Chapter 293: Chapter 3
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
After careful consideration, Sui Xiong decided to let Felix preside over the construction of the development zone.
At present, the Church of Void Mask had plenty of talents, but the professions of these talents were extremely unbalanced. Military talents and low-ranking officials were everywhere, but few people were capable of being a chief officer.
Honestly speaking, the most suitable one to be a chief officer was Miss Pan Jogan, a teacher in the school of clergymen. However, she was a believer of the G.o.d of Centaur, and she was very loyal to her G.o.d. Thus, expecting her to help Sui Xiong build the development zone was tantamount to seeking out fish from the woods.
The second choice was Jose, since he once had been a tribe leader. But for some reason, he was more suitable to be an a.s.sistant officer than a chief officer. So Sui Xiong lowered his standard and finally found Felix, who was a teacher, hoping to pa.s.s on the fantastic profession of battle mages—Magic Bomber.
Felix did well in the Fighter Champions.h.i.+p, and since then she had become famous and had received many invitations. Instead of accepting invitations from those nameless teams and various organizations, she stayed in the Void Mask Land and joined the Mage Corps of the Church of Void Mask.
In exchange, she could use the strength of the church to find several children with the talent of both mages and paladins and teach them professional skills of the Magic Bomber. This would complete her promise that she had made when she was a teenager to pa.s.s on the profession.
Time flew fast. Several years later, these children grew up to be teenagers, and Felix also grew up a lot. Just like the others, such as Jose, Felix began to get close to the Legendary Realm.
There was actually a long distance from getting close to the Legendary Realm and then entering it. As the heir of the blood of the legendary creature, Phoenix, Felix was not in a hurry. She could live a long life after the power of her blood woke up, so she was determined to achieve her goal gradually and slowly enter the Legendary Realm through years of acc.u.mulation.
In that case, she was quite free now. Moreover, she was a businesswoman with a broad horizon and a flexible mind, and she had also been outstanding in the Mage Corps during this period of time. Thus, Sui Xiong made up his mind to let her be the mayor of Pyroxene Town and preside over the construction of the development zone.
Felix didn’t hate this job. On the contrary, she was curious to know how His Majesty, the Void Mask intended to revive a desolate town into a model of what he called “social progress.” It would be even more interesting if she could make a contribution to this career.
So after being invited, she enquired about the whole thing in detail and accepted the job happily. With simple preparations, she left the Void Mask Land with her students and came to Pyroxene Town in the cold winter.
Of course, Sui Xiong would not just let her fight alone. It wouldn’t be long before others came to help, and it was her own request that she came first.
“Since I am going to be the mayor and preside over the construction of this town, I should start my work first,” Felix said then. “It’s like fighting. A commander who rushes to the front is undoubtedly more convincing to her subordinates than shrinking back at home. That’s the same thing.”
That was why she came here in a hurry and seized power as soon as she arrived. She grabbed the position of the mayor through persuasion rather than by force as ordinary mages did, and she built a magic school to make preparations for the follow-up work.
Hours later, in the evening, students from the Isuka School of Magic returned home under the guidance of Haman. It could be seen that they were a little sad and in a low mood, and the red eyes of some sensitive little girls apparently showed that they had cried.
As soon as they saw their teacher, Felix, they told her about what they had seen and heard during the trip. Generally speaking, it could be summed up in one sentence—the people here were very poor, and they needed help.
When Felix checked their expenses, she found a huge amount of food expenditure unexpectedly. After careful calculation, she found that these little guys had bought food that was enough for hundreds of people to eat for at least a month, and the price was quite high. These little guys probably had been cheated by others.
After she saw the bill, Felix frowned and looked at Haman.
As a legendary master who was getting close to the Legendary Realm, of course, she would not take money seriously. But when her students were cheated by others, she was still very unhappy. Those teenagers might lack social experience, but Haman was a native and was not a fool. How could he allow this to happen?
Haman saw that she looked unhappy after she saw the bill, and then he suddenly felt nervous in his heart. “Mage, this is just a one-time expenditure on food. Those poor people will save the food for eating, and they also have jobs… It is estimated that they will be able to survive this winter,” he said in a low voice.
“It doesn’t matter. But why are the grains so expensive?” Felix said with a frown.
Haman was confused at that. “Expensive? It’s on sale for a bulk purchase…”
Now it was Felix’s turn to be confused. She looked at the bill and recalled it carefully, confirming that even the food price of the Void Mask Land would not be so high. And the food in the Void Mask Land was much better than that here. Rough milled Gold Vines flour, for example, was seldom used in meals; even dogs didn’t like to eat it.
The price of food here was so high! How could it be so high in such a dilapidated place? That was not reasonable!
The common sense of a businessman was challenged, so Felix was curious. The next day, she asked the students to continue building dormitories with their wands, preparing accommodations for the late coming personnel. Then she visited the market with Haman.
Honestly speaking, compared to that of Void Mask Land, the market of Pyroxene Town was really poor and small. It took Felix less than ten minutes to walk around it—there were three stores in all, and the goods in the stores were so plain that there was actually nothing worth seeing.
Her main concern was the price, and she found that the price here was a little strange. Metals and sundries were really cheap, but daily consumables such as grain were quite expensive; especially the grain, it was incredibly expensive.
She also talked to the owner of the food store for a while. Probably because of the big deal that Haman had brought yesterday, the owner was in a good mood and answered almost all her questions. When she asked about the price of food, the owner said that the grain in Ashes Woods had been expensive all along. Especially in recent years, there were fewer villages under exploration. Thus, food was mainly transported from Rye Town and even from the Void Mask Land, so it was more naturally expensive.
“We have to stabilize the food price.” After getting back, she said to Sui Xiong, “The people’s income here is not high. If the food is so expensive, it will be difficult to get enough people to stay here, and it will be impossible to complete the construction of the village.”
Sui Xiong naturally had no objection to this. He just grasped the main direction of the construction, and the details of it were completely handed over to Felix. Since Felix felt it was necessary to stabilize the food price, she could just do it.
Felix was very efficient in action. Since she had made the decision, she immediately began to build the transmission formation. In the original plan, it was not necessary to build it in such a hurry, but now the plan could not keep up with the change.
It took only two days to build a simple transmission array. As soon as it was completed, Felix examined it carefully and rushed back to the Void Mask Land. She bought a lot of food there at one time and then came back to Pyroxene Town.
Then she went to the food store to discuss with the owner about the purchase of the store.
The owner of the food store had no deep feelings about this dilapidated town, but he stressed that if the store was sold in the winter, his family would have nowhere to go.
Thus, Felix had to buy the store and all the goods at a price about 20% higher than the market price. Then she rented a good house for the boss’s family so that they could spend the winter safely. They could think about doing something else when the spring came.
After that, she asked Haman to recruit some staff and clean up the store. She was ready to adjust the food price.
“Mage, won’t you lose money by selling grain at such a low price?” Of course, Haman was willing to change his job to a grain store owner. However, when he learned of Felix’s price of food, he was shocked and worried.
Felix frowned. “It doesn’t matter. Just do what I say. I can afford this loss. Even if I keep doing this for a hundred years, I don’t care.”
Since his employer said so, Haman certainly had no objections. He recruited several honest people, cleaned up the grain store, and opened it again. But at this time, the name of the grain store had been changed to Grain Store of Pyroxene Town.
Yes, at Sui Xiong’s suggestion, Felix transformed the grain store into the town’s public property. The public owners.h.i.+p of another world had been brought here.
“Food is such a business that the country should not make money on,” Sui Xiong said to her. “Food is the key to people’s livelihood. Food and agriculture are the foundation of a country’s stability. Even if we are losing money, as long as we can afford it and can make up for it in other ways, it won’t be a problem.”
Felix had never heard such a view, so it took her quite a while to understand Sui Xiong’s meaning. Then she greatly appreciated that His Majesty’s vision was high and full of wisdom, and she immediately grasped the key of the construction here!
If a territory could maintain the stability of food, then the whole territory could also be relatively stable. In that case, food certainly should be monopolized by the territory, not by private businesses!!
Not only that, but she had also developed Sui Xiong’s point of view, and she believed that all industries closely related to the livelihood of the people should be monopolized by the territory. Only those that had little impact on people’s lives could be opened to private businesses.
“Are you really a businesswoman?” Sui Xiong asked in surprise.
“Of course!”
“But how can you do things against the benefit of a businesswoman?”
“I am the Hill Lord now!” Felix laughed and said. “The principle of a business person is to give priority to their own interests. Since my interest is to revive Pyroxene Town, why should I take care of the benefits of other businessmen?”