By evening, Zhao Hai had woken up. The sky was already growing dark, and Merlin and the others had returned. To conserve supplies, Merlin and the group generally did not go out at night; even if they didn't use magic stones for lighting, using torches or oil lamps still required oil, and they had to save every bit of their resources.
When Zhao Hai woke up, the sky was already dim. The slaves had finished their meal, and they were free to move about the castle grounds until it was time to sleep. There was no need to worry about them running away, and letting them relax a little was for the best.
The slaves were currently sitting in the castle courtyard chatting. Compared to other places, their life here was like heaven; they could eat their fill every day, didn't have to do overly heavy labor, and had plenty of time to rest. They loved this kind of life.
When they first arrived, they had been somewhat desperate. As slaves, they had heard of the Black Waste—a place where nothing grew, with only a barren mountain and proximity to the Carrion Swamp. It was a dead zone. They had assumed that coming to such a place meant they would eventually starve to death.
But they hadn't expected that, even though they had only been here for two days, it was clear to them that their master was truly capable. He could actually use magical powers to turn that barren black soil, which couldn't grow anything, into fertile, productive fields. They wouldn't have to worry about starving in the future.
These people were just slaves; where would they have ever seen magic used? In their minds, mages were omnipotent, and magic was incredibly miraculous.
Better living conditions than before, being treated like commoners, the temptation of potentially shedding their slave status, and the addition of miraculous magic—all these things combined were enough to make these slaves loyal to Zhao Hai. Invisibly, a strong sense of cohesion had formed. Now, the slaves were no longer working passively; they were eager to work more, hoping to shed their slave status sooner.
Zhao Hai stood quietly by the castle, watching the slaves outside. He wanted to go up and chat with them, but he knew it wasn't the right time. These slaves had been oppressed for so long that they were extremely nervous when seeing a noble. Let alone chatting, they would likely just kneel there, not even daring to lift their heads.
Changing a person's status was easy, but changing their mindset was difficult. It was a long-term process to shift their thinking bit by bit, so Zhao Hai did not make contact with the slaves yet; the timing wasn't right.
Everything must be done step by step. Being too hasty could ruin things, and even if successful, it might result in an unstable foundation.
Undoubtedly, the completion of the land improvement and the hope of shedding their slave status filled the lives of these slaves with promise. They were no longer as lifeless as they had been when they first arrived.
Zhao Hai liked seeing the slaves act this way. Only people filled with hope could be creative and maximize their own potential.
Just then, a knock on the door sounded. Zhao Hai snapped back to reality and said in a deep voice, "Come in."
The door was pushed open, and Meg stood before him, looking at Zhao Hai. "Young Master, dinner is ready. It is time to eat." Wood and Stone remained outside the door, standing guard for Zhao Hai.
Zhao Hai nodded. He knew it was about time to eat, but he felt a bit guilty. For the past two days, Merlin and the others had not only been busy managing the slaves but also cooking for him; they were truly exhausted.
However, although Zhao Hai knew how to cook, he didn't dare to. He shouldn't forget his identity; he was currently a spoiled playboy who had everything handed to him. How would he know how to cook? His space ability was explainable—after all, this was a continent where magic and battle qi coexisted, and there were all sorts of strange people—so his talent wasn't particularly conspicuous. But if he suddenly knew how to cook, it would arouse the suspicions of Merlin and Meg.
The group arrived at the dining room and found that Merlin and the others had already laid out the meal: bread, some vegetables, a piece of meat, and a bowl of soup.
To be honest, as a native Chinese person, he really couldn't get used to this food. But there was no help for it; even if Zhao Hai wanted to eat Chinese food, no one here knew how to make it. Only he knew how, but he didn't dare to. It was frustrating.
After eating a few bites, Zhao Hai spoke up: "Grandma Merlin, I feel that what we did today was too reckless. Tomorrow, we had better not improve the land here."
Merlin was stunned, looking at Zhao Hai in confusion. "What's wrong, Young Master? Why do you say that? Is it that we can't improve the land anymore? If we can't, what will we do?"
Zhao Hai understood her meaning and immediately said, "Grandma Merlin, I think you misunderstood. It's not that I can't improve the land, but that we can't do it near the castle. Think about it: our strength is still too weak. If those guys find out we can turn this place into arable land, will they let us be? We'll be finished by then."
Merlin had seen her share of storms. Today, she had been blinded by the joy of the land improvement, so she hadn't thought of this. Now that Zhao Hai had reminded her, she immediately understood. Zhao Hai was right; if the old-established nobles of the Empire discovered they could improve the land here, they would definitely come to deal with them, and they would be finished.
Although the Buda family had signed an agreement with the Empire, that was under the premise that the Buda family had an heir. If a noble family had no heir, their noble title would be reclaimed by the King, and their fief would naturally be reclaimed as well.
*The innocent are not guilty, but their treasure makes them so.* That was the principle.
Merlin put down her knife and fork and nodded. "Young Master is right. We were thoughtless. We were only focused on improving our lives and forgot that those old-established nobles might not let us off so easily. What is your plan, Young Master?"
Merlin was increasingly valuing Zhao Hai's opinions because he had truly done quite a few things over the past few days, and every one of them had been handled well. Combined with his unique abilities, Merlin and the others had unconsciously come to view Zhao Hai as their backbone.
Zhao Hai also put down his utensils and gently wiped his mouth with a napkin before saying, "The land improvement must continue, but we cannot do it around the castle. It's too conspicuous; anyone who comes in will see it at a glance. It's too easy to be discovered. I want to look around and see if there is any place nearby that is very secluded where we can perform the improvements. It doesn't need to be a large area; about a thousand mu or so would be enough to satisfy the needs of the people here. That way, it won't be easily discovered."
Merlin nodded. "Young Master is right. I will have someone go look tomorrow to see if there is a suitable place nearby. Then, Young Master, should we still raise Blue-Eyed Rabbits and Scaleless Fish?"
Zhao Hai said in a deep voice, "Raise them. We must raise them. The Scaleless Fish are very easy to raise, and those people won't discover anything. As for the Blue-Eyed Rabbits, we should raise them even more. They will only think we are making a desperate struggle and won't pay much attention."
Merlin nodded. "Good. But there is a problem with the water. I noticed that there don't seem to be any fish in our moat, and there aren't any in the lake in the cave either. This seems very strange."
Zhao Hai was stunned. This was the first time he had thought of this. He had been a shut-in on Earth, not a professional fisherman, so he hadn't noticed this at first. Conversely, it was Merlin, the water-element mage, who had noticed.
Zhao Hai was puzzled. Logically, there should be plenty of fish in the moat and the mountain lake. The water quality was perfect—he had already analyzed it in the space—so why were there no fish?
Zhao Hai asked Merlin, "Grandma Merlin, do you know why this is? The water is fine; I've analyzed it. It's an excellent water source, perfectly suitable for fish to survive, but now we don't see any. That doesn't make sense, does it?"
Merlin frowned for a long while before saying, "Usually, if there are no fish in the water, there are only two possibilities. One is that the water is poisonous and unsuitable for fish. The second is that there are ferocious water-element magical beasts in the water that have eaten all the fish. If, as you say, the water isn't poisonous, then only the second possibility remains: there are ferocious water-element magical beasts in the water."
Zhao Hai thought about it carefully and felt that what Merlin said made a lot of sense. He remembered seeing a news report on Earth where a fisherman's pond had been invaded by two powerful carnivorous fish, and they had eaten all the fish in his pond. There might be such magical beasts here, and if that were true, it would be a troublesome matter.
Seeing Zhao Hai frowning, Merlin knew what he was thinking. She comforted him, "Young Master, this is actually not hard to solve. If the water were poisonous, it would be hard for us to fix, but if it's magical beasts causing trouble, we just need to find the beast and kill it."
Zhao Hai gave a wry smile. His thoughts were the exact opposite of Merlin's. If the water were poisonous, he could easily detoxify it using the space water, but if there were magical beasts, that would be truly troublesome.
Seeing Zhao Hai still looking troubled, Merlin couldn't help but smile. "Young Master, don't worry. If there really are magical beasts in the water, I will definitely find them and kill them. It won't affect your grand plan for fish farming."
When Zhao Hai heard Merlin say this, he was stunned. Then, he suddenly realized: this wasn't Earth. On Earth, it wouldn't be easy to go into the ocean to kill a deep-sea behemoth, but this was the Ark Continent. There was powerful magic here, and Merlin happened to be a powerful water-element mage. Perhaps she really did have a way to eliminate the magical beasts in the water.