Chapter 70 Lord

In the end, the experience that Aion had as a firefighter that had to sometimes work on turns of 24 hours ended up helping a lot along the way. Staying awake late was hard with that body, but it was only a matter of willpower and taking naps and sleeping when the horses were sleeping and his mother was looking after them.

Thanks to that, they didn't find any problems along the way. The only thing that bothered Aion was his ass which had to endure most of his weight all day. Still, he managed to kill time by watching the terrain of the kingdom. It was mostly green in the areas that Aion crossed. It was easy to find towns and villages near the roads, but they decreased in number after a few days.

"Your father said that the territory used to have another town and five more villages… It seems that the attacks of Caelis made many people move," Artemisia said on the morning of the sixth day when they saw an abandoned village in ruins.

"If we are already in the territory, it will be difficult to move around every day," Aion said. "I guess I should pay a visit once a week then."

"For starters, you should stay in each one for a few days to get a good feel of how things operate in those places," Artemisia said. "Those that stayed behind over the years are loyal to the Kresnik family, but problems might arise if you give them orders without knowing what they need and want."

"Right," Aion said.

Before coming, Aion tried to look for maps of the world and of the kingdom, but he only found one that was complete. Naturally, it was of the Zaera kingdom… But at least it had half of the area of the neighbors. While it wasn't perfect, the kingdom had the format of half bottom of the bottom of a wheel, but thicker… Thanks to that, several families guarded the borders, and the Kresnik family guarded the central area of the western side. It was a pity that he couldn't use the coastal areas, but at least he was the closest to the dungeon.

While no one measured the size of the territory, Aion confirmed that it was at seventy kilometers long from east to west when he reached the first village. The people there were waiting for the new lord, and they had heard rumors about him, but they truly couldn't believe that a ten-year-old boy was the lord and that he had defeated Horis.

"Who is the village chief?" Aion asked while looking around.

"I am, my lord," a man in his fifties that was wearing a long gray cloak stepped forward and said. "My name is Jorn."

"I am Aion Kresnik, and it is nice to meet you and your people," Aion said. "Today, I just stopped to give a brief greeting. In one week or so, I will return to talk about the management of the land. It seems you are doing well so far, but it will be better if we talk about it in more detail in due time."

"Certainly," Jorn said.

It was going to be a pain, but Aion knew that he would have to take his time organizing things around. He could see some fields around the village and some cattle, but it was too small in scale to be considered profitable. Now that Aion had to live there, he would make things grow and then eventually fortify the whole area against monsters and attacks. That will make more people move there, and then the economy will improve.

"The richer I become, the stronger I can get, after all," Aion thought.

Aion had planned to visit all the villages that day, but when the sun was setting, he had only visited three. It would be nice for him and his mother to sleep in some beds after so long. Moreover, they had to check the town they were going to stay in from now on, and it would be difficult to do that late at the night.

When they saw the town in the distance, they found that it had some ten meters tall walls and they looked pretty reliable, but the town wasn't that big, probably had around five thousand inhabitants. Aion will have to spend most of his time working there, and he will have to be fast in order to have as much free time as possible for training and doing his exploration of the terrain.

Only five guards were at the gates, and they frowned when they saw a carriage approaching that late, but they recognized the design, it was the same as the previous lord used. Despite things, they saluted Aion when he stopped.

"Is the captain of the guards around?" Aion asked.

"He is off duty, my lord," one of the guards replied.

"Tell him to report in the morning to my state," Aion said.

"Understood," the guard said.

Aion wasn't used to giving orders, but he wouldn't hesitate, and he had been trained to do that while he was learning tactics. The more unreliable and insecure you look, the fewer people tend to follow you. That was pretty much a logic that applied in all worlds…

Few people were on the streets at night. It was hard to find people willing to enjoy nightlife near the border. Still, the sound of carriages was relatively unusual, so some people left their houses to check things. They also had heard that the new lord was coming, so they were curious… It was too dark to see anything, though.

Eventually, Aion found his new house in the distance.