Chapter : 102

“You’ve started another strange business?”

“Hmm? Where did you hear that, Magician Agpiel?”

“I was just passing by and all the city council members were whispering. I guess they thought I couldn’t hear them.”

Magician Agpiel said indifferently. It seemed that, although he didn’t say it, Magician Agpiel disliked the city council members just like everyone else.

“Well, people can be like that. Don’t they say that where there is no king, you can at least badmouth him?”

“Hmm? I’ve never heard that before, but it makes sense.”

Magician Agpiel nodded at my words.

“Anyway, that… salt mine? The rumor that you’re making one is rampant. Using the slums, no less.”

“That’s right. Though it’s closer to a salt field than a salt mine.”

“That’s even stranger.”

“Isn’t it common knowledge that the sea is full of salt? So I’m thinking of making a salt field using the sea. Ah, to be precise, would it be a salt reservoir?”

“……”

The longer I spoke, the more peculiar Magician Agpiel’s expression became. It was as if he was wondering what kind of bizarre thing I was making.

“What’s with that expression, Magician Agpiel?”

“No. It’s just… I was thinking that you work very hard.”

“Well, isn’t it because that’s how I can make my domain prosperous and protect it? As they say, one must prepare for war in times of peace.”

“For that, isn’t it already prosperous enough? The value of the cities you own alone is better than most domains.”

Magician Agpiel’s words were filled with warmth. It was worry and affection for me, who worked without rest.

Of course, there was a reason I was moving like this.

But I couldn’t explain it all to Magician Agpiel. So I just smiled without refuting.

“I understand. I’ll take it easy, Agpiel. Thank you for your concern.”

“Haha. It’s just the rambling of an old magician. Don’t pay it much mind.”

Magician Agpiel laughed heartily, as if satisfied.

“By the way, why salt of all things? If you think about it, there are other things. That… factory? Right, you could have built a factory.”

At those words, I shook my head.

“Wouldn’t that clash too much with the products of my domain?”

“Ah? Don’t tell me it was because of the trade network?”

“Yes, Magician Agpiel. Shouldn’t each place connected by the trade network have at least one specialty product?”

“Hmm… if it succeeds, it seems like a very good idea…”

Salt was precious.

So precious that the English word for salary, ‘celery,’ was derived from salt. In fact, there were stories that in Roman times, soldiers were paid with blocks of salt.

And the value of this salt was no different in [Pangea Universalise].

No, in a way, the value of salt was slightly higher than in medieval Europe.

This was because the method of making sun-dried salt had not yet been developed, and most of the rock salt mines were located deep in the inland mountains.

Therefore, if salt could be produced at a reasonable price, it would become a pretty good trade specialty.

Of course, as Magician Agpiel said, if it could succeed.

“Don’t worry. I’ll show you clearly. When have I ever said I could do something that couldn’t be done?”

***

A salt field.

That is, to make a salt pan, a lot of preliminary work was needed. It wasn’t for nothing that I had renovated the slums and fed the poor until they were full.

At the very least, to use them as a labor force, I had to get them into a state where they could exert themselves, didn’t I?

“Uh… so you want us to build a kiln? A huge charcoal kiln?”

On the slope of a mountain near the outskirts of the city.

There, I was talking with the charcoal artisans.

“No. It’s not a charcoal kiln, but a huge kiln like a charcoal kiln. But instead of charcoal, something else will go inside.”

“What?”

At that, the charcoal artisans’ eyes widened as if to ask what kind of bizarre thing they were supposed to be making. Why would they put something other than charcoal in a charcoal kiln?

They couldn’t understand it at all.

“There’s a reason for it. Can you do it? It will need to be at least twice as big as it is now.”

“Uh… yes. I understand. If we have enough materials, we can do it.”

But the charcoal artisans didn’t dare to express their doubts. They just thought it was some other hobby of the noble.

After all, as long as they were paid, they were okay with anything, weren’t they?

Of course, I.

‘I have my reasons.’

To make a salt pan, a kind of reservoir was needed to hold the seawater, and the bottom had to be covered with something like tiles to prevent contamination from tidal flats or soil.

Therefore, I started by building a kiln that could bake a large number of tiles to lay on the bottom.

‘Hmm, it will take time to build the kiln, so I should prepare the other materials during that time.’

With that thought, I returned to the city and headed straight for the market.

As a major hub where three regions met, Figueres city had a very large market.

In particular, there was a huge livestock market to support the large population, where dozens of animals were slaughtered every day.

In a word, a lot of the things I needed came from there.

Namely, the bones of animals.

Animal bones were rich in phosphorus and calcium, and when mixed with clay and baked, they produced a snow-white porcelain, bone china.

‘Of course, I can’t make modern-level porcelain.’

But what I wanted was porcelain on the level of tiles to lay on the floor. If I mixed clay with finely ground aggregate and baked it into tiles, I was sure to get something that could be used as a floor finishing material.

“Are you really going to take this?”

“That’s right. Is there a place where you’ve been collecting and disposing of animal bones?”

“As a matter of fact, there is a place outside the city where we dig a pit and burn them, Your Excellency.”

“Oh, then I’ll use that place too.”

That was perfect.

If they had been continuously dumping there, there would be an enormous amount of aggregate. It seemed I could just have people scoop it up and transport it.

I immediately had people, especially people from the slums, collect them and mix them with the clay that was scattered everywhere to make a kind of wide brick.

At first, people were skeptical and wondered what kind of strange thing I was having them do, but when they heard that I was paying them to do this work, they flocked to it.

“His Excellency is carrying out a welfare project for the unfortunate poor!”

“They say you can get money just by filling molds with mud!”

“Ah. As expected of the benevolent His Excellency. He was being made a laughingstock all for our sake.”

While being praised in an unexpected way.

***

-Tiriring!

[The loyalty of the city’s poor has reached its maximum.]

[Notification: The city’s unrest decreases.]

[Notification: The city’s public security increases.]

‘Hmm?’

Suddenly, the status window rang loudly. Various stats were suddenly readjusted.

‘What is this?’

I was flustered and tilted my head, but I quickly lost interest and turned my head to the kiln.

-Whoosh!

There, there were two huge kilns that had been completed. Inside the kilns were hundreds, thousands of clay plates mixed with the aggregate that had been made so far.

“Hmm, Your Excellency. Will it really come out as sturdy and smooth as you said?”

A charcoal maker next to me asked cautiously. He was a kind of middle manager who had been doing a good job and had been watching the whole process from my side.

“Don’t worry. Of course it will come out well.”

In fact, I was worried inwardly as I said that.

Would this really work?

It was a quack bone china made without a detailed composition ratio or the essential kaolin.

It wouldn’t have been surprising if it all cracked and broke in the high heat while baking.

But when the heat of the kiln had completely cooled and the kiln door was opened.

“Ooooh.”

Hot steam puffed out, and something glittered in the sunlight. It was a crude but milky white, shiny, wide porcelain plate.

-Tiriring!

[You have created the first complete porcelain on the continent. It is still crude, but this alone can raise the level of the continent’s pottery, which is only earthenware.]

[Notification: Prestige and fame increase.]

It was really bone china that had been made.

“Haha-! Good. Now everything is really ready!”

I let out a laugh of joy. Now that I had come this far, everything was practically over.

I had crossed the most difficult 9th ridge. Now all that was left was to simply put in the manpower.

“Hire people! We will now build a huge reservoir in the tidal flats by the sea!”

I shouted in excitement.

The salt, the salt pans, were now truly within sight. Even though no one around me believed it.

***

Recently, the chairman of the city council thought he had been greatly mistaken.

At first, he had only thought of the Margrave of Bellua as a greedy external ruler. But the reality was different.

‘We were wrong. Hmm, hmm.’

He truly loved our city so much that he was making it too happy.

A noble who poured money into the city at his own expense.

He was a truly rare, no, a type of ruler he had never experienced before.

Usually, the rulers of cities thought of the city as their own coffers and were busy collecting huge taxes every day.

‘The tile factory and the salt reservoir (?) reclamation project, was it?’

The chairman of the city council recalled what the Margrave of Bellua was doing.

He said he would hire the poor to move a lot of whitish, shiny plates and build a reservoir to block the seawater in the tidal flats by the sea.

He said it was to make salt, but from what he saw, it looked like nothing more than a welfare project to save the poor.

No, in fact, it was.

Think about it. Who would build a reservoir to hold seawater and extract salt from it?

It was a ridiculous story.

In fact, four months ago, when he was gathering people to build the reservoir, the chairman of the city council had thought he was doing another charity project.

But when he went near the seaside to see the Margrave of Bellua.

“Heave-ho-!”

“Heave-ho-!”

“Hey, be careful over there.”

He heard a somewhat strange sound. Was it a work chant he had never heard before?

-Drrrrrr!

-Dgggg!

And he heard the sound of something very hard, like a stone, being scraped on the ground.

‘Hmm? What is that?’

Suddenly curious, the chairman of the city council tilted his head and headed in that direction.

Then a manager who had spotted the chairman of the city council ran over in a rage.

“Hey? Hey! Over there. Who told you to come in with dirty shoes!”

“Get out right now… huh?”

The manager’s face was shocked as he quickly covered his mouth.

The person he had shouted at was the chairman of the city council. He had spoken rudely to a high-ranking person.

An incredible rudeness that would normally have him dragged away and whipped!

But the chairman of the city council didn’t even pay attention to the manager.

No, to be precise, he couldn’t pay attention. That was…

“Is all of this s-salt?!”

Because before his eyes, the field of salt that the Margrave of Bellua had boasted about stretched out endlessly.

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