Roland together with a witch kept looking over everything over and over again inside of the castle, he hadn’t even let go of the God’s Stone of Retaliation he had found in the vault. After they had searched through everything, the gain was really impressive. Just within two boxes they had discovered in the basement, he found already more than 10.000 gold royals alone. Within a hidden chamber in the bedroom Nightingale discovered several scores of eyeball sized gems. Echo found another chamber hidden behind the fireplace, which wasn’t only filled with a variety of gold crafts, such as the scepter, the crown, etc., there were also many pieces of dazzling jewelry, neatly hung on the wall on a wooden frame.
This were all the Duke’s personal financial resources!
When Roland saw all this great wealth in front of him and compared it with the five hundred gold royals he had gathered in the last two season, his heart was filled with myriads of regrets. He wasn’t prepared for how alluring the feeling of looting was, if he didn’t come from a highly developed industrial era, he most probably would have kept everything for himself.
But now he could only sigh with sorrow, he had to think of the greater picture. In the foreseeable future, the working population in the Border Town would increase substantially, and before he could develop his territorial agriculture, he would need to import large amounts of grain from other sources.
So all the treasure was stored into boxes and were lightened by Hummingbird, then under the protection of Iron Axe and several personal guards, they were brought back to his own castle storage in Border Town. With the time included to enchant everything, the delivery would take around three days.
Because of this, after the second day Roland no longer took in gold royals as ransom. Eating the Duke had brought him many benefits, and now he only needed more living people and animals.
“Your Highness, do you really only want to stay here for a week?” Asked Nightingale.
“What?” Roland had closed his eyes, enjoying the tingling burst coming from his shoulders.
“This is the largest city in the West, right?” She whispered, “compared to Border Town, why don’t you want to stay in this more prosperous place?”
“The power structure in Longsong Stronghold is tangled and complicated, it isn’t suitable for doing what I want to do. And with my plan, we would keep the status quo, what isn’t so bad. If I want to change it, the resistance I would encounter would only become larger, and if I would use cruel ways they would lump together trying to sweep me away.”
Roland smiled and said, “Of course the most important part is, that the people here in the stronghold are deeply affected by the church, so it would become difficult to get the people to accept you. I have once said, that I hope that the witches will be able to walk freely through the streets, and in Border Town, this is now possible.”
“Yeah,” Nightingale said softly, “you have already fulfilled your promise.”
*
Early on the third day, Petrov brought in his list in a hurry, and as usual Roland received him in the hall.
“Your Highness, I have made my decision.”
“I will take a look.” Said Roland and received the list from him. And just like he had expected, on top of the list with the biggest amount of needed points were serfs with the value of 2, about 800 people, also 100 cattle and 300 sheep for a total of 900 points, the rest were paid with all kinds of craftsmen.
“Your Royal Highness, is this acceptable?”
“Of course, you only had to scrap 3000 points together,” Roland returned the list to him, “By when will you be able to gather all these people and supplies?”
“Today will be possible, at least in the case of the people and other properties they will stay in the Honeysuckle territory, but Your Highness, if you want to bring them back with you to Border Town, it may take about two weeks’ time.
“It’s up to you to organize the transport to Border Town,” said Roland, tapping the table. “As a merchant, you should have the experience of organizing a caravan.”
“Yes, sir.” Petrov hesitated for a moment, “Then my father…”
“You can take him back with you today,” said the Prince laughingly and handed him a parchment scroll. “If you think there is no problem with it, just sign it and imprint your thumb onto it.”
“This is… the representative’s contract?” Petrov only had read the beginning and then he spoke agitated. “Do you really promise to grant the right to govern over Longsong Stronghold to the Honeysuckle Family? Please wait for a moment.” He spread out the scroll and began to read the contract carefully.
Seeing that Petrov showed caution Roland nodded with satisfaction — as a collaborator, paying attention to the contracts is the most basic requirement.
