Reborn as the Genius Son of the Richest Family

Chapter 1220: Uranium

As it turned out, the only place that had Uranium was an estate in the middle of nowhere whose main production came from mining the natural minerals they found on the ground.

They weren’t exactly a town, or a city, or a company. They were just a small gathering of like-minded people, who had now come to settle into the place since they were making their living through mining.

"Why not?" he asked Sheina. "Are they part of the Anti-Rebornian sentiment?"

Of course, there were some territories who didn’t like Reborn, even though they’d done nothing wrong to gather their anger.

It was all a product of discourse, opinions, and false rumors spreading about them. The advent of the automobiles truly disrupted a lot of people’s livelihood, and it couldn’t be helped if there were some people who lost jobs because of it.

Of course, Michael did his best to mitigate that problem. He always welcomed those who lost their jobs to his territory, offering them a job to drive for their taxis and stuff like that.

But it couldn’t be helped it there were some who were too consumed in their anger that they simply just threw his invitation in the trash.

"No, Lord Michael. From what they told me, they said that they aren’t allowed to sell any materials to any outsiders," Sheina said.

Michael pursed his lips. That was a problem.

"Now, I had the Shadow Orcs start their investigation and they found something interesting, Lord Michael. They say that they’re not selling anything to outsiders, but they seem to always be sending a carriage-full of minerals somewhere over the North."

Sheina then pushed a piece of paper in his direction. "And when we traced where that mineral was going to, they landed on this company."

Michael stared at the name on the paper.

Carriefula Limited Company. They were an Upper Echelon company ranked number 19th on the Golden Rankings.

He remembered them clearly because they were part of the people who had conspired against him during the summit meeting at Charys’ castle.

"What happened to their leader?"

Sheina smiled. "He was executed," she said, still keeping her smile. Somehow, being human made that cold smile even more terrifying.

"The man chose to be executed rather than have his shame be passed down onto his descendants. That’s how they are able to keep their company afloat even with the loss of their leader. He’d been replaced by his descendant."

Michael rubbed his chin. "Are they blocking us on purpose because of this?"

Sheina shook her head. "It’s unlikely. First of all, they do not know that we need Uranium from the Mining Estate. And second of all, they would only be inviting more trouble in their company if they were found to be carrying grudges against us."

According to the report Sheina gave him, the Montgomery family themselves persecuted the Carriefula Limited company.

They were saved from getting all of their assets seized by sacrificing their leader.

If they were found to be plotting against Reborn, then that sacrifice would be for naught. They’d lose a lot more than what they’d gain if they messed with Reborn.

"Then why?"

"It’s just the natural way things happen," Sheina said. "Upper Echelon companies get their power from exclusivity.

They offer these lower-ranked companies, estates, or towns their protection. And in exchange, those territories would only be able to trade with their Upper Echelon company.

The territory that we were in before... before you found us was like this.

We experienced hardship and poverty because our territory had to pay a lot of taxes on an Upper Echelon company. And those taxes get passed down, until those already destitute and struggling to live have more debt to their names."

Sheina’s example was one of the worst case scenarios of this kind of business. But it does happen.

"Not everyone is like you, Lord Michael. I can’t wait until we spread your ideals to the rest of the world. That way, no one has to suffer like we did," Sheina said with genuine heart.

Hearing her words, Michael became even more emboldened.

Even if they didn’t need that Uranium, he would have tried to help that Mining Estate.

"What does the Carriefula Limited Company offer them in exchange for their allegiance?"

If it was food, they could provide it. If it was protection, they could provide it as well.

He wanted to show them that they didn’t need to sell their own freedom just so that they could survive.

"It’s life," Sheina answered. "The inhabitants of the Mining Estate rely on the Carriefula Limited Company to heal them every month. Without that Upper Echelon company’s help, the inhabitants would become extremely ill, to the point where their own skin would burn despite not being anywhere near a flame."

In exchange for curing these diseases, the inhabitants offered their minerals, their taxes to Carriefula.

And as he heard this, Michael couldn’t help but shake his head.

Uranium was radioactive! And if they were mining it day and night for years and years on end, then it was only natural that they had radiation sickness.

Living near that place without any protection was like experiencing a nuclear fallout at the exact location where the explosion occurred.

And when he explained this to Sheina, she couldn’t help but gasp in surprise. "So that’s the reason... then I shall tell them to start packing their bags. Living in such a dangerous place is not ideal."

Michael stopped her. With normal physics not being well understood in this world, he knew that it would be hard to make other people understand what he was talking about.

What do you mean rocks make you sick? It didn’t make sense to them.

And even if he was able to make them understand what was happening, he doubted they would just leave their place so easily.

They lived in that place for generations. No one could leave their home so easily.

"Have the Dragonborns gather. We’ll go on a little trip," he said.

He already knew what to do to help these inhabitants.