Chapter 163: Prep For War (P3)

Galloping through the plains, Anselm and I patiently listen to Juri's tale. I'm sure the man has taken my warning to heart, especially with Anselm not cutting me down. 

He picks off where he left off as soon as I give him the say so, "Yes of course." He mutters.

"The Mayor, Trever, he saw potential in the village to the North, and though their ranks maybe the same, he reigned over a much more lucrative city and they were a simple village numbering barely up to five hundred people, including those that came and went."

"He saw what many in his station saw over others lower than he, he saw land, people, and resources that would be 'of better use' with him. But several things kept him from ceasing the small, budding town, unlike you, he could not simply stride in and demand combat and demand rulership, the Marquess would not have it."

"Another problem was that even if he could simply stride in, the village was not yet…ripe for the plucking. It was barely keeping together as it was back then and with the news of migrating beasts, it must have taken a toll on their coffers to purchase the services of Hunters or even Mages where they could."

"No, Trever did not want to simply pick up yet another responsibility without having any of the luxury, the Mayor of Demme was far too occupied with surviving to even begin mining the bounty of iron the village sat on or dream about refining it to steel."

"And such operations take time. But Trever is a greedy man, and an impatient one as well. So when Demme came crying for the him, the Mayor of the large city many of their denizens were migrating to for help, he couldn't resist."

"He gave a condition, a condition that under fairer, easier circumstances would be scoffed and spat at. He demanded that in exchange for protection, Demme hand over right to mine and refine the ore within the land. This would essentially take away Demme's chances of having a lucrative future."

Sounds like capitalism at its best. Even medieval worlds have large predatory corporations it seems.

"But that is not what happened." 

Oh?

"It would be so much of an expenditure to lug tons of freshly dug up iron ore on the then very unsafe, bandit, and monster infested roads. So, Trever decided to set up the refinery right there in Demme."

Ah…I see where this is going.

"And just as it was far too much trouble to send workers away from their homes here in Aste or build homes for them in Demme, Trever decided to hire from Demme's population, in the mines and in the refinery. Before long, before even the wild migration of the monsters had ended, Demme had an entire iron and steel industry and it was booming."

"With the demand for weapon and armour coming from all sides of the Kingdom; the Following, the army, the enchanters, smiths and dwarves. Demme had soon begun to rise to the star spot of the March."

"While Demme was still not getting any of the profits from the mining or refining, the sheer influx of people flooding in made jobs widely available, the start of new, rich industries was inevitable, and while the ore within the ground would remain the richest sector of the soon to be city, it could certainly do without out the income and had long been doing so."

"The Mayor of Demme as well as it's denizens adapted finely to seeing their ore taken out of the ground, refined by their hands and shipped off to be sold for the profit of another city. So, when Trever, in panic realized that Demme would not be dependent on him or his coin asked to be given full control of the city, asked that it be amalgamated into his territories…he was flatly rejected."

"Not just by the Mayor, but strangely by the united denizens. Trever took this up with the Marquess, travelling all the way to the centre…only to be rejected there as well. The Marquess had no qualms with Demme keeping their independence from him, and was only concerned with the continued production of steel set to be delivered to various places in the Kingdom. It really didn't matter who was doing a good job with the steel, so long as they were."

Here, Juri takes a breath and takes a sip of water out of his leather bottle. "As I said, Trever is a greedy man, and seeing a city prosperous from his actions without him reaping the entire profits of it greatly upset him. And so, one morning, he called me and asked me to prepare my best men for a mission, he wouldn't say what the mission was, but back then, I knew it was Demme."

"He attacked Demme?" Anselm jumps in, pulling me away from the story.

"Just listen, Anselm, he's getting there."

Juri nods thankfully and continues his tale of the past, "He, with my men, in a similar picture as the one we stand in right now, marched into Demme and demanded that the Mayor give him a majority percentage of all the taxes paid from all the workers and all the industries."

"Of course, hearing such an unreasonable request in times that were no longer desperate, the Mayor of Demme rejected this offer. But it fell on deaf ears, Trever warned that there would be consequences if they did not deliver him his share at the end of the month."

"The end of the month came and in a twist of events, one I certainly wasn't expecting or hoping for, the Mayor of Demme had something delivered to Trever. It was a single, brittle iron coin with the likeness of Trever on it. Even without a note, we could tell that there two messages are being delivered with the single coin."

"One, Demmer wouldn't pay him even a single copper tokus and two, the iron ore beneath the village was running out. The quality of the stock the coin was cut from was far more dirt than iron, Trever's heavy coffers wouldn't be getting any heavier."

"Hahahah!" I laugh and applaud, "That's just brilliant, I think I like these guys. So, what happens to Trever?"

Juri smiles softly but that soon disappears as he says, "He made true on his promise."