My territory is filled with block creations.

Chapter 42 Thorne's management skills are no less than a whole loaf of bread.

"Hmm?" Thorne asked doubtfully, "Logically speaking, isn't the village chief just a basic administrative officer of a village? Shouldn't we be able to hire one separately nowadays?"

Alex, showing no mercy, frowned and hummed in response, "Hmm?"

"Is there a problem?" Thorne asked instinctively.

"No, no, no, if I have any doubts in this situation, it's not that I have a problem, but that I think you have a problem," Alex explained seriously.

"Do you really think you can manage those villagers? Fifty of them! At first, I only managed eleven because Lester Doug and the others were obedient and had decent character. If there were a few disobedient troublemakers, I would have had to whip them."

"Nowadays, the number of people has increased and their composition has become much more complex. You have no idea what their experiences are. There will definitely be small groups, thieves, and lazybones who don't work."

"How could someone with such poor management skills, who's basically a piece of bread, possibly be able to control them?"

Thorne understood. He knew what Alex's problem was, and she wasn't wrong; he wasn't very good at managing people. But Alex was there for him: "If I can't do it, then there's always you, isn't there?"

"If I were truly skilled, I wouldn't have been exiled here just for selling that damn stupid sheep." Alex suddenly felt a strange sense of grievance before continuing, "Don't look at me with that mocking gaze; you're even less capable than me."

"Oh, okay." Thorne immediately agreed, his gaze becoming polite again. "So what should we do? Should we choose from the villagers, or recruit from other places? Or perhaps we could write a letter back to the capital to see if there are any other unfortunate exiles we could take in? Do you have any friends at the city hall?"

"Um... the two cow thighs I was planning to use as a bribe were stolen from a friend who runs a ranch. He manages those hundreds of cows quite well, does that count?" Alex finished speaking and saw Thorne's speechless expression, then gave an awkward smile: "And what about you?"

"I'll see if there's anyone suitable among the villagers." After Thorne finished speaking, he picked up the villagers' files from the table and read them through from beginning to end. Their education level was basically below prenatal education, and their special skills were basically all farming and physical strength.

"Well, it seems that the slave who was casually rescued from the slave traders was actually a great talent for governing the territory. It's just a story told by bards."

Thorne sighed: "So next time we go on a trade trip, we'll need Doug and the others to hire someone."

"That's all we can do. As for now..." Alex thought for a moment, "It's only a few days anyway. If you do everything yourself, you shouldn't be exhausted, right?"

"That won't kill you," Thorne said, and Alex touched her nose. "Actually, you don't need to answer; it was just a joke."

"..."

"This is actually a question that needs to be answered."

"?"

"Okay, I'll go out and get some sun," Alex said, leaving the work area, while Thorne continued working.

Since we're going to build modular houses, let's start with the foundation.

Just as Thorne began construction, Naro had just neatly stacked a roll of wire coils that had been wound by the wire brushing machine to one side. He would send them back to the warehouse together once he had stacked 10 of them.

The coils in the warehouse will be sent to the rope braiding machine to begin weaving once 300 coils have been stacked.

He had just finished coding the ninth one before continuing to look at the magical machine in front of him that kept releasing cotton threads.

Amazing, incredible. I had never seen such a magical machine, which could be described as creating something out of nothing, when I was an administrative adjutant in White Sky City or even when I was studying in the capital.

It can be said that any lord who has such a magical machine, given enough time, can transform a barren territory into a prosperous city renowned far and wide.

Moreover, the village is amazing not only for this machine, but also for many other things, such as the wheat field across the river that is growing at a visible speed. Although the old villagers have said that the yield of this wheat field is only a small fraction of that of ordinary wheat, its incredible growth rate makes up for this shortcoming.

They could tell from the densely packed flour piled up inside when the elderly villagers led them to visit the warehouse.

You could say that having food in one hand and goods in the other are two trump cards. If you had another one to protect yourself... Thinking of this, Naro paused for a moment. He remembered seeing a rotting corpse with its chest completely sunken in the wheat field.

The old villagers said that this was a thief adventurer who was killed by the lord of this place—no, I should call him the village chief Thorne—with one punch. An adventurer, killed with one punch… Well, this village probably doesn’t lack the power to protect itself.

In short, if White Sky City had these two trump cards, then it should be enough to feed everyone when winter comes. I wouldn't have been forced to resign and then captured to be a slave a year ago, right?

Well, I was overthinking it. In fact, the food in the White Sky City warehouse last winter was more than enough to feed everyone during the winter, but it was clear that some people didn't want to do that.

Perhaps if the lower classes are fed, then the upper classes won't have enough surplus grain to lavishly display their authority? After all, I remember seeing several officials at the city hall who were afraid the snow would make their children sick, so they sent their children to the city hall's warehouse and had a snowball fight with flour.

Those were just two low-level scribes; who knows what the higher-ups are up to? Even if they had an endless supply of food, they might only be researching how to build a magnificent castle with flour, instead of feeding the lower classes.

But Redstone Village was clearly different. At least he could see that the village chief didn't have the bad habits of those nobles, and he genuinely wanted all the villagers to live with dignity.

He even considered himself to be over 40 and getting old, so he arranged this easy job of watching machines to avoid being too tired and to have time to think about those strange and unusual questions.

The only problem is that the village chief is clearly not very good at management and social interaction, and is even still at the stage of doing everything himself.

Can you say this kind of person is bad? If you do, you're heartless. But can you say he can manage the territory exceptionally well? No, if you do, you're brainless.

So expecting Thorne to protect so many villagers in this messed-up world is probably wishful thinking. In fact, Naro believes that even with just these fifty people, without the original base of the dozen or so villages, Thorne would have a hard time managing them, just like he does now.

A villager who had been a slave just a day before was now standing directly in front of him, casually tossing a stone hoe in front of him.

"Old man, let's switch jobs."