[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-lord-of-winter-beginning-with-daily-intelligence":3,"chapter-lord-of-winter-beginning-with-daily-intelligence-lord-of-winter-beginning-with-daily-intelligence-chapter-12":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"english","Lord of Winter: Beginning with Daily Intelligence",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":20,"prevChapterSlug":21,"totalChapters":22,"novelImage":23},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":16,"volume":17,"translator":18,"content_hash":19},152810,274,"Chapter 12: Hillco’s Miserable Life","lord-of-winter-beginning-with-daily-intelligence-chapter-12",12,"\u003Cp>Hillco has been so busy lately that he barely has time to catch his breath.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>All because Louis casually said, \"Go register the basic information of the Red Tide Territory residents and see what each of them is good at.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So he was thrown into this pile of messy handwritten files, staring wide-eyed at a group of confused farmers and blacksmiths.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Some people stammered, completely unsure of how to answer.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"I used to farm.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Do you still want to continue farming?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"...I don’t know.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"...\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Others answered casually, \"I’m good at staying alive.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Hillco almost slapped the record book on that person’s face at that moment.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Damn it, how did I, a future Alchemist, end up as a steward for a Border Lord?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Hillco cursed under his breath while feverishly writing, copying name after name into the book.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He could only blame his own itchy hands for stealing some Alchemy Secret Recipe!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He was originally an Alchemy Apprentice who would steal his mentor’s Magic Crystals to exchange for money, living an upper-class life in the Jade Federation.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Until one day, he met a mysterious person in the black market who offered a hefty sum to specifically ask him to steal one of his mentor’s Alchemy Secret Techniques, a price that was tempting.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Hillco didn’t hesitate for long, after all, the payment was enough for him to break free from his apprenticeship and open his own Alchemy Workshop.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>However, the plan was far less smooth than he had imagined.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Secret Recipe was too profound for him to memorize, so he simply took the entire thing.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Anyway, his mentor was forgetful, and missing one recipe wouldn’t be noticed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But he underestimated the importance of this Secret Recipe.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His mentor quickly discovered the loss, and the Golden Marrow Guild issued a warrant, vowing to bring the thief to justice.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The black market buyer was quickly caught and confessed about him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Hillco knew that once captured, he would not only face harsh punishment but might even be sent to a lab to become a guinea pig for bizarre alchemy experiments.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So to save his life, he cleverly disguised himself as a slave, mingling among those transported by slave merchants, hoping to escape the Jade Federation and find a chance to get away later.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But these slave merchants were more cunning than he expected!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Whenever he tried anything sneaky, he was met with a long whip, leaving him no room to resist.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After tens of lashes, he became obedient.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Thus he indeed became an ordinary slave, and he didn’t dare reveal his identity as an Alchemy Apprentice.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If the slave merchants knew, they would happily resell him to the Golden Marrow Guild, and Hillco would be sent straight to a lab table.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So, after going around in circles, he was taken to the black market of Frost Halberd City.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He thought he would be sold to a mine to dig for the rest of his life.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Who knew a young Pioneer Lord named Louis would buy him and take him to this godforsaken territory.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Initially, Hillco thought he might have escaped Purgatory only to fall into another pit, to be enslaved until death.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>However, Louis didn’t treat slaves like livestock as other nobility did.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Instead, upon learning that he could write and manage accounts, he revoked his slave status and made him an assistant similar to a steward.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>During his time observing and interacting with Louis, he discovered something—Louis was a good person.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He would share his food with those starving slaves and even personally tore up the slave contracts, granting them freedom.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A noble who actually treated slaves as humans?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In Hillco’s eyes, this didn’t seem like a competent lord, but more like a religious follower.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Tsk, guess I’m lucky this once...\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Though Hillco said that, he constantly plotted his escape.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After all, how could a future Great Alchemist spend his life in this godforsaken place?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>......\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Master, this is the citizen survey you asked me to do.\" Hillco placed a thick book on Louis’s desk.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His face showed deep fatigue, his steps were somewhat unsteady.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Mm, thank you for your hard work.\" Louis took the book and casually flipped through it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The handwriting wasn’t exactly neat, but it was clear in arrangement and categorized meticulously.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even the elderly who could barely lift a hoe, the women who could weave, and even the children who were good at hunting were noted, showing obvious effort in tidying up.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A talent, indeed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Louis looked up at the young man in front of him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Hillco stood sloppily, with deep dark circles under his eyes.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He, too, knew that Hillco wasn’t an ordinary person at all.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After all, his Daily Intelligence System is not just for show.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He knew from the moment he bought Hillco that the kid was an Alchemy Apprentice from the Jade Federation’s Golden Marrow Guild, and also a criminal.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>However, he didn’t expose him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>On the one hand, Hillco seemed harmless.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Louis wasn’t in a hurry to reveal him, wanting to see when he would willingly speak up.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>On the other hand, given the current situation of Red Tide Territory, an assistant who could read and had administrative skills was more useful than an Alchemy Apprentice.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The territory was still in its developmental stage, forget alchemy, even basic infrastructure wasn’t fully established yet.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The priority now was to make this land function normally, not to conduct alchemy experiments.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If he directly exposed him, what if this guy decided to slack and stopped doing chores?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Louis glanced at the pile of documents and ledgers stacked behind him like a mountain.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If he lost Hillco, this new lord might have to personally chew through this pile of junk himself.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>With this thought, Louis decided to continue playing dumb.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After all, in this remote area, the other party wouldn’t be able to run away.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Putting Hillco’s matters aside, Louis opened the survey book in his hand and quickly scanned the basic situation of the residents.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Seeing the results, he couldn’t help but smile slightly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Although Red Tide Territory seemed like a barren wilderness, in reality, its talent pool was richer than Louis imagined.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>With over a thousand people, the majority engaged in agriculture and animal husbandry, and over a hundred experienced fishermen.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>There were dozens of hunters, blacksmiths, carpenters, and tanners, enough to build a basic self-sufficient territory.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This was exactly the information Louis needed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He had Hillco conduct a population survey, not just for mere record-keeping, but to understand the fabric of this territory.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A territory is like a precision machine, where every gear needs to be placed in the right position to operate efficiently.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If you arbitrarily let a farmer forge iron, or a fisherman dig canals, or a hunter herd sheep, while it might operate, it would certainly be slow.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If a lord doesn’t understand his people, he can’t control the future of this land.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The next step was to reasonably allocate these people to get the Red Tide Territory on the right track as soon as possible.\u003C\u002Fp>",1175,"2026-05-29T04:24:47.177Z","2026-06-01T04:29:09.187Z",1,"novelbin.me","ec39b0ebb71798a2263d6ef5e12a445eb3d8a3c1f36bafebf84aab576e8ea794","lord-of-winter-beginning-with-daily-intelligence-chapter-13","lord-of-winter-beginning-with-daily-intelligence-chapter-11",766,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Flord-of-winter-beginning-with-daily-intelligence-cover.jpg"]