Chapter 54
Bio Village, which was just a rural backwater when I first received it from Duke Visconti.
Now it has prospered to the point where its former desolate appearance is unimaginable.
A harbor where medium and large merchant ships can dock, inns for sailors, and rows of houses that look rough but sturdy.
"It's really improved a lot."
Although it doesn't look sophisticated like a city yet because we focused only on building the harbor.
At this rate, I think I can call myself a lord with a port city with a straight face.
'In this era, even if just a thousand people gather to live in a village, it's called a city.'
As I was looking around the harbor and ships a bit, the village chief came running hurriedly, leading the villagers.
"My lord! Have you returned?"
In general territories, when a lord comes from a big city, the subjects are burdened with entertainment expenses and such, so everyone is reluctant about the lord coming.
They smile on the outside, but inside they're all thinking 'when is this bastard leaving?'
However, there's a smile without any pretense on the village chief's face now.
'He's genuinely welcoming me.'
"Yes, I've returned safely."
"You must be tired from going all the way to Guillaume City? We've cleaned the mansion thoroughly so you can stay, my lord."
Even though it's called a mansion, it's actually smaller than my house in Florence.
The reason why I made it so small even though land is cheap...
Because I don't stay here for long periods, and I didn't want to make them work unnecessarily hard building a lord's mansion.
'There's no need to build a big mansion to show off my dignity.'
"What hard work would I do riding a ship? Only the captain and sailors had a hard time."
"Is that so? Then we'd like to serve you what we've prepared sincerely for you, my lord."
The food I eat is made directly by chefs who could easily be hotel chefs in the 21st century.
So although I eat much more delicious food every day than what the territory residents make, I can't refuse their sincerity.
'Unless the village chief forcibly extracted it from the territory residents.'
The territory residents behind the village chief also have big smiles on their faces, so they'd be more disappointed if I refuse.
"Alright, I'll gladly eat it. And today, I'll hold a big festival to celebrate the development of Bio Village. Slaughter cows and pigs and make all sorts of dishes so that the villagers can eat their fill and have leftovers. I'll bear all the costs."
In a world lacking entertainment and food, no one dislikes festivals.
The village chief also cheered when I said I'd bear all the costs.
"Thank you, my lord!"
"Prepare abundantly without thinking about the cost. If you're too stingy, my dignity will fall."
Hearing my joke, the village chief looked at the villagers and said as if admonishing:
"Did you hear? Prepare very abundantly so that no irreverent thing happens that would hurt our lord's dignity!"
The villagers responded to that:
"No matter how much we spend, it won't even dent our lord's wallet, right?"
"Let's eat until we die today!"
"I'll roast one, no, two whole cows!"
When I instructed them to hurry and prepare for the festival, the villagers ran out as fast as cheetahs.
Seeing those excited about festival preparations made me feel pleased.
Chloe would have mixed feelings seeing this.
'I should give her a few words of comfort at night.'
**
A temporary outdoor banquet hall was set up in the plains on the outskirts of the village.
Except for the VIP seats where I and those I brought would sit, everyone else would sit on mats.
Each dish that came out wasn't fancy, but was substantial.
A whole roasted cow, a miscellaneous stew that can't be missed at village feasts, and so on.
Is it because it's hard to eat such common feast-like food in Florence?
Saliva started to form in my mouth before I knew it.
"Other nobles make long speeches even at such feasts, but I dislike such formalities. So I'll keep the congratulatory speech short."
School principals and VIPs invited to various events think it's good to speak at length.
But when those gentlemen were students or low-ranking themselves, they must have been terribly bored when speeches dragged on.
Even if times change, such thoughts probably don't change.
"When I first came, this Bio Village was practically an uninhabitable wasteland. But now, thanks to you trusting and following me, it has been able to prosper like this. I'm proud of you."
Not a few small business owners, no, not just small businesses but even CEOs of medium and large companies, think the development of their company is all thanks to them.
It's not wrong that if the top executive isn't competent, the company can't even survive let alone develop.
Just as a person can't live with just a brain, a company can't even exist without employees who act as hands and feet.
The reason I could come this far is because these people followed my instructions anyway.
'Let's be someone who can acknowledge the merits of subordinates.'
"And there's something I promised you before, do you remember?"
At those words, the villagers couldn't answer.
They just had reddened eyes.
Although I haven't lived as a serf like them, I can roughly guess how terrible it is to live as a serf just by looking at documents.
They work to death but have no hope, so they end up working half-heartedly.
The cycle of life being constantly disrespected due to status issues.
They probably didn't like being born like that either.
"I promised you this. When a proper harbor is built in this village, I'll burn all the serf documents and make you free citizens."
Other lords might be reluctant to liberate serfs as free citizens due to their fixed ideas, but I'm the opposite.
To change the excuse of hypocrisy in shouting that the class system is unfair while enjoying the privileges of the class system more than anyone else.
Making ordinary people serfs and drawing invisible lines is inefficient.
Making them free citizens and encouraging them to dream of the future and develop is helpful even for me, a noble.
So I think this is good.
Inefficient problems are improved and those who were serfs become happy too.
"Everyone look over there."
The place I pointed to was the center of the outdoor banquet hall.
There were piles of firewood and documents.
"Over there are piles of serf documents that bound you. I'll give you fire, so burn them all. Laugh, talk, and enjoy watching those scraps of paper burn, that's all."
With those words, the villagers received torches prepared by others and immediately burned the serf documents.
Some danced merrily after burning them, and some cried watching the burning serf documents.
But everyone had an air of joy.
"We're no longer serfs but proper free citizens now! We only have to pay half the taxes, hurrah!"
"We're liberated!"
Watching them rejoice, I started eating the dishes placed in front of me.
Maybe because it's a port village, it's mostly dishes of fish caught from the sea, which suits my taste perfectly.
'It's hard to eat sea fish often in Florence.'
While sampling various foods, there was one dish that particularly caught my eye.
"This looks like abalone?"
I thought it wouldn't come up unless I specifically asked for it, since abalone isn't often eaten in our continent.
When I expressed my doubt, a villager nearby answered.
"We often catch them while cultivating seaweed. They look strange, so we don't eat them much now that food is plentiful, but a guy named Jack said it's a delicacy if you grill it with butter, so we tried it and it was delicious. So we put it up hoping you would try it too, my lord."
"Let me try it then."
Grilled abalone with butter is a dish that even people who dislike seafood go crazy for.
It can't help but be delicious.
"It's delicious."
"I'm really glad you like it."
"Are you trying to cultivate it too, by any chance?"
"Yes, the village chief ordered us to try cultivating it like we do with shellfish."
Dried abalone makes excellent soup stock.
Well, Westerners don't eat abalone much.
If I spread abalone dishes and start a trend of making stews with dried abalone, I could make quite a bit of money.
'Although I probably can't hide the raw material by processing it like seaweed...'
"I'll give you unlimited funds, so try increasing the cultivation scale. And bestow 2 gold coins to that Jack fellow, and 5 gold coins to the village chief."
From their perspective, it's like receiving a bonus equivalent to the annual salary of an employee at a large company, but it's okay to give this much.
Because they moved voluntarily and produced results without me instructing them.
"I don't know about other territories, but in our territory, if you produce results, you'll definitely be rewarded. So work hard too."
Saying that, I cut and ate the abalone steak.
It will probably take a few years for cultivation techniques to properly settle, but still, this is something.
On this day, I ate and enjoyed the food served by the villagers until my stomach was about to burst.
And then I headed to Bergello, which is a bit further into Bio Village.
**
"Young master, this is truly a revolution of the era."
As soon as we arrived at Bergello, Sebastian, who I had temporarily stationed to supervise factory operations here, approached me making a fuss.
I've rarely seen Sebastian so surprised.
For him to be so surprised, did the machines that supported the early Industrial Revolution show great performance?
"What's happening that you're making such a fuss?"
"I've never seen cotton or woolen fabrics being made at such a fast speed in my life, this is practically magic!"
The Industrial Revolution certainly caused something like magic.
That's why there's such a record in history:
'After the Industrial Revolution, humans could feel economic growth for the first time.'
"Let's go take a look."