Chapter 46

Royal Roader on My Own – Chapter 46: I Hope You Like the Present

We entered the Deputy Mayor’s office.

Donstar smiled as soon as he saw me and threw the first punch.

“I heard you’ve been secretly looking for buyers to sell the Northern Mines.”

Humbley must have spread the rumor quite well.

Well, if he didn’t, Donstar wouldn’t have urgently called me in like this.

I played along and put on a ‘How did he know?’ type of surprised expression, and the more I did, Donstar’s smile became bigger.

“Hoho, remember that my eyes and ears are all around you. If I want to, I can take your life as easily as I can take something out of my pocket.”

Donstar must be feeling a bit pressured. Now he is full on threatening me.

That means the atmosphere has been set properly.

The calculation was already there. I can’t deal at set amount but at a flexible amount. It is best to deal using the amount mined as a basis.

At the same time, I need to give him the image that he’s pretty much stealing the Northern Mines.

“What is it that you want?”

“You really don’t know? Since it is already like this, I will come flat out. I will give you a decent price. Sell it when I say I will buy it.”

“How much are you planning on giving me?”

Donstar touched his chin with his hand.

There should be a Maginot Line he thought about. But the thing is, the Maginot Line is something that is set to change based on the situation. If he can, he’d try to lower the price even further.

In order to do that, he needs to make the other party show their hand first. That is the only way he can direct the deal.

“You first make an offer. I’m telling you this ahead of time, but it is like taking candy from a baby for me to take a simple mine like that. Get rid of any stupid greed and think wisely.”

Great. Now I can direct the direction of this trade.

I stayed silent for a bit before offering a price.

“Let’s do it like this. Give me 20% of the monthly income for 7 years.”

Based on current levels, it is around 180,000,000 won a month. If you calculate 20% of that for 7 years, that’s approximately 3,000,000,000 won.

I’m sure the actual amount will be much higher since the amount mined will continue to grow as time goes on.

But it was still less than the amount I mentioned last time. Since it is an installment plan, there isn’t much immediate financial burden either.

But it was never going to be enough for someone like Donstar who was full of greed. He touched his chin and rolled his brain for a bit before offering a counter offer.

“I will give you 40% of the monthly income for 2 years. However, the number of miners will not go higher than 200.”

If I calculate Donstar’s conditions, it is around 1,700,000,000 won. Even if we maximize the amount mined, it will not pass 2,000,000,000 won.

If it is lucky, the Northern mines can even bring in trillions of won. To be able to buy it for 2 billion won is pretty much a windfall for Donstar.

But we will have to see who receives the windfall in the end.

Just watch how much I multiply that money. After just one month, your ass will start to burn.

Enjoy this feeling while you can. That is the only way for me to take an extra present.

“Aren’t you pushing a bit too much?”

I retorted, but Donstar did not budge. He just glared into my eyes as if he was threatening me.

“No haggling. Just pick between yes or no.”

I’m sure within that is hidden a ‘You want to die or live?’

I think I’ve set the atmosphere enough. I’ll just take one more present and get up.

“Then I have a request as well.”

“Let’s hear it first.”

“Please give me ownership of High Village.”

Donstar’s eyes became sharp again.

“High Village? Why there?”

“I want to develop the abandoned mine there.”

“That makes no sense. There is no chance of success.”

High Village.

Although it is under Titan Valley’s jurisdiction, because of the demonic aura that envelopes it, humans do not live there. Forget building a mine, there will not be any miners who want to go there.

Plus, it is known that those mines are already completely exhausted.

Anybody in their right mind would think it was a futile challenge.

But as time goes by, they will know. All the citizens of Titan Valley will do whatever they can to go to High Village.

“They say that the dangerous deals rake in the most. I believe there is a possibility. Please give me the entire High Village. It is not like you will lose anything from it, will you?”

It is an abandoned land anyways.

Plus, if I end up succeeding, it will only be a benefit to Donstar. With his influence, he can always steal it back.

Just like the current situation with the Northern Mines.

“Fine. I will consult the Mayor and guarantee you the ownership for 50 years.”

“I have one more request. Even if you get the ownership, please do not kick out the original miners. I do not want the incident of the Batoom Mines to happen again.”

It was not a difficult condition.

“I promise.”

There is no point to a verbal promise.

Nor is there one for a written contract. With Donstar’s influence, he can easily turn a piece of paper like that into toilet paper.

“Please make a contract using divine power.”

Donstar started to smile.

“That is what I want as well. I don’t want a headache if some oddball comes in as a competitor.”

Donstar reached his hand out first.

As soon as I grabbed his hand, there was a voice confirming the contract.

‘It’s done!’

I subconsciously had a bright smile on my face.

Seeing me smile like that, Donstar had a slightly bitter expression. If it is a trade that I am satisfied with, that means that he did not manage to take as much as possible.

“Is the ownership of High Village that exciting?”

Of course that is good too.

But you will soon find out what the really good part is.

“I will make an account with the Magician’s Tower. Please deposit the money on the last day of the month starting next month.”

“I will do so.”

I need to see Donstar’s expression when he deposits the money.

Unfortunately, I am a busy person.

“Then I shall make my leave. I need to swing my pickaxe at least one extra time to increase the value of the Northern Mines.”

“Hoho, work hard.”

After leaving City Hall, I took Jose and a couple other miners and headed to Avanguarde.

As soon as we arrived at Avanguarde’s Magician’s Tower, I handed Jose a letter. It was sealed so he will not be able to open it along the way.

The message in the letter was simple.

[Please increase it starting next month’s first trade.]

A 10% inflated rate for the next 2 years.

After that, the trade conditions will change to 5% under the market price.

“Hand this to Humbley. You must hand it directly to him. Can you do it?”

“Of course. Just leave it to me.”

Jose disappeared first.

Of course, this is only the first step in controlling the income from the mine. The real thing starts from here.

I headed to the Volcanus Temple with the rest of the miners. Not to look for the bishop, but the dwarves.

Now that I think about it, I asked them for one other thing beside the pickaxes.

For the dwarves, it was a battle of their pride. I’m sure they put in much more care than when they made the pickaxe.

‘I wonder what kind of works were created.’

As soon as I entered the temple, the dwarves noticed me and quickly ran over.

“Oh, human! You are finally here!”

“Why did you take so long? Do you know how long we’ve been waiting for?”

I have a good feeling. There can only be one reason for the dwarves to be so hyped up to see me.

Cutlass!

Some pretty decent ones must have come out.

Just as I was thinking that, the dwarves glared at each other before one of them couldn’t hold it in anymore and brought out his cutlass.

“A pretty decent one came out. Thinking about our relationship with you, I specially put my name on it.”

I received the cutlass and checked the information.

Two cutlass with different strength restrictions.

[Bachu’s Cutlass]

Durability: 39/39

Attack Strength: 27

Attack Speed: 60

Requirements: Strength 37, Agility 97

[Bachu’s Cutlass -1]

Durability: 53/53

Attack Strength: 45

Attack Speed: 63

Requirements: Strength 72, Agility 196

If you consider just the attack strength or attack speed, it seems like a regular cutlass.

But the important part is the requirements to equip them.

It is not easy to get this much attack strength or attack speed with such low requirements. It made sense for dwarf Bachu to be proud.

I was satisfied as well.

But dwarf Pichu, who was standing next to him, started to smile.

“It’s not bad. But it is not the best. If you want to call something the best, it needs to be at least this level.”

Does that mean it is better than this?

I took the cutlass from Pichu and checked the information. Pichu had two cutlasses as well.

[Pichu’s Cutlass]

Durability: 34/34

Attack Strength: 29

Attack Speed: 57

Requirements: Strength 38, Agility 99

[Pichu’s Cutlass -1]

Durability: 54/54

Attack Strength: 46

Attack Speed: 62

Requirements: Strength 73, Agility 195

Compared to Bachu’s cutlass, the attack strength is a bit higher and attack speed a bit lower. If you look at both of them together, it’s pretty much the same.

But it is a question of the dwarves’ pride.

Bachu quickly raised his voice and shouted out.

“Mine is much better. All you are is talk.”

“Are you blind? How can you say that after looking at my cutlass’ attack strength?”

“You have to look at the attack speed and durability.”

“Human. Which one is better? Mine is much better, right?”

I knew they would do this. It is a harder question than do you like mommy or daddy?

But there was no need to worry. There was a simple solution.

“It is difficult to compare with just these. Don’t you have other cutlasses? There’s no way you only made two cutlasses to compare? That might be the deciding factor.”

“Of course there are others. In fact, many of them. One of them has better stats than this one, but the strength restriction was too high so it was sadly a failure.”

“I also have them. But this punk, why are you always copying my pieces? Why are your mistakes even the same as mine?”

The dwarves took other cutlasses out of their bags.

There were just two that caught my attention.

[Titanium Cutlass]

Durability: 59/59

Attack Strength: 57

Attack Speed: 64

Requirements: Strength 81, Agility 226

[Titanium Cutlass]

Durability: 60/60

Attack Strength: 60

Attack Speed: 60

Requirements: Strength 82, Agility 207

I plan on developing my stats based on agility from here on.

Not that I won’t raise my strength at all. If you don’t have a decent attack strength, depending on the monster, you might not even be able to do any damage.

You need to cause some damage in order for critical hits to occur and for combo to be possible.

Because of that, I need to raise my strength a decent amount as well.

I need to first raise my agility to a decent level and then slowly raise my strength and exchange cutlasses as I go.

But it is getting more ambiguous. Even with this, it is difficult to determine a winner. Not that it will do me any good to determine a winner.

I’m sorry to the dwarves, but I have no other choice.

“Tie!”

“Damn it! You can’t do that!”

“No matter who says anything, this is my win.”

Of course the dwarves were furious.

In the end, I used a cheap method.

“Then I will say the one who complains more will be the loser. A magnificent blacksmith needs to be able to make high quality swords, but don’t they also need a matching level of dignity?”

“Hmm? Is that so?”

“Of course dignity is important as well.”

The dwarves could not say anything else.

But their expressions still showed discontent.

“Honestly, it is difficult to determine who is better. Plus, I use the TBSA anyways. I will put the two cutlass together and call it the BachuPichu’s Twin Blades.”

“BachuPichu’s Twin Blades. That does sound like a decent name.”

“But why is my name in the back? You should call it PichuBachu’s Twin Blades instead.”

Dwarf Pichu was grumbling.

But it was only light grumbling that I could ignore. If he complains more, I could just use the blacksmith’s dignity and announce that Bachu was the winner.

Then shall I take the item?

Honestly, until now, this is just the appetizer. That is the main.

Should I call it the nucleus of the Mine Income Control Operation?

“Anyways, where are the pickaxes?”

“Of course in storage.”

“Are you going to take it now?”

“I think the person who will receive the surprise present is ready now. I’m sure they’ll be so happy they’ll jump up and down.”

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Translator : Miraclerifle

Proofreader : Miraclerifle