After three days, the stone tablets were finally finished. To say that they were stone tablets was a bit of an overstatement. Those things resembled mud more than stone. Their brown finish reminded Lark of the uneven ground in the outskirts of the Magic Empire.

Lark summoned the servants in the hall. Before everyone’s gaze, he announced, “I want these tablets to be strategically placed in between houses.”

“As for their use,” said Lark. He took out a pouch filled with golden sand. “These things are basically heat stones. They’ll adjust their temperatures accordingly, maintaining an optimal temperature in a limited radius. Since this town is small, a hundred stones should be enough.”

Gaston stared at the golden sand the young master held in his hand. If he was not mistaken, those were gold dust, a raw material frequently used to create golden threads.

‘The young master surely wouldn’t…’

Before Gaston could even react, Lark started sprinkling some gold dust on the symbols carved on the stone tablets. He then placed a palm on the center of the symbol, and soon, the hexagram glowed a golden color, before vanishing moments after.

After Lark was on his third tablet, Gaston finally managed to blurt out his protests.

“Young Master! Those are gold dusts! To use them like that—” squealed Gaston. He could not help but shiver upon seeing the gold dusts disappear before his very eyes. It was like throwing gold coins away.

Lark chuckled. “Relax. What’s the use of golden threads anyway? They wouldn’t raise the productivity of my people. With these heat stones, working during winter would no longer be a problem.”

As time went on, Gaston realized that the young master was becoming more and more eccentric. Where did the hedonistic, mischievous, and arrogant young master go? Old as he may be, Gaston could clearly feel that the young master had definitely changed.

Soon, all of the tablets were completed. Lark nodded satisfactorily at his work. Gaston noticed that the temperature inside the manor had changed. It was as though summer had arrived.

“Nice and warm, isn’t it?” grinned Lark. “The advantage of gold dust is that even after a long time, the magic wouldn’t easily fade away.

That’s why these things are one of the catalysts when performing Grand Scale Magic. Of course, if it’s High Rank Magic, the effect would not last long with such poor materials.”

Once again, unusual words were coming out of the young master’s mouth.

Lark said to the butler. “The heat stones will easily melt the snow within a certain radius. Place them about thirty meters apart from each other. Just to be safe, bury them half a meter deep into the ground. Also, issue out a decree that anyone who destroys or steals them will be severely punished.”

Seeing the resolute expression of the young master, Gaston nodded. “As you wish, Young Master. I will immediately ask the servants to install it all throughout the town.”

Lark was smiling. “According to the documents, there're around sixty or seventy residents that are currently homeless. Spread the news to them – Lark of the Marcus Family is willing to give them free food and shelter in exchange of their service.”

Gaston was startled. “But young master! That’s absurd! We cannot support such a large number of servants!”

After reading documents, Lark found out that he still had around four hundred gold coins left in the treasury. It was probably a small amount when compared to the other nobles, but in this small town, it would be enough to hire a large number of individuals.

Lark deemed that it would be better to circulate the money than let it stay inside his treasury. After all, as the lord of this town, it would all come back to him in the form of taxes eventually. Right now, his most important asset was not the gold coins but the people. In this town that did not even have a thousand residents, it would be foolish to let them die from hunger and the cold.

He had seen the barren lands he passed by along the way when he was riding the carriage. According to Gaston, those lands were non-arable. Lark could not help but shake his head when he learned that the vast land surrounding the town was not actually fully utilized.

According to the farmers, only a small portion of it was suitable to grow wheat. It was utter bullshit born from the lack of knowledge.

Lark was confident that it should be possible to convert those so-called non-arable lands to an abundant wheat field. It would take time, but it would definitely increase the growth of his territory later on.

And right now, those jobless and homeless residents were the perfect candidates for the job.