Boundless Family Upgrades For The Deadbeat Lord

Three Days Ago

•••••

The moon was hanging high up in the cold night sky, shining over the massive barren wasteland with its pale silver light. Inside Raymond’s quiet bedroom, the crackling of the fireplace was the only sound breaking the heavy silence of the castle.

Raymond slowly stepped out of the adjoining stone bathroom, thoroughly wiping his wet hair with a clean towel as he walked over and sat down heavily on the soft, big bed.

His brows were furrowed deeply as he stared into the empty space, his mind entirely consumed by the grim logistical warnings Harlan and Gideon had given him earlier that afternoon.

”Sigh... they are absolutely right. Without rain or a proper irrigation infrastructure, how can these premium crops ever hope to grow in this dirt? I didn’t think this far ahead during my initial rush, and now I’ve hit a wall. Damn, this is simply too frustrating,” Raymond muttered, collapsing backward onto the mattress as he stared blankly up at the dark wooden beams of the ceiling.

He had been so utterly occupied with the immediate task of securing a suitable plot of land to launch his agricultural blueprint that he completely overlooked the basic laws of nature.

Getting rich soil and resilient, high-tier seeds was only half the battle; finding a way to force water out of a completely dead sky was the impossible part.

To make matters worse, winter was rapidly approaching, meaning it was completely outside the traditional raining season of the Solaria Kingdom. Even if it were the proper season, historical records showed it hardly ever rained a single drop within this god-forsaken, barren wasteland.

Furthermore, the local villagers he needed to recruit were currently looking more like walking corpses than actual, productive laborers. They simply resembled the gaunt, soulless zombies from all the popular apocalypse movies he used to watch back on Earth during his previous life.

They lacked the physical stamina to perform intensive labor, and he certainly didn’t want to force anyone to work under a tyrannical whip. These people already hated his very name to the absolute bone, and he knew they would gladly skin him alive if they ever got a clear, unguarded opportunity.

Raymond was not ready to be blamed or face a massive public riot if a single malnourished peasant collapsed and died from overexertion while working his fields.

”Ahhh... this is just too frustrating. Why does every single solution come with three new problems?” Raymond groaned aloud, covering his face entirely with the damp towel as he grumbled in deep internal frustration.

He tossed and turned on the bed, desperately trying to map out a solution that didn’t involve building hundreds of kilometers of aqueducts through hostile noble territories.

Suddenly, a sharp memory sparked in his mind, causing him to freeze completely underneath the heavy fabric.

”Wait a minute... I completely forgot about the milestone reward I received earlier today for successfully converting Gideon and Harlan’s loyalty!” Raymond rapidly removed the towel from his face, his eyes snapping wide open as he finally remembered the gold-bordered notification he had neglected to inspect during his frantic return to the castle.

Without a single second of hesitation, he sat up and mentally summoned the system inventory panel, his fingers instantly tapping the pulsing, blurred item slot.

The moment his command registered, the golden fog dissolved completely, revealing the pristine details and properties of his hidden world-building reward.

Raymond shot right up to his feet, his slippers hitting the stone floor with a sharp slap as his eyes widened in sheer, unadulterated shock.

A moment later, the intense worry on his face vanished entirely, replaced by a wave of dense, burning excitement that made his lungs expand.

[Item Name: The Descent of the Verdant Rain Card (Consumable) ]

[Description: A high-tier elemental world-building card. Upon activation, it permanently overrides the local atmospheric

pressure of a barren region, summoning a localized, nutrient- infused rainstorm over a 5-square-kilometer radius. The water

generated is enriched with high-density mana, accelerating root absorption and guaranteeing the rapid growth of the crops.]

”Ke... ke... ke... ke.”

Looking directly at the magnificent, logic-defying description floating in front of his face, Raymond rubbed his hands together greedily like a comic book villain.

He let out an evil, creepy laugh that echoed sharply off the cold stone walls, causing the ambient atmosphere in his bedroom to instantly drop a few degrees. With this card in his possession, his entire agricultural crisis was completely solved before it could even begin.

He finally possessed the ultimate visual miracle needed to execute his grand, sacred deception in front of the entire town.

•••••

Present Day

•••••

Raymond stood proudly atop the small, raised wooden platform at the edge of the vast basin, his hands spread far apart in a grand, theatrical gesture.

His expression was completely filled with an intense, unwavering devotion as he looked directly up at the bright, cloudless sky, projecting his voice so it carried over the entire assembled crowd of a hundred starving peasants.

He cleared his throat, maintaining his flawless, elegant priest persona as he commenced his booming, calculated prayer to the heavens.

”O supreme Mother of Nature, glorious Goddess of Life, your loyal Divine Emissary calls upon your eternal mercy today!” Raymond chanted loudly, his voice ringing with absolute, majestic confidence. ”Look down upon the hollow cheeks and the starving bodies of your beloved children in the Althoff Barony! Break the curse of this dry earth, tear open the stubborn heavens, and let your sacred, life-giving waters descend to cleanse this land!”

The moment his prayer concluded, the consumable Descent of the Verdant Rain card was officially deployed into the territory metrics.

Immediately, the pristine blue sky above the basin began to violently twist and change, the bright sunlight rapidly fading as a thick, gloomy layer of dark emerald clouds coalesced out of thin air.

A fierce, howling wind started to blow violently through the basin, kicking up sheets of dust and rattling the tattered clothes of the peasants.

The townspeople were all completely shocked, gasping in terror and confusion as they stumbled backward, looking up at the sudden, unnatural turn of events with wide, disbelieving eyes.

Just then, one of the elderly townspeople in the middle of the crowd stopped trembling, his body freezing as he felt a cold, heavy drop of liquid splash directly onto his dried-up, cracked skin.

He slowly raised his hand, touching his cheek, and looked down at his wet fingers with eyes that were practically bursting out of their sockets from pure shock. It was not only him; within a fraction of a second, all the people gathered in the basin saw the dark drops hitting the grey soil, a collective gasp echoing through the wind.

But before the cynical crowd could even attempt to find a logical explanation for the phenomenon, the scattered droplets rapidly increased in frequency and volume.

Rumble!

With a deep, echoing roll of thunder, the emerald clouds completely ruptured, and the heavens immediately turned into a massive, torrential downpour of thick, sparkling rain.

The water falling from the sky didn’t look like ordinary, murky rainwater; it possessed a faint, translucent green tint that smelled strongly of fresh grass, pulsing with high-density mana as it saturated the newly terraformed black loam.

Everyone in the entire basin was completely stunned, paralyzed in place as the heavy downpour soaked their hair and tattered clothes.

They completely forgot about the cold, their yellowed eyes locked in absolute, religious awe onto the figure of Raymond standing majestic atop the wooden platform.

He remained perfectly motionless in the center of the storm, his head raised high toward the falling water, his arms spread apart, and his legs straightened neatly together like a flawless holy statue.

The sight of their notorious ”deadbeat lord” seemingly summoning a literal rainstorm in a desert wasteland where it hadn’t rained in over a year was completely breaking their rational minds, forcing the deep-seated hatred in their hearts to disintegrate.

Right at that exact, historic peak of the miracle, a sharp, crystalline digital chime rang out loudly inside Raymond’s mind, completely drowning out the heavy sound of the falling rain.

A massive waterfall of translucent blue system screens popped up directly across his field of vision, flashing with an intense, blinding gold script that made a wide, triumphant smile slowly appear on his wet face.

[ Ding! ]

[ Ding! Massive Public Miracle Successfully Executed! ]

[ Congratulations Host! The local civilian populace has experienced a catastrophic psychological restructuring! ]

[ Global Citizen Loyalty Index: -90% ➔ +45% (Rising Rapidly!) ]

[Total Mass Faith Conversion Detected within the Basin! ]

[ Territory Multiplier Status: Agricultural Sector Unlocked! ]

[Calculating Milestone Rewards and Attribute Level Ups...]