During the next few days, Blackstone Town became lively. Despite the falling snow, people were frequently seen outside their homes, harvesting the poisonous weeds on the ground. Since those plants were ubiquitous, fighting over them rarely happened except in some isolated circumstances.

As Lark looked through the window of his room in the mansion, he felt a sense of satisfaction. After learning that he was the lord of this territory, the first thing that came to his mind was to restore the order of the town. And to do that, the first step was to satiate the hunger of his people. After all, starving men were no different from mindless beasts. It would be unwise to hand important jobs to such people.

Three knocks were heard and the door creaked open. Gaston went inside his room and handed him a stack of papers.

“Young Master, these are the files and records for Blackstone Town,” said Gaston. He was inquisitively gazing at the young noble. He had never known that a time would come wherein the Young Master would be interested in actually governing the place. And to his utter surprise, the Young Master asked him to collect all available documents related to this town.

The stack of papers was as thick as a forearm. A scholar would normally take a week at the minimum before they would be able to absorb those that were written inside. However, the Young Master merely scanned each paper. His eyes swiftly moved through each document, reading them quickly using magic.

After an hour, Lark tossed the last document onto the top of the table. He nodded to himself while holding his chin. Afterwards, he pulled out a quill and began drawing a complex symbol on a parchment.

“I have a clear idea of the town’s status now,” said Lark. “Gaston, I want you to order the mason living in the town to create a hundred stone tablets for me.” He handed the old butler the parchment containing the drawing. “Tell him to carve these symbols on the tablets. For the size, half an arm’s length for both the height and width should do. Make it as thick as a finger.”

The butler was confused on what was happening. He said, “Young Master, a stone tablet of that size would cost us about two to three silver coins each. I don’t think it’s wise to spend it on unnecessary things—”

“—It’s not unnecessary,” said Lark. He sat on his chair then sipped some wine. “Those things will enable my subjects to survive through the winter, at the very least.”

“Young Master… I don’t understand,” said Gaston.

“There’s no need for you to understand,” said Lark, bluntly. “Just do it.”

Gaston creased his brows. “I will obey.”

After the old butler left the room. Lark stood up and took out a document from the stacked papers. Written inside was the number of households and families in Blackstone Town.

“Got to hand it to the merchant that lived here before,” said Lark. The file was around a year old, but it should be good enough as basis for now. “He sure made work easier for me. He even bothered to create a census for the families living here.”

Lark still had no idea why the second son of the powerful Marcus Family was sent to this decrepit town, but he deemed that since this place was a granted territory, he might as well nurture it. His current body was still young, and despite the very low mana pool, there would still be enough room for it to grow. It would probably take a few more years before he could perform Grand Scale Magic just like before.