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Chapter

155: I Will Resolve This. (1)

The immigrants arrived faster than expected, but it wasn’t an unforeseen situation.

After all, you can’t build a residence for thousands of people in just a month or two.

For the time being, we were planning to set up tents as a temporary measure and mobilize manpower to expedite the construction.

Surely, we need to provide them a place to eat and live before we can set them to work, right?

The problem was the shortage of timber—it’s uncertain when the construction would finish, or even if it could start.

The longer it took to establish a residence, the messier people’s lives would inevitably become.

Claude, scratching his head in despair, looked at Wendy with pleading eyes.

“What should we do?”

“…I really don’t know.”

“Do you really say ‘I don’t know’ when you don’t know?”

“…”

If Claude, the Chief Officer, didn’t have a solution, it was hard to imagine Wendy would come up with one.

After all, her primary responsibility was to guard Claude.

Eager to shake off his worries, Claude sighed and decided it was time to focus on closing the trade and moving onto the next task.

“Let’s discuss the price later. Are there any other issues?”

At Claude’s question, the merchant answered with a serious expression.

“There aren’t any major issues yet… but if you continue to purchase in bulk like this, problems will eventually arise.”

“What kind of problems?”

“You’re pouring too much money into Penris. Prices in the North are starting to fluctuate. It’s good for someone like me who earns money, but it inevitably causes distress for others.”

The North was a barren region to begin with.

And now, all the meager resources they had were being swept away by the Penris territory, so the price hikes were inevitable, and the supply was drying up.

“Hmmm… Did we buy too much? But we needed all of it. We’ll have to keep buying!”

“Aren’t most of the things you’re purchasing raw materials? With Penris sucking them all up, everyone in other businesses will inevitably grow discontent. Especially the nobles. You understand, right?”

Claude understood the merchant’s point all too well.

Thanks to Ghislaine’s ruthless policies, enormous amounts of money were flooding into the North. It could even be described as money being thrown around.

While the merchants were grinning ear to ear at having big clients again, not everyone was so lucky.

The poor serfs in the territory wouldn’t care who bought or sold, but the nobles deeply involved in economic activities would surely be infuriated.

Claude nodded several times.

“Nobles must really hate our Lord right now. To be honest, I don’t really like it either… Ahem, let’s pretend I didn’t say that.”

“Anyway, unless they live in a large city, they probably don’t even feel the price fluctuations. The trouble lies with other lords and nobles.”

It was like some bumbling, clueless lord had appeared, wreaking havoc in the northern markets and sweeping everything away.

Normally, they would collude to trap that guy or cause him some losses.

But that bumbling lord had Marquis Branford behind him. So the nobles couldn’t even interfere and could only watch in frustration.

How envious and bitter they must feel. Ghislaine must be stomping her feet, wanting to snatch everything back that she had lost control over.

Understanding the situation clearly, Claude nodded and made one final attempt at negotiation with the merchant.

“I’ll keep that in mind. Any further issues? Then… let’s knock off just one gold.”

“Huh?”

“Just one gold off the price, please.”

The merchant’s expression showed he couldn’t hide his astonishment.

They had already finalized negotiations on the price a long time ago when they first met. Moreover, hadn’t he already paid the amount in full?

‘Don’t you usually ask to lower the price before you pay?’

The merchant couldn’t wrap his head around it, but this was Claude’s last shred of conscience.

If he paid less and kept the cash for himself, it would be embezzlement. But… if he paid a full amount and got some back later, he could justify it somehow.

So he was desperately trying to haggle like this after the trade had already concluded.

“We’ve done this trade more than once, and we’ll do it again in the future! Just one gold off, come on!”

“…”

The merchant looked at Claude with suspicion.

The timing of the request was odd, but the amount was even stranger. Why ask for just one gold off instead of a hundred?

The sum requested for a bribe from a territory’s Chief Officer was so insignificant that it felt even more suspicious.

‘What’s his game? Should I report it to Lady Amelia?’

No matter how much he thought about it, the merchant couldn’t grasp Claude’s reasoning.

He didn’t realize that Claude, though titled as Chief Officer, was essentially in a position of servitude. There was no conspiracy behind his request for a mere one gold; it was born purely out of base desire.

When the merchant fell silent, Claude felt embarrassed and nudged him again.

“Can’t you even give me one gold off? Are we really going to treat each other like this? Will you not trade with us next time?”

“Uh, yeah… I can do that much.”

Eventually, the merchant gave up pondering, pulled out one gold from his pocket, and handed it over.

Claude accepted the money with glee, stashing it in his coat pocket.

“Ah, thank you! Then let’s meet again next time. It’d be nice to have some good drinks too. We don’t have any good liquor in our territory.”

Which meant he expected the merchants to bring some fine booze next time.

Understanding this, the merchant nodded with a sour expression.

After all, he had to play nice with the ‘customer’ now.

“Oh, sure… I’ll get you something nice. Well then, I’ll be off.”

“Yeah, take care. I won’t be going far.”

The merchant awkwardly smiled at the cheerfully waving Claude before turning to leave.

‘I think I’m starting to understand why Lady Amelia dislikes this guy.’

While he couldn’t comprehend the suspiciously small amount requested, he could clearly see that this one had a knack for throwing his weight around. If the Chief Officer was like this, then how ridiculous must that lord be?

He was probably one of the biggest nuisances in the North, and seeing him firsthand would likely infuriate anyone more than Claude.

‘Given that he’s even been dumped by the lady, I can guess. But what does that one gold even mean? Is it a signal for the lady?’

The merchant wrestled with whether to report this or not as he left Penris.

Watching the merchant disappear from sight, Claude grinned meaningfully.

“Hehe, since the lord said those guys are enemies, then it’s okay to snag one gold from them.”

Technically, he had just taken one gold from his enemies.

If that counts as an achievement, then so be it.

Claude felt pleased as he reached into his coat pocket.

He wanted to touch ‘real money’ for the first time in a while.

“Wait, what?”

But money wasn’t there.

Perhaps he was mistaken, but he searched through his pockets, yet found nothing.

“Whoa! What? Where’d my money go!”

He looked around to check if it had fallen to the ground, but it was nowhere to be found.

After searching for a long time, Claude finally gave up and shouted at the sky.

“Ahhhhh! Why can’t I, Claude, be happy!”

*

The people living in the Penris territory all shared the same thought as they watched the streaming immigrants.

‘Are they beggars?’

Given their shabby appearance and gloomy expressions, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call them refugees.

They looked skinny, as if they hadn’t eaten properly, and there were even sick among them.

The retainers clicked their tongues at the sight of the incoming immigrants.

‘Looking at their condition, we won’t be able to make them work right away. This is going to cost us money.’

‘It’s good that the numbers are increasing… But not all people are equal. Where did they gather such folks? Did the lord get duped?’

Not just the retainers, but even the territory residents living there before looked at the immigrants with worried expressions.

They didn’t mean to be territorial, but it was an instinct honed by hardship from the past.

With people suddenly flocking in, concerns over public order and food supplies were bound to arise.

Only Ghislaine showed no outward emotion toward the newcomers.

She expected to see people in poor condition.

‘They wouldn’t easily part with healthy ones.’

No matter how much support was decided upon, the population is the foundation of territory management and a lord’s greatest treasure.

Given the nobility’s greed, they would never allow that.

There was no way they would send any properly skilled workers or healthy individuals.

Instead, they rounded up the poor and barely surviving individuals under the guise of poor relief. They cleared out the slums in one go.

They also gathered people from villages that couldn’t pay taxes properly, firewood farmers, and minor criminals.

They didn’t worry about what would happen afterward.

After all, the Brivant territory they had agreed to support might be lacking in population but was wealthy, and it had the Tower of the Bloody Flame.

Though it would take some time, she assumed they would manage to feed them well.

While observing the immigrants, Ghislaine spoke to Lowell beside her.

“Lowell, start the population count right away. First, sort out who can work and who cannot. Tell Belinda to start treatment for those who are sick, and gather the healthy ones to send over to Gillian. We’re going to need manpower to maintain public order soon.”

“Understood.”

“And the spies… No, it’s not likely we’ll find any there. It doesn’t matter if we don’t send them out anyway.”

Surely, there were spies from other territories hidden within that crowd.

But sifting through the throng of people gathered from across the kingdom to identify a spy was no easy task. With everything else going on, they couldn’t afford to focus on that now.

In the first place, they couldn’t completely block spies from entering. The best approach was just not allowing them to leave.

“Where’s Claude?”

“He went to trade with the merchants. He should be back soon.”

“Tell him to make sure food distribution begins as soon as he arrives. They must be very hungry.”

“Understood. For now, I’ll take them all to the temporary residence.”

Since the work to establish the residence wasn’t done yet, they would all have to live in tents for a while.

To prevent any disturbances, even mercenaries were deployed to keep the immigrants in check.

However, unexpectedly, there were no significant disturbances.

Perhaps because they were in a strange place, they followed orders rather well.

In Claude’s absence, it was Lowell who led the immigrants to the temporary residence.

“This is where you’ll stay for the time being. Even if it’s not to your liking, please be patient. We’ll prepare proper residences as quickly as we can. Food will be distributed daily, so there’s no need to worry.”

The immigrants gazed at the numerous tents in front of them.

Lowell felt his face grow slightly warm.

These people were forcibly relocated at Ghislaine’s request. Naturally, there’s a sense of anticipation about what their new living conditions would be.

But here he was, telling them they’d have to live in tents because Penris couldn’t even prepare proper housing… It felt shameful.

However, contrary to Lowell’s expectations, the reactions from the immigrants weren’t negative.

“Wow, these tents are clean! It’s better than where we used to live!”

“Hey, a house just needs to keep the rain off. Not starving is more important, right?”

“They say they’ll provide us food daily, so we won’t starve anymore. But can we really trust that?”

Hearing their excited chatter, Lowell nodded.

‘Ah, they really just gathered the absolute bottom of the barrel.’

Now that things were slightly improving, he had forgotten that until recently, Penris had been a place where people were dying left and right from hardship.

Remembering that made him empathize with their feelings once again.

‘For now, just providing food will make them happy.’

Lowell clicked his tongue inwardly, categorizing the people and assigning them to tents.

Meanwhile, as Ghislaine returned to her office, Claude rushed up to her in a fluster.

“Lady, we have a problem!”

Ghislaine frowned. She was already overwhelmed with work, and it looked like more trouble was surfacing.

“What now? What’s always the issue with you?”

“This is serious!”

“What is it?”

“We’re out of timber. At this rate, not only the residential construction but all schedules will be disrupted.”

Upon hearing this, Ghislaine’s expression grew grave.

From the start, they had been looking to the merchants for supplies due to the insufficient amount generated within the territory. Yet the problem had erupted faster than anticipated.

“Ugh, what a miserable territory. We’ve thrown so much money into it, yet the problems don’t decrease.”

“Because construction is happening all over the territory, materials are being consumed too quickly. We’re at the limits of what we can secure from both the territory and the merchants. Money is one thing, but time is an issue.”

Money could be dealt with; they could always grift more cash from Rosalyn under the excuse of cosmetics.

But being delayed in the current situation directly impacted people’s lives.

Pausing for a moment, Ghislaine seemed to remember something and exclaimed.

“I have a way to procure timber quickly and in bulk! It won’t cost anything!”

“Huh? Where? How can we get it in bulk? Why won’t it cost anything?”

“Just head to Perdium.”

“Perdium…? Do you mean to gather it from the Forest of Monsters? Even logging at the entrance will bring out monsters and beasts!”

Seeing Claude panic, Ghislaine clicked her tongue.

“Of course, that’s not it. I’m too busy to hunt down monsters in the Forest of Monsters right now. That can wait for later.”

“Then how… Wait, you can’t be suggesting?”

Ghislaine smirked and replied.

“If we’re short, we’ll just raid that forest or the mountains. Perdium and our territory share a fateful connection, you know. Don’t you agree?”

 

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