341 – Transport Corridor

I don’t guarantee a 100% perfect translation.

Feel free to correct me in the comments.

I was gonna rant about some things but i dont really see the point on complaining about people seeing this as “not a translation”. Who cares?

Anyway, Volare said they are gonna release the 12 sponsered chapters in queue, there should be a proper chapter 333 out in the near future in case you wanna read it in a more proper maner. 

Rox was translating Vader’s name as Vader, phonetically is pronounced as “Wei-Da” in the raws so that remains as Vader (in case people are wondering)

Salem is the first apprentice of Barov, not sure if thats his correct name, i used it because that was one of the translation options. Phonetically is “Sy-lun” but i chose Salem, because of witches.

As for the witches, i’ll use Rox’s names for all of them except for Ashes, for her I’ll use Ash, since later in the story i found out Ash is more like a pet name, and her full name is something else, and having it as Ashes makes no sense to me..

Anyway, enjoy.

 

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“Your Highness, do you know who sent these people?” As Vader left, Carter approached to ask.

“The ones currently in possession of that pill, besides the Church are Timothy and Garcia, but Garcia is currently away from Greycastle.” Roland sighed “compared to her, the possibility of it being Timothy is more likely, he is now afraid to send a large army and leave the capital unguarded, but that does not mean he would not retaliate.”

Fortunately, the attackers mixed in the crowd were only carrying pills and were not hiding gunpowder in their bodies. Otherwise if they detonated it in the crowd, the effort they put in these last two months would be in vain.

Roland was not worried about his brother’s dispatched “suicide squads” threatening himself, even if Nightingale was not around these days, every time he went outside he was surrounded with more than ten personal guards, he also wore a God’s Punishment Stone. Aside from the Berserker’s Pill addicts, even an Exceed witch would have a hard time approaching him under the fire of ten revolving rifles.

He discovered that since he took the seat of Feudal Lord around a year ago, his mentality had changed greatly. When he first arrived here, he inevitably felt overwhelmed and weak on the legs. But a moment ago, although he felt a little anxious, he still tried to show calmness on the surface, he knew that the guards would definitely go ahead of himself, desperately trying to stop the attackers, but he, as the focus point of the people’s gaze had to remain unperturbed, he found this fact very surprising.

“Call the messengers and ask about the details of their recruiting” Roland turned towards Barov and said “I need to know where these people boarded the ships”

“Yes, Your Highness.” The City Hall Prime Minister complexion was a little gloomy, he did not expect the staff he proudly selected would make such a significant mistake, he felt very ashamed.

“You don’t have to be too hard on them, first clearly ask about the situation.”

When the refugees all went through the checkpoint, Roland returned to his office in the castle. The news brought back by this messenger group about the southern region made him particularly pleasantly surprised, there was a large number of people who lost their home, Eagle City and the Port of Clear Water were destroyed in the flames of war, many of the crop fields outside the city were abandoned. In addition to this year’s sudden bizarre weather, the temperatures in the area of Greycastle were plummeting, the price of grains was soaring, and even the price of slaves was falling in half.

As long as he can establish a reliable transport corridor, these people could be brought into the west. In fact, according to the messenger’s report, after hearing about the development of Border Town and the efforts to recruit them, many refugees started to spontaneously moving towards the western region.

The difficult part, however, lied in this “transport corridor”.

The heavy snow of the Months of Demons had sealed completely the land traffic and communication, if he were to bring these people, the only choice would be by ship through the Scarlet Water River, but Border Town only has Little Town as ship and it’s unable to move without the help of a witch, if he were to meet the demands of the people, and have ships frequently moving through the river, he would need to invest in at least 20 river sailing vessels.

For example, the group of messengers sent in this time’s mission faced such dilemma: only a small portion of the gold royals were used in order to win over the refugees, the rest was spent on hiring boats and inn fees. Currently, apart from the 400 refugees who arrived at Border Town today, there are still over 3,000 people stranded in Willow Town, Silver Light City and Fallen Dragon Ridge, awaiting to get on a ship.

In addition, the ship owners were aware of the current situation of Border Town, so the price of boarding a ship was very high, and taking into account these 3,000 people, the estimated cost would go over of that of the rescue operation in King’s City during the plague, so this was not a long-term solution. As Roland went over the meeting again, he decided to send a letter to Margaret of the Chamber of Commerce, hoping that if she gets to see Lightning, she might not charge double the price as the normal ship owners.

However, if he really wanted to cut down on the spending, they would need to build their own boats. The shipbuilding skills definitely improved and with a greater quality steel beams and cement, it was now possible to build a stronger, larger hull for the flat-bilge ship, and using the steam engine to power it, this could mean the birth of the Scarlet Water River line of communication.

 

…………

 

After lunch, Barov knocked on the door and entered “Your Highness, the situation now is roughly clear.”

“Speak.”

“One of my disciples called Salem, who was responsible for going to the norther region to rally refugees, went back because he lacked a boat, so he traveled to King’s City to contact an old friend of his, hoping that he could help him find a ship or a merchant willing to sail to the western region.” Barov sighed “the news should have spread out from there… He gathered the refugees in Silver Light City, which is about half a day travel from the capital, if Timothy wanted to meddle in, it shouldn’t have been difficult.”

“How many people are currently stranded in Silver Light City?”

“Around 800 or so” Barov responded in a low voice “The merchant ship takes half month for the round trip, when the next batch of refugees arrives, is not clear what the situation would be. Or… maybe we should recall the First Army units and give up on these people.”

“No, no matter how many people Timothy sends, we won’t reject anyone, as long as the verifications are done properly at the checkpoints, we can discern them from the rest” Roland shook his head “If we abandon the refugees in Silver Light City, once they go back to their homes in the northern region, won’t they start spreading their bitter experiences? In that case, nobody there will want to join us anymore.”

Under Sylvie’s magic eyes and Nightingale’s lie detection, no scout or assassin could evade them, so he was not worried about it, as long as they didn’t hurt the other refugees.

“Yes, Your Highness” Barov cleared his throat and asked “About… Salem’s punishment, you see…”

“What do you think?”

He hesitated for a moment “This issue happened because he was extremely careless, I would suggest removing him from his position in the City Hall or a fine of two months of salary. Salem’s mistake was not intentional, and it also didn’t cause too much damage, so I think sending him to the North Slope Mine is too much.”

Roland can’t help but to laugh, the other side had a pained expression “Rest assured. Considering this mistake was done because of inexperience rather than negligence in a subjective sense, he can be dealt with in a more lenient way. After all, it’s the first time he has held this position… I remember he is just over 20 years old, right? That being the case, after this lesson I’m sure he will grow up quickly. The punishment of two months of salary is good enough.”

“By your will” Barov bowed “I’ll immediately let him know.”

The prince smiled while shaking his head, although in the beginning he was too harsh and always ready to punish, his face obviously showed concern for him and when he went to the capital he wanted to follow Salem, after all he was his first disciple. And probably, in the eyes of Barov, he was the same as his own children.

“Let’s get to it.”

After finishing this matter, Roland stretched out. He took out several sheets of paper from the drawer, and as he was getting ready to start sketching the schematics for the steam engine of the new cement boat, Leaf suddenly ran in.

“Your Highness” she excitedly said “Far Gaze came back!”

“Really?” Roland stood up and followed her to the back garden. He saw the huge hot air balloon descending slowly, the shadow cast by the big air bag engulfed the courtyard.

As soon as the basket touched the ground, Anna jumped down. Roland opened his arms and slowly went forward, and while smiling she hugged him.

“I’m back”

 

 

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