For the rest of the year, nothing interesting really happened.
The construction groups continued to build houses, inscriptors started experimenting with their craft, the exploration group continued to into the unknown, just to come back to inform us, yes, there were more trees on the other side of the forest.
Etcetera etcetera etcetera.
The only... relatively interesting thing to happen the whole winter was me making another barracks in the winter, putting 20 more people in it, making Jonathanne’s squires proper knights, and giving them each a squire to help them in managing their forces.
And, with having a total regular count of 34, I gave Jonathanne and her squire 12 Regulars to manage, while giving Joshua and Jay 11 regulars each.
Also, I appointed Jay as the leader of the exploration groups, along with the official who was mostly acting like a master cartographer who was combining the maps of the exploration teams to try and make a map of our surroundings.
It was shit. But we could hardly be considered a civilization in the medieval times, so the maps he made were good enough.
Other than Jay’s new appointment as the head knight of the exploration groups, Jonathanne, of course, became the head knight of the guards of the capitol, with Joshua being responsible for the patrolling of the mines, the quarry, and the village up north.
Other than our recent military improvements, I also had made a few altars of life with the help of the inscriptors.
I, of course, didn’t give them the blueprint on how to actually complete the thing, and did it myself instead.
Each altar was more of slab of stone with a plate of copper on top of it, which held many hieroglyphics on both sides of the copper plate. And the plate itself had a small mana stone on the centre of it, powering the entire thing.
Of course, the mana stone was not actually needed as this thing could work by itself thanks to Rae, but the mana stone was needed for me to successfully rig it to be able to create a limited number of Homunculi.
And the “Altar” was set to be only able to summon 10 Homunculi, after that the mana stone would run out, and the entire thing would become just scrap metal.
I, of course, wasn’t planning on giving cities with a population of a million an altar that could only summon 10 people, no no no.
I’d be roughly defining villages, towns, and cities by their population, and giving them altars that were relative to their population.
Villages, which were settlements of 0-100, would get an altar that could create 10 people.
Towns, which were settlements of 100-1000, would get altars that could create 100 people.
Big towns, which were settlements of 1000-10.000, would get altars that could create 1000 people.
Yada yada yada yada yada... you get the point.
I wouldn’t be expecting each and every settlement to use up all the charges in their altars, as that would be just stupid.
Afterall, droughts, bad crops, diseases, natural disasters, and many, many more such things that would affect settlements existed.
New blood in those cases would only be detrimental to the people, so instead of settlements having to opt out of receiving an altar every year, or just stocking up the altars they were given to use them later, I’d be sending the altars to settlements that were opted in.
To get an altar, you’d just have to prove your settlement existed, and let an inspector see it, and after that, you’d be sent an altar every year with a small contingent of soldiers.
At any point, you could just tell them to not bring any new altars the next year, or only ask for altars for a set number of years, like for the next 3 years or so.
This would require quite a bit of infrastructure as sending small groups of soldiers to each and every town and village in an empire? Yeah, that’s... hard... to say the least.
But I also wanted to be able to just pull up a records book, and compare it to my population on my empire system, and know exactly where, how, and when I got that population.
And also, I was concerned about slavery, human trafficking, and a whole plethora of shit people with ill-intentions could do if they ever got hold of these altars.
So, absolute control over them was just a necessity.
I could, of course, always just not give out these altars, and only create people myself, but that would create its own share of problems with the most important one being the fact that, if I did so, I’d be able to create at most a few hundred, or maybe a thousand people in a year.
Because of infrastructure, food, lodgings, etc.
So, that’s not a good idea.
And while controlling the population growth with an iron fist was... a worse idea probably, as, if there ever was a noble, I didn’t like, I just could stop sending his towns altars, which would give me unimaginable amounts of political power, and basically choke an economy that would undoubtedly be built upon the knowledge that the next year they’d get a few hundred more people.
I, of course wouldn’t do so... unless if there was an active civil war or another crisis of such magnitude was ongoing and I needed loyalty more than anything, but, other than those fringe cases which... may not be actually that fringe of cases taking the entirety of the medieval period from earth into account... b-but, other than those fringe cases, I’d never abuse my powers!
You can trust me, the guy whose calling himself the emperor of an entire species!
Anyways, I think that’s the important things for the winter dealt with, so we can return to the present time where... nothing important is happening either!
As the farmers return to their field, I’ve created another 20 farmers, which should produce enough... produce, to feed 200 more people.
I’ll use this month, where the farmers are harvesting their crops, and overhaul taking care of the fields in addition to caring for the animals to send CG2 and 3 to build a new granary inside the second wall.
Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.
Do we need this new granary? Not really, but its good to be prepared!
Oh, and I don’t think I’ve talked about this before but, yes, I do have a small group of people that have been just trying to tame the local wildlife, and other herds of horse-cats, which are quite helpful in the field.
We have a few dozen of them at this point, and hopefully no incest is going on between them as if that’s the case... we are going to have some problems down the line in... a decade or less, I think?
Anyways, with every year we get a few more cat horses, and in a few years, we should have more of a variety in the animals we have, so I probably don’t have to pay attention to it much.
Though that can be said for a lot of things as the town is already running itself pretty well only a year after introducing some officials to manage it.
I only have to come up with an overhaul plan, and give directions to people, and create more of them.
Then everything goes steadily... yeah, I am definitely getting deposed, aren’t I?
Though that may not be that bad overhaul as I’ve asked this to Rae before, and she said that, if I were to ever get deposed, she’d just wait a few years and summon a new champion to either infiltrate the society, or conquer it and become the emperor.
So yeah, not really needed. Though I still want to, and will try to, be the best emperor I can while I am in charge.
If I get deposed, so be it. If the people will it, it will happen—and not like I am that interested in ordering the slaughter of hundreds just to cling onto a throne that... doesn’t actually even exist yet.
Anyways, my potential future of no concern right now. That’s in the future.
Far. Faaaar future.
For now, I need only worry about the things happening around the town, and just... wait.
A month later, so on my 1.486th day in the new world, the farmers were done caring for the fields, and CG2 and 3 were done with constructing the new granary, which was basically just the double the capacity and the size of the old one with being able to hold enough food to feed 1.600 people for a year.
Our current granary was pretty full, so we didn’t need to store that much more food, but like how the nobles of my empire would do in the future, I was basing the development of the capitol on rapid growth, and the fact that I’d get a few dozen to a hundred people by the next year, and reach the 500 adult population mark.
If my calculations are correct, we currently have around... 419 adults in the entire empire, and 54 babies/kids, which puts our total population to 473.
So, yeah, seeing as we’ve doubled our adult population in a year, and seeing as, as we are going to get more houses and as more people are going to go out to start their own settlements, farms, etc., our population growth speed will increase, and we will probably be using the new granary to its full capacity before we are even aware of it.
So, I cannot help but look forwards to future, knowing that we are going to develop faster and faster and—who knows, in a few decades I may have the luxury of not shitting in a latrine, and using a modern toilet instead!
----------------------------------------
After barely half an hour of walking next to the river, we reached the village.
There were only a handful of homes around with most of the village folk seemingly in the field, but as me and my 3 men approached the village, I could see the visage of a familiar face in the distance.
Mayor Juan was ready to greet us in the village’s entrance.
“Welcome Sir Joshua! What has brought you here instead of Squire Jaques? Is there a problem in the capitol?” He asked as we approached, curious as to why we were here in this day of the week instead of the usual friday where we’d come to deliver additional supplies to the village.
“Nothing that dire Mayor, The Emperor wished me to deliver you something important. Designed by the goddess herself and crafted by the inscriptors with care. A gift, or a blessing if you will.” I told him, and signed one of my men to bring forth the wheelbarrow, contents of which were hidden by a piece of cloth.
Curious as to what we had brough the Mayor stepped forwards and watches as I lifted the veil from the wheelbarrow.
“It’s a... rock?” The Mayor asked, confused to what he was looking at.
“Not a mere rock, Mayor. Like what I said, this is a blessing from the goddess herself and the emperor himself.” I said, and as I was talking two of my men lifted the Altar upwards, and showed the Mayor the divine inscriptions written on the copper plate, and the shining blue rock in the middle—a mana stone.
“It’s a rock with some inscriptions on it? Don’t get me wrong Sir, while I am grateful to The Emperor and The Goddess for their gift how are we supposed to use this?
“It is no hoe to help us plow the field, its no axe to help us chop down the trees, and it most definitely is not a spear or a bow to help us defend ourselves from monsters and wild animals alike!”
“Don’t worry Mayor, this is more than a simple rock. This—” I said pointing at the Altar.
“—Be an Altar Of Life! Which will allow you to imitate The Emperor’s ability of creating to a lesser degree.” I said, and as the words left my mouth, for a spilt second there was confusion on Juan’s face, then a brief moment of understanding, and then surprise, and finally confusion mixed with some fear.
“T-that can’t be! You surely don’t mean this altar will allow me t-to...”
“Yes Mayor, that’s exactly what I mean. This altar will allow you to create 10 of us—if you wish to take it that is.”
“W-what! O-of cour—ahem. I mean, of course. Why wouldn’t I accept the blessing of The Emperor and The Goddess?”
“If you want to, accept it. But know that you have the option to not—as accepting it will hold you accountable if its ever lost.
“And The Emperor made it very, very clear that if the altar was ever lost, there’d be some serious consequences.
“Is that clear? Do you want me to explain how it works?” I asked the mayor, and for a moment I saw the fear in his face rise, but there was also a seed of curiosity.
“Do you mind telling me how it works first, Sir Knight?”
“Of course not. It’s quite simple really.” I said and took the altar from the men who were holding it, and held it myself.
“This altar acts as the core of the whole creation process—you only need to put enough wood, food, or organic things in a 10-meter radius of it for it to create a new person.
“It also can create a total of 10 people—until it needs to be replaced that is as the power of the divine can be a bit corrosive to the metal that holds the whole contraption in place.
“Beware though, as anyone created through this altar, while having free will and some knowledge of their own, will not have a name, or any experience in any of the crafts, so you will have to either give them a name, or let them name themselves and teach them a craft so they can live their life to the fullest.
“If you take this altar from me—we’ll assume that you want more of them and will send a new one every winter or early spring, and will take the old one from you to be recycled. Or, if you want, we can only send them for a few years, and then stop sending them.
“Though you will always be able to ask for more if you need them. But don’t feel like you have to accept this altar, or summon all 10 people that it is capable of.” I explained to the Mayor, and then he asked me a few more questions, and I answered them to the best of my knowledge.
“Fascinating... but I’ll have to reject the offer for now as this village has no need for more men—and no capacity to help them settle down and live a fulfilling life.
“Though I’ll be asking for an altar in the future if that’s acceptable.” The Mayor said.
“More than acceptable Mayor, just send a runner to the capitol, or ask one of the soldiers coming weekly for it, and we will send you one next winter or spring.
“Though if you ask in winter or spring, we’ll bring it in a few days at most.”
“Well then, thank you for your informing me about this, Sir Joshua.”
“Nothing important Mayor Juan. If there is nothing else, I’ll be on my way then?” I asked, and I saw him pondering for a few moments.
“Actually... there is something.”
“Oh? What is it then?”
“A wild animal or monster spooked the hunter this morning, and he’s been locked up in his home with his wife ever since. After interrogating him, I’ve sent 3 men with militia equipment into the forest a few hours ago, but they haven’t returned yet.
“I am not worried that much yet as the part of the forest the hunter described was quite far away, but if you would go and check on them, I’d be most grateful!”
“A monster in the forest? What did the hunter say it looked like?”
“He said that it was like a black bolt of lighting stalking him. Whenever he looked at it, whatever it was, was already gone.
“Though that’s... all we really have. I thought that it may be some weird wolf or something, but not sure.”
“Hmm... perhaps its just a subspecies we’ve not seen yet?”
“Perhaps it is Sir.”
“...Sure, I’ll check it out with my men, after I talk with this hunter of yours.
“If you would be so kind to lead me to him then?”
“With pleasure!” The mayor said, and we took off to the forest line, going towards the hunter’s hut.
And as we walked, I wondered if I should send a runner to report this to Jonathanne or The Emperor, but decided not so.
After all, 4 men could handle a simple monster, could we not?