Chapter 154
Chapter 154: Is the Situation a Bit Uncomfortable? (3)
Ghislaine hid her true feelings behind a smile as she looked around at everyone.
“Anyone else have an opinion? No?”
“Yeeah…”
“Right. Then everyone knows what they need to do. Especially the wizards; they need to keep moving without rest. Other facilities are important, but the top priority is expanding agricultural land while also extending the waterways and reservoir.”
There was far too much to do.
First, they needed to create residences for the immigrants, adding various facilities and workshops.
At the same time, they had to keep producing military weapons and supplies for war without pause.
Most importantly, securing food.
For now, they were still buying from merchants, but who knew when that supply would run out?
With the influx of immigrants anticipated, they needed to massively increase agricultural land to take in a crazy amount of food for the long haul.
Everyone’s faces turned gloomy.
‘There’s so much we need, when are we going to make it all?’
‘And we’re supposed to prepare for war at the same time? Is this even a territory…?’
‘But if I don’t want to die, it has to be done. This is insane.’
If it were another noble, it would be different, but it was already Count Desmond who had been knocked down once by Ghislaine.
If they lost to him again, the territory would surely be turned to ruins, and all the retainers from Penris and Perdium would lose their heads.
As much as they didn’t want to, they had no choice but to do it if they didn’t want to die.
Among the retainers wearing grim faces, Alfoy looked the worst.
‘W-what do we start with? There’s just too much to do!’
Having slacked off while the lord was away, there was a lot of work piling up.
They could use the seeds for soon-to-be-harvested grain, so there was no need to create a new Mana Convergence Circle.
But the Runestones for the land needed to be produced in bulk to match the increase in farmland.
The wizards had to continuously etch magic circles just to meet the required amount.
But the wizards had other jobs to do too. They had to help on various construction projects.
‘This was what the determination meant. I should have finished some work ahead of time. I’m doomed.’
Seeing the deadly workload, Alfoy and the wizards fell into despair.
They wanted to escape, but even the courage to flee was lacking.
Noticing the wizards’ expressions, Ghislaine chuckled and addressed Vanessa.
“Vanessa.”
“Yes, ma’am!”
“For the time being, focus on helping Alfoy with the work instead of research. There’s a lot to do… Is that okay?”
“Of course! Just leave it to me!”
Unlike the other wizards, Vanessa clenched her fists and shouted enthusiastically.
She would never refuse such work, always wanting to be of help to Ghislaine.
Besides, now that she had reached the 6th Circle, if she committed herself to the work, the progress would be much quicker.
“Great, very reliable.”
With the conversation started, Ghislaine decided to check on the tasks assigned to others.
She asked Lowell first.
“How’s the progress on finding people that I asked about before?”
“I sent someone right away when you gave the order, so it seems we’ll be able to bring everyone in about a month.”
“Alright. Make sure to report immediately as soon as they arrive, and recruit more spies to continue gathering information from around.”
“Understood.”
After emphasizing the importance of information, Ghislaine turned her gaze to Gillian.
“To utilize mercenaries going forward, the strength of each individual is important. For the time being, focus on improving their skills during training.”
“Understood.”
Gillian nodded obediently. Of course, this calm attitude was only visible to Ghislaine; during training, he’d work the mercenaries mercilessly.
Ghislaine then turned to Kaor and asked,
“If Gillian is managing the training for the mercenaries, that leaves you with nothing to do. Do you have anything special you want to handle?”
Kaor looked up and boldly stated,
“Absolutely not.”
“……”
His overly confident response left Ghislaine momentarily speechless.
She clicked her tongue and said to Kaor,
“The mercenaries will take turns training. For the time being, focus on maintaining public order with the mercenaries that aren’t training. We still have a shortage of soldiers in the territory.”
“Yeah, well… Let’s do that.”
Kaor answered with a rather reluctant expression.
The reason for his reluctance wasn’t complicated.
He simply didn’t want to do anything other than fight.
So, Ghislaine forcefully assigned him work. She couldn’t let him just sit around drinking somewhere.
“Now, as for Belinda…”
“It would be my job to ensure that people can focus solely on work and training, making sure there’s no inconvenience in their lives.”
“Ah, Belinda, how do you understand my intentions so well?”
“If I don’t know, who else would understand your heart, Young Master? Hohoho.”
At her cheeky remark, Ghislaine couldn’t help but chuckle.
Someone had to constantly take care of not only food and daily necessities but also injured soldiers.
Belinda was quite adept at such tasks and would manage just fine.
Ghislaine looked around at everyone once more and emphasized again.
“Don’t forget. If we fail to prepare properly, everyone truly will die. We need to be ready to fight at any moment.”
“Understood.”
Everyone present in the war nodded their heads, taking in the lord’s command.
Ghislaine stood up and said,
“Alright, that’s all for today. Depending on how things progress, there may be changes. If needed, I’ll give separate orders, so for now, Claude will oversee everything.”
As soon as Ghislaine finished speaking, Claude gestured to the retainers.
“Alright, let’s get things done quickly. Everyone knows what they’re supposed to do, right? Come up with detailed plans as soon as possible.”
The immigrants would soon be flooding in, and hesitating would only increase the burden.
Urged by Claude, the retainers hurried outside.
Ghislaine squinted as she watched the scene unfold.
She had clearly warned them that a war would break out, and they needed to prepare.
Would they not understand this and fall behind in their preparations?
If Count Desmond were to come and brutally beat everyone here, they’d have no words to say.
*
As everyone threw themselves frantically into work, the territory began to operate much busier than before.
No one in the Penris territory was idle, but Claude was undoubtedly the busiest among them.
As the overall manager of territory development, he had to oversee all the work, leaving him with hardly any time to sleep.
On a carriage, heading to meet with a merchant group alongside Wendy, Claude lowered his head, mumbling.
“Ah, I’m dying. I want to escape. Rather than being squeezed like this, wouldn’t it be better to just die at Count Desmond’s hands? This isn’t right. How about dying with me?”
“……”
Wendy said nothing to Claude’s rambling.
Honestly, she wanted to smack him, but considering Claude’s look, it wasn’t that easy.
His dark circles had deepened for quite some time, and he had lost so much weight that he could almost be called Skeleton Brother.
Even in that state, he couldn’t seem to shut his mouth.
“I’m working to avoid dying, but at this rate, I feel like I’m going to die working. I can’t just complain to the lord either.”
Every time Claude felt overwhelmed by too much work, he sought out Ghislaine—trying once again to persuade her to let him escape.
However, Ghislaine was also busy massively expanding cosmetic production facilities with laborers.
She needed to send new cosmetics to Rosalyn in the capital and prepare to establish a branch.
“Ugh, if we could just enjoy ourselves like the other lords, we’d get by with ease. But it turns out our lord is a bit of a workaholic, huh? Don’t you think?”
“I don’t know.”
“Is it possible that the lord is just mistaken? Or maybe just wants to get things done quickly, making a big deal out of trivial work? People who usually don’t know any better tend to do that. What do you think? Doesn’t it sound right? Just a lord who’s caught up in their own image of being a diligent worker. Am I right?”
“I don’t know.”
“You always say ‘I don’t know’ whenever it seems disadvantageous for you, huh? ‘I don’t know, I don’t know, I don’t know.’ Wow, you’re really good at socializing.”
“……”
Wendy gave up responding altogether.
Suddenly, Claude made a strange face and mimicked Wendy.
“Eh, I don’t know. Eh, I don’t know. Ugh, I don’t know.”
‘……Ugh, seriously, you’re acting like a kid.’
Wendy had never said anything with such a look.
Glaring at the childish Claude, she simply turned her head away.
The more you engage with that mouth, the more it just hurts you, so ignoring him was the best option.
Claude understood that the current situation was very tight and dangerous.
But since he was overwhelmed, he let out his frustrations through nonsensical chatter.
Complaining about the higher-ups while working has always been a timeless method of stress relief.
Clunk, clunk!
As the carriage rocked while galloping joyfully, the subject of his complaints switched abruptly.
“Ah, when are we going to change this junky carriage? Honestly, there’s nothing I like about this territory. I want a luxury carriage too. Someone like me deserves to ride one of those fancy ones!”
“……”
Amidst Claude’s grumbling, the carriage reached the borders of the territory.
Even in the time crunch, the reason they came this far was simple: merchants couldn’t enter the castle due to the territory’s blockade policy.
Upon arriving at the promised location, Claude immediately began negotiating with the merchant.
“Okay, okay, you know I’m busy, right? Let’s quickly confirm everything.”
Usually, when dealing with a large-scale transaction, it was customary to greet each other and have tea before starting.
But from Claude’s standpoint, such leisurely gestures were a luxury he couldn’t afford.
The merchant, having gleaned the situation from experience, was not overly concerned.
After confirming the items the merchant brought, Claude nodded.
“The quantity is fine, and the quality isn’t bad either. I look forward to dealing with you again next time.”
“Haha, of course! You’re buying in bulk like this; how could I be careless?”
The merchant grinned heartily in reply.
Prices had been negotiated previously, so the deal went quickly.
To an outsider, it seemed like a perfectly smooth transaction, but their inner thoughts were different.
‘The lord told me to be cautious with these guys, didn’t he? For a bunch of shady folks, their transaction is quite tidy.’
‘Ugh, the lady warned me to be careful with them. If not for the bulk transaction… However, using fake gold coins or not, everything seems fine. So what’s the catch?’
The merchant they were currently dealing with was none other than Amelia’s Akyum merchants.
The Akyum group had started to make a name for themselves in the northern fortresses.
Building their reputation based on quality goods and strict adherence to contracts, they were rapidly expanding.
‘Hmm, we still need a lot of materials… For now, I have no choice but to deal with these guys.’
‘Hmm, we still need more funds… For now, I have no choice but to deal with these guys.’
Ironically, both sides were pretending not to notice each other’s hostility while proceeding with the transaction out of necessity.
Ghislaine and Amelia were both aware of this fact but didn’t interfere.
Trying to block it would only cost them both.
In the aspect of prioritizing their goals despite mutual dislike, the two were quite similar.
Just as they thought the transaction would conclude smoothly, the merchant looked a bit troubled and spoke.
“Uh, Chief Officer, I’m sorry to say, but the prices of the goods might go up next time.”
“What do you mean? Prices going up?”
“Lately, prices for food and raw materials have increased significantly. We’re finding it hard to secure goods ourselves…”
Claude eyed the merchant suspiciously.
‘So that’s why the lord warned me to be cautious with them… Are they starting to drop breadcrumbs to overcharge us?’
Dealing firmly with such shady characters was crucial to avoid losses.
“No, we’ve only recently started a large-scale construction project… Are you seriously saying you’re raising prices out of nowhere? Are you targeting us or something? If it comes out like this, it’ll be troublesome.”
“It’s not like that…”
“Our lord has quite an impressive backing, you know? Oh, it’s a bit difficult for me to say this… But do you know Marquis Branford?”
Marquis Branford is Ghislaine’s guardian. Claude just casually threw out the Marquis’s name as if he were his own.
He might be the person who has leveraged the name of Marquis Branford the most in the Ruthania Kingdom.
As soon as Claude raised the alarm, the merchant began to wave his hands frantically.
“Oh no, what do you mean? That’s not it. You know we barely add any profit, giving you the lowest price possible. Honestly, it’s difficult to even cover our labor costs. It’s just that the supply is gradually running low.”
The phrase that their selling price was the lowest and that they struggled to cover labor costs was something merchants always said. Claude wasn’t about to fall for that.
“No, if you’ve been supplying just fine until now, why are you suddenly claiming there’s a shortage? That doesn’t add up.”
At Claude’s question, the merchant answered, dumbfounded.
“Why is there a shortage… Didn’t the Penris territory take everything outright?”
“Oh, right.”
Claude nodded as if he finally understood.
They had already been a month into the large-scale construction.
During that time, the Penris territory had been trading with all the merchants in the northern region, continuously buying up needed goods.
The problem was that the northern region had a lower circulation of resources compared to other areas. Thus, they were beginning to face difficulties in acquiring materials.
“Hmm, we must set some measures quickly.”
Everything was already tight on time, and if they further delayed in acquiring materials, it would become a huge problem.
While he was deep in thought, an administrator rushed in to report.
“Chief Officer! Chief Officer, there’s a big issue!”
“Hmm? What is it?”
The administrator glanced at the merchant in front of Claude before whispering discreetly.
“The stockpile of timber is nearly depleted. What should we do? At this rate, we won’t be able to proceed with construction starting tomorrow.”
“What? Already?”
Timber was one of the most essential materials needed for constructing residences.
From firewood to various furniture, tools, fences, and even arrows and spear shafts, timber was used extensively, causing it to run out the quickest.
‘Ah, damn. What should I do?’
Claude’s mind became a jumbled mess.
They had cut down trees recklessly, already rendering the forests and mountains within the Penris territory almost non-existent.
Timber grows slowly, so it should have been harvested carefully to maintain an appropriate quantity. But the Penris territory couldn’t afford such luxury right now.
They had been steadily buying through merchant groups, but there were limits to that as well.
‘Damn, even if I place an order now, I doubt the northern merchants can handle the volumes we need. And trying to find merchants from other areas will take time too.’
Claude couldn’t think of a smart plan and could only chew at his lips in frustration.
At that moment, a soldier rushed in from a distance.
“Chief Officer, it has arrived.”
“Arrived? What’s come?”
Claude cocked his head in confusion at the soldier’s nonchalant statement.
What had come when he hadn’t ordered anything?
The soldier responded with an expression as if asking why he didn’t know.
“The immigrants you mentioned are soon to arrive!”
With not even a residence, let alone timber to build one, thousands of immigrants would soon arrive.
Claude buried his head in his hands and mumbled,
“Oh, damn…”
A very big problem had just arisen.
