CH 19

Before winter was about to pass, there was another light snowfall.

Xia Zuoyi stays in the castle every day and does not go out, most of the time is spent reading books, or the two little milk tigers, Snowball and Briquette.

For the rest of the time, he continued to drill into the alchemy laboratory to study the proportions of herbs.

From his initial knowledge of herbal medicine to his present knowledge, he owes it to his precious reading time before going to bed every night.

Nowadays, there is a lot more content to learn, and more time is needed.

Xia Zuoyi is often dazed and distracted during the day, actually immersing himself in the system interface and reading seriously.

Udit sometimes saw him looking out the window stupidly, his eyes could not help changing from caring to worrying.

It was probably because he was afraid that he would be ill in the castle. The next day, he wrapped him up and took him out to have a snowball fight and make a snowman with Gibran and Toby.

Xia Zuoyi, “…”

Udit was full of the old father’s heart.

To fully build Wissas and Fort Comoy, we must first gather enough craftsmen.

In view of the fact that there are plans for the next five years to be implemented.

Xia Zuoyi’s plan is to hope that the craftsmen will be able to settle in Wissas or Fort Comoy from then on.

He adopted the previous propaganda strategy to give enough attractive benefits and tempting conditions. He not only wanted to propagate in the territory, but also sent people to follow the Thorns Chamber of Commerce to go to various cities to carry out a full range of dissemination.

Craftsmen who are interested in this can bring their families and follow the Thorns Chamber of Commerce to Wissas and Fort Comoy to settle down.

There are fifteen cities in Gadaat.

Although the current sales range of rose salt is not small, it still does not cover the whole kingdom of Gadaat.

If Xia Zuoyi wants to accumulate enough funds before the reconstruction of the two cities and the capital chain don’t break down in the subsequent construction, he must continue to sell the rose salt far away.

The Thorns Chamber of Commerce in various cities to find sales routes, develop offline sellers, or establish a branch of the chamber of commerce is a plan that must be implemented accurately.

This is just like in modern advertising, except that the methods are more primitive.

The missions and daily training of the soldiers in the training camp came to an end. Everything started to get on the right track, and some knights were idle.

They’re divided into two teams to set off with the Thorns Chamber of Commerce.

Walker dispatched his two subordinates, Taylor and Barnard, to follow one of the chambers of commerce to leave Wissas, both for protection and publicity.

Mike Andrew has now escaped his status as a slave and has been promoted from squad leader to deputy platoon leader.

Fernandi dispatched Mike and his squad leader and friend, Myer, to set off together with the other team.

Niramo.

It is known as the most lively city in the kingdom of Gadaat, and it is also the territory owned by Bass Richards.

The lord holds an important position in the royal city so he doesn’t need to be in charge of the territory. There will be a dedicated person below to manage it.

The lord only needs to collect money after taxation, or deal with some things that his subordinates can’t handle.

Taylor and Barnard arrived at Niramo with the Thorns Chamber of Commerce.

The two were walking on the road.

Barnard sighed, “Niramo is indeed known as the busiest city in Gadaat. Look, people are coming and going in the street. Oh, the girls over there are waving to me…”

Taylor said lightly, “It’s better to stay if you like it so much. I won’t take you back to Wissas.”

Barnard said hurriedly, “No, brother. I mean to say, the little earl’s territory is good and interesting. I don’t even want to go back to the royal city. How can I stay in the enemy’s territory.”

At that time, he was standing behind Lord1 Walker and heard Matthew Luke reveal their plot. It was really shameful that Bass Richards, as the duke of Gadaat, colluded with the Gaynor to murder the nobles.

Barnard couldn’t help sighing again, “However, it would be great if Niramo became the territory of the little earl.”

Taylor automatically filtered the meaningless words in his mouth and walked forward without squinting.

The two escorted the Thorns Chamber of Commerce to the designated place. After the person in charge of the chamber of commerce began to enter the handover process with the offline sellers, they were free to hang out in Niramo.

They bought some special products and gifts from Niramo, and planned to go back to give them to the young earl and Lord Walker.

Niramo does have a lot of new things that are not found in Wissas and Fort Comoy.

Because it is built right next to the Volley River, the traffic is also relatively developed.

Maybe it’s possible to pull someone on the road from another country.

There’s a craftsman’s guild in Niramo.

Taylor and Barnard plan to recruit talents in the guild.

The so-called craftsman guild is just a decent low building.

The stone carvings outside the guild were painted with hammer and chisel axe patterns, and a few slightly old parchment papers were pasted at the door. When they entered the door, the guard in charge was yawning boredly.

Barnard said, “There are obviously fewer people around the guild…” 

His words were not finished yet.

A middle-aged man suddenly rolled out of the door of the craftsman guild.

He’s wearing a special craftsman robe made in the guild. His knees suddenly knocked on the ground and made a “tear” sound, the hem of his clothes was torn apart, and he was stained with a little dirt and dust.

Many people stood behind the man, not only did not help, but also gave him a sharp laugh.

“Conrad Brown, if you don’t look at the threshold, you’ll fall.”

“His eyes are probably on the top of his head and can’t see haha.”

“Conrad Brown, why aren’t you getting up soon, are you waiting for us to help you?!”

…

Even the guards at the gate smiled mockingly and pointed at the man.

Taylor and Barnard can see it clearly.

This man named Conrad Brown fell down because someone behind him tripped him when he was about to go out.

Conrad Brown with a slightly dull golden hair and a kind, slightly handsome face, was standing up slowly from the ground with his head hanging on his knees.

Seeing that Conrad Brown was silent, someone behind even wanted to go and make up another step.

Someone nearby watched the two knights, Taylor and Barnard, approached here, pulled the man and gestured for him to stop.

“Do the two sirs have anything to do here?”

A man with a flat nose, who seemed to have the right to speak, rubbed his hands and asked, “Are you looking for someone to do work?”

“What’s wrong with him?”

Taylor pointed to Conrad Brown, who was standing in silence.

The group obviously bullied him for no reason, and did not say anything.

After a while, the man with a flat nose said, “This… you don’t know, he is not from Gadaat.”

“He was originally a civilian in the Anas Empire, but later because of offending the nobles, his family fled to Gadaat and lived in Niramo for almost two years.” 

The flat-nosed man didn’t mention how Conrad Brown offended them, but gave some other reasons.

The Volley River flows through the Anas Empire, there are many cities along the river, and Niramo is one of them.

Therefore, for many years, a lot of people from other places followed the ship to embark and settled here.

Barnard said quietly to Taylor, “The little earl instructed us not to recruit those who are not in the right mind and those who are lazy and slippery… Let’s figure out what happened first.”

Taylor nodded.

It seems that no useful information can be obtained from the man with a flat nose.

Taylor indicated that Conrad Brown should follow them.

Conrad Brown, obviously stunned and unable to refuse, walked behind Taylor and Barnard.

Taylor and Barnard took him to a tavern and ordered three glasses of rye wine.

“Let’s talk about it, why are they bullying you?”

Barnard pushed one of the glasses of rye wine in front of Conrad Brown.

Conrad Brown hesitated.

He doesn’t even understand why these two knights brought him here. It stands to reason that very few people will meddle in the business of the craftsmen guild…

Taylor saw his doubts, “You only need to answer honestly, don’t worry about other things.”

Conrad Brown said carefully, “Because of a construction problem… I put forward the opposite opinion…”

“But in the end, it turned out that my opinion was correct, so they were somewhat… Sirs, in fact, they are all small contradictions. They will pass in a few days. I didn’t expect to trouble you…”

Taylor frowned, seeing Conrad Brown rubbing his hands with an apparently uneasy look and didn’t want to talk more, he waved him to leave.

After Conrad Brown left.

A big man sitting at the next table leaned over with a flattering smile on his face, “Do the two masters want to know about Conrad Brown?”

“You can ask me, I know everything.”

Taylor and Barnard looked at each other.

“You talk about it.” 

The big man smiled and knocked on his wine glass.

Barnard called for two more glasses of rye wine.

The big man couldn’t wait to drink the next glass, then slammed the empty glass on the table heavily, wiped his mouth and said, “Happy.”

Taylor, “Can you talk now?” 

The big man nodded hurriedly, “Of course.”

“Conrad Brown is very famous recently. He designed a new type of river dam and wanted to build it on the upper reaches of the Volley river. But who knows, as soon as the drawing was taken out, it was robbed by a member of the craftsman guild.”

“This man is the son of the guild president. He has a lot of power in his hand. Naturally, he will never get the drawings back after he is robbed. Besides, Conrad Brown escaped from the Anas Empire. He would not have lived well before…” 

The big man laughed twice and continued, “Outsiders are often discriminated against and bullied in Niramo, Conrad Brown is no exception.”

“After his drawings were robbed, no one spoke out for him.” 

“Originally, the river dam was built according to the design on the drawings, but the president’s son deliberately reduced the key size and cut corners in order to save money and embezzle…”

“When Conrad Brown found out, he gave the people above feedback several times, but who cares? It’s not in vain… Later, although the dam was built, it was washed down by heavy rain some time ago, killing several people.” 

“After the guild’s president was held accountable and his son was punished to a certain extent, it began to rebuild according to Conrad Brown’s design. However, it has not been completed until now. The guild of craftsmen is obviously dragging on the process.”

Barnard couldn’t help saying, “So Conrad Brown is absolutely right.”

The big man said, “Conrad Brown is not wrong, but he has offended the president of the craftsman’s guild, and the president’s son is not pleased with him, so it’s not unusual to be bullied every day.”

“We’re used to seeing it.”

Taylor frowned, “Has the president not been removed?”

Big man, “How can it be? The president has a lot of connections with many people. He bribed them and continued to serve. Conrad Brown guessed whether you two wanted to cheat him, so he’s cautious and didn’t say anything.”

Translator’s Notes:

Can you believe that we only have a month in our finals?? Because I can’t. We’ll have our final exams on May 26-27 but still, we’re not yet starting our lessons for the this month, heck, we don’t even have our modules yet. Our whole class, maybe the whole school actually, couldn’t believe it when the school admins posted the schedule on the school’s facebook page.

So anyway, rant over. Updates will still commence as usual (although I might not guarantee LFS updates bcuz I don’t have anymore chapters in stock XD).