Chapter 127 Requesting For Vassalage

A week later, the Manfura family, scholars and tons of intellectual materials arrived at Bideford with the Ryntum army escorting them. News about everything that transpires in Napuna spreads to the entire region despite the count's effort to cover it up.

It is all due to the efforts of his SIN agents who returned to the city after escaping from it. They recorded everything in great detail before passing the information to the headquarters in Bideford.

When Riz heard about this, he was proud of them. His agent has grown past the point of merely following orders. They're now able to collect useful intelligence at their own discretion and hand it to the headquarters.

Without hesitation, Riz's side uses this knowledge to ferment the rumours among the public before reporting the official detailed news about the Naharog invasion in Ryntum Weekly.

The articles in the newspapers take a neutral stance, considering Naharog is their number one partner in ammunition deals.

Also, thanks to his own merchants who purchase the newspapers, the tale goes as far as the Kingdom of Lesparia.

It has become a sensational topic that stays in the mouth of many people for weeks and might be for months. Certainly, the story of Napuna's destruction will be carved in the annals of history as one of the tragic historical events.

Thus, it is not weird to see the victims of this event cause a stir in Bideford. However, the stir didn't last long. The inhabitant of Bideford assumes it as the goodwill of their king to provide for this unfortunate group of people's new home.

Unknowingly to Riz, the level of respect from his people increases once again.

Riz decided to let them stay in his mansion for the time being until he prepared a house for each family. He leaves their arrangement in Edward's hands as he has another site visit to make.

Ever since the construction of the highway started, he constantly tries to find a way to make a visit. It is the first step in his long-term plan to increase the national strength of his kingdom. How can he not be excited?

Presently, he is inspecting the road construction again. This project has been going on for precisely two months now, from mid-August to mid-October.

Most of the site clearance stage has been completed and the next phase starts today.

The progress is relatively faster than he initially thought.

He thought that the absence of modern equipment and machinery would drag the construction time. After all, two years of completion time is pretty much an ambitious goal on his part. But he was totally wrong.

These construction companies performed so well, exceeding his expectations.

Then again, he reminds himself that this is not the modern era. The government doesn't need to be concerned about all the trouble they had to go through for land acquisition. In addition, there is abundant cheap labour to exploit.

According to Charlotte, the average pay for unskilled workers is 1 Ryn per day. Since there is currently no 8-hour work system, these people work from dawn to dusk for six days a week. That's more than twelve hours a day!

In modern times, this kind of labour exploitation will definitely put him in trouble and attract the attention of worker unions and various media outlets.

Riz walks along the determined route.

This road split into two, one leading to the southern part of the city and another one to the northern area near the coast. He plans to develop it into a new industrial park, seaport, navy port, new integrated army-navy base and a complex of shipyard and armoury clusters together like Venetian Arsenal in Venice.

All the industries unrelated to forestry and agriculture are to be moved to the north, farther away from residential, business and educational areas.

He reckons that once the steam engine dominates the industries in the capital, the sky above would be covered with a cloud of thick black smoke. He doesn't have to explain much about the impact it has on human health.

The great use of coal in the future would increase respiratory disease among his people.

Not to mention, his kingdom doesn't have any advancement in the medical industry yet. The mortality rate would also skyrocket.

To lessen this problem, it is better to separate the industrial area into two instead of clumping everything together in one place

He also plans to invest heavily in developing medicine and healthcare to cure diseases and improve the quality of life.

Due to this massive development project, he let people slowly clear up the trees in the northern area of Bideford and let them sell them for extra money. This way, he won't waste to much time on site clearance.

After being satisfied with what he sees, Riz returns straight to his mansion since there is not much left he had to do in his office.

Upon reaching the front door, he saw Theodora waiting for him with a letter in her hand.

"Who is it from?" Riz curiously asked while pointing at the letter.

Theodora gives him a short reply, "My father."

"I wonder what he wants from me." Riz took a letter from his future father-in-law and opened it right there. His eyes darted left and right as he read the letter line by line.

Soon, he laughed out loud.

If previously she doesn't care, now she is curious, "What does my father want from you?"

"He wants to swear allegiance to me and be my vassal."

"Vassal..." Theodora muttered that word in a low voice. A few seconds later, she is confused, "Isn't it a good thing? This kingdom would obtain an entire county as a vassal state. I don't understand why you are laughing."

Riz explained, "Your father wants to retain the power he has and operate autonomously. Moreover, he wants us to provide protection for them. Isn't it funny? He blatantly wants to leech off on me."

Theodora was speechless. She couldn't believe her father made a shameless request to her fiance. "You don't want to accept his request? Still, it's a good chance to gain free territory."

"What's the point of having a large swath of land if we can't develop it well? Also, I don't want to sow discord between us and Niall, the new king of Bagyarosia. In a way, your father is still under him. You don't have to worry about our territorial expansion. Sooner or later, we will take Tetherswest with our own hands."