The Knight of Light plants the sun in the eternal night.

After finishing the sunflower seeds, Leo could feel the Holy Light Battle Qi within his body growing from one strand to two.

His fighting spirit seemed to have doubled.

Of course, he is currently in the "mid-stage of Tier 1 Knight" and is still some distance from the "late-stage of Tier 1 Knight". His Holy Light Battle Aura still needs to be refined.

"Early game, mid game, late game, perfect... another handful of sunflower seeds and I'll probably be able to reach the late game." Leo estimated contentedly, "Oden is already twenty-five or twenty-six, and he's only at the late game."

Oden is Leo's role model.

After all, he was a prospective knight of light who had been begged and pleaded by his predecessor to be taken from the baron's hands, and his talent was far superior to Leo's.

However, Leo is improving rapidly and is about to surpass Oden.

in the afternoon.

Leo made a trip to the fortified village construction site to handle some matters that Frankenstein couldn't manage, and to spread the lord's power and authority.

"The first batch of 110 houses in the northwest has been completed." Franken led Leo to inspect the new house. "The second batch of 110 houses has also been structurally completed. They are just waiting for the wood for doors and windows purchased from the Glowing Town to arrive before people can move in."

In fact, Leo comes to inspect the area every day.

They had a thorough understanding of the situation at the fortified village.

He asked, "How are the first batch of 110 houses planned to be allocated?"

"As per your previous request, I have made the following arrangements." Franken took out a piece of paper with his hand-drawn sketch of the fortified village, which was quite vivid, with each room labeled. "The forty rooms are over here, arranged as one or two shops."

The complex includes a blacksmith shop, a bakery, a tailor shop, a butcher shop, a fish shop, a bathhouse, a carpentry shop, a stonemason shop, a leather shop, a general store, a candle shop, a pottery shop, a cooper's shop, a herbal medicine shop, a barber shop, and plans to open a small tavern and a small hotel.

And a small market.

The small market would have locksmiths, shoemakers, scribes (who write letters), and other craftsmen. In addition, serfs were welcome to bring their own agricultural products to trade.

"In addition, the bee farm, mill, brewery and dye house that you requested are planned to be built outside the fortified village... As you said, these shops are polluting and unsafe, so it is more appropriate to put them outside."

"Yes." Leo nodded, approving of the arrangement.

Franken continued, "Of the other seventy rooms, I've set aside twenty to convert into the manor office, courthouse, public toilets, and storerooms... The remaining thirty rooms will be allocated to the knights as dormitories."

"Alright." Leo nodded in agreement. "Then, Professor Franken, you and Pluto should discuss sending someone to bring the knights' families over."

"Hehe, I've been making progress. My wife and kids are all ready and can leave anytime." Franken chuckled, then added with a touch of melancholy, "I just miss the stone house a bit."

Beside the castle are several stone houses.

However, once the knights have moved, these stone houses will be demolished, completely clearing the area between the castle and the fortress.

In this way, the area within 500 meters of the castle is all lawn.

The livestock pens and stables will be moved to the fortified village to maintain the absolute purity of the castle.

"Once the second batch of 110 houses is completed, prioritize relocating the local farmers there," Leo instructed. "This way, we can also demolish the farmers' houses and extract a lot of stone."

The houses built by local farmers all use stones from the old cobblestone pit. They look dilapidated, but there is plenty of stone.

These can all be dismantled and used to build fortified villages.

After a pause, Leo continued, "Once the farmers' houses are demolished, the farmland of the manor also needs to be redivided. In the second half of the year, we will start to expand the land and strive to reclaim 10,000 acres of farmland."

Swamp Manor currently has 6,000 acres of farmland.

If another 10,000 mu are reclaimed, there will be 16,000 mu of farmland and more than 1,600 serfs, averaging 10 mu per person.

The per capita amount has decreased, but we can consider intensive farming, so arable land is sufficient for the time being.

If further land reclamation is possible, then the buying and selling of serfs can continue, expanding the scale of the swamp estate.

Back to Sunflower Castle.

Leo saw the old knight Rhodes training children in the open space behind the castle, under the white ash trees.

After the training session ended, Rhodes came to report the good news: "Young Master, in just a few days of training, a twelve-year-old child has grasped the essence of Qi. This is another promising knight!"

"How does it compare to Camille?"

"It's hard to compare, after all, Camille can grasp the feeling of Qi on his own without systematic training. But this kid is only twelve years old, and he'll definitely be a second-tier Grand Knight in the future," Rhodes said with a smile.

The extraordinary system of the Eternal Night Continent is strictly hierarchical.

Tier 1 priests and Tier 3 phantom beast knights can only break through after contracting a magical creature.

Therefore, first-tier knights and second-tier grand knights, who can break through without a contract, have become the main force of extraordinary professionals.

Under Baron Linard, there were at least fifty Grand Knights, if not a hundred.

Therefore, a Tier 2 Grand Knight is not a big surprise, but being able to train one is much better than having none at all. At least one can kill more monsters and contribute more to the territory.

"They're all promising talents," Leo remarked, "but unfortunately, mythical beasts are hard to find..."

Let alone these ordinary Tier 2 Great Knights without any background, even Leo's older brother Neant has to obediently wait in line for the arrival of the Phantom Beast. Without the arrival of the Phantom Beast, there will be no Phantom Beast Knights to advance.

As for Leo himself...

He was already preparing for the future, planting sunflowers, planting more and more sunflower seedlings, hoping that enough sunflower seedlings would summon phantom beasts to descend, and even eventually, a giant dragon would tear apart the eternal night.

Thinking of mythical beasts.

Leo immediately thought of Vanessa Floating's phantom beast, an otter with a leaf of duckweed on its head, which he had seen a few days ago.

It's roughly called the duckweed otter.

For example, Leo's father, Leonard, had a contracted phantom beast called a glowing leopard, which had a small cluster of glowing mushrooms on its head.

"Floating Otter... If I have time, I should go to the pond more often; maybe I can run into it again." Leo's mind was racing, though he didn't know if it was for the phantom beast or for Vanessa.

It seems to be to fulfill Leo's imagination.

The next day at noon, after the solar mark had finished charging, Leo discovered that the direction the warmth was pointing to was the pool outside the manor.

Finally, the focus shifted to the water lily that had already triggered its flower language twice: "Miss Vanessa's phantom beast awaits a holy light animal to perfectly unleash its power. Perhaps, the large crocodile in the pool is the most suitable vehicle?"

The language of flowers has faded.

Leo, however, was agitated: "The otter wants a vehicle. Would my swamp crocodile be a suitable vehicle?"

"Vehicle" is a sarcastic term.

The official name is "Light and Shadow Mounts". Most Light and Shadow Mounts are actually Light and Shadow Warhorses. In particular, some mythical beasts that are not suitable for riding will transform into illusory light and attach themselves to the Light and Shadow Warhorses.

This allows the Light and Shadow Warhorse to possess extraordinary power like a mythical beast, enabling it to fight alongside the mythical beast knight.

"I never thought that the swamp otter would be a good match for the crocodile... Could it be because both are suited to fighting in water?" Leo quickly returned to the swamp manor, preparing to take the swamp crocodile to the pool whenever he had time.

When you encounter the Floating Otter, invite this magical beast to possess the swamp crocodile and get a feel for it.