Blacksmithing Is Child’s Play for a Dark Mage - Chapter 76

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 76
I had to build homes for the settlers who poured in, provide food supplies for a year, construct a temple in the midst of it all, and maintain a steady production of medium-tier skeleton soldiers to boot.
And that was just the beginning.
With the population growing, I needed to expand the chicken farm, till more fields, and as trade volume increased, expand the harbor as well—and whenever populations swelled, monsters would appear from places I still couldn’t fathom, so I had to keep culling them.
There was an enormous amount of work to do!
Though the income was staggering, the pace of expansion was equally staggering, so essentially everything I earned went straight back into reinvestment.
The one silver lining was that maintaining an army of fifteen thousand medium-tier skeleton soldiers cost nothing.
Had I tried to sustain that many living troops, I would’ve gone bankrupt long ago.
Caught up in all that chaos, I had no time to venture into dungeons or work as a mercenary for hire.
My recent exploits had drawn employment offers from various quarters, but regrettably I had to turn them all down.
A full year passed like that.
With Lant and Kael at my side, I worked tirelessly until finally—
I achieved the stabilization of the territory.
* * *
“I did it. Hah! Of course I did! I was capable all along!”
Tay stood atop his manor’s roof, gazing down over the territory below.
Golden wheat fields stretched out as far as the eye could see.
“Congratulations, my lord. Now we’re in surplus at last.”
Lant offered her words of congratulation from beside him.
Though the slave curse had been broken, this girl remained enslaved in practice—already more retainer than servant.
And she was the one who followed Tay more closely than anyone else in this territory.
Her praise carried multiple layers of meaning.
But the most important was this:
One hundred and ten thousand people had been fully settled.
All farmland had been distributed, and the harvest was abundant.
In other words—I had successfully developed the territory completely!
To accomplish this in mere years was extraordinary.
Tay’s exuberance was well justified.
Moreover, despite the territory’s humble origins, Tay had invested in sewage infrastructure with meticulous care.
It all cost money.
A fortune, truly.
But because the sewage system was constructed so thoroughly, the territory was spared foul odors, and disease never took hold.
By the standards of this world, this alone made it an upper-tier territory.
Some territories elsewhere had no sewage at all—their people would fill chamber pots and simply fling the contents out windows into the streets.
Naturally, the reek of filth hung heavy over the entire thoroughfare.
But Tay’s territory had proper sewage from the start, and every home had been equipped with latrines, so there was no such problem.
It was all thanks to Tay’s obsessive commitment to territorial development.
This, truly, was the triumph of human will.
Indeed, Lant was watching him with quite a serious expression.
“My lord. You have now become a true lord and a genuine member of the nobility. The ancient houses will not acknowledge you, yet socially, none in this region—save perhaps the Grand Duke himself—would dare look down upon you now. So tell me, my lord: what do you intend to do next?”
At Lant’s words, Tay gave a soft laugh.
“You already know what my goal is. Ah—are you asking about the methodology?”
“Perhaps.”
“First, I need to make it so the territory can run without me. The priority is figuring out how to separate military command from my direct control.”
“You mean control over those skeleton soldiers.”
“Exactly. That has to be solved first.”
Currently the skeleton soldiers were governed through my Hunter Ability, which meant they were impossible to command without me present.
Of course, they could be used for territorial defense if I left standing orders, but… that came with many constraints.
They would only follow the simple commands I left behind beforehand.
“To do that… I need to become stronger.”
“So we circle back to that, do we? Are you planning to go to war?”
“I’ve already checked. There are no more wars in this region.”
Though wars erupted constantly across the world, the vicinity of Harundel Marquis Territory had fallen quiet.
If conflict arose, I’d rush to it—but there was none. A pity.
Rumor had it that my overwhelming dominance in the last war had discouraged others.
Some said that if another war broke out, everyone would be thinking: “Tay Maker Baron will come”—and that alone gave them pause.
“That’s a problem.”
“It is indeed. So I’m thinking about what to do.”
Enter dungeons. Or embark on monster hunts.
For now, those were my only two options.
“For now. I’ve worked long enough. I think I’ll rest through the winter and see how it goes.”
“Hmm… that sounds like a good idea.”
Lant agreed.
After all, permanently settling 110,000 people was no small feat.
* * *
When autumn’s harvest came to an end,
Tay’s territory enjoyed another bumper crop.
Because of this, he decided to hold a harvest festival.
He hired performers and traveling bards from Harundel in great numbers and brought them in, then opened the stores of alcohol to all.
“Hrah! Long live the Lord!”
“I’ve never seen a nobleman who cares for the likes of us the way you do!”
“My Lord, we beseech you to rule over us for many years to come!”
Such medieval sensibilities.
Their very concept of the world differed from that of a twenty-first century earthling.
Look at that mindset—they thought being ruled over was their rightful place!
In any case, the harvest festival was conducted with great splendor, serving as a lubricant for the newcomers to adapt better to life in the territory.
After all, the inhabitants of the Tay Maker Barony were originally the poor of Harundel.
Their transformation into farmers and poultry farm workers through adaptation to the territory had been quite difficult.
But now it was all in the past.
Everyone had adjusted, and now they were drinking and drowning away the cares of the year, after all.
After the harvest festival passed,
winter arrived in earnest. In the meanwhile, Tay bought up Black Magic Grimoires of Class 1 and Class 2 as quickly as he could find them and studied them, beginning a leisurely and restorative life.
One of those pursuits was,
fine dining.
Sizzle, sizzle.
“This is it!”
A cauldron brimming with hot oil, bubbling away.
Tay sat nearby, shouting with delight.
What was this, you ask? Fried chicken!
You might wonder: fried chicken now? Really?
But this was different from the other chickens raised in his territory.
Because—
he had wrung every memory from his past life, brining the meat with care and even sprinkling a touch of pepper—real twenty-first century earthling fried chicken!
“I’ll take it out now, my Lord.”
“Go ahead.”
And of course, Tay wasn’t doing the cooking himself.
Why would he when he could hire a cook? He had plenty of money!
Crackle.
The perfectly fried chicken leapt from the oil.
Just looking at it made your mouth water!
And then he had someone fetch ice-cold beer from the Refrigerator.
This Refrigerator too was an artifact he’d bought with coin.
An absolute feast of extravagance.
Crunch!
“Ahhh… ahhh…”
Ah! Fried chicken! The eternal friend of the Korean people!
Fried chicken became popularized in Korea after World War II, settling into the culture as the nation underwent rapid industrialization.
The very first chicken was roasted over fire—they say it started in Myeongdong?
After that, fried chicken became mass-market around 1980, and by 1985, Koreans had created their own original variant—spiced chicken—which emerged as a distinct style.
Of course, Tay couldn’t make spiced chicken.
There was no gochujang in this region.
Peppers existed, certainly, but there was no culture of making fermented paste from them.
It wasn’t just gochujang that was missing.
The very concept of sauces—soy sauce, miso—didn’t exist here.
In truth, this fried chicken itself was unknown in this land.
Chicken fried in oil?
Oil was absurdly expensive!
And besides, chicken itself was dear!
It was Tay himself who introduced it to the masses.
He grew soybeans in vast quantities, pressed oil from them, and used that oil to fry the chicken.
From the start, the poultry farm was a business begun to earn money while eating some chicken dishes himself, so naturally the oil business had to go well too.
In any case, Tay’s territory has come to be called “the Land of Skeletons and Chickens” by merchants.
The truth is, judging by sheer volume, chickens are currently the most overwhelmingly dominant export commodity.
Of course, in terms of profitability alone, the Skeleton Soldier Control Ring guarantees the highest returns, but isn’t that really more like expensive military supplies?
Chickens have the greater volume.
The poultry farm has been steadily growing in scale, now large enough to feed the 110,000 territorial residents (including slaves) and be sold externally as well.
Until this year, all the money earned was poured back into developing the territory, but starting next year, it will finally show a major surplus.
So surely it’s not unreasonable to cook a meal like this (though to be honest, it’s not really that extravagant anyway) and enjoy it!
“Ah… I wish Lant could have eaten this too.”
“She is showing more earnest commitment to Black Magic training, after all.”
Aas answered softly while seated at the dining table.
Sitting in an antique chair of unclear origin, he was reading an ominous tome that appeared to have come from Hell.
And true to his words.
Though Lant’s workload had decreased considerably by hiring Kael, she remained busy.
She was actively training in Black Magic now.
Indeed, she was currently Class 3.
In contrast, Tay was still Class 2.
In Tay’s case, there was an unavoidable lag in advancement since he could raise his Class through leveling, something Lant could not do.
Even accounting for that, Lant’s growth speed was nothing short of genius-level for a Black Mage.
In any case.
For that reason, she was quite busy with her training.
Thanks to which, Tay could indulge in his hobby like this, alone.
“My level doesn’t increase through training alone… it’s frustrating.”
Since awakening the Hunter System.
Tay had learned that training yielded barely measurable growth.
For that reason, he had simply given up on training. Wasn’t that why he and Lant had discussed where to go hunting just recently?
The most pressing task now was for the Crazy Craftsman to reach Level 5, so he could mass-produce items to control skeleton soldiers.
Once that happened.
Every problem would be solved.
“A Contractor is a being with special power, so there’s no avoiding it. Still… you should be able to level up this time.”
“Wait, where’s that coming from all of a sudden? I can level up?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“Because someone hostile to you has arrived.”
A Black Mage is Too Easy as a Blacksmith
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Automaton G
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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