Chapter 155: I’ll Take Care of This. (1)
The immigrants arrived faster than expected, but it wasn’t an unforeseen situation.
After all, it’s impossible to build a residence for thousands of people in just a month or two.
For the time being, they planned to set up tents and mobilize labor to quickly advance the construction.
They needed to provide a place to live if they were going to make them work, right?
The problem was the shortage of timber, leaving the timeline for construction uncertain—no, there was no guarantee they could even start.
It was clear that the longer it took to build the residence, the worse the people’s lives would get.
Claude scratched his head in frustration and asked Wendy with a desperate look.
“What do we do?”
“…I really don’t know.”
“So when you really don’t know, you just say you don’t know?”
“….”
If Claude, the chief officer, had no clue, Wendy wasn’t going to have any bright ideas either.
Even as an aide, her main job was to protect Claude.
Sighing and shaking off his worries, Claude realized there was no time to dwell on problems. They needed to finish the transactions quickly and move on to the next task.
“Let’s discuss the price later. No other issues, right?”
In response to Claude’s question, the merchant wore a serious expression.
“There aren’t any major problems yet… but if you keep buying in bulk like this, issues will eventually arise.”
“What kind of issues?”
“You’re spending too much money in Penris. The prices in the North are starting to fluctuate. While it’s great for people like me who earn money, naturally, some will be affected negatively.”
The North was a barren region to begin with.
And now, with Penris sweeping up even the slightest resources available, it was only natural for prices to rise, and the supply to dwindle completely.
“Hmm… Did I buy too much? But I bought it all because it was necessary. We need to keep buying going forward.”
“Aren’t most of the things you’re acquiring raw materials? With Penris sucking all that up, other businesspeople are bound to get unhappy. Especially the nobles. You know?”
Claude understood perfectly what the merchant was saying.
Due to Ghislaine’s outrageous policies, a massive amount of money was flooding into the North. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say they were practically throwing money around.
While the merchants were grinning ear to ear with a big client after a long time, not everyone was that lucky.
The poor serfs of the territory wouldn’t care less about who bought and sold what, but the nobles, deeply involved in economic activities, must be fuming.
Claude nodded several times.
“The nobles must really dislike our Lord. Honestly, I don’t want to see him either… Ahem, let’s pretend I didn’t say that.”
“Anyway, unless they live in a big city, they won’t feel the price changes. The real problem lies with the other lords and nobles.”
Some reckless young lord appeared out of nowhere and was wreaking havoc in the Northern market, sweeping up all the goods.
He’s sweeping up the items.
Normally, he would have colluded with others to trip that guy up or inflict some damage on him.
But that rookie lord has Marquis Branford behind him? So the nobles can only watch in silence, unable to interfere.
How envious and bitter must that be? Ghislaine is probably stamping his feet, wanting to snatch everything out of his hands.
Claude, who fully understood the situation, nodded and made one last attempt with the merchant.
“I’ll keep that in mind. Is there any other problem? Then… let’s just knock off 1 gold.”
“Huh?”
“Just knock off 1 gold, please.”
The merchant couldn’t hide his astonishment.
They had already settled the price during their previous meeting. Moreover, hadn’t the payment already been made?
“Isn’t asking for a discount something you do before handing over the money?”
The merchant couldn’t grasp it at all, but this was Claude’s last ounce of conscience.
If he paid less and kept the change, it would be embezzlement from the territory’s funds… But if he paid first and got it back, it could be counted as a favor.
So he was clinging to this even after the deal was done.
“We’ve done more than a couple of transactions together, and we’ll do more in the future! Just knock off 1 gold.”
“…….”
The merchant stared at Claude with a suspicious look.
The timing of the request was odd, but the amount was stranger still. Just 1 gold? Not 100 gold, but just 1 gold?
For a bribe from the chief officer of a territory, the amount was so low it raised even more suspicion.
“What’s the scheme here? Should I report this to Young Lady Amelia?”
No matter how much he pondered, the merchant couldn’t figure it out.
He didn’t know that despite being called a chief officer, Claude was essentially in a slave’s position, so there was no way he could hit upon the truth.
Claude’s request for just 1 gold had no ulterior motive; it was a purely simple desire that fueled his actions.
With the merchant remaining silent, Claude felt awkward and hastily pressed on.
“Oh, you really can’t knock off even 1 gold? Are we really going to do this? Will you not trade with us next time?”
“Uh, yeah… I can do that much.”
In the end, the merchant gave up thinking and pulled out 1 gold from his own pocket.
Claude joyfully accepted the money and stuffed it into his coat pocket.
“Ah, thank you. Well then, see you next time. It would be nice to share a good drink too. We don’t have any decent booze in our territory.”
Meaning he would like him to bring back some good alcohol.
The merchant understood the implication and nodded with a reluctant expression.
After all, as a ‘customer,’ he had to keep a good impression.
“Ah, yes… I’ll find a good one then. Well, I’ll take my leave.”
“Yes, take care. I’m not going far.”
The merchant awkwardly smiled at the cheerfully waving Claude and turned away.
“I think I understand a bit why Young Lady Amelia dislikes these guys.”
He couldn’t make sense of the absurdly small amount, but he saw that this guy was quite the tyrant. If the chief officer was like this, what kind of a fool was that lord?
Being one of the top incompetents in the North, meeting him would likely be even more infuriating than Claude.
“Seeing how he even got dumped by the Young Lady makes sense. But what on earth does 1 gold signify? Could it be a signal to the Young Lady?”
The merchant grappled with whether he should report this or not as he left Penris.
Watching him disappear from sight, Claude wore a meaningful smile.
“Hehe, since the lord said those guys are enemies, it’s probably fine to snatch 1 gold from them.”
He had just taken 1 gold from an enemy.
If anything, this could count as an accomplishment.
Claude happily slipped his hand into his coat pocket.
He wanted to feel ‘real money’ in his hands after such a long time.
“What the?!”
But there was no money in his pocket.
Thinking he might have been mistaken, he searched everywhere but couldn’t find it.
“Ugh! What the heck?! Where did my money go?!”
He wondered if it had fallen on the ground, but after searching thoroughly, it was nowhere to be found.
Claude searched for a while, and eventually gave up, looking up at the sky and shouted.
“Waaaaah! Why can’t I, Claude, be happy?!”
Sigh.
Wendy shook her head at Claude’s lament.
She quietly approached the territory’s treasury, about to drop a gold coin inside, but paused.
Seeing Claude still whining, Wendy sighed and called out to him.
“Chief Officer, there’s a gold coin that fell here.”
“Huh? Really? Did you find it? Why is it there? Did the gold coin grow legs? Hehehe, I found it!”
Claude was overjoyed and ran over to Wendy to receive the gold coin.
The look on his face as he carefully tucked the money back in his pocket was happier than ever.
*
The residents of Penris Territory all shared one thought as they watched the immigrants crowding into their territory.
‘Are they beggars?’
With their shabby appearances and gloomy expressions, it was no exaggeration to say they were refugees rather than immigrants.
They all looked emaciated, as if they hadn’t eaten properly. There even seemed to be sick people among them.
The retainers clicked their tongues as they watched the oncoming immigrants.
‘By the looks of it, we can’t make them work right away. This is just going to cost us money.’
‘It’s good that the population is increasing… but people are people. Where did they gather such folks? Is it possible the Lord got scammed?’
It wasn’t just the retainers. The existing territory residents also looked anxiously at the newcomers.
It wasn’t that they wanted to assert their territory; it was an instinct cultivated from years of hardship.
Suddenly having so many new faces around made them worry about public order and food supply.
Only Ghislaine showed no particular emotions while observing the immigrants.
He had anticipated that many of the newcomers would be in poor condition.
‘There’s no way they’d easily let go of healthy people.’
No matter how much support was promised to Ghislaine, population was fundamental to territory management and the greatest asset for lords.
How greedy nobles were, there was no way they would just hand that over.
They sent only the poor and needy under the guise of poor relief. This was a chance to clean up their slums.
Along with them were those from villages that couldn’t pay taxes and firewood farmers, even small-time criminals were rounded up.
They didn’t worry about what happened afterward.
The Briivant Territory, which had agreed to provide support, had money despite its small population, and it had the Tower of the Bloody Flame.
It might take some time, but he thought they’d manage to feed them well enough.
While looking over the immigrants, Ghislaine spoke to Lowell, who was next to him.
“Lowell, start a population survey right away. First, categorize those who can work and those who can’t. Have Belinda start treatment for the ill, and send the healthy ones to Gillian. We’ll be short on manpower for maintaining public order immediately.”
“Understood.”
“And for the spies… No, I won’t be able to find them there right now. It’s fine as long as I don’t send them out.”
Surely, spies from other territories would be mingled in that crowd.
But it wasn’t easy to pick out spies among the masses gathered from across the kingdom. He was too busy to pay attention to that.
In the first place, it wasn’t possible to completely block spies from coming in. The best approach was simply not to let them out.
“Where’s Claude?”
“He went to trade with the merchant group. He should arrive soon.”
“Once he comes, tell him to ensure a food distribution to the immigrants. They’re probably very hungry.”
“I’m going to be hungry.”
“Got it. I’ll take everyone to the temporary residence first.”
Since the construction of the residence isn’t finished, everyone has to live in tents for now.
To prevent any chaos, even mercenaries were brought in to control the immigrants.
But unexpectedly, there weren’t any significant disturbances.
Perhaps because everyone was in an unfamiliar place, they were quite obedient to the instructions.
In place of Claude, Lowell led the immigrants to the temporary residence.
“This is where you’ll be staying for a while. Even if you don’t like it, you’ll have to wait. I’ll make sure the residence is ready as soon as possible. Don’t worry about food; it will be distributed daily.”
The immigrants looked at the numerous tents in front of them.
Lowell’s face turned a bit red.
These people were forcibly migrated at Ghislaine’s request. Naturally, they would have had some expectations for what their new home would be like.
But here he was, asking them to stay in tents because Penris couldn’t even provide proper housing… It was unavoidable to feel embarrassed.
However, contrary to Lowell’s expectations, the immigrants’ reactions were not bad.
“Wow, these tents are clean! Better than where I used to live!”
“A house? As long as I can avoid the rain, who cares? Not starving is more important.”
“They said we’ll get food every day. We don’t have to starve anymore. But can we trust that?”
Hearing the murmurs of the people, Lowell nodded.
‘Wow… They really just gathered up all the beggars and sent them here.’
He had almost forgotten since things had been getting better in the fortress lately, but Penris Territory had been a place where many people were dying not long ago.
Recalling that time, he empathized with their feelings.
‘Right now, they’d be happy just to be fed.’
Lowell clicked his tongue inwardly and began sorting the people and assigning the tents.
Meanwhile, Ghislaine was returning to her office when Claude rushed up to her.
“Lord, there’s a problem!”
Ghislaine frowned. As if she didn’t already have enough on her plate, it seemed like more issues were piling up.
“What’s it now? What could possibly be the issue this time?”
“This is a real problem.”
“What is it?”
“We’ve run out of timber. At this rate, not only the construction of the residences but all schedules will be disrupted.”
At those words, Ghislaine’s expression turned serious.
Considering that the amount produced within the territory alone wasn’t sufficient, they were also sourcing it through the merchant group. And yet, the problem had surfaced faster than anticipated.
“Ugh, what a pathetic territory. No matter how much money is poured in, the problems just don’t seem to lessen.”
“With construction happening all over the territory, the materials are being consumed too quickly. There’s a limit to what we can secure from the territory, and buying from the merchant group has its constraints. Money is one thing, but time is critical.”
Money could be spent easily. If things got tight, she could always wrangle more from Rosalyn under the pretense of needing cosmetics.
But in the current situation, taking more time directly affected people’s lives.
After pondering for a moment, Ghislaine suddenly exclaimed as if she had thought of something.
“I have a way to get a large amount of timber right now! And it won’t cost anything!”
“Huh? Where? How do we get it in bulk? Why wouldn’t it cost anything?”
“Just go to Perdium.”
“Perdium? Are you planning to source it from the Forest of Monsters? Even just clearing the entrance would attract monsters and beasts!”
Seeing Claude’s terrified reaction, Ghislaine clicked her tongue.
“Of course not. I’m too busy for that. We’ll take care of the Forest of Monsters later.”
“Then what… No, don’t tell me.”
Ghislaine grinned and replied, “If we’re short, we’ll just raid that forest and mountain. Perdium and our territory are destiny partners, right? Isn’t that so?”
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