Chapter 155: Agreeing on an amount with the expert

Sylla only smiled at Helena and said to the person in front of her "How much would it cost us?"

The expert spoken to understood in the next instant that this lady that had appeared before him was the Chief of the Fey race.

So, he quickly bowed to greet her.

Then when he straightened himself back, he said with a smile in his face "It's going to cost you a lot, chief. The costs will cover the materials to be purchased, the cost of transporting them down here, then our services."

"Hmm" Sylla uttered with a slight nod of her head.

She then asked "So, how much are we talking about here?"

"twenty-three million golden coins, chief" The expert said as he looked at Sylla who only looked back at him with a smile in her face and then shook her head.

"Don't you think that's too much? I feel that you are trying to exploit us" Sylla said with a wrinkled brow in her smiling face.

The expert shook his head with an awry smile in his face.

He then said in the next instant "No chief. I am not exploiting you. That's basically the amount that I am supposed to charge you for the numerous building works that you want us to do in your kingdom."

Sylla nodded her head

However, she still wasn't convinced.

She then said "Can you break down the costs for me?"

The expert quickly nodded his head.

"Sure!" He said.

He then began "We are going to transport many tons of plastering sand to this place using those large carriages drawn by carriage-pulling cargo beasts. Then to give a rough estimate of the tons of plastering sand that we would need, we would have to buy close to twelve tons of plastering sand which should cost more than a million golden coins. A ton of plastering sand cost around eighty-four thousand golden coins. So, twelve tons will cost above a million"

Then he continued after a slight pause "Then apart from buying those quantities of sand and using those cargo beasts to transport them down here, we would also have to pay for the services of transportation to the owners of the load transportation beasts. And this should cost around twenty golden coins. I gave that price due to the distance that they would have to travel from where they are to your kingdom which is kinda far. Now, since the services of a cargo beast owner would cost around or above twenty golden coins, twelve of them if they agree to collect around that amount, will be two hundred and forty thousand golden coins. Then if we add both costs together, that is the grand cost of the many tons of plastering sand that we want to obtain, and the fees that would be collected by the cargo beasts owners for using their transportation services, it will give us one million, two hundred and forty golden coins"

"Moving on from there, we would have to get building blocks. Then since you mentioned that you want lots of rooms in your palace and in all the buildings that you want us to erect back in place of the cracked, dilapidated and damaged ones that we would demolish, then for the four towering watchtowers that you want situated at the four main cardinal points in the kingdom, we would have to get massive numbers of different types of building blocks."

"Then so that they are not structures that will begin to suffer numerous cracks in the soonest or farthest future due to expansion and contraction because of excessive heating during the day by the sun, and intense cooling in the evening and night, we would have to get costly, high-grade building blocks. Now, such blocks costs five hundred golden coin for one. Whereas the low-grade and average-grade ones costs three hundred and a hundred golden coins respectively for one. Can you see the immense gap in prices which also connotes quality level?"

Helena and Lydia nodded their heads in understanding.

Of course they have to get the high-quality building blocks, since if cracks started appearing on the surfaces of the walls of their buildings, it would deface or disfigure the structures of their kingdom. So, they might possibly have to re-demolish them and build better ones back in their place. And that, would surely cost them a lot again, as prices of things could either slowly climb up in future, or excessively shoot up to the extreme.

Once the expert asked them that question and saw that they agreed to what he asked, he continued with his breakdown of the costs "Then to give a rough estimate of the numbers of building blocks that we are to get, we would have to get close to forty thousand high-grade building blocks. And since one high-grade building block costs five hundred golden coins, forty thousands of it would costs twenty million coins."

"Hmm" Helena and Sylla uttered that with a gaze of comprehension in their eyes.

Sylla then said to the expert "Alright. Please go on"

The expert nodded his head and continued "Then to transport the building blocks down from where they are being produced, it would cost fifty thousand golden coins. Now, if you add all the costs together, that is the combined costs of the plastering sand and it transportation down here which would cost one million, two hundred and forty thousand golden coins, the costs of the high-grade building blocks which is twenty million coins, then the cost of their transportation down here which would cost fifty thousand golden coins, the total will amount to twenty-one million, two hundred and ninety thousand golden coins"

"Hmm" Helena and Sylla nodded their heads in a light of understanding.

"Then finally, the remaining amount of money will be shared between me and my diligent men." The expert said.

"Alright." Sylla said with a slight nod of her head.

She totally comprehended all that the man said and saw that he wasn't trying to exploit them simply because her kingdom possessed numerous gold mines.

She then continued with a smile now appearing in her face "I like you. You are a honest person. Then because of your honesty, I will add to the amount that you requested for. So, instead of the twenty-three million golden coins that you asked us to pay for your services to my kingdom, I will make that twenty-five golden coins."

Once Sylla said that, the eyes of the building construction expert shone with intense shock before great delight replaced it.

Then very quickly, he entered into another bow which lasted for a minute.

Then when he straightened himself back, he said to her with palpable waves of happiness emitting off of his voice "Thank you very much chief. I am extremely glad that I was the one called upon to come work for you. And I promise that I will do an excellent job for you."

Sylla nodded her head with a smile in her face.

She then said by asking "I guess you and your men would leave now to gather those building materials, right?"

"Yes yes" The expert said.

Then immediately, he turned around to walk away. And as he did so, he signaled to his men that they should find a place to relax and wait for him till he brings those materials that they would require in building the structures that Helena, the deputy chief of the Fey race asked for.

His men nodded at him and went to find a place in one of the many ruined buildings around them to stay. Although the structure that they went to stay under was weak, but it wasn't so weak to the point that it would suddenly collapse upon them and kill them. They still had to use their hammers and other demolishing equipments of theirs to bring down the buildings by repeatedly hitting them really hard and causing them to collapse onto the floor.

As soon as the man left, Sylla called upon the tiling expert to discuss the costs of tiling the grounds and walls of the buildings that would be built by the professional bricklayers. Then when she was done striking a particular amount with them in which they were also happy and promised to do a great job, she moved on to talk with the carpenters that were also brought in here by the members of her Fey race.

After discussing the amounts that it would cost them in making roofs on the numerous buildings that would be built by the building construction experts, they eventually reached a particular amount and agreed on it. The carpenters too were also happy with the amount that Sylla agreed to pay them, so they also promised to do a beautiful job.

When Sylla was done discussing with these people, she turned around to look at Helena with a silly smile appearing in her beautiful face and then asked with an amusing tone in her voice "So ma'am, how much do you want in helping us raise a really tall and thick fence that would circle round our kingdom and the nine kingdoms of our kingdom protectors?"