Chapter 50: The Perfect Completion Ceremony (2)

[A special reward will be given following your monumental achievement.]

Lloyd’s eyes widened. The completion ceremony of Maritz Wetland. It was right after he had finished signing the contracts with all the villagers who wished to migrate here. An unexpected message cascaded before his eyes as he organized the contracts.

“Is something wrong, Young Master?” Javier asked while helping Lloyd organize the papers beside him.

Javier must have thought it was strange when Lloyd stopped moving and stared into the space out of nowhere.

“It’s nothing, my eyes are just tired.”

“If you are tired, take a short break. I will finish up here.”

“Yes. I’d appreciate it if you do that.”

Lloyd left the paperwork for Javier to finish and he turned to the side, pretending to massage his eyes. As he did so, he read down the messages that floated in front of him.

[As a reward, you have received a large amount of skill experience.]

[The survey skill has been upgraded by two levels.]

[Intermediate Surveying: Lv. three]

[Area that can be measured at once: 3,600 square meters]

[Skill Options: One: Land Cost Appraisal, Two: Subterranean Scanning]

[The design skill has been upgraded by two levels.]

[Intermediate Design: Lv. three ]

[Volume of structure that can be projected at once: 216,000 cubic meters]

[Skill Options: One: Map Printing, Two: Floor Plan Marking (Two Dimensional) Three: Simulation Mode]

Wow. What is this?

It was just in time. Lloyd had been thinking of investing his RP in enhancing his survey and design skills. He felt the need to do it as he developed the Maritz Wetland. His current skills proved to be lacking in covering the vast lands and just when he had the thought, he leveled up.

What’s more, I didn’t even spend any RP. It was completely free.

There was no such thing as a free lunch, people said. Lloyd believed that was crap. He believed that he should drop anything he was doing and run to get a free lunch. That was Lloyd’s principle. However, that wasn’t the end of his reward. The truly valuable ones followed.

[You have gained a unique experience from designing and constructing a land of massive scale.]

[This experience is having a strong effect on your <Skill: Design>]

[Skill Option Two: Floorplan Marking (two-dimensional) has been enhanced.]

A message about the optional skill, Floorplan Marking (two-dimensional), appeared in front of him. The letters that explained the skill were erased in real time to be replaced with another. The explanation changed according to the following:

[Skill Option 2: Floor Plan Marking (three-dimensional) – You can see the three-dimensional floor plan of your designed output on the actual land. (Note: Only you can see it.)]

Without any words, Lloyd squeezed his fist without realizing it. The skill was nuts, Lloyd thought. This skill is absolutely and truly overwhelming. This means that I can create a complete aerial view of the land in advance if I use this design skill before construction.

A three-dimensional aerial view projected by a hologram would be incredibly realistic.

Lloyd would be able to see all his models in advance. What’s more, I can always modify the floor plan at any time. If I use it with the simulation mode, I can inspect the safety of a structure in real time during the actual construction. Jackpot. No, the word “jackpot” fell short of the luck he had just found himself in. This was because its potential was infinite depending on how Lloyd used it.

But let’s test it out because you never know.

Lloyd quickly turned his head. Javier was on the opposite side, arranging the paper contracts so Lloyd quickly surveyed a portion of the embankment slope. He then designed a simple mud hut in the surveyed space as a test. Then, he added the model of the mud hut he had designed to the embankment slope.

[Design Skill Option 2: Floor Plan Marking (three dimensional) has been applied.]

Points and lines emerged in the embankment slope in real time. They expanded and connected. At last, a three-dimensional hologram of a mud hut was erected.

“Hey, hey.” Lloyd stretched his hand and tapped Javier on the shoulder.

Pointing at the embankment slope with the hologram mud hut on it, Lloyd said, “Will you look over there?”

“Excuse me?” Javier turned and looked straight ahead.

“There. Is there anything there?”

“There is the embankment.”

“Anything else?”

“The tip of your finger comes to my view. Young Master, you have ugly fingers, which is something I notice often.”

Lloyd stared at Javier before saying, “Nothing else…Right?”

“No, Young Master.”

“Okay. Perfect.”

“Perfect? What do you mean, Young Master?”

“It’s perfect that you don’t see anything.”

Javier cocked his head to the side.

It was a look of absolute confusion. Lloyd became convinced as he looked at Javier.

Even if the optional skill of Floor Plan Marking got bumped up to three-dimensional, it’s only visible to me. Additionally, some more small rewards came. Could it be because he shoveled every day to construct the embankment? One of his tool skills, the shoveling skill, leveled up to basic level three. This meant that his shoveling would consume 20 percent less stamina, the shovel’s movements would become faster and stronger by 10 percent, and there would be a 30 percent less chance the shovel would slip out of his hands.

That wasn’t all. Even the RP?! He was given a generous amount. He received five points of likeability with the baron and baroness each, three points of likeability with Javier, and two points of likeability with Sir Bayern. On top of that, his likeability with all the villagers in the fiefdom went up by three points. Thanks to those points, he gained 206 RP.

[Current RP: 1337]

I’m going to be drowning in rewards at this rate.

The reward messages appeared in front of him one after another without any end in sight. Even on his way back home, he had to read through the messages in front of his eyes. All sorts of rewards and special incentives flooded his sight, and it was disorienting. It was the same when he returned to the estate but this time, what welcomed him weren’t messages of rewards shown in obscure numbers. Instead, emotional rewards that directly touched his heart awaited him.

“Young Master, welcome.”

“Welcome home, Young Master.”

“Please let me know if you need anything, Young Master.”

The administrator who did the job of the butler, the male servants who were in charge of the physical work in the estate, and the female maids who took care of the housework all tried to beat one another as they welcomed Lloyd. A long time ago, they used to go aghast and pale every time they bumped into me in the corridor. They plainly displayed fear, nervousness, and even genuine hatred. They used to flash all shorts of antagonistic emotions on their faces.

Now, things had drastically changed. Their attitudes were poles apart. They smiled as they looked at him. They didn’t smile just because they were in front of the fiefdom’s young master. Their smiles were sincere and natural, something people only made when they were truly happy to see someone. Lloyd was a bit dazed by this, to be honest.

“Ehem! I am quite charming, yes. Ahahaha.”

Lloyd had to put on an embarrassed smile on his way to his bedroom. His awkward reaction was understandable, given that he had never received this kind of treatment before. Not just in this world. But in South Korea as well.

He had always been a nobody. He was nothing but a poor college student. It was especially the case when his family was ruined. He absolutely became a nobody. When his parents passed away after suffering from the heavy burden of debt, he became a scum that lived at the bottom of the social ladder. He was always donned in ragged clothes as he couldn’t dare afford new clothes. He sustained himself with the free rice and kimchi in his dorm. As such, he always looked sickly and his face was perpetually yellow and lifeless. His confidence tanked and his expression became gloomy with it. He never dared to adorn himself in those years.

So, wherever he went, he was barely welcomed. Whenever he had meetings with his classmates in college, he was subtly cast out. Since he didn’t have any money, he never attended special events at school. Group projects flustered him the most. Paying for a cup of coffee burdened him whenever they wanted to meet up in coffee shops. He shook in horror when he learned that a single cup of iced black coffee cost more than one dollar. Thus, he was reprimanded for acting like a beggar by his group mates.

It was the same outside college. In convenience stores, the cashier clerks threw suspicious glances, thinking he was a burglar. The manager of his dorm warned Lloyd not to miss his rent with a sharp glare every time they bumped into each other. Such degrading treatment reached its peak during the time he applied for a part-time job at a lab. He needed quick cash. The part-time job consisted of doing a physiological clinical trial for a new drug awaiting its release. He was locked up in a hospital for a few days, forced to take drugs and sit blankly for several hours while someone came in to draw his blood every hour. He felt like he had become an experimental livestock.

And the only person who welcomed me in those days…Hmm, there was only the old woman from Gimbap Heaven on the first floor of my dorm.

He was a regular in Gimbap Heaven, and he occasionally bought one line of plain gimbap.

Each time he entered, she greeted him by saying, “Welcome, my dear,” and such an ordinary greeting was the most welcoming word in the whole world. That was his life back then but he didn’t necessarily consider it tragic. The fact that his existence was on the same level as a dirty floor mat could be surprisingly taken with nonchalance.

Instead of settling there, he strove hard. He put his nose to the grindstone to make a living.

Day and night, he worked his head off to not fall behind in his studies. He often got at least seven nosebleeds a week from stress and exhaustion. Even so, he clutched to the faint hope that things would be better someday, that his life would turn out for the better once he graduated and acquired his license, and did the best he could in his life. His compact room was his papal cocoon, and he worked his way through his life.

Well, thanks to my life back then, I was able to adapt to this world pretty fast from the beginning.

An unwelcomed presence no matter where he went. Lloyd was used to the glances mixed with aversion and mockery. Even if they were filled with contempt, he was fine. People insulted him that he was a brutish young master. They gossiped that he was a dirtbag, but he was completely unaffected. Compared to the constant ridicule he had to withstand back in Korea, what he went through here was a tiny scratch that made him itch. No, the mere fact that he didn’t have to worry about eating three meals a day made him happy. He didn’t care if people insulted him or not.

That was how he had felt then, but…I guess this is what it feels like to be popular…There were no more glances filled with aversion or ridicule. There was no more contempt or gossip. They were all replaced with gazes of respect and admiration and words of welcome. The same thing happened when he ate dinner with the baron and baroness.

“I hope you came hungry. Here, eat this.”

“Oh, okay.”

“Do you want to try this?” The baroness urged.

“Oh, sure.” Lloyd chewed his food.

“Why are you not eating the meat?” She asked right away.

“I am eating it right now…”

“You need to eat more.”

The baroness glued herself beside Lloyd throughout the meal. Whenever she noticed his plate starting to empty, she called the maid and ordered her to bring up various types of meat, bread, fruits, and cookies. If Lloyd dared to eat the salad for two bites in a row, that immediately triggered the nagging from the baroness to eat some meat. Goodness, I’m going to have indigestion. His stomach was already warning him. His stomach was so full he felt like it would burst at any second, but the baroness continued to egg him on with no end in sight. She was partnered by the baron, who threw a happy look across from the table.

“It must’ve been hard to lead a big construction project all this time. Look how much weight you lost.”

“Uhm, I didn’t lose any weight,” Lloyd quietly refuted.

“Yes, you have. Your face is now half the size that it used to be.”

“Uhm, that is because…”

“Eat some more. Take big bites. It’s not manly to peck at your food with a fork,” the baron stated.

“Ugh…I am now…”

“Craving for a grilled duck? Here you go.” The baroness cut in.

Kill me instead.

Lloyd wanted to cry, but he did the opposite. He laughed. Though his stomach was strained, his heart was warm. It was especially so when he thought about The Knight of Blood and Iron and the ill fate the barony goes through at this point in time.

By now…Originally…Yes, the baroness falls ill.

In the novel, around this time, the baron and baroness could no longer stay in the estate.

They were kicked out of this estate and forced to live as guests in an acquaintance’s house.

Embarrassed and ashamed to stay without paying back, the baroness rolled up her sleeves.

She cleaned the house and washed the dishes in an effort to pay back the help they received.

She was someone who had never worked a day in her entire life before then. What’s more, the house owner, who was grateful for the baroness’s kindness in helping out in keeping the house clean and tidy, eventually started taking her for granted, so the house owner tossed more work in her way. This continued from summer to fall until the stress and physical labor from the unfamiliar housework finally made her ill.

It was pneumonia. Every night, she coughed blood. The moldy and murky blanket became soaked with tears. Though she managed to escape death, it was a torturous experience.

Eventually, the baron, who looked after the baroness, contracted pneumonia as well.

Dejected and despaired, the two eventually returned to their original estate in secret.

In the place they once called home, the two ended their own lives right here at this very place where they were having a meal together. It’s a relief that things didn’t pan out that way, Lloyd thought to himself.

It had been about six months since he arrived in this world. Lloyd was relieved that he had been productively spending his time. A sense of relief flooded him that the misfortune in the novel didn’t happen to this family. Just like that, Lloyd was able to smile at ease as he looked at the baron and baroness.

“It’s a bit awkward to keep eating alone. Why don’t you eat as well?” Lloyd suggested.

“No, we have eaten enough already.”

“Do you not like the food?” The baroness asked, wary.

“No, it’s not that, but…”

“Aha! You must want to eat pork, I presume. Just as a man should. Here, there you go. Help yourself all you want.”

“Hohoho. Why don’t you try the steak? It’s freshly grilled.”

I’ll take back what I said about my heart being at ease.

That day, the overeating got Lloyd to clutch his gurgling stomach and make several trips to the bathroom throughout the night.

The following morning rolled around.

“Ugh…”

Lloyd got up from bed, clutching his spinning head. His body felt like it was weighed down by a ton of rocks. Is it because I couldn’t sleep well last night? He had an awful stomach ache throughout the night. Thanks to it, he had to frequent the bathroom several times.

So he was left to roll around in bed but could never fall asleep. I can’t just laze around in bed all day. Time to get up! The reclaimed Maritz Wetland was just in its initial phase of development. He needed to hurry and maintain and divide the land before the migration happened. The fiefdom itself and the roads needed repairing as well. In short, he still had mountains of work to do.

“Hey, wake up.” Lloyd, who had gotten up and dressed earlier, tapped Javier on the shoulder.

He smiled, a bit dumbfounded by how the tables had turned, and he was the one acting like an alarm for Javier ever since the lullaby service began.

“Hmphh…” Javier frowned as he opened his eyes.

Lloyd’s smile widened as he heard him.

“You don’t even get out of bed until I wake you up now.”

“Uhm, I am sorry, Young Master,” Javier groaned.

“Forget it. Wake up. We have a lot of work to do today as well.”

“Okay, Young Master.”

Javier fumbled out of his seat. But there was something off about his face. Lloyd cocked his head to the side.

“Hey, you.”

“Yes, Master Lloyd.”

“Is everything okay with you?” Lloyd frowned.

“Yes, Young Master.”

“Then what’s up with that grimace on your face?”

“Ah, I apologize. My head is pounding for some reason.”

“What? You too?”

“Yes. Wait, Master Lloyd, you too?” Javier’s frown deepened.

“Yeah, this headache has been killing me all morning too.”

“Let us have breakfast first…”

Both of them smiled at the ridiculousness of this strange coincidence, but when the maid entered the room later carrying a tray of breakfast, their wry smile instantly wiped off their faces.

“Hey, are you upset? Why are you frowning too?”

“I am sorry, Young Master. For some reason, I’ve had an awful headache all morning…”

The grimacing maid replied as she flinched in surprise. Lloyd and Javier’s faces hardened at her worrying response.