Chapter 485 - 309: The Development of Deepwater City

Chapter 485: Chapter 309: The Development of Deepwater City

Zog stood in the study of the Deepwater City Lord’s Mansion.

His exclusive office was finally complete.

’Oh, the Lord’s Mansion. It still feels a bit strange to be comfortably staying in a building with this name.’

’I used to come to places like this for a little zero-dollar shopping.’

However, it was precisely because of his extensive experience with such "shopping sprees" that Zog’s own Lord’s Mansion was in no short supply of decorative pieces.

He himself didn’t know much about art from Feilin, but he chose to trust the judgment of his former "colleagues."

’What? What if someone comes to visit and recognizes them?’

’How could they prove it?’

’Would the pieces answer if they called their names?’

’These were all just things I picked up. They were just lying there, so I figured nobody wanted them.’

Finders keepers was, after all, a long-standing "fine" tradition in Feilin.

The grand museum in Sutton Royal City also housed plenty of collections "acquired" from other, smaller nations.

They were displayed openly, some even with little plaques describing their origins.

At least Zog didn’t label where his came from.

But since the decorative pieces were chosen at random from his many years of collecting, their origins were quite complex and their styles far from unified. The final effect was an aesthetic reminiscent of a certain doggerel-loving emperor notorious for stamping his seal all over priceless art.

Furin’s review after seeing it was, "Disgusting! Just one more glance and I feel like my eyes have been assaulted!"

She wanted to give Zog a lesson in aesthetics on the spot.

Zog told her if she thought she could do better, she was welcome to try. Furin replied that she didn’t have the time.

Lately, Furin had been pouring nearly all her energy into the junior class.

She was only supposed to be the teacher for the Introduction to Magic course, yet she had taken on all the responsibilities of a homeroom teacher.

She couldn’t help it. In her long life, she had never seen a double-digit number of students who could understand her lectures all at once.

It was so wonderful it almost felt unreal.

As for the decorative style of the Lord’s Mansion, Zog himself actually thought it was fine.

’Aesthetics are a tricky thing; the standards are just too vague.’

Another standard was much clearer.

Price.

He only displayed the most expensive items.

It was very much in line with the characteristics of a place a Giant Dragon from the legends might inhabit.

The architectural style of the entire Lord’s Mansion wasn’t the common castle or manor style of Feilin, but a design that was novel to the locals.

It was a large, square building with straight, clean lines. Zog’s emblem was above the main entrance, along with a sign with the words "Deepwater City Lord’s Mansion" in black on a white background. Outside was a large lawn and a spacious public square.

In the evenings and on weekends, many citizens would come to the square to stroll and relax.

’The only thing missing from the picture in my memory is a stone monument inscribed with the words "Serve the People."’

Zog was self-aware enough to know that given his style, putting up such a monument would be inappropriate.

This Lord’s Mansion was not the Lord’s residence, but a shared office space for a host of functional departments.

This made communication between different departments very convenient.

Today was his first day working in the Lord’s Mansion, and Zog planned to put in a proper day’s work.

Deepwater City’s organizational structure operated on the "Useless Lord" principle.

Once all the various departments were fully staffed, there would be very few decisions that required the Lord’s personal involvement.

In an ideal future, Zog’s role in Deepwater City would be like Gelda’s in the Northern Domain.

A figurehead, basically.

Unfortunately, that time hadn’t come yet.

There were still quite a few matters that required Zog’s attention.

Sitting down at his desk, Zog began to go through the latest reports from his domain.

As a city whose income currently came almost entirely from the sale of industrial goods, the reports were naturally focused on commerce.

Thanks to the good relationships previously established with numerous merchant groups across the Continent, the sales network for the new products was established smoothly.

It was just that the products being sold had changed from toys to cars.

The biggest difference was that cars were much larger and not very convenient to transport. They had to rely on railways and ships, but the transport capacity was not ideal, and neither method could cover the final leg of the journey.

Currently, the most common way to get cars to dealerships was to drive them there one by one.

Trucks large enough to transport passenger cars were still in development, a considerable way from mass production.

Besides, even if they had trucks, there were no highways. Who knew how long it would take for the infrastructure to be built up.

And Zog wasn’t in charge of infrastructure development for the entire Continent.

As a result, nearly 20% of a car’s current sale price was due to transportation costs.

Fortunately, the product was excellent and currently had no competitors, so sales were not a concern. The order backlog already stretched two years into the future.

However, it was said that the many Magic-guided Vehicle workshops of old had now banded together to develop their own cars.

Zog wasn’t too concerned about this. The emergence of competitors was only a matter of time. Although cars were technologically complex, the difficulty of reverse-engineering one would decrease significantly if you had a model to take apart and study.

Of course, Zog wasn’t just going to wait for competitors to appear. He planned to cooperate with Lords from other regions to build factories in more locations.

Deepwater City would provide the core components, and the rest would be assembled locally, which would save on some of the transportation costs.

But to Zog’s great surprise, nobles from quite a few regions stated that if he wanted to build a factory in their territory, he would have to pay them for the privilege.

This response actually made Zog laugh out of sheer anger.

He couldn’t understand the thought process of those nobles.

It was a golden opportunity to increase employment and boost their economies, yet they were still trying to demand money.

’How can we ever have a proper industrial revolution with parasites like these!’

Fortunately, there were still some Lords who showed a strong desire to cooperate and even promised preferential policies.

Zog planned to upgrade the specifications for the factories in these locations to show the Zog Group’s attitude toward its friends.

And as a bonus, it would let those short-sighted nobles know just how foolish their decision had been.