During the past few days, Blackstone Town became lively. Despite the falling snow, people were frequently seen outside their homes, harvesting the poisonous weeds on the ground. Since those plants were ubiquitous, fighting over them rarely happened except in some isolated circumstances.

As Lark looked through the window of his room in the mansion, he felt a sense of satisfaction. After learning that he was the lord of this territory, the first thing that came to his mind was to restore the order of the town. And to do that, the first step was to satiate the hunger of his people. After all, starving men were no different from mindless beasts. It would be unwise to hand important jobs to such people.

Three knocks were heard and the door creaked open. Gaston went inside his room and handed him a stack of papers.

“Young Master, these are the files and records for Blackstone Town,” said Gaston. He was inquisitively gazing at the young noble. He had never known that a time would come wherein the Young Master would be interested in actually governing the place. And to his utter surprise, the Young Master asked him to collect all available documents related to this town.

The stack of papers was as thick as a forearm. A scholar would normally take a week at the minimum before they would be able to absorb those that were written inside. However, the Young Master merely scanned each paper. His eyes swiftly moved through each document, reading them quickly using magic.

After an hour, Lark tossed the last document onto the top of the table. He nodded to himself while holding his chin. Afterwards, he pulled out a quill and began drawing a complex symbol on a parchment.

“I have a clear idea of the town’s status now,” said Lark. “Gaston, I want you to order the mason living in the town to create a hundred stone tablets for me.” He handed the old butler the parchment containing the drawing. “Tell him to carve these symbols on the tablets. For the size, half an arm’s length for both the height and width should do. Make it as thick as a finger.”

The butler was confused on what was happening. He said, “Young Master, a stone tablet of that size would cost us about two to three silver coins each. I don’t think it’s wise to spend it on unnecessary things—”

“—It’s not unnecessary,” said Lark. He sat on his chair then sipped some wine. “Those things will enable my subjects to survive through the winter, at the very least.”

“Young Master… I don’t understand,” said Gaston.

“There’s no need for you to understand,” said Lark, bluntly. “Just do it.”

Gaston creased his brows. “I will obey.”

After the old butler left the room. Lark stood up and took out a document from the stacked papers. Written inside was the number of households and families in Blackstone Town.

“Got to hand it to the merchant that lived here before,” said Lark. The file was around a year old, but it should be good enough as basis for now. “He sure made work easier for me. He even bothered to create a census for the families living here.”

Lark still have no idea why the second son of the powerful Marcus Family was sent to this decrepit town, but he deemed that since this place was a granted territory, he might as well nurture it. His current body was still young, and despite the very low mana pool, there would still be enough room for it to grow. It would probably take a few more years before he could perform Grand Scale Magic just like before.

***

After three days, the stone tablets were finally finished. To say that they were stone tablets was a bit of an overstatement. Those things resembled mud than stone. Their brown finish reminded Lark of the uneven ground in the outskirts of the Magic Empire.

Lark summoned the servants in the hall. Before everyone’s gaze, he announced, “I want these tablets to be strategically placed in between houses.”

“As for their use,” said Lark. He took out a pouch filled with golden sand. “These things are basically heat stones. They’ll adjust their temperatures accordingly, maintaining an optimal temperature in a limited radius. Since this town is small, a hundred stones should be enough.”

Gaston stared at the golden sand the young master held in his hand. If he was not mistaken, those were gold dust, a raw material frequently used to create golden threads.

‘The young master surely wouldn’t…’

Before Gaston could even react, Lark started sprinkling some gold dust on the symbols carved on the stone tablets. He then placed a palm on the center of the symbol, and soon, the hexagram glowed a golden color, before vanishing moments after.

After Lark was on his third tablet, Gaston finally managed to blurt out his protests.

“Young Master! Those are gold dusts! To use them like that—” squealed Gaston. He could not help but shiver upon seeing the gold dusts disappear before his very eyes. It was like throwing gold coins away.

Lark chuckled. “Relax. What’s the use of golden threads anyway? They wouldn’t raise the productivity of my people. With these heat stones, working during winter would no longer be a problem.”

As time went on, Gaston realized that the young master was becoming more and more eccentric. Where did the hedonistic, mischievous, and arrogant young master go? Old as he may be, Gaston could clearly feel that the young master had definitely changed.

Soon, all of the tablets were completed. Lark nodded satisfactorily at his work. Gaston noticed that the temperature inside the manor had changed. It was as though summer had arrived.

“Nice and warm, isn’t it?” grinned Lark. “The advantage of gold dust is that even after a long time, the magic wouldn’t easily fade away. That’s why these things are one of the catalyst when performing Grand Scale Magic. Of course, if it’s High Rank Magic, the effect would not last long with such poor materials.”

Once again, unusual words were coming out of the young master’s mouth.

Lark said to the butler. “The heat stones will easily melt the snow within a certain radius. Place them about thirty meters apart from each other. Just to be safe, bury them half a meter deep into the ground. Also, issue out a decree that anyone who destroys or steals them will be severely punished.”

Seeing the resolute expression of the young master, Gaston nodded. “As you wish, Young Master. I will immediately ask the servants to install it all throughout the town.”

Lark was smiling. “According to the documents, there're around sixty or seventy residents that are currently homeless. Spread the news to them – Lark of the Marcus Family is willing to give them free food and shelter in exchange of their service.”

Gaston was startled. “But young master! That’s absurd! We cannot support such a large number of servants!”

After reading documents, Lark found out that he still had around four hundred gold coins left in the treasury. It was probably a small amount when compared to the other nobles, but in this small town, it would be enough to hire a large number of individuals.

Lark deemed that it would be better to circulate the money than let it stay inside his treasury. After all, as the lord of this town, it would all come back to him in the form of taxes eventually. Right now, his most important asset was not the gold coins but the people. In this town that did not even have a thousand residents, it would be foolish to let them die from hunger and the cold.

He had seen the barren lands he passed by along the way when he was riding the carriage. According to Gaston, those lands were non-arable. Lark could not help but shake his head when he learned that the vast land surrounding the town was not actually fully utilized. According to the farmers, only a small portion of it was suitable to grow wheat. It was utter bullshit born from the lack of knowledge.

Lark was confident that it should be possible to convert those so-called nonarable lands to an abundant wheat field. It would take time, but it would definitely increase the growth of his territory later on.

And right now, those jobless and homeless residents were the perfect candidates for the job.