"Master, I've been waiting for you." Dimitri lowered his head, greeting Noel in front of a village.
The village was quite big for something that was near the border. However, only Noel knew the true identity of this village.
Noel nodded with a smile. "I've arrived. I'm assuming that everyone is ready."
"You would be surprised when you come in, Sir." Dimitri extended his hand, inviting Noel to enter the village.
Dimitri wasn't accompanied by anyone else, making Rose a bit confused. She thought this was just an ordinary village, but when she followed Noel into the village, she couldn't help but drop her jaw.
"This is…" Rose sucked a cold breath.
Just from the entrance, she could see more than two hundred people.
"How many people are there…" Rose looked around, realizing that there were more people than could be seen currently.
Noel noticed a lot of familiar faces.
"Teacher." Tristan and Livia politely bowed their heads. They had used light clothing similar to the villagers. Tristan aside, Noel was thankful that Livia had no problem with it.
"Have you two got accustomed to this place?" Noel nodded.
"Yes, Teacher."
Noel then turned around and noticed another person.
"It's nice to meet you. I'm thankful that you accept my invitation." Noel walked toward him.
The guy didn't seem to be famous, but it was because he rarely saw people, as he was always locked himself in his workshop.
However, Noel greeted him politely, introducing him. "One of the Master Blacksmiths, Sir Roel."
"I'm coming here because I'm interested in the completed runes. As long as I can continue learning here, then I will do my best to help the lord, including becoming one of the pillars."
Noel smiled. He had planned to rebuild the pillars of the Ardagan Family. Dimitri aside, Roel was another person he had his sight on.
For a single territory to have the exclusive help of a Master Blacksmith was huge. People loved having a good blacksmith because their armor was not only sturdy but it also carried an enhancement. If Roel could embed runes on their equipment, it would become even stronger.
This was enough to elevate the safety of this territory by several levels.
Since Roel had accepted the position, Noel turned to another person. "It seems that fate allows us to meet again."
The one he spoke to was actually a woman. She was leading a group of eighteen other women.
At first, they looked like a weak group who could do nothing. But after a few years, they had turned into a completely independent group.
"When we've fallen to despair and thought nothing could solve it other than our deaths, Lord Earl saved us. We couldn't thank you enough for your help back then. If it's not too much to ask, we would like to work for Lord Earl, helping to build this city."
Noel just wanted to help people like his father in the past. These women were the same people who begged him to kill them after getting kidnapped by the bandits.
However, his words inspired them to live once again. It was due to their efforts that they had reached this far.
"I should be the one asking all of you. Could you help me?"
"We will do our best."
There were truly a lot of people, and he knew that it was impossible to greet all of them in this situation.
Before asking another thing, Noel decided to visit another group first. They had been standing a bit further away, so he had a hard time finding them. But their importance was higher than the rest of the people.
This group consisted of Harley, Howard, Douglas, Charlotte, Balott, and Jasmine.
He met Harley often as he was the head of the information network. Harley smiled, saying, "Don't worry, my lord. We'll complete an information network to make sure nothing goes wrong."
On the other hand, he had never met Howard after getting exiled to the Demon Banner Army. Still, when he was still a young master, he often saw Howard as he was the vice captain of the Ardagan Family's garrison.
Howard was a muscular man with a lot of scars on his face and body. It was clear that he had gone through more than a hundred battles.
He nodded to Noel. "It's the first time we will meet again after that incident. I'm glad that you're fine… I and seventy warriors of the former Ardagan Family have come and want to pledge our loyalty to you, my lord."
"Thank you, Howard." Noel was gratified, but he couldn't show it at the moment.
Douglas cracked his hands as he might be the most energetic one among these people. "You've finally arrived. We can progress with the construction right now. How big is the city you want? I have a design for the wall that can protect us from any dangers. I'll definitely turn this city into an impenetrable fortress."
"Ahaha, I'm looking forward to it." Noel chuckled, not knowing what to say since it would also require a lot of funds.
Charlotte surprisingly looked at Rose instead of him. She scanned Rose up and down before muttering, "Is this my successor? She seems to be intelligent, but she is lacking in a few areas…"
This was the first time Rose met her, so she couldn't help but hide behind Noel.
"Please take care of her for me, Charlotte."
"Of course, my lord. She will be able to do anything soon." Charlotte nodded with a slightly evil smile as though she had prepared a lot of things for Rose.
The fifth person was Balott, he was the one managing the business of the Ardagan Family. In other words, if anyone wanted to do business in the territory, they would have to go through Balott first. Of course, it included internal affairs. The only person Douglas feared might be Balott.
"The fund is not enough, my lord. If we wish to speed up our progress, we'll need three times the amount we have. And I haven't calculated other projects."
"It's fine. I have a few things in mind. I'll tell you about those later."
"I'm looking forward to it." Balott was a rather serious person, but it might be due to this that everyone was a bit scared of Balott.
Last but not least, the head of agriculture, Jasmine. He was the first pillar Noel met.
"Master. The mountain not far from here is perfect. I've checked the soil. There are also a lot of water sources that we can use. In the far future, there shouldn't be any shortage of food for the territory."
"I'm leaving everything to you." Noel nodded. This way, Noel had gathered eight pillars: Dimitri, Roel, Harley, Howard, Douglas, Charlotte, Balott, and Jasmine. He wanted at least a few more, and he actually had the candidates already.
The first one would be the head of medicine, the former royal alchemist Khalid, whom Anna had introduced previously. And the second one was the director of the Rune Academy, Livia.
With Dimitri taking care of the workers, Roel handling the equipment, and Douglas and Harley protecting the territory, they should be able to sustain themselves.
Then, Charlotte oversaw the internal affairs while helping Douglas with the construction of the city. Balott would handle the fund while Jasmine took care of the food.
This would be enough to build the city. However, Noel still wanted two more spots in the territory.
Just like his father, Noel wanted to have three specialties in his territory. The first would be handled by Livia, which was the runes. The second would be the pills that Khalid produced. Last but not least, he wanted to have a strong research group.
He believed that runes would become the future. Hence, he wanted a bridge that connected Roel, Livia, or all related combat departments. In other words, the third specialty would be related to advanced runes, allowing even a normal person to fight.
He still hadn't found any person who could handle this task and become the eleventh pillar of the family. As for the last pillar, he wanted something to oversee the development of the previous civilizations.
So, he might have to join hands with the Tower Association if he wanted to find the last two pillars. But for the time being, he chose to leave the two seats empty.
After greeting the people, Noel turned to Dimitri, asking, "How many people do we have?"
"About four hundred people. It's not enough to create a massive city, so we're thinking about having a migration from other places. With my lord's guarantee, we should be able to fill up the city. Sir Roel's children are the first merchants in our territory, so we'll cooperate with them to handle the supplies."
"How many people do we need?"
"Depending on the size of the city, we might be able to host five to ten thousand people in this city alone. And there will be a few other cities in the future."
"I see. We'll talk about this later. But before that… How about those kids?"
"If you're talking about Erica and the others, they're still in the headquarters. After stabilizing the territory, we'll escort them here. I believe this is the safest plan for them."
"Alright then." Noel agreed with the arrangement and thought about dispersing these people so that they could continue with their work.
However, their attention was taken away by a female's voice echoing from one of the buildings.
"Hahaha. It seems that you have made a lot of preparations, Noel Ardagan."
"!!!" Everyone's gaze followed the voice and found Anna sitting on top of a roof. They never expected that such an important person would come here.
Anna couldn't help but look at Livia first before stating, "I'm here as an Arbiter. You should know that a noble can't chase away an Arbiter from their territory unless there's a valid reason. And I'm here just to 'help' you."
