My Farming Domain Is Broken

The next six days did not pass quietly.

Carlos simply stopped treating every repeated task as something that needed him standing beside it.

The first troop lease taught him that quickly.

Joren Pell paid his clay share before each new work period, exactly as the contract required.

Cosmic checked every transfer. On the second day, the Four-Armed Goblin Berserker stopped one Tusked Burrower from reaching the extraction frame.

On the third, the second creature fled after the goblin met its charge head-on and drove both blades into its shoulder.

Joren said that when it crossed the territory’s boundary, it vanished, which made Carlos sad. Meat from that beast could have been useful for his territory.

When the third working day ended, the goblin returned to Ironroot through the system transfer. It had cuts across two arms and a cracked lower club, but it was alive.

Carlos did not send it out again.

Kaia inspected the cuts before the goblin could walk back into its barrack. None were deep enough to need a potion.

She made it stand in the Training Yard while she checked how it moved with all four arms.

"It listened to another Lord for three days," Carlos said. "Does that cause a problem?"

"Not yet," Kaia replied. "It knows you own it. But it has learned how Joren’s people panic, how those burrowers charge, and how to keep workers behind it. That experience is useful if it stays here long enough to become disciplined." Kaia spoke after having a long talk with the four-armed berserker.

Carlos looked at the goblin. It had been summoned for a contract, not for Ironroot. But it was back now, standing in his yard with its damaged club and four tired arms.

"Give it a place in training," he told Kaia. "It does not leave again until you say it can."

The goblin stared at him, then tapped its blade against its shoulder once more.

"Three days is enough for the first time," he told Cosmic. "We will see what worked. We will not treat this as easy resources; we are dealing with a real being, a troop here."

Kaia nodded at that and there was a hidden emotion in her eyes for a moment before she went back to duty.

The clay Joren delivered was not enough for Lydia to rebuild the entire district.

It was enough for her to test a small section of reinforced support beside Channel Three. The result held tighter against the Glasswood than ordinary clay.

Lydia did not celebrate. She only asked Cosmic whether he could find another source of such ingredients. But from a competent lord this time, not one that needed to be spoon fed.

Carlos liked that answer.

Cedric stopped sleeping beside Auxiliary Channel Three after the third morning, though he still checked the wall before assigning anyone to work nearby.

The seasonal seed store stayed dry. Rhea, Tomas, Milan and Evan returned to their old rotations. The attack did not disappear from their minds, but it stopped deciding every movement they made.

At Ironroot, the Dire Hyena Den became the first place the three hyenas chose to rest.

The injured one began putting weight on its leg again. The other two stopped following it everywhere and started circling the outer storage ground instead.

Carlos still did not summon another one. Mira reminded him why every time she placed food on the table, even though he was not going to summon one.

"One extra mouth becomes seven, then fourteen," she said while checking the kitchen board. "Do not make me say it again, please."

"I know, I know. I won’t do it, Mira," Carlos said, but he was getting a little frustrated now.

After a short conversation inside the hut, Mira understood that she should not repeat it in front of everyone. She agreed to speak to him privately instead.

Cosmic also completed the four Common-barrack purchases.

Carlos saw the prices, approved them, and watched the system transfer each barrack directly to Leon, Selene, Julian, and the fourth Lord under the recorded trade terms.

The cheap buildings were nothing like the ones Carlos had taken. But they were usable, and the system closed each obligation once the transfer finished.

Carlos did not send any of the defeated Lords a message afterward.

He had given them what he promised. That was enough.

The Sunseed crop matured on the fifth day.

Rowan harvested it with the two Farmers while Mira kept the kitchen workers from mixing the seed heads into ordinary grain.

Cosmic had found a small pressing service through the market, and the first batch of seeds returned as a few sealed jars of rough cooking oil.

It was not much. But Mira opened one jar, smelled it, and nodded which said a lot.

"It works," she said, clearly excited.

The food reserve had grown, but it had not reached the seven-day target.

The new oil reduced one pressure without removing the larger one.

Carlos kept daily summons closed. He also kept the Marsh Troll Barracks, Goblin Wolf Rider Stable, and the now-empty Berserker Barracks in storage except for the deployed goblin building.

There was no reason to fill Ironroot with more troops just because he could.

The messages from other Lords began arriving on the fourth day.

Some had heard that Carlos had beaten five attackers at the Ancient Cultivation District.

Others had heard that he now was leasing troops. A few asked whether he would sell a barrack.

One offered food for a Marsh Troll, which Carlos rejected. Food was the one thing he did not lack. The serious messages went to Cosmic first.

He filtered out the people who wanted protection without payment, the ones who wanted to know Ironroot’s location, and the ones asking too many questions about Leon.

Only two stayed on the list and Carlos did not answer either one yet.

He had learned the first rule of the business already.

A Lord asking for strength could be worth more than a Lord who owned strength, but only if the system made payment real.

Promises about future ore, future food, or future friendship were worthless by themselves. And those were the offers that kept on coming.

On the sixth evening, he stood near the western wall with Kaia. Below them, the hyenas moved around their den.

The wolf rider sat beside its mount near the wagons, watching the gate. The two Marsh Trolls were farther away, moving stone under Brann’s supervision because Carlos had decided that creatures strong enough to break a wall could also carry material for one.

Kaia watched them for a while.

"They are starting to fit here."

Carlos looked at the territory.

"I don’t like that, I am trying to send them to others but if they get too comfortable here, I might just do the same unwillingly..."

Kaia said nothing about that. Some decisions came from the heart and should be left for him to decide on his own.

But her mouth moved slightly, almost a smile.

But before she could say what she wanted, Carlos’s system panel appeared.

--

[Beginner Period ends in 1 day]

[All Beginner Lords should complete pending territory matters before the final reset]

--

Carlos read it without speaking.

The Beginner Period had lasted thirty days.

It had given him Ironroot, people who trusted him, fields that could feed them, enemies who now knew his name, and more problems than he had expected when he first stepped into a broken hut.

Kaia looked at the panel.

"What happens tomorrow?"

Carlos looked toward the road beyond Ironroot’s walls.

"We find out."