Ruin has come to our family

"Those of you who took clients, step forward."

The calmly spoken words sent a strange look across the faces of the gathered women. The long-suppressed fear of their oppression was reawakened by his command. A few among them looked particularly terrified. What punishment would they suffer for disobedience? The thought alone made their bodies tremble.

"My lord..." Dismas began, but a single glance from Lance silenced him.

The first to speak were not those who were guilty, but those who were afraid of being implicated. Amidst the commotion, several women were pushed forward. They did not dare to look at Lance, only huddling together with their heads bowed.

"I gave the order to close this brothel. You took clients in private, breaking the rules. As this is your first offense, the punishment will be light: three days of confinement."

Hearing this, they fell to their knees before Lance, begging for mercy, their eyes wet with tears, but they did not dare to cry too loudly, for fear that their wailing would annoy him and increase their punishment. Lance was not moved in the slightest by their display. He watched as Susan had them taken away.

Holding the few copper coins the thugs had left behind, he felt a bitter taste in his mouth. He knew why they had done it. They were just trying to earn a little extra. After the three days of free gruel were over, they didn't know what would happen. Only coin felt real.

But he could not allow this behavior to take root. If all the young women in town did this, it would be the funeral of the domain's future. As a lord, this was the last thing he wanted to see. It had to be suppressed.

"My lord... I..." Dismas had followed him out, wanting to explain himself, but Lance cut him off with a raised hand.

"It's fine."

Lance did not blame him. On the contrary, he reassured him. "I know you are under great pressure, and to seek relaxation is understandable. As long as you do not force anyone, and you pay the agreed-upon price, I will not interfere, so long as it does not tarnish the reputation of our party."

These words made Dismas feel even more ashamed. He had broken the rules, and yet his lord was still showing him consideration.

"But you must remember our mission," Lance added, his tone firm. "Do not lose yourself in these things. For the evil we face does not rest, and the corruption could encroach at any moment."

"Dismas will never betray the lord's trust!"

"It has been a long day for all of us. Go and get some rest." Lance paid little mind to his oath. I still have to go back to work, he thought. What you do is your own business.

The people of this world, or at least of this place, had a very split attitude toward carnal desire. The clergy and the devout were very conservative. But the common folk were quite open. In the cities, those with status might affect a bit of decorum, but the lower classes did not care at all. Their survival already consumed too much of their energy. As beasts of burden, as tools, they had no more thought to spare for such things. Besides, in the long, dark nights, it was their only diversion.

Dismas had been a wandering sellsword. He had done these things many times. For him, finding someone to relax with was normal, so Lance did not judge him too harshly.

But Lance himself had no interest in these women. It was not due to any moralistic ideals, but simply because they did not bathe. For the common folk, bathing was a major undertaking, not something that could be done every day. So you could imagine the smell of a person who saw clients daily but did not wash for ten days or half a month. Just being near them was difficult for him, to say nothing of touching them. Besides, having been accustomed to seeing all kinds of beautiful women in his past life, he truly could not muster any interest in these common folk.

......

The events of the previous night were, in the grand scheme of things, a minor affair. When the sun rose, everything proceeded as usual. Lance took a few people with him to survey the town's buildings.

The Sanitarium, this world's version of a hospital, was designed to receive and treat patients. But it was a building that should not have existed in this town. A small, dilapidated place like this could not possibly support such an institution; they would never even recoup the construction costs.

Lance led a team inside to explore. He found the structure to be very strange, vastly different from the sanitariums he remembered from the cities. The main structure was built of massive stone blocks, giving it a heavy, oppressive feel. But for such a large space, there were no windows designed for light or ventilation. The corridors were exceedingly dark and oppressive. If not for their lanterns, they would not have been able to see a thing.

The Sanitarium had three floors—two above ground, one below. The hallways were lined with sickrooms, all of which had metal doors that locked from the outside. On the upper two floors, the doors were barred. In the basement, they were solid iron plates studded with rivets, with only small observation slits and slots at the bottom for passing food...

No matter how you looked at it, the architecture resembled a grim, terrifying prison, not a place of healing. But considering the depraved works of the Ancestor, combined with this eerie environment, Lance understood the truth. This Sanitarium had likely been the Ancestor's laboratory for human experimentation. And of the "patients" sent here, few had ever left. This massively expensive building had simply been abandoned after the Ancestor's disappearance.

After a thorough investigation, Lance and his party withdrew and moved on to the other buildings in town. The dilapidated abbey, the roofless guild hall, the collapsed smithy...

His survey team this time was not his combat party, but the town's most reputable and skilled builders. During the registration, Lance had found it strange that all of the town's original skilled workers had disappeared. There was no reason the brigands would have specifically targeted them for slaughter. It was only after he had taken the farmstead that he discovered the truth: the landowner had hand-picked all of them.

When the town suddenly fell into ruin, no one was spending money. The artisans' skills could not be sold, so they had no income. And since many of them had no land of their own to fall back on, they were the first to become unemployed. David, by gathering all these skilled workers, had inadvertently preserved them for Lance. He was such a good person, Lance thought with a cynical sneer, looking out for others even after his death.

Lance had specifically brought these carpenters, masons, and other workers back from the farm. To use them for farm labor would have been a waste. These men already knew the local area well, and they understood the structures of the buildings. With their explanations, Lance learned which buildings were worth repairing and renovating, and which should be demolished for materials, to maximize their use.

Under normal circumstances, what he was doing would have been impossible. Even if he had inherited the domain and legally owned everything within its borders, the land deeds held by the townsfolk would have blocked the execution of his policies. No one would let him simply demolish their property. They would become stubborn holdouts.