The Wooden Fence and the Power-Up Gloves
That night, as soon as she returned to Grace Castle, Chloe collapsed like a corpse and let the maids attend to her bath. She was so exhausted she didn’t want to lift a single finger.
“Delma, you must be tired too. Go and rest.”
Despite having run around just as much as she had all day, Delma looked far better than Chloe.
“I’m fine. I can sleep after I see you to bed, my lady.”
“It makes me even more tired if you’re standing there watching. Just go rest. And on your way, tell the steward and the financial officer to rest as well. I really can’t do anything else today.”
Before ending her day, Chloe had listened to the financial officer’s report on the current state of Grace Castle’s finances and construction costs, and the steward’s report on the progress of the works and the management of the laborers. She didn’t need to know every tiny detail, but she had to understand how far the construction had come, roughly how much money had been spent, and how much remained.
“Yes, understood.”
Delma stopped insisting and quietly left the bathroom.
The moment the pleasantly warm water enveloped her whole body, it felt like all her fatigue melted away.
“It would be nice if our territory residents had a bathhouse too. Maybe we could build a public bathhouse for them.”
But the reality was that they didn’t even have enough drinking water. Unless a hot spring suddenly gushed up from underground, building a public bathhouse in this barren village would be impossible.
For some reason, she felt a little guilty for enjoying such luxury alone.
The construction work that had continued all day did not stop even after the sun set and nothing could be seen in front of them. Instead, torches flared up all over the construction site. From their hiding spot in the distance, Bartre’s group, who had been waiting for the wooden fence to be finished, let out grumbling complaints.
“Just how long are those bastards going to keep working? Don’t they sleep?”
“Seriously. We can’t do anything until they go inside.”
Around the wooden fence construction site, knights dispatched from Grace Castle stood strict guard in case of any emergency. In fact, when Uno had stumbled and fallen, the knights had heard the noise and come patrolling nearby. If not for Alber, whose eyes and ears were still sharp despite his age, the plan would have been over before it even began.
Even after Bartre’s group finished complaining, the construction continued for a long while and only ended at the crack of dawn.
“Tough bastards. They really finished the wooden fence.”
Uno muttered to himself as he watched Builder walk around the newly completed wooden fence one last time.
After the work was finished, Builder had walked back and forth from the beginning of the fence to the end three times, meticulously checking for any weak spots, gaps in the joints, or places that might collapse easily when shaken.
“What’s the point of checking like that? They’re going to attack from the sky anyway.”
Uno snickered as he watched Builder, who couldn’t let go of his lingering attachment and kept inspecting the fence. But Bartre’s expression hardened as he stared at Builder, who still hadn’t left the site even as dawn broke.
It left a bad taste in his mouth.
Destroying one or two shabby villages was nothing to Bartre. In fact, he had once believed it was his mission to end the lives of people who suffered in poverty and struggled just to eat day after day. He thought dying would be far more comfortable for them than living. But Morta Village was somehow different.
Instead of looking helpless, all he saw were people desperately struggling to survive. Even after laboring all day, smiles never left their faces. Even the young children who were being exploited for their labor were the same.
“They’re still just serfs in the end.”
Bartre muttered bitterly as he watched Builder’s retreating back after the final inspection.
Finally, only the knights taking turns standing guard around the wooden fence remained.
Bartre looked at his group and gave them a signal. Like shadows in the dark night, they moved silently and swiftly at the same time, approaching the wooden fence.
Pressing their backs tightly against the fence, they pulled out limp baby Cullens from their pockets.
They had sprayed sleeping incense at the cave entrance, waited for the adult Cullens to fall asleep, and only taken the young ones. The babies whose necks had already been wrung hung limply like gutted fish, blood dripping from them.
“Boss, should we take one of these and roast it later? I heard Cullen meat is really good for men, right?”
Uno lifted the arm holding the baby Cullen slightly and gave a lewd smile.
Bartre shot him a cold glare. In a situation where they had to act with utmost caution, Uno was spouting nonsense again. The others seemed to agree as they clicked their tongues and shook their heads. Embarrassed, Uno quietly lowered the corpse of the baby Cullen he was holding.
“From now on, we split up. Spray the babies’ blood around the wooden fence and throw the corpses at appropriate intervals. The mothers will wake up soon.”
Bartre quickly relayed the order in a low voice along with hand signals.
The moment she opened her eyes in the morning, Chloe stood up and did various stretches to loosen her stiff body.
“Ughhhhh! There isn’t a single spot on my arms, legs, or shoulders that doesn’t ache. My stamina really is trash.”
This body was nicely slim, but it tired easily after the slightest movement and had kept her groaning in pain all night.
“This won’t do. I need to build up my stamina.”
Chloe decided she would exercise a little every morning to improve her physical condition. As she wondered what kind of exercise to start with, she suddenly thought that maybe she could buy something useful from the hidden shop.
“That’s right. Didn’t I buy gloves that make you stronger from the hidden shop before? Where did I put them?”
She had never properly used them after buying them with her first hidden points.
Now that she remembered, she rummaged through her vanity and drawers. She recalled thinking she would use them later and putting them away somewhere.
“Where did I put them again…”
The gloves were in the very bottom drawer of the vanity. The thin gloves, tightly woven with delicate lace, looked utterly ordinary no matter how she looked at them.
“I wonder how much stronger they make you?”
Chloe slipped on the gloves, looked around the room, and approached the heavy armchair.
“There’s no way I’ll suddenly be able to lift something like this, right?”
Chloe tilted her head and grabbed the large armchair with both hands. Then she lifted it with surprising ease.
“Whoa, it actually works?”
The heavy chair that she would never have been able to lift alone felt as light as a stuffed teddy bear. Excited, Chloe went on to lift various other pieces of furniture in the room.
After lifting all sorts of things for a while, Chloe dusted off her hands and came to her own conclusion.
“The bed is still a bit too heavy. But still… this is practically Avengers-level.”
Chloe was grinning as she looked at the gloves when she heard a knock at the door.
“Come in.”
This morning, Anna entered before Delma.
“Good morning, my lady. Did you sleep well? Gasp! What happened to the room! Was there a thief?!”
Anna, who had come in to help with the lord’s morning preparations, was shocked to see the furniture clearly out of place. The sofa, the table, even the vanity—everything was crooked and the room was a mess.
“It wasn’t a thief. I was looking for something.”
“You were, my lady?”
Anna blinked rapidly as she looked around the room and then at her lord, who was smiling brightly at her.
“What about Delma? Did she catch a cold or something?”
“Ah, yes. She tried to get up a little while ago but she had a high fever, so she took medicine and went back to sleep.”
It seemed Delma had similarly terrible stamina. At least it meant that Chloe, who could still move, was in slightly better shape.
“Anna. After breakfast, could you call the steward and the financial officer to my office?”
“Yes! My lady.”
Anna answered with sparkling eyes.
Chloe Grace’s outfit consisted of comfortable pants paired with a loose blouse. She had thrown away the corset that left her gasping for breath after just a short walk and was now wearing loose, comfortable clothes. It felt like she could finally breathe.
“How does it look?”
Instead of the dresses she usually wore, she had dressed lightly, but to Anna’s eyes, her lady still looked beautiful. In fact, she seemed even more elegant and dignified than when she wore all those accessories.
“You look beautiful and wonderful.”
Anna answered sincerely.
“It doesn’t look strange?”
This style wasn’t common here, so she was curious how others would see it. Although the clothes had been made by the tailors at her request, this was the first time she was wearing pants outside the castle.
“It really looks like wonderful clothing. Everyone will want to wear it.”
It was a very pleasing answer. If she kept wearing these pants, someday women here might be able to walk the streets comfortably in trousers too.
Of course, Grace Territory would be the first to become that wonderful place.
Chloe was smiling at her reflection in the mirror when a bright blue status window suddenly floated up before her eyes.
The wooden fence construction in Morta Village has been completed excellently. As a reward for successfully making the village much safer, you have been given 1,000 hidden points. Clap clap clap!
It seemed Builder had finished the wooden fence construction. She was happy to receive the hidden points, but she also felt both proud and sorry for the people who had worked hard through the night.
She wanted to complete quests quickly, gather hidden points, and help the villagers live stable lives as soon as possible.
Chloe opened her status window and examined the changes.
After putting on the gloves, her physical level had risen to 2. And for some reason, the trait had changed from “dirt poor” to “somewhat poor territory.” The residents’ favorability had also risen significantly and was now at -2,000 points. At this rate, she felt she could escape the negative zone by the end of today.
Chloe was gazing at the status window with satisfaction when the blue window suddenly turned red.