Road To The Crown

While in itself this was a good message, I felt like if G.o.d decided that everything would now pile up on my head just for the sake of making me unable to go and see how would my d.a.m.ned creation work!

But this matter was too important to ignore, as depending on how big their haul was, I would have to adjust the size of the first blast furnace that we would build in order to smelt it all.

And to make matters even more surprising, before even a single man managed to come out of the mine, two barges reached the sh.o.r.e to the equal surprise of their crews and my men watching them with utmost curiosity.

Only when a few moments later, as if following some kind of divine clock, the first batch of dirty men started to come out of the entrance sheds did I realise why did those barges arrive in almost a perfectly synchronised manner to the miners coming out.

"That was a long week!"

Even before I managed to reach the mine"s entrance to have a talk with its workers, I could hear their loud voices carried by the winds over the flatlands. Used to working at a great depths, they made a habit of shouting in order for the other party to heart them, with no one really caring if said habit would be annoying for the others, as for the most part, miners rather than merging with the local villagers, would create a community of their own.

"I see that you have finally come out. How was work?"

While I still wanted to hurry as much as I could to test the steam horse of mine, if I were to blatantly ask them for their haul and what they would like to have automated in their mine, I would be either taken for a crazy man that no one should pay any attention to, or simply killed on the spot if the miners even for a moment believed I could turn dangerous.

Even though killing a n.o.ble was one of the greatest offences one could commit in the current times, miners never really cared about the law that much. Just like the soldiers, even if of common birth, would toughen up and be willing to fight for what they considered as their own rights, with how taxing on the body the work in the mines were, the bottom line for this kind of people was really fragile.

"And who the heck are you?"

As soon as I spoke, the entire group that had the fortune to finish their work and come out of the mines first stopped in their tracks, gripping the pickaxes in their hands a bit stronger as they turned around to face me.

Sensing the potential danger, Al instantly jumped to my side, bringing quite a lot of the workers along with him, putting me in the uncomfortable stand-offish position with the miners.

"h.e.l.lo, I"m the new owner of this place. Both of those mines were gifted to me for a span of twenty years by the governor. As such, I wanted to know and will ask again. How. Was. The. Work."

Just like with unruly dogs, the people that dared to flaunt their own personal strength against the status of a n.o.ble had to be instantly reminded what kind of relations.h.i.+p connected them to me. Even if they didn"t like the fact that the owners.h.i.+p over their mine switched hands, all they could do was to swallow this sour pill and hope for the best!

"Ugh… What do you want then, your n.o.bles.h.i.+p?"

While changing the way he spoke, the tone of the leader of the group changed from clearly hostile to just sarcastic. Even though this was already a nice improvement, I still wasn"t satisfied with the way he treated the owner of the place he worked at!

"Since you don"t want to waste time on the small talk, then I won"t insist on it. How much ore did you get this time?"

Hearing the question, the man and his followers instantly returned to their previous, clearly hostile behaviour, prompting Al to place his hands on the handle of his sabre and pistol. Forced to act myself, I raised my hand and stopped him before his overreacting would make the situation take a turn for the worse.

"Don"t worry, your n.o.ble sir… As soon as the merchants will get the haul, you will get your fair share."

Spitting his words from behind his closed teeth, the man clearly noticed my move to stop the thing from escalating and most likely took it for a sign that I wouldn"t dare to start the fight right here and now.

And to be honest, he was actually right!

With how limited my manpower was if I were to just execute this small group in front of me, both in the short and in the long run, the amount of ore that this mine would provide me with would decrease. As such, rather than killing those unruly workers of mine for the sake of saving the pride of my status, I allowed this man"s rude behaviour to vanish from my mind before refuting his words.

"This time, merchants won"t get their hands on the ores at all. How much would they pay you for what you guys got then?"

Building a blast furnace with the amount of manpower I had on hand would take one, maybe two days at most. If I were to just sell the ore to the merchants, there would be no way for me to create the second generation of the steam engine before the governor would come to pay me a visit!

"Wha… Eh… Three and a half ducats. As for the tax, one and a half ducat would go to your hands, your lords.h.i.+p."

Seeing that he wouldn"t force his way by being rude or aggressive, the man attempted a different approach, flaunting the money right in my eyes. And if thinking about it through the eyes of almost any other n.o.ble of the commonwealth, there would be no way I would insist of doing it my way if I could get ninety groshes worth of gold just like that!

But once again, I wasn"t your normal n.o.ble, and this kind of silly monetary benefits didn"t catch my attention at all, especially when compared to the potential benefits I would get from creating and putting a new model of steam engine to use!

"We will do it this way then. You will bring all your haul here, and you will receive four red goldens, albeit only when the governor will come to pay me a visit in about a week. I think its a fair trade."

Once again, instead of wasting my time on arguing with this kind of stubborn people, it was better to just throw some money in their faces, and just watch how they turn from wild boars into cute, little doggos!

"With all due respect, sir, but you can put this kind of promises right up the end of your a.s.s!"

To my surprise, proposing them double the amount that they would receive from trading the haul with the merchants that arrived along with the next s.h.i.+ft on the barges, didn"t change this guy"s man, but instead turned him aggressive once again!