Don't Burn Them! Even Witches Have Value!

Year 687, the Northern Border of Milan

A gust of wind blew from the front. Besides feeling the bone-chilling cold, Lynn smelled… the scent of roasting meat?

”Hiss, it’s so cold... and I’m so hungry that I’m starting to hallucinate.”

Lynn sat listlessly on the wooden board of the horse-drawn carriage... Alright, it was actually a donkey cart.

After all, a high-class animal like a horse didn’t exist in this place.

The handsome, black-haired young man tumbling along in the cart was a transmigrator who had arrived in this world no more than two hours ago.

His current body wasn’t his original one, but that of a noble who also happened to be named Lynn, albeit with a ridiculously long surname.

In this world, which was similar to the Middle Ages of his blue home planet, the good news was that his family held a certain imperial standing—

His grandfather was an Elector of the Milan Empire, one of the most powerful nations in this region. Furthermore, because his family had inherited the royal bloodline of an ancient coastal empire, they possessed the trait of black hair and black eyes that was rare and peculiar in this land.

The bad news was that according to this body’s memories, their family had been purged for attempting a rebellion, and their titles had been almost completely stripped away.

Most of the family members had been eliminated, and of the younger generation, he was one of the few remaining survivors, currently on his way to be exiled to a border territory.

But there was still one more piece of good news:

According to the prompt that had appeared in his mind when he transmigrated, he had a system!

And the bad news that immediately followed was— why did he feel like this system was completely useless?

Not only were there no information boxes or check-in interfaces, but shouting ”Deep Blue, add points!” to it was also useless. Instead, it made the old man who was driving the donkey cart stare at him all along with a look one gave to an idiot.

He had also considered that this kind of ”waking up in a vehicle” plot might mean that he was a Dragonborn, and perhaps the system would provide him with a magic skill tree.

But after integrating his body’s memories, he was quite certain that it was unlikely for him to possess magic…

Because in this world, it seemed that only females could master magical power.

Males, on the other hand, could train their Battle Aura, but he didn’t seem to have any talent in that area either.

It was worth mentioning that the Church in this region held a strong double standard towards girls who could use magic.

Those who submitted to the Church were Saintesses and what they used was divine art. Everyone was to cherish and protect them.

Those who refused to obey were Witches, who wielded the power of demons, and once captured, they were to be barbecued.

Speaking of barbecuing... this godforsaken place was so cold.

Lynn blew a puff of white air onto his nearly frozen fingers, only able to vaguely feel their existence after rubbing them together desperately.

He raised his head and looked at the surrounding environment. He had the urge to cry, but he had no tears.

It couldn’t be just dismissed as ‘not very livable’. It could only be described as a barren and treacherous land.

This territory, named ”Blackstone Fief”, was just as its name suggested. Aside from the hard, dark stones that covered the mountains and plains, there was nothing here but the bone-chilling wind.

These black stones were said to be the product of ancient magic and held no mining value at all.

In addition, this place was very close to the Frost Kingdom and was overrun with monsters, thus earning its reputation as a cursed land.

Even when there was money to be made here, adventurers and mercenaries were unwilling to go to this fief to take jobs, not to mention that the place was, in the most literal sense, dirt-poor.

The previous lord of this place had just died a violent death, and his heirs were almost entirely wiped out.

For this very reason, this newly vacant position was given to him.

In a sense, unlike his other brothers and sisters, he didn’t have to worry about being lonely in his old age here.

Because it was highly probable that he wouldn’t live that long. A single monster attack would happily grant him his next restart.

Damn it, how could he be resigned to this?!

In his previous life, he had just achieved a life of financial freedom, yet before he could enjoy it for even half a second, he had closed his eyes for a nap and arrived here.

”Ahhh! Why?!”

Seemingly accustomed to the commotion behind him, the old man driving the donkey cart didn’t even turn his head at the commotion. He just tightened the clothes on his body, looked ahead, raised his long, graying eyebrows, and said in a muffled voice:

”Young Master Lynn, Blackstone Town’s just ahead… You’re in luck, you’ve arrived just in time for a big event.”

A big event?

As if driven by some instinct from his past life’s bloodline, Lynn, who had still been grumbling, immediately stood up while holding onto the rickety wooden railing. His dark brown eyes stared curiously at the situation in the distance.

The donkey cart creaked as it turned a corner, and the scene ahead suddenly opened up... or rather, became even more dilapidated.

Low-roofed shacks were piled together in a disorderly fashion, and at this moment, a dense crowd of people was gathered in the open space between these shabby houses.

What were they doing, having an outdoor barbecue party?

In the center of the crowd, a beam of dark red firelight was shooting up into the sky, appearing particularly glaring against the gloomy weather.

He squinted his eyes and looked toward the center of the flame.

The firewood was piled as high as a small mountain, with a pitch-black iron pillar standing tall within it.

Tied to that iron pillar was a figure.

It was a young woman with long, silver hair.

Her head was bowed, her face obscured. The thin, tattered robe on her body had already been scorched and licked black by the flames, and a huge collar was fastened around her neck.

In this temperature where even one’s breath would freeze, the air around her was violently distorting due to the terrifyingly high heat of the bonfire.

Seeing this scene, Lynn turned pale with fright.

He forcefully slapped the back of the old man driving the cart, urging him to hurry while shouting with all his might:

”Stop! Don’t burn her!

I’m the new lord, put out the fire for me right now!”

Hearing Lynn’s almost heart-wrenching shout, never mind the onlookers, even the girl who was about to be engulfed by the flames raised her head and looked towards his direction in surprise.

Although Lynn couldn’t see the girl’s face, for some reason, he felt as if she was looking at him with an eager gaze.

‘What’s this? Why is she staring at me?’

Lynn felt a little creeped out, but he continued to shout:

”Don’t waste the firewood, you bastards!”

...

Lynn, a conscientious entrepreneur, was respectfully called ”Lynn the Skinflint” by his employees in his past life.

Upon seeing the geographical environment of Blackstone Town, he had realized that fuel such as firewood, charcoal, and coal was bound to be an important resource in this place and its surroundings.

Although he had fallen from grace, this place was still legally his, and all the firewood here were his precious assets.

Therefore, upon seeing so much of his assets burning fiercely, he felt so heartbroken that he could barely breathe.

”This is a judgment ceremony announced by the Church, no one can stop it...”

”Are you the lord, or am I?

Hurry up and put out the fire for me! Otherwise, I’ll charge an extra tax on any firewood you light in the future!”

Under Lynn’s shouting and hollering, the onlookers, who were quite frightened by his ”about-to-bite-someone” appearance, quickly fetched icy water and swiftly extinguished the blazing pyre.

”Thankfully, not much of it burned...”

Heartbroken, Lynn fiddled with the carbonized edges of the firewood. Only then did he raise his head and officially turn his attention to the girl, who seemed to be a little medium-rare.

”You...”

Just as Lynn was about to examine her face, he suddenly saw a semi-transparent pop-up window appear in front of her.

——————————————————

【Name: Elysia Reinhardt】

【Race: Human】

【Talent: S-Rank Fire Magic】

【Magic Level: E-Rank (Sealed)】

【Stamina: A-Rank】

【Physiological Indicators: Starving, Second-Degree Burns】

【Favorability: 30 (Gratitude for saving her life) - 25 (Why does he seem more heartbroken over the firewood?!) = 5 (Stranger)】

——————————————————

Alright, it seemed like his system did indeed exist, and it had the ability to see other people’s status panels.

But considering that the old donkey cart driver and the surrounding people didn’t have panels, it was probably only effective on specific individuals.

He would need to research which specific people had them later.

Most of the information was easy enough to understand. The only thing slightly unusual was her stamina stat with its unclear meaning.

As if sensing his confusion, a smaller, overlapping pop-up window appeared, explaining what stamina was in language that best fit his way of understanding.

——————————————————

【Stamina A: Signifies the ability to endure high-physical-exertion labor under a 22-hour work system】

——————————————————

‘Hmm, it’s much easier to understand now.’

His interest successfully piqued, Lynn abandoned the alternative proposal of using an ancient elven-ball* technique that involved a wooden cage and deep water to help the witch practice her lung capacity.

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A/N - (The author’s notes will be continuously updated with currently disclosable information, so everyone remember to check it out)

(Long-term recruitment for various supporting characters. If you have a character you want to add, just let me know. I will check periodically)

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*The Chinese term for Pokeball, yes the one from Pokemon. The MC is basically joking about the classic medieval witch torture of putting suspected witches in cages and sinking them in deep water as a substitute for beating her up and throwing a Pokeball at her.

T/N - Hey guys! JayM here with another banger of a novel! This time, it’s set in Fantasy Medieval Europe. How do you like the first chapter? For me it was pretty interesting, and it sets the tone for the novel down the line, which is comedy. Hopefully the author doesn’t overdo it. Anyway, I hope you enjoy! ♥️

ED/N - Beautiful ppl,I hope this doesn’t turn out to be brainrot. We have a strong start which is making me very hopeful.