits. Only Alan could educate them.

Every time the lecture was over, the two spirits could not help but to play around again. Alan gradually got used to the ruckus though. After getting Tyra, Alan grew another acre of wheat fields around the castle. Tyra also gave root to two magical wheats under Amy’s guidance. This way, Alan had two types of magical plants that could make potions!

If there were three kinds of magic plants, then high-quality potions could be made by mixing the ingredients. Of course, the power of the plants would not be mutually exclusive. With the magic wheat on hand, Alan immediately asked Sparrow to go to the earl and get a buyer. After all, Rose was short on money, and so too was Alan.

What Alan needed to do was train his own army to gain strength. Developing the territory was only to ensure logistics. The most important factor was to train soldiers, or even knights! This would be a huge expense that would not work without gold. As if on cue, the System released a new task to train soldiers to go along with Alan’s wishes.

Task: Train soldiers

In addition to developing the territory, a qualified lord must have a strong force to protect their land and also lay the foundation for world domination.

Before a crisis comes forth, train fifty qualified soldiers

Task reward: Five thousand experience points. Dragon scale fruit X10

Alan did not wait long. After seeing the new task, he immediately found Marco and discussed his thoughts with him.

“My lord, it is not easy to train soldiers. You will need leather armor and enough weapons to arm them. Even the food consumption and payment is necessary for an army,” Marco groaned.

“At present, our territory does not have any strong enemies, and we have two Nature Spirits. This task can wait until we gain enough men to train the soldiers,” Marco suggested.

“No, we must train soldiers immediately,” Alan demanded. “I have a hunch that the enemy will stay hidden until they attack. We must be strong enough to protect ourselves.”

Alan was thinking categorically. He paid a lot of attention to the words the System said. Rose was not as safe as it appeared to be, and it was likely that enemies were already poised to overtake them. He had to act quickly to protect his land!

“Okay. Since my lord insists on this matter, I will not argue. How many soldiers do you want, my lord?” Marco said without trying to persuade Alan again.

Marco knew that he was only a follower and that he had to obey the orders his master made. He only needed to find a way to make his master's goals come true.

“I need at least fifty soldiers!” Alan replied.

Marco took a sharp breath. Fifty people! That was not a small sum of people. As a country baron, even with two Nature Spirits, it would be very expensive to gain fifty soldiers at one time. The gold harvested by the new crops would probably be swallowed by the fifty soldiers. Leather armor, weapons, food, training grounds, shelter, it all required money. Marco glanced at Alan’s firm eyes and sighed.

“As you wish, my lord.”

Marco soon turned around and left, and caused a great shock to the entirety of Rose.

“What?! The Lord Baron wants to recruit soldiers?!”

“I will go! I am willing to dedicate everything to my Lord!”

“I’ll go too. I am trained as a hunter!”

“Do not forget about me! I can go too!”

Marco had just passed on the news and a large number of young boys swarmed in front of him. Their eyes were full of passion and anticipation.

Looking at the expressions of the young men, Marco’s eyes flashed in a trance as if he had just seen the Earl a few decades ago. Now, Lord Alan was the same as the Earl, who had been recognized and loved by the people.

“Do not crowd. Come one by one and give your name and specialty.” Marco said stern, yet solemn.

Soon, the names of the applicants were registered. Of course, more than fifty people signed up.