Winter Lord: Starting with Daily Intelligence

Chapter 12 The Miserable Hillco

Hilko has been so busy lately that he barely has time to catch his breath.

Just because Louis casually said, "Go register the basic information of the residents of Red Tide Territory and see what they are good at."

So he was thrown into this pile of messy handwritten files, staring blankly at a group of bewildered farmers and blacksmiths.

Some people stammered and didn't know how to answer.

"I used to farm."

"Do you still want to continue farming?"

"……I have no idea."

"..."

Others simply answered casually: "Good at surviving."

Hilco almost slapped the notebook right in the man's face.

"Damn it, how did I, a future alchemist, end up as a steward for a border lord?"

While muttering curses under his breath, Hilco scribbled furiously, copying name after name into the booklet.

Blame it on your own impulsiveness in stealing the alchemy recipe!
He was originally just an alchemy apprentice who would steal some of his mentor's magic crystals to make some money and live the life of an upper-class person in the Emerald Federation.

Until one day, he met a mysterious person on the black market. The person offered him a high price to steal his mentor's alchemy secrets. The price was so high that it tempted him.

Hilko didn't hesitate for long, after all, the price offered was enough for him to escape his apprenticeship and open his own alchemy workshop.

However, the plan did not go as smoothly as expected.

The recipe was too profound for him to remember, so he simply took the whole thing.

Anyway, the mentor is so forgetful that he won't notice if even a tiny bit of the secret recipe is missing.

However, he underestimated the importance of this secret recipe.

The mentor quickly discovered the secret recipe was missing, and the Golden Marrow Guild, to which the mentor belonged, immediately issued a warrant for its arrest, vowing to bring the thief who stole the secret recipe to justice.

The black market buyer was quickly apprehended and confessed.

Hilco knew that if he were caught, he would not only face severe punishment, but might even be sent to a laboratory to become a guinea pig for all sorts of strange alchemical experiments.

So, in order to escape, he cleverly disguised himself as a slave and mingled among the slaves being transported by slave traders, hoping to slip out of the Emerald Federation and find another opportunity to escape.

It turned out that these slave traders were even more shrewd than he had imagined!
Whenever he tried to make a move, he was met with a long whip, leaving him no room to resist.

After a few ten-pulls, he calmed down.

And so he truly became an ordinary slave, and he dared not reveal his identity as an alchemy apprentice.

If these slave traders found out, they would be happy to resell him back to the Golden Marrow Guild, at which point Hilko would be sent directly to the experimental table.

And so, after going around in circles, he was brought to the Frostspear City black market.

I thought I would be sold to a mine and spend my whole life mining.

Who knew that he would be bought by a young pioneer lord named Louis, who then brought him to this godforsaken territory.

At first, Hilco thought he had probably escaped purgatory but stumbled into another pit of fire, where he would be enslaved until death.

However, unlike other nobles, Louis did not treat slaves as livestock.

Instead, after learning that he could write and do accounting, they revoked his status as a slave and made him an assistant similar to a steward.

During the time he spent with and observed Louis, he discovered one thing: Louis was a good man.

He would share his food with the starving slaves and personally tear up their slave contracts, granting them their freedom.

A nobleman actually treated slaves as human beings?

In Hilko's view, this was less like a proper lord and more like a religious follower.

"Tsk, I guess I got lucky this time..." Hilko said, but in his heart he was already planning his chance to escape.

After all, how could a future great alchemist possibly spend his entire life in this godforsaken place?

…………

“Sir, this is the survey of the people you asked me to do.” Hilco placed a thick booklet on Louis’s desk.

His face showed deep weariness, and his steps were somewhat unsteady.

"Yes, thank you for your hard work." Louis took the booklet and flipped through it casually.

The handwriting isn't exactly neat, but it's well-organized and the categories are very detailed.

Even the elderly who could barely lift a hoe, the women who could weave, and even the children who were good at hunting were marked, which shows that a lot of effort had been put into organizing them.

He's quite a talent.

Louis looked up at the young man in front of him.

Hilko stood slouching, with dark circles under his eyes.

He knew, of course, that Hilko was no ordinary person.

After all, his daily intelligence system is more than just decoration.

Even before he bought Hilko, he knew that the kid was an alchemy apprentice of the Emerald Federation's Gold Marrow Guild and a criminal.

However, he didn't point it out.

On the one hand, Hilco did not seem to have any ill intentions.

Louis wasn't in a hurry to expose him; he wanted to see when he would be willing to speak up.

On the other hand, given the current state of the Red Tide Territory, a literate assistant with administrative skills is more useful than an alchemy apprentice.

The territory is still in its early stages of development; let alone alchemy, even basic infrastructure has not been fully established.

The most important thing right now is to get this land functioning properly, not to conduct any alchemical experiments.

If we expose him directly, what if he just gives up and refuses to do any odd jobs?
Louis glanced at the mountain of documents and ledgers behind him.

If he loses Hilko, then this new lord will probably have to sit in this pile of junk and read words himself.

With that in mind, Louis decided to continue playing dumb.

Anyway, this is the middle of nowhere, so the other party can't escape.

Putting the matter of Hilko aside for the moment, Louis opened the survey book in his hand and quickly scanned through the basic information of the people.

Upon seeing the result, he couldn't help but slightly raise the corners of his mouth.

Although Red Tide Territory appears to be a desolate and wild land, it is actually much richer in human resources than Louis had imagined.

The population is over a thousand, with farmers and herders making up the majority, and over a hundred experienced fishermen.

There were dozens of hunters, blacksmiths, carpenters, and leatherworkers, enough to build a basic, self-sufficient territory.

This is exactly the information Louis needs.

He sent Hilko to investigate the population, not just to keep records, but to understand the intricacies of the territory.

A territory is like a precision machine; every gear must be in the right place to operate efficiently.

If you randomly assign a farmer to blacksmithing, a fisherman to dig ditches, or a hunter to herd sheep, things might work, but they would be very slow.

A lord who does not understand his people cannot control the future of his land.

The next step is to figure out how to properly allocate these people and get the Red Tide Territory back on track as soon as possible.

(End of this chapter)