Chapter 91

Chapter 91: Construction of the Trade Port (2)

Around midday, at the training ground of the Daphne Knights.

“Haah! Haah!”

The knights were in the midst of intense training, repeatedly sitting and standing with logs hoisted on their shoulders.

With the addition of the original knights, the surrendered knights from Calpion, and even the Maw mercenaries now formally incorporated into the order, their number had reached thirty-five in total.

Of course...

“Keep your posture straight! Tighten your core!”

“Yes, sir!”

Hardin was also standing at the front, gritting his teeth and training alongside them.

His entire body was soaked in sweat—it seemed the heat had gotten to him.

Just then—

“Ha, Hardin hyung!”

“...Hmm?”

At the sound of a voice from one side, he turned his head to see Malion and the retainers galloping toward him in a mess atop their horses.

“Take a short break.”

Thud!

As Hardin dropped the log to the ground, the knights followed suit and sat down to catch their breath.

Neighhh!

Right then, the horse stopped at just the right moment in front of them, and Malion jumped down, grabbing the hem of Hardin’s clothes and shouting.

“P-please help, hyung! It’s an emergency!”

“What is it this time?”

“There’s a riot in Mudside right now!”

“What kind of damned riot?”

“I—I don’t know the details myself. But a massive crowd suddenly surged in, and we can’t control it with the current personnel... It’s urgent! Please!”

His panicked voice and frantic face clearly conveyed how dire the situation was.

But somehow, Hardin didn’t seem the least bit alarmed.

“Oh, really? Well then. Good luck.”

When Hardin replied nonchalantly and brushed Malion’s hand away, Malion’s eyes widened in shock.

“What? What are you saying? I told you it’s serious!”

“Don’t you remember?”

“Remember what?”

“Who was it that told me not to help? To just run the knight order... Who could that have been, I wonder?”

At that moment, a recent memory flashed through Malion’s mind.

– I’ll handle my responsibilities, hyung. You just... focus on the knight order.

– Come on, I said I’d help.

– It’s fine.

– I’ll help you.

– No, thank you.

– I should help you though?

– Not at all.

Ah...?

Malion blinked for a moment, then opened his mouth again.

“That’s because I didn’t expect something like this to happen back then, hyung! This isn’t the time to be debating who said what—we need to resolve this immediately...”

“Why? My amazing little brother can handle it all by himself. An uneducated brute like me, who only knows how to swing a sword... I’ll just stick to lifting logs and sweating here.”

“Is now really the time to be saying such things?! At this rate, Mudside is going to get completely wrecked!”

“Ahem, not my problem.”

Is he serious?

When Hardin completely turned his gaze away, Malion stared at him in disbelief.

Then, Engelmann, the quartermaster standing nearby, leaned in and whispered to Malion.

“Uh... Third Young Master, perhaps you should apologize to the Young Master?”

“Apologize? Why should I?”

“Well, strictly speaking, this situation was caused by the Third Young Master’s misjudgment, so...”

“Misjudgment? Me?”

Engelmann glanced around nervously before responding.

“I don’t mean you made a grave mistake—just that perhaps your wording was a bit... light, so to speak...”

“...”

‘Damn it... How did it come to this?’

How was I supposed to predict that this many people would show up overnight, let alone start rioting?

And what I said back then... I just meant don’t cause trouble, that’s all.

Malion scratched his head furiously, twisting his body in frustration.

“Ahem!”

Hardin let out a deliberate cough, prompting a deep wrinkle to form between Malion’s brows.

Though he didn’t say anything, the cough carried an unmistakable meaning.

‘Seriously, what did I even do wrong...?’

All I did was work my nose to the bone drawing up port construction plans... and then made them happen!

And now I’m getting this kind of treatment over a slip of the tongue? Really?

‘...Damn it.’

But what choice did he have?

At this rate, the riot would spiral completely out of control, and the only one who could put a lid on it was his brother...

Malion sighed deeply, then massaged his forehead with firm fingers.

“...I’ll do it, hyung.”

“What was that?”

“I’m sorry, hyung.”

“Didn’t quite catch that.”

At that moment—

Whoosh!

Malion bent his waist at a perfect ninety-degree angle and shouted at the top of his lungs.

“I’m sorry, Hardin hyung! I made a huge mistake, so please help me clean up this mess!”

“You’re not just saying that, are you?”

“No! I’m sincerely, truly reflecting on it from the bottom of my heart!”

“...Sounds like a lie to me.”

As Hardin scoffed and exhaled through his nose, Malion, head lowered, twitched his eyebrows.

This guy...

A strange tension hung in the air between the two of them.

Then, Hardin crossed his arms and shook his head with a sigh.

“Well, I guess I’ll be the bigger man. What can I do? My dumb little brother made a mistake—these things happen.”

“Dumb? Did you just call me dumb, hyung—mmph! What are you doing, Engelmann!”

As Malion flared up and raised his upper body, Engelmann quickly clamped a hand over his mouth and whispered.

“Calm down, sir. We need to resolve this first!”

“...”

Malion slumped his shoulders, then looked up at Hardin and muttered.

“You’re right, Hardin hyung. Absolutely right, of course.”

Tears flowed in Malion’s heart as he pleaded.

---

A few hours later, in Mudside.

“Aaaaagh!”

“Stand still, you bastard!”

“Why are you hitting me?! What did I even do?!”

“What do you mean, what? You don’t see the community hall all smashed to bits?”

Among the crowd of hundreds, Daphne’s knights pushed their way through the chaos.

They twisted the arm of anyone who threw a punch and swept the leg out from under anyone who kicked, slamming them to the ground.

Then it happened.

“Uwaaaaah!”

Crack! Snap!

One man, completely out of control, swung a wooden club at Beryl’s head with all his might—only for the club to break clean in half.

Beryl slowly turned his head and glared at the man.

“...What the hell do you think you're doing?”

“Hiiik! I-I’m sorry!”

Steam puffed from Beryl’s mouth, and his face twisted into a grimace.

The moment they saw his face—on par with an ogre or a troll—the rioters dropped to the ground where they stood, trembling violently.

And the most chaotic of all was...

“You little shit! You wanna get hit? Huh? You move again, I swear I’ll smash you!”

“Hiiik!”

“S-spare me, please!”

People went flying around Hardin, clouds of dust kicked up around him like a storm.

Each time he moved, the once-raging rioters turned pale, fell to their knees, and begged desperately with clasped hands.

“Third Young Master, this approach seems to be very effective.”

“...I can’t deny that.”

Maybe asking hyung for help really was the right call.

Malion and Engelmann, watching from behind, scratched their foreheads awkwardly.

How much time had passed?

“Alright, it’s done.”

Hardin clapped the dust off his hands and called to Malion.

In front of him, the hundreds of rioters—or rather, people hoping to be hired as laborers—were now sitting in neat rows on their knees, as if nothing had happened.

“...Thanks for all your hard work, hyung. Heh heh.”

“No problem.”

When Malion responded with a crooked smile, Hardin waved his hand dismissively.

Then he turned to a scrawny man kneeling in front of him and threw out a blunt question.

“So, what’s your deal?”

“Sir?”

“What kind of people come wreck someone else’s town like this? Were you put up to it by someone?”

As Hardin swung his sword lazily through the air, the man flinched and shook his head frantically.

“N-no, sir! We weren’t put up to anything! We just heard the Daphne Viscounty was hiring a lot of workers and came here for that reason! Isn’t that right?”

“Y-yes, that’s right!”

“We thought we might have a chance to work, but when we heard all the spots had been filled, we made a mistake out of frustration!”

The moment one person spoke up, the rest quickly bowed their heads, nodding along in agreement. Hardin pursed his lips and asked again.

“Does that make sense? That hundreds of people just happen to show up here all at once looking for work?”

“It’s true, please believe us! W-we all fled around the same time, that’s why!”

“Fled?”

“Yes! Most of us used to live in the northeastern regions, but we lost our homes to barbarian invasions. We’ve just been wandering ever since, looking for a way to survive!”

At that—

“Ah, yes. I did hear something about that.”

“Refugees made it all the way here...”

The knights and a few retainers standing nearby murmured among themselves, as if they’d heard about this before.

“Hmmm...”

Hardin scratched his chin and looked around.

Doesn’t seem like they’re lying.

There were elderly folks, women, and even children.

Certainly, for a labor recruitment drive at a port construction site, this was a very mixed crowd. They all looked exhausted, burdened with luggage—typical of refugees.

“So, you’re saying you’ve got nowhere to go and nowhere to stay, so you all came here looking for work?”

“Yes, that’s right! We had no intention whatsoever of causing trouble!”

“Please have mercy on us, Young Master!”

Our house began a large-scale recruitment drive, and just at that time, those barbarian bastards invaded, which drove all these refugees here...

Should I call this good luck or bad luck...?

Hardin let out a long sigh through his nose.

To be honest, hiring 150 laborers in a backwater estate like this wasn’t something easily done.

If things had gone as originally planned, it might’ve taken a month—or even longer—to gather all 150 people, just like Malion had expected.

Well, thanks to this situation, they’d managed to find enough people in no time...

At that moment, Malion spoke up.

“Hyung, we’ve understood the situation, so let’s send them back now. We’ve already hired enough workers... Prioritizing damage control is best.”

“...”

Hardin fell silent, deep in thought, before speaking.

“Is that really necessary?”

“Excuse me? What do you mean?”

“We can just hire all of them.”

Malion’s eyes widened.

“Excuse me? Is that some kind of joke?”

“What joke? If we pull in just the able-bodied ones from this crowd... we could cut down the construction time drastically, couldn’t we?”

No need to overthink it.

If they hired more than double the workforce, and managed it properly, the time required could be cut in half, right?

Besides...

It’s also a chance to increase the territory’s population.

The strength of a domain lies in its people.

If they were going to link Mudside and the main stronghold into a single large city, they’d need a lot more people going forward.

If they could bring these people in now and settle them here, it would surely be a huge benefit.

Yeah, not bad at all.

Just as Hardin’s lips curled up in a grin, Malion let out an exasperated sigh and said,

“Hyung, please say something that makes sense.”

“What now?”

“All our plans were based on 150 people from the start. What do you expect to happen if we suddenly change everything now...?”

“Plans can be revised, can’t they?”

“Excuse me?”

“And look at them. Their circumstances are pitiful. How can you heartlessly turn them away like that, huh?”

As Hardin gestured toward the crowd, the nervous refugees quickly nodded their heads in agreement.

“P-please, we beg you!”

“If you just give us the chance, we’ll work ourselves to the bone with everything we’ve got!”

The refugees pleaded with sparkling eyes and rabbit-like faces.

Hardin shrugged and replied with a sly grin.

“Look at that—just full of motivation. We shorten the construction time, and they get a way to make a living. Isn’t this the most beautiful solution? Krrrr… this is what it means to be a responsible noble.”

Malion clutched his head like it was splitting and continued with a resentful look on his face.

“Do we really have to do this, hyung? If we go through with this, we’ll have to build more housing, bring in more food... A lot of things will fall out of line with the current plans, and the chances of complications arising will...”

“That’s your problem to solve.”

“...Excuse me?”

“Anyway. I’ve decided—we’ll take all of them in and cut the construction period down as much as possible.”

Thud thud!

Hardin patted Malion on the shoulder, then raised a big thumbs-up.

“You can handle it, right?”

What the hell is this guy even saying...

Malion’s face was crumpling like spoiled fruit.

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