Lord of Rot

’After all, I helped kill everyone in Wells’s direct line. If I hadn’t made a move, those collateral branches would never have had a chance to rise up. Logically, they should have given me a hefty reward for it.’

...

Pitz had been very busy lately.

She was single-handedly responsible for managing the messenger mynas, the digging armadillos, livestock consultations, and Eagle Eye surveillance.

Birds and beasts were sent out one after another to carry out her commands.

Pitz had never been one for studying, but lately, she had to record so many things that her literacy was improving at a rapid pace.

Fortunately, there was also Lily in the castle. Her knowledge far surpassed Pitz’s, and she could always answer Pitz’s questions.

But Pitz was very happy and enjoyed doing this work.

Every day, she got to work hard alongside her obedient animal friends, serving the Lord and feeling useful.

Today, she was up early again, just as the sky was beginning to brighten.

Pitz had breakfast in the castle with a few other maids, then mounted an armadillo and set off.

Today, she wore a small vest, shorts, and a pair of white socks and little leather boots from Porcupine Territory.

She had put away her white-aproned maid uniform. The pretty dress would get dirty easily while working outside, and besides, she preferred this more practical outfit herself.

Ever since the Lord gave the order, the armadillos’ excavation work had been nonstop. The road paving over there was about halfway complete.

The remaining stretch of the road just required felling trees, planning the route, and leveling the ground.

There wasn’t much Pitz and the armadillos could do to help with that, so Lily had temporarily reassigned her to help clear land for farming.

The man leading the team today wore a linen turban on his head.

He had an honest personality and was a very diligent worker.

However, the reason he was leading everyone to clear the land today wasn’t because of his good character or his diligent work ethic, but because he had experience growing rice.

”This is the place.”

The turbaned man stopped and said, ”This slope is quite gentle and it faces the sun, which is perfect for growing rice. Our job is to cut down all the trees on this hill.”

He then turned to Pitz and the two pig-sized armadillos beside her. ”And also, to dig up the soil.”

Pitz nodded. She knew what her job was before she came.

”Can we really grow rice here?” someone asked worriedly. ”If we mess up the job the Lord gave us, we’ll definitely be blamed and punished.”

Pitz wanted to insist that the Lord never punished people without good reason.

But she was also worried they wouldn’t be able to complete the task. After all, this was a grain crop the Lord was eagerly anticipating.

She didn’t want to disappoint him.

”Of course we can!” The turbaned man sounded very confident. ”When I lived in Giant’s Foot, this is exactly how we grew rice.”

He kept another thought to himself: ’It’s just that this grain is too much trouble to grow. It doesn’t grow tall, the yield is low, and that’s why nobody wants to plant it.’

When the man had brought the rice seedlings to Leech, Leech had thought they were just foxtail grass. Only later did he realize they were a wild, undomesticated variety, all dry and shriveled.

That was why they were only planting a trial patch for now.

”Don’t worry!” he said earnestly. ”The Lord said there’s a reward if we can just get it to grow!”

Hearing there was a reward just for growing it, everyone’s spirits were instantly lifted.

The work began in a flurry of activity.

People rolled up their sleeves, grabbed their saws, shouldered their axes, and started felling trees.

Pitz also directed the two armadillos to start digging in an open area, turning over the soil.

The two creatures worked with incredible speed, clearing a sizable patch of land in the blink of an eye.

The weather, nearly the end of May, was unbearably hot.

The men were already rolling up their shirts to wipe their faces, and the women were constantly tugging at their collars to fan themselves, but the pace of work didn’t slow down.

”Ladies, how about a song?” someone shouted during the tedious, tiring work of felling trees.

The women happened to be tired from their work as well.

With this tacit understanding, the women could sing and take the opportunity to rest a bit, and the men wouldn’t mind them slacking off for a moment.

”Should we sing that one?” a rather plump older woman asked the other ladies, starting a tune. ”In Beechwood Village lived a lass...”

Someone immediately went ”Oh!” as if remembering, and everyone joined in.

Their singing was interspersed with laughter.

”In Beechwood Village lived a lass, she was too sick for us to get intimate, so I never went there again.”

They sang with a light and quick tempo.

The men at work even felt the axes in their hands grow lighter.

Listening to the women’s singing, their bodies felt less tired.

”In Lilac Village lived a lass, she loved fine wine, her skirt was light as a feather, she’d spread her legs to pay the tab.”

”Haha!” The lyrics made the men chuckle knowingly.

Only Pitz felt a little embarrassed; she was the only unmarried girl here.

But the singing didn’t stop for her sake.

”In Hazelnut Village lived a lass, she loved to squirm and writhe, she’d fart and shout, kick and scream, you can’t get in without her pa.”

”Across the way there is a lass, like a wild horse’s mane, with something like a ring—once it snares you, you can’t get away.”

”Oho, haha!”

”Great singing, haha!”

If one ignored the lyrics, the song’s cheerful tune did much to lift everyone’s spirits.

After a busy day, the work of clearing the terraced fields was only half done.

When Pitz followed the team back to the castle, she found that bonfires had been lit one by one outside the castle walls.