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T/N - Lol, well now. Can Iyanna even pull him and his batch of charcoal on her own? Even if they use a sled, I think that’s a bit too much, right? It hasn’t even been mentioned how far this White Pine City is from Blackstone Town.
Also, Iyanna is now my favorite character of the novel. Protect her innocence at all costs!
Did the target of the system's effect have any special characteristics?
As of now, he guessed there were two possible criteria.
The first was being female.
After all, the only ones with system information so far were two young women.
The second was possessing extraordinary power.
Whether it was Elysia's magic or Iyanna's Battle Aura, both were powers that ordinary people didn’t possess.
After finishing his internal thoughts, a somewhat exhausted Lynn let out a yawn.
"So sleepy."
By the time he successfully captured his future Security Captain, it was already the morning of his second day here.
Only then did Lynn realize that after riding a donkey cart all the way to the fief, he had been busily rushing about for a whole day and night.
If it weren't for the fact that this body was only nineteen years old, he might have suffered a herniated disc on the spot and collapsed with a crash.
The other employees hadn't rested either, but their conditions were quite good.
Although Elysia kept clamoring about wanting to sleep, she was actually still full of energy. As expected of an A-Rank stamina witch.
Theodore said that in the past, in order to add samples at regular intervals for an experiment, he had once spent three days and three nights straight in front of his instruments.
Although he couldn't see the scholar’s attributes, Lynn felt that the man also had A-Rank stamina at the very least.
After arranging for them to stay in the castle and continue researching the cause of the black stones' changes, Lynn had a bit of a headache as he looked at the girl who had been following closely behind him all along.
"Ehehe."
Catching Lynn's gaze, the wolf tribe girl smiled foolishly. The tail behind her wagged nimbly as she continued to gnaw on the food in her hands.
Her strength wasn’t bad, and apart from being genuinely foolish, her personality was extremely good.
The only thing that made him feel fearful was her terrifying appetite.
After signing the contract and receiving Lynn's promise that she could eat freely, she directly emptied out his planned one-week food reserve.
This was bad.
If the market for charcoal wasn't opened up, never mind paying off the Church's debts, he might end up owing a lot in food expenses.
This wouldn't do. She had to work to earn back the food she ate.
And right now, there was indeed a place where she was needed.
Thanks to Elysia's hard work, the first batch of charcoal had already been produced.
To enter the heat source market, he first had to find sales channels for these goods, thus taking the first step in trade.
Although under normal circumstances, as a lord, he didn't need to personally do this kind of thing.
But clearly, the circumstance he was in right now wasn’t normal.
As a lord who had dropped from the sky, he was unfamiliar with this place and its people.
To ensure that everything was foolproof, he could only do things personally until he gradually found trustworthy hands.
This meant that for a very long time in the future, he would need to rush about everywhere.
In the northern border of Milan, this was undoubtedly dangerous. After all, monsters and bandits often roamed about here.
So, he would just let this husky-coded wolf tribe girl be his and the goods' bodyguard.
"Iyanna, we're going on a long trip... Are you still not full?"
Lynn looked at the wolf girl, who had inhaled a few more pieces of bread like a storm, and patted his chest that was experiencing a heartache.
"There was no prey nearby, so Iyanna had been controlling her food intake to save up on food before.
But Mishter Lynn said that after signing the corn-tract, I could eat whenever I wanted, so Iyanna is very happy now."
What was this?
The one drawing the big pie in the sky met the one who actually ate the big pie?
To reduce food expenses, Lynn decided to put himself on a light fast for a period of time.
He instructed Elysia to prepare a normal person's one-month food supply for the upcoming trip of about five days, and he then prepared to take Iyanna to the center of town.
Too many things had happened yesterday, so the transportation issue hadn’t yet been negotiated.
However, speaking of which, was it appropriate for Iyanna to go to a crowded place looking as she was?
Lynn rubbed his chin.
Although the Frost Kingdom bordered Milan, demi-humans were still relatively rare existences in the latter.
In the gray industries, they were highly sought-after goods.
Even though Iyanna was quite wary of strangers, she couldn't help being foolish.
If she encountered someone with ulterior motives, he felt that she could easily be knocked out with a drugged meaty bone.
Lynn trusted his own judgment, but he couldn't guarantee he could watch her the entire time.
Moreover, his attention would inevitably be divided when negotiating business with merchant firms.
As the saying goes: a thousand days for the thief, one day for the owner*. But it's hard to be on guard against thieves for a thousand days. As such, avoiding drawing attention was the optimal solution...
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"Mmm, this is so uncomfortable."
Walking on the road of Blackstone Town, Iyanna really wanted to reach up and take off the hood on her head.
"Be good, if you hold on and don't take it off, you can have a slice of ham tonight."
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【Favorability: +5 (Ham!)】
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At first, upon learning that she had to take off her animal skin clothing and change into this servant's outfit, she was very resistant—
Because the lower garment of the outfit was too long, making it unsuitable for hunting.
"Why do you need to hunt? Aren't you enjoying me feeding you right now?"
"Oh, right."
Just like that, Iyanna, having changed into a plain coat, carefully followed behind Lynn.
From time to time, she looked at the occasional passerby with wary eyes, letting out low "wulu wulu" growls.
Faced with such a scene, Lynn helplessly held his forehead.
Looking on the bright side, although her behavior was very strange, at least she was trying her best to fulfill the bodyguard duties he had told her about.
As long as there was food, she would do whatever he told her to do. In this regard, his Security Captain was much better than his Employee Number One.
After arriving at the center of town and making some inquiries, Lynn finally found the old donkey cart driver, who owned one of the few livestock in Blackstone Town.
"Old man, I have a batch of goods that needs to be delivered to White Pine City."
White Pine City was located in the White Pine Fief, the domain Blackstone Fief was in, owned by the Viscount of White Pine.
Since Lynn was essentially enfeoffed by the Emperor to the Viscount of White Pine, as the Baron of Blackstone, he was now a vassal under the other party's command.
According to etiquette, he should also go pay a visit to his current liege lord.
Looking at it this way, this trip could be considered killing two birds with one stone.
Then, he received news like a bolt from the blue.
"I’m truly sorry, Young Master Lynn... Lord.
But it snowed last night, and the roads are iced over.
My old donkey can't walk on that kind of road, and the wheels easily slip too."
After giving Lynn a map, the old man very apologetically stated he couldn’t provide any more help.
"This is bad, this is really bad."
Lynn's brows were tightly knitted as he constantly muttered the same sentence on the way back.
He hadn't expected that his greatest enemies would actually be the weather and transportation capacity.
Undoubtedly, for the sake of future development, Blackstone Fief's transportation capabilities urgently needed improvement.
But if even the lowest-level witch product like charcoal couldn't be sold right now, how could he get start-up capital?
Was there any emergency method he could use?
Lynn bit his fingernails anxiously.
The debt of the sixty-four-fold tithe was still pressing down on his head, making it difficult for him to think calmly at this moment.
Just as he felt at a loss for what to do, half a piece of bread covered in saliva was handed in front of him by a small hand.
"Mishter Lynn is very distressed. Mom told Iyanna that when you eat things, you won't be distressed anymore."
Lynn raised his head, looked at that half piece of bread, and then looked at the smile of the husky-like wolf tribe girl who was revealing her canine teeth.
Wait, husky?
Snowing, icing over, wheels slipping...
S-Rank stamina, Battle Aura, strong and powerful thighs...
In an instant, Lynn thought of a way to break the deadlock.
"Sure enough, huskies should be pulling sleds after all."
"Eh?"
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*This means that a thief can steal for a thousand days, but the owner only needs for them to slip up once. Basically, it’s a “justice always wins” kind of saying.