Chapter 43: Gareth's Passive Ability
Ambrose hovered silently above the ground as he inspected his domain. Everything appeared to be in order.
The humans who had come to seek refuge had finished building their homes; the newly cleared farmlands were already yielding results. With the help of alchemical potions, their first harvest would come within a few days and by the looks of it, it would be bountiful.
They were already marking out the grain they owed as tax. When they realized how much better life was here than before, their unease finally began to fade.
After the previous battle, the Porcupine Knight and the other nearby lords had suffered heavy losses. None of them dared to provoke Ambrose again. Instead, they turned on one another. Three lords had died in that war. What happened next was predictable: the survivors schemed to seize the fallen lords' territories.
Ambrose had no idea what excuse the Porcupine Knight had come up with this time, nor whether he could recover his losses. But one thing was clear. More and more freemen were fleeing their lands and coming straight to the lich's domain.
He now had over three hundred humans in his territory, a not insignificant number.
The sudden influx didn't trouble Ambrose, because Raul had grown into a capable administrator.
Ambrose couldn't help but marvel at how much Raul had grown. Hardship was a potent force indeed. The illiterate man who had once stumbled blindly into his domain was now managing hundreds of people with remarkable order and discipline.
Everything was developing smoothly; Ambrose no longer needed to intervene.