Chapter 115 – 11. Frozen Land Can’t Dry (5)
It was a late lunch.
However, due to his hectic schedule his, Rom was barely able to quench his thirst. Speaking of Gaul on the continent, there is a perception that it is a country that is sincere in its food culture in general, and even in the barren northern part, it is the law to always have meals on time, but that was the case .
“Baron? This is Mr. Edward Dean.”
Around the time he was poking firewood sticks to warm the air in his cool office his, the messenger who had headed to the village returned with the owner of the shop. Edward Dean, whose sad face always felt bearish.
“Rom, have you eaten?”
“Not yet, Edward.”
In one hand he was holding a wad of yellow, crumpled parchment. In the other hand, he was carrying a bundle wrapped around his shoulder.
“Haha, I thought so.”
He had a good laugh as he unwrapped the bundle on his guest table. Perhaps because they had already held several meetings for the purpose of pioneering a snowy trade route, the relationship between the two was more formal than in their previous lives.
“The final estimate is out. Ayla has suffered a lot.”
“Give me your regards. Today’s schedule is pretty tight, so can we get straight to the point?”
“As much as you like. First, I brought some samples. Take a look.”
Taking off his coat and gloves, Edward took a shiny rare gemstone from the bag he had unpacked earlier. It was processed with the delicate touch of Mrs. Manmulsang, and it boasted a beauty that made it believable that it was a craft.
“First of all, it is Baekseok.”
Wizards, alchemists, mystics, and nothing else, the only way for a knight to see magic with the naked eye was to borrow the power of a tool. Rome accepted a specially designed magnifying glass and a roll of parchment from Edward.
“When you look at it through a magnifying glass, the more opaque it is, the higher the value.”
“How much does it weigh?”
“Based on the capacity as you see.”
With a click, Rom manipulated the magnifying glass and brought it to the corner of his eye.
“The price is exactly one Lemoyn gold coin. Since it is something that will serve as a reference point, I think it would be much better to split it up.”
It was impressive that there was a hazy energy less than that of the vast snowfields that stretched out endlessly in the gray stones. According to the previous order, I was surprised that the quality was this high even though I asked for only rare earths and metals that correspond to the average value of white stone from Lemoang Mountain.
“It’s brilliant.”
“It is of high quality. In the Vedas, you could easily get three gold coins. In Sarhu, I think even five coins are possible. For reference, this is a calculation based on the premise of the lowest-quality white stones.”
“Hmm…”
“Even the lowest-grade among the white stones from Lemoang is not inferior to the best from other regions. Rather, my estimates are fairly conservative.”
Rom put down his magnifying glass and nodded. The funds that went into pioneering the snowfield trade route were almost 8,000 Gaul gold coins. Excluding the trivial expenses, the extra money to buy trade items was considerable, so if he arrived safely at his destination, the Marquis would literally earn a lot of money.
“Look at the blue magic stone.”
Edward brought out a bluish azure stone next. He put up a curtain by the window of his office, quenched the flames in the stove for a while, and showed a magical reaction rising in the dark. He was a force that even an outsider who did not know how to handle magic felt intense.
“It goes without saying that it is popular. Quite a few tools based on magic require this stone.”
“It is quite small. Is this worth a Gallic gold coin?”
“Yes, likewise. As you know, blue mana stones cost more than white stones. The volume is smaller, but the profit is bigger. Five gold coins in Vedas, ten in Sarhu. It was also when I caught it conservatively.”
Responding with the stone in question in his hand His, Rom unfolded the parchment and picked it up. The rare earth elements of Lemoang Frozen Land are not only white stones and blue mana stones. Fossil fuels used to melt iron in blacksmiths also existed, and there were minerals that absorbed the chill of frozen soil and produced a kind of cooling effect.
“This is a fossil fuel called heating stone. The more red it is, the more refined it is without impurities, but once it burns, it is really hot. It is a particularly indispensable item in the ironwork industry.
Eerie, anyway, it’s been a while since the fire has been turned off, and it’s already starting to get cold. Edward, crushing a thumb-sized heating stone in his grasp, poured the ashes into the nearby fireplace.
Then, no wonder hot flames soared from the place where only a weak ember remained.
“It’s enough to restore a burnt out fire, so how about putting it in a roaring place?”
“I can see why blacksmiths use it.”
“It is not well known because it is not something to be used randomly in the private sector as a heater. The production area is not necessarily only in Baekgyeong. Of course, the amount of reserves is considerable, but the quality is not greatly affected…”
The warm, heated air was very comfortable. Thanks to that, Rom looked down at his desk in a much better mood and read the parchment. The yellowed paper, which showed how many times it had been recycled, contained details as small as estimates and reports.
Everything about white stones, blue mana stones, and heating stones.
“On the contrary, there are cases like the ice stone seen here. Putting it in water vaporizes it, giving off a blast of cold air. According to scholars, the buried white stones are rare earth elements that have been altered by the influence of cold regions.”
Edward put on one of his gloves and carefully picked up a stone the size of his fist. It was because it would cause frostbite if you touched it with your bare hands. After all, all he was holding now was a one-season goodbye from the heat of a cabin in a tropical country.
“When I was on the battlefield in Limousin in the southwest, the wet weather was the hardest to bear. The Grand Duchess of Tarn, which has no choice but to be hotter due to its latitude, is sometimes cold because it is not cool. I didn’t know what kind of harmony it was at the time, but I think I probably used this ice stone.”
“Rare earth elements are expensive, as is usually the case, but it wouldn’t be strange for a Sedo to be the size of a Grand Duke of Tarn if he plastered that large mansion with ice stones.”
Rom sighed in sympathy. Touching the scars on his face out of habit, he smiled faintly as if he thought of Orianne, Lucienne, and Françoise, whom Marion would be looking at by now.
“There is no need for air conditioning in the cold frozen soil. However, I want to use it without hesitation, even for the people I love, as the Grand Duke did. I want to have a happy family in such a comfortable environment.”
“There is nothing stronger than giving love. All parents want to give generously to their children. I’m sure you’re not the only one like Rom.”
“The Marquis of Lemoang is dreaming of revival again. It’s slow, but I’m constantly trying to spur. As the new baron of the frozen land, I can assure you that at the center of it is the trade group you will lead.”
Old roads are extensively renovated, and declining villages are rebuilt with subsidies. In order to efficiently mine buried rare earths, they generously invest in mine development, and take a step forward to turn the fort, which had only been a symbol of the border, into the best trading city on the continent.
“I am not going to tell you not to fail. If we had a life where we could only succeed in life, there wouldn’t even be a word called trials. But I hope you will do your best until the end. With that, I hope that this hometown will become a fertile foundation for our descendants to settle down.”
Edward grinned. The man who always had a smile on his face he responded to the serious man’s encouragement with a brighter expression than ever before. It was he who had to flee to a distant foreign country because of his status as a noble nobleman from his homeland of Britannia.
“After I got married to Ayla, I never went on her honeymoon to her. After he left the family, he wasn’t very well off. All he managed to do was open a small shop.”
The baron is not the only one who hopes for the revival of the frozen land.
“So I’m going to consider this trip as our honeymoon trip.”
“It’s going to be hard and exhausting, for anything like that.”
“But if I succeed, I will be proud. So, as Rom said, we will do our best until the end. I promise to come back with the best results possible. Even for our second home, where Ayla and I will stay.”
As for them, they made Lemoang Fort their hometown, and although they were descendants of a famous family in the past, they had one thing in common: they could not stand the discrimination due to their origin and ran out.
Romuald Dior and Edward Dean.
People often say that the flow of the times is irreversible. And someone Rom had met in a previous life said of his northern tundra:
A land of death from which regeneration is impossible.
It’s not that I don’t understand Not everyone has a special fondness for this place. A person without attachment has no reason to struggle. However, each of them expressed their will with their own opportunity, and they were constantly changing this land, albeit slowly.
So, those who love the white north speak today.
“The Marquis of Lemoyn will never die.”
That it will always be so.
