NOVEL NEXT Chapter 16 Mines Need Slaves (2)
Mount Pagon.
This mountain with a huge amount of iron ore deposits is an important asset of Baron Mikhail. Because of the abundance of iron produced here, it is safe to say that the artisans gathered and the equipment they produce accounted for most of the territory's economy.
However, Baron Mikhail looked at the recently gathered adventurers with an annoyed gaze. The noisy chatter of stalls spread out in the central square was enough to annoy him.
“Selling the dagger! It's the first piece I've ever made!”
“We will repair your equipment for free!”
“We are selling handcrafted grade B or higher equipment!”
Adventurers who have just entered the blacksmith's path. They were selling their own equipment, but in the eyes of Baron Mikhail, it just looked like crude and crude trash.
“Eh... to spend all that precious iron making something vulgar like that.”
Due to the rapid increase in the number of novice blacksmiths, the demand for iron, which had already been increasing, exploded, resulting in a shortage of iron. And as a result, many workshops were expressing difficulties. “Lord, if we don't get a proper supply of iron this time
, we won't be able to meet the
delivery date with the contracted
merchant ...” .....”
Washing your face was tight. As it began to show signs of diminishing further, Baron Mikhail's stress began to increase. However, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't come up with a solution to overcome this problem.
“Is it impossible to obligate adventurers to mine?”
“According to Article 128, paragraph 1 of the Continental Act, it seems impossible.”
“Keuk... Then, what about selling the produced iron to artisans first?”
“That is also not possible because of Article 128 Paragraph 2 of the Continental Statute.”
“Then...”
A law that transcends all kingdoms and empires and applies to the entire continent of Arcadia. Because of this decree prohibiting discrimination against adventurers who travel all over the continent, there is very little room for Lord Mikhail to directly intervene. Because of this, the conversation with the judge only made my head hurt more.
“Ugh... these damn things.”
Things that don't help the manor at all. In the eyes of Baron Mikhail, the adventurers seemed nothing more than unwanted refugees. However, since there was no way to force them out or stop them from buying iron, all they could do was encourage the miners to increase iron production as much as possible.
buzz buzz.
An exchange that buys and sells iron ore mined in mines. Baron Mikhail, who was passing by, saw a large number of people huddled in the exchange, and was drawn to it by curiosity. And the voices of excited people came from the exchange.
“crazy! What on earth is all this iron ore?”
“Iron ore is the problem, man? Look at the gold and silver mines here!”
“There are magic stones here too! Where else did you get this?”
A huge amount of ore piled up in front of the exchange. Upon seeing the small mountain of ore, Baron Mikhail's eyes widened. The densely piled iron ore was a surprise, but the rare minerals that shimmered all over the mountain of iron ore shocked him.
“Where do these minerals come from?”
“Wo lord? What are you doing here...?”
The people were taken aback by the sudden appearance of Baron Mikhail. And their eyes quickly focused on one person.
“Are you the one who mined these minerals?”
A person who caught people's attention. When Baron Mikhail asked him, seeing him wearing a pickaxe that was unusual to see on his back, he nodded calmly.
“So what?”
An attitude that was too imposing to show to himself as a nobleman and the owner of the estate. From that appearance, Baron Mikhail knew that he was an adventurer, and soon the baron was curious about him.
Unlike other adventurers who turn hard-earned resources into rubbish, I like his sincerity in digging up the ores needed for the territory.
“If you have time, would you like to have a cup of tea with me?”
So the baron invited him to the lord's castle. With a strange expectation that Lee Ja might solve Yeongji's problem.
* * *
“If you have time, would you like to have a cup of tea with me?”
A bearded man who suddenly appears from somewhere and proposes a tea time. In reality, he would have hated it and rejected it, but Jaeyoung couldn't refuse it even because of the message in front of him.
[Baron Mikhail is curious about you.]
[Your friendship with Baron Mikhail increases.]
[Baron Mikhail invited you to the castle. Do you accept?]
‘...What is it?'
Jaeyoung focused on mining for two days. Returning with his inventory filled to the limit, he gave a huge amount of iron ore to the miners. Of course, they went far beyond the rewards they could give and came to the exchange to sell the remaining stock.
Jae-young readily accepted his offer, as it was not bad to listen to the story, although he had doubts about the slightly heterogeneous situation.
“I see.”
“Heh heh heh. Come with me.”
As we entered the lord castle located in the center of the fortress, Tan shouted as if he had suddenly remembered.
“ah! right! This is where it was!”
Tan shouted as they clashed their hands. Since Tan was not recognized by others, only Jaeyoung looked at him with strange eyes, but Tan muttered with a mischievous look in his eyes.
“There is such a thing.”
It was something meaningful, but Jae-young, who couldn't ask what it was because of the situation, was soon able to face Baron Mikhail while sitting in the magnificently decorated garden in the castle.
“I will. It is a tea made from herbs collected from Mount Pagon.”
A tea that smells fragrant. Looking at Jaeyoung, who lifted his glass and took a sip, Baron Mikhail gave a friendly smile.
“It’s a nice car.”
“Then it's one of our territory's specialties.”
Baron Mikhail had a short, fruitless conversation. He asked Jaeyoung with a coy look.
“Looking at you earlier, it looks like you were trying to sell a lot of minerals. Did you collect all of them yourself?”
“yes.”
“Huh... that's great. It would take even a skilled miner ten days to dig that much. How long is that amount of cans?”
“About two days?”
“Huh... is that possible?”
For two days, Baron Mikhail was speechless at the word ‘can'. His eyes were full of doubt. A look that you will never believe. But Jaeyoung calmly told him.
“At first, I was slow too, but as I got better at it, the amount I could collect increased and I got faster and faster.”
“I see... Then can other adventurers mine minerals like you?”
Baron Mikhail's question. Jaeyoung thought about the question for a while, then nodded.
“sure. Even if it's not as much as me, maybe it's possible?”
Baron Mikhail asked Jaeyoung with his eyes shining at those words.
“Then how do you think we can get them to dig for minerals?”
“yes?”
random question. At that question, Jaeyoung looked at him with a puzzled look. But Baron Mikhail was more serious than ever.
“I don’t know about you, but the situation in the territory is not right now as adventurers are gathering. It means that the elaborately run economy of the territory is shaking.”
Jaeyoung, who roughly understood the situation of Yeongji from the baron’s story, nodded.
“So... as beginners or adventurers gathered, iron became scarce, and that's why the existing artisans can't make things properly?”
“That’s right. This estate needs many people like you. Not clumsy novices who make garbage, but workers who will sweat and produce iron, the root of our territory!”
Baron Mikhail got excited when he remembered the unlikely adventurers who opened stalls in the square and sold goods. Unlike him, his eyes were full of good feelings as he looked at Jae-young, who seemed to be full of sincerity.
“Can you help me?”
At that question, a quest appeared in front of Jaeyoung's eyes.
[Do you accept the quest ‘The Lord's Concerns'?]
[The Quest Lord's Concerns]
The territory has problems with iron ore supply. Increase the amount of mining in the mine by increasing the number of miners.
[Solution Conditions]
-Achieve 100000 iron ore mining per day (32140/100000).
A sudden quest. However, Jaeyoung frowned upon confirming the contents.
‘It's ambiguous.....'
A quest to increase the amount of mining by as much as three times. However, since the method was not specifically decided, it was a difficult type of quest that was almost impossible for ordinary users to clear.
“How is that possible?”
Baron Mikhail looked at Jaeyoung, who was deep in thought, with a troubled expression. He asked with expectant eyes, but Tan suddenly whispered next to him.
“Accept the offer for now.”
“...?”
Tan suddenly urges you to accept the offer. He had been quiet all this time, and suddenly, at Tan's whisper to accept the offer, Jaeyoung looked at him with an expression as if he was thinking something. Then Tan said meaningfully.
“It was so long ago that I can’t remember much... Maybe we can take this opportunity to fuck those damn chicken wings?”
Tan giggling and flapping his wings as if he could just imagine it. I didn't understand what he was talking about, but Jae-young looked at Baron Mikhail with a serious face and asked, leaving behind him who was shouting at him to accept the offer quickly.
“If you accept this offer, how far can you leave it?”
“What does that mean?”
Baron Mikhail did not understand Jaeyoung's words properly. However, Jaeyoung hit him right in the middle.
“I can make Yeongji's economic situation work properly. But in order to do that, it is entirely up to you to follow me.”
“Well... that's it, even if you don't say it, of course.....”
“And give me 10% of the additional profits.”
“what....?”
At Jaeyoung's suggestion, Baron Mikhail looked at him with an absurd face.
“Hey... you must have looked at me too lightly. I will accept such an absurd offer...”
“I don't know the exact tax revenue of this territory, but it doesn't look very good. Most of them are mountainous and the environment is barren, so food production is difficult and most of them have to rely on imports.”
At Jaeyoung's words, Baron Mikhail shut his mouth. It was a rough guess, but it was because it was accurate that a lot of the territory's income was actually being consumed to buy food.
“The necessary expenses are unavoidable. Well, whether the guild beats the price or overcharges, that's not a problem we can solve. However, if we maximize the income that can be extracted from the mines in the territory, wouldn’t it be a bit of a breather?”
“Maximizing the income of the mine?”
Baron Mikhail muttered, ‘How?' Jaeyoung gave him a wicked smile and held out his hand.
“I will tell you one by one from now on.”
In this way, Baron Mikhail, who was taught through Jae-young, gained great fame afterwards.
‘Where there is income, there are taxes.'
‘Find the end of the tax and shake it off.'
‘The best tax is to extract without people noticing.'
As an evil lord of rare times who taxed everything except breathing.