Chapter 154: Uncomfortable Situation? (3)
Ghislaine hid her true feelings and smiled as she surveyed everyone.
“Anyone have another opinion? No, right?”
“Yeeah….”
“Okay. Then everyone knows what they need to do. Especially you Mages, you need to keep moving without rest. We have other facilities that are important, but the expansion of farmland along with the waterway and reservoir is the top priority.”
There was just so much to do.
First, they needed to create residences for the immigrants and add various facilities and workshops.
At the same time, they had to keep producing military weapons and supplies necessary for war without stopping.
Most importantly, securing food.
For now, they were still buying from merchants, but who knows when that supply might stop?
With immigrants arriving and the population about to spike, they needed to massively expand the farmland to produce food like crazy in preparation for a prolonged conflict.
Everyone’s faces turned gloomy.
‘There’s a ton of stuff we need, but when are we going to finish it all?’
‘And we have to prepare for war at the same time? Is this what being a lord is about…?’
‘But if I want to stay alive, I have to do this. I’m going insane.’
If it were just another noble, it would be one thing, but this was Count Desmond, who had already taken a hit from Ghislaine once.
If he managed to score a win, the territory would turn to ashes, and all the retainers from Penris and Perdium would lose their heads.
As much as they hated it, it was a must-do if they wanted to live.
Among the gloomy-faced retainers, Alfoy looked the worst.
‘W-what do I even start with? There’s so much to do!’
Having coasted a bit while the lord was away, work had piled up.
They could use the seeds to harvest grain soon, so there was no need to create a new Mana Convergence Circle.
However, they needed to mass-produce the runestones for the land according to the rate at which the farmland was expanding.
All the Mages would have to keep engraving Magic Circles just to meet the required amount.
But that wasn’t their only task. They had to get dragged into other constructions too.
‘So this is what “be prepared” means. I should’ve finished things ahead of time. I’m doomed.’
Seeing the overwhelming workload, Alfoy and the Mages despaired.
They wanted to run away, but they didn’t even have the courage to do that.
Seeing the expressions of the Mages, Ghislaine gave a slight chuckle and turned to Vanessa.
“Vanessa.”
“Yes, yes!”
“For now, put off your research and focus on helping Alfoy with the work. There’s a lot to do… Is that alright?”
“Of course! Just leave it to me!”
Unlike the other Mages, Vanessa clenched her fist with determination and exclaimed with gusto.
She always wanted to help Ghislaine, so she wasn’t going to shy away from these tasks.
Moreover, having reached the 6th Circle, her involvement would speed things up significantly.
“Great, I can really count on you.”
Now that the topic was brought up, Ghislaine decided to check on the tasks assigned to others.
First, she asked Lowell.
“What’s the progress on finding people that I asked for before?”
“I sent someone the moment you, Lord, issued the order, so I think we can bring in everyone who can come within a month.”
“Good. As soon as those people arrive, let me know immediately, and also make sure to train more spies to gather surrounding information.”
“Understood.”
Having emphasized the information aspect, Ghislaine now looked at Gillian.
“To effectively utilize the mercenaries moving forward, individual combat skills are crucial. For now, let’s focus on improving everyone’s abilities during training.”
“Understood.”
Gillian nodded obediently. Of course, this calm demeanor was only visible to Ghislaine, and during training, he would push the mercenaries to their limits.
Ghislaine turned to Kaor and asked, “If Gillian is leading the mercenary training, Kaor won’t have anything to do. Is there anything special you want to do?”
Kaor looked up confidently and replied, “Absolutely not.”
“……”
Kaor’s overly confident response momentarily left Ghislaine speechless.
After a brief pause, Ghislaine clicked her tongue and addressed Kaor, “The mercenaries will take turns for training. For now, focus on maintaining public order with the mercenaries who won’t be training. We still lack soldiers in the territory.”
“Yeah, well… let’s do that.”
Kaor answered with a rather reluctant expression.
His reluctance was no big deal. He simply didn’t want to do anything other than fight.
So Ghislaine forced him to take on a task. If left alone, he’d just end up drinking in some corner, which she absolutely could not tolerate.
“Now, regarding Belinda…”
“She can ensure that the people can focus solely on work and training, right? I’ll make sure they don’t feel inconvenienced in their daily lives.”
“Ah, Belinda, you really understand my heart, don’t you?”
“If I don’t understand, who will know the Young Master’s heart? Ho ho ho.”
Ghislaine couldn’t help but chuckle at her cheeky words.
Someone must constantly keep an eye out for necessities like food and clothes, as well as treat and manage the injured. Belinda was well-acquainted with such tasks and could handle them just fine.
Ghislaine scanned everyone and emphasized once more, “Don’t forget. If we don’t prepare properly, we could all perish. We must always be ready to fight.”
“Understood.”
Everyone present from the battlefield bowed their heads in respect to their lord’s command.
Ghislaine stood up and announced, “That’s it for today. Depending on the situation moving forward, there might be changes. If necessary, I’ll issue separate instructions, so for now, Claude will manage everything.”
As soon as Ghislaine finished speaking, Claude beckoned his retainers.
“Alright, let’s quickly get to the tasks at hand. Each of you knows your duties, right? Let’s make a detailed plan and bring it back as soon as possible.”
The immigrants would soon be flooding in, and lingering would only increase their burden.
Pushed by Claude’s prodding, the retainers hurriedly dashed outside.
Ghislaine narrowed her eyes, watching the scene unfold.
She had clearly warned them that war was on the horizon and they needed to be prepared.
If they still couldn’t grasp the gravity of the situation and slacked off in their preparations?
Count Desmond would come and slaughter every single one of them without a word.
*
Everyone was buried in work like mad, which made the territory run far busier than before.
No one in the Penris Territory was unoccupied, but the busiest among them was undoubtedly Claude.
As the overall supervisor of territorial development, he had to oversee all tasks, leaving him with barely any time to sleep.
While traveling in a wagon with Wendy to meet the merchant group, Claude lowered his head and muttered, “Ah, I’m dying. I want to escape. At this rate, it might be better to die at Count Desmond’s hands. This just doesn’t feel right. Will you die with me?”
“……”
Wendy didn’t even respond to Claude’s nonsense.
To be honest, she wanted to smack him, but looking at Claude’s haggard appearance made it hard to do so.
His under-eye bags had long turned dark, and in just a few days, he had lost enough weight to be called ‘Skeleton Brother.’
Even in that state, this guy’s mouth never seemed to stop.
“I’m working to avoid dying, yet it feels like I’m going to die from all this work. Even so, I can’t argue with the lord about it.”
Whenever Claude felt overwhelmed with tasks, he sought out Ghislaine. He was trying to persuade her to escape once more.
However, Ghislaine was entirely occupied with the laborers, adding a bulk order of cosmetics facilities.
There was no god.
Rosalyn in the capital needed a new supply of cosmetics, and preparations to establish a branch had to be made.
“Ugh, if we could just lounge around like the other lords, we could manage our work with some finesse. You know, it seems like we’re all secretly workaholics? Honestly, our Lord looks like he was never meant to do any work. Don’t you think?”
“I don’t know.”
“Is it possible the Lord is just mistaken? Or maybe he just wants to wrap things up quickly and is exaggerating trivial matters. People who don’t know anything usually do that, right? What do you think? Doesn’t that sound plausible? He’s probably just caught up in the image of being a hardworking lord. Isn’t that right?”
“I don’t know.”
“You always say you don’t know when it seems unfavorable for you. Always ‘I don’t know, I don’t know, I don’t know.’ Hey, you’re really good at socializing.”
“…….”
Wendy gave up on responding altogether.
Then Claude suddenly made a bizarre face and imitated Wendy.
“Eh, I don’t know. Eh, I don’t know. Ugh, I don’t know.”
‘……Seriously, he’s like a kid.’
There’s no way she had ever made a face like that.
Wendy glared at the childish, annoying Claude and simply turned her head away.
It was best to ignore that mouth; engaging with him would only lead to loss on her part.
Claude also knew that the current situation was very urgent and dangerous.
But the work was too exhausting, so he let it out this way, spouting nonsense to relieve stress.
Complaining about superiors while working was a timeless method of stress relief.
Clatter, clatter!
The wagon, merrily bouncing along, shifted gears as the subject of complaints changed entirely.
“Ugh, when are we going to replace this old piece of junk? Seriously, I can’t find anything I like about this territory. Ah, I want a luxury wagon. Someone like me should be riding in style.”
“…….”
Amidst Claude’s grumbling, they reached the border of the territory.
Even though time was tight, the reason for coming out this far was simple: due to the territory’s blockade policy, merchants couldn’t enter the castle.
Upon arriving at the meeting spot, Claude immediately began the transaction with the merchant group.
“Alright, you know I’m busy, right? Let’s get to the checking quickly.”
It’s customary to exchange pleasantries and enjoy tea when making large-scale trades.
But for Claude, who was always pressed for time, even that was a luxury.
The other party was already familiar with Penris Territory’s situation, so they didn’t mind the rush.
After checking the items brought by the merchant group, Claude nodded.
“The quantity looks fine, and the quality isn’t bad either. Please take good care of us next time as well.”
“Haha, of course! How could I neglect you when you’re buying in bulk?”
The merchant who brought the items replied with a hearty laugh.
The price had already been negotiated previously, allowing the trade to proceed swiftly.
Although on the surface there seemed to be no issues with the transaction, both parties were secretly wary.
‘The Lord told me to be cautious with these guys, right? For scoundrels, they’re handling the transaction quite smoothly.’
‘Huh, the Young Lady told me to watch out for these guys. If it weren’t for the bulk trade… But they’re not using counterfeit gold coins, and everything seems fine. So what’s the problem?’
The merchant group involved in this transaction was the Actium group, led by Amelia.
The Actium group began to make a name for itself in the northern fortress.
With quality products and strict adherence to contracts, they were rapidly growing their credibility and size.
‘Hmm, I still need a lot of materials… so I’ll have to deal with these guys for a while.’
‘Hmm, I still need a lot of funds… so I’ll have to deal with these guys for a while.’
Ironically, both sides were ignoring their rivalry while proceeding with the transaction out of necessity.
Ghislaine and Amelia were aware of this fact but chose not to intervene.
Stopping it would only be detrimental to themselves.
Despite their mutual dislike, the two were quite similar in their disregard for means as long as they achieved their goals.
Just as they thought the transaction was successfully wrapping up, the merchant spoke up hesitantly.
“Excuse me, Chief Officer. I’m sorry to say this, but the prices of items will likely rise next transaction.”
“What do you mean? Prices are going up, you say?”
“The prices of food and raw materials have increased significantly. It’s been quite tough for us to secure goods…”
“Climb up this way. It’s really hard for us to get supplies as well…”
Upon hearing this, Claude shot a suspicious glance at the merchant.
‘No wonder the Lord warned us to be careful with these guys… Are they trying to pull a fast one on us?’
With these bad guys, you’ve got to assert yourself to avoid losses.
“No, we just started a large-scale construction project not long ago… Are you really raising prices all of a sudden? Are you targeting us? This isn’t a good approach.”
“That’s not it…”
“Do you know who our Lord has behind him? Uh, it’s a bit awkward and embarrassing for me to say it. Do you happen to know Marquis Branford?”
Marquis Branford is the guardian of Ghislaine. But Claude casually tossed around the Marquis’s name as if he were his own guardian.
In the Ruthania Kingdom, Claude probably sells the name of Marquis Branford more than anyone else.
As Claude pumped up the tension of the difficult customer, the merchant hurriedly waved his hands.
“Oh my, what do you mean? That’s not it at all. You know we’re bringing it to you at the lowest price with hardly any profit, right? To be honest, it’s tough to even make labor costs with that price. It’s just that the material supply is gradually running low.”
The phrase “we’re offering the lowest price” and “labor costs are tight” are things merchants always say. Claude wasn’t someone who would fall for such tricks.
“Well then, why are the items that were easily supplied suddenly in short supply? That doesn’t make sense.”
The merchant answered incredulously.
“Why are they in short supply? Weren’t all the goods wiped out from the Penris Territory?”
“Aha, that makes sense.”
Claude nodded as if he finally understood.
It had been a month since they started the large-scale construction project.
During that time, the Penris Territory had been tirelessly purchasing all the necessary items from all the merchant groups operating in the North.
The problem is, the North has lower resource circulation than other regions. So, they were gradually facing difficulties in acquiring materials.
“Ugh, I should’ve set up some countermeasures earlier.”
With so much to do and not enough time, delays in material supply would lead to big problems.
As Claude pondered this, an administrator from the territory rushed over with a report.
“Chief Officer! Chief Officer, it’s bad!”
“Hmm? What’s going on?”
The administrator glanced nervously at the merchant standing in front of Claude and whispered in his ear.
“The stockpile of timber is almost gone. What should we do? At this rate, we won’t be able to continue construction starting tomorrow.”
“What? Already?”
Among the materials needed to build residences, timber was the most essential.
Timber is used for firewood, various furniture and tools, fences, fortifications, and even making arrows and spear shafts, so it’s bound to run out quickly.
‘Ugh, damn it. What should I do?’
Claude’s mind became a tangled mess.
With deforestation happening as if the trees had no future, the forests and mountains in the Penris Territory had nearly vanished.
Since trees grow slowly, they should have controlled the quantity harvested, but the Penris Territory wasn’t in a position to afford such luxury.
While they were steadily buying through the merchant groups, there was still a limit.
‘Damn it, even if I place an order right now, those merchant groups in the North can’t handle the amount we need. Even looking into merchant groups from other regions would take time.’
Claude gnawed on his lips, failing to think of a solid plan.
Just then, a soldier rushed in from a distance, panting.
“Chief Officer, they’ve arrived!”
“They’ve arrived? What are you talking about?”
Claude tilted his head in confusion at the soldier’s unexpected statement.
What could have arrived when he hadn’t ordered anything?
The soldier responded with an expression that said, “How do you not know?”
“The immigrants you mentioned are said to be arriving soon!”
Not only was there no dwelling, but they were also out of timber to build a dwelling, and thousands of immigrants were supposed to arrive any minute now.
Claude clasped his forehead and muttered.
“Oh, hell….”
A huge problem had just arisen.
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