Chapter 427: Time to Earn

Road improvements, wells, water and sewage systems, toilets, public baths, bakeries, expanded residential districts. Just looking at Leonardo’s plans, it amounted to razing the village and building a new city from scratch.

"I need a bigger budget! Give me at least five hundred more gold coins!"

The harbor and Britz were already being built with five hundred gold coins, and of course that budget was insufficient, so I gladly provided another five hundred. Beort reportedly nearly fainted at the sight of such an enormous sum.

"Oh! My lord spares no expense!"

"What on earth are you doing?"

"Dancing for joy! Oh, saltarello!"

It was a famous Italian folk dance, very lively and fast, with lots of hopping and skipping. It looked something like lightly kicking a ball. Passersby stopped to watch Leonardo dance and, finding it amusing, began to copy him.

It must have been because it was carnival season and everyone was in high spirits from eating and making merry. Even so, the crowd swelled in an instant. Were there always this many people in Vintenheim? What was going on all of a sudden?

Leonardo shrieked with delight.

"Hahaha! My lord, it’s a little festival! Ne sono lieto!"

Enough, you lunatic!

In any case, the money invested in Vintenheim alone came to a thousand gold coins. I’d poured in half my fortune, but urban development pays back what you put into it in due course, so I didn’t begrudge a single coin.

"Estate Manager! Come dance with us!"

"Huh? S-stop! Ugh! My lord!"

Beort got dragged in too and began clumsily copying the saltarello alongside the young women. Since no one dared invite me, the more approachable Beort had apparently been hauled off in my place. The administrator was pulled in as well, and so was Anton.

"Oh, what a novel dance!"

"Hahaha! Let’s dance before our lord!"

"Let’s sing! For our lord!"

"War brings suffering and love brings joy!"

"Ah! The wind that blows from the north! O Charging Wolf!"

"Ride to the far north where a maiden fair as a flower awaits!"

"Ah! The wind that blows from the north! O Charging Wolf!"

"The Noble Wolf’s Love brings me joy!"

Street musicians who had been loitering around Vintenheim came over and struck up a tune, and the people sang the tribute poem to the lord of Rosenheim as they danced. I’d had no idea our people could be this lively.

The gunners and knights standing guard beside me were pulled into the dance when young women beckoned to them, and Leonardo, with a girl on each arm, hopped and leapt about merrily. Now that I looked closely, that dance was practically acrobatic.

As I watched the people laugh, make merry, sing, and dance, a smile spread across my face. Yes, I hope you can set aside your worries and go about your daily lives in safety. I will be your shield.

The little event that had sprung up so suddenly ended up becoming a weekly fixture every Thursday. Leonardo boasted that he was a distinguished cultural ambassador who had brought Italian folk dance to Germany.

"Contrary to what I expected, Germans seem to know how to enjoy a dance."

"People are much the same everywhere. It’s the Church that keeps a lid on it."

"How unfortunate! Dance and song are blessings from the Lord!"

In any case, Leonardo put considerable effort into designing a plaza for Vintenheim, modeled, he said, on the Piazza della Signoria in Florence. Hmm, he claimed it blended Renaissance and German styles.

Depending on how Vintenheim turned out, I planned to entrust the urban design of Rosenheim to Leonardo as well. Of course, in the meantime I’d have to work hard at making money. Weren’t there any hidden traits or quests lying around somewhere?

Perhaps because the last battle had been such a small affair, there hadn’t been any particular quest or reward. I’d only gotten the gunners’ rank increase and a new commander title. Well, no need to be impatient.

[Mort’s Map used]

[Cavalry Breakthrough 200% Increase (1 use), 10,000 points, kaolin discovered, Strategy Map Piece No. 0]

Oh? A map-use message suddenly popped up. The search unit led by Ted had located it without trouble. The cavalry breakthrough scroll and 10,000 points were fine rewards.

Most importantly, I’d obtained another Strategy Map piece. That made pieces No. 4, No. 3, and No. 0, in that order. Might I be able to get pieces No. 1 and No. 2 from the two remaining maps?

And... kaolin discovered? What was kaolin again?

After mulling it over, I recalled that it was the main ingredient in porcelain.

Porcelain sold for more than its weight in gold here, and the eastern kilns turned out the finest of it. Odd to think how thoroughly that reputation would reverse itself in a few centuries.

Naturally, countless attempts had been made to reproduce this expensive porcelain, but none had succeeded. Hmm, and yet it seemed I was the only one in Europe who knew the secret. If you fire kaolin, isn’t that porcelain?

First I’d need to secure the kaolin mining rights from the grand duke and run some experiments. Rosenheim porcelain! If a passive skill were added on top, couldn’t we produce porcelain to rival the Chinese kilns?

If I succeeded in reproducing porcelain, I’d reap enormous profits, but I’d also face constant threats from my neighbors. Wouldn’t it be wiser to split the profits fifty-fifty with the grand duke, who had backed me?

With the grand duke’s interests involved, no one would dare try anything rash. In any case, there was nothing I could do about it for now, so I decided to set it aside. There were plenty of potters producing stoneware in Breisburg, after all.

Then Markus’s long-awaited friends arrived.

He’d invited five, but only two had accepted. Fortunately, they were the gunpowder and cannon experts I needed most. Surprisingly, gunpowder and cannon manufacturing weren’t treated as state secrets, so craftsmen moved around fairly often.

They must have been exhausted from traveling all the way from Brandenburg, but they requested an audience with me without even resting first. I’d planned to receive them the next day, but in the end I called Markus and had him bring them.

"Welcome to Rosenheim."

"It’s an honor to meet you, my lord."

The gunpowder expert, notable for his bushy beard, was a man named Gert Kornel, and the cannon expert was one Boris Seadler. They were looking at me as though sizing me up.

"You look like you have plenty of questions. Ask freely."

"Thank you. Is it true that the district where the saltpeter farm was built was named after our friend’s surname?"

Huh? I had no idea why that would be their first question, but I told them it was true. At that, they looked back and forth between Markus and me with admiration in their eyes. Markus had been looking ready to burst with pride for a while now.

"When we read it in the letter, we couldn’t believe it. A commoner’s surname attached to a place name! But seeing that the district Markus manages really is called Britz was a genuine shock."

"No noble anywhere grants such honor to a commoner! Oh, esteemed lord! If we also deliver the results you want, will you attach our surnames to place names as you did for our friend?"

I’d expected them to haggle over pay first, but these so-called experts had caught fire over something else entirely. Apparently, to them, honor mattered far more than money. Hmm, all the better.

I’d planned to divide the area into separate districts for the saltpeter farm, the gunpowder factory, and the cannon factory, so I’d have each man manage a district bearing his surname. With their family names on the land, they’d give it their all.

"If you do as Markus has done, you’ll get what you want."

"Oh! Thank you! We’ll discuss it with Markus right away!"

"You must be exhausted from the long journey. Why not rest first?"

"No, my lord! We’ll do it right now! Please let us!"

They say craftsmen stake their lives on the smallest things. If having a small district named after them was enough to make them work hard, that was my gain, so I gave them permission to do as they wished.

I immediately put in two hundred and fifty gold coins to establish the gunpowder and cannon factory district. Hmm, how much gold was left? Counting the gold held in the system, 750 coins remained.

I’d done nothing but spend, so now it was time to earn.

Looks like I have no choice but to plunder Basel after all.