Town Leonbrave. Morning.
*Step* *Step*
The sound of metal boots stepping on the stone path rang out near the entrance of the small town.
The old guard sitting in his chair as guard was jolted awake when he heard that loud noise coming closer.
He opened his eyes and saw a tall paladin donned in full body armor leading a horse with a young man sitting on the horse's back.
"Oi oi, is your town lacking young folks? Why is an old fart with half a foot in his grave sitting as a guard here?"
"Are you the only man left in this town or what?"
The old man hurriedly got up from his seat and immediately started explaining.
"Err… that's not true; it's just that most of them are busy working on the farms and don't have time to be sitting here as a guard…"
"Wait!! Who are you?"
It took the old man a while to remember that he should be the one asking questions of these unknown strangers, not the other way around.
Although the old man was weak and frail, his eyes still had the indomitable spirit of a soldier in them.
His hand was firmly clenching the broken stick supporting his body, and even in this old age, he had solid footing.
'He's giving me the same vibes as of a retired combat sport veteran…'
Alex's current body was physically very weak, and he knew that he might even lose to this random old man if they fought, so he didn't want to sound harsh, but his mouth kept speaking on its own.
"Old fart, hurry and leave this 'job' position; leave a vacancy for young folk to get a job!"
"You can't even see this gorilla-sized paladin!? It seems age has not been kind to your eyes…"
The old man almost lost his balance and coughed up a mouthful of blood after being scolded this much by a kid.
But before the situation could escalate, the benevolent and kind paladin immediately deescalated the conflict.
"Don't feel disheartened; his holiness is harsh with words, but all he's trying to say is that you are too old for this kind of difficult work."
"Staying under sunlight all day long and working this hard might deteriorate your health even faster."
Ethan stepped forward and brought out a medal engraved with the symbol of a book and spoke with a gentle tone,
"I am a paladin of the Church of Wisdom, and this here is His Holiness the Saint of the Church of Wisdom."
"Our convoy got involved in a deadly battle against a powerful monster and only the two of us managed to make it out alive…"
"We are looking for a place to rest…"
The paladins of the various churches in this world had a very good reputation; most of them were trained to be benevolent and kind from the very beginning, and thus they were liked by everyone.
Many passing paladins have helped small remote villages and towns before, and this has improved their reputation even among ordinary people, let alone nobles.
Hearing Ethan's words, a happy smile appeared on the old man's face.
"So, you two are saviors sent by God to help us poor folks from our sins! Thank you, please enter!"
Ethan didn't find the old man's overly enthusiastic behavior weird, as this was normal for him, and he had seen this kind of scene many times before.
But for a modern man transmigrated into this feudal era, this enthusiasm was enough to give him many clues.
'The transportation system is still very bad; it's not developed properly. people are less educated and they are prone to believing in superstitions easily…'
'I don't know everything in detail, but if these ordinary people need the help of churches for problems, then it means the empire itself is not working efficiently enough…'
As Ethan led the horse inside the town, Alex noticed that most towns were made of mud and wood; there was no concrete at all.
The older techniques of cutting stones in various shapes and fixing them to create sturdy houses were also being used.
The best thing about the town was that there were stone-paved streets here and not just some dirt or mud stacked together.
"I don't know if we can even rest in this run-down place… Do you guys even have anything to eat?"
"Why do those children look so malnourished…"
As they say, when you want to assess how good a place is, look at how happy the children are.
Alex immediately noticed several children playing with each other in the streets.
Most of them looked malnourished, weak, and fragile.
Even when playing, they were very sluggish and didn't smile often.
At Alex's words, the old man leading them inside replied in an awkward tone as if he was ashamed of talking about this matter.
"Lord Saint, this is the problem I was talking about… Our farms have been cursed by the wrath of heavens."
"Barely anything grows anymore; we are forced to eat less and even children can't eat a full meal… it's very unfortunate…"
Alex's eyes narrowed at the old man's words.
"Wrath of heavens? Do you even know what you are talking about?"
"What is this old fart spouting about, Ethan?"
At Alex's question, Ethan sighed and spoke in a sad voice,
"There is a curse that affects many farmers; after a few years of farming on a land, its productivity becomes very bad even after adding manure…"
The moment Alex heard those words, he immediately understood the problem.
"Wrath of heavens bullsh*t! Isn't that just mineral deficiency in soil!"
"Ah, yes, you guys don't have fertilizers so it's understandable…"
Alex was originally going to scold them that they were being careless by not adding fertilizers, but then he remembered that chemical fertilizers were invented very late in the Industrial Revolution era.
'Hmm, even if we consider adding more manure to farms, there won't be enough livestock to produce that much manure to deal with big and many farms…'
The population of the town seemed much lower, and thus there will be less livestock and less manure production.
'Err… this is quite a difficult situation…'
"At this point, might as well open up other locations for farming and let the previous land recover with rain and manure over time for a while…"
"By the way, are you guys using the three-field crop rotation system? What about lime or chalk for farm enrichment?"
"What about chicken? You can raise some on your farms for pest control and manure and stuff…"
Alex's words were all going from right above the two fellows' heads, and they looked at each other as if they could understand each other's feelings of astonishment without even talking.
"Forget it, just take us to your town head's house; we will talk it out with him instead…"
Seeing that the two airheads could not understand his words, Alex just shook his head and admitted defeat.
'Sigh… if only I had some golden finger or something, I could be like those protagonists in the novels who use various magical skills to look cool…'
'There are also protagonists with kingdom-building-type systems; that would have been a better option for me…'
As a scientist, Alex felt that it was a shame that humans were living in such ignorance of knowledge in this world.
'Humans are destined for stars! Technology is their biggest weapon! We must always strive for improvement!'
The moment Alex had these thoughts in his heart, he suddenly felt a 'sensation' spread through his mind.
'Hmm? What was that?'
Alex tried to sense it again, but that unknown sensation in his mind disappeared just as suddenly as if it never existed in the first place, leaving him confused.
'Am I hallucinating because of hunger?'