Chapter 224 — Part 1
This is a story of when Christina was feeling lively in both body and mind, and was beginning to concentrate more of her efforts on government affairs.
Nearly three months have passed since Christina left the Armadia family home and became a baron, and she could feel on her skin that the season of summer was soon approaching.
At this time, the tower that stood near Bern Village, with which the Evil God Caravis, the Mother Goddess of Earth Mairahl, and the Great God Keios were deeply involved, became known to other cities outside of Galois. Now the streets were lined with adventurers looking for fame and merchants attracted to the smell of money.
There is also a growing demand for perfumes and medicines made from the rare plants and flowers from Ente Forest, which were sold only in Bern Village.
In particular, the perfumes of various flowers, including Diadora’s Black Roses, have become popular among the wealthy in not just the capital, but also in the eastern, western, and southern parts of the kingdom, and there are many noblewomen who were seeking out these perfumes.
But the most common type of visitor of them all were the second or third sons of farmers, who dreamed of owning their own land, and had come here after learning that any wild land they cultivated here would become theirs to own.
Since the Barony of Bern was in need of labor, they would accept anyone, even if their legs were scarred. Of course, they would not tolerate anyone who disturbed the peace, but in general, they would welcome all who enter the land of Bern.
And the very first thing to welcome all these people to the Barony of Bern was the newly constructed defensive wall and its gate. The lodging accommodations, and the imposing stone statues that adorned the large road that connected Clauze Village to Bern Village was already enough to astonish them, but the defensive wall and its gate was on a completely different level.
Because the south gate was the only place connecting the village to the road, and it was the first place that visitors to the Barony of Bern would see, Christina, Dran, and all the soldiers guarding it were currently placing great importance on its appearance and quality.
The soldiers who are selected from the Bern Knights to guard the gates are taught by not just their captain, Baran, but also by their lord, Christina, how important their job of guarding the gate was for the Barony of Bern, and that even if it seems like a boring job at first glance, it would surely grow in the future.
Wearing Damascus armor, which had been thoroughly polished and maintained, and applied with weight reduction, magic-resistance, and body-enhancing magic, and armed with halberds, longswords, short swords, and round shields made of the same material, the soldiers’ faces shone with pride for their jobs, as they knew it was a job worth doing.
In addition to the soldiers, the mass-produced golems, which Dran had sent in a formal patent application for to the Magic Guild, were lined up along the defensive wall, and they would provide full protection in case of an emergency.
Besides the equipment of every single one of the soldiers and all of the golems being of such high quality, it was the new defensive wall that caught the attention of everyone, even ordinary people who knew nothing about military power or magic.
Before, the wall had been covered in Diadora’s Black Roses and its thorns, but now it was decorated even more lavishly and gorgeously by the spirits of the trees and flowers who lived in Ente Forest, who wanted to copy after Diadora.
Seasonal flowers, trunks of various trees, and ivy covered the surface of the defensive wall, creating an appearance similar to the ruins of a castle being swallowed up by nature, and it was unique to the Barony of Bern.
Some people would stop before passing through the gates, and would get lost in writing poems or waving paint brushes earnestly on empty canvases.
Now that this defensive wall itself had become a tourist site for the Barony of Bern, there was a parking lot set up for carriages, and a plaza for eating and drinking, filled with food stalls and a cafe for refreshments, so economic activities have expanded outside of the village as well.
The defensive wall was only completed on the east side facing Ente Forest, the north side facing the Mores Mountains, and the south side leading to Clauze Village. The west and northwest side leading to the southwest section of the Dark Wastelands were only temporarily complete, as there was still future development to be made.
Instead, there were talks going on to build small observation towers alongside the construction of the defensive wall, in order to monitor the Dark Wastelands. Worker golems and soldiers were bringing materials and working on construction there.
While dealing with the daily influx of immigrants and tourists, one day, there was a special group of people who came to visit Christina’s mansion.
Cress, a former resident soldier of Bern Village who was now officially granted the rank of knight, had returned with some guests.
Cress had been on a mission to visit the Lizard tribe that had moved into the Mores Mountains to the north, and he had come back with gifts for the soldiers and the elder villagers loaded onto the Horse Golem carriages.
Covered in dirt and exhausted from his journey, Cress went to Christina after cleaning himself to give his report, accompanied by four messengers from the Lizard tribe.
Fortunately, since the Lizard tribe had already left the swamps, they had no objections to Bern using it, and they were happy to resume exchanges with Bern Village.
Since the Lizard tribe moved to a new location near a lake in the Mores Mountains, the trade items have changed somewhat. Bern has been exporting mostly processed foods, textiles, and luxury items, while the Lizard tribe has been exporting metals and rock salts from the Mores Mountains.
What especially made Christina and the upper class of the Barony of Bern happy was that they now had more ways to obtain salt, which was essential for their survival.
They had a sales contract for salt with the Ryuuguu Kingdom, but it’s better to have multiple ways to secure more salt.
The people of the Lizard tribe are bipedal lizards who are a head or two taller than humans, but besides them there are also two lizard-people, a male and a female, among the four messengers.
What makes the people of the Lizard tribe different from the lizard-people is that the Lizard tribe people are giant bipedal lizards, with the same level of intelligence as humans, and they share a genetic tree with reptiles.
On the other hand, lizard-people are demi-humans who were created through the cooperation of multiple gods and were given the characteristics of lizards.
They are mostly human, and the lizard characteristics are only secondary components. Their genetic tree as a species is also the same as humans. This is a shared trait among all demi-human species.
But as fellow people who share the same lizard elements — although it’s a little crude to lump them all together as just lizards — it wasn’t rare for the Lizard tribe and the lizard-people to live together and coexist.
These four young people would be staying in Bern Village to serve as mediators and points of contact for the Lizard trader groups that would be coming in the future, and as advisors for the construction of the facilities for their stay.
This was proof that Christina and Dran’s long-time plans to interact more with the other species in the Mores Mountains was making progress.
The Lizard tribe wasn’t the only tribe they were making progress with from the multiple species living in the Mores Mountains.
Originally, Bern Village had a river running from the northeast to the southwest, branching off from a nearby large river, but now the river has extended further through many parts of the village.
The area near the Dark Wastelands always had a scarcity of water, so aside from digging wells, it was only natural for them to build waterways. But it wasn’t just a simple network of waterways, just wide enough for small boats to pass each other.
The flood gate to the north, which draws in the flow of water from upstream, used to be surrounded by sturdy iron bars to protect it from large aquatic creatures, such as the giant tusked crocodile, but now a rising door type of flood gate has been installed.
It wasn’t only the river that ran through the village, but also the bigger river that ran upstream had been modified with the establishment of multiple small reservoirs on both banks of the river, as well as a pier for mooring boats and a small hut.
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