Chapter 232: Volunteer (Unpaid Labor) Recruitment Plan (5k)

Land, I have it.

So now, it's time to add a few things inside.

Nie Nasha popped up at just the right moment and asked bluntly: 【"So, who are you planning to rob?"】

Just say it straight!

Who do you want to rob?

"Tsk tsk tsk."

The youth gently wagged his finger, emphasizing:

"Wrong! We're going to 'borrow,' not 'rob'! How could I ever do something like that? I'm a civilized person of quality!"

Herbert is very precise in his choice of words on this point.

I'm definitely up to civilized quality standards — anyone who wants to argue, has objections, well, that's fine too.

Then I'll let you witness the skills I honed in my past life guarding family members who didn't actually exist!

As for whether the Young Lady of Harmony is one, he neither knows nor dares to assume.

What if she actually likes having no quality!

Herbert lodged a strong protest against Comrade Nie Nasha's defamatory wording and put forward a revision.

"Watch your words! What era is this? It's no longer the barbaric age — why are you still running that strong-eat-the-weak robber logic?"

"Those methods are all outdated!"

My lord, the times have changed!

"Now is a civilized era of harmonious coexistence among the gods. We must uphold the philosophy of goodwill toward others, get along with them in a friendly manner, and not engage in shady little tricks behind the scenes."

"Promote the progress of the god-human exchange plan, carry out the friendly exchange policy, consolidate bilateral relations, implement… cough!"

Once he got going, his cadence habitually slipped into a national style; Herbert coughed twice and pretended nothing had happened.

"Anyway, there's a saying that puts it well! Borrow and return, and borrowing again won't be hard! As long as I return the things to them in the future, it simply doesn't count as robbery."

【"Heh."】

The Young Lady of Harmony paused for a while, and after he finally stopped, said bluntly: 【"Enough nonsense, just tell me straight whose trouble you're looking for."】

"Sigh, talking to you is really exhausting — you don't listen at all! Don't just listen to me, you have to work hard yourself… ah forget it, I'll reform you properly later."

Herbert put on a show of hands clasped behind his back, shook his head and offered a couple of criticisms, then broke into a bright smile, looking quite carefree.

"As for your question just now — do I even need to say it?"

He said matter-of-factly: "Of course it's whoever has the goods, we go rob them."

I've never planned to fleece the penniless!

It's definitely — whoever has money, that's whose money I earn. jpg

Nie Nasha, however, paid no heed to Herbert's premium move of pulling down his pants to fart, but merely clicked her tongue and gave him a cold smile.

Heh, little fellow, gave yourself away, didn't you?

And you still say it's not strong-armed robbery.

This time, didn't you just admit yourself that it IS "robbery"!

Herbert felt the piercing gaze from within the shadows, understood her contempt, and smiled at ease.

"These things all need to be phrased a bit more civilly, don't you think?"

That's just how the Old Zhong people do things — always fond of having a righteous cause.

Don't ask about the actual specifics… in short, our honest, simple Old Zhong people have always been forced into passive counterattacks by evil foreign races.

Don't ask why those un-Sinicized alien races are all in barren lands, don't ask why tribal chiefs dance and sing in Wang Cheng…

Maybe, they really do like it.

After all, if they didn't truly like it, who would be willing to be a simp?

【"…"】

Nie Nasha silently stared at Herbert for a while, then asked impatiently: 【"So, are you going to say it or not? If you don't want to say, you don't need to drag in so many other topics."】

"Say it! Of course I'll say it!"

Herbert slapped his chest and declared loudly: "What's our relationship!? How could I possibly keep things from you! Wouldn't you agree?"

What relationship?

The God of Harmony wanted to snort loudly.

Heh.

The relationship of pushing your back for you? Or the relationship of keeping lookout for you?

Herbert caught a whiff of some resentful vibes, coughed lightly without a flicker, stopped his clowning around, and got down to business.

"You know too, for the Elda Territory where everything is still in its early stages right now, the three things most needed are…"

"First, a brilliant and mighty leader — mm, this one is already satisfied."

"Second, the construction of infrastructure. We have a ready-made well now, but we still need other facilities."

"And finally, the most important, is a resident population sufficient to serve as labor."

"The construction of the former actually cannot be separated from the help of the latter."

This world has magic, and some construction can indeed be completed through magic.

But magic isn't all-powerful either.

The steep cost and the rather demanding casting requirements make 'building an entire city with magic' extremely, extremely difficult.

It's not that it absolutely can't be done — ancient legends speak of various floating cities, and there are records of all kinds of magical cities.

But those, at first hearing, are clearly not something the current Herbert can consider — he doesn't even qualify to dream of it!

No money, not worthy.

Money isn't all-powerful.

But without money, you really can't do anything!

For ordinary commoners, Herbert is indeed a rich man.

Having inherited the wealth his mother left behind, even if he became a wastrel of a young master, squandering freely every day and indulging his desires, he would still have enough to live out a comfortable old age.

But his wealth, in truth, is still far from enough.

Before true powerhouses — especially those mages who spend money like water — it's simply not worth a look!

A mage's tower whose very materials cost over a million gold coins to build is already the embodiment of the concept "wealth rivaling a kingdom."

You have to understand that a small kingdom like the Frost Crystal Kingdom doesn't even collect fifty thousand gold coins in total taxes in a year.

To pour out the strength of an entire nation, completely ignoring everything else, halting all national development, recklessly squeezing wealth without caring whether the common people live or die — it would still take twenty years to scrape together the bare minimum financial requirement…

Not to mention that many of the materials needed are scarce goods that can't be bought even with money.

Strength will always be more important than wealth.

If you have wealth but no strength, you're a child carrying a gold brick through a busy market, a lamb ripe for slaughter.

And for the Elda Territory at present, strength is somewhat there — plenty of high-end combat power — but the finances are still a bit embarrassing to show off.

Therefore, Herbert could only helplessly make a heartache-inducing decision and settle for the next best thing: another money-saving method.

"Gotta find some unpaid laborers… ahem, volunteers who willingly come here and throw themselves into building a beautiful homeland with us!"

"Heh heh, when the time comes I'll just sign a contract with them, and all the specific terms will be decided by me… I'm way too familiar with this!"

No need to deliberately deceive them — a few little word traps will be enough to lure them into the pit.

Just like the promises some shameless web novel authors make — updating four to six thousand characters every day.

But in the end, they only update a thousand characters.

"I said 'four to six thousand characters.' Who ever told you it was 'four thousand to six thousand characters'?"

Can you say they're wrong?

It's written in black and white; they didn't break the contract.

But can such a person be forgiven?

Absolutely not!

But the problem is, all rights of interpretation lie in the boss's hands, and the humble wage-slaves are simply no match.

As long as you handle it properly, this kind of thing can easily be replicated.

Her·Streetlamp Ornament·Beautiful Vision·Bert, thought so to himself.

And unconsciously revealed an expectant smile.

"Heh heh, heh heh heh…"

"What we need to do now is find such lucky souls, and successfully persuade them!"

After hearing Herbert's crooked logic, the Jester God offered a summary: 【"In other words, what you need now are slaves. Lots of slaves."】

"Hey hey hey, I told you they're volunteers. Don't put it so bluntly and ugly — they'll be hurt when they hear it, you know."

Herbert always considered himself a soft-hearted person, never lightly hurting others' self-esteem, and certainly never tearing apart their dreams.

"Those are all our future residents! The good brothers who'll work hard alongside us to build our homeland!"

【"Heh, fine, I get it, they're residents, alright."】

Nie Nasha, unable to win against Herbert, accepted that meaningless framing and continued asking:

【"But where are you going to find residents? Aren't you planning to keep the matter of Elda secret first? Where exactly do you plan to find that many residents?"】

【"Buy slaves from outside? Speaking of which, weren't you planning to rely on that little devil to dig a suitable slave trade route out of those nobles' brains?"】

Herbert would hand over those nobles' souls to Kreti for two reasons.

On one hand, it was to obtain more leads about the Witch's Covenant, preparing for the enemy he was destined to meet.

On the other hand, he also wanted to take the wealth hidden behind those nobles' dark sides.

Farms, caravans, mineral resources, and… some covert slave trades.

After the upper echelons of the kingdom reshuffle, a new round of power division is bound to come.

Although Herbert cannot openly step forward — that would inevitably expose the role he played in all this.

But he also won't just sit back and let those fellows who contributed nothing, who only survived by hiding, snatch away what is rightfully his.

That belongs to him.

Herbert can share with them some of the soup and water he can't finish, but they cannot take the initiative to snatch it, and absolutely cannot reach for the meat that belongs to him!

And the most crucial link among all this is the slave trade.

Just as Herbert had planned before — once the former big patrons are dead, those slave merchants will surely want to find new customers.

In this era where most gods support slavery, the slave trade will never disappear.

It's even always the biggest chunk of the profits!

Not only do nobles buy slaves to satisfy their dark desires, some temples of the gods also secretly cooperate with slave merchants.

The churches of the gods will purchase a batch of slaves from the slave merchants in advance, then send out a team to ambush the slave caravan halfway, heroically "rescuing" the slaves.

Putting on a fine show of a hero saving the damsel in distress.

In the end, they smoothly absorb those tearfully grateful slaves into their own flock of believers — a perfect ending!

Judging purely by the results, this seems to be a win-win-win situation with no losers.

The slaves gain freedom, the slave merchants gain wealth, the churches gain believers.

Win!

Everyone wins, wins, wins!

But in reality, this premise completely ignores the slaves' own thoughts.

They had never treated them as equals to begin with, completely ignoring their will.

This was the ultimate objectification.

In the eyes of slave traders, slaves were nothing more than goods that could create value for them, to be beaten, scolded, and abused at will.

And in the eyes of the Church of the Gods, the slaves' value was merely to provide a portion of faith to the deities they served, and after death in the future, to become consumable material for the divine kingdom.

No one cared about the slaves' thoughts, nor did they concern themselves with their life or death.

Corresponding to the high profits of the slave trade were tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands, of pitiful wretches who died within it.

Before becoming slaves, they too had their own lives, their own existences, their own relationships… but all of that shattered once the collar was fastened around their necks.

The slaves were bound by the power of their contracts, utterly unable to defy their "masters."

Every gold coin in the slave trade was stained with the slaves' blood and tears — filthy wealth soaked in black blood.

But… so what?

In any era, in any world, without power, one can ultimately only become a toy for others to manipulate.

Swept along by fate, drifting with the currents of the times.

…No, it's not that absolutely no one cares about slaves.

The Holy Knights care.

These thick-headed fellows always stand at the very forefront of resisting evil!

They care whether the slaves have enough to eat and wear, whether the slaves suffer unjust treatment, whether they've lost the will to live…

If Herbert were truly just a Holy Knight of the Mist Monastery, then he would be just like the other Holy Knights.

He would not accept the slave trade, only wanting to destroy it, to sever these chains of sinful desire.

But clearly, Herbert is no ordinary Holy Knight.

He has a very fle~xi~ble moral bottom line.

The slave trade sounds very unjust, only calling to mind the cruel treatment the slaves receive.

Slave traders scour the lands gathering slaves and selling them like goods, completely ignoring their will.

All of this is true.

Evil, truly too evil!

Trading with slave traders and buying slaves is also aiding and abetting evil.

No buying, no killing.

Right, that's absolutely right.

But actually… just by shifting the angle of consideration slightly, the situation becomes entirely different.

Herbert buys them, brings them to his own territory, treats them well, and gives them a brand new life.

How is this helping a criminal?

This is clearly saving slaves who were about to suffer tragic fates.

Putting a stop to greater, more brutal crimes right here with him!

That's right.

This is plainly saving them!

It's the same logic as rescuing half a pig, half a chicken, half a duck from a farmer during New Year…

Cough!

Alright, most of the above is Herbert's absurd sophistry.

Herbert is not unaware of what he's actually doing — once he participates in the trade, he can absolutely be considered an accomplice to evil.

Such behavior absolutely contradicts the Holy Knight's stance, and once other cultivators learn of it, it would certainly cause no small uproar.

But after carefully weighing the risks involved, Herbert still firmly chose to carry out his plan.

The current Herbert is not yet qualified to be a pioneer resisting the tide of the times, nor can he become a troublemaker standing against the world.

So… buy!

Population is essential to the Elterda Territory, and slave population is an indispensable part of it.

Although the plan was prepared this way, Herbert has no intention of directly launching this part at the moment.

The timing is not yet ripe.

On one hand, purchasing slaves takes time — it's impossible to place an order today and have them delivered the next day.

Besides, Herbert doesn't take just anyone; he has certain requirements and standards.

On the other hand, even if the slaves arrived quickly, there would be nowhere for them to live once they got here.

The preliminary preparation work isn't yet complete; this matter must wait a while longer.

Thinking of this, Herbert smiled strangely and asked softly, "But then, who says I need to look outside now?"

【"Mm?"】

Nie Nasha was momentarily stunned, unsure what sudden whim he had now.

【"If you're not going outside, then who are you looking for? Wait, you're not planning to bring those heroic spirits back, are you?"】

She suddenly thought of one possibility.

Had he set his sights on those broken heroic spirits around the heavy knight heroic spirits?

Strictly speaking, this was indeed a good choice — heroic spirits need no food, no rest, and have experience building structures in the divine kingdom; they are practically the perfect construction workers,

But heroic spirits also have a fatal problem — they don't last.

【"Herbert, I advise you to give that up for now until you've built a Heroic Spirit Pool."】

【"Those broken heroic spirits are in a special state — without a Heroic Spirit Pool to provide power, they can't manifest for long."】

Their earlier manifestation had been triggered by Herbert's appearance; normally they remained hidden within the broken soul cores.

If one were to forcibly use them in such a state, the only possible outcome would be to exhaust their strength and then completely perish.

And this clearly did not align with Herbert's interests.

If he were to recklessly charge ahead, all his previous efforts would be wasted, and the entire game would be lost!

But fortunately, Herbert had not lost his reason. He waved his hand, gesturing for Nie Nasha not to overthink it.

"No, no, no, you've misunderstood. Although they are also part of my plan, they are not the pioneers for the early stage."

【"Then what is your target?"】

Herbert turned his head, looking toward the mist, as if seeing many figures hidden within the fog, and said softly:

"Within this mountain range, aren't there plenty of residents that can be recruited?"

"Those… monsters."

Has anyone ever stipulated that only humanoid beings can become citizens of the Elda Territory?

No, right?

"Moreover, right now there happens to be a very suitable candidate, one that lets me give it a try."

He clenched his half-spiritualized palm, chuckling softly in a low voice: "Having lost their chieftain, the entire clan has fallen into panic, and the ambitious ones are trying to vie for the throne…"

"Tell me, is there a better time than now to strike while they're vulnerable?"

(End of this chapter)