Chapter 246 – Lord Jansen (1)

It had already been half a year since the Demon King fell and his army scattered.

During that time, many things had happened on the continent.

First, the undead that scattered in all directions after the Demon King’s death were still causing headaches for the Empire and various countries.

There were rumors that the hero, along with the Saintess, was dealing with the undead in the Empire first, but the hero’s party couldn’t handle many undead.

Moreover, the scattered undead had spread not only throughout the northern mountain range but also crossed the mountains to reach the southern kingdoms.

As a result, undead were now more commonly seen on the continent than before, and they had become more feared than monsters.

The Empire still hadn’t recovered from the damage it suffered a few months ago.

With more than half the country destroyed, recovery within half a year was impossible.

Things were so bad that there was no telling when the collapsed wall could be repaired.

Because of this, the Empire couldn’t afford to pay attention to external matters, and the satellite states and allied countries that had been destroyed by the Demon King’s army had to rebuild their nations with their own strength.

A few kingdoms like Posen, where the royal family had survived, tried to revive their nations centered around the surviving royalty, but countries where all royalty had died and the capital had collapsed could do nothing.

The few survivors could only continue their lives in hiding, avoiding the undead roaming the streets.

Amid such hellish lives, there was a miraculously revived domain in the western part of the fallen kingdom of Luna.

Like other domains, this one had also lost its lord, who had been unable to escape and was killed by hordes of undead, becoming an ownerless domain.

Many domain residents had died without being able to evacuate, and only a small number had survived.

Even those survivors mostly hid from wandering undead, while some deserters, disbanded soldiers, and armed individuals became bandits who preyed on other survivors.

In front of these people living such hellish lives, a group appeared claiming to be the new lord of the domain.

They first beat up the bandits who tried to rob them, and then, leading the now docile bandits, they toured the domain.

They went around shattered villages and cities, killing wandering undead and rescuing survivors.

Throughout this, the self-proclaimed lord’s party, consisting of only five people, didn’t need any help from those who followed them.

Or rather, they had no need for it.

They could find people no matter where they were hiding, and they easily defeated dozens of zombies, ghouls, and corpse golems that attacked them.

Additionally, there was the endless supply of food pouring out of their magic pouches.

Instead of borrowing the hands of those who followed them, the self-proclaimed lord’s party continued to feed not only their followers but also all the people they rescued.

After rescuing people like this, the group finally headed to the castle where the former lord had lived and settled there.

And there, the people who had followed the self-proclaimed lord’s party learned that the people leading them were the real lords.

“It was all thanks to Yelena unnie. Even the documents with the Imperial seal were useless. If we hadn’t called someone from the Imperial Palace using unnie’s portal magic, no one would have believed us until now.”

Anna nodded at Yerim’s words and looked around frantically.

The knight’s castle that Anna had arrived at through the portal was so intact and clean that it was hard to believe it had been shattered not long ago.

The place where she and her son arrived was the castle’s front yard, a beautiful garden.

She was more amazed by the beautiful garden than the intact castle.

“Isn’t it pretty? This garden was made by Zahina unnie. She created this beautiful garden in less than a month, just like that.”

Yerim, who had crossed the portal with her, continued to boast as if she had done it herself.

“I can’t do things like this, so the Saintess of the Divine Tree must be different from other Saintesses.”

Anna felt like there was something she shouldn’t have heard mixed in while Yerim was talking, but she couldn’t stop Yerim from chattering.

“With just a wave of her hand, the soil became fertile, and the temperature changed to be perfect for plants to grow. Plus, unnie didn’t just sprinkle divine power here. In just a few months, she created vast farmland outside the city. It’s already harvest time, so we’ve become self-sufficient.”

Yerim’s words were still full of unbelievable things, but the scene before her eyes made it impossible not to believe her words.

Actually, it didn’t matter whether she believed it or not anymore.

The fact that this magnificent castle was the one that had been ravaged by undead not long ago,

The fact that those neat people bowing their heads as they passed by were refugees who had survived among hordes of undead,

None of these were more surprising than the fact that the knight walking in front was the lord of this castle.

A lord.

That meant that knight was a noble.

And not just any noble, but a proper noble with a domain.

He was someone she couldn’t even dare to speak to.

To think she had tried to get food from such a person.

It was the kind of thing that could get her accused of insulting a noble if she wasn’t careful.

Of course, it seemed her uncle had been close enough to that noble for him to invite her and her son here, so it seemed like a great opportunity had come her way.

But she knew herself well. And how arbitrary nobles could be.

That’s why her heart was still beating wildly.

As they walked through the garden and along the corridor, everyone they met bowed deeply to the knight, his companions, and Anna and her son.

Unlike her, the expressions of those who bowed their heads weren’t just filled with fear of nobility.

Rather, their expressions resembled those of people who had expressed gratitude to soldiers who had protected their village from monsters long ago.

“Among the refugees, those who had no work were given jobs at the castle. It’s a kind of New Deal policy. We don’t really need this many people, but our lord has plenty of money.”

Although there was an unfamiliar term mixed in, Anna took courage at the mention of job creation.

“Th-then, would there be a place for me to work too?”

The moment her courageous words ended, the lord walking ahead stopped.

‘Surely he didn’t hear me?’

It was definitely spoken quietly enough not to be heard.

But the knight turned his head to look at Anna.

Anna’s face turned white.

The lord shook his head and said to Yerim:

“This won’t do anymore. I wanted to hear her story, but it seems impossible right now. Yerim, please guide her.”

“I will.”

Yerim answered eagerly to the lord’s words.

She grabbed Anna’s hand and walked in the opposite direction.

“Look at all this sweat. Was it difficult? I should have told you beforehand. Our lord is a bit insensitive.”

I could only shake my head as I watched Yerim speaking ill of me in a small voice as she left… She knew I could hear what she was saying right now.

Yet she still said such things.

Even after I became a lord, her personality hadn’t changed.

Well, it would be difficult for her, coming from Earth, to understand the fearsome nature of the noble class.

I didn’t want to force that on our party members either.

After all, Yerim was also a Saintess, and the other party members were Saintesses and grand mages.

Companions more extraordinary than ordinary nobles.

Such companions didn’t receive official positions, yet they still remained by my side like this.

I called over the person I had appointed as butler and assigned people to Hoffman’s bereaved family and Yerim.

I had things I wanted to ask Hoffman’s family and help I wanted to provide, but seeing the situation now, it seemed I couldn’t do it directly.

In the end, it seemed that, like with other bereaved families, Yerim or someone else would have to step in for Hoffman’s family as well.

Over the past six months, my companions and I had accomplished many things.

We gathered refugees at the castle to create a safe zone, and we built a fixed portal connected to the Empire inside the castle to procure materials.

The necessary funds came from my gold bullion.

The enormous amount of gold bullion in my space-expanded pouch and Yelena’s subspace.

Originally, that gold bullion was meant to buy a manor or domain, but since I had obtained this domain for free, it was only natural to use that gold bullion to restore the domain.

However, I had too much gold bullion.

Before coming to this domain, I had used that gold bullion to buy a lot of food in the Imperial capital, but it didn’t even make a dent in the accumulated gold.

The same was true for buying materials.

Even after repairing the castle, fixing the city, and buying up agricultural tools, the gold bullion didn’t decrease.

Rather, the prices in the Imperial capital were fluctuating so much that I couldn’t release any more gold bullion.

A situation where I couldn’t buy more things even if I wanted to.

Because of this, it took half a year to restore this castle and city.

Only recently had the castle and this domain’s capital more or less regained their former appearance, and I was able to do the work I had been postponing.

The task of delivering the belongings of fallen comrades to their families.

Unfortunately, there were many belongings that couldn’t be delivered because we couldn’t contact the families or because the families had died, but we were still able to deliver belongings and provide help to many people.

After delivering these belongings, today we were finally going to lay Hoffman’s remains to rest in his hometown.

But who would have thought Hoffman had family in his hometown?

‘Even though he left his hometown like he was running away, he didn’t tell us about this. What would have happened if we hadn’t gone looking?’

Of course, we would have gone even if we had heard, but if we had known there was family, we would have gone much earlier.

“As long as we helped them before it was too late, that’s what matters.”

As if sensing my thoughts, Zahina, who was walking beside me, spoke.

Zahina smiled softly as she spoke.

Her soft smile, different from before, elevated her beauty to another level.

A smile so captivating that people stealing glances at her were entranced.

Some people even made the sign of the cross when they saw her.

Though we hadn’t specifically called her a Saintess, the domain residents who had gathered in this city called Zahina a Saintess, or rather, the goddess of the domain.

And for good reason, as she had shown numerous miracles here.

Plowing fields, growing plants, creating a safe zone around the castle (though she created the safe zone together with Yerim, Yerim gave all the credit to Zahina),

Moving the earth to restore the city, and so on.

She continued to perform miracles that looked like divine power with her unapproachably beautiful appearance.

As a result, the domain residents worshipped Zahina even more than they feared me, their lord.

Thus, leaving the role of Saintess to Zahina, Yerim returned to her previous work.

The work she had done on Earth before awakening.

She began helping people here, just as she had done at the management office.

Of course, unlike then, she didn’t just help with words; she secretly healed people, and when problems arose, she resolved them using her own power or borrowing mine as the lord, so she was now regarded by the domain residents as the lady of the domain.

It wasn’t good for an unmarried woman, but she seemed to like it.

While I and the two Saintesses worked hard to stabilize the domain, the two mage disciples created a gate.

Naturally, it was a gate connected to Earth.

Due to what the Demon King had done, no one in Ea wanted to connect with other dimensions, but my companions and I were different.

So I secretly created a gate here.

A fixed gate connected to Earth, a gate linked to Jeju Island.