The town was indeed not large, and if anything was more like a sizeable village. The mansion that Noth would now be residing in was deceptively big and nice in comparison to how everything else here looked, and the fact that it was sitting at the top of a hill that looked over everything made it almost seem like it was in its own special little world. The way the staff at the mansion always acted like nothing was ever wrong made everything in the town outside seem so detached and far away. The inside of his new abode was always so clean, without a single thing ever out of place, and every maid was impeccable.
The outside town was another story. The houses were all falling apart and looked to be from some odd bygone era, the people were all covered in wounds and had rough and weathered bodies, either looking like muscular labourers or starving waifs. The elders in the village had eyes that seemed to have seen multiple tragedies pass them by. The children Noth passed in the streets looked a little too thin to be healthy. There wasn’t a single street stall in the main road, only people laying out their meager wares on blankets. Even the average person's clothes were basically just patchworks that had been sewn together. And despite how everyone’s eyes were glued onto the teen as he passed, not a single one of them tried to say a word to him.
Since the servants at the mansion seemed to be the only people that were willing to talk to him, although usually only if asked to, Noth decided to grill them on what the situation and history of the territory was. Apparently this settlement had only been around for the past 60 years, after a team of paladins had liberated it from a tribe of demons that were nesting at the base of the volcano. The old buildings that made up most of the town were actually taken from the demons, which is why they looked so strange and ancient, and the mansion was actually made for the previous lord of the land before Noth. Apparently the last lord had been a reclusive Viscount who only left the mansion if the demon attacks grew truly bad, usually leaving most of the town’s defence to his few knights. From what Noth was told, the Viscount’s definition of ‘truly bad’ was very… unacceptable. Supposedly, past a greater demon cropping up, or at least a handful of his knights dying, the man very rarely chose to leave his abode, and so the town slowly withered more and more under the constant assaults.
Upon inquiring further about why such a dangerous and barren place was chosen to set up the town, Noth found out quite a lot of unexpected information. Yes, one of the reasons they’d chosen this spot was because there was already a town set up here, as he’d expected, but even more than that, it turned out that this was actually the only safe location in the territory. Noth had experienced how uncomfortably hot it had been outside, and how this location was magically cooler than everywhere else. Apparently that was the doing of the ‘Lang Trees’, the odd blue bamboo-like thicket that the town was nestled in the middle of. Supposedly those trees, when in mass quantities, actually cooled the area down. And even more importantly than that, on the occasion every 8 years where the volcano finally erupted, the trees actually managed to help keep the town safe from the flowing lava. It seemed they were completely immune to the burning hot lava, and would even immediately make any that touched it turn solid and then shatter into bits. If the town hadn’t been located inside of the thicket, then there most likely wouldn’t have been a town left after all these decades of eruptions.
But then that made Noth ask the question that he had been wondering since he got here: Does the lava not reach to the outskirts of the territory where all the lush green foliage grew?
Apparently only the occasional eruption actually made it to the greenery, which is why it had such nice opportunities to grow. And yet, despite how lush it was over there, it was still not a viable place for them to set up any towns. Noth would have thought it was just because of the eruptions, but an even more understandable reason was explained to him instead. Purportedly, those green lands that encircled the beginning of the territory were where most of the demons that plagued them resided. That was quite the odd thing for Noth to learn, considering that he’d ridden through that area with relative ease when he came through in the carriage. He hadn’t even heard so much as a peep, and yet everyone informed him that it was highly dangerous to even step foot in the area, lest the demons quickly descend upon you and commit all manner of awful deeds.
In fact, apparently both the first and previous lords of the land had died when the church ordered them to lead an assault on the hiding place of the demons. Noth expected to hear a similar order from them sooner or later, considering how much they seemed to want him gone. Perhaps the only thing stopping the order from coming at him from day one was the prophet’s interference. The teen promised to say a tiny prayer of thanks to the prophet whenever that thought made an appearance in his mind from now on.
But if it was only a matter of time until the church decided to make its demands, then Noth might as well spend the time he had until then making the town a bit more livable.
~~~
Looking at the sad and starving state of the townsfolk, Noth decided that food should be the first order of business. From what he was told, most of the people grew their food in small personal farms, and some took on a terrifying amount of danger and decided to hunt for animals near the green outskirts of the territory. They’d lost many a hunter over the decades, so that choice of profession was very unpopular. However, the personal farms that the townsfolk grew weren’t large enough to sustain any families larger than 2, and since they were only safe inside of the odd blue thicket, there wasn’t a lot of land to work with, leading to many of the town’s denizens being on the verge of starvation. It seemed only those bold enough to risk their lives hunting or farming outside, and the people in the mansion living off of their noble’s supplies, were actually able to eat reasonable meals.
Noth knew how it felt to be constantly on the verge of starvation, living from one small offering of food to the next.
No one should ever have to live like that.
And so, the teen talked to his angel about what could be done.
“Would it be possible to feed all of the townspeople at once?”
“No, you're right, that wouldn’t do… Well, what if it was just one unending meal?”
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“No no, I mean like just one meal, like maybe a soup pot that never gets empty?”
“And then the next day I could still use our powers again?”
And so that’s exactly what Noth planned to do.
~~~
It was on Noth’s third day in Sleekka that he produced the unending soup. He’d chosen a hearty soup, one with both meat and veggies inside of it, so that the townspeople could get the proper nutrition that they so desperately needed. He had the large, child-sized pot set up in the middle of town, and sent a small handful of manservants around to spread the news that everyone could have as much free soup as they wanted. He figured that if the people heard it from the mouths of the others that lived amongst them then they might be more likely to believe the news, unlike if he’d been the one going door to door and trying to talk to the aloof folk.
The first day only about a third of the residents had shown up. It was understandable, considering how far fetched it was that he was actually going to just feed everyone for free. Noth was just happy that he’d caught even this many people’s curiosity. Hopefully they’d spread the news through word of mouth to their neighbours, and more people would gradually show up later. He’d given orders to leave the pot set up all day, and to move it to a nearby empty home at night. As long as the pot was outside there would be at least 2 servants from his mansion that would be working to serve the soup and helping to explain to the people what was happening, so the citizens could stop by at any time to get their chance at it. They were even allowed to stop by as many times a day as they liked, and the only rule was that each person had to bring their own bowl.
Noth had made sure to stand nearby the servants so he could personally see all of the people he needed to protect with his own eyes, and each time he witnessed a townsperson listen to the servants and then rush away to get their bowl it brought a smile to his face. At first he’d wanted to make a big sign that explained everything, but he’d quickly scrapped the idea when he realized how low the literacy rate of the town was. Now a small part of him was happy that things had panned out the way it did.
By the end of the day over half of the townspeople of Sleekka had shown up to get their free soup.
~~~
A few days later Noth had decided it was time to tackle the next improvement to his town. It was plain to see how dilapidated most of the buildings had become, and it would help in multiple ways if he used a bit of his powers to fix them up. He’d waited out a few days to hopefully gain a little bit of the townspeople’s trust before he started poking at their homes, and now that almost everyone in town was stopping by to get the free soup, everyone must have gotten at least some kind of look at their new lord. At the very least they’d be able to recognize that he wasn’t just some stranger they'd never seen before making odd offers to them.
There was a tiny piece of Noth that was confused why no one had ever asked him where the soup came from, or why it was seemingly endless. Shouldn’t anyone have noticed it by now? Sure, the townspeople could be easily tricked on the topic, but how had none of the servants asked him even a single question about it yet? Were they just that well trained, or did they somehow already have some form of infinite trust in him? In all honesty, the teen would have preferred the former to the latter. Really, though, he would have actually preferred at least one of them asking him and then gossiping about the answer to everyone else, rather than having to guess at what they were all thinking.
Noth really didn’t like not knowing what the people around him thought of him.
And yet at the same time he wouldn’t have been phased at all if he found out they all hated him.
It would be incredibly easy for him to just live the same life of seclusion that the previous lord did, only ever seeing his servants and family, and be perfectly happy.
He wanted to make a good impression as their new lord, but if they didn’t like him then they didn’t like him, and that was that.
At least he’d do his best to win them over before he decided to just accept their feelings and give up.
Before trying to convince anyone to let him fiddle with their oh so important homes, Noth decided it was best to actually verify what would happen if he tried first. Of course he’d already double-checked with Serris to make sure that what he wanted to do was even possible, just like always, but if he wished up a new home and it came out vastly different than what he was thinking or wanting, then that would be an important factor to know of ahead of time, before he messed with someone else’s property. Equally as important would be to find out what happened to the insides of the building when he changed the outsides. And so, Noth found a home a little off the center of the town, but still along the main road. Perhaps if this experiment turned out to be a raging success then this house could serve as a bit of proof to the people he approached that he wasn’t just some haughty noble making random bold claims. It’s not like they knew what Noth could do yet, after all.
As the teen was inside the house, checking what dilapidated furniture was already there, a sudden loud ringing sound filled the air. It seemed that someone was frantically ringing one of the bells in the small towers at the corners of the town. He could hear the passersby in the street gasp and start running, and the terrified voice of a woman shrieking at her children that there must be an attack, and that they have to hurry inside. Noth took off running in the direction of the bell as soon as he understood the situation. He ran along streets, and through alleys, damning himself for having been lax with his workout now that the knight that had been teaching him was no longer around. If only he’d been more persuasive, maybe the man would have accepted his offer to come along to Sleekka and keep teaching him.
Truth be told though, the knight had been right; It definitely would have been a tricky job to live a peaceful retired life in a town that suffered constant demon attacks.
When Noth rounded the final corner, he suddenly came upon the scene of a man being chased. It seemed that the man was trying to distract the beast that was chasing him so that it would stop attacking his family’s home, as they were running in the opposite direction of a demolished house wall while a woman and child peeked around it with great worry. The creature chasing him seemed… odd. Perhaps it would have been a wolf, but Noth had never once seen a wolf depicted as half the size of a carriage, nor had he ever heard of one with deadly rock-like spikes sticking out of its back.
In his confusion as to what he was looking at, Noth simply stopped in place. The desperate man didn’t seem without a plan, possibly having lived through situations similar to this before, and had escaped inside of a nearby abandoned home. It was a smart move, considering that the strange beast would have been much too big to ever use the door. But what was stopping it from simply breaking down the house? After all, it must have been the one who destroyed the previous house’s wall. It seemed that the wolf-thing had realized that very same fact as well, since it had already started its rampaging assault on the building.
“Serris, what is that thing?!”
...That was possible?