# Chapter 6: The Ordinary Northern Berserker Maid
Lord's Mansion of Moldavia.
The senior maid, Solin, was diligently cleaning as usual.
The March weather in the Northern lands remained bitterly cold. Whether it was the biting, dry gale or the hazy, scattered gray clouds, there was no sign of any warming trend. Yet despite this, Solin wore only an ordinary maid's uniform as she worked industriously in the Lord's Mansion, sweeping every speck of dust from the crevices.
But strangely enough, there was no heating in the Lord's Mansion—not even a single fireplace lit. The average temperature in the corridors was minus five degrees Celsius. How could the maid work so comfortably in such conditions?
Actually, the answer was simple.
Because every staff member in the Lord's Mansion of Moldavia, including the stable hands and gardeners, possessed strength at the Silver rank.
Let alone minus five degrees—even at minus twenty-five, they could still work comfortably without feeling the slightest chill.
Silver High-rank Berserker, Maid Solin, was now skillfully wielding a broom and cloth as large as a giant axe, cleaning the dust from the first-floor reception hall. One could see this maid weaving between giant dragon skulls and demon heads, showing no fear in the face of a pressure that would make even ordinary Gold-rank experts tremble. In fact, as she looked at these trophies of the Lord, her expression even held a hint of familiarity.
"Sigh, the Lord hasn't added any new trophies here in a long time." She raised her specialized hand towel, wiping dust from an ornament made of a skull, and softly murmured: "Probably ran out of space."
From the maid's voice, one could tell she was not yet twenty years old. A Silver-rank who hadn't reached twenty could be called a young prodigy anywhere, but in the Lord's Mansion of Moldavia, she was merely one of many ordinary attendants.
Even from Solin's somewhat short stature—clearly stunted due to malnutrition during childhood and adolescence—her past had not been happy, nor had it contributed anything to her current strength.
Everything was thanks to the Lord.
Whenever Solin recalled her painful, hopeless past life, she couldn't help but silently repeat that phrase.
Once, Solin had lived in an ordinary village near the main city of Moldavia. Calling it a village was generous—it was actually just a crude cluster of wooden buildings, barely a settlement. Fifty-some households, two to three hundred people lived there, surviving by farming and hunting.
The Northern climate wasn't suitable for farming, but the fertile soil meant that even a single annual harvest could sustain ordinary people. However, that was merely survival—no more, no less. Only the wealthiest families in the village had the strength and tools for hunting, but even for them, every hunt was a gamble. Coming back empty-handed was actually good fortune. If they encountered a magical beast and lost a few people, a family that was barely getting by might completely collapse.
This was the real life of ordinary residents in the Northern lands over a decade ago: farming couldn't fill your stomach, hunting was extremely dangerous, and every year there was the threat of beast tides. Although the Black Forest Fortress minimized the damage of the Black Tide to the territory, every time a beast tide appeared, the Lord would increase that year's taxes to recruit new soldiers and compensate the families of the fallen.
Solin's family originally had seven members. She had three younger brothers and a younger sister. As the eldest daughter, she had been helping her parents farm since age ten. The premature labor had left her far smaller than her peers, but it couldn't improve the family's situation. Soon, when a magic tide erupted one year, Solin's family, unable to sustain themselves, had no choice but to sell Solin into the main city to prevent the whole family from starving.
Solin didn't resent her parents for selling her. It was an unavoidable choice. That year's harvest had been poor anyway, and the winter wheat had been ruined by frenzied magical beasts. In this world with supernatural powers, ordinary people without such powers couldn't fight against magical beasts that were born with spellcasting abilities. When encountering these creatures, aside from praying for a passing knight to slay them, most villagers could only tremble and hope the beasts wouldn't fancy their skin-and-bone bodies.
Those were truly dark and helpless days.
Fortunately, the Lord appeared.
Solin hummed a little tune while focused on wiping the metal armor displayed on both sides of the corridor. Due to the Lord's power radiating from it, this armor seemed to be showing signs of coming to life. Recently, other maids had seen metal armor patrolling the corridor at midnight. As she wiped, she couldn't help but squint, remembering that winter day when she had been sold into the Lord's Mansion.
It was a winter of unrest. The old Lord, who had always been merciful and never imposed strange taxes, suddenly passed away. A group of unknown knights forcibly occupied the main city. Before anyone could figure out what was happening, the current Lord returned, decisively drove away those knights from who-knows-where, demolished the old Lord's Mansion, and began recruiting a new batch of attendants.
She had been quite lucky. Because she looked somewhat delicate, stood relatively straight, answered questions with a strong voice, and seemed very young and pitiful, she was immediately accepted as a new maid, becoming a noble's attendant.
In that era, this was the only chance for a commoner to change their fate, aside from war or the church.
But looking back now, that change of fate might have been a bit too significant.
Because when the Lord had nothing to do, he would actually give professional lessons to them, the maids.
The first time she attended a lesson, Solin and several other young attendants were pulled into a large room in the basement. Initially, she thought the Lord was revealing his noble nature, about to take advantage of them, poor helpless maids. But to her surprise, half of those pulled in were male. Just as Solin was wondering if the Lord's appetite was a bit broad, she discovered that the Lord wasn't planning to do anything to them at all—instead, he was teaching them a completely new Battle Qi cultivation method.
Although according to the Lord, this cultivation method was something he had figured out himself—a low-grade technique with no advantages except being easy to popularize—how could a maid ask for more? The very fact that they could cultivate was an opportunity that surpassed 99% of people in this world. Beyond being overwhelmed with gratitude, no one could say a single word.
Not to mention the subsequent updates: "Basic Technique 0.8 Beta," "Basic Technique 0.9 Beta," "Basic Technique Official Version," and "Advanced Technique Luxury Enhanced Edition."
And this was only a small part of the enormous changes brought by the Lord.
Mana Armor, Winterfell Academy, large-scale infrastructure renovation, gathering village residents for centralized labor... As an ordinary maid of the Northern Lord's Mansion, Solin naturally didn't understand the significance of these inventions and policies. But she knew that the lives of Northern residents were getting better and better.
The appearance of Mana Armor and the rental industry allowed even ordinary people to easily complete farming work that would have taken a month otherwise. Besides "Agricultural Mana Armor," there were also "Excavation," "Hunting," and "Infrastructure" types, greatly reducing the labor intensity for ordinary people. The establishment of Winterfell Academy allowed many talented ordinary people to be discovered and receive formal professional education.
Large-scale infrastructure renovation connected all scattered villages with smooth, wide roads. Many residents living scattered in rural areas were gathered into the main city and arranged by the Lord's Mansion to farm the farmland around the unfrozen river. Solin didn't understand the deeper meaning of this policy, but she knew that since its implementation, she had never heard of anyone needing to sell their children to survive the winter.
With the appearance of Mana Factories and Mana Cores, the changes became even greater. Not to mention other industrial goods and production line systems—who would have thought that something like heating could exist in this world? Lord above, this was the greatest invention in the North, bar none!
And this change had even spread throughout the world.
Moldavia seemed to have become a strange example. Whenever it had any good reform, other cities of the Empire would learn from it immediately. Even if they couldn't, His Majesty the Emperor would personally ensure they could. With the large-scale reform within the Empire, the Eastern Plains and the Far South naturally wouldn't fall behind. Even the slowest Western Mountain Kingdom would start trying within a few months at most.
It wasn't that the major powers lacked technology or didn't want innovation. The reason they didn't do it was simply that there was no need.
Since it wasn't the nobles or high-ranking officials who suffered, why should they change themselves for the suffering of the lower classes? Even if a large number of commoners starved to death, to the lofty supernatural nobles, it was just a field of walking crops dying. Although now, supernatural beings seemed to have entered the lower levels of Mycroft World—even rural villages might produce a mid-rank professional—Solin would never forget the condescending looks, as if looking at ants, that supernatural beings gave over a decade ago.
If not for the Lord implementing these policies with his incredibly powerful strength, and His Majesty the Emperor supporting him wholeheartedly, even killing groups of dissenters, ordinary people wanting to touch supernatural power? That would have been absolutely impossible.
"Almost done."
Wiping non-existent sweat, Solin looked with satisfaction at her clean area without a speck of dust, then nodded.
Of course, even as an ordinary Northern maid, Solin clearly knew that there was no free lunch in this world, nor kindness without reason. Even the Lord was like this.
Those big shots probably needed more professionals to complete their plans, which was why they were spreading supernatural power on such a scale... Perhaps it was an unprecedented war, with an enemy so powerful it was unimaginable, needing them as cannon fodder? Though it sounded a bit arrogant, aside from this, the poorly educated little maid really couldn't think of any other reason.
But even as cannon fodder, even going to die.
Solin didn't find it unacceptable.
She was happy now.
Now, Solin had friends and earned others' respect. She had strength and could live happily. According to the contract with the Lord's Mansion, she only needed to work until age twenty to end the indenture contract her parents had signed, gaining her freedom. With her professional level, even if she stopped being a maid, she could go anywhere to be a guard or find a proper job.
Now, Moldavia, and indeed the entire Empire and the whole world, was thriving. Countless ancient industries were disappearing, but even more new industries were emerging. Through the Lord's Mansion's connections, Solin knew of a job at a factory in another world, where the pay was five times that of Mycroft homeland. Lord above, that was five times the salary!
Humans were strange creatures. They would risk their lives for ethereal glory, hope, faith, and future happiness. Solin wasn't that noble. She didn't understand glory or faith. The little maid simply knew very clearly that all the happiness and joy she now possessed were given to her by the Lord of Moldavia, the Radcliffe Family.
People should know how to repay. At least, they should learn gratitude.
That was all.
"Solin, stop daydreaming! Miss Black has fainted in the pool again from overtraining! Everyone else is busy—hurry up and fish her out! In a little while, the pool will boil dry!"
Suddenly, Solin heard another maid's voice. She immediately replied: "Coming!" With that, she picked up her broom and trotted quickly toward the backyard.
Sigh, even as cannon fodder, I probably wouldn't get the chance. The ordinary Silver High-rank Berserker maid thought so. After all, I'm so weak, so helpless, and so short.
Meanwhile.
High above the main city of Moldavia, a black-haired man and a white-haired old man were speaking softly.
"Someone like Solin—an 'ordinary person' who, given only normal living conditions and the most basic cultivation method, could go from no rank to Silver High-rank in just seven or eight years—there are as many as eight thousand such people in all of Moldavia."
Watching the little maid, who was only about 1.4 meters tall and indeed quite short, trot over and single-handedly drag Black, who had fallen asleep from overtraining, out of the pool that had turned into boiling water, Joshua said calmly: "If given sufficient nutrition and scientific training, I am confident that these eight thousand people can all reach the Gold realm before age forty. Among them, those with better talent could advance before thirty."
"And among these eight thousand, perhaps several dozen could advance to Ultimate, and even produce a Legendary expert."