Chapter 1

I release a sigh and gaze out of my carriage. How has it come to this?

My name is Anthony Dawson, and I live in Jakarta. Yes, I used to live in Jakarta.

Now? I'm in a world called Atrean. Yup. I've been reincarnated into another world. I'm Marcus Atwood of the Atwood Duchy. Being born into a noble house might sound good, but you're wrong, so very wrong, especially when you're born from the lord's second wife instead of the primary wife.

At first, I thought that showcasing my modern knowledge by excelling in math class would secure me a chance at a great life, but nope. The first wife gets jealous that her son can't keep up with me and manages to sweet-talk my father into banishing me.

Well, I can't call it a banishment. It's a 'reward' from my father to me. After reaching the age of maturity (16 years old), I get the title of Baron and am granted land to rule. That sounds great! "What are you complaining about?" you might say.

Well, the bad news is that this territory is barren. The land isn't fertile enough to create a self-sustainable territory. Not only that, this territory is a frontier territory that the royal family chooses to send people to defend.

Defend against whom? Monsters. Miasma, a dark purple mist that emerges from the ground, is something that can spawn monsters. As Marcus Verlon (I changed my last name because I got a Lord Nobility and discarded my claim to the Atwood Duchy), I need to ensure the knights the royal family sent return home.

Of course, dying on duty won't get me a black mark, but if there are too many casualties, I'll get a black mark. Too many black marks and your nobility will be stripped, or worse, you get the gallows, aka get executed.

However, that's not my immediate worry. Without my input, the knights defending the area will be enough to defend us from monsters for a few years. The only problem is food. This place is barren and can't produce enough food to feed the people. I need a lot of them if I want to make the soldiers loyal to me.

"My lord, we have arrived."

I snap out of my thoughts and see that we've already arrived in front of a massive mansion. We've arrived in Verlon Barony, and it's time for me to see what is happening in this place. I walk out of the carriage and see a group of servants already waiting for me.

They bow as one and say.

"Welcome home, Lord Verlon."

I nod and look at the head butler before saying.

"Thank you for welcoming me. However, I need to talk to you about the situation of this place. Can you take me to my office and tell me the situation?"

"Of course, my lord. Please follow me."

I nod and follow him to the office on the third floor. I take a seat on the comfortable chair and say.

"Tell me the situation."

"Of course, my lord. First things first, the previous mayor of this city is doing great taking care of the city before you came. He pushed for an affordable tax that the people can pay without creating a fuss and sold all the monster parts we could get to other cities for extra income. However, most of it gets spent on buying food and hiring healers from the church to heal all the knights who need higher treatment."

Right, a healer. Another thing that I need to worry about. They are a greedy bunch. They are a self-proclaimed elite that only heals someone who can pay for their service, and boy, do they need a lot of money for their service.

"Food and healers got it. Anything else?"

"We are lucky that we have a river near our city, but there is a problem. There are monsters making a nest not too far away from the river. Luckily for us, they hunt at night, but we don't know if they'll change their hunting schedule."

"Urgh. We have an adventurer guild, right?"

The Adventurer Guild is a guild that takes care of the monsters that get too close to the city as long as you're paying them. They are basically mercenaries, but instead of a group, they are individuals.

"We do. However, because of how poor our territory is, there are only a small number of adventurers in this city."

"I have enough money from my father to let us hire adventurers. Post a mission there to eliminate the monster nest. Make the reward a bit higher if someone manages to clean it in three days."

"I shall do that."

"Good. How about food? Do we have enough food? How did the previous mayor take care of the food situation in the city?"

"We have enough food to sell to the masses and for ourselves. As for how he handles the food situation, he created a food market where he sells food for a cheap price but with a limited amount. He did not want others to exploit this. It is rather successful, but some manage to slip. However, if they are caught price-gouging the food, they will be executed. So far, that law is working. Should we take that law down?"

I shake my head and say.

"No. Let it be and continue to use the previous mayor's way of handling the food situation."

Execution sounds a bit much, but in this situation, it is something we need to do. Without much food production in this territory, we need rationing, and people who want to profit from other people's suffering need to be put down.

A thousand people live on my shoulders, and I need to be a little bit cruel to make sure they survive.

"How is the knight defending the wall?"

"Because there has been no monster wave coming for the past month, they can rest and only patrol the area."

"Haaaa… It is such a shame that I cannot command them to take care of the monster's nest near the river."

The knights on the wall only have one duty: to defend the wall from monsters coming from our east. As long as the city is not in danger, I cannot order them to go out and kill the monster outside the city.

If I try to order them around, a black mark will appear on my record. And you know what happens when you have too many black marks: dead at worst.

I shake my head and look at the butler.

"I forgot to ask you this, but what is your name?"

"My name is Handerson, my lord."

"Right. Handerson, can you go and tell the others to prepare a cold bath for me? The journey makes my body sticky."

"Of course, my lord."

He bows a little and walks out of the room. I lean over my chair and sigh tiredly. I want to have a laid-back and easy life in my second life, but it looks like I will be another office slave once again. Urgh.

I thought that I would get power after being reincarnated into this world, but nope. Nothing. What kind of person throws me to another world without some sort of power? That is what happens in manga and novels, goddammit!

|Congratulations on reaching your Age of Maturity! You get [World Jumping] skills as a reward!|