Chapter 66: Northguard Keep

Su Lun did not directly trade White Sugar with the Skylark Chamber of Commerce. In his view, it was a luxury item. Unlike salt, ordinary people did not necessarily need sugar, so sugar was basically prepared for the nobles.

The goods Robert brought in his caravan included various daily necessities. Apart from a small amount of food, there were also items like alcohol and tea. Their arrival solved many problems in the territory. When Su Lun first came to develop the territory, due to limited funds, he only bought the most essential supplies and did not bring other goods at all.

The simplest example was clothing. The Wasteland did not produce clothes, so after their clothes wore out, many people wore leather garments. These were stiff and smelly, uncomfortable to wear and unpleasant to the nose. Before coming here, Robert had specifically asked Ji En about the situation in Su Lun’s territory and then prepared the goods accordingly, so these goods were naturally very popular.

Su Lun the “poor guy” had long run out of money from his previous purchases. If he wanted to buy Robert’s goods, he could only barter. Fortunately, during this period, the blacksmith shop had forged many sets of armor and weapons, which could be traded with Robert.

…

Robert was very curious about Northguard Keep. This small town, located about three hundred miles from Blackstone City, gave him the impression that very few pioneering territories so deep in the wasteland could last more than three months. The few that did survive past three months and eventually established themselves were all heavily in debt, requiring large annual investments. After all, maintaining a regular army of over a thousand people in the wilderness was extremely costly.

But Northguard Keep was different. Upon arriving, Robert’s first impression was that it was clean and orderly. Yes, clean and orderly. He knew that even in the Royal Capital of Florentia, except for the Noble District and wealthy areas, public urination and defecation were common occurrences. The city streets were muddy, and one might even encounter falling human waste at any time.

This town was unexpectedly clean, with tidy streets paved with crushed stones. In some places, stone slabs were used as pavement. No trash was seen on the streets, and passersby did not litter—even the Goblin, Kobold, and Gnoll slaves behaved the same way.

Later, he learned that this was by order of Lord Su Lun, and there were severe penalties for violating the rules: offenders had to clean the streets and toilets under supervision while wearing shackles. Those caught urinating or defecating in public not only had to pay fines and perform labor but were also whipped. Repeat offenders even had their “tools” confiscated.

At every street corner, there was a restroom. Everyone was required to use the restrooms. Besides cleanliness and tidiness, there were many rules here, such as dividing the road down the middle and requiring everyone to walk on the right side.

Although the entire town did not seem large, it was orderly. Several roads divided the town into sections, and almost all the houses were of the same style. Though not attractive in appearance, they looked neat. Some houses were already occupied, but many were still empty.

Each house, though not large—with only three rooms—had a reasonable layout. The houses facing the street were all two-story lofts, likely intended as shops. Drainage ditches were dug along the sides of the town roads, and the houses had dedicated sewage systems.

The southern part of the town had more residents, while other areas appeared quite empty. Many open spaces were fenced with hedges, seemingly reserved for future use. The area near the Military Camp in the town was off-limits to others, and the Lord’s Manor was also restricted to unauthorized people. However, the square was open for free movement.

Compared to other towns, not only was the population here small, but the number of soldiers was shockingly low. For a pioneering town like this to stand firm in the wilderness, it needed at least eight hundred regular soldiers. But this town? It had fewer than a hundred Barbarian Warriors.

Even if these Barbarian Warriors were powerful, their numbers were too small. In a large-scale battle, sheer numbers alone could overwhelm them. Yet, up to now, this town was still surviving just fine, which made one wonder if they had some hidden advantage.

However, the strength of these Barbarian Warriors was indeed formidable. On the way here, the Barbarian Warrior named Johnson likely had the strength of a Knight Captain. It was surprising that such a remote place had a Knight Captain who surpassed the Knight and Knight Commander ranks. If he were willing to pledge loyalty to the kingdom, he could at least become a viscount.

Besides this, what surprised him even more was that the town had a large number of slaves. Apart from the Serfs, there were over a thousand Goblin, Kobold, and Gnoll slaves. The number of slaves was already several times the town’s population, and yet none had escaped.

There were very few Freeman here; the vast majority were the lord’s slaves. But these slaves were completely different from slaves in other cities. Elsewhere, slaves had low motivation to work and often needed overseers to whip them. However, the slaves here worked very actively, completely without the need for overseers to use whips.

Upon discovering this, Robert was very surprised. After asking around, he learned that Lord Su Lun had promised that if a slave worked diligently for the territory for five years, he would pardon that slave and make them a Freeman. When Robert heard this, he was stunned.

After all, slaves were his private property. Wasn’t it enough to make slaves work hard with the overseer’s whip? Why release them? Did he have too much money? Robert simply could not understand this approach. They even established a point system for these slaves: working diligently every day earned a small number of Points, or joining the army and fighting in battles also earned Points.

Only when the Points met the requirement would a slave gain freedom.

In fact, Su Lun did this to increase the number of Freeman in the town. After all, if a slave knew they would always be a slave, could you expect them to work hard? Impossible. Su Lun successfully motivated these slaves through this method.

Even after five years, when these slaves became Freeman, they would still have nothing and would need to continue working for Su Lun to earn wages. It was just a more concealed form of exploitation.

Besides this, what intrigued Robert the most were the town’s workshops. Outside the town by the river, there was a Blacksmith Shop where weapons and equipment were produced. But when Robert tried to enter, he was immediately stopped. There were several such places, including one workshop near the Lord’s Castle, also guarded by Barbarian Warriors.