Chapter 8

"In other words, when it's time for the wheat to be harvested, people will come and rob us?" Lucas frowned.

"Of course, weak cities will be robbed," Mina said confidently. She had tailed thieves before and had witnessed the events with her own eyes.

Lucas frowned. It wasn't that far away from the autumn harvest; there were at most 20 days left. He immediately thought of Carter and realized why Carter sold him the city and the territory.

"What are you going to do now? I didn't even find a single maid or a guard in this castle, let alone a knight."

Mina put her arms in front of her chest and said, "Without a knight, it's impossible for you to resist the attack of the thieves. When the time comes, you will also be killed by the thieves. Then they will occupy your castle and become the new owners of this city."

She had often heard of such things. Several cities have been occupied by thieves and they were openly doing so.

"Indeed Carter took away the original knights and guards," Lucas said, sighing.

If there were no incidents, then twenty days later his life as a city lord would end.

"Do you want to come with me?" Mina said suddenly. She didn't know why she said that and she blushed. She explained, "I'm just repaying you, yes, I'm just repaying you."

Lucas couldn't help but laugh. He looked at the catgirl and said calmly, "Isn't there still twenty days?"

"You…" Seeing Lucas's confident smile, she stopped what she was about to say to persuade him, and said angrily, "Then you better not die."

She left without waiting for Lucas to answer. She gave Lucas some time to digest everything. I am a considerate catgirl! She thought.

Lucas looked at the closed door and a cold light flashed across his eyes, "Carter, what a terrific plan but…"

But he wasn't an ordinary person. To other people this would be an unsolvable solution. They would only be able to abandon the city and leave or wait to be robbed. If they were lucky they would live and if they weren't, they would die. However he was a man with a golden finger.

"It seems that I'll have to plan carefully; it's not easy to be a city lord." Lucas muttered, taking out a roll of sheepskin from the desk. He then took out a fountain pen and wrote on it.

Paper didn't exist in this world. Most people use sheepskin as paper and the high nobles used cloth as paper. After a while, Lucas put down the pen, rolled up the sheepskin, stood up and left the study.

Along the way, Lucas thought about how he could quickly pull up a sergeant. That was his first task to settle down safely. Looking at the empty castle, Lucas smiled bitterly. "It seems that I have to go and pick up Uncle Ben's family first. With their help, things should be much better."

Ben's family was a family that he had met by chance when he first came to this world. They had saved his life before, and he had stayed in their house for most of the month he was in this world.

He found a wooden board and attached the sheepskin onto the board. Then he took the board out of the castle and put it up in the plaza.

As soon as he left, the residents came over, staring at the sheepskin in a daze.

"Hey! Whoever is literate come forward and quickly read what's on there. Did the tax increase again?"

It was unbelievable for people who were struggling to fill their stomachs to be literate.

If Lucas hadn't met Ben's family, he wouldn't have understood the words of this world either. After being taught by Ben for a month only then Lucas could understand most of the words.

Max, about 50 years old, was one of the few people in Sedona City that was literate. He went in front of the wooden board and read it silently. Then his eyes widened and he exclaimed, "120 copper coins?"

"What's 120 copper coins? Sir Max, please read it."

"Cough cough."

Max slightly regained his senses and read out loud. "The City Lord's Mansion is now recruiting three literate clerks. People who will pass an interview have a monthly salary of 120 copper coins. Those who are interested can now go to the City Lord's Mansion for an interview."

"Recruiting experienced hunters. 16 to 30 years old, limited to 50 people. People who pass the trial which will happen after three days have a monthly salary of 100 copper coins."

"Recruiting physically strong people, no bad habits, 16 to 30 years old, limited to 100 people. People who pass the interview which will happen after three days have a monthly salary of 80 copper coins."

"The above two lines are requirements for joining the army. Those who are interested please take the test in front of the City Lord's Mansion three days later."

Everyone was in a daze when Max finished reading, and then a clamor broke out.

"That's a lie, right? 80 copper coins to serve in the army for one month?"

"Yeah, even a hunter gets 100 copper coins. That's absurd."

"The previous city lord only offered a monthly salary of 50 copper coins to serve in the army. Does this new city lord have a lot of money?"

The average monthly salary in this world for people that went to work was about 40 to 50 copper coins, including most people that served in the army.

A family of three with a monthly salary of 60 copper coins could barely support themselves. After all, the wheat in Sedona City cost 2 copper coins per ounce, and adding on wild vegetables barely allows the family to have enough to eat. Because of how high Lucas's salary was, many people were tempted.

This was one of Lucas's strategies: high rewards will get brave men or in other words carrot and stick strategy.