Chapter 215: How to Gain Trust
As spring passed, Baron Vandus began to focus on strengthening his domain.
He did not just expand the facilities, but also classified the people systematically and assigned them to various occupations.
The people received wages for working in different fields such as administration, military, mining, construction, fishing, cooking, and facility management.
The working hours were almost fixed.
The people’s lives changed from going home when the sun set to leaving work when the bell tower rang.
At first, they complained a lot because they were not used to it, but they gradually adapted.
However, this did not mean that these activities generated a great profit.
The domain was too small to have any significant economic activity or influence on the outside world.
It was a primitive system where money and labor were exchanged internally, and it was meant to boost the work ethic.
Leobold wanted to instill in the people the awareness that they could live on their wages.
Considering that this depended entirely on the gold that exceeded 40,000, it was inevitable to feel anxious.
Carson, the administrative officer, was in such a situation.
He was suffering from neurosis as he saw the finances dwindling day by day while handling the books.
He repeatedly revised the books and pleaded with Leobold.
“My lord… The wages you pay to the people are too high… You can reduce them by half and there won’t be much complaints…”
“Why, are you short of money? Don’t worry. We can get money from the Floating Continent. And this domain won’t grow much with just a few hundred people, so don’t mind it.”
“Yes…”
Carson understood his concern, but Leobold’s mind, or rather Arma’s computing unit, had a roadmap for how to change this Astera.
Compared to the huge scale of the plan and the astronomical numbers, the resources invested in this small domain were really trivial.
So what was Leobold’s goal besides meeting the Prophet?
It was to unify Astera and raise its civilization to the level of the 19th century.
In other words, he wanted to expand the infrastructure that he had built in some areas of Elvrande and Zaium throughout Astera.
He did so because humanity had received a gift from the Prophet and overcome the crisis and continued its civilization.
He could not think of anything else but developing Astera, which was considered a creation of the Prophet, to repay him a little bit.
“I don’t know if the Prophet would like this… But there must be a reason why I came here.”
Anyway, thanks to Leobold’s firm will and financial support, Baron Vandus’ domain was able to develop quickly despite its small size.
At this point, some of the refugees who had fled to other places began to knock on the domain’s gate.
Most of them were those who had left to find a way to survive when the previous lord died and the domain fell into decline.
“We had no choice but to leave the domain to survive because our children were starving…”
“Please accept us, my lord.”
Hundreds of people knelt before Leobold, including an old man with gray hair and a woman in shabby clothes.
Granden whispered advice to him.
“They are those who left the domain once. They have no loyalty to you. It would be better to select and accept them.”
If he accepted this many people at once, there would be side effects.
He probably said that because he thought so. But Leobold had a different idea.
“Loyalty? Do you think they have loyalty who left the domain because they didn’t want to starve?”
“That is…”
“Even kings and nobles who are bound by strong military ties betray and purge each other constantly. There is no loyalty there.”
Granden flushed and said firmly.
“But my loyalty to His Majesty and His Highness will never waver.”
“I’m not doubting your loyalty. I’m just saying that you can’t expect that from the people.”
“Then what will you use instead of loyalty to distinguish them?”
“Trust based on money. That is the value that does not change.”
To be precise, it was the reward for action.
People change their behavior when they know that there is immediate feedback for their actions.
In positive cases, one can think of working overtime to increase salary or making efforts to win medals in sports competitions.
A negative example is the drone surveillance system that Leobold introduced.
There were few people who could continue their madness while watching their property being cut down in real time.
As a result, the crime rate in Megacity, which had a population of 100 million, dropped close to zero.
Some called it a side effect of terror politics, but Leobold did not care.
He introduced that system to preserve humanity and did not regret it.
It was the same here.
“Money is a powerful motivator in most cases. The people will feel directly how their wages change according to their efforts and they will change. The trust that is formed that way will not change as long as I keep supplying money.”
But Granden did not seem to agree.
“Money… It’s something familiar to the merchants of Denova.”
“Don’t forget that your salary also belongs to that category.”
“I won’t forget, but it’s not something I want to get close to as a knight.”
He was such a stubborn person that this reaction was not surprising.
“I see. But you have to change as long as you are in my domain. This place will develop so fast that Lord Olmus will be surprised.”
“…I’ll try.”
Leobold nodded and headed to the mansion.
But Zion blocked his way with a suspicious smile.
“What is it?”
“Hehe… My lord, I heard you say that money is important.”
“You have a knack for hearing people’s words weirdly. I said trust based on money is important. And don’t use magic in the domain unless necessary.”
“Anyway, money is important, right?”
“What are you trying to say?”
Leobold was getting annoyed and Zion looked around and whispered.
“I’ll tell you how to make money. Send someone to Denova right now and borrow as many stocks related to the Floating Continent and airships as you can with 10,000 gold. And then sell them at the current price.”
“What will happen then?”
“Then I’ll go and sink the airships near the Floating Continent. Then the related stocks will plummet, right? That’s when you buy back the stocks and pay them back. It will drop by almost half, so you can make more than 5,000 gold in profit!”
“…”
“How is it? Are you amazed by my brilliant idea? I learned it from studying the Denova guys. They charge a fee for selling stocks that they don’t have. So you have to trade in advance.”
The stock market was so stagnant that they tried to make money by charging fees.
This blue dragon came up with the idea of short selling on his own.
Seeing this, he could not say that Zion’s head was bad.
He just had a life full of tricks for over 700 years.
Leobold bit his tongue.
“He was stuck in the lab, not doing any ether research, but only thinking about that.”
“Didn’t you say you needed money? You can make a lot of money with this! Just give me half of the profits. I’ll make money for you.”
“Wow, you idiot.”
Whack!
Zion jumped up after getting hit on the back of his head.
“Why did you hit me?”
“That’s what short selling is. It might work when the stock market is active, but you want to do that now? Do you want to advertise that you’re affiliated with Baron Vandus?”
“Oh, crap.”
“Just shut up and do your research. Steffina will be here soon, so pay attention to her.”
Steffina was a mage who decided to settle in the domain after receiving Leobold’s invitation.
She hesitated at first, but packed her bags right away when she received a letter saying that he would provide everything she needed for her research.
Zion smirked wickedly.
“She must be not a normal person. No one would come to this dump willingly.”
“She’s probably more normal than you, who couldn’t handle a few airships after living for 700 years.”
“That was because I didn’t have experience back then. And it wasn’t a few, it was dozens!”
“Shh. Lower your voice. And don’t worry about money. I’ll make you swim in gold and silver in less than a year.”
“My main body?”
“That’s a bit…”
It would take a tremendous amount to make his 2,500-ton body swim.
It wasn’t impossible, but seeing Zion grin slyly made Leobold want to deny it.
“Anyway, go to the lab and prepare your ether paper. How many days do you need to write an outline?”
“Damn it, can you write a paper about the wind, lord? Ether is like that to us.”
“I kind of understand.”
In fact, Leobold had studied basic science for decades and received lectures from Arma, so he had considerable knowledge.
But he had no intention of bragging about it to Zion, so he let it go.
He disappeared and Leobold headed to the mansion.
Now he had to prepare to dig up the Sagris silver mine for a year.
***
“The Sagris silver mine is a mine under the direct control of the royal family, and its output was about 30 tons per year before the demons appeared. This accounts for about 5% of the total demand in Astera.”
“Considering that Astera’s population is not large, the demand is quite high.”
The current population of Astera was estimated to be close to 300 million.
Zaium had the most population with about 100 million, Elvrande had half of that, and the rest were occupied by dozens of countries.
The amount of silver needed by 300 million people per year was about 600 tons, which was twice as high as the demand on Earth.
Arma concluded that a large amount of silver was consumed for ether research.
“You can also synthesize mithril, one of the rare metals, with silver. There are huge silver trade markets every month in the capitals of Zaium or Elvrande.”
“You can synthesize mithril with silver? Well, they have similar properties…”
Leobold needed mithril to implant artificial ether circuits on psychers, and he dug up a lot of Mariner Valley on Mars.
But it was frustrating to hear that he could synthesize mithril with just silver.
Arma consoled him.
“The synthesis method is very confidential in each country, so it’s hard to find out right away. But we’ll find out soon.”
“I trust Arma.”
Because of its many uses, the price of silver in Astera was relatively high compared to gold.
It wasn’t more expensive than real gold, but it was about 20%, which was a ratio that could only be seen in Ming China in the 16th century.
It was no wonder that the Bagran royal family was anxious about closing just one silver mine.
In such a situation, Baron Vandus borrowed the right to operate the silver mine for a year and attracted attention.
Some nobles even sneered at how many people he would kill in his domain.
“Does he think he can’t open the mine because he has no power in the royal family? It’s because they concluded that dozens of people would die every day. He might be able to handle it in his domain, but not in the direct territory.”
“I wonder where he will mobilize people from. The population of Baron Vandus’ domain is not that large as far as I know.”
“He’ll dig a little bit and then run away when people start dying.”
“He couldn’t even predict that… He’s just a nouveau riche who got lucky with the fish and the floating continent.”
The nouveau riche with no communication skills added to Leobold’s image as the worst.
Some merchants even said they should do some tax business for a change.
“He has a lot of money, so he might give some taxes to his people.”
“He’s so good at stuffing it into his pockets. Who would have thought he would feed them well and push them into the mine?”
Despite the sneers, Baron Vandus prepared for mining by bringing in equipment and inviting technicians from the Imir Republic.
But all of that was just a disguise.
The real thing was that the workers were put in and dug, but of course he didn’t plan to tell the royal family.
Arma estimated that more than 10 tons of silver could be mined per day.
“If we continue to work without being caught, we can mine about 5,000 tons in a year.”
“How much is that of the reserves?”
“It’s estimated to be about 13,000 tons, so it’s about 38%.”
“He digs up 38% in a year and runs away… Someone will cry with anger.”
It didn’t matter to the Bagran royal family or even the neighboring countries, as he planned to merge them all.
It was questionable what Prince Ruad would think.
He mined so much silver for research and issuing silver coins, but most of all because Lucia wanted it.
The Plague Queen, who had a female upper body and a spider-like lower body, needed a lot of minerals, especially metals, for her evolution.
What she needed for her next evolution was gold.
―If I eat a lot of silver, maybe my evolution will be faster. What do you think, master?
‘I can give you that, but…’
Leobold looked at the Plague Queen, who had grown to a considerable size by eating up the gold and various metals on the Settler.
Her body size was almost as big as an assault armor, but if she evolved further, it would be hard to handle.
Of course, compared to the Plague Queen who exterminated humanity, she was still small and weak, but he couldn’t relax forever.
Leobold asked himself.
‘Can I trust Lucia?’
He had doubts several times, but he wasn’t very positive.
The fear he had for Lucia stemmed from his ignorance.
He couldn’t predict how she would act because he didn’t know anything about the Plague Queen.
Lucia was definitely a separate entity from the adult Plague Queen who invaded the solar system.
But he couldn’t say they were completely separate because their consciousness could be transferred.
Leobold asked himself again.
‘Is it worth taking such a risk and accepting Lucia?’
There was enough justification.
He didn’t know if the Plague Queen who exterminated humanity was dead or alive.
Leobold thought he had killed her for sure, but since she could transfer her consciousness, she might be grinding her teeth in another dimension by now.
In such a situation, a controllable Plague Queen was a valuable asset.
‘The problem is how long Lucia will accept my control.’
She was obedient and cute now, sitting on his shoulder, but would she keep that attitude when she had enough power?
If she realized that she could destroy him and Arma by just blowing up the Settler, what would she do?
She might not actually act on it, but there was a big difference between a zero possibility and a low but existing one.
Leobold couldn’t ignore even a small possibility until he met the prophet.
‘Maybe I should just kill her now…’
While he was deep in thought, Arma called him to the Settler, saying he had something to tell him.
He wondered what it was and went there on an exploration ship, only to find a familiar container next to Lucia’s main body.
It was a 1-gigaton antimatter bomb.
Leobold’s eyes narrowed.
If that exploded, the Settler and everything around it would vaporize.
Before he could doubt, Lucia conveyed her intention.
―I know you have doubts about me. Actually, I didn’t know I would grow this big either. I just ate and slept and pooped…
“So what’s your conclusion? You’re not going to blow yourself up with that bomb, are you?”
―I’ll eat the bomb. So you can kill me anytime. That’s okay, right?
“Eat the bomb?”
She felt the need to explain, so Arma stepped in.
“If Lucia swallows the bomb and decomposes it inside her body, the antimatter and matter will combine and explode. Therefore, she can never decompose the bomb, and you can control the explosion with this switch.”
She handed him a small switch.
Leobold looked at the switch with a green light silently and asked.
“So if you think Lucia will betray me, I can kill you anytime?”
―That way, I thought you would trust me.
Lucia’s voice was trembling.
Death was fair to everyone, and even the Plague Queen didn’t want to die.
Leobold felt his chest loosen.
He had said that there was hardly any trust relationship based on loyalty among Grandens, but Lucia showed him this.
It seemed like he didn’t need to doubt her anymore if she said this much.
‘Let’s trust her just once.’
He handed the switch back to Arma.
“Eating a bomb is bad for your body. I’ll trust you, so get rid of that.”
―You trust me?
“Yes. And I have something for you to do.”
―What is it?
“Defeat the demons that appear in the silver mine.”
―No problem, leave it to me!
Lucia was technically a demon king.
A bigger and stronger demon king than any other demon king on Planet Mare.
Of course, she could command many servants, but she strictly limited their number according to Leobold’s request.
Those servants were the golems that could be seen a lot in Baron Vandus’ domain.
The people of the domain thought they were bought from outside, but they were actually made by Lucia, and they moved without ether stones or any special maintenance.
They were a kind of life form, so their combat power was considerable, and they could easily defeat an ordinary Goliath.
They just didn’t do it because they didn’t need to.
Anyway, Lucia was given the mission of repelling the demons that appeared in the Sagris silver mine.
She had to succeed in this mission perfectly, whether to gain her master’s trust or for her next evolution.
The Bagran king’s men also flocked to the Sagris silver mine on the outskirts and began to clear away wood and rocks with equipment.
And Lucia entered the deepest part of the silver mine in fairy form and summoned her main body.
A small ether storm blew in the dark space and a Plague Queen appeared with a female upper body and a spider-like lower body.
―Hoo… It’s dark and lonely here…
Lucia’s summoning of this main body was essentially the same as the dragon’s polymorph or the elven knights summoning Goliaths.
It was a very convenient magic that opened up an extra space and called something out, so it was a priority target to secure.
Steffina would start researching it seriously when she came to the domain.
Lucia waited for the demons to appear in the tunnel.
Soon enough, a small ether storm blew and a blue door opened, revealing several human-shaped demons.
They saw Lucia’s presence and were shocked.
―M-mother?
―Yes?
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